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Oil hunters invade the Falklands
LONDON, UK, 7 February 2010 (Times) - For two months a sky-blue tug boat has been puttering across the Atlantic dragging a 14,400-tonne oil rig. |
New report highlights threat of climate change on Bermuda
HAMILTON, Bermuda, 6 February 2010 (Royal Gazette) - Up to 14 percent of the Island's land area could soon be at risk of flooding during high tides, while sea level rise and increased storm intensity will also threaten coastal areas. |
Green for go: Bute leads the eco-island race
GLASGOW, UK, 6 February 2010 (Herald) - Bute is set to become the first Scottish island with an officially measured carbon footprint, potentially taking it one step ahead of neighbouring rivals Arran, Mull and Skye in the race to become Scotland’s first “green” island. |
Strategically important A&N command to get a boost
PORT BLAIR, India, 6 February 2010 (Times of India) - India is finally cranking up force-levels and infrastructure at the strategically-located Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the country's last military outpost, to counter China's strategic moves in the Indian Ocean Region as well as deter terrorists, drug-traffickers and pirates from setting up bases in the largely-uninhabited 572-island cluster |
Loss of species hits economy
OSLO, Norway, 5 February 2010 (Reuters) - Losses of biodiversity "have increasingly dangerous consequences for human well-being, even survival for some societies," according to a summary of a 90-nation U.N. backed conference in Norway from February 1-5. |
Arctic climate changing faster than expected
WINNIPEG, Canada, 5 February 2010 (Reuters) - Climate change is transforming the Arctic environment faster than expected and accelerating the disappearance of sea ice, scientists said on Friday in giving their early findings from the biggest-ever study of Canada's changing north. |
Marine reserve gives island paradise a second lease of life
APO ISLAND, Philippines, 5 February 2010 (CNN) - "Welcome, welcome," call out local women holding colorful T-shirts and quilts as pump boats carrying tourists pull up onto the shell-lined beach. "Please look, we have many things to sell." |
Pacific states move to protect tuna industry
MAJURO, Marshall Islands, 5 February 2010 (AFP) - The leaders of eight Pacific island states agreed today to establish an organisation to control the region's valuable tuna industry, a fisheries official said. |
Winning battles but losing the war on invasive alien species
GLAND, Switzerland, 4 February 2010 (ENS) - Invasive alien species are one of the top three threats to the biodiversity of life on Earth, according to the first assessment report on invasives in 57 countries coordinated by the Global Invasive Species Programme, GISP. |
Iceland warns EU over Icesave row
LONDON, UK, 4 February 2010 (BBC) - Iceland has urged EU leaders not to link the Icesave bank dispute to IMF aid for Iceland's battered economy. |
Arctic town gears up for G-7 ministers
IQALUIT, Canada, 3 February 2010 (AP) - This Nunavut Arctic capital on Baffin Island has no stop lights and didn’t start naming its streets until a decade ago. |
Wetland warning
KINGSTON, Jamaica, 3 February 2010 (Gleaner) - Global warming could lead to Palisadoes going under water if Jamaicans do not take care of the wetlands, an expert from the Port Royal Marine Laboratory has warned. |
Report undercuts Kevin Rudd's Great Barrier Reef wipeout
SYDNEY, Australia, 3 February 2010 (The Australian) - Kevin Rudd's insistence that the Great Barrier Reef could be "destroyed beyond recognition" by global warming grates with new science suggesting it will again escape temperature-related coral bleaching. |
Hawaii on track to meet renewable energy goals
HONOLULU, Hawaii, 3 February 2010 (AP) - Two years into Hawaii's ambitious project of vastly increasing the amount of power it gets from renewable sources, state leaders say the islands are on track. |
France backs ban on bluefin tuna exports
LONDON, UK, 3 February 2010 (BBC) - France has added its voice to calls for a ban on the global trade in bluefin tuna, the numbers of which have dwindled through overfishing. |
Philippines fears El Nino drought will cut rice yields
MANILA, Philippines, 2 February 2010 (AFP) - A possible drought caused by the El Nino weather system could slash Philippines rice yields this year, the government warned today, as Manila prepared to deal with any possible crisis. |
Oops! 180 luxury villas built in park
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 2 February 2010 (MSNBC) - Indonesian officials say they are investigating how 180 luxury villas came to be built inside a protected national forest. |
US accused in albatross chick deaths
NEW YORK, US, 1 February 2010 (MSNBC) - Citing a study that lead-based paint kills up to 10,000 albatross chicks each year on an atoll near Hawaii, an environmental group today said it had filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to clean up the contaminants. |
55 countries send UN their carbon-cutting plans
LONDON, UK, 1 February 2010 (BBC) - Fifty-five countries have submitted pledges for curbing greenhouse gas emissions to the UN climate convention. Only three members of AOSIS - the Maldives, the Marshall Islands and Singapore - have submitted pledges to the UNFCCC. |
Taiwan to use DNA to protect whales, dolphins
TAIPEI, Taiwan, 1 February 2010 (AFP) - Taiwan plans to use DNA from whales and dolphins as evidence to convict poachers and protect the endangered marine animals, an official said today. |
Fewer Hawaiian monk seal pups
HONOLULU, Hawaii, 1 February 2010 (Advertiser) - The 2009 Hawaiian monk seal breeding season produced the fewest pups in at least 10 years as the highly endangered marine mammal species continued its slide toward possible extinction. |
Shells bagged for new Sanibel Island reef
FORT MYERS, US, 1 February 2010 (News-Press) - With the metallic scritch of rakes and shovels on calcium carbonate at Sanibel's Bowman's Beach, sweating researchers and volunteers filled orange buckets with white fossilized shell. |
Fishing dispute between Canada, Denmark heats up
ONTARIO, Canada, 31 January 2010 (National Post) - Their dispute over the ownership of tiny Hans Island has cooled in recent years, but conflict between Canada and Denmark is heating up over another diminutive object of contention: the northern shrimp. |
Monster tides smother Torres Strait islands
BRISBANE, Australia, 31 January 2010 (Courier-Mail) - Rising sea levels drove king tides across vulnerable island communities in the Torres Strait, causing damage to homes and infrastructure. |
Pressure mounts for Cyprus peace deal
LONDON, UK, 30 January 2010 (BBC) - On the southern side of the Ledra Street crossing, in the centre of Cyprus' divided capital Nicosia, many of the strange paradoxes of this frozen conflict are played out on a chilly evening. |
Italy halts bluefin fishing for a year
BRUSSELS, Belgium, 30 January 2010 (AFP) - Italy is to stop fishing for bluefin tuna, the lucrative but over-exploited species beloved of Japanese sushi fans, for 12 months, the European Union said today. |
Indonesian military behind illegal logging
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 29 January 2010 (AFP) - The Indonesian military is deeply involved in the trade in illegally felled timber that is destroying vast tracts of pristine forest and contributing to global warming, researchers said today. |
Haiti recovery to take decades
LONDON, UK, 29 January 2010 (BBC) - The acting head of the UN mission in Haiti has said reconstruction will take several decades, following the devastating earthquake two weeks ago. |
Federal offshore energy plans dwarf Cape Wind
EDGARTOWN, US, 29 January 2010 (Vineyard Gazette) - Federal authorities plan to open up almost 4,000 square nautical miles of ocean near the Vineyard for potential wind power generation. |
Oil firms offered tax breaks to work in Shetlands
LONDON, UK, 28 January 2010 (Telegraph) - The North Sea’s final frontier, which is thought to contain as much as a fifth of Britain’s remaining oil and gas reserves, is set to be developed under the plans announced by Alistair Darling. |
In disaster, tensions ease between an island's rivals
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 28 January 2010 (NYT) - Like almost anyone from Hispaniola, the island uncomfortably shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Paloma Rivera is acutely aware that the two nations distrust each other, complain about each other and cite grievances about each other going back well over a century. |
Haiti's few trees at risk as survivors flee to rural areas
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 26 January 2010 (ENS) - The number of people leaving Haiti's earthquake-ravaged cities for rural areas could reach one million, putting pressure on already vulnerable communities in those areas, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization warned yesterday. |
Czechs cede to Micronesia demands seeking power plant review
PRAGUE, Czech Republic, 26 January 2010 (Dow Jones) - The Czech Environment Ministry ceded today to the demands of Micronesia and ordered to subject to an international audit the clearance process of the planned upgrade of a Czech coal-fired power plant, owned by Czech utility CEZ. |
Chagos Islands' future lies with UK
LONDON, UK, 25 January 2010 (Guardian) - The clamour for justice for Chagos Islanders is growing. The conclusion of the 50-year Anglo-American deal to make Diego Garcia (the largest Chagos Island) a US military base will be reached in 2016, and although it is unthinkable that the base will be closed, it provides a chance for islanders to make their case for return – at least to the outer islands. |
UN wrongly linked global warming to natural disasters
LONDON, UK, 24 January 2010 (Times) - The United Nations climate science panel faces new controversy for wrongly linking global warming to an increase in the number and severity of natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods. |
Invasive species wiping out wildlife around the world
LONDON, UK, 22 January 2010 (Telegraph) - The Global Invasive Species Programme said on average there are around 50 non-native species having a negative impact on existing plants and animals in every county around the world. |
It's time to protect Europe's seabirds
CAMBRIDGE, UK, 22 January 2010 (BirdLife) - In the last decade an estimated two million seabirds are thought to have died at the hands of the European fishing industry in the waters around Europe and the Atlantic. |
German Heligoland islands still a minefield for Britain
LONDON, UK, 22 January 2010 (BBC) - Germany's Heligoland islands were part of the British empire in the 19th Century - but they were used to test British bombers after World War II and a vast explosion in 1947 caused massive destruction. |
Indonesia eyes pet market for endangered tigers
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 21 January 2010 (AFP) - The Indonesian government has hatched a plan to save Sumatran tigers from extinction by allowing people to adopt captive-born animals as pets for 100,000 dollars a pair, officials said. |
Angel Island, landmark of U.S. diversity
SAN FRANCISCO, US, 21 January 2010 (Chronicle) - Today is the 100th anniversary of the U.S. immigration station on Angel Island - a place of hope and despair, and a landmark symbolizing the rich history of immigration in this country. |
Animals populated Madagascar by rafting there
ROCKVILLE, US, 20 January 2010 (ScienceDaily) - How did the lemurs, flying foxes and narrow-striped mongooses get to the large, isolated island of Madagascar sometime after 65 million years ago? |
Climate change could drown out Sundarbans tigers
GLAND, Switzerland, 20 January 2010 (WWF) - One of the world’s largest tiger populations could disappear by the end of this century as rising sea levels caused by climate change destroy their habitat along the coast of Bangladesh in an area known as the Sundarbans, according to a new WWF-led study published in the journal Climatic Change.
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Pacific's rising acid levels threatening marine life
SEATTLE, US, 20 January 2010 (Seattle Times) - The most extensive survey of pH levels in the Pacific Ocean confirms what spot measurements have suggested: From Hawaii to Alaska, the upper reaches of the sea are becoming more acidic in concert with rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. |
Island resort to have electric buses
ABU DHABI, UAE, 20 January 2010 (The National) - Two zero-emission electric buses will soon begin ferrying tourists around Sir Bani Yas Island resort.
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U.S. must step up to rescue climate talks
SINGAPORE, 20 January 2010 (Reuters) - UN climate talks face a crisis unless the U.S. Senate passes a climate control bill and failure to do so further risks the future of vulnerable countries such as small island states, Tuvalu said today. |
Small islands await Haitian-type disaster
NEW YORK, US, 19 January 2010 (IPS) - The devastation caused by the earthquake in Haiti last week has brought into sharp focus the threat of another natural disaster waiting to happen: a sea-level rise that could obliterate the world's small island states, triggering fears of mass migration.
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Fight to save dying plant species
JAMESTOWN, St Helena, 19 January 2010 (BBC) - A botanist from Kew Gardens is fighting to save one of the rarest plant species in the world, the Bastard Gumwood tree. |
The Caribbean's wonderfully weird (and threatened) mammals
SAN FRANCISCO, US, 18 January 2010 (Mongabay) - Not many people know the solenodon and the hutia, yet for the fortunate few that have encountered them, these strange little-studied mammals - just barely holding on in the Caribbean island of Hispaniola - deserve to be stars of the animal kingdom. |
The battle over Hawaii's history
HALEIWA, Hawaii, 18 January 2010 (LA Times) - Amateur historian Rick Rogers just knows Europeans visited the islands two centuries before Captain Cook landed in 1778. Trying to prove it and convince professionals, that's another story. |
Tsunami-generating quake possible off Indonesia
PARIS, France, 17 January 2010 (AFP) - A huge wave-generating quake capable of killing as many people as in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami could strike off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and the city of Padang is in the firing line, a team of seismologists said today. |
Islay to run on whisky waste
LONDON, UK, 17 January 2010 (Times) - A Scottish distillery is to launch a pioneering scheme to turn waste sludge from whisky production into green energy. |
Sarawak dams: boon or bane to development?
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, 17 January 2010 (IPS) - Tribal leader Kelak Ubin worries over plans to build a dozen dams in the pristine, interconnected river ecology of Sarawak, home to many ethnic tribes in Malaysia and located north-west of Borneo Island.
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Deal worked out to manage waters off Haida Gwaii
TORONTO, Canada, 16 January 2010 (CTV) - The federal government signed an agreement with the Haida Nation today to jointly manage the planning, operations and management of the waters surrounding southern Haida Gwaii, formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands. |
Antarctic wind farm reduces bases' reliance on diesel
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, 16 January 2010 (Reuters) - The world's southernmost wind farm has been opened in Antarctica, the first in what could be a number of renewable energy projects aimed to lower the frozen continent's reliance on diesel for power. |
Bahrain's pearling heritage
LONDON, UK, 16 January 2010 (Independent) - It's 8.30am and Bahrain's gentle winter sun plays on the water as our boat pulls away from the jetty. |
From slaughter to sanctuary
AUCKLAND, New Zealand, 16 January 2010 (NZ Herald) - To the south and east of New Zealand, in the great Southern Ocean that encircles Antarctica, lie seven island groups. |
Get ready for seven-foot sea level rise
LONDON, UK, 15 January 2010 (Guardian) - The reports from the IPCC are balanced and comprehensive documents summarizing the impact of global warming on the planet. |
Arctic birds fly long distance to avoid predators
TORONTO, Canada, 15 January 2010 (CBC News) - Arctic shorebirds migrate over great distances - from South America to Arctic islands - in part because their eggs are less likely to be eaten in the Far North, researchers have found. |
Feral cats evicted from island
SANTA BARBARA, US, 15 January 2010 (SB Independent) - After five years of planning, $3 million dollars in spending, and the combined efforts of multiple agencies, the feral cat removal project on San Nicolas Island, is reportedly a triumphant success. |
Most Norwegians want Arctic drilling study
OSLO, Norway, 15 January 2010 (Reuters) - The oil industry says the waters near the Lofoten and Vesteraalen islands in the Arctic now have the most prospects off Norway and must be tapped to prolong the North Sea state's oil bonanza as output from mature oilfields declines. |
US rushes troops to Haiti earthquake zone
LONDON, UK, 14 January 2010 (BBC) - The US is sending up to 3,500 soldiers and 2,200 marines to Haiti to help rescue efforts in the wake of the devastating earthquake. |
A better site for Cape Wind
WASHINGTON, US, 13 January 2010 (PRNewswire) - Today in meetings with the U.S. Department of the Interior a compromise will be proposed that moves the project to an alternate site in close proximity to the disputed location and that respects the concerns of Native Americans and other stakeholders, and provides the developer with a strong, economically viable location for Cape Wind. |
Environmental groups sue over Tongass timber sale
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, 13 January 2010 (AP) - Three environmental groups are going to court to try and stop a particularly contentious timber sale of old-growth trees on Prince of Wales Island in the country's largest national forest. |
Sark's first vineyard
LONDON, UK, 13 January 2010 (Times) - The Barclay brothers are investing in a vineyard on Sark with the hope of producing a vintage worthy of the wine list at their exclusive Ritz Hotel in London. |
The cricket that pollinates plants
LONDON, UK, 13 January 2010 (Independent) - Grasshoppers and their relatives can pollinate plants like bees, scientists have discovered. The unexpected finding has come from the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, where a cricket has been seen pollinating an orchid. |
Many feared dead as huge earthquake hits Haiti
LONDON, UK, 13 January 2010 (Guardian) - A huge rescue operation was under way this morning after a powerful earthquake hit Haiti, toppling buildings in the capital Port-au-Prince, burying residents in rubble and sparking tsunami alerts in what is feared to be a major catastrophe. |
Shipping map helps combat invasive species at sea
PARIS, France, 12 January 2010 (AFP) - Invasive species that hitch a ride on cargo ships pose a rising threat to marine biodiversity, with the potential to inflict costs in the billions of dollars. |
Parks Canada plans moose cull in Newfoundland
ST. JOHN'S, Canada, 12 January 2010 (CP) - There are too many moose in Newfoundland's two national parks and a cull is needed because the big animals are eating too many young trees, Parks Canada says. |
Fraser Island's dingo fences working
SYDNEY, Australia, 12 January 2010 (AAP) - The Queensland government says dingo-deterrent fences and grids on Fraser Island are working effectively, despite criticism from locals. |
Tilapia found to be invasive in Fiji
NEW YORK, US, 12 January 2010 (WCS) - The poster child for sustainable fish farming - the tilapia - is actually a problematic invasive species for the native fish of the islands of Fiji, according to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups. |
US airbase tests relations with Japan
TOKYO, Japan, 12 January 2010 (BBC) - It seems a minor matter - whether or not to go ahead with a previously agreed plan to move an American military base on the island of Okinawa. |
Graft threatens Indonesia's carbon offset billions
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 12 January 2010 (Reuters) - Indonesia has the world's third largest area of tropical forest and stands to gain billions of dollars every year from a proposed greenhouse gas offset scheme called reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) that was formalized at recent global climate talks in Copenhagen. |
Pacific islanders bid to stop Czech coal plant
PRAGUE, Czech Republic, 12 January 2010 (Reuters) - Micronesia has filed a plea with the Czech environment ministry using a measure designed originally to settle disputes between near neighbors but which could spur others to do the same when opposing power plants. |
Pious words won't save endangered species
BERLIN, Germany, 12 January 2010 (IPS) - Less than a month after the world's heads of governments failed to sign an international treaty to address climate change at Copenhagen, they are back at making pious speeches, this time in favour of protecting biodiversity, endangered by global warming and other causes.
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32 more islands to become marine parks
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, 12 January 2010 (AsiaOne) - Another 32 islands and their surrounding waters will be gazetted as marine parks soon to add to the existing 42 nationwide. |
Baffin Island caribou sightings few
TORONTO, Canada, 11 January 2010 (CBC) - Inuit living on Baffin Island say they're worried about the caribou this winter, as the animals have not been seen at the usual hunting spots. |
Arctic tern's epic journey mapped
LONDON, UK, 11 January 2010 (BBC) - The Arctic tern's extraordinary pole-to-pole migration has been detailed by an international team of scientists. |
The sinking Sundarbans
LONDON, UK, 11 January 2010 (Independent) - With Copenhagen, Obama’s cap-and-trade bill, and numerous green policy initiatives coming out of Westminster, climate change is finally receiving the attention it deserves in a policy sense. |
Rich nations 'ganged up' in Copenhagen
BEIJING, China, 11 January 2010 (The Age) - China has no regrets over its abrasive negotiating tactics at Copenhagen, saying the ''key lesson'' rich countries should take from the conference is that China cannot be pushed around. |
Biodiversity loss is wake-up call, warns UN
LONDON, UK, 11 January 2010 (BBC) - The UN launches the International Year of Biodiversity today, warning that the ongoing loss of species affects human well-being around the world. |
Coral can recover from climate change damage
ROCKVILLE, US, 10 January 2010 (ScienceDaily) - A study by the University of Exeter in the Bahamas provides the first evidence that coral reefs can recover from the devastating effects of climate change. |
Turning the tides
NEW YORK, US, 10 January 2010 (Daily Freeman) - Trading artisan lattes for rice and beans, Tim Brooks spent 18 days this November in the remote Marshall Islands, a small cluster of islands and atols roughly 2,300 miles from Hawaii’s coast, where he worked to help restore threatened coral reefs. |
Is Washington's orca baby boom a fluke?
SEATTLE, US, 9 January 2010 (AP) - A little over a year after researchers feared a drop in the Northwest's endangered killer whale population meant disaster, the number of orcas has bounced back with six new babies and no whales lost. |
UK wind power blasts off with nine new offshore wind farms
LONDON, UK, 8 January 2010 (ENS) - The development of European offshore wind power accelerated today as the British government announced approval for offshore wind farm development areas with a capacity 10 times greater than Europe's entire existing offshore wind energy capacity. |
North Sea conditions could be harming puffins
SWINDON, UK, 8 January 2010 (PlanetEarth) - A recent crash in puffin numbers on islands off the coasts of northeast Britain could be down to worsening conditions in the North Sea, say scientists. |
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