By almost any calculation, the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon is one of the most isolated places in the contiguous United States. Although about half a million people a year hike Grand Canyon trails, only a tiny fraction of them make the arduous trek to the bottom, almost a mile from […]
Tag: pollution
Nearly Every Seabird on Earth Is Eating Plastic
So much plastic trash is flowing into the oceans that 90 percent of seabirds eat it now and virtually every one will be consuming it by 2050. That finding, revealed in a new study published this week, tracks for the first time how widespread plastics have become inside seabirds around the world. “That was shocking,” […]
Poll: Should stricter sonar controls be imposed on the US navy?
Six whales have washed ashore in northern California in the past two months, prompting headlines around the world and attracting droves of tourists, curious about the massive mammals so suddenly out of their natural element. According to a California Academy of Sciences (CAS) necropsy one of those whales, a 32ft female humpback that washed ashore […]
If You Care About Birds, Watch This 4-Minute Video
“Midway Atoll is a collection of three small islands in the North Pacific, and one of the most remote places on earth… located near the apex of what is being called the Pacific Garbage Patch, a swirling soup of millions of tons of plastic pollution. In fact, much of this plastic can not be seen […]
Pesticides decimating dragonflies and other aquatic insects
While recent research (and media attention) has focused on the alleged negative impacts of pesticides on bees, the problem may be far broader according to a new study in the Proceedings of the US Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Looking at over 50 streams in Germany, France, and Australia, scientists in Europe and Australia found that […]
Conserving the long-neglected freshwater fish of Borneo
Borneo is a vast tropical island known for orangutans, rhinos, elephants, sun bears, proboscis monkeys, hornbills, and ubiquitous leeches. Conservationists have championed all of these species (aside from the leeches) in one way or another, but like many tropical regions Borneo’s freshwater species have long been neglected, despite their rich biodiversity and importance to local […]
Munching on marine plastic kills sperm whale
What do children’s toys, balloons, mattresses and plastic bags have in common? They can, along with more non-biodegradable pollutants, be found in the belly of a sperm whale, the topic of a new study in the Marine Pollution Bulletin. The same whale that swallowed Jonah from the Bible, Geppetto from Collodi’s Pinocchio, and the crew […]
Widely used insecticide contaminating water supplies, triggering wildlife die-off in Europe
The world’s most widely used insecticide is devastating dragonflies, snails and other water-based species, a groundbreaking Dutch study has revealed. On Monday, the insecticide and two others were banned for two years from use on some crops across the European Union, due to the risk posed to bees and other pollinators, on which many food […]