Climate change puts Mekong species at extinction risk

This wild banana (Musa rubinea) is known only to occur in the Nujiang watershed, Cangyan County in the western Chinese province of Yunnan on the border with Myanmar. This species was one of the new species discovered in the Greater Mekong region of Southeast Asia during 2008. Photo: Markku Hakkinen / WWF Greater MekongNew species

Fertilisers may not help crops of poorest African farmers

Recent studies looked at soil fertility data for maize plots – some that had been cultivated for 100 years – on 260 farms in western Kenya such as this one. Photo: Cornell University Researchers have linked poverty in sub-Saharan Africa with poor soil health, but two new Cornell studies find that the recommended practice of

Trudie Styler invites 6000 Chevron employees to Crude

Crude, the acclaimed and controversial documentary chronicling the USD27 billion lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador, opened in San Francisco, Chevron’s backyard, on Friday. In advance of the premiere, today prominent human rights activist featured in Crude, Trudie Styler, wife of singer Sting, has extended a personal invitation to all 6,000 Bay Area Chevron employees to

World’s biggest offshore windfarm begins operation in Denmark

Denmark is celebrating the inauguration of the world’s largest offshore windfarm, Horns Rev 230 kilometres off the western coast of the country. The windfarm will, when fully operational, boast 91 wind turbines and produce 209 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough for an estimated 200,000 homes. The installation is the world’s largest offshore windfarm for now,

EU calls for decisive progress on climate change agreement

The Swedish Presidency of the EU and the European Commission has called on international negotiators to make decisive progress towards an ambitious global climate change agreement at two weeks of world climate talks in Bangkok starting on 28 September. The Bangkok meeting is the penultimate preparatory session before the Copenhagen U.N. climate conference in December

Improving environmental health, one field at a time

Unique programme for producing potatoes sustainably Potatoes are big business in Wisconsin, more than a quarter billion-dollar industry last year, but it’s a business that can come with a hefty environmental price tag. Large-scale cultivation may rely on chemical pesticides to keep bugs at bay and fertilisers to nourish the soil. An unusual partnership among

Common industrial catalyst sports rafts made of platinum

Rafts of catalytic platinum oxide float above a sea of aluminum oxide, anchored by bonds between platinum and aluminum. Photo: Chuck Peden/Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryBest view yet of catalyst used for energy and environment applications suggests tricks to improve performance Catalysts convert useless or unwanted chemicals into useful or more desirable ones. Research in this

University gets funding to assess carbon sites in Gulf of Mexico

The University of Texas at Austin has received USD6 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Texas General Land Office to identify state-owned areas underlying the Gulf of Mexico where carbon dioxide (CO2) can be stored safely and economically. This study is the first in the U.S. to investigate the potential

Butterflies use more ‘environmental space’ in warmer areas

A butterfly habitat in southern England. Photo: Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Butterflies basking in the relatively warm South of Britain are likely to be more liberal in their choice of where to live than their cousins in the cooler and wetter North, according to new findings published in the journal Ecology Letters. The research,

Senegal seeks UN backing for ‘Great Green Wall’ across Africa

President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal Senegal has called for UN support for the “Great Green Wall” project in which African countries have agreed to plant trees in a band across the breadth of the continent to try to lessen the effects of desertification. President Abdoulaye Wade told the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate that he