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High metals content found in some European wines

A study of the metals content of a range of wines from 15 countries found worrisome levels of copper, manganese, and other metals in both red and white wines from France to Hungary. High levels of certain metals in one’s diet have been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis, and regular consumption of […]

When it rains, tailing ponds above Lima to contaminate drinking water

Peru’s government warned this week that when the rainy season arrives, tailing ponds housing tons of mining waste will likely be destabilized and pour contaminated waste into a nearby river that’s a main source of drinking water for the country’s capital.

Overconsumption will have dire consequences, says WWF report

The World Wildlife Fund released its 2008 Living Planet Report on Wednesday, estimating that to maintain current consumption levels, humans will need two planets’ worth of resources by the mid-2030s. Declares the group’s James Leape, “[T]he ecological credit crunch will require even bolder action than that now being mustered for the financial crisis.”

If you thought ignoring financial risks blew up in our faces …

“We have seen the consequences of ignoring risk in the current economic and financial crisis. It has already led to negative growth in rich countries. The risk consequences of ignoring climate change will be very much bigger that the risk consequences of ignoring risk from the financial system.” — Sir Nicholas Stern, former World Bank […]

Prowling Europe’s last lowland old growth forest

While in Poland recently for work, I took a couple days out to see the old growth forest located on the country’s eastern border with Belarus. It’s an incredible place, thick with massive oaks and a myriad of other broadleaf deciduous trees, plus boars, bison, lynx, roe deer, martens, and three packs of wolves running […]

Bad air stripping months off Mexicans’ lives, says study

Once upon a time in Mexico, a study estimated that residents would live 2.4 months longer on average if the air they breathe wasn’t so smoggy. According to the research, published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, cleaning up Mexicans’ drinking water and household fuels as well could increase their life expectancy […]

60 Minutes on T. Boone Pickens

60 Minutes takes a look at T. Boone Pickens:

Endangered status of Northern Rockies gray wolves still in question

The fate of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies is up in the air again, as the Bush administration will open yet another period of public comment on whether the wolves should be kicked off the endangered species list. The wolves, which were delisted in March and relisted in September, are probably just hungry for […]

Up to seven endangered orcas feared dead

A group of 90 orcas that was declared endangered in 2005 may have lost up to seven of its members — the group’s biggest decline in about a decade. Some researchers said the drop is likely tied at least in part to large declines in the orcas’ favorite food: chinook salmon.

Enviro-crimes predicted to rise with effects of climate change

Take a bite out of climate. Photo: A Hermida. McGruff, the police dog that takes a bite out of crime, might soon be biting off more than he can chew thanks to an expected rise in crimes related to climate change: The Australian Strategic Policy Institute pinpoints the risk of carbon market fraud, an increase […]