Germany Bans Pesticide Blamed for Bee Deaths

Germany has banned a group of pesticides following reports from beekeepers in the country's Baden-Württemberg region that two thirds of their bees have died from clothianidin, a pesticide that attacks the nervous system of any insect that comes into contact with a treated plant.

Used in rapeseed oil and sweet corn, clothianidin is produced by Bayer, a German drug giant currently being sued in the United States by a group of beekeepers from North Dakota who claim that another of their pesticides, imidacloprid, killed thousands of bee colonies in 1995 in what is now known as colony collapse disorder (CCD).

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photo courtesy Chaval Brasil, Creative Commons

Lion Deaths Tied to Climate Change

According to a new study, large numbers of African lions perished from two diseases brought on by droughts and downpours aggravated by climate change. The diseases -- canine distemper virus (CDV) and tick-borne infestations of blood parasites called Babesia -- normally exist in isolation, but on two occasions converged to create lethal, synchronized infections that decimated about one-third of both the Serengeti lion population in 1994 and the Ngorongoro Crater lion population in 2001. The findings were published this week in the journal PLoS ONE.

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• Read the National Geographic story

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• Adopt a lion from the World Animal Foundation for $35
• Sign the "We Can Solve It" petition for a global treaty on climate change
• Analyze and reduce your impact on the environment with the National Grid Floe
  

photo courtesy Lance and Erin, Creative Commons

Martian Soil Appears to Support Life, Scientists "Flabbergasted"

Reuters reported Thursday that researchers are "flabbergasted" at their latest discovery in NASA's Mars Phoenix project. Sam Kounaves, the lead investigator for the lander's wet chemistry laboratory, said, "We basically have found what appears to be the requirements, the nutrients, to support life whether past, present or future." The lander touched down on May 25 and began digging through the Martian surface, collecting soil samples that have been analyzed on board the craft.

Kounaves added, "It is the type of soil you would probably have in your backyard...you might be able to grow asparagus in it really well." Last week, scientists confirmed the existence of ice on the planet.

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• Read the Reuters story
• Visit the Mars Phoenix site
• Visit NASA's Phoenix site
  
• View images of Mars taken by Phoenix
  

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• Donate to the Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize, awarded every two years for outstanding research contributions to astronomy or astrophysics
• Sign a petition to save the Jodrell Bank Observatory, a historic radio telescope in Cheshire, UK, from closure
• Download this month's night sky map and calendar

photo courtesy TravelingMan, Creative Commons

America's Wild Horses in Peril

Following the 1998 massacre of 34 wild horses in the Virginia mountain range outside Reno, Nevada, journalist Deanne Stillman began researching the history of wild horses in the New World. Her new book, Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West, tells the story of the mythical animal, covering the evolution of the wild horse 55 million years ago, its relationship to Native Americans, its use in frontier wars, its symbolic role in American literature and its struggle today against cattle ranchers who consider it a pest.

The book, published this month by Houghton Mifflin, arrives just as the US Fish and Wildlife Service is preparing a plan that may round up and remove hundreds of the horses from Nevada's Sheldon Refuge. This week, animal advocacy group In Defense of Animals launched a campaign to keep the horses in the wild before the public comment period ends on June 30.

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• Read the Economist story

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• Buy Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West on Amazon
• Sign the In Defense of Animals petition to save hundreds of wild horses at Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada

photo courtesy Desert Rider, Creative Commons

UN Urges Southeast Asia to Stop Deforestation

In an effort to stop biodiversity loss by 2020, the United Nations has stepped up the pressure on Southeast Asian countries to end deforestation. In May, 65 nations committed their support to the goal of zero net deforestation set by the Worldwide Fund for Nature, but only two -- Cambodia and Vietnam -- were from Southeast Asia. According to the Center for Biodiversity, the region will lose 75 percent of its 47 million hectares of forest and up to 42 percent of its biodiversity by 2100 at the current rate of deforestation.

In a news conference in Manila last week, Ahmed Djoghlaf, the executive director of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, said that the world was losing the equivalent of 36 football fields of forest every minute, and that 95 countries have already lost all of their forests. Southeast Asian forests have experienced an increase in animal habitat and tree loss due to the illegal lumber trade and large-scale mining.

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• Read the Reuters story
• Visit the Rainforest Action Network
• Read the 13.7 Billion Years editorial, "Happy Markets, Happy Forests"
• Read the 13.7 Billion Years editorial, "Mining for Answers in the Philippines"
  

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• Protect an acre of forest for $15
• Sign the Countdown 2010 petition to stop biodiversity loss
• Sign a petition to save rainforests
  

photo courtesy ahknight, Creative Commons

Ads Urge Carbon Cuts to 1980s Levels

A group of 150 climate change activists have launched a new ad campaign urging world governments to cut carbon dioxide emissions to below the level they were at more than two decades ago, cuts which are more drastic than most nations have currently planned. The signatories of the ad -- which appeared in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune and the Financial Times, among other newspapers -- include American scientists James Hansen and Robert Corell, former Prime Minister of Sweden Goran Persson and former President of Costa Rica, Jose Maria Figueres.

Dr. Hansen, the head of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, has gained prominence for his now infamous warning about rising levels of carbon dioxide from human activities, mainly from burning fossil fuels, which he gave to the US Congress on June 23, 1988. At the time, carbon levels were at 350 parts per million (ppm). Current levels are at 385 ppm.

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• Read the Reuters story
• Read the Washington Post story
• Read Dr. Hansen's full testimony to Congress from June 23, 1988

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• Sign a petition for a global treaty on climate change
• Calculate and reduce your carbon footprint
• Protect one acre of rainforest for $15 to combat climate change

photo courtesy lucias_clay, Creative Commons

DNA Building Blocks Found in Meteorite Formed in Deep Space

Scientists have discovered building blocks of genetic material that were present in meteorites that fell to Earth in the 1960s, giving more weight to the panspermia hypothesis -- that life on the planet may have started from substances originating from deep space.

A team led by Zita Martins, a chemist and astrobiologist at Imperial College in London, found that the meteorites' carbon-based compounds include sugars and amino acids, publishing their findings in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Martins said, "We are not saying that only meteorites contributed to the building blocks of life, but it's a very great contribution."

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• Read the Scientific American story

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• Donate to the Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize, awarded every two years for outstanding research contributions to astronomy or astrophysics
• Sign a petition to save the Jodrell Bank Observatory, a historic radio telescope in Cheshire, UK, from closure
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photo courtesy nycgeo, Creative Commons

Massive Dolphin Slaughter in Japan

Every year from October to March in the small village of Taiji in southern Japan, fishermen round up entire families and pods of dolphins into shallow bays and kill them using knives and spears. It is the largest scale dolphin slaughter in the world. Though it is commonly assumed that the dolphins are killed for their meat, the dolphin conservation group Save the Dolphins argues that it is a form of pest control, and the government condones it as a way to keep the ocean's fish more plentiful for human consumption. Some of the animals are kept alive for use in captive dolphin shows and dolphin swim programs (pictured).

Paul Watson, an ex-Greenpeace activist and current president of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, who was named by Time Magazine in 2000 as one of the "Environmental Heroes of the 20th Century," says, "It is a bloodbath, cruel and barbaric. Each year, the idyllic and peaceful setting of the village...is shattered by almost unspeakable cruelty as incredible pain and ultimate death is inflicted on defenseless dolphins." Studies suggest that dolphins possess a self-awareness that is known only to humans and great apes. Several celebrities support the campaign to end the slaughter, including Susan Sarandon, Pierce Brosnan and Julian Lennon.

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• Read more about the Taiji slaughter at SaveTheDolphins.org
• Read about Sea Shepherd's Taiji dolphin campaign
• Watch Sea Shepherd's dolphin campaign video clips
  
• Read "Deep thinkers: The more we study dolphins, the brighter they turn out to be" (Guardian UK)
• Read "Celebrities bring media attention to Japanese dolphin slaughter" (World Society for the Protection of Animals)
  

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• Sign a Sea Shepherd letter to the prime minister of Japan, urging for the end of the slaughter
• Sign the Ocean Project petition to end the dolphin slaughter
• Adopt a dolphin from Defenders of Wildlife for $20
  

photo courtesy subajogu, Creative Commons

Greenpeace Activists Jailed in Tokyo

Two members of Greenpeace were arrested in Tokyo on Friday, the latest chapter in a growing controversy over whaling. Junichi Sato, 31, and Toru Suzuki, 41, were charged with breaking into and entering the warehouse of postal company Seino Holdings and stealing a 50-pound container of whale meat. Following a four-month undercover investigation, the environmental group revealed their findings to the authorities in May, arguing that meat from the nation's publicly-funded whaling operation was being smuggled by hunters for sale on the black market.

There has been an international moratorium on whaling since 1986, but the Japanese government uses a loophole that permits the "lethal research" of the animals.

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• Read the AFP story
• Read the Yahoo! News story

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• Sign a Greenpeace letter to Japanese Ambasador Ryozo Kato, Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda urging the release of the activists
• Sign a petition to stop Japanese whaling
  

photo courtesy Bozinsky, Creative Commons

Sierra Club Endorses Obama

The environmental group Sierra Club and the United Steelworkers union jointly endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama on Thursday. They noted several of Mr. Obama's environmental plans, including a "cap and auction" system to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, a call for 25 percent of US electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025 and a requirement for polluters to pay for their emissions -- with the monies invested in clean energy and green jobs. They also noted Mr. Obama's opposition to destructive oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and his promise to restore environmental protections that were rolled back by President George W. Bush.

Founded in 1892 by the famed preservationist John Muir, the Sierra Club is America's oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization, with 730,000 members. United Steelworkers represents about 1.2 million active and retired members and is North America's largest industrial labor union.

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• Read the Sierra Club's press release about the endorsement
• Download "Job Opportunities for the Green Economy: A State-By-State Picture of Occupations that Gain from Green Investments," a report by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• Visit the United Steelworkers Web site

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• Sign a petition urging Congress to support incentives for clean energy jobs
• Sign a petition for a global treaty on climate change
  
• Subscribe to the Sierra Club newsletter

photo courtesy jmtimages, Creative Commons

Papua New Guinea's Forests Decimated Within 13 Years

A new report has revealed that 80% of the forests in Papua New Guinea will be destroyed within 13 years due to logging and farming. The five-year study by the Australian National University and the University of Papua New Guinea Remote Sensing Centre found that the South Pacific country is experiencing an annual loss of over 360,000 hectares of forest -- about 1.4 percent of its total land area, which is a little larger than the US state of California.

The study, "State of the Forests of Papua New Guinea," was released earlier this month and has raised doubts about the efficacy of the projects funded by Australia's $200 million international forest carbon initiative. The report states, "It will not be long, perhaps in the lifetimes of the country's current leaders, before the ecology of large portions of the country has been degraded permanently."

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• Read the Australian story
• Download a PDF of a concise version of the report
  
• Visit the Rainforest Action Network
• Read the 13.7 Billion Years editorial, "Happy Markets, Happy Forests"
  

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• Avoid these 400 palm oil products to help save the rainforests
• Sign a petition to save rainforests
  

photo courtesy tutam, Creative Commons

Bush Wants Oil Exploration in Arctic Refuge

President Bush yesterday urged Congress to end the ban on offshore oil drilling and allow oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a 19-million-acre section of northeastern Alaska which has been federally protected since 1960. Democrats argue that current resources are not being fully tapped, as federal data indicates that only about a quarter of the more than 91 million acres the government has already leased for drilling is actually producing oil or natural gas.

The refuge was established in part to protect the region's natural wildlife, including caribou, polar bears, grizzly bears, wolves and falcons, among many other unique and threatened species. Conservationists contend that offshore oil exploration also harms ocean life, as the recent stranding of over 100 rare melon-headed whales off the coast of Madagascar following seismic surveys by Exxon Mobil indicates.

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• Read the New York Times story
• Read the Wall Street Journal story
• Read the Wilderness Society's response to Mr. Bush's speech
  
• Visit the ANWR Web site
• Read the 13.7 Billion Years post about the stranded whales
  

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• Sign a Greenpeace petition urging Senator John McCain to say no to offshore drilling
• Sign Senator Barbara Boxer's petition urging oil companies to stay out of ANWR
  

photo courtesy tomspixels, Creative Commons

Kenya's Maasai Compensated for Lion Attacks

The National Geographic Society announced last week that it will provide a $150,000 emergency grant to the Maasailand Preservation Trust conservation group to fund a program that compensates Maasai for livestock lost to lion attacks around Kenya's Amboseli National Park, in an effort to stop the tribespeople from killing the lions, whose numbers are declining rapidly.

With some estimates putting the area's lion population at less than a hundred, conservationists fear that the big cat may face a regional extinction in a few years. Expanding human communities from a population boom have also threatened the lions' survival.

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• Read the National Geographic story
• Visit the Maasailand Preservation Trust
• Visit Lion Guardians, a Maasailand lion conservation project
  
• Visit Ewaso Lions, a project that supports the co-existence of humans and lions in northern Kenya
  

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• Adopt a lion from the World Wildlife Fund for $25
• Donate to Lion Guardians
  

photo courtesy dandftravel, Creative Commons

Pets Rescued in Iowa Flood

As thousands of residents are forced to evacuate, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has responded to the Iowa flood with teams of animal rescuers. The emergency responders have saved hundreds of stranded pets from what has been the worst flood in the Midwest in 15 years. The Illinois-based PetSmart Charities has sent pet crates, beds, food and supplies for 500 animals as part of the animal relief effort.

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• View the HSUS slideshow
• Read the DogChannel.com story
  

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• Donate to the HSUS Disaster Relief Fund
• Donate to the Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center
  

photo courtesy Feral Indeed!, Creative Commons

Satellite Images Reveal Drastic Changes in Africa

The rapid changes in the African landscape have been captured by satellite imagery, released in a landmark book by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) called Africa: Atlas of Our Changing Environment. The photos show various dramatic shifts due to climate change and human expansion, including glacier loss in Uganda, declining water levels in Lake Chad, disappearance of arable land around Cairo and deforestation in Congo.

Achim Steiner, the UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, said these changes "underline the urgent need for the international community to deliver a new climate agreement by the climate change convention meeting in Copenhagen in 2009 -- one that not only delivers deep emission reductions but also accelerates the flow of funds for adaptation and the climate proofing of economies."

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• See the pictures and read the National Geographic story
• Read the United Nations report

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• Sign the "We Can Solve It" petition for a global treaty on climate change

photo courtesy ArtWerk, Creative Commons

Mangrove Activists Ask Consumers to Eat Less Shrimp

The Mangrove Action Project (MAP) recently launched a Seattle-based consumer awareness campaign called "Shrimp Less, Think More," which urges consumers to "greatly reduce their consumption of imported shrimp" and instead look for local, seasonal shrimp or U.S. farmed shrimp, which "uses environmentally responsible closed systems." They argue that with consumption in the U.S. doubling in the last 10 years, the growing demand for shrimp increases the harmful, unsustainable practice of clearing protective mangrove forests to build commercial shrimp farms.

Though MAP -- which advocates the restoration and preservation of mangrove wetlands around the world -- started in 1992, their message has gained significant momentum from the recent Myanmar cyclone disaster, the death toll of which was exacerbated by the lack of mangrove defenses along the shoreline, deforested for land-use conversion. In studying several cyclone disasters, scientists found less loss of life and destruction in areas where mangrove forests stood their ground.

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• Read the Mangrove Action Project campaign press release
• Read the 13.7 Billion Years editorial, "The Shrimp Effect: Does Eating Shrimp in Canada Kill People in Myanmar?"
• Learn more about mangroves

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• Send a free Mangrove Action Project eCard to your friends and family
• Donate to the Mangrove Action Project
  
• Sign a petition to save the mangroves at Bimini
  

photo courtesy Christolakis, Creative Commons

Scottish City Plans to Be Carbon Neutral

With funding of £1.25m from the government, the Scottish city of Stirling is trying to achieve carbon neutrality in an effort to reduce the area's environmental impact. The specific goal is to bring an individual's annual carbon dioxide level from 12 tons to one ton. Changes in behavior will include increased recycling, turning off lights and buying local and seasonal produce.

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• Read the BBC News story

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• Calculate and reduce your carbon footprint
• Reduce your plastic waste
  

photo courtesy tuxmann, Creative Commons

Seal's Extinction Caused by Humans

The Fisheries Service of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has confirmed the extinction of the Caribbean monk seal, which has not been seen in over half a century. The only subtropical seal native to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, it is the first kind of seal to go extinct due to human activity; in this case, overhunting. Other types of seals at risk for extinction are the Mediterranean monk seal and the Hawaiian monk seal (pictured). The last sighting of a Caribbean monk seal was in 1952.

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• Read the Los Angeles Times story
• Read the NOAA story

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• Adopt a Hawaiian monk seal from Defenders of Wildlife for $20
• Sign a petition to prohibit the extraction of any potential Hawaiian monk seal prey resources from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
• Sign the Countdown 2010 Declaration to stop biodiversity loss by 2010

photo courtesy Chad Podoski, Creative Commons

Celebrities Join World Bank to Save Tigers

Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall and Bo Derek have given their support to the Tiger Conservation Initiative, a new World Bank project to save tigers from extinction. It is a rare wildlife conservation mission for a global agency whose main focus is fighting poverty. The initiative brings together scientists, conservationists and governments in a multi-national effort to stop tiger poaching and illegal trade in the meat, skin and body parts used in Asian medicine. Over the last century, the tiger population has declined from over 100,000 to about 4,000, with a complete loss of three of the nine tiger subspecies.

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• Read the Reuters story
• Learn about tigers at the World Wildlife Fund

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• Adopt a tiger from the World Wildlife Fund for $25
• Sign a petition to save the Indian tiger
  

photo courtesy digitalART (artct45), Creative Commons

Massachusetts Becomes First State to Protect Ocean

Massachusetts has enacted a law that makes it the first state in the US to officially protect the ocean. Now, all offshore businesses must follow rules for any projects in the state's waters, which includes all water three miles from the coastline -- approximately 1.6 million acres. Mining operations, natural gas terminals and wind farms are some of the proposed projects that now will be scrutinized under the new law.

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• Read the New York Times story

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• Send a letter asking your Congressperson to support a new ocean protection bill

photo courtesy Lumiere2005, Creative Commons

More Than 100 Whales Stranded Off Madagascar

Over 100 melon-headed whales became stranded in a bay off northern Madagascar, near a site where Exxon Mobil has been conducting seismic experiments. Although the oil company denies their echo-sounding technology is the cause, they have suspended work there until the issue is resolved. About 30 whales have died since the first one became stranded at the end of last month. Local and international rescuers are working to save the remaining animals.

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• Read the BBC News story
• Visit Save the Whales
• Visit the Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society
  

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• Sign IFAW's petition supporting the creation of a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary
• Sign a petition to the International Whaling Commission, Australia and New Zealand to stop whaling
• Adopt a whale from the Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society
  

photo: AFP

Jane Goodall Urges EU to Review Animal Testing

Speaking to a group of European MPs and animal rights activists in Brussels, famed chimpanzee expert and conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall urged the European Union to develop "new ways of testing and experimenting that will not involve the use of live, sentient beings." She presented a petition with 150,000 signatures to support her case and also suggested the creation of a new Nobel Prize to award advances in the field. Each year in Europe, approximately 11 million animals are used in testing.

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• Read the BBC News story
• Read about the EU petition and an expert report by the Dr. Hadwen Trust for Humane Research and the Humane Society

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• Sign a petition to end animal testing (US)
• Sign a petition to end animal testing (UK)
  
• Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare
• Download a PDF file of companies that do and don't test on animals
  

photo courtesy jen_maiser, Creative Commons

Activists Charge Ebay with Ivory Sales

Although Ebay complied with the guidelines of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in June of last year, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has charged the online retailer with even higher sales of ivory. IFAW has urged Ebay to ban ivory sales on its site, instead of merely restricting its sale.

Started in 1973, CITES is an international agreement to ensure that trade of species does not threaten their survival. It now has 173 member states, including the United States, England, France and China. During one week last month, IFAW found 678 ivory items for sale on Ebay, up from 440 items found during a week recorded less than a year ago.

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• Read the Scientific American article
• Visit CITES
  

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• Sign IFAW's petition to ban the sale of ivory on Ebay

photo courtesy KouK's, Creative Commons

Thoroughbred Rescuers Face Uphill Climb

After his career in the racing industry was over, Tchaikovsky was discarded and destined for the slaughterhouse. But this grandson of the famous racehorse Secretariat was rescued and is now at LumberJack Farm in New Jersey, getting ready for a new life. The farm works with ReRun, a nonprofit organization that saves about 40 retired thoroughbreds each year, giving them a second chance as adopted pets or jumping show horses.

There are now hundreds of horse rescue farms in the United States, all trying to stem the tide of the estimated 100,000 horses that will be shipped this year to Mexico or Canada and killed to feed animals and humans. Ferdinand, the 1986 winner of the Kentucky Derby, was reportedly slaughtered in Japan for pet food a few years ago. But the rescue organizations can only save a small fraction of the nation's death row horses, an estimated 15 percent of which are thoroughbreds.

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• Read the New York Times article
• Visit SaveTheHorses.org
  

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• Adopt a thoroughbred from ReRun Horse Rescue
  
• Sign a petition urging Congress to draft legislation to deter animal abuse in horse racing following this month's hearing by the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection
• Send a letter to the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority urging reforms that would end preventable suffering and cruelty in the racing industry

photo courtesy JBAT, Creative Commons

US Decides to Protect Arctic Fish Stocks

On Tuesday, President Bush signed a resolution giving US support to international efforts to halt commercial fishing in the Arctic Ocean until more is known about the rapid decline of the world's fish stocks and a management plan is put in place. As global warming causes the polar ice to melt and recede, fisheries experts fear that the commercial fishing industry will begin to exploit new areas unless laws are made to protect the Arctic's fragile environment.

To enact the new policy into law, several conservation groups are working with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to develop a plan that protects the Arctic ecosystem by next year.

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• Read the Anchorage Daily story
• Read the Oceana press release

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• Sign the Sierra Club petition to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
• Download the Environmental Defense Fund's "Pocket Eco-Friendly Fish Selector"
  

photo courtesy Terry Halifax, Creative Commons

African Wildlife Foundation Launches Blog

Africa's leading international conservation organization, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), has recently launched its first blog, "Running Wild in the Heartlands," which offers first-hand accounts of the organization's various campaigns, including the Starbucks Coffee Project, which has replaced high-polluting diesel engines with cleaner electric ones; the Grevy's Zebra Research Camp, dedicated to helping Kenya's endangered zebras; and the Kuku Project, which helps Maasai women develop a sustainable business selling chicken eggs.

Started in 1961, the AWF has played an important role in the conservation of some of Africa's rarest and most threatened species, including the elephant, the lion, the rhino and the mountain gorilla.

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• Read the new AWF blog

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• Donate to AWF
• Download free AWF wallpapers for your computer
• Join AWF's Elephant Conservation Research Project
  

photo courtesy rogiro, Creative Commons

Plant-Eating Animals Struggle for Food

In a study of caribou living in West Greenland, scientists have discovered that herbivorous animals living in seasonal environments like the Arctic are having difficulty finding food due to climate change. When the caribou arrive at their breeding grounds, pregnant females find that the plants they have relied on to survive each year have declined in nutritional value. Additionally, they are struggling to locate the few nutritious plants that remain before they become completely unavailable.

Erik Post, a biologist from Penn State University and lead author of the report, which was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, said, "Think of it like this...you've been out on the town with friends, and on the way home you want to stop off for a bite to eat, but the restaurant you've always gone to has closed early. So you try for one around the corner that's always open a little longer. But when you get to that one, it too is closed. For herbivores, the fact that there are several 'restaurants'--their food patches--dispersed across the landscape isn't useful if they all begin closing at the same time in addition to closing earlier in the season."

GET INFORMED

• Read the Science Daily story
• Read "Activists slam government as plan to save mountain caribou stumbles" (Globe & Mail)
  

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• Sign a petition urging the Canadian government to protect the habitat of the threatened Woodland caribou under the Species at Risk Act

photo courtesy ozcanadian, Creative Commons

US Backs Proposal for Destructive Fishing

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is proposing to allow longline fishing for swordfish in the waters off California and Oregon. Longlining is a method of commercial fishing in which a single vessel can lay out over 60 miles of line and 1,000 hooks at a time. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, longlining is "one of the most destructive fishing practices ever invented."

With over a billion hooks set each year, longline fishing has been a global disaster for marine wildlife. Annually, over 200,000 sea turtles, 100,000 seabirds, thousands of marine mammals and millions of sharks caught or killed due to this method. The Center for Biological Diversity estimates that the nesting female population of critically endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtle has been reduced from over 100,000 to less than 3,000 in the past 25 years, primarily due to longline fishing.

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• Read a San Francisco Chronicle report

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• Send a letter to the National Marine Fisheries Service, urging them to ban longline fishing

photo courtesy taxing, Creative Commons

Breeder Offers Greyhounds to Medical Research

The United Kingdom's largest greyhound breeder has offered to sell healthy dogs to medical researchers because the dogs are too slow to race. Charles Pickering, a breeder at Zigzag Kennels, currently raises about 200 dogs every year for racing, and provides about 40 of them to Liverpool University for medical research purposes.

When an undercover reporter asked Mr. Pickering what would make a dog unfit for racing, he replied, "We’ve got ones that simply won’t chase, they are absolutely healthy...but just choose not to chase the artificial hare or are just a little bit too slow for the tracks. Or the ones that turn and fight."

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• Read the Times story
• Read the In Defense of Animals (IDA) alert

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• Sign a petition urging Liverpool University to forbid its researchers from accepting healthy greyhounds for dissection

photo courtesy bouncer1788, Creative Commons

Death of Star Captured for First Time

For decades, astronomers have been trying to capture the first moments when a massive star blows itself apart -- essentially, the death of a star. Finally, they have succeeded, but it was by chance. The phenomenon, which took place in the Lynx constellation, was randomly detected as researchers were surveying the spiral galaxy NGC2770 using the Swift space telescope, a collaboration between the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy.

Previously, scientists have only been able to study these supernovas days after they occurred. The authors of this new study, which was published in the journal Nature, say that these findings will help our understanding of black holes and the impact of supernovas on their environments.

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• Read the BBC News story

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• Download this month's night sky map and calendar
• Sign a petition to save Dunsink Observatory, the oldest scientific institution in Ireland, from closure
• Sign a petition to save the Jodrell Bank Observatory, an historic radio telescope in Cheshire, UK, from closure

image: BBC News