The remarkable charts that introduce this book reveal the story of humanity's impact on the natural earth.[1] The pattern is clear: if we could speed up time, it would seem as if the global economy is crashing against the earth -- the Great Collision. And like the crash of an asteroid, the damage is enormous. For all the material blessings economic progress has provided, for all the disease and destitution avoided, for all the glories that shine in the best of our civilization, the costs to the natural world, the costs to the glories of nature, have been huge and must be counted in the balance as tragic loss. [...more]
A swirling, floating garbage dump in the North Pacific Ocean twice the size of the United States has been noticed in recent years and is growing at a swift pace. It is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The number of plastic pieces in the Pacific Ocean has tripled in the last ten years and the size of the accumulation is set to double in the next ten unless the use of disposable plastics is reduced. [...more]
Analysis of tap water supplies in major metropolitan areas conducted by the Associated Press has revealed that the water supply in 24 major U.S. cities -- serving over 40 million people -- are contaminated with trace amounts of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, anti-seizure medications, anti-inflammatory drugs, psychotropic drugs, pain medications and even caffeine. [...more]
Environmental stresses, including warmer and more acidic seawater, may be affecting the development of the ear bones in young reef fish, causing the fish to get lost at sea during a crucial stage of their development. [...more]
When the cod industry off Canada's eastern shore collapsed in 1992, industrial fisheries could no longer ignore biologists' warnings that the ocean would not sustain unlimited exploitation of its fish stocks.
And now, a new study by Jennifer Ford and Ransom Myers reports that salmon farming's impacts on wild salmonid populations-which have undergone drastic declines in the North Atlantic and northeastern Pacific since the late 1980s-are even worse than feared.
[...more]
Looking for a quick and easy way to pollute the environment and destroys huge populations of fish and ocean creatures? It's simple: Just take more pharmaceuticals and urinate!
[...more]
Like the animals that many people share their homes with, fish are individuals who have their own unique personalities. Dive guides have been known to name friendly fish who follow divers around and enjoy being petted, just as dogs and cats do. [...more]
GENEVA - New negotiating proposals at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Friday impose tough limits on subsidies on fisheries, a move that delighted environmentalists concerned about overfishing. [...more]
Industrial-scale fisheries have changed fish evolution, exacerbating the effect of overfishing by producing smaller and less fertile fish, scientists say. [...more]
