Nature in the News

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Best Bets to See a Big Predator

blogs.smithsonianmag.com

December 30, 2011

Just a few miles south, north and east of San Francisco, where I live, it begins.

A vast unbroken range of wild country sprawls north into Canada, east across the desert and the Rockies and south all the way to Patagonia: mountain lion country. Also called the puma, cougar and dozens of backwoods names, the mountain lion, Puma concolor, is one of the most abundant yet elusive large predators in the world.

64,019 Searches: A Dark Journey Into My Google History

blogs.wsj.com

by Tom Gara

July 31, 2013

Let's run through a little thought experiment. Imagine there's a list somewhere that contains every single webpage you have visited in the last five years.

It also has everything you have ever searched for, every address you looked up on Google Maps, every email you sent, every chat message, every YouTube video you watched. Each entry is time-stamped, so it's clear exactly, down to the minute, when all of this was done. Now imagine that list is all searchable. And imagine it's on a clean, easy-to-use website. With all that imagined, can you think of a way a hacker, with access to this, could use it against you? And once you've imagined all that, go over to google.com/dashboard, and see it all become reality.

China's Genetically Modified Food Fight - China Real Time Report

blogs.wsj.com

July 8, 2013

A Chinese agricultural official's unsupported claims about the carcinogenic risks of consuming genetically modified soybeans have rekindled a fervent debate about the use of genetically modified crops in a country with ever-expanding food needs.

Wang Xiaoyu, deputy secretary general of the Heilongjiang Soybean Association, a supporter of local non-genetically modified soybeans, recently told local media that people who consume soy oil made with genetically modified soybeans "are more vulnerable to developing tumors and suffering sterility" (in Chinese) To back his claim, Mr. Wang noted that regions where consumption of GMO soy oil was high, such as the southern provinces of Fujian and Guangdong, also boasted relatively high levels of cancer. Experts were quick to call Mr. Wang's methodology into question, with several noting that he had failed to present even a scintilla of laboratory evidence linking GMO soy oil with cancer or fertility problems. But in a country already deeply suspicious of genetically modified crops, social media users took the idea and ran with it, sending fear over carcinogenic oil seeping through the Chinese Internet.

Study Finds Herbicide in Urine of EU City Dwellers

blogs.wsj.com

by Ashley Dalton

June 13, 2013

Europe may be skeptical of genetically modified crops - fearing they may contaminate traditional species and require more pesticides - but a new study shows that tests of urban Europeans' urine already spell M-O-N-S-A-N-T-O.

A network of environmental groups, Friends of the Earth International, tested the urine of 182 European city dwellers, from 18 countries, and found traces of the potentially-dangerous herbicide glyphosate, commonly known as Roundup, in 44% of samples. The leading producer of this herbicide is Monsanto Co. MON -0.55%, a company whose name has become almost synonymous with the genetically modified organisms it produces. "This weed killer is being widely overused," said Adrian Bebb, spokesperson for Friends of the Earth International. And that's even though hardly any genetically modified crops are grown in Europe. Doing so on a grand scale would increase the use of Roundup around eight-fold, according to Greenpeace.

Manhattan-Sized Ice Chunk to Break Off Arctic Glacier

Bloomberg

by Jeremy van Loon and Alex Morales

July 16, 2009

A Manhattan-sized chunk of ice may break away from a glacier in northwestern Greenland and fall into the sea within about two months, Greenpeace said today.

A 5 billion-metric-ton piece of the Petermann Glacier may detach and float south along the coast of Canada's Ellesmere Island in the Arctic, said Greenpeace's Kieran Mulvaney, who directs the expedition of scientists monitoring the situation. The chunk is part of the Northern Hemisphere's largest "ice tongue," the part of a glacier extending over the sea.

Galapagos Penguins Need 'Condos' as Shelter From Global Warming

Bloomberg

by Jeremy van Loon

April 26, 2009

The Galapagos Islands, renowned for rare animals that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, may have to create special shelters to save species from global warming and rising sea levels.

Scientists who met there last week decided the indigenous penguin needs "condos" built in cooler, higher areas to nest more safely, Giuseppe Di Carlo, marine climate-change manager at Conservation International, said in an interview. Shadier bushes would protect plants and animals such as birds and tortoises that produce too many of the same sex in hotter weather.

U.S. Stocks Drop on Retail Forecasts; Wal-Mart, Limited Slump

Bloomberg

by Lynn Thomasson

January 8, 2009

U.S. stocks slid for a second day after retailers from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to Limited Brands Inc. said profit will trail forecasts as the recession limited holiday spending and sent continuing jobless claims to a 26-year high.

Wal-Mart tumbled as much as 9.4 percent, the most in a year. Limited and Gap Inc. slid more than 5 percent as weakening earnings outlooks at the clothing chains spurred concern that President-elect Barack Obama's $775 billion spending plan won't prevent the economy from shrinking this year.

El Nino Seen Delayed by Australia as Ocean Warming Eases

bloomberg.com

by Phoebe Sedgman

June 17, 2014

Australia remains on El Nino alert even as a slowing in Pacific Ocean warming may push back the onset of the weather event that brings drought to the Asia-Pacific region and heavier-than-usual rains to South America.

While there has been some easing in the outlook, climate models indicate an El Nino will probably develop by spring, which begins in September in Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology said on its website today. The alert indicates at least a 70 percent chance of the event developing this year, it said. The bureau had said June 3 that the pattern would be established by August.

Cancer Drug Shortages Force Doctors to Ration, Delay Treatment

bloomberg.com

by Shannon Pettypiece

June 3, 2013

Shortages of medicines for some of the most common cancers have caused nearly half of doctors to delay treatment and forced about a third to choose between patients needing a particular drug.

The findings from a survey of 250 cancer doctors highlight the anxious situation some of their patients have faced during the past year as manufacturing lapses and changes in the generic-drug industry have cut off supply of key medicines, said Keerthi Gogineni, a cancer doctor at the University of Pennsylvania, who presented the finding in Chicago at the meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. More than 80 percent of cancer doctors surveyed said they haven't been able to get needed medications, including potentially life-saving drugs for breast, ovarian and prostate cancers.

California Seizes Guns as Owners Lose Right to Keep Arms

bloomberg.com

by Michael B. Marois & James Nash

March 12, 2013

Wearing bulletproof vests and carrying 40-caliber pistols, nine CA Justice Department agents assembled outside a ranch-style house in a suburb east of Los Angeles. They were looking for a gun owner who'd recently spent two days in a mental hospital.

They knocked on the door and asked to come in. About 45 minutes later, they came away peacefully with three firearms. California is the only state that tracks and disarms people with legally registered guns who have lost the right to own them, according to Attorney General Kamala Harris. Almost 20,000 gun owners in the state are prohibited from possessing firearms, including convicted felons, those under a domestic violence restraining order or deemed mentally unstable. "What do we do about the guns that are already in the hands of persons who, by law, are considered too dangerous to possess them?" Harris said in a letter to Vice President Joe Biden after a Connecticut school shooting in December left 26 dead. She recommended that Biden, heading a White House review of gun policy, consider California as a national model.

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