Latest Articles
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A Gab Fest
Gabon’s government reached an agreement last month with the country’s major logging companies and an assortment of environmental groups to permanently protect a 1,900-square-mile tropical rainforest reserve rich with large mammals and other wildlife. The Lope Reserve has also been nominated to become the first national park in the West African nation. The agreement involves […]
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Smells Fishy
Even low levels of common pesticides can disturb the ability of salmon to smell, possibly reducing their chances of survival, according to research by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Salmon rely heavily on smell to help determine friends, even mates, from foes, and it may be the primary sense the fish use to navigate back […]
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It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (known familiarly as CJD) is something you do not want to get. Your brain degenerates, piece by piece. First you feel depressed, then you have trouble coordinating. You lose sight, speech, motor control, as the disease travels through the brain. When it reaches the control centers for breathing or heartbeat, you die. Medical […]
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Republican Riders in the Saddle Again
Congress’s efforts to pass the massive bills that authorize government spending are being tied up because some Republicans insist on attaching to the bills unrelated amendments called “riders,” many of which aim to undermine environmental protections. Defenders of Wildlife says that Republicans have placed at least 56 anti-environmental riders on 10 appropriations bills, including measures […]
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Smokin' Reefers
Tropical waters in the Northern Hemisphere have been heating up at a dramatic rate, about 1 degree Fahrenheit per decade since 1984, contributing to the unprecedented bleaching of coral reefs over the past 10 years, according to an analysis released last week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA scientists had no explanation for […]
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Weird Science
In a move that has angered the international community, Japan sent out a fleet of ships into the North Pacific on Saturday with the aim of killing three species of whales — minke, sperm, and Bryde’s. An international moratorium on commercial whaling went into effect in 1986, but Japan has continued to hunt several hundred […]
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Beyond a Shadow of a Drought
China is enduring one of the worst droughts in its history, and many experts are worrying that the nation is running out of water for its 1.3 billion people. Some 400 of China’s 668 cities have declared water shortages, which means that taps may work only a few hours a day, if at all. At […]
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20/20 Questions
ABC News is being hit with questions about the integrity of a “20/20” report on organic foods that was aired in February and again in July of this year. The report by John Stossel claimed, among other things, that non-organic produce does not necessarily have more pesticide residue than organic produce. Stossel said this claim […]
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A Little Crab'll Do Ya
Virginia officials have taken the unprecedented step of declaring a 665-square-mile area of the Chesapeake Bay off-limits to fishers in order to protect the area’s beleaguered population of blue crabs. Blue crabs have also been suffering in the estuary of the Altamaha River in Georgia. Long-time Georgia crabber James Holland, tired of seeing his livelihood […]
