A movement to restore the population of bears in the Pyrenees mountains is being opposed by shepherds.
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As France Shops for Bears, Shepherds Feel Threatened
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Category Archives: Environment
Days of the Iguana in the Florida Keys
Parts of the Florida Keys are being overrun by green iguanas. Many are escaped or abandoned pets. They nibble foliage and are a nuisance on the roads.
Read (NPR)
Power lines may provide a haven for bees
Overhead power lines may be reviled by most people but for the humble bee they may be a saviour. The millions of acres of land-strips beneath power lines represent an untapped conservation resource for bees and other threatened creatures, new research suggests.
Read (New Scientist)
Record Tuna Breaks Toxicity Record
The fish caught by a Herndon, Va. angler 40 miles off the southern Delaware coast had mercury levels that were 2 1/2 times higher than the threshold the Food and Drug Administration sets for commercial fish. The mercury also was nearly twice the highest level of mercury ever found by the FDA in fresh or frozen tuna steaks
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Soviet Germ Factories Pose New Threat
For 50 years under Soviet rule, nearly everything about the Odessa Antiplague Station was a state secret, down to the names of the deadly microbes its white-coated workers collected and stored in a pair of ordinary freezers. Today, the Soviets are gone but the lab is still here, in this Black Sea port notorious for its criminal gangs and black markets. It is just one of more than 80 similar “antiplague” labs scattered across the former Soviet Union, from the turbulent Caucasus to Central Asian republics that share borders with Iran and Afghanistan. Each is a repository of knowledge, equipment and lethal pathogens that weapons experts have said could be useful to bioterrorists.
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Beekeepers Are Feeling the Sting of Attrition
Over the past decade, the number of Virginia beekeepers has fallen roughly by half, to between 2,000 and 3,000. The main culprits are two parasitic mites that feast on bees and have killed large numbers of them since the 1980s.
Beekeepers acknowledge concern about their declining numbers. They attribute the trend partly to the ravages of time — most beekeepers are older, and many have died.
Read (Washington Post)
Bay’s ‘Dead Zone’ Covers 41 Percent of Chesapeake
The low-oxygen “dead zone” in the Chesapeake Bay spread in August to cover 41 percent of the bay, the second-worst reading for August in recorded history.
Read (AP via WTOP)
In Catskills, Learning to Live Near Bears
State environmental officials have begun an education campaign to promote peaceful coexistence between humans and bears.
“Remember the scene in ‘The Birds,’ with the birds pecking through the door?” he said. “Well, this was claws coming through the door.”
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Northeastern states plan to cut emissions
Officials in nine northeastern US states reached a deal to cut power plant emissions, despite White House reluctance to act.
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Water returns to Iraqi marshlands
Iraq’s marshlands, drained under Saddam Hussein in the 1990s, are slowly returning to their original state.
Read (BBC)
Survey Confirms Sea Squirts in Maine
A survey of Cobscook Bay has uncovered the presence of sea squirts, an invasive species that scientists fear could overwhelm valuable shellfish beds and alter the marine ecosystem.
Read (AP via WTOP)
Summer Smog Problem Easing in East
Ozone levels are falling in 19 Eastern states where smog has been a recurring problem in summer, helping improve air quality for a third of the nation’s population, the Environmental Protection Agency says.
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Parasite Preying on Shrimp in Oregon
Biologists are concerned about a non-native parasite that’s preying on mud shrimp up and down the Oregon Coast’s estuaries, potentially playing havoc with sensitive ecosystems.
Read (Science Daily)
U.S. Coral Reef Ecosystems in Decline
Coral reef ecosystems, among the oldest and most diverse forms of life, are declining in U.S. waters because of overfishing, climate change, marine diseases, land-based pollution, storms and grounded ships.
Read (WTOP)
New blood pulls Florida panthers back from brink
A controversial plan to add female Texas cougars to the ailing, inbred panther population that was started in 1995 has created fitter animals more likely to survive. The panther population has increased from 30 to 100 in 10 years.
Read (New Scientist)