Ike Pounded Fragile Ecosystems

Authors of Texas report want their names deleted

(NEWSER) - Officials appointed by Rick Perry have sparked a new firestorm in Texas over climate change science, the Guardian reports. Every scientist behind a recent 200-page environmental report is demanding to have his name stricken from the document after state officials deleted references to climate change. "This is simply antithetical to what a scientist does," says one. "We can't be censored." More»

Their return sets off chain of events for ecosystem

(USER SUBMITTED) - After wolves were exterminated in Yellowstone National Park in the early 1900s, a domino of effects from their loss led to an almost complete collapse of the wetlands ecosystem. Now the wolves are back—after 66 were introduced between 1995-1996, the population has reached 200 packs with 1,700 members—and so are the wetlands. More»

Firm wants images of dead wildlife kept to a minimum

(NEWSER) - BP is covering up the worst of the environmental damage from the Gulf oil spill, using its influence to keep images of crude-choked wildlife from becoming public, an anonymous contract worker tells the New York Daily News . The worker gave the newspaper a tour of the spill's most devastating views, from dolphin corpses to hundreds of pelicans trying, in vain, to get the black sludge off their bodies. More»

Controlled burn may be 'least bad' option

(NEWSER) - There are no good options for dealing with the oil soaking Louisiana wetlands but setting it on fire may be the best of the bad options available, scientists say. A controlled burn in a marsh area soaked in oil during Hurricane Katrina removed around 90% of the oil and allowed the area to recover to the state of nearby untainted marshes within 2 years, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researcher tells the Christian Science Monitor . More»

(NEWSER) - Officials in the coastal Texas town of Galveston are baffled by a series of arson fires targeting palm trees, the Houston Chronicle reports. “This is strange,” the town’s fire marshal says of the spree, which has hit 30 trees since May. “It’s the first case in my experience dealing with a tree arsonist.” More»