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Baltic states failing to protect most damaged sea
Nine Baltic sea states all scored failing grades in an annual WWF evaluation of their performance in protecting and restoring the world’s most damaged sea.
The assessment, presented today at the Baltic Sea Festival, graded the countries on how well they are doing in six separate areas - biodiversity, fisheries, hazardous substances, marine transport and eutrophication - and on how they have succeeded in developing an integrated sea-use management system.
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When glaciers disappear, the bugs move in
We've all been stunned by images showing the dramatic retreat of mountain glaciers. Yet few of us have given much thought to what happens next.
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Cut greenhouse gases to save coral reefs: scientists
To keep coral reefs from being eaten away by increasingly acidic oceans, humans need to limit the amount of climate-warming greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, a panel of marine scientists said on Wednesday.
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'Best Hope At Sustainable Fisheries' Short-changed By Conservation Efforts, Researchers Argue
Small scale fisheries produce as much annual catch for human consumption and use less than one-eighth the fuel as their industrial counterparts, but they are dealt a double-whammy by well-intentioned eco-labelling initiatives and ill-conceived fuel subsidies, according to a University of British Columbia study.
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UN climate talks split over deforestation funds
A 160-nation U.N. climate conference in Ghana split on Friday over ways to pay poor countries to slow deforestation, blamed for producing up to 20 percent of the greenhouse gases caused by human activities.
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Submerged Ghana forest may point to timber bonanza
Logging of a Ghanaian forest submerged 40 years ago by a hydroelectric dam could point to an underwater timber bonanza worth billions of dollars in tropical countries, a senior Ghanaian official said on Monday.
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Vote in Alaska Puts Question: Gold or Fish?
DILLINGHAM, Alaska — Just up the fish-rich rivers that surround this tiny bush town on Bristol Bay is a discovery of copper and gold so vast and valuable that no one seems able to measure it all. Then again, no one really knows the value of the rivers, either. They are the priceless headwaters of one of the world’s last great runs of Pacific salmon.
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Brazil: Setting an Important Precedent for Indigenous Lands
Raposa Serra do Sol is in the Amazon jungle state of Roraima at the northwestern tip of Brazil, a land of water and abundance.
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Receding Arctic icepack opens new shipping frontier
BARROW, Alaska -- Rapidly melting ice on Alaska's Arctic is opening up a new navigable ocean in the extreme north, allowing oil tankers, fishing vessels and even cruise ships to venture into a realm once trolled mostly by indigenous hunters.
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Water Footprints Make A Splash
If the full water requirements of a morning roast are calculated - farm irrigation, bean transportation, and the serving of the coffee - one cup requires 140 liters of water.
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New viral way of life discovered in deep-sea vents
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents look like alien worlds, their landscapes and fauna unlike any on Earth. Now a new study suggests that life works differently there too.
While studying the viruses that inhabit the scalding waters surrounding a vent in the Western Pacific, Eric Wommack noticed that a large proportion turned out to be docile tenants that lurk inside their bacterial hosts without causing much trouble.
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UK citizens using 58 baths of water a day
While each person in the UK drinks, hoses, flushes and washes their way through around 150 litres of mains water a day, they consume about 30 times as much in “virtual” water embedded in food, clothes and other items — the equivalent of about 58 bathtubs full of water every day.
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Making Waves — World Water Week 2008
We are in the midst of World Water Week. The 2008 theme is “Progress and Prospects on Water: For a Clean and Healthy World with Special Focus on Sanitation.” World Water Week is a international conference focused on collaboration and the promotion of work that advances environmental and humanitarian development.
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The Realm of Earthworms: NASA Gets Down to the Nitty-Gritty
When you hear the word "NASA," do visions of rocket ships dance in your head?
Well think again. From now on, it's "earthworms."
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World needs global water agreement now
WWF Director-General James Leape today called on governments to support the entry into force of the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention—an international agreement which could play a key role in water security for about 40% of the world's population.
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Can the Dead Sea Be Brought to Life?
The Dead Sea has been a religious and cultural landmark of the Middle East for thousands of years. Saltier than the oceans, the lake is like none other in the world.
But in the past 30 years, the Dead Sea has lost about a third of its surface area. As much as 95 percent of the flow of its main tributary, the Jordan River, has been diverted for agriculture and domestic use.
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South Asia monsoon rains kill 147 as thousands rescued
Heavy monsoon rains have triggered floods across South Asia in which 147 people have been killed in the past week as the downpours swamped villages and caused landslides, officials said on Monday.
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Amazon Fund seen as "paradigm shift" for forest
An international fund to protect the Amazon forest launched by Brazil this month marks an important step in harnessing the forest's wealth in less destructive ways, a leading Amazon expert said on Thursday.
The $100 million initially pledged by Norway would only have a marginal impact on deforestation even if it was repeated for 20 years, said Carlos Nobre, a senior scientist at the National Institute for Space Research.
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Scientists "listen" to plants to find water pollution
Scientists in Israel have discovered a new way to test for water pollution by "listening" to what the plants growing in water have to say.
By shining a laser beam on the tiny pieces of algae floating in the water, the researchers said they hear sound waves that tell them the type and amount of contamination in the water.
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Oil and gas projects in western Amazon threaten biodiversity and indigenous peoples
According to a new study, over 180 oil and gas "blocks" — areas zoned for exploration and development — now cover the megadiverse western Amazon, which includes Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and western Brazil. These oil and gas blocks stretch over 688,000 km2 (170 million acres), a vast area, nearly the size of Texas.
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Climate change may boost Middle East rainfall
The prospect of climate change sparking food and water shortages in the Middle East is less likely than previously thought, with new research by an Australian climate scientist suggesting that rainfall will be significantly higher in key parts of the region.
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Creating solutions to a water crisis
The International Herald Tribune, August 11, 2008 Monday - The first thing you see is shelf after shelf of plain glass bottles all containing different colored liquids. Some of the liquids are clear, and others whitish, yellowish, brownish, greenish, or almost black. The colors change daily, as does the consistency, and whatever is growing inside.
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U.S. ship heads for Arctic to define territory
A U.S. Coast Guard cutter will embark on an Arctic voyage this week to determine the extent of the continental shelf north of Alaska and map the ocean floor, data that could be used for oil and natural gas exploration.
U.S. and University of New Hampshire scientists on the Coast Guard Cutter Healy will leave Barrow, Alaska, on Thursday on a three-week journey. They will create a three-dimensional map of the Arctic Ocean floor in a relatively unexplored area known as the Chukchi borderland.
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Pacific Shellfish Ready To Invade Atlantic
As the Arctic Ocean warms this century, shellfish, snails and other animals from the Pacific Ocean will resume an invasion of the northern Atlantic that was interrupted by cooling conditions three million years ago, predict Geerat Vermeij, professor of geology at the University of California, Davis, and Peter Roopnarine at the California Academy of Sciences.
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Meltdown in the Arctic is speeding up
Scientists warn that the North Pole could be free of ice in just five years' time instead of 60
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