ENN Weekly: October 23rd - 27th

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ENN rounds up the most important and compelling environmental news stories of the week. In the news October 23rd - 27th: Our ecological footprint, coral reef deaths, Great Lakes water, climate extremes, and much more.

Top Ten Articles of the Week

In the news October 23rd - 27th: Our ecological footprint, coral reef deaths, Great Lakes water, climate extremes, and much more.


1. Humans Living Far Beyond Planet's Means, WWF Says
Humans are stripping nature at an unprecedented rate and will need two planets' worth of natural resources every year by 2050 on current trends, the WWF conservation group said on Tuesday. Populations of many species, from fish to mammals, had fallen by about a third from 1970 to 2003.


2. Researchers Warn About Coral Reef Deaths
Researchers warn that more than half of the world's coral reefs could die in less than 25 years, killed off by a deadly cocktail of rising sea temperatures, silt runoff from construction sites, algae and other toxic ingredients.


3. Four Dead, Hundreds Flee California Wildfire
A brush fire blamed on arsonists swept through the desert hills near Palm Springs Thursday, killing four firefighters, sending residents fleeing and trapping hundreds more in a rural park for recreational vehicles.


4. Panel Says New Great Lakes Water Deal Needed
A U.S.-Canadian pact to clean up the Great Lakes has run its course after more than three decades and should be scrapped in favor of a more effective, modern strategy, a binational panel said Tuesday.


5. Climate Extremes Are Coming, Study Says
The world -- especially the Western United States, the Mediterranean region and Brazil -- will likely suffer more extended droughts, heavy rainfalls and longer heat waves over the next century because of global warming, a new study forecasts.


6. Wal-Mart Wins Preliminary Approval to Build in Cabo
The world's largest retailer won preliminary approval on Tuesday to build a store in Cabo San Lucas after an almost two-year battle, but opponents vow to continue fighting the project with demonstrations or by blocking roads.


7. As Japan's People Grow Older, Bears Grow Bolder
The number of Japanese black bears caught feasting in fields of sweet corn, apples and other crops has jumped this year, with the animals increasingly undisturbed by hunters, whose ranks are dwindling as the population ages.


8. Deadly Spinach Scare Appears over as Investigators Look to Wild Pigs as Culprits
After a month without any reports of illness from tainted spinach, health officials say the deadly outbreak of bacteria that killed three people and sickened more than 200 others nationally appears to be over.


9. Schwarzenegger Prods Bush on Warming
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who recently signed a sweeping law to cut greenhouse gas emissions in California, complained in a letter to President Bush that there is no coherent federal policy to stop global warming.


10. EU Governments Back New Air Pollution Rules
European Union governments on Monday backed new rules to combat air pollution by setting binding limits on levels of harmful dust particles, which the EU blames for up to 350,000 deaths every year.


Photo: Greenland's massive ice sheet has lost nearly 100 gigatons of ice annually recently, much of it in low-elevation regions along the continent's southeastern coast, including the southern tip. Credit: NASA MODIS Land Rapid Response Team.


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