The impacts of Hurricane Harvey continue to be felt in the southern U.S., where at least nine people have died after unprecedented flooding in Houston, Texas. The events have sparked early debate over the links between the hurricane and climate change. Commentary from scientists suggests that warming is likely to have intensified its impact. Above-average […]
On the night of Aug. 3 two ships collided south of Hong Kong in the approach waters to the Pearl River Delta. According to information obtained from the Tradewinds News, the Japanese GMS chemical tanker Global Apollon and the Pacific International Lines containership Kota Ganteng had a collision but details remain very slim. Details of […]
By Pete Stauffer Plastic pollution is suffocating the ocean and the animals that call it home. Researchers estimate there are now more than 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean and the number grows every day. This pollution is ravaging our marine ecosystems, entangling and choking wildlife such as seabirds, dolphins, fish and turtles. […]
An 18-foot long whale shark washed up dead on Pamban South Beach in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday. “The cause of death is found to be heavy internal injuries it has suffered when it either hit a rock or a big vessel,” local wildlife ranger S Sathish told the Times of India. […]
Marine life rely on sound to navigate, socialize, and find food and mates, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult for them to hear each other. Noise caused by human activity is now an inescapable threat to their lives. In the video above from Vox, we hear some of the amazing sounds that underwater creatures make, and […]
By Tim Radford Geoengineering, the deliberate alteration of the planet to undo its inadvertent alteration by humans over the past 200 years, is back on the scientific agenda, with a climate compromise suggested as a possible solution. One group wants to turn down the global thermostat and reverse the global warming trend set in train […]
A reef off the coast of Cancún will become the first in the world with its own insurance policy, testing a new strategy meant to encourage local investment in the wellbeing of the reef. Under the policy, created by insurance company Swiss Re and the Nature Conservancy, local hotels and other organizations dependent on tourism […]
By Tim Radford Scientists have calculated yet another item on the human shopping list that makes up the modern world: plastics. They have estimated the mass of all the plastic bottles, bags, cups, toys, instruments and fabrics ever produced and tracked its whereabouts, as yet another index of the phenomenal change to the face of […]
In this video posted to Facebook by Krystal Gamage, two fishermen off the coast of Owls Head, Maine, find a baby seal trapped in plastic fish netting. What happens next is worth watching until the end. Even in the waters of the Antarctic, long thought to be pristine, plastic pollution has recently been measured at […]