December 27, 2016 – 2016 was an encouraging year for the endangered ocelots of south Texas! Several females with kittens were documented using remote cameras placed in strategic locations where ocelots live and reproduce. This along with the substantial efforts made by TXDOT to provide wildlife crossings made this recent discovery even more exciting. What […]
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CEC launches video series to celebrate North American monarch conservation efforts
MONTREAL, Dec. 22, 2016 – The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) announces today the release of the video series Collaborating to Conserve: The Monarch Butterfly, featuring leading conservation experts from across North America who describe their cooperative efforts to protect monarch butterfly habitats. Every fall, millions of monarchs undertake a spectacular migration from southern Canada […]
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What satellites can tell us about how animals will fare in a changing climate
Dec. 20, 2016 – From the Arctic to the Mojave Desert, terrestrial and marine habitats are rapidly changing. These changes impact animals that are adapted to specific ecological niches, sometimes displacing them or reducing their numbers. From their privileged vantage point, satellites are particularly well-suited to observe habitat transformation and help scientists forecast impacts on […]
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24,500 Call on the EPA to Ban Roundup
WASHINGTON, D.C. Dec. 20, 2016 – More than 24,000 people from across the country called on the Environmental Protection Agency to ban Roundup unless and until it can be proven safe. The EPA is currently holding a Scientific Advisory Board meeting, reviewing the carcinogenic potential of glyphosate. Last year, the World Health Organization’s IARC (“International […]
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East Antarctic icesheet unsettles science
LONDON, Dec. 19, 2016 – East Antarctica, the supposedly stable sheet of ice that makes up the greater part of the Southern Continent, may not be so stable after all. Scientists from the Netherlands have identified a mechanism that can trigger melting deep in the huge ice shelf. And an international team of researchers has found […]
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1.4 Million Acres of Alaska Public Lands Auctioned for Fossil Fuels
ANCHORAGE, Dec. 14, 2016 – The Bureau of Land Management today auctioned off oil and gas leases across 1.4 million acres of public lands in northern Alaska in a step that will deepen the climate crisis and further endanger polar bears, ice seals and other wildlife. Dozens of activists protested ahead of the sale — […]
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Kelp Beats the Heat
A school of halfmoons in a giant kelp forest off southern California.Photo Credit:Ron McPeak December 13, 2016 – In early 2014, when a large-scale marine heat wave in the Pacific Ocean produced temperature anomalies greater than anything seen since recordkeeping began in the early 1900s, marine scientists saw something else, too: opportunity. Ocean researchers at […]
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New Report Confirms Bee-Killing Pesticides Cause Other Widespread Environmental Harm
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2016— A new report released today by Center for Food Safety (CFS), Net Loss—Economic Efficacy and Costs of Neonicotinoid Insecticides Used as Seed Coatings: Updates from the United States and Europe, shows that the economic and environmental losses associated with widespread overuse of certain pesticide seed coatings greatly outweigh potential gains. The […]
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Ice Age hunters destroyed forests throughout Europe
December 5, 2016 – Large-scale forest fires started by prehistoric hunter-gatherers are probably the reason why Europe is not more densely forested. This is the finding of an international team, including climate researcher Professor Jed Kaplan of the University of Lausanne and archaeologist Professor Jan Kolen of Leiden University. Publication on 30 November in PLOS […]
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Study: Mounting Evidence Supports Eating Less Meat for Health of People, Planet
WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2016 – A new systematic review of dietary patterns and sustainability published in the latest edition of Advances in Nutrition provides additional evidence that diets lower in animal-based foods and higher in plant-based foods are better for the health of people and the planet. The review highlights the urgency of addressing sustainability […]
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World Soil Day hails symbiotic role of pulses to boost sustainable agriculture
ROME, Italy December 5, 2016 – Soil and pulses can make major contributions to the challenge of feeding the world’s growing population and combating climate change, especially when deployed together, according to Soils and Pulses: Symbiosis for Life, a new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization released on World Soil Day. “Soils and pulses […]
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Songbirds Sound the Alarm About Traffic Noise
November 30, 2016 – A new study led by Pacific University biologist Chris Templeton demonstrates that the alarm calls of songbirds are dramatically impaired by road traffic noise. Research by Templeton and colleagues has shown that signals critical for the survival of animals are compromised when birds live near even moderately busy roads. The study appears […]
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Marine Disease Likely to Follow Great Barrier Reef Coral Bleaching
Nov. 28, 2016 – Drew Harvell, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, is widely recognized for her work on marine diseases – specifically, the ecology and evolution of coral resistance to disease as well as evaluating the impacts of a warming climate on coral reef ecosystems. Harvell says the ARC Centre of Excellence for […]
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Endangered species are best protected when their habitats are protected, not when animal predators are killed
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. Nov. 22, 2016 – Americans believe endangered species are best protected when their habitats are protected and not when animal predators are killed, according to new Indiana University research. With the exception of one case involving spiders and frogs, a scientific survey with more than 1,000 participants found overwhelming support for policies that […]
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Lawsuit Challenges Secrecy of First Liquefied Natural Gas by Rail Project in U.S.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2016— Before Alaska Railroad shipped liquefied natural gas (LNG) in September — the first rail shipment of LNG in U.S. history — the Federal Railroad Administration refused to publicly disclose documents showing how the shipments were approved and whether they are safe. The Center for Biological Diversity submitted a Freedom of Information […]
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Outrage as new shark nets installed today in Northern NSW
Nov. 18, 2016 – The Australian Marine Conservation Society expresses grave concern at a kneejerk decision to exempt the NSW Government from national environmental law, allowing the immediate deployment of new shark nets in Northern NSW. On Wednesday 16 November Minister for the Environment and Energy Josh Frydenberg announced that the Federal Government has granted […]
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Deepwater Horizon oil shows up in sparrows
Nov. 16, 2016 -Scientists have identified the first evidence of Deepwater Horizon oil in a land animal – the Seaside Sparrow. The scientists analyzed the diet and feathers of sparrows collected more than a year after the oil spill. The birds that were captured in habitats that were exposed to the oil had a different […]
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Rising CO2 levels may affect most coral reefs and their populations by 2050
Nov. 10, 2016 – Rising CO2 levels may affect most of the world’s coral reefs and the populations which depend on them by 2050, according to a study published November 9, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Linwood Pendleton and Adrien Comte from the Université de Bretagne Occidentale, France, and colleagues. The effects […]
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Global pollution hot spot maps link consumers with impacts
Nov. 3, 2016 – Global trade has changed the way the goods we buy are made: in the 1970s, a majority of goods were purchased in the same country where they were produced. Today, cheap shipping and global outsourcing mean that more and more of what Western consumers buy is produced far away. Environmental footprints […]
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Groups Call on Obama to Align Public Lands Management in Western Colorado With U.S. Climate Goals
DENVER, Nov. 1, 2016 – Conservation groups today called on the Obama administration to align public lands management with U.S. climate goals, in response to a draft proposal that would intensify fossil fuel extraction on 1 million acres of public land and mineral rights in western Colorado. Local groups want to shift their economy away […]