This blog generally features less than cheery news on the environment/species loss/global warming front, mainly because there isn’t a hell of a lot positive to report. So we wanted to pass along a wee positive development about wee creatures, namely frogs. As readers may know, frog populations have been falling, and one of the culprits […]
Read more...A report by the World Conservation Society reports that one third of the world’s primates are under threat of extinction due to habitat loss and being hunted for food and use in medicines. Twenty-five species are particularly imperiled. As the BBC tells us: The report focuses on the fate of the world’s 25 most endangered […]
Read more...Human activity has led to a considerable loss of species, and more is in the offing. But what is particularly alarming is that the scientists quoted in the Associated Press and on the BBC today see it coming in mere decades. The discovery is that hotter, wetter periods on this planet are associated with a […]
Read more...More disheartening news on the global warming front: Arctic walruses have moved from their customary ice sheet habitat to the rocky Alaskan Northwest coast, raising fears that their new foraging grounds won’t provide sufficient food. From the Associated Press viaPnysOrg: Thousands of walrus have appeared on Alaska’s northwest coast in what conservationists are calling a […]
Read more...In case you haven’t been following this story, the Tasmanian Devil population has been ravaged by a contagious tumor. As a BBC report earlier this year explained: Devil facial tumor disease (DFTDA) was first documented by a wildlife photographer in 1996. The animals have powerful jaws able to crunch through the bones of much larger […]
Read more...The BBC and Reuters (via the New York Times) have stories on the latest report by the World Conservation Union, which is believed to be the largest, most comprehensive assessment of plants and animals. The BBC article adopts a tone of concern, while the Reuters version is anodyne. According to the World Conservation Union, nearly […]
Read more...Periodically, the Earth has experienced significant species die-offs. While the so-called K-T extinction, which marked the end of the dinosaur age, has been attributed to an asteroid crash, other declines remain something of a mystery. An article in Science magazine, summarized on its website, recounts a study by researchers from the University of Kansas in […]
Read more...Researchers have found that spring is arriving in the polar regions considerably earlier, and they anticipate that the long-term effect will be that species from warmer climates will establish themselves further north, competing with and in some cases crowding out now-native flora and fauna. From the BBC: Spring in the Arctic is arriving “weeks earlier” […]
Read more...I figure readers would like to hear good news now and again. From PhysOrg: In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, three cubs are seen near their mother at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. (AP) — Eighty-four Siberian tigers, among the world’s rarest animals, have been […]
Read more...The sudden disappearance of bees from many colonies is arguably the most underreported environmental story. Varroa mites have devastated the feral bee population, and as a result, one-third of the crops in the US depend on commercial beekeeping operations (meaning bees are brought in to a farm solely for the purpose of fertilizing its crops). […]
Read more...Ever since we learned that the perilous state of the oceans is a top 25 underreported story, we decided to our bit to rectify that by giving articles on the state of the seas more prominence. At current fishing rates, fish stocks will collapse by 2050. But why hasn’t the invisible hand interceded? If fish […]
Read more...To clarify: this list of “censored,” meaning seriously underreported, articles is for 2007 and covers stories from roughly July 2005 through June 2006. I call you attention to it primarily because it’s important, but secondarily, because we actually discussed a few on this blog (they appear to continue to be underreported), despite the fact that […]
Read more...In an underreported story (no mention in the Financial Times or the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal reference was in its energy blog, far from prime time), the United Nations said in essence that biofuels could create as many problems, via environmental damage and higher food prices, as they solve. It also […]
Read more...The third installment of this year’s series of reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is out, this one focusing on the level of corrective measures needed to counteract climate change and their likely cost. As we reported earlier (“Third IPCC Report: Compromised on Arrival“), each successive report is more and more politicized. This […]
Read more...Larry Summers, in a Financial Times comment “We need to bring climate idealism down to earth“, takes up “the best is the enemy of the good” theme as it applies to global warming. He argues that the Kyoto accords haven’t accomplished much because neither the targets nor the penalties are binding, that carbon markets run […]
Read more...