LONDON, Aug. 22, 2016 – The ecological and carbon cost of rainforest destruction goes on accumulating for years after nations halt the conversion of canopy into farmland, scientists have found. This implies that to meet ambitious targets, global strategies to combat climate change – including forest restoration – should have started years ago. Tropical forests […]
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Bosnian pine growing in northern Greece is more than 1075 years-old, the oldest known living tree in Europe
Aug. 22, 2016 – Bosnian pine (Pinus heldreichii) growing in the highlands of northern Greece has been dendrocronologically dated to be more than 1075 years old. This makes it currently the oldest known living tree in Europe. The millenium old pine was discovered by scientists from Stockholm University (Sweden), the University of Mainz (Germany) and […]
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Report chronicles vandalism and reckless off-road damage to Nevada’s Gold Butte region
Aug. 19, 2016 – A new report documents damage to Nevada’s Gold Butte area, including extensive vandalism of historic and cultural sites and reckless off-road vehicle use. Released on Aug. 18, the report documents the most recent disturbances of sensitive wildlife habitat and historical and cultural sites in an area long in need of permanent […]
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Exxon killed the reef: Coastal communities point at fossil fuel industry for killing the world’s coral reefs
Aug. 17, 2016 – Divers from coastal communities around the world wrapped crime-scene tape around dead coral reefs during a series of underwater dives to highlight the catastrophic damage to this valuable ecosystem and the culpability of the fossil fuel industry for its loss. A series of underwater photographs collected from Samoa, the Australian Great […]
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Park Service Pours Bucket of Mush on Effigy Mounds Scandal
WASHINGTON, DC, Aug. 15, 2016 – The National Park Service has exonerated all of its current employees from blame for the largest official mass desecration of Indian pre-historic burial sites in history, according to an agency report posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and Friends of Effigy Mounds. Despite years in preparation, […]
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Ecosystems in the Southeastern U.S. Are Vulnerable to Climate Change
August 15, 2016 – At least several southeastern U.S. ecosystems are highly vulnerable to the impacts of present and future climate change, according to two new USGS reports on research conducted by scientists with Interior Department’s Southeast Climate Science Center. At-risk ecosystems occur in states ranging from Texas to Florida, Virginia to Georgia as well […]
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Local Groups File Challenge to Protect Sunset Beach and Bird Island
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. August 11, 2016 – On behalf of the Sunset Beach Taxpayers Association and North Carolina Coastal Federation, the Southern Environmental Law Center today filed its challenge in the state Office of Administrative Hearings to North Carolina’s permit for a private developer to bulldoze 15 acres of protective dunes along the Sunset Beach, […]
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Historically robust natural ecosystems could collapse due to climate change and human activity
Aug. 11, 2016 – Global change will strike the oldest and most complex ecosystems of the world hardest, regardless of their past stability. This alarming finding is reported in a JRC-led article published in Nature Communications today. The authors hypothesised that invasive species, the warming climate and environmental degradation have altered natural habitats so deeply […]
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Guns, nets, and bulldozers: Three-quarters of the world’s threatened species are imperiled from agriculture, land conversion, overharvesting
NEW YORK, Aug. 11, 2016 – Less than a month away from the kick-off the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawaii, a team of scientists report in the journal Nature that three quarters of the world’s threatened species are imperiled because people are converting their habitat into agricultural lands and overharvesting their populations. The team, […]
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Crude oil causes heart and skull deformities in haddock
Aug. 10, 2016 – Even brief exposures of the eggs of Atlantic haddock to low concentrations of dispersed crude oil can cause severe and usually deadly deformities in developing fish, an international research team has found. The findings indicate that oil spills at high latitudes could have serious impacts on some of the world’s most […]
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Climate change already accelerating sea level rise, study finds
BOULDER, Colo. Aug. 10, 2016 — Greenhouse gases are already having an accelerating effect on sea level rise, but the impact has so far been masked by the cataclysmic 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, according to a new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Satellite observations, which began […]
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August 8th is Earth Overshoot Day this year
OAKLAND, Calif. AUGUST 8, 2016 – By August 8, humanity will have used up nature’s budget for the entire year, according to data from Global Footprint Network, an international research organization that is changing how the world manages its natural resources and responds to climate change. Earth Overshoot Day, falling on 8 August this year, […]
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Megadam in the heart of Amazon is cancelled
BRASILIA, Brazil, Aug. 4, 2016 – Today the Brazilian environmental agency, IBAMA, announced the licensing process to build the São Luiz do Tapajós (SLT), a giant dam planned for one of the last major free flowing rivers in the Brazilian Amazon, has been cancelled. Without the license, the approval process for the megadam cannot move […]
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Melting ice sheet could release frozen Cold War-era waste
Aug. 4, 2016 – Camp Century, a U.S. military base built within the Greenland Ice Sheet in 1959, doubled as a top-secret site for testing the feasibility of deploying nuclear missiles from the Arctic during the Cold War. When the camp was decommissioned in 1967, its infrastructure and waste were abandoned under the assumption they […]
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Princeton-UCLA study finds gray wolves should remain protected
August 1, 2016 – Researchers from Princeton University and the University of California-Los Angeles who investigated the genetic ancestry of North America’s wild canines have concluded that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s scientific arguments for removing gray wolves from endangered species protection are incorrect. The study, which contradicts conventional thinking, finds that all of the […]
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Abundant and diverse ecosystem found in area targeted for deep-sea mining
July 31, 2016 – In a study published in Scientific Reports, scientists discovered impressive abundance and diversity among the creatures living on the seafloor in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ)–an area in the equatorial Pacific Ocean being targeted for deep-sea mining. The study, lead authored by Diva Amon, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Hawai’i at […]
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Rice crops that can save farmers money and cut pollution
July 31, 2016 – A new U of T Scarborough study has identified “superstar” varieties of rice that can reduce fertilizer loss and cut down on environmental pollution in the process. The study, authored by U of T Scarborough Professor Herbert Kronzucker in collaboration with a team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, looked at 19 […]
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Army Corps Recommends Denial of Essential Permit for Rosemont Mine in Arizona
TUCSON, AZ, July 29, 2016 – In an important development in the effort to save America’s only known jaguar, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Los Angeles regional office has recommended denial of an essential permit for the proposed Rosemont copper mine in southern Arizona. The denial recommendation was forwarded this week to the Corps’ […]