IAN'S NEWS DIGEST

The aim of this page is to provide interesting news articles for others, who do not have the time for news browsing. ----------------
If you can't get the page, put the headline into http://Google.com.au/ - they may have the item cached

This site also is intended to provide an archive of environmental headlines that attracted my attention.

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UPDATED - LATEST NEWS ON C2NN – MY NEWS

The bipartisan consensus on U.S. military spending
US military spending exceeds the rest of the world's spending combined, and we spend almost 10 times what the second-place country, China, spends.
The US military budget was almost 29 times as large as the combined spending of the six "rogue" states (Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria) who spent $14.65 billion. [graphs & tables]

Monday 14 January 2008Antarctic is losing ice 'nearly twice as fast as ten years ago'
The most extensive ice loss was found to be taking place in west Antarctica, where an estimated 132 billion tonnes disappeared in 2006. The annual loss increased by about 49 billion tonnes more than in 1996, when about 83 billion tonnes was calculated to have slipped into the water, mainly as icebergs.
Loss of ice on Antarctica has the potential to be the biggest cause of rising sea levels in coming decades. If it all melted, which scientists consider highly unlikely by 2100, it is estimated that sea level would rise 61-65 metres, compared with 7 metres if all of Greenland's glaciers were to melt.
Terri Irwin gives more than $1 million to tag, track and research endangered whale
The research will span several oceans in both the northern and southern hemisphere, and should continue into 2009, Mate said. Researchers will identify the migratory routes, range and critical habitat of humpback whales and blue whales, which will be the primary species studied.
A grave issue of elephants, mahouts
During the Oct 05'-March 06' festival season, a shocking 216 captive elephants and 54 mahouts were killed.
Last season was no less shocking. 152 elephants died of torture and 68 mahouts were gored or crushed to death.
Air Pollution Shrinks Fetus Size, Study Suggests
The study compared the foetus sizes of more than 15,000 ultrasound scans in Brisbane to air pollution levels within a 14km radius of the city.
39 Repuplican Senators push to allow guns in national parks
U.S senators are pushing the Bush administration to allow gun owners to carry firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges.
Garrett's vision not quite in the bag just yet
The Productivity Commission concluded in 2006 that options for curbing the use of bags involved greater costs than benefits. The commission found that only 0.8 per cent of bags became litter, bags made up only 0.2 per cent of solid waste landfill and there was no evidence bags killed a claimed 100,000 birds, whales, turtles and seals each year.
Clean-up Australia says 784,000 barrels of oil are burnt each year to produce the 3.76 billion bags used in Australia. Others argue that the bags are made from petrochemical waste that would simply be dumped if it wasn't used for plastic.
No justification for 'awful' whale killing
Mike Donoghue, New Zealand's scientific whaling adviser to the International Whaling Commission, said minimal data had been collected from Japan's whaling programme that was useful for learning more about whales.
Coal-power row rages as post-heat storms hit
THE State Government has conceded that new brown coal power plants are inevitable for Victoria, while hot weather caused electricity use to surge for a second day running.
How Green is a Mini?
The models of Tata Motors' People's Car to roll off the company's assembly will get about 20 kilometers per liter of gasoline and meet stringent European emissions standards that have yet to be adopted in India.
Evolution Of The Sexes: What A Fungus Can Tell Us
Fungi don't exactly come in boy and girl varieties, but they do have sex differences. A new finding contains clues to how the sexes evolved in higher animals, including that distant cousin of fungus, the human.
Venezuela Distribute Oil To U.S. Services
The CITGO-Venezuela Heating Oil Program will provide an estimated 112 million gallons of fuel this winter to be distributed in more than 224,000 households and 250 social service providers in 23 states.
Satellite imagery paints picture of New Britain’s disappearing forest birds
An eighth of lowland forest on the island –a stronghold for a number of birds found nowhere else on Earth- disappeared between 1989 and 2000, largely driven by a rapid and uncontrolled expansion in global demand for palm oil.
As arctic ice melts, South Pole ice grows
Scientists are puzzled, but the phenomenon seems to fit the latest global-warming models.
Where humans live, coral fails - study
Focusing on corals, fishes and macroalgae, or seaweed, in 322 sites across 13 countries in the Caribbean, the study matched environmental and ecological data against patterns of human population density, coastal development and agricultural land use.
A fifth of the world's marine reefs have already been destroyed and half are threatened because of human impact, whether directly or as a consequence of rising temperatures driven by climate change.
Biotech firm plans to fund GM rice crops with carbon credits
Arcadia Biosciences is working with the Chinese government to reward farmers in China that grow the firm's genetically modified (GM) rice, with carbon credits that they can sell for cash.
Canadian seal industry faces 'crisis' because of import bans, sealers told
"Unfortunately, the animal rights organizations around the world have come to realize that the easiest way to kill something - for maybe lack of a better term - is to kill the market,"
"One thing I can tell you is that if fur is not fashionable on the runways of Paris and Milan, it's not going to be fashionable anywhere,"
Nature Overrun
There are now nine million off-road vehicles, meaning all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes (snowmobiles are a separate category). And their owners, with little resistance from the authorities that ought to be policing them, are transforming some of America's most sensitive public lands into their personal playgrounds.
Global warming and the world's low-lying countries
"We are suffering two kinds of damage. One is from higher sea water levels that erode our coastlines. The other is from sea water penetrating the atolls, contaminating our wells and farmland and sometime even rising up through the floors of our homes. Sometimes it just appears and we have to rush around moving ourselves and our possessions to safety."
The Long Shadow of Chernobyl
Today the fiercely radioactive remnants of reactor four continue to smoulder beneath the so-called sarcophagus, a decaying concrete-and-steel crypt, hastily built after the accident, that now threatens to collapse.
Protesters take bay dredging project to court
Deepening the shipping channels will allow vessels with a 14m draught to enter Melbourne on all tides up from a maximum of 12.1m.
Study holds new promise for patients recovering from spinal injuries
For the first time, a UCLA study shows that the central nervous system can reorganize itself and follow new pathways to restore the cellular communication required for movement.
Water company resists metering, but councils keen
The Chairman of Hobart Water says there is no need to introduce water meters.
Reversal Of Alzheimer's Symptoms Within Minutes In Human Study
An extraordinary new scientific study, which for the first time documents marked improvement in Alzheimer's disease within minutes of administration of a therapeutic molecule, has just been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.
Air force plane 'ready in two hours'
The Defence Force has scotched Government suggestions that the air force is incapable of monitoring Japanese whaling operations in the Antarctic.
James Hansen and Mark Bowen on Censored Science
James Hansen has been widely described as NASA's leading climate scientist; he's been studying the topic for more than three decades, and he began speaking publicly about the threat of global warming almost 20 years ago. LISTEN
Wednesday 9 January 2008Poisoning Migratory Birds Costs Colorado Man $60,000
Ravenkamp admitted that he applied the insecticide carbofuran on the surface of the field, instead of below the surface, as he knew it was intended to be used.
As a result, more than 2,200 migratory birds, including mourning doves, horned larks, western meadowlarks, red-winged blackbirds and common grackles, died after ingesting the carbofuran, which is known to be highly toxic to birds.
Paper giant illegally clearing Indonesian forests
JAKARTA (AFP) - Rare elephants, tigers and orangutans are under threat from illegal land clearing on Indonesia's Sumatra island by one of Asia's biggest pulp and paper companies
Will nations build on climate-change momentum of 2007?
The Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period started Jan 1, which runs until 2012. Current projections suggest the countries taking part will collectively achieve the protocol's goal of reducing emissions to levels more than 5 percent below 1990 levels.
Fish and Wildlife Service suspicious delay of decision on polar bear threatened status
Federal officials said yesterday that they will need a few more weeks to decide whether polar bears need protection under the Endangered Species Act because of global warming.
Farmers blockade planned over Lake Mokoan
Two hundred people attended a meeting last night to discuss the plan to drain the lake and replace it with irrigation pipes and wetlands.
Forest protester arrested
A protester has been forcibly removed from a blockade in the Weld Valley and charged by police.
The woman was sitting atop a large tripod blocking a major access road in protest over plans to build a logging access bridge over the Weld River.
Transport emissions study 'misleading' say experts
The warming effect of road transport, say the researchers, has been twice that of emissions produced by the airline industry. They also say that since the late 1800s shipping emissions  appear to have cooled global temperatures roughly as much as aviation has warmed it.appear to have cooled global temperatures roughly as much as aviation has warmed it.
Prairie grass revives hopes for biofuels
About 12 million hectares, or around 1% of the world's fields, are already devoted to growing biofuels, and this figure is set to grow.
Whale monitoring ship leaves port
The icebreaker Oceanic Viking, used for customs and fisheries policing, left a naval base near Perth in darkness to find and track the Japanese fleet in the Southern Ocean for up to 20 days
Environmental activists 'committed' to protecting Weld forest
Protesters in the Weld Valley in southern Tasmania say they are willing to stay indefinitely.
Greens want frigates to monitor whaling fray
The Green Party wants the NZ Government to send navy frigates into the Southern Ocean in case there are clashes between Japanese whalers and protest ships.
Healthy 'restaurant' boosts rare vultures in Nepal
The number of rare vultures in one of Nepal's conservation sites has nearly doubled after a special feeding facility started serving "drug-free"
Tiger reserve shrinks
The only tiger project in Andhra Pradesh, Nagarjuna-Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR) which lost about 40 big cats in the past 20 years, has now been forced to surrender over 1,000 sq km of its territory, all under legal cover. It was formed in 1978.
Hector's dolphin deaths up in 2007
Department of Conservation figures showed 25 hector's dolphins, which are an endangered species, were found dead in 2007, up from 15 in 2006.
Environmental groups file suit against Shell Oil
The lawsuit claims that Shell has repeatedly violated the Clean Air Act at its Deer Park oil refinery and chemical plant, resulting in the release of millions of pounds of excess air pollutants over the past five years, including cancer-causing chemicals such as benzene and 1,3-butadiene.
Healing Value Of Magnets Demonstrated In Biomedical Engineering Study
A recent study demonstrates that the use of an acute, localized static magnetic field of moderate strength can result in significant reduction of swelling when applied immediately after an inflammatory injury.
Tom Cruise spends $1 mil a year...on fuel
Your favorite Scientologist is worth an absurd amount of money (some say up to $250 million). That, in itself, isn't all that surprising. However I was shocked to learn that every year he spends $1 million of that fortune -- on fuel.
Whaling aerial surveillance delayed
Australia's air safety regulator cannot say how long it will take to approve plans for aerial surveillance of Japan's whaling fleet.
Universal flu jab works in people
Human trials suggest a single jab could give lifelong protection against all types of flu.
A global turning point
The world is changing profoundly and $100 oil is a symptom and a cause. As in the 1970s, a huge transfer of wealth is happening from oil consuming nations to the producers.
Saturday 5 January 2008Why the era of cheap food is over
Two major trends have been pushing prices up faster than they have risen for more than 30 years. One is that increasingly prosperous consumers in India and China are not only eating more food but eating more meat. Animals have to be fed (grains, usually) before they are butchered. The other is that more and more crops – from corn to palm nuts – are being used to make biofuels instead of feeding people.
The WFP has been making a big effort to buy food from countries as near as possible to crisis zones, to cut transport costs, and in 2007 it had 15 million fewer people to feed than in 2006 because there were fewer major emergencies.
"But we are now about as tight as we can get, so unless donations go up there is no doubt about it, we will have to reconsider who we are feeding and the rations" "There is no other way around it."
Burning biofuels may be worse than coal and oil
In a study of 26 biofuels the Swiss method showed that 21 fuels reduced greenhouse-gas emissions by more than 30% compared with gasoline when burned. But almost half of the biofuels, a total of 12, had greater total environmental impacts than fossil fuels. These included economically-significant fuels such as US corn ethanol, Brazilian sugar cane ethanol and soy diesel, and Malaysian palm-oil diesel. Biofuels that fared best were those produced from waste products such as recycled cooking oil, as well as ethanol from grass or wood.
'No Surprise' Whaling Spy Ship Still in Port
The Australian Government said it would send Fisheries ship Oceanic Viking to Antarctic waters to photograph Japanese whaling operations, but the ship remains docked in Western Australia.
Judge Tells Navy To Reduce Sonar Impact
The preliminary injunction issued Thursday requires the Navy to create a 12-nautical-mile no-sonar zone along the coast and have trained lookouts watch for marine mammals before and during exercises. Sonar should be shut down when mammals are spotted within 2,200 yards.
Minister waiting on duck advice
Tasmania's Primary Industries Minister will allow this year's duck hunting season to go ahead despite a reported decline in duck numbers.
$90,000 to fix whale protest boat
Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson was thrilled to have his campaign back on track, but is bracing himself for the bill.
Uranium Cuts a Tragic Path
Uranium has been a dual presence in Navajo life, as well, first providing jobs in the late 1930s and early 40s, when the people were starving and the economic outlook bleak – and now today, having left in its wake a trail of death, disease and heartbreaking loss, as the Navajo Nation copes with the ravages of uranium mining.
Off South Korea's west coast: Oil spill threatens bird pit stop
It would not be possible to tally the death toll until the surviving birds returned to Australia
Fine for Burning Down Eden's Forests: 11 Cents
Madagascar's unique wildlife, which was only discovered by humans 2,000 years ago, has prompted many to refer to the island as an Eden-like remnant of the natural world as it was before human contact.
Farmers routinely start fires, and these fires consume nearly 2,000 square miles every year – nearly 1% of the land area of the island. Since 1953, the world's largest island has lost about half its tropical forests, leading to the extinction of several unique species; at least one study has predicted that half the island's plant and animal species face extinction due to deforestation.
Las Vegas plans big with the first ever 30-story vertical farm
This productive farm hopes to feed 72,000 stomachs and also become the latest tourist attraction of the already much loved city. The project cost estimated initially is of about $200 million dollars.
Flying sheep: Biologists begin moving 55 bighorns from Antelope Island
When California bighorn sheep were brought to this 28,022-acre Great Salt Lake Island in 1997, biologists hoped the herd would not only provide a special wildlife viewing experience for visitors but create a nursery to raise sheep that could be transplanted to other parts of the state.
Alaska oil exploration to begin
Ecologists say any further exploration could have a major impact on marine life, with polar bears one of the hardest-hit species.
British wildlife in steep decline as man-made activities take their toll
Several of Britain's best-known animal species, ranging from the hedgehog to the harbour seal, are now suffering declines that require serious conservation action, according to a comprehensive report on the status of British mammals.
Accountant's boost-to grouse numbers
Andrew Norman, who owns 65-acre Thimbleby Hill Farm near Stanhope, has won a Forestry Commission grant to create a winter refuge and feeding area for the endangered bird.
Working with forest chiefs, he’s planted a four-acre woodland designed root and branch with Black grouse in mind, including “built-in” open spaces, long grass and widely planted native trees such as birch, rowan and hawthorne.
Portland's Grease Wars: Battling for Biodiesel-Bound Cooking Oil
Recycled grease represents a source of cheap energy to some, one that can be converted to biodiesel or used directly as a substitute for diesel fuel. Having collected waste oil for both of these ends, I can tell you I've always had a nagging suspicion that one day the 'free' ride would come to a screeching halt. It just wasn't clear how soon it would end.
Eastern rattlesnakes, other native species pushed to edge of extinction
Of the 14 native species of snakes in Massachusetts, the timber rattlesnake, the Eastern rat snake and the copperhead are listed as endangered. The Eastern worm snake is listed as threatened and the Eastern hognose snake is of concern, according to Mr. French.
Evolution education is a 'must' says coalition of science group
"The bottom line is that the world is round, humans evolved from an extinct species, and Elvis is dead. This survey is a wake-up call for anyone who supports teaching information based on evidence rather than speculation or hope; people want to hear the truth, and they want to hear it from scientists."
Queensland: Living Fossil Under Threat By Massive Dam Proposals
Runaway dam developments in South East Queensland are likely to disrupt the habitat of the Australian lungfish, the Mary River turtle and the Mary River cod. All species are listed as endangered.
Company aims to turn stinky diapers into diesel fuel
The initial plan is to convert about 30,000 tonnes of diapers, about one-quarter of the diapers that end up in landfills in Quebec yearly. Piciacchia says that number of diapers will translate into about 11,000 tonnes of diesel fuel. The preliminary economic analysis pegs the cost of the fuel at 50 cents per litre.
UK seen giving green light to new nuclear plants
The UK public is divided on the issue, with 44 percent saying companies should have the option of investing in new nuclear and 37 percent disagreeing.
Commercial Whaling given Unofficial nod by US-Japan deal
U.S. Whaling Commissioner and retiring head of the US Fisheries Agency, Bill (William) Hogarth brokered a deal whereby Japan would refrain from hunting humpback whales for the next year or two on the condition that the International Whaling Commission is reformed or "normalised" - returned to its 1946 purpose of management of whale stocks for commercial exploitation.
Boric Acid - The Best Roach Killer?
Boric acid was first registered as an insecticide in 1948 by the EPA for control of cockroaches, termites, fire ants, fleas, silverfish, and many other insects. [2] It acts as a stomach poison affecting the insects' metabolism, and the dry powder is abrasive to the insects' exoskeleton.
Boric acid may be used either in an insect bait formulation containing a feed attractant or as a dry powder. The powder may be injected into cracks and crevices, where it forms a fine layer of dust. Insects travel through the boric acid dust, which adheres to their legs. When the insects groom themselves, they then ingest the poison, which causes death three to ten days later of starvation and dehydration.
Your Stuff: If It Isn't Grown, It Must Be Mined
Where does your stuff come from? Before the store, before the factory, where did it really begin? If it isn't made of wood, cloth, or other living matter, it was dug out of the ground.
To maintain our standard of living, each person in the United States requires over 48,000 pounds of minerals each year:
Anti-Alzheimer's Mechanism In Omega-3 Fatty Acids Found
The plaques are deposits of a protein called beta amyloid that is thought to be toxic to neurons in the brain, leading to Alzheimer's. Since having high levels of LR11 prevents the toxic plaques from being made, low levels in patients are believed to be a factor in causing the disease.
Tuesday 1 January 2008Top 10 global warming science stories of 2007

Bush Administration Plans to Remove Protection from Colorado's National Forests
The proposal would completely remove roadless protections from approximately 300,000 acres of wild forestlands, and weaken them for the remaining 4.1 million acres. The announcement follows on the heels of last week's similar announcement that the Forest Service will begin consideration of a plan to open millions of roadless acres in Idaho to industrial development and road building.
Beasts in Blue Berets
"We are not going to achieve a new world order without paying for it in blood as well as in words and money," warned Arthur Schlesinger Jr. in the July/August 1995 issue of Foreign Affairs. Schlesinger had taken to the pages of the flagship journal of the Council on Foreign Relations to vindicate the dubious proposition that the United Nations military represents the thin blue line dividing peaceful civilization from savagery — in short, our planetary police. But what happens when the planetary police run amok and become the agents of bloodshed? When local police abuse their power, the abused have avenues of redress. From what body can those abused by the planetary police seek justice? The escalating scandal of unpunished atrocities committed by UN "peacekeepers" illustrates that the planetary police are beyond accountability.
A shameful episode
DAVID Hicks will leave Yatala prison today, ending more than six years of incarceration since he was captured by the Northern Alliance and handed over to United States military authorities in Afghanistan in November 2001. His transition provides an opportune moment to reflect on selected aspects of this sordid episode of our recent national experience.
$1 Dollar a Watt Solar
The US Department of Energy says a new coal plant costs about $2.10 per watt plus the cost of fuel and the cost of damaging emissions. There is no fuel cost with solar energy, nor any direct damage to the world.
Possible Fix For Global Warming?
A reactor with 1.25 million square meters of algae screens could be up and running by 2010.
Endangered dugongs found dead in Abu Dhabi
"This discovery clearly demonstrates once again the vulnerability of these majestic animals to human threats. We call on the community once again to help support our efforts in protecting this endangered treasure,"
Nuclear Plants Raise Leukaemia Threat
Germany: Data collected between 1980 and 2003, listed 77 cases of children suffering from cancer, including 37 cases of leukaemia, in regions around nuclear power plants. The national average for similarly sized groups is 48 cancer cases, and 17 of leukaemia. That indicates twice as many cases of leukaemia among children living near nuclear power plants
Deep-sea Species' Loss Could Lead To Oceans' Collapse
"For the first time, we have demonstrated that deep-sea ecosystem functioning is closely dependent upon the number of species inhabiting the ocean floor,"
Attenborough calls for action on climate change
“To achieve an agreement in which the world promises, effectively, to lower our standards of living, is a very difficult thing to do, and of course a lot of people are outraged,”
A plea for population control to save the Earth
Last year the U.S. population topped 300 million, just 39 years after surpassing the 200 million mark. During those four decades Earth's population doubled, increasing from 3 billion to over 6 billion.
Opposition stirring against new reactors
Texas anti-nuclear activists are rallying their forces to challenge the so-called nuclear renaissance that could see the state become home to the country's first new nuclear power plant project in nearly 30 years.
Solar technology is going mainstream
The Olivers say they're ecstatic to be escaping power bills that had soared to almost $400 a month. The panels contain a relatively new technology for the home called "photovoltaic cells," which convert direct sunlight into electricity. With the installation complete, their latest monthly bill totaled just $1.34.
All-Electric, Solar-Powered, Free Bus!!!
Adelaide, Australia, has become the home for an all-electric city bus, the Tindo. The icing on the cake: The Tindo (aboriginal word for sun) will get its electricity from a $AU550,000 solar PV system on Adelaide's central bus station. Even better: Rides are free as part of Adelaide's public transport system.
The Amish Love that Fancy Solar Technology
Holmes County, Ohio, which is known for having the world's largest Amish population, is already a hot bed of solar power: an estimated 80% of Amish families have embraced the use of photovoltaic panels
Pesticides May Up Asthma In Farm Women
This effect is particularly strong for the 60% of farm women who grew up on a farm.
Hoppin's team collected self-reported data from 25,814 farm women from Iowa and North Carolina.
Household Uses Of Hydrogen Peroxide H₂O₂
Hydrogen peroxide is the only germicidal agent composed only of water and oxygen. Like ozone, it kills disease organisms by oxidation!
Saturday 29 December 2007Oil spill endangering Patagonian beaches, rare wildlife
Buenos Aires - A nearly 15-square-kilometre oil spill drifting off the coast of Argentina's southern Patagonia has started to contaminate around four kilometres of beaches, local media reported Friday.
Evolution tied to Earth movement
Geologists are calling renewed attention to the idea that ground movements formed mountains and valleys, creating environments that favored the emergence of humanity.
Hollywood squirrels get birth control
A 2004 squirrel contraceptives trial in Berkeley, Calif., reduced birth rates by 66 percent, according to Alameda County and U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics.
Top Ten Tips to Fight Global Warming
The recent hot and muggy weather has us all thinking about how to take the temperature down a notch. With that in mind, we've culled the top ten ways consumers can cut into the 22 tons of carbon dioxide each of us produces in the United States.
Despite Investments, Rhine Salmon Face a Difficult Migration
Throughout the 185,000 square kilometer (71,429 square mile) watershed of Europe's great river, barriers are being removed from Rhine tributaries and the rivers are being seeded with salmon fingerlings in the hope that the migratory fish will, after spending years feeding in northern seas, instinctively return to their respective birthplaces
Environmental groups to fight uranium mine expansion plans
The uranium mine near Crawford is southwest of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and produces 800,000 pounds of uranium a year for use in the nuclear power industry. The Crow Butte Resources mine is owned by Cameco Corp. of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Are we the lone sentient life in the universe?
There are an estimated 250 billion (2.5 x 10¹¹) stars in the Milky Way alone, and over 70 sextillion (7 x 10²²) in the visible universe, and many of them are surrounded by multiple planets. The shear size of the known universe is staggeringly and inconceivably vast.
Runaway Greenhouse Effect 55 Million Years Ago
Analogous to the Earth's current situation, greenhouse warming 55 million years ago was caused by a relatively rapid increase of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.
Changes in climate may affect birds' behavior
Birds that rely on specific types of habitat could become extinct if global climate changes continue.
Beavers for Scotland in 2009?
Beavers were hunted to extinction in Scotland in the 16th Century.
The mammals, best known for their dam building and tree felling skills, have been successfully reintroduced elsewhere in Europe, including parts of Germany and the Netherlands.
Climate Change Malpractice
The Clean Air Act allows the Golden State to craft its own air-quality rules and allows other states to adopt them, as long as they are not arbitrary and capricious and are at least as tough as the federal standards.
This is one more example of Mr. Bush's say-one-thing-do-another brand of environmentalism.
Beavers could be released in 2009
Plans are in the pipeline for beavers to be released into the Scottish wild for the ficrst time in 500 years.
Not one but 'six giraffe species'
"Using molecular techniques we found that giraffes can be classified into six groups that are reproductively isolated and not interbreeding."
Climate change and conflicts: Is there a link at all?
The link between pressure on natural resources and armed conflicts simply doesn't exist, say researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
Success in saving India's Asiatic lion poses new problems
The population of lions in the Gir forests of western Gujarat state has climbed from 20 in 1913 to more than 350 today,
Tapping Undersea Energy, Wind-Style
Researchers are working on a pilot project that would plant test turbines on the ocean floor about 50 meters underwater. The power of the Gulf Stream is expected to generate as much energy as a wind turbine would produce in a 55 mile-per-hour gale. That means each undersea turbine could produce up to three megawatts of power: enough to supply the energy needs of 500 homes freshwater rivers.
Earth feels the cost of humanity staying cool
The air-conditioning system under Macquarie Street, which keeps things cool in the NSW Parliament and the adjacent State Library, contains HCFC gases equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of about 2500 four-wheel-drives.
Of the 7000 tonnes of refrigerant gases imported annually, about 4000 tonnes remain unaccounted for, and leakages are endemic.
"If you just pull that old air-conditioner off the wall and let its two kilograms of refrigerant escape or leave it to slowly leak away at the tip, you will have emitted the equivalent of four tonnes of carbon dioxide - the same as six months of driving your car."
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR - documentary [1hr 30min]
Disturbing study in Corporate policy overruling common sense. If you haven't seen it yet...... it's a classic!
Pristine jungle in Foja Mts. possible home to new species
Possible new species, at least within human knowledge, have been discovered in an area called a "lost world" because of its very nature: a pristine jungle within a remote mountainous area in the northern part of Papua, Indonesia. - VIDEO - if you like birds check it out [12min]
Sunday 23 November 2007Customers misled by green power claims
EnergyAustralia has agreed to write to about 30,000 people explaining its ClearAir and GreenFuture products, while Origin Energy has agreed to stop screening television ads that claimed switching to Origin GreenPower was the same as "not driving your car for two years".
Laying Waste to the Deep Sea
Deep sea fishingis a business that couldn't stay afloat without substantial subsidies from governments of roughly a dozen high-seas fishing nations — including Japan, South Korea, Russia, Iceland, Spain, France and the Ukraine. The subsidies defray substantial fuel costs — trawlers need a lot of power to move nets that weigh 15 tons and stretch a mile deep — keeping these boats working around the clock for weeks and months, mining the deep sea (it takes about four hours to fish 2.5 sq km).
Experts confirm rare Dolphins in Punjab wetland
Amritsar, Dec 21 - The presence of rare freshwater dolphins in the Harike wetland and wildlife sanctuary in Ferozepur district in Punjab was confirmed by the wildlife experts Friday, bringing cheer to wildlife experts.
Tree-sitting activist wins high praise from judge
Not only did Jelena Popovic, the Deputy Chief Magistrate, dismiss charges of obstructing a road and obstructing an officer - after Creenaune's pleas of guilty - and refuse an order for Creenaune to pay $1900 compensation, she described her as a "remarkable young woman".
"I have to say I've never had the opportunity to meet somebody like Miss Creenaune," Ms Popovic said, "who has worked consistently and effectively in relation to improving our environment and maintaining the environment in a sustainable way so that it isn't further degraded."
Partridges and turtle doves head for extinction
The wild birds of the carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" are among the farmland birds showing the steepest declines
Ghariyal toll climbs to 28
The 180-km stretch of Chambal Sanctuary houses close to 3000 ghariyals including those left by the forest department and the wild population. Ghariyal has also been identified as the critically endangered species by International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) this year.
As Cars Hit More Animals on Roads, Toll Rises
Wildlife-related crashes are a growing problem on rural roads around the country. The accidents increased 50 percent from 1990 to 2004, based on the most recent federal data.
Korean oil spill threatens IBAs
Korea's worst oil spill is threatening two Important Bird Areas (IBAs) which are crucial for large numbers of wintering and migrating birds.
Experts worry about lack of progress in efforts to reduce lifeless zone in the Gulf of Mexico
From its source in Minnesota, the Mississippi River winds through 10 states on its journey to the ocean, collecting runoff from the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachian Mountains, and everywhere in between. The river flows through the fields of the Corn Belt, gathering fertilizer, and through cities, where sewage leaches into its currents.
The Principal Agricultural Commodities preliminary report
86.3 million head of sheep and lamb over the 2006-07 period.
There was no significant change in meat cattle numbers at 25.6 million head.
But milk cattle and pig numbers fell by five and four per cent respectively to 2.6 million head each.
Wheat production fell by almost 60 per cent to 10.6 million tonnes.
Barley production fell by 56 per cent to 4.2 million tonnes and cotton lint production by 50 per cent to 283,000 tonnes.
Rice production fell by almost 85 per cent to 161,000 tonnes.
Choking on growth
A series of NYT articles and multimedia examining the impact of China's epic pollution crisis.
Sea Shepherd Offers Helicopter Support to Greenpeace
SSCS was informed today that the Greenpeace ship Esperanza has departed New Zealand without helicopter support.
Number of conflicts in the world no longer declining
The trend toward fewer conflicts reported by peace researchers since the early 1990s now seems to have been broken. This is shown in the latest annual report “States in Armed Conflict,” from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program at the Uppsala University Department of Peace and Conflict Research. The findings worry the researchers. The Middle East is the region where peace initiatives are most conspicuous in their absence.
Wildlife Corridor Gives Endangered Elephants In India Passage Between Reserves
The E-D corridor is a narrow strip of land (0.5 km wide and 2km long) that is crucial to the local elephant population as it links two forested areas cut off from each other by deforestation and agricultural land.
Whales Descended From Tiny Deer-like Ancestors
48-million-year-old Indohyus is a close relative of whales, and the structure of its bones and chemistry of its teeth indicate that it spent much time in water.
EPA decision controlled by White House CEQ in denial of California CO2 rules?
In denying California and 16 other states the right to set their own standards for carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles, the Environmental Protection Agency was suborned by White House politics to make a decision that appears to be without either good legal or scientific justification.
NZ: Second Korean fishing vessel seized
The investigation concerns misreporting catch from one fishing area to another, a practice commonly known in the fishing industry as "trucking", Mr Green said.
The main species involved is ling with the alleged offending potentially involving hundreds of tonnes of fish.
Good News About Methane Bubbling Up From the Ocean
Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is emitted in great quantities as bubbles from seeps on the ocean floor near Santa Barbara. About half of these bubbles dissolve into the ocean, but the fate of this dissolved methane remains uncertain. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered that Only one percent of this dissolved methane escapes into the air –– good news for the Earth's atmosphere.
Earliest Stage Of Planet Formation In Our Solar System Dated
Researchers have dated the earliest step in the formation of the solar system -- when microscopic interstellar dust coalesced into mountain-sized chunks of rock -- to 4,568 million years ago, within a range of about 2,080,000 years.
Foie gras soon to be banned in Europe?
Action against the force feeding of geese for pâté - sign the petition now! -Watch the video
Australian patrol to shadow Japanese whalers
The icebreaker Oceanic Viking, used for customs and fisheries policing, would leave for the Southern Ocean in days to follow the Japanese fleet, Australia's foreign minister Stephen Smith and environment minister Peter Garrett told journalists.
Japan Seen Halting Humpback Whale Hunt - US Envoy
Japan has apparently agreed not to kill humpback whales during its current Antarctic hunt, the US ambassador to Tokyo said on Wednesday
Grow More Food in Cities, UN Agency Tells Asia
Asian nations, many at risk from climate change, must invest more in urban and indoor farming
Bush Signs Bill to Boost US Vehicle Fuel Efficiency
President Bush on Wednesday signed into law a landmark energy bill that increases US vehicle fuel efficiency for the first time in over three decades
James Hansen letter to UK Prime Minister Brown: “We must solve the coal problem now.”
NASA climate scientist James Hansen sent a letter on December 19 to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling on him to lead a moratorium in the West on new coal-fired power plants that do not capture and sequester the CO2. A phase-out of coal use that does not capture CO2 is “80% of the solution” to the global warming problem
Alberta Orders Suncor to Cut Dangerous Emissions
The Alberta government said Tuesday it ordered Suncor Energy Inc to come up with a plan to cut emissions of deadly hydrogen sulfide at its oil sands operations after several reports of high concentrations this year.
Steve Irwin to Make Tasmania Pit Stop
The Steve Irwin is expected to arrive in Hobart on December 22nd and will depart again immediately after securing the engine parts. The ship will top up on fuel which will give the added advantage of extending the time the ship can be used for pursuit and intervention against the Japanese whaling fleet.
Earliest Stage of Planet Formation Dated
Researchers estimate the timing of the formation of the carbonaceous chondrites at 4,568 million years ago, ranging from 910,000 years before that date to 1,170,000 years later.
11 ways to turn your computer green
The fast-moving pace of technology is good news for gadget lovers, but not such good news for the environment. As we acquire more and more electronic products, an explosion in e-waste (electronic scrap) containing toxic chemicals that cannot be disposed of safely is a growing concern. To make environmental matters worse, devices are burning up more energy than they need to through being left on while not in use
For Kyoto's champions, the meetings never end
Three days into the UN gathering, Australia's electricity commission tells the new prime minister that his government's proposals will lead to a rise in electrical bills of at least 30%, perhaps more. Such an increase would almost surely stunt Australia's booming economy. So Mr. Rudd backs down. He announces his country will not agree to immediate cuts, but rather now favours cuts of 50-60% by 2050.
96-million-year-old fossil pollen sheds light on early pollinators
The origins of when flowers managed to harness insects’ pollinating power has long been murky. But a new study is the first to pinpoint a 96-million-year-old timeframe for a turning point in the evolution of basal angiosperm groups, or early flowering plants, by demonstrating they are predominantly insect-pollinated.
Tuesday 18 December 2007Disappointments on Climate
The news from Bali was particularly disheartening. The delegates agreed to negotiate by 2009 a new and more comprehensive global treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. (Kyoto expires in 2012 and requires that only industrialized nations reduce their production of greenhouse gases.) They pledged for the first time to address deforestation, which accounts for one-fifth of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. And they received vague assurances from China — which will soon overtake the United States as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases — and other emerging powers that they would seek “measurable, reportable and verifiable” emissions cuts.
So far the Bali deal is worse than Kyoto
America will keep on wrecking climate talks as long as those with vested interests in oil and gas fund its political system
Rising seas 'to beat predictions'
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change proposes a maximum sea level rise of 81cm (32in) this century.
But in the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers say the true maximum could be about twice that: 163cm (64in).
Penguins In Peril As Climate Warms
A report, Antarctic Penguins and Climate Change, shows that the four populations of penguins that breed on the Antarctic continent — Adélie, Emperor, Chinstrap and Gentoo — are under escalating pressure.
Rudd praises US climate 'flexibility'
Mr Rudd is maneuvering to work with the US along with China and other major emitters to work towards an effective climate deal by the time negotiations conclude at the end of 2009 in Copenhagen.
PM maintains whaling stance
The Federal Government is continuing to insist it is prepared to send Australian ships or planes to monitor Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean.
Defence Force to keep eye on whalers
The New Zealand Defence Force will closely monitor the Japanese whaling fleet heading into the Southern Ocean.
Cat fleas' journey into the vacuum is a 'one-way trip'
Homeowners dogged by household fleas need look no farther than the broom closet to solve their problem.
In China, Farming Fish in Toxic Waters
Fuqing is one of the centers of a booming industry that over two decades has transformed this country into the biggest producer and exporter of seafood in the world, and the fastest-growing supplier to the United States.
But that growth is threatened by the two most glaring environmental weaknesses in China: acute water shortages and water supplies contaminated by sewage, industrial waste and agricultural runoff that includes pesticides. The fish farms, in turn, are discharging wastewater that further pollutes the water supply.
Top 11 Warmest Years On Record Have All Been In Last 13 Years
The decade of 1998-2007 is the warmest on record, according to data sources obtained by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The global mean surface temperature for 2007 is currently estimated at 0.41°C/0.74°F above the 1961-1990 annual average of 14.00°C/57.20°F.
Making gas from oil
This discovery could revolutionize heavy oil and oil sands production by leading to more energy-efficient, environmentally friendly ways to produce this valuable resource.
Lice in Fish Farms Endanger Wild Salmon, Study Says
Parasites that breed in fish farms kill so many passing juvenile wild salmon that they threaten the survival of fish populations in some rivers and streams, Canadian researchers are reporting.
12 December 2007Sunshine-to-Petrol Project Seeks Fuel From Thin Air
“This invention, though probably a good 15 to 20 years away from being on the market, holds a real promise of being able to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while preserving options to keep using fuels we know and love. Recycling carbon dioxide into fuels provides an attractive alternative to burying it.”
Peatland destruction is releasing vast amounts of CO2
Draining and burning the world's peat bogs emits carbon dioxide equivalent to over 10% of that released from burning fossil fuels
Paying other nations to be green
The rewards could be huge for Indonesia and Brazil, which account for about half of yearly deforestation worldwide. When emissions from deforestation are included in the national rankings of the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters, Indonesia and Brazil rocket to the top of list, just behind the U.S. and China.
Selection Spurred Recent Evolution
Researchers analyzing variation in the human genome have concluded that human evolution accelerated enormously in the last 40000 years under the force of natural selection.A key finding: 7 percent of human genes are undergoing rapid, recent evolution. University Utah
Watchdogs criticise gypsy moth aerial spraying
More than 3880 householders went to the West Auckland spray health service with multiple symptoms, including respiratory (47 per cent), skin (29 per cent), digestive (25 per cent), eye (24 per cent) and neurological problems (22 per cent).
Great beasts peppered from space
Eight mamoth tusks dating to some 35,000 years ago all show signs of having being peppered with meteorite fragments.
Leave fossil fuels in the ground
All the talk in Bali about cutting carbon means nothing while ever more oil and coal is being extracted and burned
Gore Urges Bold Moves in Nobel Speech,
Saying that “our world is spinning out of kilter” and that “the very web of life on which we depend is being ripped and frayed,” Mr. Gore warned that “we, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency — a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here.”
“The future is knocking at our door right now. Make no mistake, the next generation will ask us one of two questions. Either they will ask, ‘What were you thinking; why didn’t you act?’ Or they will ask instead, ‘How did you find the moral courage to rise and successfully resolve a crisis that so many said was impossible to solve?’”
Current melting of greenland's ice mimics 1920s-1940s event
Their evidence reinforces the belief that glaciers and other bodies of ice are exquisitely hyper-sensitive to climate change and bolsters the concern that rising temperatures will speed the demise of that island's ice fields, hastening sea level rise.
China Link Suspected in Hacking of Arms Lab
A cyber attack reported last week by one of the federal government’s nuclear weapons laboratories may have originated in China.
Iran could have nukes by 2010
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert believes Iran will have the resources to create a nuclear weapon by 2010, despite a US intelligence report that it was not building an atomic bomb.
Christian biologist fired for beliefs, suit says
A biologist is suing the prestigious Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, claiming he was fired for refusing to accept evolution.
Possible Gunns mill enviro breach
The Tasmanian Government has confirmed that it is investigating a possible breach of environmental conditions at the northern Tasmanian site of timber company Gunns' planned pulp mill.
Antibacterial Chemical Disrupts Hormone Activities
A new UC Davis study shows that a common antibacterial chemical. Triclocarban, added to bath soaps can alter hormonal activity in rats and in human cells in the laboratory--and does so by a previously unreported mechanism. "The researchers found two key effects: In human cells in the laboratory, triclocarban increased gene expression that is normally regulated by testosterone. And when male rats were fed triclocarban, testosterone-dependent organs such as the prostate gland grew abnormally large.
Trucks Power China’s Economy, at a Suffocating Cost
The 10 million trucks on Chinese roads, more than a quarter of all vehicles in this country, are a major reason that China accounts for half the world’s annual increase in oil consumption. Sating their thirst helped push the price of oil to nearly $100 a barrel this year, before a recent decline, and has propelled China past the United States as the world’s largest emitter of global-warming gases.
Climate Conflicts
It took no time at all, it seems, for leaders around the world to latch onto the notion that global warming will bring war. In the spring, a report by retired U.S. generals and admirals called on Washington to incorporate climate change, especially its destabilizing effect on weak states, into the United States’ national defense strategy.
Escalating petrol prices appear to be pushing people towards the bus stop.
Environment Canterbury said there had been a 31.2 per cent rise in patronage on that route during that year.
Combustion Of Waste May Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
According to the results of the study, treatment methods for biodegrad-able waste – composting and digestion – reduce the greenhouse gas emissions compared with landfilling. Biogas production in a digestion plant yields more emission reductions than composting, if the biogas can be utilized for production of heat, electricity, or traffic fuel.
Red Sea mega-dam would be 'irresponsible'
The scheme would literally part the Red Sea with a massive wall more than 150 metres high, one kilometre thick and 100 km long, stretching between Yemen in the north and either Eritrea or Djibouti in the south.
It would generate 50 gigawatts of what Hanekamp and colleagues call "heliohydroelectric" power. It works by allowing the sun to lower the water level inside the dam through evaporation. Water allowed back into the closed sea then turns turbines to generate electricity,
Saturday 8 December 2007Sweden First, US almost Last, Says Study
A new report rates the climate-protection performance of 56 countries that account for 90 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. While Germany came in at second best, the US ranked second worst. [the 10 worst]
2007 Bali Climate Declaration by Scientists
Based on current scientific understanding global greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced by at least 50% below their 1990 levels by the year 2050. In the long run, greenhouse gas concentrations need to be stabilised at a level well below 450 ppm (parts per million; measured in CO2-equivalent concentration). In order to stay below 2 ºC, global emissions must peak and decline in the next 10 to 15 years, so there is no time to lose.
Climate tool begins to soar
AS the world grapples with how to address the challenges of climate change at the Bali conference, a report released this week reveals that birds and other native wildlife in Australia are struggling to cope.
Blown away by climate folly
John Howard clung to a sceptical view of climate change, and the storm of dissent overwhelmed him
Climate Treaty Must Set Tough Emissions Limits, Scientists Say
Negotiations in Bali must begin the process of crafting a new accord that sets strong, legally binding emission-reduction targets for the majority of the world's nations, according to the scientists' Bali Declaration.
"Green jobs" to outweigh losses from climate change
The study of "Green Jobs" around the world said that measures to promote ethanol in Brazil, for instance, had created 500,000 jobs. In China, 150,000 people were employed in solar heating, a sector with sales revenues in 2005 of $2.5 billion.
"The labor intensity of renewables is higher than those of fossil fuels or nuclear power." . Jobs could be lost in coal mining, for instance, if the world sought to shift away from fossil fuels.
US blasted for carbon greed at UN climate meet
BALI: A US environmental group lashed the United States for greed and waste at a global forum on climate change on Thursday, saying many American states emitted more carbon pollution individually than scores of poor nations combined.
“Hellish” hot springs yield greenhouse gas-eating bug
“Bacteria are a fascinating group to work with because 95 per cent of them have never been studied in a lab and we have very little idea about what this huge amount of biodiversity is capable of.”
Life On Earth May Have Originated As The Organic Filling In A Multilayer Sandwich Of Mica Sheets
The Hansma mica hypothesis proposes that the narrow confined spaces between the thin layers of mica could have provided exactly the right conditions for the rise of the first biomolecules ---- effectively creating cells without membranes. The separation of the layers would have also provided the isolation needed for Darwinian evolution.
Neanderthal Children Grew Up Fast
The Scladina juvenile, which appears to be developmentally similar to a 10-12 year old human, was estimated to be in fact about 8 years old at death.
Calcium Requirements May Be Overestimated
The researchers analyzed data collected from 155 male and female volunteers, aged 19 to 75 years, who participated in at least one in a series of 19 controlled feeding studies conducted at the GFHNRC. The modeling of those data suggests that the average amount of dietary calcium needed to maintain a neutral calcium balance is about 741 mg per day.
YouTube breeding ground for anti-vaccination views, say researchers
Researchers found that more than half of the153 videos about vaccination and immunization on YouTube portrayed childhood, HPV, flu and other vaccinations negatively or ambiguously.
Even Low Lead Exposure Linked To ADHD
Children with ADHD had higher levels of lead in the blood than those without the disorder, according to the study, which was conducted with help from the Michigan Department of Community Health.
Wednesday 5 December 2007Poor put on a starvation diet
A report on the food predicament says the world's undernourished will still number 772 million in 2020 and higher food prices will cause the poor to shift to even less-balanced diets, with adverse impacts on health in the short and long run. In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of undernourished is expected to rise from 273 million in 2020 to 410 million by 2080.
"Food prices have been steadily decreasing since the Green Revolution, but the days of falling food prices may be over. Surging demand for feed, food and fuel have recently led to drastic price increases, which are not likely to fall in the foreseeable future, due to low stocks and slow-growing supplies of agricultural outputs. Climate change will also have a negative impact on food production, compounding the challenge of meeting global food demand, and potentially exacerbating hunger and malnutrition among the world's poorest people. Economic growth has helped to reduce hunger, particularly when it is equitable. But unfortunately, growth does not always reach the poorest people."
Toll Of Climate Change On World Food Supply Could Be Worse Than Thought
In order to keep pace with population growth, current production of grain--from which humans derive two-thirds of their protein--will probably have to double, to 4 billion tons a years before 2100.
NZ Fossil fuel bill gets green thumb
New fossil-fuel power plants would be banned for 10 years, unless the Electricity Commission deemed them necessary to ensure the security of the power supply, or they were sufficiently mixed with renewable energy, or based on waste products.
Senegal: Citizens On Coastal Environment Watch
Concrete walls, boulders, tyres; enclosed vegetable gardens: These are just some of the means Senegal's coastal communities are using to stop trash-dumping and sand-mining as well as the reckless chopping down of the coast's protective trees.
Gaffe-prone Garrett gagged
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson said the extraordinary move showed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had no confidence in the gaffe-prone Mr Garrett's ability as a minister.
Coal clouds over climate change talks
Underlining the gap between the environmental talk and commercial action is Asia's increasing reliance on coal to fuel large electricity generation expansion plans.
The Philippines is perhaps the only country in the region where government policy actually aims to reduce reliance on coal - or at least not to increase its percentage of the national fuel mix.
Coal by contract is an easy fuel to obtain on short- or long-term contracts and can be shipped in from a variety of nearby suppliers, including producers in Indonesia's Sumatra and Kalimantan islands, Australia and South Africa.
Invasive Species Threaten Mauritius, Land of Dodo
Three centuries after the dodo's demise, the rich plant and animal life of Mauritius is still under threat, this time from exploding populations of non-native species such as Chinese guavas and Malagasy geckos.
Chimps beat humans in memory test
Young chimps have a photographic memory which allows them to memorise a complex scene or pattern at a glance.
Computer servers 'as bad' for climate as SUVs
A report, produced by Global Action Plan, a UK-based environmental organisation, An Inefficient Truth states that with more than 1 billion computers on the planet, the global IT sector is responsible for about 2% of human carbon dioxide emissions each year – a similar figure to the global airline industry.
Rudd acts to ratify Kyoto accord in Australia
Howard had steadfastly refused to ratify Kyoto, arguing that Australia would not agree to a pact setting greenhouse gas emission targets unless developing countries like China and India were also subject to binding targets.
Rainbow Warrior to hit Bali
Rainbow Warrior, the famous Greenpeace ship that has launched dozens of battles to save the environment and wildlife, will dock here at Bali Friday on a mission to combat climate change.
For the environment's sake, don't get divorced
The environmental cost of a marriage splitting occurs because couples and their families move into separate properties after divorce – meaning they collectively occupy more space, burn more energy, and consume more water than they did as a family unit.
In the US, for example, 627 billion gallons of water, the use of 38 million rooms, and 734 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity would have been saved in 2005 alone if no-one had got divorced.
Germany: Wind power sets sail
Nearly 19,000 wind turbines cover Germany: dotted across the countryside, nudging to the edge of cities and whirring alongside motorways. They generate 5 percent of Germany's electricity
Helium Isotopes Point To New Sources Of Geothermal Energy
Unknown to most, the US has enough geothermal energy below its surface to supply three times the amount of energy that the US consumes annually.
It has been estimated that within the continental United States, there is a sizable resource of accessible geothermal energy -- about 3,000 times the current annual U.S. consumption.
South Africa: Radioactive Water, the Price of Gold
Large gold-mining companies operating to the west of South Africa's commercial centre, Johannesburg, stand accused of contaminating a number of water sources with radioactive pollutants.
Pirate boats targeting NZ's swordfish
New Zealand's potentially lucrative swordfish stock has been plundered by two shadowy Spanish fishing trawlers flying Senegalese flags-of-convenience in international waters off the Kermadec Islands.. A powerful Spanish industry lobby group is threatening to go to international courts to "claim our rights and demand compensation of the huge damages"
Murray-Darling inflows close to 'worst-case scenario'
The inflow for November was just 170 gigalitres.
Amazing find of dinosaur 'mummy'
Named Dakota, this 67-million-year-old dinosaur is one of the most important dinosaur discoveries in recent times - calling into question our conception of dinosaurs' body shape, skin preservation and movement.
Orangutan forces closure of Colombian airport
Bogota - An orangutan that escaped from its cage at a zoo forced authorities to close the airport in the central-western Colombian city of Pereira for around half an hour Monday.
Sunday 2 December 2007The Keeling Curve legacy
It was 50 years ago that a young American scientist, Charles David Keeling, began tracking CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere at two of the world's last wildernesses - the South Pole and the summit of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii.
Garrett facing his first forest fire
Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett faces a tough early test of his new portfolio powers after a Federal Court decision yesterday to allow logging in the Wielangta forest on Tasmania's east coast.
How to turn $99 million worth of trees into a $17,000 loss.
Despite selling the timber for $99 million, and other revenue of $4 million, VicForests ended in the red with a $17,000 loss once expenses such as haulage were taken out,
'Nature's banks' pays dividends
Average incomes of people who had established no-fish zones were more than double those who did not have protected areas
Fuel efficiency and the American driver
Congress has decided to increase the national fuel efficiency standards to 35 miles a gallon [6.71 k/100l] by 2020, from the current average of 25.
Fast-Acting Carbs May Hasten Vision Loss Over Time
Consuming higher-than-average amounts of carbohydrates that cause blood sugar levels to spike and fall rapidly could be a risk factor for central vision loss with aging.
Finland's Neste Oil to build largest bio-diesel plant in Singapore
Singapore - A Finnish firm plans to build the world's largest bio-diesel plant in Singapore to convert palm oil into fuel for cars, trucks and other vehicles.
Ghana: Forest Cover is Less Than One Million Hectares
"At the beginning of the twentieth century, Ghana had an estimated forest cover of 8.2 million hectares. By independence, the forest cover had shrunk to about four million hectares,"
Everything's Cool (2007) movie review
The fossil fuel industry doesn’t care who wins or loses the debate about the reality of global warming, as long as the public continues to feel that it is debatable.
How Our Ancestors Were Like Gorillas
"When we examined fossils from 1.5 to 2 million years ago we found that in one of our close relatives the males continued to grow well into adulthood, just as they do in gorillas.
'We Have Very Little Time to Act'
A world with 30 percent fewer species. Huge water shortages caused by disappearing glaciers affecting hundreds of millions of people. Tropical rain forests dying out as ground water disappears. An accelerating overall rise in world temperatures. All this and more could be the world's fate in just a few short decades.
Safety measures target young drivers
The insurer recently reported that 300 Swiss people had taken up the offer and it expects demand for 5,000 black boxes when it rolls out the project nationwide next March. More women took up the offer than men and parents of young drivers were also enthusiastic about the idea.
NG: InterOil’s price hike
InterOil outlets in the capital raised their fuel prices at the bowsers on Wednesday from K3.109 per litre to K3.276 (petrol) $AU1.3447, and K2.586 per litre to K2.816 (diesel) $AU1.156.
Iceland best place to live, Africa worst - UN
Rich free-market countries dominate the top places, with Iceland, Norway, Australia, Canada and Ireland the first five but the United States slipping to 12th place from eighth last year in the U.N. Human Development Index
Greenland and Antarctica ‘big gorillas’ in climate change
Uncertainty about sea level rise from climate change looms largest at Earth’s poles, according to many scientists.
Global Warming: The Rich Opt Out
Noted with interest: the very rich people are indifferent to climate change, global warming and the exhaustion of natural resources.
New research discredits a $100 billion fix to global warming
Research suggests that ocean fertilization may not be an effective method of reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Tritium hazard rating 'should be doubled'
Radioactive tritium, commonly discharged in large amounts by civil and military nuclear plants around the world, may be more dangerous than previously thought. Evidence that tritium causes more biological damage than assumed is "solid enough" to justify a change.
Thursday 15 November 2007Highest CO2 Emitting Power Plants in the World
Australia produces more than 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide in generating power for each person per year, compared with 9 tonnes for Americans and 2 tonnes for the Chinese. Download Report (PDF, 285 KB)
Activists seize coal plant
Two teams of five activists, including engineers, entered the conveyor belt area of the station and switched off the power.
They then chained themselves to station and are refusing to leave until they get commitments from both major parties about reduction in coal usage.
Multi-star pile-up caused brightest supernova
Supernova 2006gy burst into view in September 2006 in a distant galaxy, 240 million light years away. The blast was 100 times more powerful than a normal supernova, suggesting the exploding star weighed in at more than a hundred times the mass of the Sun.
More species of fish listed 'at risk'
NZ: Seven more fish species - red snapper, moonfish, striped marlin, blue shark, mako shark, porbeagle shark and lookdown dory - have been added to the unsustainable list. The worst-managed species is orange roughy,
Water criminals face fine hike
Companies will soon face fines of up to $250,000 for offences like illegally diverting water or discharging harmful substances into the supply.
The maximum penalty for individuals is increasing to $120,000.
Soft Corals Melting Away Due To Global Warming
Environmental stress is damaging the symbiotic relationship between soft corals and the microscopic symbiotic algae living in their tissues.
Tree man 'who grew roots' may be cured
An Indonesian fisherman who feared that he would be killed by tree-like growths covering his body has been given hope of recovery by an American doctor - and Vitamin A.
His affliction is caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), a fairly common infection that usually causes small warts to develop on sufferers.
Green Tea Is Powerful Medicine Against Severe Sepsis
A major component of green tea could prove the perfect elixir for severe sepsis, an abnormal immune system response to a bacterial infection.
Planktos Ship Appears in Bermuda
After backing down to Sea Shepherd and canceling their plans to dump iron ore dust near the Galapagos Islands this last summer, things became very quiet for Planktos and their bizarre scheme to make money off carbon trading by dumping iron ore dust into the ocean to artificially stimulate plankton blooms in order to increase plankton populations so as to absorb more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
Tuesday 13 November 2007Poor S Africans double in decade
The number of South Africans living on less than $1 a day has more than doubled in a decade since shortly after the end of apartheid.
New survey reveals fresh attitude to getting older
A new survey of over 1,500 Australians reveals that more than 60 per cent of people are looking forward to getting older and 76 per cent of respondents value the contribution of Australia’s ageing population.
Concern grows for smallest bear
Sun bears, found in south-east Asia, have declined by at least 30% in the past 30 years.
Ancient beer pots point to origins of chocolate
Chocolate was first produced by the ancients as a by-product of beer, suggests a new archaeological study. And evidence from drinking vessels left by the Mesoamericans who developed chocolate suggests that the source of chocolate, cacao, was first used 500 years earlier than thought.
Japan wants Aussie protection during humpback kill
Japan's whaling fleet is preparing to depart for its annual scientific hunt and 50 humpback whales will be targeted for the first time.
Clumsy Media Bias Dwindling, But U.S. Still Behind the U.K.
A new paper (attached) by Oxford Research Fellow Max Boykoff shows that phony media balance has almost disappeared in U.S. climate change coverage.
But Boykoff's paper also shows an embarrassing difference in the extent and quality of climate change coverage in the United States, compared to coverage in the United Kingdom. For example, he found that between 2003 and 2006, UK papers covered the story three times as often as U.S. papers and were significantly more likely to present it accurately.
Regardless of the causes, however, Boykoff's research proves what we have suspected: the U.S. media blew this story - seriously letting down the people who rely on American journalists to show leadership - and give accurate information - on issues important to the whole world.
Nigeria: Oil, Environment And Crisis Economics
Simple lessons are not necessarily easy to learn. For example: oil is a non-renewable and limited resource. The fever our planet is suffering--global warming or, more accurately, climate change-- cannot be allowed to run its course. To do so would be to allow the global transformation of this planet, with even greater inequity than now exists between North and South, rich and poor, frail and strong.
Oil is cheap partly because its extraction in the Niger Delta and much of the tropical world is carried out in ways that pay scant attention to environmental costs.
The path of crude oil development has been strewn with skeletons and soaked in human blood across the world. The ongoing case in Nigeria is a glaring example. The case of Angola is still fresh in memory. In 1999, as the first barrels of crude oil were shipped from Sudan, so did the war between government forces and those of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army escalate. When we turn our eyes to the Middle East we see the raw situation of war waged for profit and resource appropriation and control.
Eco groups protest Sulu Sea experiment
MANILA, Philippines -- Two more environmental groups have joined the mounting clamor to stop the planned dumping of urea in Philippine waters, in a bid to mitigate the effects of climate change.
An Australian company, Ocean Nourishment Corp., has proposed conducting a large-scale field experiment on its patented urea fertilization technology in the Sulu Sea.
Rich must bear climate change costs
"Nations that have grown rich in part by polluting without facing the costs of doing so must now repay their carbon debt to the developing world,"
“Out of Balance” awarded best environmental feature film at Artivist Film Festival in Hollywood
This hour-long movie focuses primarily on ExxonMobil’s support of the global warming disinformation campaign and its influence on the Bush administration.
In the pipeline: a $2b desalination bill
The latest estimates have pushed the price of the pipeline, needed to pipe water from the plant to the city's water main, to more than $750 million - nearly $200 million more than the original price of $570
Kakapo to be artificially inseminated
Low population numbers have kept the critically endangered nocturnal parrot perilously close to extinction for the past 30 years, since a small breeding population was discovered on Stewart Island. All 86 kakapo, the world's heaviest parrot, known to exist live on offshore predator-free island sanctuaries in the South Island.
Curvy mothers have brainier kids
CURVIER women may have smart children because hip fat contains polyunsaturated fatty acids critical for the development of the fetus's brain.
Ripe Fruit Contains Highly Active Antioxidants
The breakdown of chlorophyll in ripening apples and pears produces the same decomposition products as those in brightly-colored leaves. These colorless decomposition products are highly active antioxidants.
The shape of things to come?
A British child born today will be 50 on bonfire night, 2057. What will life be like for our 50-year-old citizen? Here is a plausible scenario:
Summer top temperatures will be around 38C (100F), winters will be shorter and floods more frequent. To combat the latter, the government will have already controlled where people live through the planning process. Houses, businesses and land already in risky areas will also have lost value because insurance companies will have withdrawn protection. People will simply choose not to live in risky areas. But climate change will still, as now, retain the ability to spring unforeseen weather surprises.
Australian judge slams handling of terrorism case
Australian authorities dropped terrorism charges against a Sydney medical student on Monday, with a judge condemning police and intelligence agents for "grossly improper" behavior in the case.
Brazil discovers huge new oil reserves
If one of the deposits turns out to be as vast as it appears, Brazil will be in the same league "as the Arab countries, Venezuela and others
Why Quitting Smoking Is So Difficult
New findings clarify the brain mechanisms that explain many aspects of dependency on nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco. Among them: Individual differences in brain chemistry can have a profound effect on a person's susceptibility to addiction, and smoking may predispose adolescents to mental disorders in adolescence and adulthood. In addition, researchers have identified a potential neural network that regulates the body's craving response and have demonstrated how smoking may affect decision-making.
Friday 9 November 2007ExxonMobil’s Impact on Climate Change [video trailer]
This film shows the influence that the largest company in the world has on governments, the media and citizens and what can be done about global warming. While the Earth’s climate is pushed further out of balance by increasing use of fossil fuels, ExxonMobil continues to assert undue influence around the world— making record profits while ignoring climate science for which there has been overwhelming consenus for over ten years.
Energy From Hot Rocks
Iceland generates more than half of its electrical power from geothermal energy. Hot water and steam from boreholes can be used to run turbines for electricity or directly to heat homes and businesses. Iceland meets the rest of its electricity needs from hydroelectric power, and imports fossil fuels only for transportation.
The U.S. has lots of potential for geothermal energy generation. There are several plants in California, including the Geysers region in the north and at Mammoth Lakes. Although its share of energy generation in the state is small, the Geysers is the largest geothermal field in the world. There are also numerous abandoned oil and gas boreholes around the country -- including in the Central Valley -- that could potentially access hot water that could be used for space heating.
That would, however, require something of a cultural change. In Iceland, geothermal heating is used at a community level: hot water is pumped up and circulated around a town or neighborhood. Americans are more accustomed to individual power delivery.
Magma surge causes record rise at Yellowstone
The remains of the Yellowstone supervolcano in the US is huffing and puffing and rising by up to 7 centimetres a year, say researchers. They speculate this rise is caused by a mass of molten rock the size of Los Angeles being forced from the Earth’s mantle into the magma chamber beneath the ancient volcano.
The movement at Yellowstone may seem impressive, but it pales in comparison to what happened north of Naples in the early 1980s. Over the course of just two years, between 1983 and 1985, the caldera at Campi Flegrei rose by between 1.5 metres and 2m, leaving the harbour of a town on its slopes high and dry above the water.
Arnie sues US Govt over greenhouse gases
California has filed a lawsuit to force the United States Government to approve the state's tough new proposals aimed at slashing greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.
World must be careful on food miles issue - diplomat
Ending imports of fresh food from Africa under the pretext of combating climate change risks destroying entire communities that have become dependent on the trade
Shipping pollution kills 60,000 every year
Particles spewed out by ships cause thousands of premature deaths worldwide
Food firms blamed for Indonesian forest damage
Multinational food companies use nearly half the world's production of palm oil. They deny direct involvement in palm plantations, but accept that there is a problem sourcing sustainable oil. In a letter to Greenpeace, Nestle, which uses 170,000 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia, said it sourced its supplies from "responsible" suppliers. Unilever, which uses 1.2 million tonnes of palm oil a year, said it attempted to ensure oil supplies were grown in an environmentally responsible way"
Booming palm oil demand fuelling climate crisis
Booming world demand for palm oil from Indonesia for food and biofuels is posing multiple threats to the environment as forests are being cleared, peat wetlands exposed and carbon released.
Every year 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide -- the main climate change culprit -- are released by the degradation and burning of Indonesia's peatlands.
Sexy walks 'keep men off scent'
the findings tally with other research suggesting that women want to conceal their ovulation from males other than their chosen partner.
DOC steps up security after seal shootings
Surveillance of a rare North Island breeding ground for seals on the South Wairarapa coast will be improved after tests confirmed three dead seals were shot in the head.
Palm oil warning for Indonesia
Land clearances in Indonesia to cultivate palm oil threaten a "climate bomb", Greenpeace warns.
China to reject binding emissions caps
China will not accept binding emissions caps in any pact to tackle global warming, a European Parliament team said on Wednesday, but added the bigger obstacle was those countries who might refuse to join the fight at all.
Scientists enhance Mother Nature’s carbon handling mechanism
Unlike other proposed ocean sequestration processes, the new technology does not make the oceans more acid and may be beneficial to coral reefs. The process is a manipulation of the natural weathering of volcanic silicate rocks.
China, India to drive coal demand surge by 2030
China and India will lead a 73 percent leap in world coal demand to 2030 to 4,994 million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe) from 2,892 in 2005, as it gains appeal due to costly oil and gas, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on .
Indonesia: Outrage as timber baron walks free
IN THE latest and largest of a string of controversial acquittals, an Indonesian timber baron Adelin Lis has walked away from illegal logging charges
U.S. wind power installations are projected to jump 63
The U.S. wind industry is on track to complete a total of 4,000 megawatts worth of installations in 2007, or about enough to power 1 million average homes.
While wind power growth has been strong in recent years, it only generates a tiny fraction of U.S. electricity. Last year alternative power sources, including solar energy, but excluding hydropower, generated 2.4 percent of U.S. electricity.
IEA tips 'king coal' in bleak view of world's energy future
The International Energy Agency has painted a bleak picture of the next two decades, with the world's dependence on fossil fuels set to rocket at a time of global alarm about climate change.
Eye contact and a smile will win you a mate
The best way to look attractive is confirmed by scientists who are teasing apart how this process of perception has been affected by evolution
Curry-derived Molecules Might Be Too Spicy For Colorectal Cancers
Curcumin, the yellowish component of turmeric that gives curry its flavor, has long been noted for its potential anti-cancer properties.
A Planetary System That Looks Familiar
They say there is no place like home, but it is beginning to look as if there is a place sort of like home 41 light-years from here in the constellation Cancer.
Cities Tackle Surge in Global Pigeon Population
The pigeon is a heavenly symbol of peace, love and purity but it also produces 12 kilos of excrement a year.
The growing pigeon population is expected to rise by around 50 million to up to 400 million worldwide in the next 10 years as a result of growing urbanization. [do the math - 4.8 million tonnes of bird shit]
Tuesday 6 November 2007KLEIN: THE SHOCK DOCTRINE - a short film
Documentary films, if well made, can describe a whole complex reality in a very limited period of time, especially when the film documentary is a short one. That is precisely the case of Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón´s latest film production “The Shock Doctrine”.
This 6-minute-film is based on Naomi Klein´s Book: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Both admirers and detractors agree that the late Nobel Prize laureate Milton Friedman was an extraordinarily influential economist. Canadian Klein assails Friedman's free-market precepts as their exponents have applied them to a series of formerly state-dominated economies since 1975
Most ready for 'green sacrifices'
Four out of five people indicated they were prepared to change their lifestyle - even in the US and China, the world's two biggest emitters of carbon dioxide.
Opinion was split over tax rises on oil and coal - 44% against, 50% in favour.
Liberals, Labor give up on global warming
The truth is that the Liberal and Labor parties, like the top business circles whose priorities shape their thinking, have given up on global warming. They simply aren’t prepared to take the steps needed to preserve a planet anything like the one we know at present.
Rich nations' climate emissions up, near record
Total emissions by 40 leading industrial nations edged up to 18.2 billion tonnes in 2005 from 18.1 billion in 2004 and were just 2.8 percent below a record 18.7 billion in 1990
U.S. Fires Release Large Amounts of Carbon Dioxide, New Study Shows
Estimates indicate that the fires emitted 7.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in just the one-week period of October 19-26, the equivalent of about 25 percent of the average monthly emissions from all fossil fuel burning throughout California. [Overall, the study estimates that fires in the contiguous United States and Alaska release about 290 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year.]
Modest Gain in Visceral Fat Causes Dysfunction of Blood Vessel Lining In Lean Healthy Humans; Shedding Weight Restores Vessel Health
When lean healthy young adults gained about 9 pounds, the functioning of their blood vessel lining became impaired — but shedding the weight restored proper functioning, according to a Mayo Clinic research report. The finding is important because this vessel disorder, known as endothelial dysfunction, is a predictor of heart attacks and stroke, and the effects of modest weight gain on the disorder were not previously known.
Coal's environmental impact far-flung
Cheap and abundant, coal has become the fuel of choice in much of the world, powering economic booms in China and India that have lifted millions of people out of poverty. Worldwide demand is projected to rise by about 60% through 2030 to 6.9 billion tons a year, most of it going to electrical power plants.
Climate wars threaten billions
A total of 46 nations and 2.7 billion people are now at high risk of being overwhelmed by armed conflict and war because of climate change. A further 56 countries face political destabilisation, affecting another 1.2 billion individuals.
Massive Fires Consistent with Climate Change, Predicted Years Ago
“This is exactly what we’ve been projecting to happen, both in short-term fire forecasts for this year and the longer term patterns that can be linked to global climate change,”
Oxfam voices biofuel concerns
Charity Oxfam has voiced concern about the side-effects of Europe's drive to get fuel from plants. video
Australian town to run on solar power in 2 years
Cloncurry, which boasts recording Australia's hottest day, would be able to generate electricity on rare cloudy days and at night from the station, which runs off heat stored in graphite blocks.
Britain's colossal food waste is stoking climate change
Annually, the UK dumps 6.7 million tonnes, meaning each household jettisons between £250 and £400 worth of food each year. Most of the waste – which nationally costs £8bn – is sent to landfill where it rots, emitting the potent climate- change gas methane.
Breastfeeding Study dispels sagging myth
The results showed no difference in the degree of breast ptosis (TOE-sis)– the medical term for sagging of the breast--for those women who breastfed and those who didn't. However, researchers found that several other factors did affect breast sagging, including age, the number of pregnancies, and whether the patient smoked.
Giving hunters control over pests 'would be a disaster'
NZPA: Public submissions to a ministerial advisory panel considering the options for management of deer, thar, chamois and wild pigs close tomorrow, with a sector of the hunting community wanting the law changed to require landowners and the Department of Conservation to manage these species on their land for the benefit of hunters.
Ancient sea mud records supernova blast
Ancient sea floor sediments have revealed that a supernova exploded during the Pliocene era and may have caused a minor extinction event on Earth.
Dead clams tell many tales
“Where marine ecosystems have remained relatively pristine, living fauna and dead shells agree well, but where ecosystems have been disturbed by us, dead shells and live fauna often differ notably in composition and abundance of shellfish species,”
Stem cells can improve memory after brain injury
“Our res

Low oxygen levels blamed for fish kill
Bowen Independent (Australia)
October 31, 2007
Grazier John Wilson has seen it before and is certain he will see it again.
But it certainly is not a pretty sight.
Dead boney bream began floating to the surface on a lagoon on Alligator Creek, beside the concrete causeway at the end of Telegraph Road, near the Delta, last Thursday afternoon.
There were many more dead fish on Friday.
"There is nothing you can do about it," Mr Wilson said.
"The year before last there was dead barramundi there," he said.
Shire council health and environmental services director Gavin Crawford said it was not uncommon to find fish dying in water holes at this time of the year.
"The dissolved oxygen levels often get a bit low and conditions do not get pleasant," he said.
Mr Wilson described the water in the lagoon as brackish. "I don t know anything that lives in it at this time of year," he said.
"I went down there one year and all the turtles were walking out of the lagoon.
"They were big fellas they were crossing the road and going towards another big water hole in behind the old meatworks.
"I put cattle in that paddock, which I rent from the council, but the cattle seldom drink from the lagoon."
Instead, they walk to a dam to drink.
Mr Wilson said he did not expect the dead fish to be around too long.
"The birds eat them, the foxes, the pigs . . . they will soon disappear," he said.
"They are the same boney bream you get in the Bowen River. I had barramundi here in a big dam and the same thing happened.
"I have seen it happen in the Bowen River up in Collinsville too."
Mr Wilson said the Alligator Creek lagoon filled up each year through the wet season.
"It is unreal you boat all over that flat," he said.
"The big tides also run in there."

Friday 2 November 2007Clean coal a Goebbels scale lie: Dr Karl
Such technology would require one cubic kilometre of compressed carbon dioxide to be stored every day, something that was "physically impossible".
"That is the volume of compressed carbon dioxide that we have to get rid of – not every 10 years, not every year, but every single day," he said.
Wolves Solidify Paw-Hold in Germany
Germany is home to just 30 wolves,.
Land clearing likely for Daly
The Environment Minister has given a further indication that she intends to recommend lifting the four year clearing ban in the Daly, south west of Darwin.
'Secret plan' to keep Haneef in jail
The Australian Federal Police have admitted they had a secret "contingency" plan to keep then terrorist suspect Mohamed Haneef behind bars if he was bailed by a Brisbane magistrate.
Transform Wasted Chips into Solar Cells
IBM's new breakthrough recycling process, promising to turn semiconductor byproduct into the raw material for silicon-constrained solar panel production, is a shining example of a waste-to-energy success.
Iraqi dam could release 20m wave of destruction
"In terms of internal erosion potential of the foundation, Mosul Dam is the most dangerous dam in the world .... If a small problem at Mosul Dam occurs, failure is likely,"
Birds vanish from wetlands
An aerial survey by UNSW researchers reveals that waterbirds and water have vanished from the northern reaches of Macquarie Marshes wetland, north of Dubbo.
Squirrels safe to eat again in New Jersey
In January, the Garden State warned hunters and residents near a toxic waste dump in Ringwood in North Jersey to limit their consumption of squirrel after the feds thought they found lead in a dead squirrel.
Depleting oil supplies threaten 'meltdown in society'
Energy Watch Group (EWG) analysed oil production figures and predicted it would fall by 7 per cent a year, dropping to half of current levels by 2030.
Egypt launches nuclear power program
Egypt initiated a nuclear energy program in the 1970s but abandoned it in 1986 after the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.
Canada Sets Largest Freshwater Conservation Area
The national marine conservation area will encompass more than 10,000 sq. km (3,900 sq. miles) of Lake Superior, the biggest of the Great Lakes, including lake bed, islands and north shorelands.
Frog killer fungus 'breakthrough'
Chloramphenicol, currently used as an eye ointment for humans, may be a lifesaver for the amphibians.
Origin of “breathable” atmosphere half a billion years ago
Upheavals in the earth's crust initiated a kind of reverse-greenhouse effect 500 million years ago that cooled the world's oceans, spawned giant plankton blooms, and sent a burst of oxygen into the atmosphere.
Vaile questions climate change
Mr Vaile questioned whether the climate is permanently changing, saying there is conflicting evidence.
He says the drought for example may just be part of a normal weather cycle. But he says efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should still be made.
GEO The Environment Under Review
The United Nations Environment Programme says that major threats to the planet such as climate change, the rate of extinction of species, and the challenge of feeding a growing population are among the many that remain unresolved, and all of them put humanity at risk.
It salutes the world’s progress in tackling some relatively straightforward problems, with the environment now much closer to mainstream politics everywhere. But despite these advances, there remain the harder-to-manage issues, the “persistent” problems. Here, GEO-4 says: “There are no major issues raised in Our Common Future for which the foreseeable trends are favourable.”
'A crime against the environment': UN
A United Nations expert has condemned the growing use of crops to produce biofuels in replacement for petrol as a crime against humanity.
Now or never to save the planet: UN
Humanity is changing Earth's climate so fast and devouring resources so voraciously that it is poised to bequeath a ravaged planet to future generations, the United Nations warned in its most comprehensive survey of the environment.
The World Is Not Enough for Humans
Since 1987 annual emissions of carbon dioxide—the leading greenhouse gas warming the globe—have risen by a third, global fishing yields have declined by 10.6 million metric tons and the amount of land required to sustain humanity has swelled to more than 54 acres (22 hectares) per person. Yet, Earth can provide only roughly 39 acres (15 hectares) for every person living today.
Farmed salmon threat to Antarctic krill
Overfishing of shrimp-like crustaceans to feed farmed fish is likely to harm Antarctic ecosystems unless action is taken.
Little is known about the sustainability of krill fisheries, but the US National Environmental Trust (NET) says fishing-industry figures indicate that a catch of 764,000 tonnes will be made in the coming season, 25 per cent above the quota set by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.
Ancient DNA Reveals That Some Neanderthals Were Redheads
DNA retrieved from the bones of two Neanderthals suggests that at least some of them had red hair and pale skin, scientists report in the journal Science. The international team says that Neanderthals' pigmentation may even have been as varied as that of modern humans, and that at least 1 percent of Neanderthals were likely redheads.
Primates On the Brink
One in Four of Mankind’s Closest Living Relatives are at Risk of Extinction
They are mankind’s closest living relatives – thinking, feeling beings that use their hands as we do to shape their surroundings and hold their offspring. Their calls and songs echo through the trees, and we can see some of ourselves in their eyes.
Yet the world’s primates—great apes, monkeys, lemurs, and others—are among the most persecuted of species. Hunters kill them for meat, traders capture them for live sale, and loggers, farmers and developers destroy the tropical forests where they live.
PM and Turnbull in row over policy
In a gift to Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister John Howard and Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull refused to deny reports that Mr Turnbull had made a last-ditch attempt six weeks ago to change Mr Howard's mind on climate change.
Mr Turnbull has been under pressure in his seat, not only on climate change, but also over his recent approval of a large paper pulp mill in Tasmania.
He holds the seat by a margin of only 2.5 per cent.
"Signing" chimp Washoe broke language barrier dies
Washoe, who was 42 years old, could use about 250 distinctive American Sign Language signs

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