Concern is rising among governments worldwide about electronic wastes — discarded computers, televisions, cell phones, audio equipment and batteries — leaching lead and other substances that may seep into groundwater supplies.
Just one color computer monitor or television can contain up to eight pounds of lead. Consider that amount in light of the estimated 12 million tons of “e-wastes” that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates may soon be dumped into American landfills.
Northern Australia has been invaded by one of the world’s worst species of ant, which could affect human health and damage the environment, agriculture, and the economy.
“This little Yellow Crazy ant will destroy our culture, our land, our life,” says Balupalu Yunupingu, Dhimurru senior ranger, north-east Arnhem Land.
The Yellow Crazy ant is recognised by the Global Invasive Species Programme as one of the world’s worst invaders, and represents a major environmental and ec
The global decline of amphibians has received a great deal of attention because amphibians are thought to be indicator species, or ’canaries in a coal mine’ that provide an early warning of environmental degradation. The topic has drawn considerable scientific attention because there is no obvious, simple cause. Researchers are pursuing a handful of explanations for worldwide losses of amphibian populations that are likely to affect all species. Thus, understanding the complexity of the amp
University of Leicester biologist Dr Paul Hart has been carrying out a study to reveal the “Biological and Socio-economic Implications of a Limited Access Fishery Management System”, detailing the arguments for and against keeping different methods of fishing apart.
His aim is to discover a fishery management system which will encourage co-operation between stake-holders using the coastal zone. Dr Hart is working on this with two leading scientists from the University of Wales, Bangor
Animals in the oceans surrounding Antarctica are under increasing threat. Fishery management organisations and governments need to do more to eliminate illegal fishing and regulate better legal fishing in Southern Ocean and adjacent areas according to Professor John Croxall speaking today (17 Feb) at a special symposium – Conserving Migratory Marine Organisms: Protecting animals with ocean-sized habitats organised by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Charismatic
The idea of freezing and storing the genetic materials of endangered plants and animals in some offsite location sounds more like a Jurassic Park sequel than a reality, but it is something that is in the works.
Endangered species protection programs, zoos, and plant conservatories work to preserve the Earth’s animal and plant population, but in order to preserve the richness of biological diversity, alternatives such as gene banking must be used, scientist said today at the American As
Nitrogen is central to food production, helping feed almost 40 percent of the world’s growing population, but the element also starts a cascade that moves through the atmosphere, soils, and waters, dramatically altering the environment.
In order to meet future need and preserve the environment, new strategies and opportunities for improved nitrogen management must be developed, scientists said today at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting.
The U.S. Government is spending millions of dollars to research the feasibility of stuffing carbon dioxide into coal seams and fields of briny water deep beneath the Earth. But, a scientist at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting argues that the government isn’t thinking big enough in its plans to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Dissatisfied with the long-term potential of most current technologies for carbon sequestration, Klaus Lack
Smithsonian scientist challenges results of recent study
Late last year, Frédéric Achard and colleagues published a controversial article in which they contended that earlier estimates of worldwide tropical deforestation and atmospheric carbon emissions were too high. In the February 14 issue of Science, Philip Fearnside from the National Institute for Amazonian Research in Brazil, and William Laurance from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama argue that the Achard st
Brazil’s Pantanal, a vast wetland situated in the center of South America, has become the next frontier for leading-edge eco-tourists in search of ever more exotic flora and fauna. “It’s where people go after they’ve been to Africa,” says Shannon Bouton, a Ph.D. student in the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) at the University of Michigan.
This month, Bouton is publishing the results of her unique study of a wading bird colony in the Pantanal in the February
For the first time ever, a University of Alberta researcher has discovered that an animal species has changed its genetic make-up to cope with global warming. In the past, organisms have shown the flexibility–or plasticity–to adapt to their surroundings, but this is the first time it has been proven a species has responded genetically to cope with environmental forces.
Dr. Stan Boutin, from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, has been studying a
Action on Chemicals Pollution and Support for Africa Agreed at End of Global Environment Ministers Meeting
UNEP’s 22nd Governing Council Starts Making Johannesburg Plan of Implementation Operational
A global crackdown on mercury pollution, an agreement to help rescue the environment of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and assistance for small island states to reduce their vulnerability to climate change, were among the key agreements made at the end of an international en
The danger of a future Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska’s Prince William Sound has declined substantially since the State of Alaska, environmentalists, oil companies, and the fishing industry brought together a risk management team, according to a study in a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®).
Measures taken before the formation of the risk management team had brought down the risk by 75%. Actions taken based on the late 1990’s r
A largely overlooked but significant factor in marine ecology concerns the effects of variable pH on the growth rate and abundance of coastal marine phytoplankton, the base of the marine food chain in productive coastal waters. The pH of the open ocean varies very little. This has led to the common, but faulty, assumption that the pH of coastal waters also varies little and is unimportant.
In an article in a recent issue of the scientific journal Marine Ecology Progress Series, URI Graduate
Globalization of commerce, especially by ships and air traffic, transports hitchhiking plants and animals around the world and in many cases they become pests in the new location –– according to an article in the February 6 issue of the journal Nature. One advantage that could explain their success is that the invaders often arrive without the parasites that hold them in check at home.
First author Mark E. Torchin, assistant research biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara,
The face of Europe’s mountains is changing and could be altered forever if declining agricultural trends continue, warn scientists behind a major new EU research project announced today.
The Euro3.2 million “BioScene” project co-ordinated by the Wye campus of Imperial College London and sponsored by the European Union will evaluate the threats and the opportunities for wildlife conservation resulting from declining agriculture and seek ways of reconciling conservation of biodiversity wi
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