Environment

• Tuesday, October 13th 2009 - 04:06 UTC

  Freshwater ecosystems the most threatened

  

  Mismanagement and growing needs for water are causing freshwater ecosystems to collapse, making freshwater species the most threatened on Earth with extinction rates 4 to 6 times higher than their terrestrial and marine cousins, say scientists at the Diversitas 2nd Open Science Conference, in Cape Town, South Africa.

• Wednesday, October 7th 2009 - 10:10 UTC

  Peru’s Machu Picchu among list of world cultural sites threatened

  

  Peru's Machu Picchu ancient ruins, Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona and a New Orleans elementary school are among the cultural heritage sites threatened by neglect or overdevelopment, a preservationist group said.

• Wednesday, October 7th 2009 - 09:46 UTC

  NASA Operation Ice Bridge takes off from Punta Arenas

  

  Starting next Monday and operating from Punta Arenas in the extreme south of Chile NASA will fly its largest aircraft, --a DC-8, a 157-foot-long airborne laboratory-- to study changes in Antarctica’s sea ice, ice sheets and glaciers as part of its Operation Ice Bridge.

• Wednesday, October 7th 2009 - 09:44 UTC

  UV alert in Punta Arenas as ozone-hole advances to the continent

  

  Magallanes University Ozone Monitoring Laboratory has detected for the second time this year a considerable advance of the Antarctic Ozone Hole over this region in the extreme south of Chile.

• Wednesday, September 30th 2009 - 13:28 UTC

  Chile and Czech Republic work to restore Torres del Paine Park

  

  Four years after a negligent Czech citizen, Jiri Smitak, accidentally started a huge fire in the world famous Torres Del Paine national park in far southern Chile, part of the destroyed area is being replanted in native forest trees.

• Saturday, September 26th 2009 - 02:27 UTC

  Iceland planning to export 1.500 tons of whale meat to Japan

  

  The company behind Iceland's fin whaling industry is planning a huge export of whale meat to Japan. This summer, Hvalur hf caught 125 fins - a huge expansion on previous years.

• Friday, September 25th 2009 - 02:44 UTC

  Ice loss in polar caps far more extensive reveals study from BAS

  

  The thinning of ice sheets in Greenland and western Antarctica is far more extensive than was previously thought, according to new research published online in the British journal Nature.

• Wednesday, September 23rd 2009 - 12:19 UTC

  US and China pledge to act on global warming at UN climate summit

  

  US president Barack Obama has led the way as world leaders and industry chiefs seek to build momentum for a new international deal on climate change. Mr Obama told a United Nations summit on greenhouse gas emissions that the US was “determined to act” on global warming.

• Monday, September 21st 2009 - 21:22 UTC

  Uruguay denies harmful river pollution:“the right pulp mill at the right place”

  

  Uruguay denied on Monday Argentina's claims at the International Court of The Hague that a pulp mill on a river separating the two countries is polluting the air and water, saying it meets environmental protection standards.

• Friday, September 18th 2009 - 10:53 UTC

  Less profound melt of Arctic sea ice again baffles scientists

  

  This summer's melt of Arctic sea ice has not been as profound as in the last two years, scientists said as the ice began its annual autumn recovery. At its smallest extent this summer, on 12 September, the ice covered 5.10 million sq km.