RSS Feed
Archive for April 30th, 2011
Alien Giant Tortoise Helps Restore Ecosystem
Posted by Live Science: None Given on April 30th, 2011
Live Science: as alien species can sometimes do -- a giant tortoise appears to be helping to restore the native ecosystem.
Wildlife scientists introduced Aldabra giant tortoises -- which can reach up to 661 pounds (300 kilograms) -- to an island, called Ile aux Aigrettes, off the coast of the island nation of Mauritius. By 2009, 19 adult giant tortoises called the island home. The tortoises were to replace the role of their extinct kin. [Extinct Giant Tortoises Could Be Revived]
Before humans first arrived...
Posted in 
‘Brood 19’ Cicadas Poised To Swarm The South
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 30th, 2011
National Public Radio: They've been developing underground for 13 years, and now billions of Brood 19 cicadas are set to emerge with a bang, or a buzz in states including Georgia, South Carolina and Oklahoma. American Entomologist Editor-in-Chief Gene Kritsky lays out what we can expect with host Linda Wertheimer.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, host:
These bugs aren't necessarily wicked, but they could wake the dead.
(Soundbite of cicadas buzzing)
WERTHEIMER: Most of the time, cicadas sound like summer evenings, but some...
A Delicacy on Chinatown Plates, but a Killer in Water
Posted by New York Times: Liz Robbins and Jeffrey E. Singer on April 30th, 2011
New York Times: The walls in the basement of a building in Brooklyn’s Chinatown were whitewashed, and boxes of cleaning supplies were stacked on the red tile floor. But beneath the disinfectant smell, the unmistakable odor of fish lingered as the flimsiest calling card of a former tenant.
That tenant, Yong Hao Wu, sold fish until October for his Howei Trading Company out of this shop on Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park. Mr. Wu is now out of business and under arrest because the authorities have accused him of illegally...
Samsung to invest $7.04 bn in wetland green town
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 30th, 2011
Independent: South Korea's largest business group Samsung signed an initial deal Wednesday to invest $7.04 billion in a state project to build a green energy complex on reclaimed wetland.
Samsung signed a memorandum of understanding with the government to spend 7.6 trillion won ($7.04 billion) on the construction of eco-friendly production facilities from 2021, the prime minister's office said.
The government will provide full administrative support plus a plot at the reclaimed Saemangeum wetland area on...
World could lose 230mn hectares of forest by 2050: WWF
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 30th, 2011
Independent: The world stands to lose 230 million hectares of forest by 2050 with drastic consequences for the climate, biodiversity and the global economy, the WWF wildlife campaign group said on Wednesday.
"Those responsible - policy-makers and industry - are sawing away at the branch we're all sitting on," WWF's head of forests, Philipp Goeltenboth, said in a statement.
In its new WWF Living Forests report, the organisation advocated a "Zero Net Deforestation and Forest Degradation (ZNDD)" by 2020. ...