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One Swamp Forward, Two Swamps Back

Everglades, stripped of U.N. endangered status, may see federal funding The Florida Everglades may get a budgetary boost from the U.S. government, a month after being removed from the U.N. World Heritage Committee’s list of endangered sites. The nearly $2 billion is part of a $21 billion national water bill expected to be passed by […]

Get the facts, dispel the myths

Did you know you're more likely to die from a falling coconut than a shark bite? It's true.

Sharks kill an average of five people annually, which is unfortunate to say the least. But when you think about the tens of millions of sharks that are killed each year for their fins, meat, liver oil, and hides, it's easy to see people are a bigger threat to sharks than sharks are to people.

All this week the Discovery Channel will broadcast special programming about these misunderstood masters of the underwater universe. Some of the footage is extraordinarily compelling. Viewers should remember that they need more protection from us than the reverse.

What are you seeing out there?

Saw a black bear with two very cute cubs today. Stopping by a local grocery to pick up some things, I went to note the sighting on their nature sightings board ("what are you seeing? when? where?") and was amazed by the number and types of animals people were recording: there were so many that there wasn't a scrap of room for mine: there were moose, bear, foxes, fishers, mink, eagles, and even a goshawk already up there ... none of which is remarkable in western Mass., which went from being largely deforested for agriculture as late as a century ago, to now being roughly 70 percent wooded. But the ritual of noting in such a public place what's scampering around strikes me as a good one.

So if you're seeing interesting wildlife near you, or have spotted some on your summer trips, leave your fellow Gristers a comment about it.

Any Report on a Storm

New study ties hurricane increase in Atlantic to climate change A new study has linked rising hurricane and tropical storm activity in the Atlantic Ocean to climate change. Noting that the average number of hurricanes and tropical storms in the Atlantic Ocean has more than doubled in the last century from an average of six […]

Organo Failure

California study suggests link between autism and pesticide exposure A “very preliminary” study from the California Department of Public Health suggests that higher rates of autism can be seen in children whose mothers were exposed to two organochlorine pesticides still in use in the United States, endosulfan and dicofol. Organochlorine pesticides, which take a long […]

Army brings blenders to figure out what’s killing off bees

Scientists have pondered whether cell phones are the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, which has wiped out about a quarter of the North American honeybee population and poses a threat to a quarter of our food supply. They’ve also wondered if the cause could be a virus. Or pesticides. Or mites. Or all of the […]

Russia stakes claim to North Pole, and more

Read the news items highlighted in this week’s podcast: How Green Is Your Candidate? Will Santa Be Evicted? We Wouldn’t Kid About This Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Crappiness Pimp My Shrimp Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: How Green Is Your Candidate? Tide Died Take Me To Your Seeder

Liquid Dreams

Could “renewable petroleum” be coming our way? Picture a liquid fuel that is derived from the same feedstocks as cellulosic ethanol (switchgrass, sugarcane, corn stover) but contains 50 percent more energetic content and is made via a process that uses 65 percent less energy. Unlike cellulosic ethanol, this fuel can be distributed via existing oil […]

We Wouldn’t Kid About This

Environmental problems kill some 4 million kids a year, WHO says Gloom and doom alert: About 4 million kids younger than age 5 die every year due to environmental problems including air pollution, water pollution, and chemical exposure, according to a new report from the World Health Organization. In fact, more than 30 percent of […]

Will Santa Be Evicted?

Russia stakes claim to North Pole waters and deep-sea oil and gas In the next few days, Russia plans to launch tiny submarines some 14,000 feet under the North Pole’s sea ice to take geological samples and gather data — the first such journey to carry people to the North Pole’s sea bed. And while […]