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Large 'Dead Zone' Predicted For Gulf
"A team of NOAA-supported scientists...is forecasting that the "dead zone" off the coast of Louisiana and Texas in the Gulf of Mexico this summer could be one of the largest on record. The dead zone is an area in the Gulf of Mexico where seasonal oxygen levels drop too low to support most life in bottom and near-bottom waters. cientists are predicting the area could measure between 7,450 and 8,456 square miles, or an area roughly the size of New Jersey. However, additional flooding of the Mississippi River since May may result in a larger dead zone." [SPX - TerraDaily]
Birth Defects Show Human Price of Coal
"In Shanxi province, coal has brought riches to a few, jobs for many, and environmental pollution that experts say has led to a high number of babies born with birth defects. Experts say coal mining and processing has given Shanxi a rate of birth defects six times higher than China's national average, which is already high by global standards." [Reuters]
Climate Changing? Uncle Sam Wants Your Observations
"[Monarch butterfly observer John Latimer] is one of an emerging breed of "citizen scientists" whose observations of nature help professional researchers better understand how climate change is shifting seasonal events like spring blooms, winter ice, and bird and animal migrations. The federal government has also gotten into the act, through the National Phenology Network it is organizing with the help of universities, conservation and environmental groups, and state agencies." [ClimateWire - New York Times]
Environmentalists Baffled by Obama's Strategy
"As a candidate for president, Barack Obama wooed environmentalists with a promise to 'support and defend' pristine national forest land from road building and other development that had been pushed by the George W. Bush administration. But five months into Obama's presidency, the new administration is actively opposing those protections on about 60 million acres of federal woodlands in a case being considered by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The roadless issue is one of several instances of the administration defending in court environmental policies that it once vowed to end." [Los Angeles Times]
Court Allows Gold Mine To Dump Waste in Lake
"The U.S. Supreme Court's Monday decision allowing a gold mine near Juneau to discharge its waste into a fish-bearing lake could be the final word in the long-running dispute. But environmentalists hope that it is not. Their lawsuit over the Kensington mine, 45 miles northwest of Juneau, fueled a bitter war between industry boosters and environmentalists in the state's capital. Statewide, the suit cast a shadow over Alaska's mining industry, and in particular, the massive Pebble copper and gold prospect in Southwest Alaska. [Anchorage Daily News]
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