"A human fecal bacterium kills coral, new research shows, and U.S. scientists say this is a warning to Florida and the Caribbean to protect prized reefs from sewage or face a threat to a key pillar of their tourism."
"The paper mill lnked to a substantial fish kill in the Pearl River system cautiously admitted responsibility Wednesday, as the trail of dead fish reached Lake Pontchartrain and a reservoir near Jackson, Miss., was opened in an attempt to flush the pollutants out.
"A third or more of all the honey consumed in the U.S. is likely to have been smuggled in from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals. A Food Safety News investigation has documented that millions of pounds of honey banned as unsafe in dozens of countries are being imported and sold here in record quantities."
For the last several years, Pacific coast oyster populations, farmed and wild, have suffered massive, mysterious die-offs. It turns out the culprit is probably ocean acidification -- a consequence of human emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Eric Scigliano reports for onearth August 17, 2011.
"Plants and animals are responding up to three times faster to climate change than previously estimated, as wildlife shifts to cooler altitudes and latitudes, researchers said on Thursday."
"At long last, mainstream media begins to pay attention to the flat denial of basic climate science being pushed by right-wing Republican presidential candidates."
"A giant South American rodent weighing at least 100 pounds (45 kgs) was spotted at a waste-water treatment facility in California recently before disappearing in the brush, according to a wildlife official."
"Four people on average are killed in unprovoked attacks a year, yet humans kill 100 million sharks annually, say marine biologists."
"DENVER—Hispanic leaders in the West have formed a new group called Nuestro Rio to focus attention on the Colorado River, which has sustained generations of Latinos."
"The 12-member congressional supercommittee picked to trim $1.5 trillion from the federal budget will undoubtedly be listening to hundreds of viewpoints on where to cut back. But many of the voices chiming in could be the members' current or former staffers who have close ties to the lobbying world.
More than 100 former staffers of the bipartisan, bicameral supercommittee members have gone to work for entities that lobby Congress, according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.
