Poaching, Encroachment
Threaten India's Leopards |
India's leopards are under threat, with increasing numbers of the wild cats being poached for their body parts and villagers killing them for straying into human settlements, experts said. With tiger populations dwindling in recent years as a result of poaching, wildlife officials say hunters have increasingly set their sights on leopards, killing them for their skins as well as bones, claws and penises for use in traditional Asian medicines. full story |
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New Material Can Soak up Pollutants |
A new porous material can soak up heavy metals from liquids like a sponge, U.S. researchers say, offering a host of potential uses including removing pollutants such as mercury or lead from water. The material is an aerogel, a type of rigid foam made from a gel in which most of the liquid has been replaced by gas. full story |
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Pesticide Link to Autism Suspected |
Women who live near California farm fields sprayed with organochlorine pesticides may be more likely to give birth to children with autism, according to a study by state health officials to be published today. The rate of autism among the children of 29 women who lived near the fields was extremely high, suggesting that exposure to the insecticides in the womb might have played a role. full story |
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Climate Change Linked to
Doubling of Atlantic Hurricanes |
Twice as many Atlantic hurricanes formed each year from 1995 to 2005, on average, than formed during parallel years a century ago finds a new statistical analysis of hurricanes and tropical storms in the north Atlantic. The researchers conclude that warmer sea surface temperatures and altered wind patterns associated with global climate change are responsible for the increase. full story |
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In Minority Neighborhood,
Kids' Risk of Cancer Soars |
Like so many of their poor and working-class Hispanic neighbors, Rosario Marroquin's family settled in the southeast Houston neighborhood of Manchester a generation ago because the clapboard houses were cheap, the streets were safe, transportation was convenient and downtown was only 20 minutes away. It was an ideal neighborhood, except for the coughing spells, the nosebleeds, the burning odors and the acrid smoke. full story |
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Costa Rica's Monkeys Lose Ground to Developers |
Costa Rica has lost up to half of its monkeys over the last 12 years as developers expanding into their jungle habitat isolate them in small communities, scientists said Thursday. Populations of monkeys including howler, white face, spider and squirrel monkeys have declined by the thousands, scientists at a seminar estimated. full story |
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Experts Seek to Stop Turtle Extinction |
Close to 10 million turtles are traded each year in Asian food markets despite global efforts to stem the practice that many experts say is causing the rapid extinction of some species of the shelled reptiles. The centuries-old practice of using turtles for food and medicinal purposes, particularly in China, is a $700 million industry, Chinese conservationist Shi Haitao said during an international turtle expert meeting Thursday.
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Four Rare Mountain Gorillas
Shot Dead in Congo Park |
Four rare mountain gorillas have been shot dead in the Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Wide Fund For Nature said on Thursday. The silverback male and three females were shot on Sunday in the southern sector of the park, which contains more than a fifth of the world's population of 700 mountain gorillas.
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In the Amazon: Conservation or Colonialism? |
Depending on one's point of view, the World Wildlife Fund's financial support of a nature reserve here on the Rio Negro is either part of a laudable attempt to conserve the Amazon jungle - or the leading edge of a nefarious plot by foreign environmental groups to wrest control of the world's largest rain forest from Brazil and replace it with international rule.
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BP Dumps Mercury in Lake |
Although the federal govt. ordered states more than a decade ago to dramatically limit mercury discharges into the Great Lakes, the BP refinery in northwest Indiana will be allowed to continue pouring small amounts of the toxic metal into Lake Michigan for at least another 5 years. A little-noticed exemption in BP's controversial new state water permit gives the oil company until 2012 to meet strict federal limits on mercury discharges. full story |
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Global Warming Sends Dengue Fever
Cases in Indonesia Soaring |
Indonesia is on course for some 200,000 dengue fever infections this year, twice last year's total, a top health official said Thursday, adding the jump may be in part due to global warming. Dengue, which is endemic in Southeast Asia, causes joint pain, high fevers, nausea and rashes. In severe cases, it results in internal bleeding and death.
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Smog May Speed Up Global Warming |
Ozone in smog will accentuate global warming this century as it will damage plants and trees that help soak up carbon emissions, a study says. They say ozone at ground level is damaging the ability of plants to absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) and so limiting their ability to act as carbon sinks. full story |
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The Police State Takeover of Schools |
Schools have become hi-tech prisons. Children all across America and the UK are being conditioned to accept that they are not free and that they must submit to draconian laws and measures for their own safety. Soon enough children will not even know what it is like to act as a private individual within society. full story |
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Humans Have Shifted
Global Precipitation Patterns |
For the first time, climate scientists have clearly detected the human fingerprint on changing global precipitation patterns over the past century. "Human activities have contributed significantly to shifts in global precipitation patterns over the past century," including increased rain and snowfall in northern regions, drier conditions in tropical areas north of the equator, and increased rainfall in the southern tropics. full story |
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U.S. Border Fence Seen
Harming Ocelots, Butterflies |
One of the most ecologically diverse corners of the US has been diced up by farming and urban sprawl into isolated fragments of habitat that support far less wildlife than when they were whole. Now, conservationists are concerned that a planned border security fence to stem illegal immigration from Mexico could cut this delicate area up even more and possibly remove the corridor of vital riverbank habitat that remains. full story |
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Controversy Erupts over Endangered Species Act |
Two different govt. entities are investigating decisions by Bush admin. officials related to species recovery. The US Interior Dept. is reviewing the scientific integrity of decisions under the law made by a political appointee. At the same time, Congress is investigating evidence that Cheney interfered with decisions involving water in Calif. and Oregon that resulted in the killing of tens of thousands of Klamath River salmon, some listed as threatened. full story |
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Police Save 270 Crocs from Becoming Handbags |
Chinese police have saved 270 crocodiles from ending up as shoes or handbags after tracking a suspicious boat on a border river, Xinhua news agency said on Monday. Saturday's seizure was the largest this year in the southwestern region of Guangxi, bordering Vietnam, where just 25 illegally captured crocodiles were discovered in the first six months. full story |
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Panda Habitat Extended in China |
Giant panda habitat in the Qinling Mountains in central China has been expanded, greatly improving the protection of the endangered species. The Qinling Mountains, encompassing a total area of 52,000km2, are home to about 200-300 pandas. However, rapid development and human settlement in the area in recent years have become major threats to the animal, which has little connection to other panda populations. full story |
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Hazard Warning on Home Cleaners |
Dozens of common household cleaning products contain hidden toxic chemicals linked to fertility disorders in lab animals, according to data gathered by a women's research group. A type of glycol ether is frequently found in popular cleaning products such as Windex Aerosol, Formula 409, Lemon Fresh Pine-Sol and Simple Green All Purpose Cleaner, says the report released today by Women's Voices for the Earth. full story |
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Texas Turtles Ending up in China Soup Pots |
Hundreds of thousands have been sold to dealers who ship the animals to Asia where the meat is considered a delicacy with health benefits. Some also fetch high prices around the world as pets. "In Texas, anyone with a $50 dollar non-game permit can take as many turtles as they want," said Avriett, who chairs the Piney Woods group of the Sierra Club.
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England under Water: Scientists Confirm
Global Warming Link to Increased Rain |
It's official: the heavier rainfall in Britain is being caused by climate change, a major new scientific study will reveal this week, as the country reels from summer downpours of unprecedented ferocity. More intense rainstorms across parts of the northern hemisphere are being generated by man-made global warming, the study has established for the first time an effect which has long been predicted but never before proved. full story |
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Tibet's Warming Trend Gaining Pace |
Tibet, the mountainous region whose snows and glaciers give birth to several of Asia's major rivers, is warming at an alarming rate, China's state media reported Sunday, citing a new survey. Average annual temperatures in Tibet are rising at a rate of 0.3 degrees Celsius (0.54 degrees Fahrenheit) every ten years due to global warming, Xinhua news agency said, citing a report by the Tibet Meteorological Bureau.
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Could Climate Change Herald Mass Migration? |
The state of Arizona has more than 300 golf courses, a booming economy, endless sunshine and, at last count, at least five Saks Fifth Avenue department stores - in short, nearly everything the well-heeled sybarite would need. There’s just one thing missing: rain. For the past month, not a drop has fallen in Maricopa County, home to greater Phoenix, the state’s economic engine and fastest-growing hub. full story |
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Climate Change Threatens Water Supply |
Global warming is drying up mountain lakes and wetlands in the Andes and threatening water supplies to major South American cities such as La Paz, Bogota and Quito, World Bank research shows. The risk is especially great to an Andean wetland habitat called the paramo, which supplies 80% of the water to Bogota's seven million people. full story |
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Fired Official's Endangered Species
Decisions Revisited |
Eight decisions made by a disgraced Bush administration official under the ESA could be reversed after questions were raised about the integrity of the science used and whether the decisions were made illegally. The decisions in question were overseen by former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Julie MacDonald, who resigned April 30 under a cloud of scandal. full story |
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Oil Development and Endangered Whales
Collide in Russian Far East |
Sakhalin Energy has completed the installation of its third and final oil and gas production platform off Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East. Company officials were jubilant at completion on July 5, but whale conservationists warn that some of the world's most endangered whales have been driven off their feeding grounds by the construction noise, contrary to an agreement with the company. full story |
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Climate Change Threatening Canada's Polar
Bears, Will Unleash Insect-Borne Diseases |
A Canadian provincial minister warned that continued climate change may lead to the extinction of polar bears in southeastern Canada and unleash new insect-borne diseases across the province of Ontario. Temperatures will rise up to 8 degrees Celsius in northern Ontario if climate change continues, essentially wiping out the polar bear population. full story |
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Huge Dust Plumes From China
Cause Changes in Climate |
One tainted export from China can't be avoided in North America - air. An outpouring of dust layered with man-made sulfates, smog, industrial fumes, carbon grit and nitrates is crossing the Pacific Ocean on prevailing winds from booming Asian economies in plumes so vast they alter the climate. These rivers of polluted air can be wider than the Amazon and deeper than the Grand Canyon. full story |
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Sea Levels May Rise by 9 Inches
This Century, Scientists Warn |
The melting of mountain glaciers and ice caps as a result of global warming over the next century is likely to cause bigger than expected increases in sea levels. An assessment of the volume of water running into the oceans from melting ice caps suggests that sea levels could rise by two to three times the amount previously expected from this source.
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From Wales, a Box to Make
Biofuel from Car Fumes |
The world's richest corporations and finest minds spend billions trying to solve the problem of carbon emissions, but three fishing buddies in North Wales believe they have cracked it. They have developed a box which they say can be fixed underneath a car in place of the exhaust to trap the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, including carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, and emit mostly water vapour. full story |
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Factory Could Disrupt Flamingo
Breeding on East African Lake |
Conservation groups are outraged over a proposed soda ash factory near Tanzania's border with Kenya that threatens the survival of the entire East African population of lesser flamingos. The light pink birds that flock by the hundreds of thousands to the lake each summer to breed attract visitors from around the world. full story |
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Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone Could Expand This Year |
The Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone", a swath of water with such low levels of oxygen that marine life can be threatened or killed, could be the largest since measurements began in 1985, scientists said Tuesday. The dead zone, which recurs each year off the Texas and Louisiana coasts, could stretch to more than 8,500 square miles this year. full story |
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Pacific Islanders Battle to Save What Is Left
of Their Country from Rising Seas |
Veu Lesa, a 73-year-old villager in Tuvalu, does not need scientific reports to tell him that the sea is rising. The evidence is all around him. The beaches of his childhood are vanishing. The crops that used to feed his family have been poisoned by salt water. In April, he had to leave his home when a "king tide" flooded it, showering it with rocks and debris. full story |
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Dead Ocelot Bad News for Falling U.S. Population |
The unexplained death of a breeding-age ocelot in southeast Texas has brought the endangered cat a step closer to extinction in the United States, a wildlife biologist said Thursday. The U.S. population of the northern subspecies of the cat, known as the Texas ocelot, is down to around 100 or fewer. And the remains of the male one found Sunday in the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge means there is one less. full story |
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BP Gets Break on Dumping in Lake |
Under BP's new state water permit, the refinery -- already one of the largest polluters along the Great Lakes -- can release 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more sludge into Lake Michigan each day. Ammonia promotes algae blooms that can kill fish, while sludge is full of concentrated heavy metals. full story |
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Ice Sheets Tell a Scary New Story |
A team led by James Hansen has published a study that identifies what's going on at the poles, and confirms the vulnerability of the ice sheets. Its findings throw into question all the conclusions reached by the IPCC. The study says ocean levels could rise by metres this century, not centimetres as the UN panel suggested. Worse still, what's occurring in polar ice fields could flip the world into much faster and far more devastating global warming than predicted by the IPCC.
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Melting Ice Drives Polar Bear Mothers to Land |
Melting sea ice is driving mother polar bears onto dry land to give birth in northern Alaska, U.S. Geological Survey scientists reported on Thursday. They found that just 37 percent of polar bear dens were built on sea ice between 1998 and 2004, compared to 62 percent between 1985 and 1994. full story |
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Bears Build Up What Fish Flush Out |
Efforts to control chemical pollution may overlook thousands of toxins that concentrate as they march up the food chain, say researchers. Compounds that do not accumulate in fish can still build up in marine birds and mammals and possibly the people that eat them, they have found. The finding puts up to 1/3 of industrial chemicals, including some perfumes and pesticides, under suspicion. full story |
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New Global Partnership Tracks
Plant and Animal Survival |
A new partnership to track the survival of Earth's diverse animals and plants was launched today by the UN Environment Programme with US$3.6 million in funding from the Global Environment Facility. "The biodiversity challenge is no less urgent a public issue than the climate change crisis," said Monique Barbut, CEO of the funding organization the Global Environment Facility. full story |
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Global Warming Alert Issued for New York |
A 50-expert panel reported yesterday that the state and the Northeast face everything from summers with dozens of 100-degree days to monthlong droughts and the potential for the Battery, Long Island and Sound shore coastlines to be under water if the region doesn't move quickly to curb greenhouse gases. full story |
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Solar Activity Not the Cause of Global Warming |
Claims that increased solar activity is the cause of global warming, rather than man-made greenhouse gases, have been comprehensively disproved by a detailed study of the Sun. Scientists have delivered the final blow to the theory that recent global warming can be explained by variations in the natural cycles of the Sun, a favourite refuge for climate sceptics who dismiss the influence of greenhouse-gas emissions. full story |
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Pressure to Kill Wolves
Mounting Across the Western USA |
Twelve years after reintroducing gray wolves to the Northern Rockies, the federal government has announced a plan that allows many of these same wolves and their offspring to be killed. The government wants to remove the wolves from the endangered species list in late '07 or early '08, a move that conservation groups oppose. The new proposal allows wolves in the Northern Rockies to be killed before they are formally delisted. full story |
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Kenya Arrests Illegal Hunters, Bushmeat Dealers |
Kenya Wildlife Service rangers have arrested seven professional Tanzanian hunters and their Kenyan guide for illegally hunting around Tsavo West National Park. The rangers who had laid an ambush at Koranze in Taita Taveta District recovered firearms and ammunition in the Saturday arrest. The suspects have been booked at Voi Police Station and are awaiting prosecution. full story |
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Malaysia Seizes 900 Monkeys
from Wildlife Poachers |
Malaysia has smashed a ring of wildlife smugglers and seized more than 900 poached monkeys destined for China or the Netherlands in what officials called their biggest seizure involving the animals so far. Wildlife officials arrested four men after finding the long-tailed macaques confined in cages and sacks during a raid on a plantation in the southern state of Johor. full story |
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Puget Sound Struggles Against Tide of Toxins |
Every day, industry and municipal sewage treatment plants dump 1 billion gallons of wastewater tainted with toxic chemicals and oxygen-robbing nutrients into Puget Sound and its tributaries. And it's all perfectly legal. The steady stream of wastewater from nearly 1,000 sources, ranging from giant oil refineries to boatyards, is allowed under a federal permitting system created with the passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act. full story |
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Renewable Energy Future Could Save
the World Billions of Dollars a Year |
Investing in renewable electricity worldwide instead of burning fossil fuels could save $180 billion annually and cut emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2 in half by 2030, according to a joint report by Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy Council, released today. In the first global analysis of its kind, the report argues for a shift in global investments towards renewable energy - solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and bioenergy. full story |
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Hydrogen Fuel Stations:
Is this Really the Fuel of the Future? |
The Statoil petrol station in the Stavanger suburb of Forus is on first impressions unremarkable. But if you look carefully, you'll notice that on one side of the forecourt, away from the cars filling up with petrol, is a pump that stands seemingly unnoticed. If the forecasters prove correct, the gas this pump dispenses, hydrogen, is set to take centre stage in the global fight against climate change. full story |
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Great Lakes Sport Fish Unsafe to Eat |
Many types of popular sport fish found in the Great Lakes are so heavily contaminated by industrial chemicals such as dioxins, PCBs and methyl mercury that they are unfit for human consumption, says a report released yesterday by Environmental Defence, a Toronto-based conservation group. The fish species reviewed included coho salmon, rainbow trout, walleye, pike and lake trout. full story |
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Sexual Problems Could Lead to Rhinos' Extinction |
Low sperm counts and other reproductive problems are preventing pregnancy among Malaysia's endangered rhinos, a worrying trend that wildlife experts say could hasten the animals' extinction. Experts meeting on Borneo island this week to discuss ways to save the Borneo rhino said a major threat, besides poaching, was the animals' own inability to reproduce. full story |
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Southeast Seabird Die-off a Puzzle |
Hundreds of seabirds that washed up along the Southeast coast in recent weeks apparently starved to death, but experts don't know why. The deaths of the birds, similar to gulls and called greater shearwaters, have wildlife officials worried about possible changes in the ocean that could have affected the fish that the birds usually eat. full story |
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Large Colony of Endangered Monkeys Found |
The largest known population of rare grey-shanked doucs has been discovered in a remote part of Vietnam, raising hopes that the endangered monkeys can be saved from extinction. Considered one of the 25 most endangered primates, the species has only been recorded in the five central Vietnamese provinces. Fewer than 1,000 are believed to still exist, and until now, only one other population with more than 100 animals was known. full story |
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Erosion Slicing Arctic Alaska Habitat |
A swath of marshy, wildlife-rich coastal land in Arctic Alaska being eyed for oil drilling is eroding rapidly probably because of the disappearance of sea ice that used to protect it from the ocean waves, according to a study released Monday. The sea has pushed in half a mile in some places over past decades, the study said.
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Study Adds Twist to Deformity Mystery |
When schoolchildren on a field trip found frogs with missing legs in a Minnesota pond 12 years ago, the mystery captured the imagination of biologists and the public. Soon reports of amphibians with missing or extra limbs poured in from sites around the country, including New England. In some places, as much as half the frog population was affected. full story |
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Minnesota, Other States Take Lead on Climate |
In the race among states to do something about the warming planet, Minnesota legislators this spring voted to reduce carbon dioxide pollution, ordered power companies to conserve more energy and adopted the nation's most aggressive goals for switching to wind power and other renewable energy. full story |
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