In yet another case of habitat destruction endangering an already protected wildlife species, Australia’s koala bears are facing extinction unless concerned citizens and government officials can stem the tide of urbanization sweeping across the country’s eastern seaboard.
Forty-eight American Nobel Science Prize winners have endorsed John Kerry’s bid for the White House, citing their hope that the Democratic challenger can help the U.S. regain its focus on scientific research and technological development.
Last week, frozen genetic tissue samples from an Arabian oryx, a spotted sea horse and a British field cricket were among the first specimens to be included in a unique project aimed at storing and preserving genetic material from 10,000 or so endangered species from around the globe.
On a beach in North Carolina, my cousin Andy pointed up to the night sky and said, "Look, there’s the Big Dipper!" My two girls, ages seven and 10, followed his hand and, after some squinting and trying really hard, were able to see that those dim beacons formed a pattern, one they’d seen in pictures.
A coalition of environmental groups led by Earthjustice last week filed suit against the Bush administration, asserting that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is failing to protect public health and violating the Clean Air Act by ignoring tons of unaccounted-for mercury emissions each year.
When Ohio University recycling manager Ed Newman wants to see how the campus is recycling he goes right to the heart of the matter—into the dumpster. Though numbers show that students and faculty are recycling a decent 25 to 30 percent of residence and dining hall trash, Newman finds a different story when he goes on a "dumpster dive" into one of the university containers.
Governor Jennifer Granholm Champions Smart Growth Well before she ran as a centrist Democrat and was elected handily to become the first woman to govern Michigan, Jennifer Granholm understood that joining urban Democrats with suburban Republican swing voters was her formula for victory. What ideas in the nation’s eighth-largest state could put black and ethnic […]
Overharvesting Threatens the Booming Herbal Industry Officers confiscated plants with a market value of $250 to $500 per pound from two homes in New York. In Indiana, a two-year investigation led to the issuing of search warrants, misdemeanor charges and the bust of six traffickers. Ordinary drug dealers? Not quite. In both cases the plants […]
Does it Speak for the Family Farmer—or for Large-Scale Agribusiness? Before he goes to his job as communications director for the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, Bryce Oates has to feed his free-range chickens, who are being raised on an antibiotic- and hormone-free diet. Like most farmers in Missouri, Oates can’t make a living from farming […]
Scientists are attributing a rapid collapse of seabird populations around Great Britain’s Northern Isles in recent years to global warming. Rising sea temperatures, they say, are upsetting the delicate balance of the region’s ecological relationships. Microscopic plankton, which form the lowest rung on the marine food chain, are moving north as ocean waters warm, depriving small fish like sandeel of their primary food source. As these populations of small fish decline, area seabirds, which depend on them as food, stop reproducing and eventually starve.
