KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The world's only naturally migrating whooping cranes, and the species' best chance for survival, died at about twice their normal rate last year and will likely see an overall drop in their numbers, a worrying sign for the once near-extinct bird that has been making a comeback. ... (Link)

NAIROBI, Kenya – Crops have shriveled, hundreds of cattle are dead and the World Food Program said Tuesday that 3.8 million Kenyans need emergency food aid because of a prolonged drought, which is even causing electrical blackouts in the capital because there's not enough water for hydroelectric plants. With rivers thinning to a trickle and mountaintop glaciers shrinking, authorities this month began rationing power in the capital, darkening homes and businesses at least three days a week. In N...

ROME (Reuters) - Illegal fishing is depleting the seas and robbing poor nations in Africa and Asia of resources, but a lack of global cooperation is undermining efforts to track rogue vessels, an environmental group said on Tuesday. The Pew Environment Group, a Washington-based think-tank, has found that a United Nations scheme to oblige ports to crack down on illegal fishing boats is handicapped by a lack of accurate information, implementation and participation. (Link)

Under the current legal hunting rate scientists predict that the world's largest bat, the aptly-named large flying fox or Pteropus vampyrus, faces extinction in six to 81 years. Increasing the urgency to save the large flying fox is the vital role it plays as an ecosystem engineer (a species whose behavior can shape an ecosystem); the species maintains Southeast Asian forests by dispersing a wide variety of seeds over distances farther than most birds and other mammals. ... (Link)

Polar bears have shrunk over the last century, according to research. Scientists compared bear skulls from the early 20th Century with those from the latter half of the century. Their study, in the Journal of Zoology, describes changes in size and shape that could be linked an increase in pollution and the reduction in sea ice. Physical "stress" caused by pollutants in the bears' bodies, and the increased effort needed to find food, could limit the animals' growth, the team said. ... (Link)

(Image) These heart-breaking images show the desperate plight of a whale trapped by equipment used in a controversial form of commercial fishing. The southern-hemisphere humpback became entangled in a long line and was spotted by a snorkeller last week fighting for her life. Long lines, sometimes covering several miles, are left floating out in deep waters and have baited hooks placed on them every few metres. The fishing method has drawn criticism from conservation groups because they in...

Nanyuki, Kenya (AFP) Aug 19, 2009 - In Kenya a bruising and recurring drought is driving huge numbers of subsistence farmers away from rural areas, where they are increasingly reliant on hand-outs, into congested slums. "People are opting to relocate. I know families that are demolishing their houses, selling iron sheets and timber and getting back to the nearest towns and settling in slums," said Steven Waweru, an official with Caritas that helps distribute World Food Programme aid in the regi...

Armed bands are decimating rainforest reserves in northeastern Madagascar, killing lemurs and intimidating conservation workers, despite widespread condemnation by international environmental groups. Several local sources report large-scale logging of valuable hardwoods in Mananara-Nord Biosphere Reserve, Masoala National Park, and Makira. "The terrestrial part of Mananara biosphere has been devastated," a Malagasy source told mongabay.com. " have been threatened with beheading if they conti...

(Purdue University) Urban workers could suffer most from climate change as the cost of food drives them into poverty, according to a new study that quantifies the effects of climate on the world's poor populations. A team led by Purdue University researchers examined the potential economic influence of adverse climate events, such as heat waves, drought and heavy rains, on those in 16 developing countries. Urban workers in Bangladesh, Mexico and Zambia were found to be the most at risk. A team ...

Kenya has been losing 100 lions a year for the past seven years, leaving the country with just 2000 of its famous big cats, says the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) – which concludes the country could have no wild lions at all in 20 years. Conservationists have blamed habitat destruction, disease and conflict with humans for the population collapse. But Laurence Frank, a wildlife biologist at cat conservation group Panthera, thinks the KWS estimate is optimistic. "Lions are disappearing so fast fr...

New pictures released by Conservation International depict a troubling development in Madagascar: the emergence of a commercial bushmeat market for lemurs. ... Photos posted by Conservation International show that endangered lemurs are being illegally killed by poachers to be sold to restaurants in towns as delicacies. Local "mafias" are apparently taking advantage of the breakdown of law and order to pillage Daraina protected forest, a newly established conservation area in the northeastern pa...

Several states prone to natural disasters are measuring the odds on a mega-bet. Concerned observers say those calculations are based on "Lady Luck" and "rolling the dice." Public insurance programs in some coastal states are flirting with the notion of saving millions of dollars every year by shrinking or canceling the coverage they buy from private reinsurers -- the deep-pocketed companies that insure insurers whose exposure to loss exceeds the budgets of some nations. ... (Link)

The CFA chief heavily criticised for his handling of Black Saturday will be responsible for keeping Victoria safe as it faces its worst-ever fire season, Premier John Brumby has said. Mr Brumby warned Victorians that 13 years of drought will make the coming fire season, less than 10 weeks away, potentially more dangerous than 2008-09 during which 173 people died. ... (Link)

THE Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, has warned that money to save endangered wildlife is limited and some species may have to be abandoned when funding decisions are made. In one of the strongest speeches of his ministerial career he told an international conference of ecologists in Brisbane that the Government will shift its focus to protecting ''ecosystems'', rather than putting money into individual projects for endangered animals. (Link)

You may have thought that the silver lining of rising carbon dioxide levels would be a boost in crop yields. But evidence is mounting that we may trade quantity for quality. The discovery that staple crops like wheat have less protein when grown in high concentrations of CO2 has already caused concern, but the bad news doesn't stop there. Ramping up CO2 also changes the balance of amino acids and several trace elements, says Petra Högy from the University of Hohenheim in Germany. ... (Link)

The planet’s ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for July, breaking the previous high mark established in 1998 according to an analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. The combined average global land and ocean surface temperature for July 2009 ranked fifth-warmest since world-wide records began in 1880. (Link)

(Link) A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street a...

Source: Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department contacted the social networking service Twitter over the weekend to urge it to delay a planned upgrade that could have cut daytime service to Iranians, a U.S. official said on Tuesday. "We highlighted to them that this was an important form of communication," said the official of the conversation the department had with Twitter at the time of the disputed Iranian election. He declined further details. (Reporting by Sue Pleming, ...

Julian Metcalfe, the chain's co-founder, has removed tuna and cucumber sandwiches, while he has also banned endangered bluefin tuna from sushi boxes sold at Pret and its sister outlet Itsu. His ban comes after watching environmental documentary The End of the Line, which describes how modern fishing is destroying the oceans' ecosystems. (more) (Link)

At least 30 are dead following a clash between police and Indians protesting oil development in Peru's Amazon region. The Associated Press (AP) and other sources are reporting the violence broke out when authorities attempted to penetrate a road blockade by some 5,000 Indians in the northern province of Utcubamba. "Protest leaders said police opened fire from helicopters with bullets and tear gas, while national police director Jose Sanchez Farfan said Indians attacked officers with firearms,"...

Westboro Baptist Church will be "protesting" in Seattle next weekend (June 13th-15th). They seem to going after Seattle Jews more than gays, but Catholics and Methodists will be getting a dose, too. Here's the itinerary from the WBC site: 06/13/2009 6:15 PM - 7:00 PM Seattle, WA Stroum JCC of Greater Seattle 06/14/2009 08:45 AM - 09:30 AM Seattle, WA Congregation Beth Shalom 06/14/2009 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM Seattle, WA Mt. Zion Baptist Church 06/14/2009 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Seattle, WA St. James ...

Source: Associated Press WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — About 10 anti-abortion protesters gathered across the street from a downtown Wichita vigil where supporters of George Tiller remembered the slain abortion provider. The protesters outside Sunday's vigil were from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, which also pickets military funerals. The protesters held signs emblazoned with such messages as "Abortion is bloody murder" and "Baby killer in hell." The protesters and about 20 Tiller supporters shout...

'Uncontacted' tribes forced to flee armed gangs and bulldozers in forests of Peru, Brazil and Paraguay, says Survival International John Vidal, environment editor Five "uncontacted" tribes are at imminent risk of extinction as oil companies, colonists and loggers invade their territiories. The semi-nomadic groups, who live deep in the forests of Peru, Brazil and Paraguay, are vulnerable to common western diseases such as flu and measles but also risk being killed by armed gangs, according to a...

Australia is exhibiting climate change weather patterns that were not predicted to manifest till 2020, says one of the country’s most prominent climate change scientists. Professor Ian Lowe, AO, an award-winning scientist and author of a number of books on climate change, said that when he wrote his first book, Living in the Greenhouse, in 1989, he summarised what scientists were saying would occur in 2020 if climate change was not addressed. This included predictions that average temperatures...

Source: ABC The British Ministry of Defence has admitted there was a litany of faults with a military transport plane that crashed in Iraq in 2005, killing 10 servicemen including an Australian navigator. Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant Paul Pardoel, 35, was flying on the Hercules when it was shot down by insurgents. Last year a British coroner found there were serious systematic failures in measures to protect the 10 men on board. Now it has been revealed that the C-130 had other faults. ...

The world's most important coral region is in danger of being wiped out by the end of this century unless fast action is taken, says a new report. The international conservation group WWF warns that 40% of reefs in the Coral Triangle have already been lost. The area is shared between Indonesia and five other south-east Asian nations and is thought to contain 75% of the world's coral species. (more) (Link)

Source: mongabay.com A few weeks into the bluefin tuna fishing season and Turkey has decided to go it alone. Breaking international agreements, the Turkish government has announced that it will ignore agreed-upon bluefin tuna quotas. The news is not good for the survival of the critically-endangered fish species, since Turkey operates the largest Mediterranean fleet for bluefin tuna. “Ignoring quota limits means that Turkey will simply bring an end to the bluefin tuna business even faster and...

A top New Zealand climate scientist whose work contributed to a Nobel Peace prize was fired from his job at a state-funded agency Friday for speaking to the media without approval. Jim Salinger was let go for breaching a new policy at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research requiring scientists to have prior approval before speaking to media. … TV One News said Niwa had accused Salinger of "serious misconduct" after he took part in a program the channel produced about glaciers...

There are now 46000 pieces of plastic per square kilometre of the world's oceans killing a million seabirds and 100000 marine mammals each year. Worse still there seems to be nothing we can do to clean it up. So how do we turn the tide? Way out in the Pacific Ocean, in an area once known as the doldrums, an enormous, accidental monument to modern society has formed. Invisible to satellites, poorly understood by scientists and perhaps twice the size of France, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is...

From The Oil Drum: This post relates to an article written by my advisor Charles Hall and a close friend of his. The article is available online, but is behind a paywall for nonacademic IPs. There are only finite resources in the world, but population continues to grow. How will this situation resolve itself? This was a question a group of scientists (Meadows et al), commissioned by the "Club of Rome," attempted to answer back in 1972, in a book called Limits to Growth. The model they presente...