Environment

• Friday, December 10th 2010 - 01:54 UTC

  British expedition claims to have established Antarctic land-crossing record

  

  British expedition to Antarctica says it has succeeded in establishing a new record - the fastest land crossing of the southernmost continent.

• Thursday, December 9th 2010 - 07:18 UTC

  Heavy rains force temporary suspension of traffic in the Panama Canal

  

  Heavy rains have forced the temporary suspension of traffic along the Panama Canal, the major shipping waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans which handles 5% of global trade.

• Tuesday, December 7th 2010 - 07:52 UTC

  Internet database to help reduce shipping emissions rating ‘dirty’ and ‘clean’ vessels

  

  A free Internet database that lists the energy efficiency of almost every ocean-going vessel, in a scheme designed to reduce shipping emissions by nearly 25%, was set up on Sunday by Virgin Atlantic Airways founder Richard Branson, reports London’s The Guardian.

• Saturday, December 4th 2010 - 00:34 UTC

  Ozone hole over Antarctica smallest in five years, says NZ research centre

  

  The ozone hole over Antarctica has shrunk to the smallest in five years, according to a New Zealand’ National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, NIWAR. The hole decreased in size to about 22 million square kilometres from 24 million square kilometres last year, said Auckland-based NIWAR in an e-mailed statement today.

• Friday, December 3rd 2010 - 05:49 UTC

  2010 among the three warmest years since climate records started in 1850

  

  The year 2010 is almost certain to rank in the top 3 warmest years since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850, according to data sources compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

• Thursday, December 2nd 2010 - 04:15 UTC

  Cruise industry blasts latest IMO environmental rules

  

  One of the cruise industry's top executives this week openly criticized new environmental rules that he says will have a profound impact on cruise lines.

• Wednesday, December 1st 2010 - 03:35 UTC

  Brazil plans to cut subsidized long term loans to combat inflation

  

  Brazil plans to cut funding for its state development bank by 50% in 2011 in an effort to bring down the world’s second-highest inflation-adjusted interest rates. The reduction in loans the government provides to BNDES, as the bank is known, forms part of a plan to curb public spending, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said in an interview in Brasilia.

• Thursday, November 25th 2010 - 20:04 UTC

  HMS Scott leaves Plymouth for the 2010/2011 Antarctic season

  

  The Royal Navy deep water survey ship HMS Scott deployed to the Antarctic early morning Thursday from Plymouth, which coincides with the 100th anniversary of Captain Scott's final expedition to the area.

• Tuesday, November 23rd 2010 - 23:56 UTC

  Fish can shrink during particularly harsh winters, say Scandinavian scientists

  

  Fish can shrink during particularly harsh winters, according to researchers. Scientists, based in Norway and Finland, discovered that juvenile brown trout reduced in length by as much as 1cm - shrinkage of approximately 10%.

• Tuesday, November 23rd 2010 - 02:50 UTC

  Argentina purchases 43 turbines for wind farms in Patagonia’s Rawson

  

  Denmark’s Vesta Wind Systems has received an order from Argentina for 43 V90-1.8 MW wind turbines (totalling 77 MW) to be mounted in the Rawson I wind farm and Rawson II wind farm both located in the outskirts of Rawson, Chubut province, Argentine Patagonia.