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Energy and Sustainable Living
Eco-news archive: January-February 2008
Antarctic glaciers surge to ocean
(Feb 24, 2008)
UK scientists working in Antarctica have found some of the clearest
evidence yet of instabilities in the ice of part of West Antarctica.
If the trend continues, they say, it could lead to a significant
rise in global sea level. The new evidence comes from a group
of glaciers covering an area the size of Texas, in a remote and
seldom visited part of West Antarctica.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Shark species face extinction amid overfishing
and appetite for fins
(Feb 18, 2008)
Nine more species of shark are to be added to the endangered list
as scientists warn that oceans are being emptied of the fish by
overfishing and finning. The scalloped hammerhead shark, which
has declined by 99% over the past 30 years in some parts of the
world, is particularly vulnerable and will be declared globally
endangered on the World Conservation Union (IUCN) list.
Read
more. Source: Guardian |
Map shows toll on world's oceans
(Feb 14, 2008)
Only about 4% of the world's oceans remain untouched by human
activity, according to the first detailed global map of human
impacts on the seas. A study in Science journal says climate change,
fishing, pollution and other human factors have exacted a heavy
toll on 40% of the world's waters. Only remote icy areas near
the poles are relatively pristine, but they face threats as ice
sheets melt, they warn.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
The world's rubbish dump: a garbage
tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan
(Feb 5, 2008)
A "plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing
at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the
continental United States, scientists have said. The vast expanse
of debris – in effect the world's largest rubbish dump –
is held in place by swirling underwater currents.
Read
more. Source: The Independent |
Climate 'could devastate crops'
(Feb 1, 2008)
Climate change could cause severe crop losses in South Asia and
southern Africa over the next twenty years, a study in the journal
Science says. The findings suggest southern Africa could lose
more than 30% of its main crop, maize, by 2030. In South Asia
losses of many regional staples, such as rice, millet and maize
could top 10%, the report says.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Climate 'clearly out of balance'
(Jan 25, 2008)
The world's climate is "clearly out of balance and is warming",
the world's largest society of Earth and space scientists has
said in a statement. The American Geophysical Union (AGU) warned
that changes to the Earth's climate system were "not natural".
Changes in temperature, sea level and rainfall were best explained
by the increased concentration of greenhouse gases from human
activities, it added.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Warning on rising Med Sea levels
(Jan 19, 2008)
The level of the Mediterranean Sea is rising rapidly and could
increase by up to half a metre in the next 50 years, scientists
in Spain have warned. A study by the Spanish Oceanographic Institute
says levels have been rising since the 1970s with the rate of
increase growing in recent years. It says even a small rise could
have serious consequences in coastal areas.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Destruction of rainforest accelerates
despite outcry
(Jan 18, 2008)
The destruction of the Amazon rainforest has surged in the past
four months, raising the prospect of 2008 being a disastrous year
for the world's most important eco-system, a senior Brazilian
government scientist has warned. Dr Carlos Nobre, a scientist
with a government agency that monitors the Amazon said thousands
of square miles of rainforest had been destroyed since October,
after four years in which deforestation rates had begun to slow.
Read
more. Source: The Independent |
The environmental impact of India's
Nano car
(Jan 12, 2008)
It may be the world's cheapest car, but is this the direction
that India's promising engineering industry should be taking?
Tata Motors this week launched the Tata Nano, a compact, shoe-boxy
sort of car, with four tiny wheels and one wing mirror.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
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