The Guardian-Imagine an oil tanker plowing through the ocean, hauling valuable cargo from resource-rich nations of the world to the countries that need it: but instead of oil, the tanker holds millions of gallons of fresh water. It’s not a vision from some futuristic film or doomsday novel, but the present-day intention of companies trying to launch the bulk water export business -Read Article
ABC-Climate change, over-fishing and other human impacts have pushed the oceans to the brink of a mass extinction that could take tens of millions of years to recover from, an Australian scientist says. Dr John Alroy from Macquarie University in Sydney has used the fossil record of the ocean, dating back more than 500 million years, to study how major changes in marine animal groups take place -Read Article
Sunherald-Officials from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources took oyster fishermen out on the reefs off the Pass Christian Harbor on Wednesday to give them a preview of what to expect from the upcoming oyster season. Catches resulting in an abundance of empty oyster shells led some fishermen to doubt the viability of the season, which typically begins in September or October -Read Article
National Post-A study released on Monday shows that the oilsands industry increases the concentrations of dangerous metals, such as mercury, in locations downstream of development. National or provincial guidelines for the protection of aquatic life were exceeded for seven of these metals: cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, silver and zinc -Read Article
Afrique en ligne- At least 21% of fresh water species in Africa are threatened with extinction by agriculture, use of water, dams invading exotic species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned in a study published on Thursday. In Lake Malawi, oreochromis karongae, a major supply source of fish, has been overfished and seen its population dwindle by 70% in the past 10 years-Read Article
NPR-In Orange Beach, Ala., it’s Ted Scarritt’s business to know the condition of the beach. “Today’s a good day,” he says. Scarritt owns Perdido Beach Services, a company that rents beach chairs and umbrellas. He’s thrilled that the wind is blowing out of the north on this Labor Day weekend, when local businesses hope to get an end-of-summer boost after a miserable season. Scarritt and his workers noticed recently that when the wind came in strong from the south, over a foamy, churned-up Gulf, it was carrying something new onto the beach -Read Article
The Telegraph-Travel along the Amazon is suffering severe disruption because the river has hit its lowest level in more than 40 years near its source in north-eastern Peru. Officials in the Peruvian city of Iquitos said the river level had fallen to 14.4ft, a point not seen in more than four decades, and was predicted to drop further -Read Article
AOL News-A Boston lab hired by the United Commercial Fishermen’s Association to analyze coastal fishing waters says findings suggest the government’s claim that Gulf of Mexico seafood is safe to eat may be premature. The lab, Boston Chemical Data Corp., said it found dispersant in a sample taken near Biloxi, Miss., almost a month after BP said it had stopped using the toxic chemical to break up the record amounts of crude spewed by the Gulf oil spill. The leak was finally capped on July 15 -Read Article
AP-Another oil rig exploded and caught fire Thursday off the Louisiana coast, spreading a mile-long oil sheen in the Gulf of Mexico west of the site of BP’s massive spill. All 13 crew members were rescued. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Coklough said the sheen, about 100 feet wide, was spotted near the platform. Firefighting vessels were battling the flames -Read Article
UPI- Canadian scientists say they are puzzled why dolphins, which normally stay in offshore waters, are showing up close to shore and in inlets on Vancouver Island. Dolphins started moving closer to land in the mid-1980s but the reason is still unknown, researchers said. It could have been a result of a food shortage or changing water temperatures -Read Article
Daily Echo – PLANS to fluoridate Hampshire’s water could be axed as health chiefs lose powers to approve the controversial scheme. The Government has revealed councils are to be given responsibility for fluoridation as part of a shake-up of the NHS that will see strategic health authorities (SHAs) axed. Every local authority in the area affected… Read article
NY Times-In a remote reach of the Gulf of Mexico, nearly 200 miles from shore, a floating oil platform thrusts its tentacles deep into the ocean like a giant steel octopus. The $3 billion rig, called Perdido, can pump oil from dozens of wells nearly two miles under the sea while simultaneously drilling new ones. It is part of a wave of ultra-deep platforms -Read Article
DailyFinance-The BP (BP) oil spill may be over, but controversy over the company’s use of toxic oil dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico is still going strong. Although BP allegedly stopped using the chemicals more than a month ago, area residents claim it is still spraying Corexit, a chemical dispersant, from airplanes and boats -Read Article
Top News – Kapiti Coast District Council had to reduce fluoride dosing in its town supply after it faced public pressure. Previously in the month of June, extremely divided council made the decision that it would retain the usage of fluoride in the water supply for Waikanae, Paraparaumu and Raumati, however, on Thursday, it voted to lessen the usage of the chemical. Read article
USA Today-Where has all the plastic gone? For the first time, oceanographers have quantified the floating plastic debris in the Atlantic Ocean and have come to a surprising conclusion. The amount of plastic hasn’t changed in two decades despite a sharp increase in plastic production and trash, according to a recent report published in Science -Read Article
Physorg-Fertilizer chemicals may pose a bigger hazard to the environment – specifically to creatures that live in water – than originally foreseen, according to new research from North Carolina State University toxicologists -Read Article
Nature-With high Andean peaks and a humid tropical forest, Bolivia is a country of ecological extremes. But during the Southern Hemisphere’s recent winter, unusually low temperatures in part of the country’s tropical region hit freshwater species hard, killing an estimated 6 million fish and thousands of alligators, turtles and river dolphins -Read Article
The Australian-THE company behind last year’s Montara oil spill off the Kimberley coast faces a multi-billion-dollar claim from the Indonesian government. Officials from Jakarta have held negotiations in Perth this week with the Australian subsidiary of Thai-owned explorer PTTEP over the spill, in which thousands of barrels of oil and condensate poured into the Timor Sea and spread into Indonesian waters- Read Article
NPR-Hurricane Katrina, and the destruction it wrought, are often referred to as a natural disaster. Think again, says actor Harry Shearer. In his documentary, The Big Uneasy, Shearer says much of the destruction in New Orleans was man-made and preventable — and largely the fault of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -Read Article
BBC-Brazil’s government has given the formal go-ahead for the building on a tributary of the Amazon of the world’s third biggest hydroelectric dam. After several failed legal challenges, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed the contract for the Belo Monte dam with the Norte Energia consortium -Read Article
BBC-Fresh flooding in southern Pakistan has displaced almost a million people in the past 48 hours, the UN has said. In Sindh province, 70% of the 300,000 residents of the town of Thatta have been forced to flee to safer areas after the Indus river burst its banks. A UN spokeswoman said teams in the south were working around the clock. Further north, floodwaters are starting to recede, revealing the full extent of the damage caused by the disaster that has affected some 17 million people -Read Article
IPS- The U.S. state of Mississippi recently reopened all of its fishing areas. The problem is that commercial shrimpers refuse to trawl because they fear the toxicity of the waters and marine life due to the BP oil disaster. “We come out and catch all our Mississippi oysters right here,” James “Catfish” Miller, a commercial shrimper in Mississippi, said in an interview. Pointing to the area in the Mississippi Sound from his shrimp boat, he added, “It’s the only place in Mississippi to catch oysters, and there is oil and dispersants all over the top of it.” -Read Article
NPR-About 800,000 people have been cut off by floods in Pakistan and are reachable only by air, the United Nations said Tuesday, adding it needs at least 40 more helicopters to ferry lifesaving aid to increasingly desperate people. The appeal was an indication of the massive problems facing the relief effort in Pakistan more than three weeks after the floods hit the country, affecting more than 17 million people and raising concerns about possible social unrest and political instability -Read Article
The Guardian-Cairn Energy has confirmed that it has discovered gas and oil-bearing sands off the coast of Greenland in a move that will heighten fears of environmental campaigners that the Arctic is set to become the scene of the world’s last great dash for oil. Greenpeace’s ship Esperanza is already in the area, protesting against the actions of Cairn Energy, the first company permitted to drill for oil in the sensitive environment -Read Article
NPR-The cleanup effort from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has left behind more than 45,000 tons of garbage. That includes used boom, stained clothing from cleanup workers, tar balls and other trash. And now come questions of where to put that trash. Is it safe for the local landfill? Melissa Block talks to Darryl Malek-Wiley of the Sierra Club in New Orleans about taking out the trash from the Gulf -Read Article
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck requires Flash Player 9 or better.