Mauritania has launched a tree-planting program aimed at protecting its capital from the advancing desert and coastal erosion, a project that could eventually extend thousands of kilometers across Africa. President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz on Saturday planted the first of some 2 million trees that are meant to form a “green belt” around the capital,…

For nearly five centuries, the classic image of sugar production in Brazil has been one of workers setting cane fields on fire and then descending on the crop with their machetes for harvest. No longer. More than half of the cane in Brazil’s main sugar-producing area of Sao Paulo state was harvested using machines during…

Ocean acidification is the name given to the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth’s oceans, caused by their uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Between 1751 and 1994 surface ocean pH is estimated to have decreased from approximately 8.18 to 8.1. PH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of a solution. It…

Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have detected a plume of hydrocarbons that is at least 22 miles long and more than 3,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, a result of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, reports a study published in Science. The 1.2-mile-wide, 650-foot-high plume of trapped…

American farmers have been ridiculing a proposal by U.S. regulators to reduce the amount of dust floating in rural air. “If there’s ever been rural America, that’s what rural America is,” said Nebraska hog farmer Danny Kluthe. “You know? It’s dirt out here, and with dirt you’ve got dust.” The Environmental Protection Agency is looking…

Scientists studying the massive earthquake that struck the South Pacific on September 29, 2009, have found that it actually involved two great earthquakes: an initial one with magnitude 8.1, which then triggered another magnitude 8 earthquake seconds later on a different fault. The details of this rare event, called a “triggered doublet,” are unlike anything…

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released action plans today to address the potential health risks of benzidine dyes, hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) and nonylphenol (NP)/nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs). The chemicals are widely used in both consumer and industrial applications, including dyes, flame retardants, and industrial laundry detergents. The plans identify a range of actions the agency is considering…

Afghanistan and nations in sub-Saharan Africa are most at risk from shocks to food supplies such as droughts or floods while Nordic countries are least vulnerable, according to an index released on Thursday. “Of 50 nations most at risk, 36 are located in Africa,” said Fiona Place, an environmental analyst at British-based consultancy Maplecroft, which…

The Wildlife Conservation Society today released initial field observations that indicate that a dramatic rise in the surface temperature in Indonesian waters has resulted in a large-scale bleaching event that has devastated coral populations. WCS’s Indonesia Program “Rapid Response Unit” of marine biologists was dispatched to investigate coral bleaching reported in May in Aceh–a province…

At least four children died after rabid vampire bats attacked Awajun indigenous communities in a remote part of Peru, reports the BBC. Peru’s health ministry sent emergency teams to vaccinate villagers in the affected area of Urakusa, which is located close to the border with Ecuador. More than 500 people were reportedly bitten by vampire…