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Tech NewsUtah’s Great Salt Lake Is Shrinking at an Alarming Rate
Located in Utah, the Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere, but years of drought and over-irrigation of nearby rivers have resulted in dramatic declines in water levels. New satellite photos reveal the disturbing extent to which this ecologically sensitive lake is shrinking. Typically, this iconic lake covers an area … Continued
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Tech News
The Last Great Wilderness Area Is Finally Being Protected
In a rare international collaboration, twenty four countries and the European Union have unanimously agreed to establish the largest marine sanctuary in Antarctica’s Ross Sea, a region which conservationists have called “the last great wilderness on Earth” and “a polar garden of Eden.” The decision was reached today at an international meeting of the Commission … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
ScienceBiology
Planet Earth Will Have Lost Two-Thirds of Wild Vertebrates by 2020
Populations of wild vertebrates are on track to fall 67 percent by 2020, according to a new report on the state of Earth’s ecosystems. It’s another stunning reminder of the scale of humanity’s impact on the planet, and a frightening glimpse into the realities of life in the Anthropocene. This week, the World Wildlife Fund … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
Japan’s ‘Scientific’ Whaling Program Sucks
Once again, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has attempted to create a South Atlantic sanctuary for whales. And once again, it has been thwarted by a pro-whaling coalition led by Nordic nations and Japan—which, in blatant disregard of the UN’s International Court, continues to slaughter whales by the thousands for bullshit “scientific research” purposes. A … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
EartherClimate Change
US Court Says Animals Can Be Listed As Threatened if Climate Change Poses a Risk
In a groundbreaking precedent that will likely be felt for decades to come, a federal appeals court in the US has ruled that a species can be listed as “threatened” based on climate change projections. Earlier today, a three-judge panel of the US 9th Circuit Court unanimously rejected an appeal launched by several oil company … Continued
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Tech News
Eastern Lowland Gorillas Are Now Critically Endangered Thanks to Your Stupid Phone
The eastern lowland gorilla—the largest member of the great ape family—is now officially listed as a critically endangered species, according to data presented today by conservationists. These iconic apes have been in steady decline since the 1990s, the indirect result of our insatiable desire for mobile phones and other technological gadgets. A new analysis published … Continued
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ScienceBiologyTen Thousand Endangered ‘Scrotum Frogs’ Have Mysteriously Dropped Dead In Peru
Peruvian authorities are scrambling to determine why thousands of critically endangered, Titicaca water frogs are washing up belly up, after an environmental group reported the mass die-off last week. According to local activists, untreated sewage sludge is to blame. The Titicaca water frog is one of the strangest amphibians you’ll ever meet. Weighing up to … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
Exotic ‘Twilight Zone’ Reef Is Brimming With Unique Forms of Life
We tend to think of coral reefs as luminous, undersea jungles that pepper the shallow, scuba-friendly tropics. But deeper down, in a region about as bright as Pluto on a sunny day, there lie vast reef ecosystems unknown to science. Richard Pyle, a zoologist at the Bishop Museum, has spent the last twenty years surveying … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
Extinct Trees Found in the Queen’s Royal Garden Aren’t So Extinct
During a recent survey of trees in the Queen’s garden at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland, botanists were shocked to discover the presence of two elms thought to be extinct for nearly a half century. The two trees belong to a species known as the Wentworth elm, and scientists thought it had gone … Continued
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Tech News
Your Laundry Is Worse for the Environment Than You Think
New research shows that as many as 700,000 microscopic fibers are released into the environment each time we do the laundry. It’s a problem with no easy solution in sight. For years, scientists and environmentalists have wondered—and worried—if the simple act of washing our clothes might be triggering the release of microscopic plastic particles. A … Continued
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Tech NewsA Newly Explored Undersea Volcano Is Teeming With Alien Life Forms
Earlier this month, a three-crew submarine dove to Cook seamount, a 13,000-foot-tall extinct volcano off the coast of Hawaii that had never been visited by humans. They discovered dazzling geologic features and a rich array of marine life—including a rare and adorably dopey octopus, and some beautiful purple corals that may be new species. Seamounts, … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
There’s Now an ‘Underwater Yellowstone’ off the Coast of Cape Cod
As the election looms, Obama’s plan to save the planet kicks into high gear. Last month, POTUS vastly expanded Hawaii’s Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, turning it into the world’s largest marine protected area. Today, speaking at the State Department’s Our Oceans conference, he unveiled the first Marine National Monument in the Atlantic, which has been … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
Scientists Baffled as Hundreds of Dead Horseshoe Crabs Wash Ashore in Japan
Horseshoe crabs are known as “living fossils” and for good reason. The blue-blooded, side-walking arthropods have been around for 200 million years, surviving the last five mass extinctions. But something appears to be wrong as hundreds of dead horseshoe crabs have recently washed ashore in southern Japan, leaving scientists confounded. One population of horseshoe crabs, … Continued
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Tech News
Scientists Hope To Foil Deadly Frog Fungus With More Fungus
It’s been called “the worst infectious disease ever recorded among vertebrates.” The devastating effect of the chytrid fungus on frog populations around the world has contributed to the extinction of at least 200 species and no one knows where it came from. But now scientists are hoping to tweak the amphibian’s evolutionary development by bulking … Continued
By Rhett Jones -
Tech News
Queen Bees Lay Fewer Eggs When Exposed to Popular Insecticide
New research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln shows that a widely-used class of nicotine-based insecticides is causing queen bees to lay substantially fewer eggs than normal. This particular class of insecticides—the most popular in the world—has also been linked to colony collapse disorder, a mysterious phenomenon in which the majority of worker bees suddenly abandon … Continued
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Tech News
Our Planet Suffered a ‘Catastrophic’ Loss of Wilderness in Just Two Decades
A disturbing new report shows that 1.3 million square miles of the Earth’s wilderness has been lost since the 1990s—an area half the size of Australia. The researchers say this “catastrophic loss” highlights the need for an international agreement to protect our planet’s invaluable forests. Our planet has lost a tenth of its global wilderness … Continued
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ScienceBiology
We Just Found Out There’s More Than One Species of Giraffe
It seems we’ve been wrong about giraffes since, well, forever. The long-necked, charismatic treetop-munching herbivores you’ll remember from childhood trips to the zoo are not, as biologists long assumed, a single species. In fact, they are four. That is the startling conclusion of a first-of-its-kind genetic analysis of giraffes, which finds that populations from different … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
ScienceBiologyGiant Pandas Are No Longer Endangered
By the mercy of some higher power, the giant panda—an oversized mashup between a raccoon and a sloth whose offspring can’t shit on their own—is no longer endangered. At a meeting of the World Conservation Congress in Hawaii this weekend, experts took giant pandas off the IUCN’s official Red List, citing a population rebound in … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech NewsSolar Power Plant Can’t Figure Out How to Stop Frying Birds
Each year, around 6,000 birds are incinerated after chasing bugs within the Ivanpah concentrated solar thermal plant in the California Mojave Desert. Officials at the facility are enacting all sorts of measures to prevent this ongoing avian massacre—but it’s not clear if anything’s working. Workers at the plant call them “streamers.” It’s when a bird … Continued
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EartherClimate ChangeThis is How South Florida Ends
It’s a scorching midsummer day, and the sawgrass is still under a pale blue sky. Waist-deep in water and sinking slowly into the muck, I fend off mosquitos as a man from South Florida’s Water Management District mixes a bag of salt into a hot tub-sized bucket on the side of the road. Thirty feet … Continued
By Maddie Stone