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Seabird Breeding Crisis Spreads To England
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England's biggest seabird colony is suffering from the global warming-induced severe food shortage that has devastated the birds of the Northern Isles of Scotland. Bempton Cliffs, the towering 400ft chalk cliffs on the Yorkshire coast near Flamborough Head, where 200,000 seabirds
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nest, are this year witnessing the same large-scale breeding failure that has hit seabird colonies all over Orkney and Shetland.
full story
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EPA Alone Decides Pesticide Harm
To Endangered Species
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New regulations finalized Thursday allow the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine whether the use of any new pesticide product is likely to harm endangered species, without first consulting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries.
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Conservationists said the new policy threatens the survival and recovery of numerous endangered species. full story
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Bush Roadless Rule Change
Puts 23 Parks At Risk
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At least 23 national parks will be negatively impacted if the Bush administration enacts its proposed revision of the roadless rule, park advocacy groups said in a new report. The 23 parks are in 16 states – they include Mount Rainier, Olympic and Yellowstone National
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Parks. The organizations say the Bush proposal threatens uninterrupted scenic views, clear flowing streams, abundant wildlife and solitude now found at the parks. full story
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Greenland Ice-melt 'Speeding Up'
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In 2001 NASA scientists published a major study based on observations by satellite and aircraft. It concluded that the margins of the Greenland ice-sheet were dropping in height at a rate of roughly one metre a year. Now, amid some of the most hostile conditions anywhere on
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the planet, Carl Boggild and his team have recorded falls as dramatic as 10 metres a year - in places the ice is dropping at a rate of one metre a month. full story
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Earthdive Invites Citizen Scientists
To Save World's Oceans
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Snorkelers and scuba divers who explore all the world's oceans are being asked to enlist in a new undersea army called Earthdive. The weapons of this army will be information and the latest technology, and its mission is to safeguard Earth's the oceans and seas. Professional and amateur
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divers are being asked to record the health of the marine environment for Earthdive, including coral reefs, mangrove swamps and coastal waters - whatever they observe when underwater. full story
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EPA Wrestles With Superfund Challenges
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Data collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shows the federal agency is struggling to safeguard or assess the potential health hazards of some 20 percent of the nation's Superfund sites. Seventy million people, including some 10 million children, live within four miles of
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the nation's more than 1,230 Superfund sites. full story
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Marvel Chemicals Pop Up
In Animals All Over World
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Chemicals used to make Teflon and Scotchgard have been promoted as modern marvels for their ability to keep food from sticking to pots and fast-food packaging, repel stains on carpets and furniture and make water roll off coats and clothing. Now scientists are finding that the
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chemicals also have managed to spread throughout the world. Researchers have detected them in polar bears roaming near the Arctic Circle, dolphins swimming in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Italy and gulls flying above ocean cliffs outside Tokyo.
full story
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States, Environmentalists Challenge
Power Plant Cooling Water Rule
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Six Northeastern states and a coalition of environmental groups filed separate law suits Monday challenging a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule that regulates the intake of cooling water by existing power plants. Both suits charge the rule is far too lenient and fails to
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minimize power plant fish kills as required by the Clean Water Act. full story
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Nation's School Districts Differ
On Drinking Water Standards
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In the absence of government regulation, school districts across the nation have adopted different standards of how much lead in their drinking water is tolerable. In the District of Columbia, Philadelphia and Baltimore, public schools have taken drinking fountains or sinks out of service
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if lead was present at more than 20 parts per billion (ppb) — the level at which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends, but does not require, remedial action. full story
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Worst US Drought In 500 Years Fuels
Raging California Wildfires
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Record wildfires blazing across the American West are being caused by the worst drought in at least 500 years. US government scientists believe the conflagrations may herald an epochal, permanent change in the climate and landscape of the region, endangering the future of one of the
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richest areas on Earth. Nearly four million acres of forest, ranging from Alaska to southern California, have gone up in smoke this year, and the official fire season has only just begun. full story
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Commercial Whaling Moratorium
Holds For Another Year
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Whale conservationists won several victories this week at the International Whaling Commission annual meeting that wound up here Thursday, but other battles were lost to pro-whaling interests. The 18 year long moratorium on commercial whaling is still in place, but there will be no
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whale sanctuaries in the South Pacific or the South Atlantic at least for another year. full story
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Local Communities Seen As Key Allies
In Forest Conservation
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The international community should provide indigenous people with financial incentives to encourage conservation of the world's tropical forests, advises a new report by Forest Trends, a nonprofit organization that advocates market approaches to conserving forests outside of
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protected areas. The study was timed to influence negotiations in Geneva next week for an update of the 1994 International Tropical Timber Agreement. full story
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House Committee Approves Revisions
To Endangered Species Act
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The House Resources Committee passed two bills on Wednesday that alter how the federal government designates critical habitat and uses science in the implementation of the Endangered Species Act. Proponents say both measures are needed to modernize and strengthen a law that
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has become mired in litigation, but environmentalists contend the bills would have the opposite effect and would undermine federal protection of imperiled species. full story
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Lawsuit Targets Global Warming
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New York City and attorneys general from eight states hope their unprecedented lawsuit seeking to force power producers to reduce emissions believed to cause global warming will have as much success as their fight against Big Tobacco. The lawsuit filed Wednesday asks a federal
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judge to order the nation's five biggest electricity generators to reduce their output of carbon dioxide by 3 percent a year over the next 10 years. It seeks no financial damages. full story
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Commission: Sakhalin Oil Development
Threatens Gray Whale Survival
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The International Whaling Commission has unanimously endorsed the report of its Scientific Committee describing the Sakhalin oil and gas development project in the Russian Far East as a threat to the survival of the critically endangered Western North Pacific gray whale. Only 100
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members of the species, including 23 reproductive females, are known to exist. full story
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European Commission Moves
To Stem Illegal Logging
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The European Commission has adopted a new set of measures to combat the growing problem of illegal logging and the related trade in illegally harvested timber that are to blame for vast environmental damage in developing and transition countries. Partnership agreements
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provide wood producing countries with the incentives to keep logging legal and a licensing plan keeps illegal timber out of Europe. full story
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Japan Loses First Tussle In Whaling Talks
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Japan lost the first battle in a war to turn back years of anti-hunting agreements at the International Whaling Commission on Monday when countries rejected its motion to hold votes in secret. Conservation groups, which accuse Japan of enticing developing countries to join the
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body and vote with it, welcomed the outcome which indicated the majority of the 57 members were still largely opposed to whaling.
full story
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Study Says Pollution May Add To Drought
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Air pollution from coal-burning power plants may be worsening the region's current drought, according to research by scientists with Nevada's Desert Research Institute. Pollutants in the air, traceable to coal plants in Western states, are reducing the water content of Rocky Mountain
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snowfall, possibly by as much as 25 percent, said one of the scientists, Randy Borys, director of the institute's Storm Peak Laboratory in Steamboat Springs, Colo. full story
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Gray Wolf Recovery Provokes Delisting Dispute
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The gray wolf has rebounded to the extent that the species no longer needs federal protection in the eastern half of the United States, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said on Friday. Conservationists called the proposal illogical because wolves have only recovered in three of
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the 21 states where the administration plans on removing the species from the endangered species list. full story
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Hundreds Of Firms Using Nanotech In Food
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Two hundred companies are already working on inserting nanotechnology into food, posing "immense" risks to health, new research claims. Last week, Prince Charles, writing exclusively in The Independent on Sunday, warned that the technology, which uses microscopic particles,
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a million of which would fit on a pin head, could lead to "upsets" similar to the Thalidomide disaster, unless care were taken.
full story
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Allawi Shot Inmates In Cold Blood, Say Witnesses
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Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed
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the killings. They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded - were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security center, in the city's south-western suburbs.
full story
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Oil And Gas Industry Drills
For Washington Influence
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The oil and gas industry has pumped some $440 million into federal political campaigns and lobbying activities during the past six years, according to a new report released Thursday by the Center for Public Integrity. The study gives added fuel to critics who believe the industry
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has bought undue influence throughout the federal government, in particular within the offices of Bush administration officials.
full story
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Brazil To Propose Whale Sanctuary
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Brazil plans to reintroduce a proposal to create a sanctuary for whales in the South Atlantic during an upcoming meeting of the International Whaling Commission, the environment ministry said today. At the meeting, which begins on Monday in Sorrento, Italy, Brazil will propose banning all
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whaling from the coast of Brazil to the coast of Africa. full story
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Japan To Form Breakaway Pro-whaling Group
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A bitter dispute that has simmered for nearly two decades between pro- and anti-whale hunting nations looks set to come to the boil next week when Japan will present a plan to break with the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and form its own pro-whaling organisation.
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full story
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Navy Sonar May Trigger Lawsuit Over
Whale Strandings, Deaths
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The U.S. Navy's use of mid-frequency, high intensity active sonar is causing mass strandings and deaths of whales, according to a coalition of conservation and animal welfare groups threatening to take formal action against the Navy to force a change in its use of the sonar
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signals. In a letter sent Wednesday to Navy Secretary Gordon England, the coalition asked for meetings to forestall legal action. full story
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Human Carbon Emissions Using Up
Oceans' Absorption Capacity
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Humans have used up about one-third of the potential of the world's oceans to absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide generated by human activities such as burning coal for electricity and gasoline for transportation. The first comprehensive study of the ocean storage
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of carbon dioxide from human activities found that the oceans have taken up 118 billion metric tons of this gas between 1800 and 1994. full story
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Melting Ice: The Threat To London's future
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There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than for 55m years, enough to melt all the ice on the planet and submerge cities like London, New York and New Orleans, Sir David King, the government's chief scientific adviser has warned. Speaking on his return from Moscow,
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where he has been acting as the prime minister's "unofficial envoy" to persuade the Russians to ratify the Kyoto protocol to fight climate change, Sir David said the most recent science bore out the worst predictions. full story
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Advocates Of War Now Profit
From Iraq's Reconstruction
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As lobbyists, public relations counselors and confidential advisors to senior federal officials, they warned against Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, praised exiled leader Ahmad Chalabi, and argued that toppling Saddam Hussein was a matter of national security and
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moral duty. Now, as fighting continues in Iraq, they are collecting tens of thousands of dollars in fees for helping business clients pursue federal contracts and other financial opportunities in Iraq.
full story
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Appeal Seeks To Restore
Missouri River's Natural Flow
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Conservationists have appealed a recent federal court ruling that allows the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to avoid making changes to its operation of six Missouri River dams this summer. Current management of the river fails to protect endangered fish and birds, according to
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the conservation groups. full story
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Administration Confirming Plans
To Open More Forests To Logging
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The Bush administration will propose a new plan to open up national forests to more logging, confirming a draft plan published two weeks ago, The Associated Press learned. Under the plan, to be announced by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Monday, governors would have
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to petition the federal government to block road-building in remote areas of national forests, replacing a national rule against such projects adopted by the Clinton administration. full story
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America's Exhaust Fumes May Be Crossing Atlantic To Pollute Britain
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Scientists are to track American smog and exhaust fumes amid fears it could be harming people in Britain. Forty scientists from seven British universities are to travel to the Azores in the Atlantic today to follow a plume of air as it heads across the ocean. They want to know how
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dangerous the pollutants are by the time they have travelled 5,000 miles. full story
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Bush Officials Battle Criticism
Of National Park Policies
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The Bush administration is fighting back against critics of its national park stewardship with a new report that shows record funding for the Park Service. Interior Secretary Gale Norton said "never before have our parks received so much care," but her statements did little to convince
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critics who contend the administration is using creative accounting to mislead the public full story
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Whaling Ban 'Bought Off By The Japanese'
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The resumption of commercial whaling for the first time in almost 20 years could come a step closer this week amid concerns that Japan has "bought" enough votes to overturn an international ban on hunting. The annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC),
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in Sorrento, Italy, promises to be among the most contentious ever. The build-up has been dominated by fears that Japan may finally be able to secure a majority of countries prepared to overturn the moratorium on commercial whaling, in effect since 1986. full story
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Pollutants Turning A Third Of
Male Fish Into Females
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A third of the male fish in British rivers are turning into females because of "gender-bending" pollutants being discharged from sewage outflows. The first national survey of 42 rivers has found that more than one in three male fish are growing female reproductive tissues
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and organs. full story
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Poachers Burn One-third Of Rwandan park
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Poachers have burned one-third of Rwanda's largest national park, hampering efforts to protect wildlife from dangers posed by the country's fast growing rural population. Akagera is a haven for wildlife in overcrowded Rwanda, where more than 8 million people are squeezed into just
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10,160 square miles and deforestation is already widespread. The sprawling park in the east of the country is home to elephants, giraffes, zebra, and various species of antelope and monkey.
full story
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Bush Political Interference
Offends American Scientists
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Citing new evidence of abuse, thousands of top American scientists now say the Bush administration suppresses and distorts scientific knowledge and undermines federal scientific advisory panels. In February, 60 leading scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, urged
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President George W. Bush to stop manipulating scientific knowledge for political purposes. That plea has had little effect, they say. full story
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Forest Service OKs Plan To Log Trees
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The U.S. Forest Service signed off on a plan Thursday to log thousands of acres of trees killed by a huge forest fire in 2002 — a decision that will probably bring a legal challenge from environmentalists. Under the plan, loggers will be allowed to cut 370 million board feet of
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timber, enough to build 24,000 homes, from about 20,000 acres of federal land over the next two years. That is far less than the timber industry had sought. full story
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Forest Service Rule Revs Up
Off-Road Vehicle Fight
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Some of America's 155 national forests and 21 grasslands have their own guidelines for where off-road vehicles can go, and some have none, but that will change into a single rule for the whole country under a U.S. Forest Service proposal released on Wednesday.
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Conservationists expressed partial approval but said the proposed rule does not go far enough. full story
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Peat Bog Gases 'Accelerate Global Warming'
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Global warming is set to dramatically worsen because of huge amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) being released from the world's peatlands, a study has found. Scientists analysing the huge stores of natural CO2 locked up in peatlands have found they are being released
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into the environment at an accelerating rate. At the current rate, the CO2 released from peatlands will exceed those produced by the burning of fossil fuel as early as 2060. full story
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Madrid Ivory Seizure Tip Of
The Illegally Traded Tusk
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Customs authorities and police throughout the world are being asked to inform the Species Survival Network about any seizures of elephant ivory they have made over the past two years. The request is meant to provide governments meeting in October as Parties to the Convention
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on the International Trade in Endangered Species with accurate information to consider as they make decisions about the ivory trade. full story
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Illegal Logging Pressures
Last Few Mountain Gorillas
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Illegal deforestation has destroyed important mountain gorilla habitat within Africa's Virunga National Park, conservation groups reported on Monday. The park, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo on the border with Rwanda and Uganda, is home to more than half the
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remaining 700 mountain gorillas. full story
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Ecologists Push Shift From Whaling
To Whale-Watching
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Whale watching off the coast of Genoa can be a life-changing experience for tourists and nature-lovers. It is also a new way for communities who once hunted the world's largest animals to earn a living, say the environmentalists who helped to set up the biggest whale sanctuary in the
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Mediterranean. full story
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Australia Faces Severe Water Crisis Unless
CO2 Emissions Are Dramatically Reduced
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Australia’s current water shortages are clearly linked to global warming, according to a report by the Australian Climate Group (ACG) — an unprecedented alliance of scientists, the finance sector, and WWF. It warns that Australia will increasingly suffer from water problems, extreme
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weather events, and natural disasters such as floods and droughts if it fails to cut its greenhouse gas emissions — amongst the highest in the world — by 60 per cent by 2050. full story
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Scientists Turn To Popeye To Save Planet
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Scientists have enlisted a new ally in the battle to save the planet - Popeye. They have found that spinach, which gives the cartoon sailor hissuperhuman strength, could be the power source the world needs to combat global warming. The discovery could lead to a new
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version of the old instruction: "Heat up your greens." full story
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Largest Population Of Mediterranean Loggerhead Turtles Threatened By Uncontrolled Tourism
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The largest nesting population of Mediterranean loggerhead turtles will be lost unless the Greek government puts a stop to uncontrolled tourism, which is rapidly degrading nesting beaches, warns WWF. The global conservation organization criticizes Greece – which hosts the
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most important nesting population of loggerhead turtles – for not enforcing the European Union's Habitat Directive, which requires the Greek government to implement effective measures to protect the endangered loggerhead turtles. full story
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Alaska Natives Say Warming Trend
Imperils Villages
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A warming climate is bringing expensive and potentially dangerous erosion and floods to Native Alaskan villages, representatives of those communities told federal officials this week. Storms tear off chunks of beach once shielded by permafrost or Arctic pack ice. Buildings are
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in danger of toppling into the sea, and many have already been moved at great expense. Airstrips are swamped and ice cellars that once stored food in the permafrost are filling with water, residents say. full story
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Five New Natural Sites
Placed On World Heritage List
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Tropical rainforests of Indonesia where the last remaining orangutans live and South Africa's Cape Floral Region with its thousands of unique flowering plants are among the five new sites that have been been approved for addition to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Sites in
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Russia, Greenland and Saint Lucia were also added, and sites in the UK and Costa Rica were extended. full story
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Australia Creates World's Largest Reef Sanctuary
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Australia's Great Barrier Reef became the world's biggest protected marine network on Thursday, a move environmental groups hope countries in Asia and Central America will copy in a bid to save their endangered coral reefs. Australia has slapped a ban on fishing and
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shipping on a third of the reef, the planet's largest living structure, protecting one of its main tourist attractions which is threatened by over-fishing, pollution and higher temperatures. full story
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