Environmental News Network

Why is Pete the Moose on Death Row?
The fate of a tame moose named Pete living on an enclosed elk farm in Irasburg, Vermont remains undecided, with Fish and Wildlife Department officials still negotiating with the farm's owner about what steps to take to rid the property of white-tailed deer and moose living there in violation of state hunting regulations. Farm owner Doug Nelson, who keeps about 500 imported elk on his 600-acre property for agricultural and hunting purposes, said Friday that he believes the department plans to kill the moose and white-tailed deer living there within the coming weeks. Pete, he said, will be among the animals killed under that scenario. >> Read the Full Article
Climate Change Threatens Mekong Basin
Changing weather patterns and rising seas are already affecting many people in Southeast Asia's Greater Mekong Basin and climate change threatens the livelihoods of millions more, a report released on Monday shows. Intense floods and droughts, coastal erosion, higher seas and heat waves in coming decades threaten rice, fruit and coffee crops and fisheries on which many of the basin's 65 million people depend, says the report by global conservation group WWF. >> Read the Full Article
Drought Disaster looms in East Africa
On the plains of Marsabit the heat is so intense the bush seems to shiver. The leafless scrub, bleached white by the sun, looks like a forest of fake Christmas trees. Carcasses of cattle and camels are strewn about the burnt red dirt in every direction. Siridwa Baseli walks out of the haze along a path of the dead and dying. He passes a skeletal cow that has given up and collapsed under a thorn tree. A nomad from the Rendille people, he is driving his herd in search of water. >> Read the Full Article
Fungus Illuminates World's Worst Extinction
In the wake of the world's worst mass extinction 250 million years ago, life on Earth was nearly nonexistent. All across the supercontinent Pangea, once lush forests lay in ruins, the corpses of trees poking like matchsticks into the poisoned air. In their place fungus ruled the land, according to a new study. It feasted on defunct wood, spreading across the planet in an orgy of decay. >> Read the Full Article
Arctic Ice Shows no Sign of Returning
Old, "multiyear" ice -- the glue that holds the polar ice cap together and forms the Arctic's defense against encroaching warming -- is slowly disintegrating, a process that is plain to see from the air. >> Read the Full Article
Emissions Targets, Costs Stall Climate Talks
Efforts to convince rich nations to toughen emissions cuts have failed to make much headway at climate talks in the Thai capital, the U.N. said on Friday. Delegates from about 180 nations are meeting in Bangkok to try to narrow differences on ways to broaden and deepen the fight against climate change. >> Read the Full Article
Big Support, Potential for Mid-Atlantic Wind Power
An amazingly high percentage of people who live down the Mid-Atlantic Seaboard from New York to Virginia want wind turbines off their coast. >> Read the Full Article
EPA Rule Will Require Permits and Use of Best Technologies to Reduce Greenhouse Gases from Large Facilities
U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced today that the Agency has taken a significant step to address greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the Clean Air Act. >> Read the Full Article
Thirsty eucalyptus trees get the chop in Kenya
Farmers in central Kenya are cutting down water-hungry eucalyptus tree species growing near water sources as a government directive aiming to save water takes effect. >> Read the Full Article
Tsunami Hits South Pacific
A huge tsunami struck American Samoa and Samoa early day, causing many deaths in both Pacific island groups. Reports from Sky News put the death toll in American Samoa at 14, while Radio New Zealand reports at least five confirmed deaths in Samoa so far. >> Read the Full Article