Rising Ocean Temperatures and Protected Coral Reefs
Special conservation zones known as marine protected areas provide many direct benefits to fisheries and coral reefs. However, such zones appear to offer limited help to corals in their battle against global warming, according to a new study.
Ancient Sea-Level Rise and Projections for Future Increase
The seas are creeping higher as the planet warms, but scientists have not yet reached a consensus about how high they may go. Projections for the year 2100 range from inches to several feet, or more.
Chevron Suspends Brazil Oil Output Following New Spill
The US oil company Chevron has temporarily halted production operations off southeastern Brazil, after a fresh oil leak was discovered. It has detected what it calls a “small new seepage” of oil on the seabed close to a well in the Frade field, where there was a major leak in 2011…
Controversial dam projects – in pictures
To mark the international day of action for rivers on Wednesday, a look is taken at some of the world’s most contentious dam projects, from the Three Gorges in China to Brazil’s Belo Monte dam.
Rising Sea Levels Seen as Threat to Coastal U.S.
About 3.7 million Americans live within a few feet of high tide and risk being hit by more frequent coastal flooding in coming decades because of the sea level rise caused by global warming, according to new research.
Some Relief for the Reef
United Nations experts will be presented with a petition that has more than 100,000 signatures on it, calling for an end to dredging and development near the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland.
Rethinking Living Shorelines
In response to the detrimental environmental impacts caused by traditional erosion control structures, environmental groups, state and federal resource management agencies, now advocate an approach known as “Living Shorelines” that embraces the use of natural habitat elements such as indigenous vegetation, to stabilize and protect eroding shorelines. By Orrin H. Pilkey, Rob Young, Norma Longo, Andy Coburn.
Salt-loving Plants Could Help Ease Food Crisis
Plant scientists said they had bred a strain of wheat that thrives in saline soils, boosting the quest to feed Earth’s growing population at a time of water stress and climate change. The first beneficiaries of this could be Japanese farmers whose fields were submerged by last year’s tsunami…
Climate change threatens Seychelles habitat
As changing season patterns bring harsher storms, storm surges, higher tides, and also much longer dry spells, international organisations are helping fight climate change in the tiny nation, the only one in the world where 50 percent of the land is a nature reserve.