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Diary of the Planet | Most Recent First
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Green Group Gives Earth Failing Report Card
January 10, 2002 —
Nearly every global environmental indicator has worsened over the last decade, say the authors of the Worldwatch Institute's annual State of the World report. They liken the deterioration of the health of the planet to "slow-motion terrorism just as threatening over the long term as the events of September 11."
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Atlantic Fish Crisis May Be Due to Global Warming
January 9, 2002 —
Scientists in Great Britain are working to determine whether the cause for plummeting numbers of cod and other fish in the northern Atlantic can be attributed solely to overfishing or whether climate change may also be a factor.]
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Sudden Ice Age or World Drought Possible, Study Says
January 2, 2002 —
If you're concerned about forecasts of long-term global warming, you might be worried about the wrong thing. The United States National Academy of Sciences warns that sudden, unexpected climate change—on a scale that could cause widespread drought or plunge Earth into a deep freeze—poses a more immediate danger.
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White Christmases Increasingly a Dream in U.S.
December 21, 2001 —
In 1942, Bing Crosby crooned about a white Christmas, and a dream is just what a snowy December 25 has become in several parts of the United States, according to statistics provided by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
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Did Planetary "Belch" Cause Prehistoric Warming?
December 27, 2001 —
Around 55 million years ago the Earth belched a massive bubble of methane gas from beneath the sea floor, causing a 100,000-year period of global warming, report scientists. Could it happen again today? Computer models at least raise the possibility that if the oceans warm substantially a similar scenario could arise in the future.
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New Anthrax Case Reported in New York City
October 12, 2001 —
Another case of anthrax infection in America was reported on Friday, this time in New York City, heightening concerns about the possibility of terrorist attacks using bioweapons. A female employee of NBC News who works at the company's headquarters in Manhattan is being treated for anthrax infection, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced on Friday.
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Alien Invasion: Exotic Species Sow Destruction Across the Atlantic
September 24, 2001 —
Non-native zebra mussels that were stowaways on ships from Europe have become a major pest in the United States, clogging inland waterways and pushing indigenous freshwater shellfish to extinction. On the other side of the Atlantic, after hitching a ride on board an aircraft from America, the western corn rootworm is munching the heart out of Europe's farmland.
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U.S. Wildlife Finds Safe Haven on Dangerous Cold War-era Weapons Sites
August 29, 2001 —
Four-meter alligators and giant bass are among hundreds of species thriving at a former U.S. nuclear weapons facility. These are not nuclear mutants, simply specimens grown large because they are not hunted or fished. An unintended benefit of the Cold War arms race has been the protection of huge sanctuaries for animals largely unaffected by nuclear and chemical pollution.
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U.S. Navy Plans for Loud Sonar Raises Fears for Whales
August 20, 2001 —
Imagine a giant boombox dangled underwater, thumping out a kind of oceanic rap music louder than a jackhammer and able to be heard hundreds of miles away. That's a rough description of what the US Navy would like to do to maintain global superiority in the world of submarine stealth.
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West African Sea Turtles Under Threat: Report
August 9, 2001 —
While West Africa is home to some of the world's largest populations of sea turtles and several important feeding and nesting sites, the animals are under threat from the turtle-shell craft industry and systematic slaughter for their meat and eggs beyond what is sustainable, a conservation group says.
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Coral Reef Paradise Found in Remote Indonesian Islands
August 8, 2001 —
In an expedition to the remote Raja Ampat Islands off Indonesia's province of Irian Jaya, scientists have found what appears to be an unparalleled array of marine species—corals, fishes, and mollusks—including some never seen before.
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Overfishing Long Ago Tied to Modern Ecosystem Collapse
August 7, 2001 —
The collapse of many of the world's coastal marine ecosystems is usually blamed on modern human impacts such as pollution, increased nutrient runoff, and global warming. Now, a team of international researchers says the problem also has roots in overfishing hundreds if not thousands of years ago.
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Forecast Sees Halt to Population Growth by End of Century
August 6, 2001 —
There's a high chance that the world's population will stop growing by the end of the 21st century, according to a new study. It predicts that the total number of people may peak in 70 years or so at about 9 billion people, compared with 6.1 billion today. The authors of the report attribute the rosier-than-usual outlook to successful efforts in the last few decades to curb fertility rates.
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Ferocious Tiger Mosquito Invades the United States
July 30, 2001 —
Introduced into the United States in the 1980s, the Asian tiger mosquito is an aggressive carrier of serious human diseases—and is expanding its range faster than a prairie fire. Scientists fear that global warming is likely to make it easier for the nasty biter to spread across North America.
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Bird Extinctions May Hold Clues to Human Survival, Author Says
August 10, 2001 —
The dodo, the great auk, and the tragicomic Mauritius red hen (wiped out because of its fondness for the color red)—may not have been evolution's finest work; but as members of the fast-growing club of extinct species, they've a lot to teach us about our own chances of survival, writes Robert Twigger, author of the recently published "The Extinction Club."
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Lack of Sex Life Threatens Banana Crops
July 27, 2001 —
The banana's sex life—or lack of it—is cause for growing concern to farmers and scientists. The world's fourth largest staple crop can only be reproduced from cuttings, so it is a sitting target for any pest. Scientists from 11 countries are collaborating on a banana genome project to find a way to strengthen the plant's gene pool.
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AIDS at 20: "The Epidemic is Just Starting"
June 5, 2001 —
Twenty years after doctors in Los Angeles reported the first cases of AIDS, the devastating epidemic that followed in the United States is becoming a footnote to a larger story of global catastrophe.
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World Has Enough Water for All, Experts Say—But Only if People Pay
May 1, 2001 —
As water resources grow increasingly scarce, threatening the way of life for billions of people around the world, a number of scientists argue that there can be enough for everyone if communities give it its proper economic value.
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Foot-and-Mouth Leaves Britain With Serious Pollution Problem
April 25, 2001 —
Having culled more than 1.3 million farm animals in a ruthless remedy to
arrest the epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease, British authorities are now
faced with serious public health concerns as they try to find ways to dispose
of the carcasses.
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