ENN Weekly: July 3rd - 7th

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ENN rounds up the most important and compelling environmental news stories of the week. In the news July 3rd - 7th: Low-water lakes, rebounding eagles, the bushmeat trade, "green" burials, and much more.

The Week's Top Ten Articles

In the news July 3rd - 7th: Low-water lakes, rebounding eagles, the bushmeat trade, "green" burials, and much more.


1. Low Water in North America's Great Lakes Causes Worry
Several massive vessels have run aground on Michigan's Saginaw River this shipping season, caught in shallow waters a few miles from Lake Huron. The river port is as shallow as 13 feet in a passage that is supposed to be 22 feet deep.


2. Bald Eagles Recovering Across the Country
When Pennsylvania officials began a campaign in 1983 to re-establish the state's bald eagle population, only three pairs of the birds and 12 eaglets remained here. Now there are more than 100 bald eagle nests in the state for the first time in over a century.


3. Most Endangered Whale Gets Protection
At least 11,000 slow-moving right whales -- prized by commercial whalers for their oil and baleen -- once swam the waters of the North Pacific. The whales were listed as endangered in 1973 and there are now believed to number fewer than 100 in waters near Alaska.


4. Climate Change Evaporates from G8 Agenda
At the last G8 summit, political leaders vowed to "act with resolve and urgency" on climate change. A year on, global warming has been sidelined by concerns on how the world can satisfy its growing appetite for energy.


5. Bushmeat Sold in Secret European, U.S. Markets
Meat from wild animals including primates is being sold in clandestine markets in North America and Europe, according to scientists on Wednesday. Bushmeat is meat from wild animals including gorilla, chimpanzee, forest antelope, crocodile and bush pig. It is a food staple among forest-dwelling communities in Africa and a source of income for thousands of people.


6. Judge Stops U.S. Navy Using Sonar off Hawaii
A federal judge Monday issued a temporary restraining order to stop the U.S. Navy using sonar during training near Hawaii because it might hurt or even kill whales and other marine mammals.


7. Green Group Buys Out Fishermen to Protect Ocean Floor
The Nature Conservancy, an international environmental group best known for buying development rights from farmers, is looking to strike similar deals with fishermen along the California coast in a pilot program that it said could be repeated elsewhere.


8. Climate Change Blamed for Western U.S. Wildfires
Here's another thing to blame on climate change -- wildfires, those forest and grass fires that have threatened communities across the U.S. West, according to research published Thursday. And a warming climate will only cause more.


9. Booming Development Driving away Persian Gulf's Endangered Wildlife
Environmental watchdogs are few in Arabia. Those that exist acknowledge they stand little chance against developers, many of whom have connections to royal families and huge profits from oil and gas to invest.


10. 'Green' Burials Growing in Popularity
It sits on the eastern fringe of New York's Finger Lakes region and is bounded on three sides by 8,000 acres of protected forests: the perfectly natural place to spend an eternity. The 93-acre Greensprings Natural Cemetery is the first of its kind in New York and one of just a handful in the United States, where interest in "green" burial is just taking root.


Photo: A two-month old Indian tiger cub. Credit: WWF-Canon/Martin Harvey.


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