By Matt Walker Editor, BBC Nature 31 May 2011 Populations of wildlife species in the world-renowned Masai Mara reserve in Kenya have crashed in the past three decades, according to research published in the Journal of Zoology. Numbers of impala, warthog, giraffe, topi, and Coke’s hartebeest have declined by over 70%, say scientists. Even fewer […]
By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF28 May 2011 Early last Tuesday, José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva, a forest activist and tree nut harvester, and his wife, Maria do Espirito Santo, drove a motorcycle through Brazil’s northern Para State, in the Amazon rain forest. As they crossed a river bridge, gunmen lying in wait opened fire with a […]
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer30 May 2011 WASHINGTON — A growing shortage of medications for a host of illnesses – from cancer to cystic fibrosis to cardiac arrest – has hospitals scrambling for substitutes to avoid patient harm, and sometimes even delaying treatment. “It’s just a matter of time now before we call for […]
BY TAKASHI SUGIMOTO, STAFF WRITER31 May 2011 Water levels in the basement of the No. 1 reactor building at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant increased dramatically on May 29 and 30, raising fears of radioactive water leaking from the site. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), said the water level […]
By Yuriy Humber and Stuart Biggs 30 May 2011 Radioactive soil in pockets of areas near Japan’s crippled nuclear plant have reached the same level as Chernobyl, where a “dead zone” remains 25 years after the reactor in the former Soviet Union exploded. Soil samples in areas outside the 20-kilometer (12 miles) exclusion zone around […]
By arevamirpal::laprimavera30 May 2011 Radioactive pollution is now detected in snow and freshwater fish. And Japan’s Kan administration still pushes for nuclear power, not just for the Japanese but for the up-and-coming countries in Asia and the rest of the world. From Mainichi Shinbun Japanese (5/30/2011; link, emphasis added): 山岳愛好家らで作る「高山（たかやま）の原生林を守る会」は２９日、福島市周辺の山岳地帯から採取した雪の放射線量分析結果を公表した。標高１５００メー トル以下を中心に高濃度の放射性セシウムが検出され、最高は箕輪山東斜面の１３３８メートル地点で１キロ当たり２９６８ベクレルだった。市内の阿武隈川の ヤマメなど川魚からは国の暫定規制値（１キロ当たり５００ベクレル）を上回るセシウムが検出され、雪解け水の流入が原因とみられるという。 On May 29, […]
May 30 (Xinhua) – Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) and the Japanese government officials said Monday that two of the utility firm’s employees who have been working at the crippled Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant in northeast Japan may have been exposed to radiation exceeding the legal limit of 250 millisieverts. The two male workers […]
Record rise, despite recession, means 2C target almost out of reach By Fiona Harvey, Environment correspondent, www.guardian.co.uk29 May 2011 Greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year, to the highest carbon output in history, putting hopes of holding global warming to safe levels all but out of reach, according to unpublished estimates from […]
TOKYO, May 29 (MarketWatch) – Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501.TO) is coming to the view that it will be impossible to stabilize the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant by the end of this year, possibly affecting the timing for the government to consider the return of evacuees to their homes near the […]
Increasing levels of ocean acidity could spell doom for British Columbia’s already beleaguered northern abalone, according to the first study to provide direct experimental evidence that changing sea water chemistry is negatively affecting an endangered species. The northern abalone–prized as a gourmet delicacy–has a range that extents along the North American west coast from Baja […]
