Environment

January, 2018

• 12 January

  Government scientists say a controversial pesticide is killing endangered salmon

  

  The federal government’s top fisheries experts say that three widely used pesticides — including the controversial insecticide chlorpyrifos — are jeopardizing the survival of many species of salmon, as well as orcas that feed on those salmon.   
• 12 January

  Rising CO2 is causing trouble in freshwaters too, study suggests

  

  As carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere rise, more CO2 gets absorbed into seawater. As a result, the world’s oceans have grown more acidic over time, causing a wide range of well-documented problems for marine animals and ecosystems.    
• 11 January

  Pacific Northwest salmon are in big genetic trouble

  

  The finding underscores a long-held concern that future salmon populations are imperiled by a combination of stream habitat loss, overfishing, dams, and the release of millions of fingerlings from hatcheries—even as the fish try to respond to climate change and ocean acidification.  
• 10 January

  Climate change drives collapse in marine food webs

  

  A new study has found that levels of commercial fish stocks could be harmed as rising sea temperatures affect their source of food.  
• 9 January

  Plastic microbeads ban enters force in UK

  

  Manufacturing ban means the tiny beads which harm marine life can no longer be used in cosmetics and personal care products. 
• 8 January

  Burning oil tanker Sanchi may explode and sink as body found in search for missing crew

  

  There are concerns that marine life in the area is at risk from the spill, which could be the worst tanker oil spill since 1991.   
• 8 January

  In Antarctic dry valleys, early signs of climate change-induced shifts in soil

  

  In a study spanning two decades, a team of researchers led by Colorado State University found declining numbers of soil fauna, nematodes and other animal species in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, one of the world’s driest and coldest deserts.  
• 8 January

  Clouds that are more ‘sensitive’ to pollution are speeding up Arctic warming

  

  Researchers from the University of Utah published a new study Wednesday that suggests Arctic clouds are between two and eight times more sensitive to pollution than clouds in other parts of the world.   
• 8 January

  Warning of electric pulse fishing’s ‘disastrous’ effects

  

  The Irish Wildlife Trust, along with other European groups, has written to the European Commission warning of the “disastrous” consequences if it allows “electric pulse” fishing.   
• 7 January

  Belize bans oil activity in Western Hemisphere’s largest reef

  

  Belize recently passed a law ending current and forbidding all future oil exploration activity in its ocean waters in order to protect its barrier reef – the largest in the Northern and Western Hemisphere.  
• 5 January

  In Florida, iguanas are freezing and falling out of trees

  

  Temperatures dipped below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) early Thursday in parts of South Florida, according to the National Weather Service in Miami. That’s chilly enough to immobilize green iguanas common in Miami’s suburbs.  
• 5 January

  World’s reefs under siege from global warming: study

  

  The window for saving the world’s coral reefs from the effects of global warming is rapidly closing, according to a study.