Environment

• Friday, August 20th 2010 - 02:44 UTC

  Giant “Terror Birds” Used Their Heads Like Hatchets

  

  Phorusrhacids have been extinct for millions of years, yet the so-called terror birds just got a bit more frightening. The flightless birds stood up to three meters tall and had hook-beaked heads the size of horse heads. Now a new study has apparently deciphered how the birds used those fearsome skulls—employing a fighting style like that of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali.

• Thursday, August 19th 2010 - 06:00 UTC

  National Geographic wants to protect Chilean pristine marine life Island

  

  Chile’s Salas y Gómez Island has caught the attention of The National Geographic Society as one of the most pristine marine sites in the world.

• Thursday, August 19th 2010 - 05:50 UTC

  African coastal states organize network to tackle illegal fishing

  

  Representatives from African coastal states attend a workshop in the United Kingdom designed to build capacity in tackling illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing. IUU fishing is damaging to fish stocks, the marine environment, food security and wider economic growth and development.

• Thursday, August 19th 2010 - 05:47 UTC

  Undercover-anglers stop slaughter of whales on Faroe Islands

  

  As soon as pilot whales are sighted in the waters off the Faroe Islands the hunting frenzy takes hold of the about 48.000 inhabitants. Boats are launched and pods of whales are herded into the next official hunting bay.

• Wednesday, August 18th 2010 - 03:03 UTC

  Shell agrees to pay for environmental damages caused by 2005 oil spill

  

  A lawsuit filed against Shell Oil Company in 2005 by north Chile fisherman and shellfish divers has resulted in a compromise settlement requiring Shell to pay 1.2 million US dollars to the plaintiffs and repair environmental damages.

• Wednesday, August 18th 2010 - 02:58 UTC

  Whiskey’s noblesse: super bio-fuel (butanol) from distilleries by products

  

  Topping up at the petrol pump is about to take an intriguing twist as cars are set to be fuelled with a new super bio-fuel, made from whisky by-products. Edinburgh Napier University has filed a patent for the new bio-fuel, which can be used in ordinary cars, without any special adaptations needed.

• Wednesday, August 18th 2010 - 00:38 UTC

  Environmentally friendly mini-cows latest trend in US farms

  

  They have become the latest trend in United States farms and an estimated 20.000 miniature cattle, weighing less than 300 kilos, are believed to be successfully breeding and could be indicating the future for environmentally-friendly beef.

• Tuesday, August 17th 2010 - 19:27 UTC

  South Sandwich Islands are the emergent tips of huge volcanoes, according to BAS

  

  Earlier this year, geologists on the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) ship “RRS James Clark Ross” completed a project to map the sea floor around the volcanic South Sandwich Islands using multi-beam sonar. This completes a project started three years ago, reports the latest edition of the South Georgia newsletter.

• Tuesday, August 17th 2010 - 09:22 UTC

  Petrobras admits ‘minor’ conservation problems on several oil platforms

  

  Brazil's government managed oil giant Petrobras CEO admitted Monday that minor conservation problems exist on some of the company's platforms in the Campos Basin, off the country's south-eastern coast.

• Monday, August 16th 2010 - 19:11 UTC

  Scientists survey krill fishery and possible marine protected area in South Georgia

  

  The two South Georgia Island King Edward Point (KEP) based scientists are undertaking regular winter survey work at sea to investigate the spatial overlap between the winter krill fishery and the distribution of foraging predators and fish larvae in South Georgia waters, reports the SG newsletter.