entire Web this site Home > eco-news econews archive Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy and Sustainable Living Eco-News: Earth and Its Environment Nature loss 'dwarfs bank crisis' (Oct 11, 2008) The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-commissioned study. It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion. The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide. Read more. Source: BBC Mammals facing extinction threat (Oct 6, 2008) At least 25% of the world's mammal species are at risk of extinction, according to the first assessment of their status for a decade. The Red List of Threatened Species says populations of more than half of mammalian species are falling, with Asian primates particularly at risk. The biggest threat to mammals is loss of habitat, including deforestation. Read more. Source: BBC Warming boosts strongest storms (Sep 4, 2008) The strongest tropical storms are becoming even stronger as the world's oceans warm, scientists have confirmed. Analysis of satellite data shows that in the last 25 years, strong cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons have become more frequent in most of the tropics. Writing in the journal Nature, they say the number of weaker storms has not noticeably altered. Read more. Source: BBC World heading towards cooler 2008 (Aug 25, 2008) This year appears set to be the coolest globally this century. Data from the UK Met Office shows that temperatures in the first half of the year have been more than 0.1 Celsius cooler than any year since 2000. The principal reason is La Nina, part of the natural cycle that also includes El Nino, which cools the globe. Read more. Source: BBC 'Lost world' of gorillas discovered in the Congo (Aug 6, 2008) The discovery of a critically endangered gorilla population in the vast forests of northern Congo is a mammoth 125,000 – double that of previous estimates – should make even the most pessimistic conservation biologist smile. The numbers of western lowland gorillas living across 47,000 square kilometres of dense forestland were thought to have plummeted from 100,000 to half that number since the 1980s. Read more. Source: New Scientist Primates 'face extinction crisis' (Aug 5, 2008) A global review of the world's primates says 48% of species face extinction, an outlook described as "depressing" by conservationists. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species says the main threat is habitat loss, primarily through the burning and clearing of tropical forests. More than 70% of primates in Asia are now listed as Endangered, it adds. Read more. Source: BBC 'Alarming' plight of coral reefs (Jul 11, 2008) A third of the world's reef-building coral species are facing extinction. That is the stark conclusion from the first global study to assess the extinction risks of corals. Writing in the journal Science, researchers say climate change, coastal development, overfishing, and pollution are the major threats. Read more. Source: BBC Extinction risk 'underestimated' (Jul 3, 2008) The risk of extinction for many species may have been seriously underestimated, according to new research published in the journal Nature. Current methods used to assess species on the brink overlook some key factors, a team of scientists claims. These include the ratio of males to females in a population, which can have a profound influence on survival. Read more. Source: BBC Arctic sea ice melt 'even faster' (Jun 19, 2008) Arctic sea ice is melting even faster than last year, despite a cold winter. Data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) shows that the year began with ice covering a larger area than at the beginning of 2007. But now it is down to levels seen last June, at the beginning of a summer that broke records for sea ice loss. Read more. Source: BBC Vast cracks appear in Arctic ice (May 24, 2008) Dramatic evidence of the break-up of the Arctic ice-cap has emerged from research during an expedition by the Canadian military. Scientists travelling with the troops found major new fractures during an assessment of the state of giant ice shelves in Canada's far north. The team found a network of cracks that stretched for more than 10 miles (16km) on Ward Hunt, the area's largest shelf. Read more. Source: BBC Sharks swim closer to extinction (May 23, 2008) More than half of the world's ocean-going sharks are at risk of extinction, a new analysis concludes. Specialists with IUCN (formerly the World Conservation Union) found that 11 species are on the high-risk list, with five more showing signs of decline. Sharks are particularly affected by over-fishing as they reproduce slowly. Read more. Source: BBC Global biodiversity slumps 27% in 35 years (May 13, 2008) The latest data on the global biodiversity of vertebrates shows that it has fallen by almost one-third in the last 35 years. But experts say it may still underestimate the effect humans have had on global species counts. The Living Planet Index (LPI) follows trends in nearly 4,000 populations of 1,477 vertebrate species and is said to reflect the impact humans have on the planet. Read more. Source: New Scientist World carbon dioxide levels highest for 650,000 years, says US report (May 13, 2008) The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a record high, according to the latest figures, renewing fears that climate change could begin to slide out of control. Scientists at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii say that CO2 levels in the atmosphere now stand at 387 parts per million (ppm), up almost 40% since the industrial revolution and the highest for at least the last 650,000 years. Read more. Source: Guardian Rainforest seeds revive lost paradise (May 5, 2008) Six years ago the area around Samboja in Borneo was like much of the world's tropical rainforest: denuded. The trees had been cut for timber, the land burnt, and in place of what should be some of the richest biodiversity on the planet were thousands of acres of grass. But from this ruined landscape a fresh forest has been grown, teeming with insects, birds and animals, and cooled by the return of moist clouds and rain. Read more. Source: Guardian Forecast for big sea level rise (Apr 16, 2008) Sea levels could rise by up to one-and-a-half meters by the end of this century, according to a new scientific analysis. This is substantially more than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast in last year's landmark assessment of climate science. Sea level rise of this magnitude would have major impacts on low-lying countries such as Bangladesh. Read more. Source: BBC Time runs out for islanders on global warming's front line (Mar 30, 2008) Rising sea levels threaten to flood many of the islands in the fertile Ganges delta, leading to an environmental disaster and a refugee crisis for India and Bangladesh. Lying one-third in India and two-thirds in Bangladesh, the Sundarbans are where two of Asia's biggest rivers, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, broaden and violently roll into the Bay of Bengal. The source of the problem is 1,500 miles away, at the source of the Ganges, where melting Himalayan glaciers are raising river and sea levels. Read more. Source: The Observer Antarctic shelf 'hangs by thread' (Mar 25, 2008) A chunk of ice the size of the Isle of Man has started to break away from Antarctica in what scientists say is further evidence of a warming climate. Satellite images suggest that part of the ice shelf is disintegrating, and will soon crumble away. The Wilkins Ice Shelf has been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s. Read more. Source: BBC Glaciers suffer record shrinkage (Mar 17, 2008) The rate at which some of the world's glaciers are melting has more than doubled, data from the United Nations Environment Programme has shown. Average glacial shrinkage has risen from 30 centimetres per year between 1980 and 1999, to 1.5 metres in 2006. Some of the biggest losses have occurred in the Alps and Pyrenees mountain ranges in Europe. Read more. Source: BBC Climate change may spark conflict with Russia, EU told (Mar 10, 2008) European governments have been told to plan for an era of conflict over energy resources, with global warming likely to trigger a dangerous contest between Russia and the west for the vast mineral riches of the Arctic. A report from the EU's top two foreign policy officials to the 27 heads of government gathering in Brussels for a summit this week warns that "significant potential conflicts" are likely in the decades ahead as a result of "intensified competition over access to, and control over, energy resources". Read more. Source: Guardian 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 earlier econews BACK TO TOP

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