Brazil green light for Amazon dam — ‘Death warrant for the Xingu river’

BBC26 August 2010 Brazil’s government has given the formal go-ahead for the building on a tributary of the Amazon of the world’s third biggest hydroelectric dam. After several failed legal challenges, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed the contract for the Belo Monte dam with the Norte Energia consortium. Critics say the project will […]

Amnesty International: Flawed data used to exonerate oil firms in Niger Delta

By Paul Ohia with agency report 24 August 2010 Human rights organisation, Amnesty International (AI) yesterday challenged the credibility of data cited by the United Nations in an ongoing investigation of oil-impacted sites in Ogoniland which will almost entirely exonerate Royal Dutch Shell for 40 years of oil pollution in the oil rich region. Amnesty […]

Gulf of Mexico still in crisis four months after BP explosion

By Kierán Suckling, (520) 275-5960August 20, 2010 NEW ORLEANS— Today marks the end of the fourth month since BP’s negligence and lack of government oversight caused the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig to explode, sending more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. To assess how much damage was done and […]

Russia reports 25 percent grain losses from drought, fires

By VOA News and wire services12 August 2010 Russian President Dmitri Medvedev says a full one-quarter of Russia’s grain crops have been destroyed by weeks of drought and wildfires, leaving many Russian farmers close to bankruptcy. Mr. Medvedev spoke Thursday to farmers and grain traders in southern Russia, calling the situation “difficult” and even “extreme.” […]

Booms fail again: Oil penetrates previously pristine Mississippi marsh

By Ben Raines, Press-Register Monday, August 09, 2010, 5:00 AM HORN ISLAND, Miss. — Weeks after BP capped its runaway well, a greasy band of oil appeared on the grasses fringing Garden Pond, a previously pristine interior marsh. Glops of deep brown oil floated on the surface of the saltwater pond Saturday and appeared to […]

Biologist using Noah’s Ark idea to save sealife

By BRENT KALLESTAD, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, August 3, 2010 PANACEA, Fla. — On the chance that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill threatens some sea creatures with extinction, naturalist Jack Rudloe hopes his laboratory can save them. Rudloe has launched Operation Noah’s Ark, using his four-acre facility an hour south of Tallahassee to preserve […]

Everglades on UNESCO danger list as development reduces water flow 60 percent

  BBC31 July 2010 A UN panel has added Florida’s Everglades National Park and Madagascar’s tropical rainforest to a list of world heritage sites at risk. Unesco’s World Heritage Committee said development in the Everglades had caused water flow to fall 60% in the wetland, a major wildlife sanctuary. The pollution level there was so […]

Image of the Day: Macquarie Marshes at Quambone Station, NSW Australia

The Macquarie Marshes – a vast, tangled sprawl of creeks and swamps between Nyngan and Walgett in the state’s northwest – has declined by about half since the 1960s because of the drought and the diversion of water for irrigation. … ”About 50 per cent of the wetland area is gone and more has been […]

Some say effects of Deepwater Horizon spill will be felt for years to come – Dispersants helped bacteria digest oil

By Ben Raines, Press-RegisterSunday, August 01, 2010, 5:24 AM MOBILE, Ala. — Now that BP’s damaged Gulf well appears under control, scientists are struggling to answer two questions: How much oil ended up in the Gulf, and what will be the long-term effects? Federal estimates of the flow rate from the Deepwater Horizon well covered […]

Gulf of Mexico recovery depends on marsh grass survival

By David A. FahrentholdWashington Post / August 2, 2010 ON TAMBOUR BAY, La. — In the next act of the drama of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, two of the most important heroes don’t look like heroes. They are just thin green stalks, sticking out of blackened patches of grass. They are cordgrass and […]

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