Lake Mead: Then and Now

Two images from the Thematic Mapper on the Landsat 5 satellite show some of the stark changes on the eastern end of Lake Mead since 1985. 22 August 1985   11 August 2010 Caption by Michael CarlowiczSeptember 23, 2010 In August 2010, Lake Mead reached its lowest level since 1956. The largest reservoir in the […]

Uganda forest being stripped for fuel wood

By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com September 27, 2010 A new study in the open access journal of Tropical Conservation Science finds that the Kasagala forest reserve in central Uganda is losing important tree species and suffering from low diversity of species. Researchers believe that forest degradation for charcoal and firewood has put heavy pressure on this […]

Graph of the Day: World Groundwater Depletion Rates, 2010

AGU Release No. 10–3023 September 2010For Immediate Release WASHINGTON—In recent decades, the rate at which humans worldwide are pumping dry the vast underground stores of water that billions depend on has more than doubled, say scientists who have conducted an unusual, global assessment of groundwater use. These fast-shrinking subterranean reservoirs are essential to daily life […]

Hundreds of fish, thousands of shrimp dead in Hood Canal

By Christopher Dunagan, Kitsap SunSeptember 21, 2010 at 10:45 a.m. HOODSPORT — The massive fish kill that many researchers warned about Monday may have begun early this morning, as many hundreds of dead fish and thousands of shrimp washed up on Hood Canal beaches, officials say. “We have hypoxic (low oxygen) conditions all the way […]

Book review: The Coming Famine

By Nicole EckersleySeptember 14, 2010 Author, journalist and science writer Julian Cribb has created a sobering text in The Coming Famine: The global food crisis and what we can do to avoid it, from CSIRO Publishing. Cribb’s view of the global food crisis paints a frightening picture: demand for food slowly outstripping supply, food production […]

Serengeti road imperils vast herds

‘Keystone’ wildebeests will be cut off from dry season food, UBC prof says CBC NewsFriday, September 17, 2010 | 3:00 PM ET A proposed road through Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park will lead to the collapse of an ecosystem celebrated for its vast herds of wildebeest and zebra, scientists warn. “The road will cause an environmental […]

Access to clean water down due to urbanisation

  Stockholm (AFP) Sept 7, 2010 – Global efforts to improve access to drinking water have been hampered by rapid urbanisation, with the proportion of people in urban areas with access actually declining, according to UN figures presented at a conference in Stockholm this week. “In cities, there are today more people suffering from a […]

If the world is going to hell, why are humans doing so well?

By David BielloSep 1, 2010 06:00 AM For decades, apocalyptic environmentalists (and others) have warned of humanity’s imminent doom, largely as a result of our unsustainable use of and impact upon the natural systems of the planet. After all, the most recent comprehensive assessment of so-called ecosystem services—benefits provided for free by the natural world, […]

To catch Cairo overflow, 2 megacities rise in sand

By THANASSIS CAMBANISAugust 24, 2010 6 OCTOBER CITY, Egypt — The highway west out of Cairo used to promise relief from the city’s chaos. Past the great pyramids of Giza and a final spasm of traffic, the open desert beckoned, 100 barren miles to the northwest to reach the Mediterranean. That, at least, was the […]

Recession pushes US birth rate to new low

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer 27 August 2010 The U.S. birth rate has dropped for the second year in a row, and experts think the wrenching recession led many people to put off having children. The 2009 birth rate also set a record: lowest in a century. Births fell 2.6 percent last year even […]

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