Pollution rise ‘worsens’ South Asia’s winter smog

By Navin Singh Khadka, Environment reporter, BBC News6 January 2012 A rapid rise in air pollution from fossil fuels and biomass burning has worsened winter smog and extended its duration in many parts of South Asia, scientists and officials have said. In Bangladesh, India, and Nepal the temperature has plummeted and clouds of fog and […]

More oiled penguins arrive for cleaning

By Vicki Waterhouse, Fairfax NZ News7 January 2012 Four more penguins have been brought into Massey University’s wildlife centre in Palmerston North as oil from the stricken Rena continues to cause havoc on the Tauranga coastline. Staff from Massey University’s wildlife centre have been helping hundreds of oiled birds and animals in Tauranga since October […]

MV Rena salvors brace for break-up

January 6 (NZH) – The Rena is set to be battered this weekend by some of the largest sea swells to hit the cargo ship since it grounded on the Astrolabe Reef on October 5. However officials are confident they have plans to deal with the worst-case scenario of the ship breaking up, and crews […]

Fukushima: A woman speaks out about health problems – ‘Until this summer, my teeth were healthy’

By arevamirpal::laprimavera2 January 2012 Teeth and toenails falling off and clumps of hair coming off, she reports in her blog. She doesn’t seem to care any more if people dismiss her as fabricating the story, and just tells as a matter of fact what’s been happening to her and her husband, probably both in their […]

Scientists test sick Alaska seals for Fukushima radiation

By Bill Rigby27 December 2011 SEATTLE – Scientists in Alaska are investigating whether local seals are being sickened by radiation from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Scores of ring seals have washed up on Alaska’s Arctic coastline since July, suffering or killed by a mysterious disease marked by bleeding lesions on the hind flippers, irritated […]

Mexico shuts down ‘world's biggest garbage dump’

Mexico City (AFP) Dec 19, 2011 – Authorities Monday shut down Mexico’s — and possibly the world’s — biggest garbage dump and said they would invite bids to exploit methane gas generated by the decomposing waste. Waste Management Commission chief Fernando Menendez called the closing “historic” as “it is the world’s largest (truck-filled open-air) dump.” […]

Photo gallery: Japan, before and after the tsunami

[Desdemona can’t help thinking that the blue tarps in this first image contain radioactive soil.] By Beenish Ahmed21 December 2011 Years before the monster earthquake shook Japan and unleashed a massive tsunami in March, Google had mapped the roads of northeast Japan with its Street View project, as it had done in many parts of […]

Russia oil spills wreak devastation – ‘Fishing, hunting – it’s all gone’

By Nataliya Vasilyeva, AP Business Writer 17 December 2011 USINSK, Russia – On the bright yellow tundra outside this oil town near the Arctic Circle, a pitch-black pool of crude stretches toward the horizon. The source: a decommissioned well whose rusty screws ooze with oil, viscous like jam. This is the face of Russia’s oil […]

Slow recovery for flood-hit Thai plants – ‘We’re in the wrong place’

AYUTTHAYA, December 18 (AFP) – Piles of rubbish, rusting furniture and discarded machinery litter one of Thailand’s top high-tech parks, a former symbol of economic prowess laid to waste by weeks of flooding. Many of the companies located in the country’s industrial heartland say it will be several months at least before their operations return […]

Japan’s tsunami debris attracts travelers in new yacht cruise

December 16 (Maritime Executive) – At the end of October, the STS Pallada discovered a 20-million-ton mass of tsunami debris from the mega 9.0 magnitude earthquake off Sendai, Japan in March.  Since this discovery, scientists have been studying, and tracking the contents of the giant floating mass, and now, they are inviting the public on […]

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