State of emergency declared as worst locust swarms in more than 30 years plague southern Russia – ‘There is nothing left of the corn. The locusts ate it all, from the leaves to the cobs.’

By Matthew Chance5 August 2015 Moscow (CNN) – Millions of locusts have descended on farmlands in southern Russia, devouring entire fields of crops and causing officials to declare a state of emergency in the region. A vast area of at least 800,000 hectares is currently being affected as the swarms of insects, each measuring about […]

Unrestrained rubber expansion wreaking havoc on forests – ‘I’ve personally seen vast swaths of native forest being converted into rubber plantations in southern China, Malaysia, and Cambodia’

By Shreya Dasgupta20 July 2015 (mongabay.com) – Your car tires may be treading over forests and wildlife in Southeast Asia. As the global demand for tires soars, so does the demand for natural rubber sourced from Hevea brasiliensis, the para-rubber tree. This rising demand is driving a rapid expansion of rubber plantations into biodiversity-rich forests […]

Graph of the Day: U.S. managed honey bee colony losses, 2006-2015

By Nathalie Steinhauer, Karen Rennich, Kathleen Lee, Jeffery Pettis, David R. Tarpy, Juliana Rangel, Dewey Caron, Ramesh Sagili, John A. Skinner, Michael E. Wilson, James T. Wilkes, Keith S. Delaplane, Robyn Rose, and Dennis van Engelsdorp13 May 2015 (Bee Informed) – Note: This is a preliminary analysis. Sample sizes and estimates are likely to change. […]

Graph of the Day: Major threats to bees in Europe

19 March 2015 (IUCN) – With the majority (56.7%) of European bee species being listed as Data Deficient, any overview of the threats to the continental apifauna will necessarily be incomplete. However, for conservation and management of bee diversity to be undertaken effectively, it is critical to have a clear understanding of taxonomy and ecology […]

WikiLeaks releases secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) investment chapter – ‘Finally everyone can see for themselves that the TPP would give multinational corporations extraordinary new powers that undermine our sovereignty’

WASHINGTON, D.C., 25 March 2015 (Public Citizen) – The Trans-Pacific Partnership’s (TPP) Investment Chapter, leaked today, reveals how the pact would make it easier for U.S. firms to offshore American jobs to low-wage countries while newly empowering thousands of foreign firms to seek cash compensation from U.S. taxpayers by challenging U.S. government actions, laws, and […]

Nearly one in 10 wild bee species face extinction in Europe while the status of more than half remains unknown – IUCN report

19 March 2015 (IUCN) – The first-ever assessment of all European wild bee species shows that 9.2% are threatened with extinction, while 5.2% are considered likely to be threatened in the near future. A total of 56.7% of the species are classified as Data Deficient, as lack of experts, data and funding has made it […]

5 reasons Peak Food is the world’s No. 1 ticking time bomb

By Paul B. Farrell7 February 2015 (Market Watch) – Global food poisoning? Yes, We’re maxing out. Forget Peak Oil. We’re maxing-out on Peak Food. Billions go hungry. We’re poisoning our future, That’s why Cargill, America’s largest private food company, is warning us: about water, seeds, fertilizers, diseases, pesticides, droughts. You name it. Everything impacts the […]

The Serengeti strategy: How special interests try to intimidate scientists, and how best to fight back

By Michael E. MannJanuary/February 2015 (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) – Much as lions on the Serengeti seek out vulnerable zebras at the edge of a herd, special interests faced with adverse scientific evidence often target individual scientists rather than take on an entire scientific field at once. Part of the reasoning behind this approach […]

Death by dirty water: Storm runoff a risk for fish

By PHUONG LE16 November 2014 POULSBO, Washington (Associated Press) – Just hours into the experiment, the prognosis was grim for salmon that had been submerged in rain runoff collected from one of Seattle’s busiest highways. One by one, the fish were removed from a tank filled with coffee-colored water and inspected: They were rigid. Their […]

Annual survey: ‘Beekeepers say losses remain higher than the level that they consider to be sustainable’

USDA Announces Fall Summit on Bee Nutrition and Forage; Launches “Bee Watch” Website to Broadcast Bee Activity and Increase Public Awareness of the Role of Pollinators in Crop Production WASHINGTON, May 15, 2014 – A yearly survey of beekeepers, released today, shows fewer colony losses occurred in the United States over the winter of 2013-2014 […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial