Ohsoeco

Don’t let the bed bugs bite

Mongabay: Rhett Butler — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:00:00 +0000

BBC: "Night night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed-bugs bite"¦" It’s long been a favourite rhyme to send children off to sleep. But with experts warning of a worldwide bedbug pandemic, will any of us be able to sleep once we’ve turned out the light?, asks Tom de Castella. Vampire fiction may be all the rage. But the true bloodsuckers after twilight are not charismatic updates of Dracula but tiny insects living in our mattresses, headboards and pillows. Yes, bed-bugs are back with a …

Openness urged on UK’s emissions

Mongabay: Rhett Butler — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:00:00 +0000

BBC: The UK government’s chief environment scientist has called for more openness in admitting Britain’s apparent cuts in greenhouse gases are an illusion. Robert Watson says that if emissions "embedded" in imported goods are counted, UK emissions are up, not down. He says the same syndrome is true for other rich nations which off-shored manufacturing industry. That means developing countries – particularly China – are blamed for goods they buy for export to the …

Technique to trace persistent CFCs

Mongabay: Rhett Butler — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:00:00 +0000

BBC: Ultrafine measurements of atmospheric gases could help track down persistent sources of CFCs thought to be slowing the recovery of the ozone layer. The use of the refrigerants and aerosol propellants was restricted by a global treaty in 1987, but they have stayed in the air longer than many expected. A UK-German team has now shown how it is possible to chemically "fingerprint" CFCs to potentially trace their origin. The group’s work is published in the journal …

African livelihoods at risk as species threatened: IUCN

Mongabay: Rhett Butler — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:00:00 +0000

AFP: Millions of Africans may lose a key source of livelihoods as a fifth of freshwater African species are threatened with extinction, the updated Red List of endangered species showed Thursday. Scientists conducting a survey on 5,167 African freshwater species found that some 21 percent of species of fish, molluscs, crabs, dragonflies and aquatic plants were at risk of becoming extinct, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in a statement. As fish is …

Hurricane Earl closes in on East Coast

Mongabay: Rhett Butler — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:00:00 +0000

Reuters: Hurricane Earl began to strafe North Carolina’s barrier islands with dangerous surf and winds on Thursday as it spun parallel to the U.S. East Coast on a northward trek toward New England and Canada. Earl was downgraded to a Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity and had top sustained winds of 110 mph after weakening on Thursday from its Category 4 peak, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Additional weakening was expected but Earl was still a …

Mariner Energy oil rig fire extinguished, no sign of oil spill in Gulf

Mongabay: Rhett Butler — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:00:00 +0000

Christian Science Monitor: A fire on an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico has been extinguished, and officials say oil does not appear to be leaking from the facility. The US Coast Guard is at the platform roughly 80 miles south of Vermillion Bay in Louisiana, and will continue to monitor the facility for signs of a leak, a Coast Guard official said on Thursday. The announcement was welcome news along the beleaguered Gulf coast "" a region that is still working to overcome the effects of the …

Hurricane Earl a Harbinger of Worse to Come?

Mongabay: Rhett Butler — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:00:00 +0000

National Geographic: Hurricane Earl–now a Category 3 hurricane with winds of up to 115 miles (185 kilometers) an hour–is expected to nearly miss North Carolina’s Outer Banks (map) early Friday morning. But the storm could be the first of several intense hurricanes to menace the U.S. East Coast as the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season heats up, according to Jeff Masters, meteorological director for the Weather Underground website. Hurricane Earl’s path is expected to pass about a hundred miles (160 …

Four held after Arctic storm halts Greenland protest

Mongabay: Rhett Butler — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:00:00 +0000

AP: Four Greenpeace activists who clung to an oil rig off western Greenland using rock-climbing gear have been arrested after an Arctic storm forced them to abandon their protest. The four men — from the US, Finland, Poland and Germany — faced preliminary charges of violating a 1,650ft security perimeter around the Stena Don rig and trespassing by climbing on to the installation. The activists had been suspended under the rig since Tuesday to protest over British oil exporter …

African livelihoods at risk as species threatened: IUCN

Mongabay: Rhett Butler — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:00:00 +0000

Fuel tanker runs aground in Canadian Arctic

Mongabay: Rhett Butler — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:00:00 +0000

Reuters: A fuel tanker loaded with 9 million liters (2.4 million gallons) of diesel fuel has run aground in Canada’s Far North but none of the fuel has spilled, the Canadian Coast Guard said on Thursday. The 117 meter (384 foot) vessel, called the Nanny, got hung up on a sand bar southwest of the community of Gjoa Haven in the territory of Nunavut on Wednesday, said Larry Trigatti, superintendent of environmental response in the Canadian Coast Guard’s central and Arctic region. "There’s …