Study Shows Pygmy Owl Numbers
Down in Mexico |
A university study shows the population of a tiny endangered owl in northern Mexico has declined by an estimated 26 percent over the last seven years, a finding that environmentalists said bolsters their arguments for greater protection for the bird in Arizona. Annual surveys by a scientist show the birds are continuing to decline in numbers, although there have been some years with rebounds. full story |
|
|
How Males Become Females |
Frogs that started life as male tadpoles were changed in an experiment into females by oestrogen-like pollutants similar to those found in the environment, according to a new study. The results may shed light on at least one reason that up to 1/3 of frog species around the world are threatened with extinction, suggests the study, set to appear in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in May. full story |
|
Ivory Trade Threatens
Future of African Elephants |
The illegal ivory trade is flourishing and threatens to undermine efforts to save the African elephant from extinction, according to a new study released Monday. Poaching of the species has risen to a level not seen in two decades, researchers report, and could doom the world's largest land animal unless western governments step up efforts to halt the illegal trade. full story |
|
|
Dioxane Found in Baby Products |
Some children's bath products contain a suspected cancer-causing chemical in amounts that reach or exceed recommended limits, according to studies by environmental groups released earlier this month. Johnson and Johnson, Disney, Kimberly-Clark and Gerber are among the makers of 15 children's products that contain 1,4-dioxane. full story |
|
Japanese Whaler Restarts Engines,
Moves Away From Antarctica |
The Japanese whaling vessel Nisshin Maru restarted its engines and departed the Ross Sea Sunday, 10 days after a fire disabled the ship and claimed the life of one crew member. The removal of the ship alleviated fears expressed by the New Zealand government that fuel oil or toxic chemicals would be spilled, contaminating one of the largest penguin colonies in the Antarctic. full story |
|
|
Dung Power at U.S. Ethanol Plant |
The frosty-breathed cattle jostling for position at a feeding trough in rural Nebraska are not quite as typical as they appear: their manure is being captured in a new bid to quench America's thirst for ethanol. Like other cows in the Midwestern landscape, the animals at the Mead plant, part of an experimental scheme dubbed "Genesis", churn out a steady supply of energy-rich excrement each day. full story |
|
Environmentalists Air Warnings
about Arctic Pipeline |
Environmentalists will square off against the Arctic pipeline today, saying the 70,000 Alberta jobs its construction is forecast to support should be created by other, cleaner energy projects. "The northern wilderness could disappear," Tine Steen-Dekker says in a written statement to public hearings set to be held in Edmonton today. full story |
|
|
Greenhouse Gases Affecting Oceans |
The pristine Southern Ocean, which swirls around the Antarctic and absorbs vast amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere, is slowly losing a fight against industrial gases responsible for global warming, scientists say. The Southern Ocean's unique wind and storm conditions make it the world's greatest carbon "sink"; the earth's oceans absorb 1/3 of the CO2 in the atmosphere, and the Southern Ocean absorbs 1/3 of that. full story |
|
|
Britain's First Custom-built Green Estate |
Britain's first entirely green housing estate, complete with wind turbines and rainwater harvesting facilities, is to be built in London's Docklands. Residents in the zero-carbon development will be able to grow their own food in community greenhouses, power their televisions with tree branches and compost their rubbish in sophisticated waste segregation facilities. full story |
|
Greenpeace Reveals Ongoing Illegal
Carve Up of Congo's Rainforests |
Greenpeace released evidence today of widespread illegal logging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), part of the second largest tropical forest in the world after the Amazon. The environmental organisation has documented logging operations in violation of a moratorium, which since 2002 should have stopped the allocation of logging titles. full story |
|
|
Global Warming Endangers Harp Seal Pups |
Global warming is making it harder for newborn harp seals to survive in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off Newfoundland in Canada, the International Fund for Animal Welfare reported on Friday. Rising temperatures have dramatically reduced the ice covering the water in these two areas, both places where harp seals return annually to mate and give birth, the advocacy group said in a scientific report. full story |
|
|
Resolution on Warming Goes to Voters |
New Hampshire residents concerned about global warming are tapping the power of grass-roots democracy and the state's unique role in presidential politics to focus national attention on the environmental issue. Over the next several months, at least 180 communities in the state will be voting on a call for the federal government to address climate change. full story |
|
|
Great Barrier Reef Polluted by Pesticides |
The Great Barrier Reef, already under threat from global warming, is also being affected by pollutants and pesticides from the land carried into the sea by flooded rivers, satellite images show. Pictures taken this month by Nasa and US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites indicate that coral is being affected by the run-off at a greater rate than previously thought. full story |
|
|
Climate Change Threatens Loggerhead Turtles |
Climate change is further imperiling loggerhead turtles that nest on Florida beaches, according to a new study. The study warns that predicted temperature increases could decimate male North American loggerhead populations, with global ramifications for the species. An increase of just 1º C could completely eliminate the birth of male turtles from some beaches and a rise of 3º C would lead to extreme levels of infant mortality and declines in nesting beaches across the US.
full story |
|
|
Study Shows Increase in Autism Cases |
A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documents a dramatic rise in autism spectrum disorders. According to the study, the prevalence of autism has climbed to 1 in 150 children overall and 1 in 100 for boys. "It's a medical crisis," said Brown. "25 years ago, the incidence of autism was 1 in 10,000." Tests have shown that children with autism have higher than average levels of mercury, aluminum, cadmium and lead in their bodies, Brown said. full story |
|
|
New C8 Study Finds Baby Development Problems |
Newborn babies exposed to low levels of the chemical C8 have been found to have decreased birth weight and head circumference, according to preliminary results from Johns Hopkins University researchers. The findings, if confirmed, could represent a dramatic new piece of evidence — actual developmental effects in humans — about the potential dangers of C8 and similar chemicals. full story |
|
UK Food Standards Agency
Sued Over Bayer Transgenic Rice |
Genetically modified rice unapproved for human consumption was on sale in the UK more than two months after the Food Standards Agency claimed it had been withdrawn from the market Friends of the Earth said Tuesday. The incident is the most significant genetically modified, GM, food contamination episode to affect the UK, according to Friends of the Earth. full story |
|
Industry Leaders Endorse Fight
Against Gas-caused Climate Change |
The leaders of several worldwide corporations, including General Electric, Volvo and Air France, called Tuesday for prompt, decisive action on climate change created by the emission of greenhouse gases and CO2. Nearly 100 companies followed a meeting at Columbia University by endorsing a formal statement to fight for clean energy and against climate change caused by people and businesses full story |
|
Japanese Whaler May Be
`Slow Motion Disaster,' Greenpeace Warns |
Greenpeace International, the environmental action group, warned that a Japanese whaler stricken by fire in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica may cause an ecological disaster if it is not towed to safety soon. Worsening weather conditions and the threat of more icebergs could lead to an oil spill from the Nisshin Maru, the Japanese factory whaling ship which caught fire 60 miles from the world's biggest Adelie penguin colony. full story |
|
|
South Africa Curbs Canned Lion Hunting |
There will be no more canned hunting of large animals in South Africa after June 1, South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk announced today. A canned hunt takes place on a fenced piece of private property where a hunter can pay a fee to shoot a captive animal. "We are putting an end, once and for all, to the reprehensible practice of canned hunting," said van Schalkwyk, who is himself a hunter. full story |
|
Eminent Scientists Warn of
Disastrous, Permanent Global Warming |
The leaders of the world's largest general scientific society issued an imperative climate change warning Sunday. "The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, a critical greenhouse gas, is higher than it has been for at least 650,000 years. The average temperature of the Earth is heading for levels not experienced for millions of years."
full story |
|
|
Bangladesh: At The Mercy Of Climate Change |
The Sundarbans nature reserve in Bangladesh is one of the last untouched places on Earth - and home to the largest population of tigers left in the wild. But the trees in the Sundarbans have suddenly started dying. And not just that: they have started dying in a way nobody has seen before, from the top down. The country's leading scientists think the trees are dying because, in recent years, the water has turned from fresh to salty. full story |
|
A Deadly Fungus Is Driving
Frogs to Extinction World Over |
A deadly fungus is killing several species of amphibians and scientists are worried that these, especially frogs, may face extinction if the infection remained unchecked. Amphibian Ark, an initiative that aims to ensure the future of amphibians, assembled scientists from across the world Thursday last to discuss a worldwide plan to save the threatened species that include besides frogs, toads and salamanders. full story |
|
New Secretive US Prison Program Isolating
Muslim, Middle Eastern Prisoners |
Quietly implemented in December, the special "Communications Management Unit" at a federal penitentiary in Indiana targeting Muslim and Middle-Eastern inmates was not implemented through the process required by federal law, which stipulates the public be notified of any new changes to prison programs and be given the opportunity to voice objections. Instead, the program appears to have been ordered and implemented by a senior official at the Department of Justice.
full story |
|
World Bank Weighs Sea Level
Risks in Poor Areas |
A World Bank study has found that a three-foot rise in sea levels from global warming would force about 60 million people in developing countries to abandon their homes as waters submerged large swaths of coastal areas. Rising sea levels would have the most drastic effect on populations in the Middle East, N. Africa and East Asia with inundation displacing about 1/10 of the people from countries with large settlements in river delta areas such as Egypt and Vietnam. full story |
|
|
Groups Sue to Protect Marine Mammals |
Two conservation groups sued the federal govt. Tuesday claiming marine mammal regulators are not doing enough to protect polar bears and walruses against the combined threat of oil and gas exploration and global warming. The groups say the U.S.F.W.S. did not fully consider the effects of global warming, such as diminished sea ice, as it wrote regulations allowing for incidental harassment of polar bears and walruses by the industry in the Beaufort Sea and nearby coastal areas. full story |
|
Japanese Whaling Ship and
Protest Boat Collide at Sea |
An anti-whaling group's boat and a Japanese whale-spotting vessel collided twice in Antarctic waters today during clashes over a pod of whales, conservationists and Japanese officials said. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said a one-metre (three-foot) gash was torn in the hull of its ship, the Robert Hunter, by the Japanese ship Kaiko Maru during the clashes in iceberg-strewn waters far south of New Zealand. full story |
|
Three Nations Agree to Conserve
Biodiverse Heart of Borneo |
A declaration to protect the forested Heart of Borneo was signed today by ministers from the three Bornean governments - Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia. The agreement will conserve and sustainably manage one of the most important centers of biological diversity in the world, inhabited by endangered orangutans, elephants and rhinos. full story |
|
U.S. Energy Experts Announce
Way to Freeze Global Warming |
On January 31, 2007 at a press conference in Washington, D.C., ASES unveiled a 200-page report, Tackling Climate Change in the U.S.: Potential Carbon Emissions Reductions from Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by 2030. The result of more than a year of study, the report illustrates how energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies can provide the emissions reductions required to address global warming. full story |
|
|
Monsanto Dumped Toxic Waste in UK |
Evidence has emerged that the Monsanto chemical company paid contractors to dump thousands of tonnes of highly toxic waste in British landfill sites, knowing that their chemicals were liable to contaminate wildlife and people. Yesterday the Environment Agency said it had launched an inquiry after the chemicals were found to be polluting underground water supplies and the atmosphere 30 years after they were dumped. full story |
|
|
Biomass Plants Find Power in Poop |
Here's the stuff of America's energy future: wood trimmings, cow manure, chicken litter, household trash and landfill gas. Debris is becoming a hot commodity in some areas as the U.S. power industry seeks to lessen its dependence on fossil fuels amid growing global-warming concerns. Wind and solar power are hogging the limelight, but biomass-fired electricity is quietly making a comeback after a decade-long slump. full story |
|
Orangutans in Peril as
Indonesian Logging Accelerates |
Emergency action is needed to ensure survival of the orangutan, a new UN report warns. The great apes' only habitat, the Indonesian rainforest, is being destroyed at a rate up to 30% higher than previously thought by illegal logging, fire, and clearing for palm oil plantations. The report, "Last stand of the orangutan: State of emergency," says the natural rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo are being cleared so rapidly that without urgent action up to 98% may be destroyed by 2022. full story |
|
U.S. Senate Panel Rakes
EPA Chief Over the Coals |
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson rejected allegations Tuesday that his agency has relaxed environmental safeguards and favored corporate interests over those of the public. "These EPA rollbacks have common themes," said committee Chair Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat. "They benefit polluters' bottom line and hurt our communities by allowing more pollution and reducing the amount of information about pollution available to the public." full story |
|
|
Doomed: The Songstress of the Deep |
A new report by the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, to be published later this year, will reveal that the number of beluga whales in Cook Inlet has declined dramatically in the past decade and now stands at just 302. This is less than half the number recorded in 1994, according to Brad Smith, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service.
full story |
|
