As North Sea Oil Wanes, Removing Abandoned Rigs Stirs Controversy
With thousands of North Sea oil wells soon to be shut down, ecologists are warning that removing the gargantuan platforms could be more environmentally harmful than leaving them in place. The rigs, it turns out, have nurtured cold-water corals and other marine life.
How Eating Seaweed Can Help Cows to Belch Less Methane
Emissions from the nearly 1.5 billion cattle on earth are a major source of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Now, researchers in California and elsewhere are experimenting with seaweed as a dietary additive. Farmers in ancient Greece and 18th-century Iceland deliberately grazed their cows on beaches.
Rising sea levels could cost the world $14 trillion a year by 2100
Failure to meet the United Nations’ 2ºC warming limits will lead to sea level rise and dire global economic consequences, new research has warned. A study found flooding from rising sea levels could cost $14 trillion worldwide annually by 2100, if the target of holding global temperatures below 2ºC above pre-industrial levels is missed.
Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger
Unesco, the world body’s educational, scientific and cultural agency, said its heritage committee voted Tuesday to remove the reef from its list of threatened sites because it no longer faced immediate danger from development.
Marine mammals most at risk from increased Arctic ship traffic
The first comprehensive survey of Arctic marine mammal populations’ vulnerability to shipping along two main routes finds which face the most risks from heavier traffic in the region.
Riddle of the sands: the truth behind stolen beaches and dredged islands
The insatiable demand of the global building boom has unleashed an illegal market in sand. Gangs are now stealing pristine beaches to order and paradise islands are being dredged and sold to the construction industry.
10,000 Pounds of Ocean Plastic Is Turned Into a Leaping 38-Foot-Tall Whale
In response to the estimated 150 million tons of plastic trash currently in the ocean, Brooklyn-based architecture and design firm StudioKCA has created an incredible installation for the Bruges Triennial. Skyscraper (the Bruges Whale) is a 38-foot-tall whale fabricated from 5 tons of plastic waste found from the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.
China just handed the World a 111-million-ton trash problem
The world’s biggest waste importer is no longer buying. So where’s all that trash going to go?
Coral reefs ‘will be overwhelmed by rising oceans
Scientists have uncovered a new threat to the world’s endangered coral reefs. They have found that most are incapable of growing quickly enough to compensate for rising sea levels triggered by global warming.