Environment

• Monday, April 18th 2011 - 06:38 UTC

  Arctic coastline crumbling due to effects of climate change, says German study

  

  Arctic coastlines are crumbling away and retreating at the rate of two metres or more a year due to the effects of climate change, it has been claimed. In some locations, up to 30 metres of the shore has been vanishing every year.

• Wednesday, April 13th 2011 - 00:30 UTC

  Paraguay admits that the dengue epidemic is the most severe in a decade

  

  Paraguay’s Minister of Public Health Esperanza Martinez acknowledged on Tuesday that the current mosquito transmitted dengue epidemic is far more severe than that of 2007, considered the worst in recent times, and claimed she has had limited support from city councils

• Tuesday, April 12th 2011 - 23:17 UTC

  Decline of bee population becomes a threat for Chile’s fruit industry

  

  The Chilean fruit industry is being threatened by the rapid decline of the country’s bee population, a product by the country’s ongoing drought.
  Water shortages across central Chile are withering the flower buds, depriving bees of their sustenance, the nectar.

• Tuesday, April 12th 2011 - 21:04 UTC

  Majority of EU citizens want their fish from sustainable sources

  

  An overwhelming majority of EU citizens want the fish they buy to come from sources that are sustainable and not over-fished, according to an independent poll commissioned by World Wildlife Fund, WWF, and carried out in 14 EU countries.

• Tuesday, April 12th 2011 - 20:48 UTC

  EU makes effective tough new fisheries control system from “net to plate”

  

  A new system of fishery control with continent-wide, common rules and penalties is now fully operational, the European Commission said on Tuesday.

• Tuesday, April 12th 2011 - 20:20 UTC

  Antarctica penguin species suffering from declining krill availability, says NOAA

  

  A number of penguin species found in western Antarctica are declining as a result of a fall in the availability of krill, a study has suggested. Researchers, examining 30 years of data, said chinstrap and Adelie penguin numbers had been falling since 1986.

• Tuesday, April 12th 2011 - 04:17 UTC

  Uruguay expands alternative energy capacity with a 50 MW wind turbine farm

  

  Uruguay continues to expand its alternative green energy capacity and the latest contract award will have 25 wind turbines which must be operational within a maximum period of three years. The wind power project of 50 MW will supply renewable energy to a population of 50,000 people.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 05:24 UTC

  Protestors force Petrobras to suspend off shore seismic surveying in New Zealand

  

  Brazilian oil giant Petrobras suspended an offshore survey Sunday in New Zealand after several environmental activists jumped into the water to block the passage of the ship conducting the study, reports the NZ press.

• Friday, April 8th 2011 - 22:10 UTC

  Shell moves heavily into bio-fuels from sugar cane bagasse in Brazil

  

  Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the world’s biggest distributor of bio-fuels, is shifting research to waste from sugar-cane farming after ending an algae project in Hawaii. Shell, Iogen Corp. and Codexis have been researching enzymes to produce cellulose ethanol from wheat stalks and sugar-cane bagasse, a sugar industry waste product.

• Friday, April 8th 2011 - 21:54 UTC

  “Naked” penguin chicks in Argentina and South Africa puzzle scientists

  

  Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Washington, and other groups are grappling with a wildlife mystery: Why are some penguin chicks losing their feathers?