Illegal fishing has long concerned wildlife officials, and nowhere more so than in the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean which is home to 70 percent of the world’s white fish supply and the last large cod stock now found in the Barents Sea.  Just how bad is the problem?  Well according to Norwegian government figures, more than 100,000 tonnes of illegal cod were caught in the Barents Sea in 2005, and the black market for Alaska pollock has reached an estimated $70 million annually.  Since most of the illegal fishing activity spawns from Russian fleets selling to China, [...]

  The use of those spiral, energy efficient bulbs known as compact fluorescent lights has grown in recent years. But as their use has increased, so too have concerns clicked on over their risk of causing mercury poisoning when they shatter. Now comes two new studies adding to that alarm.  The first is by the state of Maine, which found that immediately after a fluorescent bulb is broken levels of mercury vapor often exceed federal guidelines by 100 times.  The second by the Mercury Policy Project found the use of compact fluorescents releases some two to four tons of [...]

As an increasing number of states are demanding more use of renewable energy, conservationists are beginning to take a closer look at how this is impacting the natural world.  Nowhere is this seen more dramatically than in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, where the erection of large wind turbines is spelling doom for thousands of bats.  According to a recent article in the Washington Post, researchers estimate as many as 4,000 red and eastern pipistrelle bats have been killed at the Backbone Mountain facility alone in West Virginia.  This has had a profound ecological impact, as these bats are starting [...]

  While many are hoping that hydrogen will one day replace fossil fuels as a primary source of energy, producing it cheaply remains a major obstacle.  But according to a recent article in the New York Times, researchers at a national laboratory in Idaho and a ceramics company in Utah have found a way to produce hydrogen using far less energy than other methods.  The process involves a new kind of nuclear reactor that can run electricity through water at a very high temperature, and use a ceramic sieve to separate the oxygen from the hydrogen.  Such a reactor [...]

When you think about air pollution in cities, you usually think of traffic congestion or smokestack emissions.  But for a novel concrete firm in Italy, the answer to smog may lie in reformulating the cement used in building construction.  Yes, believe it or not, the European firm Italcemente has created a smog-eating cement that contains titanium dioxide, which in the presence of sunlight acts as a photocatalyzer, and can  decompose pollutants like sulfur oxides and ozone.  Studies indicate that if just 15 percent of the surface area of Milan, Italy, were covered with this novel cement, air pollutants there [...]

  One of the more dire scenarios being advanced about global warming is the notion that rapid melting of Greenland's ice sheet could shut down the Gulf Stream, and plunge the entire Northern Hemisphere into a new ice age.  Indeed, one British researcher reported a 30 percent reduction in the Gulf Stream in late 2005.  But now according to Environment and Climate News, leading publications including Science magazine are reporting much more accurate data from 19 measuring stations attached to buoys in the Atlantic showing no slowing of the Gulf Stream.  Since the previous observed slowing was "a mere [...]

Not long ago, the EU passed a law requiring that conventional gasoline be blended with those of bio-fuels.  This was principally done to reduce Europe's greenhouse gas emissions.  But according to NewScientist.com, this drive for green energy is having the perverse effect of encouraging the destruction of tropical rainforests as trees are being razed to the ground in order to grow palm oil and soybeans to fuel cars and power stations in Europe.  Indeed, as pointed out by the Rainforest Foundation, the expansion of palm oil production is one of the leading causes of rainforest damage in SE Asia, [...]

For years it has been argued that the use of DDT will, among other things, harm human health and contaminate food.  But now with the spread of malaria rampant in the developing world, many are beginning to take a second look.  One such nation is that of Uganda, where researchers at the Makerere University have just finished an extensive study looking into the use of DDT in Western Uganda where it has been sprayed since the 1960s.  Their research, which tested earthworms, soils, fish, and beef as well as human urine and blood samples, revealed there were no long [...]