Gulf of Mexico oil spill continues to foul 168 miles of Louisiana coastline

By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune Thursday, December 30, 2010, 7:30 PM Louisiana’s coastline continues to be smeared with significant amounts of oil and oiled material from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, with cleanup teams struggling to remove as much as possible of the toxic material by the time migratory birds arrive at the end of […]

Ecology watchdog warns of future damage from Hungary spill

Budapest (AFP) Dec 21, 2010 – A leading French environmental group warned Tuesday that October’s toxic mud spill in Hungary could cause long-term damage and called for a broad European effort to monitor its effects. “We are concerned for the mid- and long-term,” Charlotte Nithart, the director of the Robin des Bois (Robin Hood) environmental […]

Australia flood pollution threatens Great Barrier Reef – ‘A lot of coral will die’

By Chris JohnstonJanuary 3, 2011 … [A] prominent water scientist has forecast widespread damage to the Great Barrier Reef as murky floodwaters surge into the sea off Queensland. Jon Brodie, a senior research officer with the Australian Centre for Tropical Freshwater Research at James Cook University in Townsville, told The Age the floods were a […]

Polar bears in remote north have high levels of toxic pollutants

By Elizabeth Haggarty, Toronto StarDec 10 2010 With its pristine-looking, snow-covered flats and mirror-like oceans that come with frigid temperatures and limited human exposure, the Arctic looks as clean as it could get, but it’s not — nature’s northern refuge is toxic. In fact, the 2500 polar bears that roam Norway’s remote Svalbard have some […]

‘250 billion’ plastic fragments in Mediterranean

PARIS (AFP) 30 December 2010 – Some 250 billion microscopic pieces of plastic are floating in the Mediterranean, creating a biological hazard that reverberates up the food chain, according to research supported by green campaigners. The estimate comes from French and Belgian marine biologists who analysed water samples taken in July off France, northern Italy […]

Work still remains 2 years after Kingston ash spill

WBIR.com Dec 22, 2010 This morning marks exactly two years since the disaster at the TVA plant in Kingston. That’s when an ash pond broke and dumped nearly a billion gallons of sludge on Roane County. That night was very cold. It was 12 degrees when the slide hit. Unforgettably, there was a man who […]

Oil may have strengthened fungus plaguing coastal marsh plants in Alabama and Mississippi

By Ben Raines, Press-RegisterUpdated: Monday, December 27, 2010, 7:29 AM While scientists initially speculated that exposure to oil might have weakened marsh plants and left them more vulnerable to a fungus now widespread in Alabama and Mississippi, some now suggest it is equally plausible that the oil may have acted as a sort of fertilizer, […]

Graph of the Day: Dissolved Oxygen Percent of Goal Achieved in Chesapeake Bay, Summer 2007 – Summer 2009

Most of the Chesapeake Bay fails to meet dissolved oxygen goals in the Summer. From 2007 to 2009, only 12 percent of the Chesapeake Bay had sufficient levels of dissolved oxygen in the summer. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) describes the Chesapeake Bay as “highly eutrophic,” meaning that it is highly susceptible to […]

Bangladesh’s once plentiful rivers run low on fish – At least 25 freshwater species now extinct

By Kamrul Hasan Khan (AFP)24 December 2010 CHAR PALIAMARY, Bangladesh — Bangladesh’s rivers have provided for fisherman Rafiqul Islam’s family for generations but a few years ago the 27-year-old noticed his nets were coming up empty. This year, Islam was forced to leave his small fishing community in northern Mymensingh district to find work, an […]

Hong Kong’s 2010 pollution level is worst on record

By John DuceDec 23, 2010 7:55 PM PT Hong Kong will record the worst year for roadside pollution since the city started collecting readings in 1999, according to calculations made by Bloomberg based on government data. Roadside smog reached “very high” or “severe” levels on the city’s air pollution index, triggering government health warnings, at […]

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