07 February 2011
Park officials in Rwanda have reported a rare birth of mountain gorilla twins - no small triumph for the endangered species numbering a mere 780. The successful twin birth is only the second since 2004, and just five previous cases of twins have occurred since record-keeping began 40 years ago, gorilla trackers from the Volcanoes National Park say.
Posted in Mammals0 Comments
07 February 2011
Firefighters on Monday extinguished a massive blaze from an ethanol-laden train that derailed in Hancock County, Ohio. In a spectacular nighttime explosion that could be seen as far as 15 miles away, about 18 tanker cars carrying 320,000 gallons of ethanol tumbled off the tracks Sunday, UPI reports.
Posted in Environmental Disasters0 Comments
07 February 2011
Chesapeake Energy Corp., the second-largest natural gas producer in the U.S., plans to sell $5 billion in assets to shrink its debt burden. The Oklahoma City-based company announced Monday that it will sell all of its Fayetteville Shale holdings along with investments in two companies.
Posted in Natural Gas0 Comments
07 February 2011
The North Atlantic right whale scientists shot with sedatives last month so they could untangle it from fishing ropes has been found dead off the coast of Florida, the Associated Press reported Monday.
Posted in Mammals0 Comments
04 February 2011
Scientists in Hawaii have begun breeding native sea urchins in an effort to curb the growing population of an invasive seaweed species. Two types of invasive seaweed algae, Kappaphycus alvarezii and K. striatum, have been smothering Hawaii's coral reef since they were first introduced in 1974. Now scientists from Anuenue Fisheries Research Center hope to save the fish that depend on the reef by releasing native collector urchins to eat the seaweed, Scientific American reported Friday.
Posted in Aquatic Life0 Comments
04 February 2011
Sierra Leone plans to prohibit imported goods known to damage the ozone layer, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday. Kolleh Bangura, director of the West African nation's EPA, told AFP that a new measure would ban substances known to deplete the ozone, such as old refrigerators. The ban will go into effect April 1.
Posted in Laws & Regulations, Ozone0 Comments
04 February 2011
An extensive drought in the Amazon rain forest last year spurred massive carbon dioxide emissions, British and Brazilian scientists said Thursday. They fear the devastating event may become a common occurrence, turning the world's largest rain forest from an absorber of heat-trapping gases into a source of the harmful emissions.
Posted in Drought & Shortages, Global Warming, Natural Disasters0 Comments
04 February 2011
Tahrir Square swarmed with pro-democracy demonstrators today as protesters turned out in droves yet again to denounce the regime of 30-year President Hosni Mubarak. Thousands of Egyptian anti-government demonstrators flocked to Cairo's central square, numbering as many as 100,000 strong, including families with children, The Associated Press reported Friday. That's the largest turnout since Tuesday, when a quarter-million protesters took to the streets.
04 February 2011
A sizable earthquake struck the India-Myanmar border on Friday, seismologists said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
Posted in Earthquakes0 Comments
03 February 2011
The World Wildlife Federation is urging Croatia to reconsider its new river regulation projects, which pose a serious threat to endangered species and opposes European Union laws, according to the environmental group.
Posted in Rivers, Lakes & Wetlands0 Comments
