More than a fifth of the world's migrating species are at risk of going extinct as a result of climate change and human encroachment, according to this report by the United Nations. Migratory species globally are facing critical challenges, with nearly half in decline and over 20 per cent threatened …
a set of environmental indicators used in a Canadian government report gives a clear picture of the health of the Great Lakes. The report, The State of the Great Lakes , gives information based on 19 of 80 indicators developed by scientists, said participants at the 1998 State of the …
Our Ecological Footprint: think of your city as an ecosystem - a book that aims to bring an environmental focus to mainstream education to make it more relevant. It helps teachers to: relook at the relationship between subjects in the curriculum and environment education; adopt methods of knitting its concepts …
environmental degradation and failure of the monsoons has resulted in a famine in places like Kinnakorai and Kundah taluk s (blocks) of the Nilgiris in the Western Ghats. Unfortunately, the reason for this famine is little understood by the people, either due to ignorance or sheer negligence. The Nilgiris are …
the southeast of Great Britain is sinking. Thanks to enhanced global warming, England's wildlife may be forced to seek refuge in Scotland, the island's resurgent north. Like England, Scotland can roughly be divided between the wetter, higher and warmer west and the lower, dryer and fertile east. Unlike England, Scotland …
Nitrogen is the basic building block of plant and animal proteins, and is essential to all forms of life. But studies in recent times have shown that human activity, including agriculture, energy production and transport, have overwhelmed the natural nitrogen cycle. This has resulted in excess nitrogen in the ecosystem, …
A study of ice cores from the Himalaya reveal a substantial rise in industrial pollution over the past few decades, claim some Chinese researchers. Ice cores from remote mountain areas are believed to contain accurate records of atmospheric concentrations over tens of thousands of years. Scientists from the Lanzhou Institute …
Certain amounts of acid rain can be buffered by the ecosystem without suffering any serious problems. However, the buffering capacity of ecosystems is finite and varies from one system to another. The effects mentioned in the IIT study by Manju Mohan and Sanjay Kumar are listed below: ON VEGETATION l …
OVER the last 30 years, severe soil degradation has ravaged the state of Gujarat. If this trend continues, as much as 30 per cent of the state's land resources could be completely degraded by the turn of the century, warns a recent report of the Gujarat Ecology Commission (GEC). "Increasing …
NO ONE understands the value and significance of natural resources better than traditional societies. A realisation of the importance of these resources coupled with animistic beliefs may be the reasons why many traditional societies have been preserving a portion of natural ecosystems as "sacred groves" for centuries. Sacred groves are …
ONE-third of the natural resources of the world has been destroyed in the last 25 years, a recent report of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says. The findings, based on the Living Planet Index, reports a frightening 32 per cent drop in flora and fauna species in forests, …
THE evolutionary success of a particular group of organisms is judged by the number of different species in that group. But that is not the complete story, say palaeontologists in North Carolina, USA. Calculating the abundance of each species can reveal remarkably different trends. Most studies of ancient ecosystems involve …
SEA turtles help fertilise the dunes where they lay their eggs, says an ecologist from Florida, who believes their unhatched eggs make an important contribution to the health of the beach. Coastal dunes are notoriously fragile, providing barely enough nutrients to support the animals and plants living on them. According …
The Worldwide Fund for Nature (wwf) has identified Venezuela's Canaima National Park as part of its innovative Global 200 system. Global 200 initiative aims to encourage a more holistic view of environmental challenges. Canaima forms part of the Guyanan highlands forest and freshwater ecosystems, which spread into Brazil and Guyana …
India will get assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for conservation and sustainable management of the coral reef ecosystem off the coast of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In this regard, the department of economic affairs, the ministry of environment and forests and UNDP have recently entered into …
PERHAPS no other geographical location attracts researchers, non-governmental organisations and social workers like the Indian Himalaya does. Yet, despite all the effort and finances that have gone towards sustainable development of the Himalaya, gaps exist. The information available is skewed with rampant duplication on one hand and blissful ignorance on …
water means life, and wetlands, even those such as ponds and bogs, play a vital role in our lives. Found almost everywhere, wetlands can be described as ecosystems where water and land meet, such as marshes, shallow coastal estuaries, mangroves and lakes where the dominating factor is a regular or …
Scientific institutions from Mexico and the United States are conducting an environmental impact study to see if a proposed salt mine in Baja California would disrupt one of the last grey whale breeding habitats in the world. The Mexican government and Mitsubishi Corporation want to construct a salt mine in …
Shrimp farms in Latin America produce a quarter of the three million tonnes of shrimp consumed worldwide each year. Consequently, shrimp farmers are destroying the mangrove forests to make shrimp ponds. Mangroves nurture a very delicate ecosystem and serve as important nurseries for many species of fish. They also protect …
human activity is causing a decline in the populations of bees, birds, bats, butterflies, beetles, wasps, flies, moths and other creatures that function as pollinators, says a recently published study. Epidemics of a mite known as varrora in Europe and North America destroyed millions of honeybee colonies. Hundreds of commercial …
