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Report Could Put A Crimp In Corn Exports
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Even before its release, a report addressing the potential impact of genetically altered U.S. corn exports to Mexico has stirred up a dust devil of controversy, including fears that the Bush administration is trying to bury it. The report by a group of distinguished scientists and policy
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experts urges caution in trade policies that send millions of tons of corn to Mexico from Illinois. The report also could influence a global debate over the safety of modified food. full story
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Global Warming Is Expected To
Raise Hurricane Intensity
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Global warming is likely to produce a significant increase in the intensity and rainfall of hurricanes in coming decades, according to the most comprehensive computer analysis done so far. By the 2080's, seas warmed by rising atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping
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greenhouse gases could cause a typical hurricane to intensify about an extra half step on the five-step scale of destructive power, says the study. And rainfall up to 60 miles from the core would be nearly 20 percent more intense. full story
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Families of Iraq War Dead
Target Bush in Ads
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Angered by President Bush's policy in Iraq, a group of military families whose relatives died there is targeting the president in new television ads to be aired ahead of the Nov. 2 election. "I think the American people need to know that we have been betrayed in this rush to war," said
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Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey is among the more than 1,000 U.S. troops who died in the war. full story
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Russian Government Advances
Kyoto Protocol Ratification
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Today the Russian government is examining a draft federal law on ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on global climate change, which can come into force only if Russia ratifies. Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov and Alexander Bedritsky, head of the Federal Service for
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Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, will present the Kyoto report to the ministerial meeting, the government press service said. full story
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Canada Rapped On Environment
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Canada spends less on pollution control than other rich countries, has more smog, protects less land and water, and even put a stop to reports that would let the public know what is going on with the environment, according to a bruising assessment from the Organization for
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Economic Co-operation and Development. full story
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Things Are Going Right For These Whales
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There are now more southern right whales gracing the Western Cape coast than at any time in the past 150 years, and an aerial survey starting next week is expected to confirm the steady population recovery of these gentle giants. These whales came close to being completely
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wiped out by whalers during the 18th and 19th centuries.
full story
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Oil Leasing In National Petroleum
Reserve-Alaska Opposed
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More than 215,000 public comments were received by the Bureau of Land Management in opposition to a new draft plan for oil and gas leasing that strips protections for the Teshekpuk Lake area of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, in Alaska's western Arctic. The battle
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between America's need for oil and the right of wildlife to flourish in the wild is joined once again. full story
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Forgotten Bangladesh Suffers The Rains In Silence
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Unicef and the world food programme warn that within six weeks, without rapid medical and food aid, more than a million Bangladeshi children risk acute illness or death through malnutrition. More than 500,000 pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are also seen by aid experts as acutely
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vulnerable. full story
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Study Shows Toxin In Breast Milk
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A toxin found in widely used flame retardants has turned up in 100 percent of nursing mothers tested in Washington and other Northwest states. The study, released yesterday by Seattle-based Northwest Environment Watch, found PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers) in all 40
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breast-milk samples taken from women in Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Montana. PBDEs are found in foam furniture padding and other textiles, as well as the hard plastics used to house electronic equipment, including computers.
full story
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Battle Develops On Farm Pollution Reporting
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Factories and refineries are required by law to tell federal, state and local agencies which toxic chemicals they are releasing and how much. Livestock farms put out emissions, too, including ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, and a court decision could force them to start disclosing
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those emissions - unless Congress intervenes. full story
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Voters In Four Counties To
Consider Anti-biotech Measures
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Four California counties are attempting to pass measures on Nov. 2 that would ban genetically engineered plants and animals from their borders. Supporters of the ban argue that biotech crops poses a risk to human health and the environment - contentions the industry strongly disputes.
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full story
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Effect Of Kyoto Protocol Debated Again
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Russian ratification of the Kyoto Protocol would leave U.S. companies cut off from new markets worth billions of dollars, according to supporters of the treaty aimed at limiting "greenhouse gases." That means American producers of technologies that reduce consumption of fossil fuels will be
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left out of new global markets created by the fact that countries signing the treaty must reduce their outputs of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, supporters said. full story
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Romanians Warn Of
Danube Delta Ecological Disaster
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Romania is turning up the pressure on its eastern neighbor, Ukraine, over plans to build a canal through its section of the Danube Delta, which Romania says poses a serious threat to the wildlife and ecosystem of this unique natural habitat. The project involves dredging an existing
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channel and turning it into a 160 kilometer (100 mile) waterway linking the Black Sea with the Danube. full story
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Kerry And Bush Sharply Divided On
Response To Global Warming
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President George Bush and Sen. John Kerry are sharply at odds on the issue of global warming, which many scientists rank as the greatest environmental challenge of our age. Bush opposes mandatory caps on greenhouse-gas emissions from industrial plants, while Kerry
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backed a failed Senate bill seeking such regulation and fought unsuccessfully to improve the gas efficiency of U.S. automobiles.
full story
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DNA Map To Help Combat Ivory Poaching
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The latest weapon to protect dwindling elephant populations from poachers is a genetic map which can trace the origins of ivory, it emerged today. Using the DNA-based reference map will help conservationists speedily determine poaching levels and could avert a catastrophic
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fall in the animals’ numbers. full story
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Scientists Begin A Campaign
To Oppose President's Policies
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The group, Scientists and Engineers for Change, another addition to the flood of so-called 527 advocacy groups that have filled this year's election discourse, announced its existence and plans yesterday in a telephone news conference. At least 25 scientists will give talks in 10
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contested states. Among the headlining lecturers are 10 Nobel Prize winners. full story
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Poll Finds A Nation Chastened By War
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Three years of the Bush administration's ''war on terrorism'' appears to have reduced the appetite of the U.S. public and its leaders for unilateral military engagements, according to a major survey released Tuesday by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (CCFR). Indeed, the
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survey, the latest in a quadrennial series going back to 1974, found that key national-security principles enunciated by President George W Bush since the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon are opposed by strong majorities of both the public and the elite. full story
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In Court: Bush Rule on Pesticide Harm
To Endangered Species
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Environmentalists have gone to court in a bid to block a Bush administration regulation that allows the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to determine whether new pesticides will jeopardize endangered species without consulting with the federal government's two key wildlife agencies.
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The suit alleges that the rule change violates the Endangered Species Act. full story
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If Japanese Commercial Whalers Don't Kill Them, Noise Pollution Will
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The world's oceans are now so saturated with noise that whales and other marine mammals are dying, biologists say. The UK's Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society is launching a campaign, Oceans of Noise, to tackle what it says is the increasing problem of noise pollution.
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It says key sources of undersea noise are the search for oil and gas, and the use of low-frequency military sonars. full story
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Agencies Postpone Issuing New Rules
Until After Election
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After a case of mad cow disease surfaced in Washington State late last year, federal regulators vowed to move swiftly to adopt rules to reduce the risks of further problems and restore confidence in the nation's meat industry. Some rules were adopted this year. But a few
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weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration, after heavy lobbying from the beef and feed industries, took steps to delay - and to the concern of food safety groups, possibly kill - completion of the most controversial and perhaps most expensive proposal for cattle companies. full story
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US Gov't Accused Of Intervention
In Pollution Case In Indonesia
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A non-governmental organization for health suspected that the US government had interfered in a bay pollution case in Indonesia, according to the chairman of the organization on Monday. Some 100 people living near the Buyat Bay, North Sulawesi, have reportedly contracted the
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Minamata disease, which is caused by mercury poisoning which allegedly resulted from waste dumped by the US gold mining company, PT Newmont Minahasa Raya. full story
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Illegal Indonesian Fish Trade Drives Species
Near To Extinction: Greenpeace
|
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The environmental group said destructive fishing practices, coupled with an unregulated trading network had reduced populations of the Humphead Wrasse or Napolean fish to alarmingly low levels. A study completed by Greenpeace with local ecologists Telepak said
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fishing practices using cyanide to stun the valuable Wrasse had seen levels dwindle so that boats which once caught up to 90 fish a month now catch just one. full story
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Bush Clears Path For Energy Development
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A decade ago this wind-swept swath of country was largely untouched by humans. Today, nearly 500 natural-gas wells dot the Green River Valley, and the Bush administration has called for up to 3,100. The phenomenal gas drilling on this plateau is intruding on the lower 48's longest
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wildlife-migration corridor, a route antelope, moose and elk traverse to escape mountain winters. full story
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How Bush's Grandfather Helped
Hitler's Rise to Power
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George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany. The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives
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that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism. full story
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Oil And Gas Hold The Reins In The Wild West
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The administration's most enduring environmental legacy may lie here in the West, where a series of policy decisions and little-noticed administrative actions have eased development restrictions on millions of acres of federal lands. More than 60 million acres, an area twice the size of Virginia,
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are more vulnerable to logging or drilling as a result of policies that weakened federal restrictions on their development. full story
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Seals Show High Chemical Levels
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Harbor seals in the Gulf of Maine are contaminated with high levels of PCBs, dioxins, DDT, mercury and other pollutants, according to two new studies by a Maine researcher. In some cases, the level of contaminants in the seals' blubber appears to be high enough to affect
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their immune systems, leaving them potentially vulnerable to disease outbreaks. full story
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Hepatitis Outbreak Laid
To Water and Sewage Failures
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A virulent form of hepatitis that is especially lethal for pregnant women has broken out in two of Iraq's most troubled districts, Iraqi Health Ministry officials said in interviews here this week, and they warned that a collapse of water and sewage systems in the continuing violence in
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the country is probably at the root of the outbreak. The disease, called hepatitis E, is caused by a virus that is often spread by sewage-contaminated drinking water. full story
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Air Board's Tough Smog Rules
Defy Auto Industry
|
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The California Air Resources Board, defying the auto industry, voted unanimously Friday to fight global warming by adopting landmark regulations that will reduce tailpipe carbon dioxide emissions. The board's action underscores the growing perception among scientists and the
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public that climate change threatens the health of the planet and that the West Coast might take an especially hard hit. full story
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Illicit or Legal: American
Ivory Market Fuels Poaching
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The first in-depth look at the U.S. ivory market since a global ban on commercial trade in elephant ivory was imposed in 1989 finds an active trade in ivory taking place, especially over the Internet. The study of legal and illegal ivory markets was released Thursday ahead of next
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month’s meeting of 166 governments and numerous NGOs in Bangkok for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species full story
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Groups Sue Over Pesticide Use Rules
|
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Environmental groups went to court yesterday against federal rules that allow the use of new pesticides with fewer checks on how they affect endangered species. "The Endangered Species Act sets up checks and balances, and the key check is the Fish and Wildlife and National
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Marine Fisheries scientists," said Patti Goldman, a Seattle attorney with the law firm Earthjustice, representing the groups. "What the regulations do is abolish that process for most pesticides uses."
full story
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Scientists Report Increased Thinning
Of West Antarctic Glaciers
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Glaciers in West Antarctica are shrinking at a rate substantially higher than observed in the 1990s. They are losing 60 percent more ice into the Amundsen Sea than they accumulate from inland snowfall. For a balanced glacial system, the amount of glacier ice melting or flowing into
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the sea roughly equals the ice formed from snow accumulations further inland. The scientists report the Amundsen Sea glaciers are not in balance. full story
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Global Warming Could Imperil Future Rice Crops
|
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Global warming poses a threat to Japan's future rice crops and thus its food security, a Japanese agricultural research group warned Wednesday. If cultivation methods remain unchanged, the warmer regions of Chugoku and Shikoku in western Japan and Kyushu in the southwest will
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see a rice crop decrease of 15 percent to 18 percent, the group forecasts. The quality of rice may also decline as warmer temperatures shorten the time for rice to ripen. full story
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Russian Ministries Move To
Approve Kyoto Treaty
|
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At least one Russian ministry has signed letters agreeing to Moscow's approval of the Kyoto Protocol, a spokesman said on Thursday in what could be a final step on the long road to bringing the global pact into force. The fate of the treaty, which aims to stabilise emissions of the gases
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which cause global warming, has depended on Russia since Washington pulled out in 2001. full story
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Ecuador's Largest National Park
Opened For Oil Development
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Controversy is raging over oil development activities slated for Ecuador’s largest national park - Yasuni National Park, which protects one of the world’s most megadiverse regions. Jaguars, harpy eagles, caimans and 13 primate species live in this lowland rainforest, the
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ecological treasure of the western Amazon basin. full story
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Basra’s Neglected Waterfront
|
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Groups of teenagers sit in the doorway of a deserted government building overlooking the broad Shatt al-Arab waterway, sipping from cans of beer bought in a backroom store. Along the waterfront, small boats are moored amid floating garbage and sludge formed from leaking
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fuel and oil. Water pipes are broken and leaking. Signs of neglect abound in this southern Iraqi city. full story
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Groups Seek Protection For Prairie Dogs
|
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Conservation groups filed suit Wednesday seeking to prevent federal agencies from beginning a program that would poison and shoot black-tailed prairie dogs on federal land in southwestern South Dakota. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Denver, argues that the new plan
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to reduce the prairie dog population should be blocked because it violates environmental and forest-management laws. full story
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Are Environmental Exemptions For
The U.S. Military Justified?
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Since President George W. Bush came into office, DOD has won exemptions from sections of the laws that protect endangered species, migratory birds, and marine mammals. The department is now trying to win exemptions from laws covering toxic Superfund sites, solid-waste
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management, and clean air. full story
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The Truth About Wild Horses:
A Travesty Of Justice
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To speak of the wild horse living upon the wide open, public domain lands of North America is to speak of one of the continent's most genuinely indigenous, ecologically complementary and magnificent of species. It is also to speak of justice in its highest sense. But the government
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and western ranchers have betrayed the legally protected, wild free-roaming horses and burros upon the public lands. full story
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Global Warming Hits Glaciers
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Glaciers once held up by a floating ice shelf off Antarctica are now sliding into the sea - and they are going fast, scientists said today. Two separate studies from climate researchers and the US space agency NASA show the glaciers are flowing into Antarctica's Weddell Sea, freed
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by the 2002 breakup of the Larsen B ice shelf. Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers said their satellite measurements suggest climate warming could lead to rapid sea level rise. full story
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EPA Wording Found To Mirror Industry's
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For the third time, environmental advocates have discovered passages in the Bush administration's proposal for regulating mercury pollution from power plants that mirror almost word for word portions of memos written by a law firm representing coal-fired power plants. The
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passages state that the Environmental Protection Agency is not required to regulate other hazardous toxins emitted by power plants, such as lead and arsenic. full story
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New Hazardous Chemical Turns Up In Tanks
|
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Traces of a potentially deadly chemical have been detected for the first time in samples from underground waste tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and a citizens watchdog group has raised concerns about worker safety. The chemical, dimethyl mercury, can be inhaled,
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ingested or absorbed through the skin. Depending on the amount and type of exposure, the substance can irritate the eyes, skin and lungs, or result in damage to the central nervous system or even death. full story
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Desperate Darfur Sickens Without Clean Water
|
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Two top United Nations human rights officials have arrived in the shattered Darfur region of Sudan to examine how to shield civilians there from further militia attacks. At the same time, the UN World Health Organization issued new guidelines to ensure the safety of drinking water
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in the Darfur refugee camps. In this arid land on the edge of the Sahara desert, supplying safe water is the greatest challenge.
full story
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U.S. Oceans Commission:
Vulnerable Seas Need Urgent Action
|
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The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy delivered its final report to the White House and the Congress on Monday, calling for lawmakers to seize "an unprecedented opportunity" to revamp and strengthen the nation's commitment and framework for managing the oceans and coastal
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areas. The Commission's work met with praise, but there is broad concern among ocean advocates that its warnings and recommendations will fall victim to politics. full story
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Genes From Engineered Grass Spread For Miles, Study Finds
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A new study shows that genes from genetically engineered grass can spread much farther than previously known, a finding that raises questions about the straying of other plants altered through biotechnology and that could hurt the efforts of two companies to win approval for the first
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bioengineered grass. full story
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High Dam Planned For Nepal's Sapta Koshi River
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Nepal and India are speeding up the process leading to construction of what could be the world's highest dam on the Sapta Koshi River in eastern Nepal. A team of experts from both countries has begun work on a feasibility study of the Sapta Koshi multipurpose project. Some
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Nepali experts warn of earthquake risks, human displacement and loss of biodiversity. full story
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City Children Suffer Serious Lung Damage
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Children in polluted inner cities are five times more likely than those outside to develop weak and damaged lungs - greatly increasing their risk of premature death, researchers have found. Scientists at the University of Southern California discovered that regular exposure to heavy levels
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of air pollution - chiefly from traffic - meant it was extremely likely that city children would grow up with permanent lung damage.
full story
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Teflon Mystery Raises Safety Questions
|
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A chemical used to make Teflon is in the environment and in children's blood, but scientists don't know how it got there. It's been turning up in people and animals worldwide: river otters in Oregon, polar bears in the Canadian Arctic, and in the blood of 96 percent of children tested
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in 23 states. full story
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Natural Disasters 'On The Rise'
|
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The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said the increase in numbers vulnerable to natural shocks was due partly to global warming. It said 254 million people were affected by natural hazards last year - nearly three times as many as in 1990. Events including earthquakes and
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volcanoes, floods and droughts, storms, fires and landslides killed about 83,000 people in 2003, up from about 53,000 deaths 13 years earlier, the ISDR said. full story
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Animals Gone Wild
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For years, research has linked pollution from industrial and agricultural chemicals to physical abnormalities in animals. The chemicals are thought to scramble the ability to send and process hormones and other neuro-chemical signals that control growth and physiology. Now,
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there’s evidence linking these so-called endocrine disrupting chemicals to increased abnormalities in animal behavior. These phenomena are harder to observe than physical deformities, but they could be warning signs of population crashes for many species. full story
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Asia Taking A Hard Look At Green Power
|
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The problem is the high cost of renewable energy projects such as solar, wind, geothermal and biofuels, lack of government incentives and vested interests who believe green power is unviable or a threat to their wallets. "We have to work very hard to convince governments that this
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is something they should focus on," said Samuel Tumiwa, renewable energy specialist at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). full story
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The Return Of Monglia's Wild Horses
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Long absent from the Mongolian steppe, WWF welcomes the arrival of the endangered takhi horse back to its native land. The 12 horses, five male and seven female, bred in a French nature reserve by the Association for Takhi Conservation — arrived on 5 September to their
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new home in the Khomiin Tal steppe. full story
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Appetite For Ivory Kills 4,000 Elephants A Year
|
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More than 4,000 elephants are losing their lives each year to meet the demand for ivory from Africa and Asia, according to a new report published ahead of the upcoming meeting of Parties to the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species. It shows that the volume of
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illegal ivory seizures across the world has increased since 1995. full story
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Funds Sought For Congolese Parks,
Victims Of War
|
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UNESCO World Heritage sites devastated by armed conflicts raging across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are in urgent need of funding for their protection, says the United Nations Foundation. The foundation is supporting UNESCO's efforts to protect
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biodiversity in five Congolese parks that shelter the last remnants of endangered gorillas, chimpanzees, rhinos and okapis.
full story
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The Earth Is Melting, Arctic Native Leader Warns
|
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An Inuit leader offered a passionate plea Wednesday to the U.S. government and its citizens to aggressively combat climate change. The Inuit are already suffering dramatic changes to their Arctic environment from global warming, said Inuit Circumpolar Conference Chair Sheila
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Watt-Cloutier, who described the Inuit struggle as "a snapshot of what is happening to the planet." full story
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Global Warming May Spur Fiercer Hurricanes
|
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As Hurricane Ivan and its powerful winds churned through the Gulf of Mexico, scientists told Congress on Wednesday that global warming could produce stronger and more destructive hurricanes in the future. Global warming will increase the temperature of ocean
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water that fuels hurricanes, leading to stronger winds, heavier rains and larger storm surges, the researchers told the Senate Commerce Committee. full story
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Republicans Blast Bush
For Environmental Policies
|
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Several Republican conservationists criticized the Bush administration Tuesday for weak enforcement of air pollution laws, rollbacks in wetland protection, broken promises on global climate change and a misguided approach to energy. Russell Train, head of the Environmental
|
|
Protection Agency during the Nixon and Ford administrations, called President Bush's environmental policies an "abomination."
full story
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'Corrupt' Zimbabwe Officials
Accused Of Faking Elephant Tally
|
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Senior Zimbabwean officials have inflated the official number of elephants in the country so they can benefit from the ivory trade, a conservationist said yesterday. Johnny Rodrigues of the Zimbabwean Conservation Taskforce said the elephant population had fallen to 60,000 at the
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most, yet the government put the figure at more than 100,000.
full story
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Malaysian Logging Giant Threatens
To Sue Greenpeace Over Report
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Malaysian logging giant has threatened to sue Greenpeace over a report highlighting its alleged destructive record but environmental group vowed it would not back down. "RH is hoping that the threat of litigation will silence its critics. But Greenpeace won't back down, nor will we
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retract any allegations we have made. We're confident our report will hold up in court," said Greenpeace International's legal counsel Jasper Teulings. full story
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9/11 Workers' Suit Claims Toxic Exposure
|
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More than 800 rescue and cleanup workers from Ground Zero have filed the largest post-9/11 class-action lawsuit, contending they were exposed to deadly toxins and not provided with adequate safety equipment. The plaintiffs have been diagnosed with cancer, respiratory illnesses,
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skin lesions and other ailments after being exposed to contaminants like dioxin, asbestos, benzene, polychlorinated biphenyls and lead in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. full story
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Streamside Forests Protect Water Supplies
|
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For some time, scientists and environmental policymakers have recognized the role that riparian forests play in filtering pollutants before they enter the stream. The new research shows, however, that such forests also protect the health of the stream itself by enhancing the ecosystem's
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ability to process organic matter and pollutants such as nitrogen.
full story
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Arctic's Toxic Burden Harms Bears
|
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Evidence that the health of polar bears is being damaged by chemicals has been reinforced by new Arctic research. The findings show biological changes in the hormone and immune systems of the bears are related to the levels of toxic contaminants in their bodies. WWF says
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the chemicals may affect the bears' behaviour and breeding, and make them more vulnerable to infection. full story
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Hydropower Dam In Laos Would Alter Two Rivers
|
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A proposed $1.3 billion dam and hydroelectric power project appears to the government of Laos as a way to earn income by selling power to Thailand. Critics say the ecology of two major river systems in Laos will be altered if the Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Power Project is built,
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crucial documents have not been made public, and the people who would be affected by the dam have never been consulted.
full story
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WSSC Pipes Spewed Sewage
|
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More than 130 million gallons of raw or partially treated sewage have illegally overflowed from Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission pipes into the waterways, streets and basements of suburban Maryland over the past two years, according to agency records. The sewage
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pollutes the Anacostia and Patuxent rivers with human waste and puts nearby residents at increased risk of such life-threatening diseases as cholera and infectious hepatitis. full story
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9/11 Pollution 'Could Cause
More Deaths Than Attack'
|
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Up to 400,000 New Yorkers breathed in the most toxic polluting cloud ever recorded after the twin towers were brought down three years ago, but no proper effort has been made to find out how their health has been affected, according to an official report. The US government study
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provides the latest evidence of a systematic cover-up of the health toll from pollution after the 9/11 disaster, which doctors fear will cause more deaths than the attacks themselves. full story
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Rivers Run Black, And Chinese Die Of Cancer
|
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The stream in Huangmengying is one tiny canal in the Huai River basin, a vast system that has become a grossly polluted waste outlet for thousands of factories in central China. There are 150 million people in the Huai basin, many of them poor farmers now threatened by water
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too toxic to touch, much less drink. full story
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After Hurricane Ivan, Prepare
For The Return Of El Niño
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Disastrous weather is set to continue for at least another six months, it was officially announced yesterday, as Hurricane Ivan headed for the Cayman Islands and Cuba after leaving at least eight people dead in Jamaica. The US government confirmed that a new El Niño is
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about to strike, bringing torrential rain and droughts around the world. full story
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Millions Will Die In Extreme
Climate Change: Scientist
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Millions of people across the globe are set to die early due to extreme weather events such as floods and heat waves caused by climate change, a British scientist said yesterday. "We will experience an increase in extreme weather events," he told reporters at the annual meeting
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of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. "There are predictions of a 10-fold increase in heat waves. full story
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Global Warming And Untreated Sewage
Pose Threat To Coral Reefs
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The dumping of untreated sewage into the sea and global warming are destroying the Gulf's coral reefs, a United Nations report found. "Untreated sewage is a big problem that leads to the loss of coral reefs. "But the other problem really is global warming," said Wolf Hilbertz,
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a Dubai-based German conservationist. full story
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Bay Seabird Has Record Level Of Toxic Chemical
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A fish-eating seabird in San Francisco Bay has the highest concentration of toxic flame retardants found in any wildlife in the world, California scientists reported this week at an international conference. The chemicals, brominated compounds called PBDEs used in
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furniture foam and plastic electronic parts, have been building up at an alarming pace in wildlife and human bodies around the world, particularly in the United States. full story
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Belgian Ship Spills 100 Tons Of Oil
Off Russian Far East
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About 100 metric tons of heavy fuel oil spilled into the ocean off Sakhalin Island in Russia's Far East after a dredging vessel lost power and ran aground during heavy typhoon winds late Wednesday night. The vessel TSHD Cristoforo Colombo, a Belgian flagged ship, was working
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under contract with Sakhalin Energy in the construction of a seabed pipeline. full story
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WWF Announces “10 Most Wanted Species”
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As delegates from 166 countries prepare to head to Bangkok next month for the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), WWF released its biennial list of 10 of the world's most in-demand species bought, sold, smuggled, killed or captured for
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the global marketplace. “Our list this year reflects the varied nature of the modern wildlife trade,” said Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of the WWF Global Species Programme. full story
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Despair In Iraq Over The
Forgotten Victims Of US Invasion
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The US army does not count the number of Iraqis killed since the invasion in March 2003. The most conservative figure for the number dead is 10,000 as calculated by private groups. It is rising every day. The US military claimed that on Tuesday alone it killed "100 militants" in
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air strikes on Fallujah on top of a further 33 people killed in fighting in Sadr City in Baghdad. full story
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Air Pollution Harms Teens, Study Says
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New research shows that teenagers who grow up in heavy air pollution have reduced lung capacity, putting them at risk for illness and premature death as adults. They found about 8 percent of 18-year-olds had lung capacity less than 80 percent of normal, compared with about
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1.5 percent of those in communities with the least pollution.
full story
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Australians Warned Koalas Are Dropping
From Trees Because Of Thirst
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Residents of Australia's drought-ravaged east coast were urged Wednesday to leave buckets of water underneath trees because koalas are dropping dead of thirst. The much-loved marsupials have been found dead under trees or drinking from garden hoses because of lack of
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rain, the international conservation group Australian Koala Foundation warned. full story
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Australia’s Biodiversity Threatened
By Climate Change
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Marking Australia’s National Threatened Species Day today, WWF-Australia warns that climate change may pose one of the biggest threats to species loss, including some of the country’s most iconic inhabitants. “Australia is at risk by even small changes in temperature,” said
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Dr Nicola Markus, WWF-Australia's Species and Community Programme manager. full story
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Dark Future For White Animals In Arctic
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Ideal for an Ice Age, white fur used as camouflage by animals from polar bears to Arctic foxes may be going out of fashion because of global warming. Adding to the disruption of habitats, rising temperatures may simply make white animals too obvious if melting ice and snow
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exposes tracts of dark, bare ground. Many species are under pressure in the Arctic, where scientists say global warming is happening faster than anywhere else on the planet. full story
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Carbon Dioxide Emissions Could Double
In 50 Years, Says Report
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Global carbon dioxide emissions could double by 2050 if energy-saving measures are not universally introduced, an international energy report released in Sydney yesterday shows. The document Energy and Climate Change, released by the World Business Council for Sustainable
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Development at the World Energy Congress, reports on energy trends for the next 46 years. full story
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Research Suggests Unborn Children May Be
At Risk From Environmental Pollution
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New research being presented at a conference opening in London today (Monday 6 September) shows that harmful environmental agents can cross the placenta to reach the developing foetus. The incidence of childhood leukaemia in Britain has increased dramatically
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during the last century. This increase has mainly affected the under five age group, in whom the risk increased by more than 50 per cent in the second half of the century alone. full story
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Virus Takes Steep Toll On Birds
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Although the fight against the West Nile virus has focused mainly on the risk to humans, state officials and wildlife experts said the disease could ultimately take its biggest toll on California's bird population, where estimates put the deaths at 50,000 and rising. Officials are
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trying to develop an accurate tally of the losses while also making sure that endangered birds, including the California condor, are vaccinated against the virus. full story
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EU Sues Britain Over Failure To
Clean Up Nuclear Waste
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The Government is facing unprecedented legal action over the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria after a decision by the European Commission to take Britain to court over its failure to clean up more than a ton of dangerous radioactive waste. There has been international
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friction for years over the handling of a tank containing plutonium and uranium, some of which dates from the 1950s. full story
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Pollution Triggers Bizarre Behaviour In Animals
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Hyperactive fish, stupid frogs, fearless mice and seagulls that fall over. It sounds like a weird animal circus, but this is no freak show. Animals around the world are increasingly behaving in bizarre ways, and the cause is environmental pollution. The chemicals to blame are known
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as endocrine disruptors, and range from heavy metals such as lead to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and additives such as bisphenol A. full story
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Toxins In Food Supply Signal Need For Change
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"Higher levels of flame retardants found in farmed salmon" read the headlines a few weeks ago. While the news raised questions about the safety of eating farmed fish, the bigger question might be: why the heck are there flame retardants in salmon at all? And farmed salmon aren't the
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only contaminated fish. According to recent figures released by the EPA 1/3 of all lakes in the United States and 1/4 of all rivers are contaminated with mercury or other pollutants to the point that people should not eat fish caught from them. full story
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A Voracious Earth
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It's the region of the world that leaves the biggest human footprint. It gobbles up 80 percent of the crop and other plant resources it produces each year. If things don't change, its ecological survival looks iffy. It's a swath of Asia that sweeps from India to China. And it leads to a startling
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question: If these areas of the world are nearing an ecological budget deficit, can they sustain their growth much longer?
full story
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Seattle Study Of Chernobyl Finds
Thyroid Cancer Link
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Seattle scientists studying cancer rates among the victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion have found the first direct link between thyroid cancer risk and individual radiation exposures. Dr. Scott Davis, an epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center,
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led a team of researchers in performing an analysis of thyroid cancer rates among Ukrainians who lived and worked near the site of the world's worst nuclear accident. full story
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Appalachian Trail Vulnerable To New Forest Rules, Environmental Group Claims
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About one of every 13 miles of the Appalachian Trail between Maine and Georgia passes through national forests where a Bush administration plan could allow clear cutting of wooded areas, an environmental group said Tuesday. The Campaign to Protect America's Lands said it
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found that 163 of the popular trail's 2,174 miles fall within the 58 million acres where the Bush administration proposed lifting a ban on logging, road-building and other development. full story
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Technology Already Exists
To Stabilize Climate, Say Experts
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Existing technologies could stop the escalation of global warming for 50 years, and work on implementing them can begin immediately, according to an analysis by Princeton University scientists. The scientists identified 15 technologies — from wind, solar, and nuclear
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energy to conservation techniques — that are ripe for large-scale use and showed that each could solve a significant portion of the problem. full story
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Billion-dollar Asian Reef Fish
Industry In Peril
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An insatiable appetite for live reef fish in Asian restaurants is ravaging aquatic stocks in Indonesia, damaging reefs, and threatening the sustainability of a $1 billion industry in the region, a conservation group said. The use of toxic cyanide and hooks to catch the fish could
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exhaust Indonesian waters of the most valuable species in three years, said Peter Mous of the U.S.-based Nature Conservancy. full story
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