Environment

• Tuesday, September 15th 2009 - 02:00 UTC

  Massive beaching of pilot whales in Patagonian coast

  

  Almost 50 dead pilot whales were found stranded Sunday on a beach in the Argentine Patagonia province of Chubut. The cause of the stranding at Bahía Bustamante, and later death, remain a mystery, according to the regional press.

• Saturday, September 12th 2009 - 11:41 UTC

  German ships making history cruising Asia to Europe via Russia’s Arctic

  

  Two German merchant ships are sailing from Asia to Europe via Russia's Arctic coast, having negotiated the once impassable North East Passage. This route is usually frozen but rising temperatures in the region caused by global warming have melted much of the ice allowing large ships to go through.

• Friday, September 4th 2009 - 08:16 UTC

  Arctic temperatures are at their highest in the last 2.000 years

  

  Arctic temperatures are now higher than at any time in the last 2,000 years, research reveals. Changes to the Earth's orbit drove centuries of cooling, but temperatures rose fast in the last 100 years as human greenhouse gas emissions rose, writes BBC environment correspondent Richard Black.

• Friday, September 4th 2009 - 07:50 UTC

  Sooty albatross set breeding record in South Shetland Islands

  

  A small group of light-mantled sooty albatrosses has set a new breeding record. The birds have created a colony on King George Island, one of the South Shetland Islands located in Antarctica.

• Thursday, September 3rd 2009 - 10:30 UTC

  Antarctica’s Ridge A, world’s coldest, driest, calmest place on Earth

  

  The search for the best observatory site in the world has led to the discovery of what is thought to be the coldest, driest, calmest place on Earth, a place where no human is thought to have ever set foot. The finding was detailed on August 31 in the Publications of the Astronomical Society.

• Thursday, September 3rd 2009 - 03:13 UTC

  Brazil claims Amazon deforestation is down, but satellites say otherwise

  

  Brazil's Environment minister claims increased policing have brought a sharp drop in Amazon deforestation over the past year, despite July's jump in logging. Predicting 2009 will witness a significant decline in clearing, Carlos Minc said there had been a 46% fall in the jungle's destruction since July 2008, with just 4375sq km cleared.

• Thursday, September 3rd 2009 - 03:10 UTC

  Dead sea lions toll in north Chile rises to 1.067, mostly pups

  

  The official Chilean government count of dead sea lions that washed up on the shores of Chile's northern coast in the past two weeks has risen to 1,067, reported the National Fishing Service (SERNAPESCA).

• Wednesday, September 2nd 2009 - 02:36 UTC

  Climate change alarmism discredits the science

  

  Almost every day there is a new dire warning about global warming. But some claims regarding global warming are more extreme than others overselling the issue and can potentially damage the argument.

• Tuesday, September 1st 2009 - 13:17 UTC

  Argentina ‘environmentally irresponsible’ say Falklands’ strategy writers

  

  Argentina’s lack of action with regard to over fishing in its own waters and on the high seas was described as “environmentally irresponsible” at the fisheries sector of a public presentation on the Falklands Environmental Development Strategy (EDS) last week.

• Monday, August 31st 2009 - 09:15 UTC

  Gentoos top the penguin charts as seabirds return in record numbers

  

  Gentoo penguins are returning to the Falklands in record numbers, after their best breeding season in more than ten years. Kings, too, continue to thrive, making this season’s Seabird Monitoring Programme one of the healthiest undertaken. Falklands Conservation officer Pierre Pistorius has produced this special report for the Penguin News…