Feed aggregator
Most UK species in decline, wildlife stocktake shows.
An unprecedented stocktake of UK wildlife has revealed that most species are struggling and that one in three have halved in number in the past half century.
Categories: Ecological News
Death in parched farm field reveals growing India water tragedy.
More than 2,200 farmers in India committed suicide in the past four years, as water loss and drought drove them deeper into debt.
Categories: Ecological News
Why no safe room to run to? Cost and Plains culture.
It is a familiar story in places like Moore, Okla., Joplin, Mo., and across the Great Plains and in the Deep South, where tornadoes are a seasonal threat - no local ordinance or building code requires shelters, either in houses, schools or businesses.
Categories: Ecological News
Oyster leaseholders lose suit blaming oil spill berms for damage.
Oyster growers on both sides of the Mississippi River who sued the state, dredge operators and BP claiming damages to their oyster leases in 2010 during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill had their lawsuit thrown out in two different federal courts on Monday.
Categories: Ecological News
Pain relievers do not cause asthma, study finds.
Some parents have been worried about giving their children pain relievers like ibuprofen and acetaminophen, based on reports that children who take the drugs are more likely to develop asthma. But a new study suggests that the relationship may be little more than a statistical oversight.
Categories: Ecological News
Keystone XL bill heads to House vote but is largely symbolic.
The Republican-controlled House might easily pass a bill that would eliminate the requirement for presidential approval for the Keystone XL pipeline Wednesday, but that's about the only thing that will be easy about the process, experts say.
Categories: Ecological News
What tornado-hit cities like Moore have learned.
New technology and hardened structures certainly help those caught in a tornado’s path. But as disaster experts now know, people in natural disasters need an inner hardiness that keeps them emotionally calm and mentally alert.
Categories: Ecological News
Alter CEQA but don't weaken it.
When it comes to the California Environmental Quality Act, modest changes are needed – better to err on the side of caution, measure the results of this modest reform and then see what, if anything, needs modification, rather than rush ahead and possibly undermine the law's environmental protections.
Categories: Ecological News
A survival plan for America’s tornado danger zone.
It’s worth beginning a conversation about ways to live safer in hazard zones and that big regions of America’s tornado hot zone have deep vulnerability resulting from runaway growth and a human tendency to discount threats that have a low probability but disastrous potential.
Categories: Ecological News
Water funding still on hold in Texas House.
Let the tea party members go back home and explain why they didn’t vote in favor of meeting the state’s water needs. They may argue that they are simply being fiscal conservatives. But my hunch is that a lot of businesses, farmers and residents in their districts will not like that decision.
Categories: Ecological News
Coal boom could destroy Great Barrier Reef.
Australia's Great Barrier Reef is rapidly losing its coral, to the point that the United Nations may soon place the natural wonder on its "in danger" list. Climate change is one culprit, but so is the country's booming mining industry. Environmentalists warn that time is running out for the reef.
Categories: Ecological News
Chemical-safety watchdog criticizes probe of Texas blast.
Officials with the U.S. Chemical Safety Board say they may never know what caused last month's deadly fertilizer-plant explosion in Texas because of interference by federal and Texas agencies, according to a letter sent by the head of the regulatory board to U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.
Categories: Ecological News
Pesticides make a comeback.
Insecticide sales are surging after years of decline, as American farmers plant more corn and a genetic modification designed to protect the crop from pests has started to lose its effectiveness.
Categories: Ecological News
New York City agrees to faster cleanup of PCBs in schools.
With smoke and tar from faulty light fixtures leaking into New York City public school classrooms at alarming rates, the Bloomberg administration said on Tuesday that it would cut in half the time it needed to replace them.
Categories: Ecological News
20 years after fatal outbreak, Milwaukee leads on water testing.
Two decades since a parasite in Milwaukee drinking water killed 69 people and sickened 400,000, the city has become a national leader in testing for unregulated contaminants.
Categories: Ecological News
World not ready for mass flu outbreak: WHO.
The world is unprepared for a massive virus outbreak, the deputy chief of the World Health Organization warned Tuesday, amid fears that H7N9 bird flu striking China could morph into a form that spreads easily among people.
Categories: Ecological News
Science can't pin powerful tornadoes on global climate change.
Powerful tornadoes like the one that leveled parts of an Oklahoma City suburb have varied widely in number in the past three years, for reasons that can't be blamed on climate change, a federal researcher said.
Categories: Ecological News
Oklahoma tornado: Energy dodges a bullet.
Monday's deadly Oklahoma tornado has left relatively intact one of the state's biggest and fastest-growing industries: energy. While hurricanes routinely disrupt offshore oil and gas production, rigs, pipelines, and tanks are comparably unaffected by extreme weather – most of the time.
Categories: Ecological News
Sixty-four companies follow Wal-Mart's effort to reduce suppliers' emissions.
Wal-Mart partnered with the Carbon Disclosure Project in 2005 to measure its greenhouse gas emissions. Two years later, the company started urging its network of now more than 100,000 suppliers to disclose their sustainability performance, too. Others companies have followed its lead.
Categories: Ecological News
Illinois House panel OKs fracking measure.
A bill to regulate horizontal hydraulic fracturing in Illinois was unanimously passed by a House committee Tuesday amid chants of "shame" from opponents who packed the hearing.
Categories: Ecological News



