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Archive for March 31st, 2010
Depopulation may be harming the Amazon rainforest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 31st, 2010
Mongabay: Urbanization may be having unexpected impacts in the Amazon rainforest by leaving forest areas vulnerable to exploitation by outsiders, report researchers writing in Conservation Letters. Conducting field surveys during the course of 10,000-kilometers of travel along remote Amazon rivers, Luke Parry of Lancaster University found that a sharp decrease in rural habitation has not been accompanied by a decline in harvesting of wildlife and forest resources, indicating that urban ...
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Italy: Toads able detect earthquake days beforehand, says study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 31st, 2010
Guardian: Toads may be able to detect imminent earthquakes, according to scientists. The finding will add to the accounts through the centuries where animals, from dogs to rats, snakes and chickens, are said to have behaved strangely before an earthquake. In the study published today in the Journal of Zoology, a colony of toads deserted their mating site three days before an earthquake struck L'Aquila in Italy last year – the epicentre was 74km from the area where the animals had normally ...
Water poverty a vital issue for Egypt
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 31st, 2010
National: A conference on environmental security in the Arab world opens in Alexandria today, just days after an Egyptian minister warned that his country has fallen below the water poverty line and amid a government campaign to educate citizens on the economical use of water. The conference, titled Scarce Water, Rising Water: Between Draughts and Flooding -- Arab Policies to Meet Environmental Challenges, will address challenges ranging from rising sea levels to desertification, with a warning ...
Germany: Sturgeons Return to the Danube
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 31st, 2010
Inter Press Service: A century ago, when the Danube was still blue, it teemed with beluga sturgeon, as did the Rhine with salmon. But industrialisation and the construction of canals and dams have destroyed the habitat of both species of fish. These interventions, and other forms of altering water flows, prevent both sturgeon and salmon from swimming upriver to deposit their eggs, a millennia-old ritual that has been thrown off course and is leading to the extinction of these species. The ...