By Tom Cohen2 April 2014 (CNN) – Another debris field, another new and so-far futile focus in the search for Flight MH370. More than three weeks after the Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared, one thing has been made clear: the ocean is full of garbage, literally. “It isn’t like looking for a needle in a haystack,” […]
By Arielle Duhaime-Ross24 March 2014 (The Verge) – Last December, scientists announced that dolphins in Louisiana were experiencing lung diseases and low birthrates in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that released more than 636 million liters of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Now, researchers have also found evidence […]
By Sarah Zielinski3 March 2014 (smithsonianmag.com) – In 1974, just a couple years after the launch of the first Landsat satellite, scientists noticed something odd in the Weddell Sea near Antarctica. There was a large ice-free area, called a polynya, in the middle of the ice pack. The polynya, which covered an area as large […]
Contact: Miyoko Sakashita, (415) 632-5308, miyoko@biologicaldiversity.org 26 February 2014 SAN FRANCISCO (CBD) – The Center for Biological Diversity today filed a legal petition urging the Environmental Protection Agency to stop oil and gas companies from dumping toxic chemicals from fracking directly into ocean waters off California. About half the oil platforms in the Santa Barbara […]
By Katie Valentine13 February 2014 (Climate Progress) – The Earth’s oceans are warming rapidly, absorbing about 90 percent of the heat created by anthropogenic climate change. Now, new research shows that this heat has caused “almost unprecedented” damage to ancient corals of the coast of Western Australia. The research, which has yet to be published […]
11 February 2014 (Japan Times) – Tokyo Electric Power Co. did not tell the public until recently that massively high levels of radiation were found in groundwater collected last July at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, even though the utility was aware of the data that month, according to sources. Tepco released the data […]
Contact: Clare Nullis, Media Officer, Communications and Public Affairs, Tel: +(41 22) 730 8478; (41-79) 7091397, email: cnullis at wmo.int5 February 2014 Geneva (WMO) –The year 2013 was among the top ten warmest years since modern records began in 1850, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It tied with 2007 as the sixth warmest […]
By Bridie Jabour 3 February 2014 (theguardian.com) – Two of the board members of the authority that approved the dumping of 3 million cubic metres of dredging spoil in the Great Barrier Reef waters are still involved in an investigation for potential conflicts of interest, including links to mining companies. The environment minister, Greg Hunt, […]
By Tony Barboza 5 January 2014 (Los Angeles Times) – The sardine fishing boat Eileen motored slowly through moonlit waters from San Pedro to Santa Catalina Island, its weary-eyed captain growing more desperate as the night wore on. After 12 hours and $1,000 worth of fuel, Corbin Hanson and his crew returned to port without […]
By Robert Scribbler18 December 2013 (robertscribbler.wordpress.com) – During the terrible mass extinction event at the Permian-Triassic boundary about 250 million years ago nearly all life on Earth was snuffed out. The event, which geologists have dubbed “The Great Dying,” occurred during a period of rapid warming on the tail end of a long period of […]
