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Genetically Modified Conservation
It sounds like an oxymoron, but genetic engineering is already ushering in a new brand of agriculture that slashes pesticide use and thrives in a warmer, wetter world.
Comments(3)Can Cities Feed Us?
For every acre of land cultivated in a high-rise urban farm, 10 to 20 acres of current crop- land could go wild.
Comments (0)Sea Sick
A gang of drug-resistant infections, presumably on the run from hospitals and landfills, is cropping up in marine mammals, weaving a web of disease that extends deep into the ocean
Comments(2)Beyond an Unreasonable Doubt
Three new books dissect the anatomy of climate-change denial
Comments (0)This Won’t Hurt a Bit …
Genetically modified mosquitoes could deliver vaccines to people and endangered wildlife
Comments (0)
September 2, 2010
War & Fish
Peace was hell for North Sea schools
War isn’t the answer — but it wasn’t so bad if you were a Scottish haddock. A 6-year pause in commercial fishing caused by World War II helped cod, haddock and whiting populations in Europe’s North Sea recover from years of pre-war exploitation, according to a new analysis. The “accidental” reserve suggests that cold-water fish […] Read More »
September 1, 2010
Green-trification
Does cleaning up a neighborhood spur gentrification?
Nobody’s against cleaner, greener neighborhoods. But some social scientists have worried that cleaning up could end up clearing out the poor residents who often live around polluted sites. Now, a study from Portland, Oregon looks for a link between gentrification and environmental clean-up.
Researchers have long documented the impact of LULUs — “locally undesirable land […] Read More »
August 31, 2010
Unsafe Haven
Large mammals struggling in many African reserves
Being big and hairy is looking scary. The number of large mammals living in nearly 80 African reserves has dropped by more than half since the 1970s, according to a new study. Some reserves, however, appear to be helping big mammals hang on.
Protected areas (PAs) have become a major focus of conservation efforts around […] Read More »
August 30, 2010
Pricing Protection
How much is that nice marine reserve in the window?
Protecting ocean habitat can be a bit like buying laundry detergent: Better to buy in bulk. A first-ever effort to put a price tag on the cost of setting up new marine protected areas (MPAs) finds that costs can vary, but that bigger reserves deliver more bang for the buck. Researchers calculate that planners have […] Read More »
August 27, 2010
Bog Versus Biofuel
Wetland restoration in Europe could hinge on farm & energy policies
Could our growing thirst for biofuels swamp efforts to restore Europe’s wetlands? Not necessarily, finds a complex new analysis of how conservation, energy and farm policies can collide. But exactly how policymakers set the rules may make a big difference to the cost and effectiveness of efforts to protect and expand mires, marshes and bogs. […] Read More »
August 26, 2010
Tadpole Ripples
Streams feel impact of tropical frog extinctions
Tadpoles can leave ripples in a stream – even when they are gone. With a deadly fungus causing catastrophic declines in tropical frogs, many streams are losing their tadpoles. The loss of the wrigglers can subtly but significantly reorder stream ecosystems, find researchers who are studying the ecological aftermath in Panama.
The chytrid fungus has […] Read More »
