Latest Articles
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Dogs Do the Wild Thing
Africa’s wild dogs, nearly driven to extinction by hunters and dwindling habitat, are making a comeback. Nine dogs — some wild, some raised in captivity — will be released today in South Africa’s Pilanesberg Game Reserve, and if the pack survives in its new home, it will be the first time in decades that the […]
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Cutthroat Competition
A coalition of enviros and fishing groups banded together yesterday in filing a lawsuit to force the feds to protect the Rio Grande cutthroat trout under the Endangered Species Act. Although 95 percent of the fish’s habitat has been lost, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last September that it would not consider adding […]
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Take Those Jobs and Shove 'Em
In an unusual deal that reflects mounting concern about sprawl, computer chip-maker Intel agreed with local officials not to bring too many more jobs to the greater Portland, Ore., metropolitan area. Intel already employs 4,000 people and the deal with Washington County will let it create 1,000 new jobs, but if it exceeds that number […]
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New Marine Motto: Semper Die
Marine life is severely threatened by climate change, according to a new report from the Marine Conservation Biology Institute and the World Wildlife Fund. Among other problems, warming oceans seem to be causing declines in sea critters low on the food chain, which harms fish, whales, and other animals high on the food chain. The […]
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For Fish, a Key Reserve
A remarkable consensus in Florida is pushing to set aside 185 square nautical miles near the Florida Keys to create the largest marine reserve in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world. A proposal for the reserve emerged last month from an advisory committee representing a broad range of interests in the […]
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Crowded Today, Hot Tamale
Dramatic demographic changes are underway in Mexico, which has seen a massive reduction in fertility, from seven children per woman in 1965 to 2.5 per woman today. Still, the population is projected to reach 100 million next year and to continue to add about 1 million people a year over the next three decades. For […]
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Star Warnings
The Brits are spearheading the biggest investigation into the Earth’s climate, a $640 million Living Planet program under the European Space Agency that will use satellites to study weather systems. The first project under the program will study the effects of global warming on polar ice caps, to be started in 2002.
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Afghan Forests No Longer Blanket the Country
Increasing deforestation in war-ravaged Afghanistan is a major concern, the U.N. warned last week. The environmental degradation facing the nation is among the most severe in the world, according to Stephanie Bunker of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of the Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan, and the country is in danger of losing all its […]
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Fusing over Fusion
After years of discouraging setbacks, specialists in hydrogen fusion research are banding together to revive the effort to harness energy from thermonuclear fusion. Believers say fusion energy could become a reality in the mid-21st century. Next month, scientists and engineers from around the world will convene in Snowmass, Colo., at a first-of-a-kind meeting of fusion […]
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There's Farming and Then There's Farming
A while ago, Beth Sawin and Phil Rice, researchers at the Sustainability Institute, put together a graph that I can’t get out of my mind. It shows Midwest corn yields doubling from about 60 bushels per acre in 1950 to 120 bushels on average today. Despite the doubled yield, gross earnings per acre have stayed […]
