Friday, February 22, 2008

ENN: Collapsing world fisheries, bleak conditions for Greece, saving mountain gorillas and much more....

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Friday, February 22, 2008
News of Note

MONACO (Reuters) - A deadly combination of climate change, over-fishing and pollution could cause the collapse of commercial fish stocks worldwide within decades, said Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Program.

"You overlap all of this and you see you're potentially putting a death nail in the coffin of world fisheries," Steiner told reporters on Friday on the fringes of a climate conference involving more than 150 nations and 100 environment ministers.

Top Stories

BEIJING - The results of analyses of fake antimalarials which led to the arrests of counterfeit drug producers in China have been published.

An international consortium of scientists, known as 'Operation Jupiter', conducted physical, chemical and biological analyses on 391 samples of the antimalarial drug artesunate from South-East Asian countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Toxicology experiments on nanomaterials often seem to run the same way: put some nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, quantum dots, or other kind of nanosized structures in a petri dish, water column, soil sample, or lab test tube of choice. Then expose daphnids, microbes, zebrafish, pig lung cells, human skin cells, or other model organisms to the new and exciting materials. Sit back and see what happens.

Borders will matter less to central Africa’s mountain gorillas, following the launch of a strategic conservation plan and an associated project which covers adjoining areas of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

There are only about 720 gorillas left in the tropical mountain forests shared by the three countries, the Central Albertine Rift Area Network. The gorillas’ natural habitat is threatened by the destruction of these forests and the great apes themselves are victims of poachers.

ENN Spotlight

This week on ENN: Gravity powered lamp lasts 200 years, Global fish sources threatened, Clinton and Obama leading the environmental votes, Practicing Green, Sea levels hit a record low in Venice, UK farm chiefurges for solutions to global warming and much more.

More Top Stories

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece will face droughts, higher temperatures and sea levels, and desertification that will damage agriculture and tourism because of climate change, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said on Friday.

"The problem of parched land and drought will intensify and desertification will speed up (in Greece)," Dimas said in a speech. "Areas in seaside towns like Thessaloniki and Messolongi, will most likely find themselves under water."

A collaborative study, with MU graduate student Bill Peterman, recently published in the journal Freshwater Biology, revealed the biomass (total mass of an organism in an area) of the black-bellied salamander far exceeds any previous estimates, and the contribution of the species and its habitat may be critical in the food chain. While the ecological role of the salamander is not fully understood, radio-telemetry and mark-recapture tracking methods used in the study indicate the salamanders are a critical component in the productivity of headwater streams, possibly ensuring the survival of other species of fauna.

MONACO/NAIROBI - Climate change is emerging as the latest threat to the world's dwindling fish stocks a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) suggests.

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By: the Center for Biological Diversity
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the removal of wolves from the Endangered Species Act's list of endangered and threatened species in a vast area of the northern Rocky Mountains and adjoining regions Thursday. The move will strip wolves of federal protections throughout all of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana and portions of Utah, Oregon, and Washington. Officials from both Idaho and Wyoming have made clear that they intend to dramatically increase the numbers of wolves that are shot and killed. By: GUARD Colorado
It is a topic that is both controversial and illuminates the passion on both fronts. Both sides armed with information to convince you that they are in the right. It's in newspapers, town meetings; resolutions are circulating and being passed, and people standing up and getting involved in their communities. A true battle has begun in Northern Colorado. All of this in the name of the proposed uranium mining. By: the Center for Biological Diversity
The Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project reached a settlement this week with the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in eastern Idaho to resolve a lawsuit filed last summer. The settlement requires the U.S. Sheep Station to analyze the environmental effects of the sheep grazing under the National Environmental Policy Act and to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the impacts of the sheep grazing on threatened and endangered species. The Sheep Station is part of the Agricultural Research Service within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. By: Wildlife Trust
In a paper published by the leading scientific journal Nature, scientists at the Consortium for Conservation Medicine (CCM) Wildlife Trust New York, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), Columbia University (New York) and the University of Georgia have announced a major breakthrough in the understanding of what causes diseases like HIV/AIDS and SARS to emerge, and how to further predict and prevent future devastating pandemics by plotting a global map of "Emerging Disease Hotspots." By: the International Fund for Animal Welfare
Senator John Kerry today introduced legislation that would help protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from injury and death due to ship strikes. The Ship Strike Reduction Act of 2008 would require the Bush Administration to finalize a rule establishing speed limits for specified vessels in migratory paths of North Atlantic right whales. The federal rule enforcing the speed limits, known as “the Ship Strike Rule,” was first proposed in February, 2007, but the rule has been buried in the regulatory process for over a year. By: the Center for Biological Diversity
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday that it is proposing a Hawaiian plant, Phyllostegia hispida, from the island of Molokai as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The plant is the first of 280 species that are candidates for protection as endangered species, including 105 from Hawaii, to be proposed for protection in more than three years. The agency has not protected a single new species in 650 days, which includes the entire tenure of Dirk Kempthorne as Secretary of the Interior and is by far the longest period without a new species being protected since the landmark federal law was passed. By: the Center for Biological Diversity
Citing a threat to bats from a new disease that is widespread, severe, and imminent, conservation organizations Monday petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for immediate action to prevent further harm to endangered bats. By: the Center for Biological Diversity
Conservation groups from Panama, Costa Rica, and the United States are preparing to meet with a delegation from the World Heritage Centre and World Conservation Union (IUCN) in Panama to discuss threats to La Amistad International Park. La Amistad is a World Heritage site shared by Panama and Costa Rica that protects the largest, most diverse virgin rainforest remaining in Central America. It is one of the last refuges for such endangered species as the jaguar, ocelot, Central American tapir, resplendent quetzal, and harpy eagle. According to IUCN, the floral diversity of La Amistad is "perhaps unequaled in any other reserve of equivalent size in the world."

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