UN says too many people on islands is destroying animal habitats
Los Angeles Times Oct 8, 08 9:48 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Ecuador is forcing those without permission to live in the Galapagos to leave, over fears that a growing human population threatens the species that make the islands unique. Even Ecuadorean citizens need special visas to visit the Galapagos, but thousands of mainland migrants have been staying illegally, drawn by high wages and good schools, the Los Angeles Times reports.
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Flightless birds fly home with a little help from Brazil
Slate Oct 7, 08 5:25 PM CDT
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The wayward penguins marooned on Brazil's beaches got a one-way ticket home over the weekend, but ferrying hundreds of birds 2,000 miles is no simple feat, explains Nina Shen Rastogi in Slate. After being fed and tagged, 399 Magellanic penguins were crated and loaded aboard an Air Force plane for a journey to southern Atlantic waters, with military personnel, veterinarians, and biologists in tow.
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Country's beachgoers grapple with invasion of cute birds from Argentina
Washington Post Oct 3, 08 11:15 AM CDT
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Every year a few Magellanic penguins, native to southern Argentina, accidentally make the 2,000-mile trip to the beaches of Brazil. But this year the influx is looking less like a wayward few and more like an invasion, with sunny beaches overrun by more than 1,000 exhausted and starved birds. Many Brazilians have leapt to their rescue, reports the Washington Post.
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analysis
Fuel prices, environmental concerns could make that cheap seat a luxury
New Republic Aug 13, 08 9:05 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The end of cheap oil means it’s “springtime for gloomy futurists,” Bradford Plumer writes in the New Republic , but we’re not headed for a Mad Max scenario just yet—unless you like cheap seats on airplanes. Jet fuel is approaching twice the price of a year ago, and clamored-for carbon pricing could quintuple fares. And airplanes can’t run on solar or fuel cells presently, so look for a radical restructuring in commercial aviation.
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On land, at sea, and in sky, planet's woes threaten inhabitants
LiveScience Jul 21, 08 3:20 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Biologists have mounting evidence that human activity is causing real damage to the natural world. LiveScience lists overlooked indications that things are seriously out of whack. Earlier migration: Several bird species are getting their timing wrong. Jellyfish rule: The creatures are hitching rides on ships.
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Inner compass guides journeys, researchers believe
Washington Post May 5, 08 8:22 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Migrating birds may rely on a special molecule discovered in their eyes that allows them to perceive the Earth’s magnetic field lines as a kind of road map, new research shows. The molecule may help birds navigate much the same way humans follow lines to stay on a highway lane, said the study in the journal Nature .
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Cat likely from SD may yield clues about human overpopulation
Chicago Tribune May 1, 08 11:03 AM CDT
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A cougar shot April 14 in Chicago was spotted earlier in Wisconsin, DNA tests show, suggesting an epic trek. Now, scientists are eager to study the animal, hoping to learn more about how and why it migrated; they aim to pin down its ancestry in an effort to better understand how animals like it adjust to human populations, the Chicago Tribune reports.
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Southern populations, particularly in Texas, continue to explode
Associated Press Mar 27, 08 8:43 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Americans are continuing to flock to the Sun Belt, reports the AP. Almost all of the 50 fastest-growing metro areas in 2006 and 2007 were in the South and West, and four of the top 10 were in Texas. None were in the Northeast. Experts say the Sun Belt's strong economies and low house prices are drawing in people, especially from the Rust Belt.
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Internal clock of 1-ounce butterfly
sheds light on
human sense of time
Wall Street Journal Feb 11, 08 4:58 PM CST
(Newser)
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The 1-ounce monarch butterfly may have a thing or two to teach us: Each year, some 55 million monarchs make a 4,000-mile multigenerational journey from Canada to Mexico, returning to the same forest, often the same tree, without relying on GPS. How? The insects rely on a unique internal clock that may be the prototype for our own, the Wall Street Journal reports.
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Calderon promises funds to stem illegal logging in butterflies' habitat
Associated Press Nov 26, 07 6:10 AM CST
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The famous migrating monarch butterflies have a new ally in Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who yesterday said he would devote $4.6 million more to the central Mexican reserve where the butterflies hibernate—and crack down on the illegal logging that threatens the insects' habitat. Calderon hopes the measure will nurture tourism income as well as the environment, reports the AP.
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New York Times Aug 5, 07 5:05 PM CDT
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Out-migration has devastated the small towns of Montana, novelist Deirdre McNamer writes in an op-ed in today's Times . Salvation has come in the improbable form of Operation Noble Mustang. The US government program uses prisoners to train wild horses from federal land holdings for use by border guards patrolling for smugglers and terrorists coming from Canada.
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Wary of being cut off, thousands are moving into East Jerusalem
Los Angeles Times Jun 4, 07 5:39 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Since the wall between the West Bank and Jerusalem started going up, thousands of Palestinians have moved from the former into the latter, anxious to make sure they are not cut off from the Israeli city when the barrier is complete. Dismayed by the deteriorating conditions in the West Bank, many are erecting houses little better than sheds in overcrowded Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
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Officials think lost humpbacks have returned to the Pacific
San Francisco Chronicle May 30, 07 2:10 PM CDT
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Moby-Dick and Jonah can rest easy—the most overexposed whales in the world appear to have returned to the obscurity of the Pacific Ocean. The two humpbacks, who sparked an international media frenzy after getting stuck in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta 2 weeks ago, haven't been seen since late yesterday night.
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Poorest will be hit hardest
BBC Apr 6, 07 8:46 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Expect floods, droughts, fires—and resulting starvation, conflict, and mass migration—as climate change becomes more pronounced, says a U.N. report released today. And expect the poor to get hit the hardest, as deserts get drier, deltas flood more often, and small islands are overwhelmed.
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Republican suburbs hold allure for illegals, but no hospitalilty
Economist Mar 30, 07 8:50 AM CDT
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Illegal immigrants are draining out of the Hispanic neighborhoods of LA and into Republican suburbs like San Bernadino, which hold the allure of jobs, but little hospitality. In a detailed study of the demographic shift, the Economist calls them them the "canaries in the economic coal mine, sensitive to the slightest changes in the job market."
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