Home/Posts Tagged ‘Mediterranean’
Posts Tagged ‘Mediterranean’
Politics, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Feb 23rd, 2011,
Time Magazine has cited a source close to Colonel Gaddafi’s regime in Libya claiming that the North African dictator may sabotage oilfields and pipelines to the Mediterranean Sea. In the first Gulf War of 1991, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ordered engineers to burn oil fields and blow up wells in Kuwait, burning one billion barrels of crude and creating an ecological catastrophe which killed vegetation and wildlife, polluted groundwater and poisoned the local human population. Besides cutting oil supplies to Europe, if Gaddafi carries out such an act of wanton destruction, a serious environmental tragedy may add to the human…
Tags: dictator, Gaddafi, Libya, Mediterranean, oil, pipelines, sabotage, war
Climate Change, Sep 24th, 2010,
Water shortages from increasingly drier and hotter weather have resulted in desperate conditions on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Cyprus is the first EU nation to face ‘peak water’ – the situation in which demand is higher than supply. Aquifers have dried up and filled with seawater, making natural water resources undrinkable. Forests are dying, leading to desertification. The Cyprus Institute forecasts that by 2050 the temperature for more than four months of the year will be above 35° Celsius (95° Fahrenheit) — that’s 50 percent more hot days per year. –CNN In the Greek part of Cyprus, desalinization plants…
Tags: Cyprus, EU, Mediterranean, peak, water
Climate Change, Nature, Pollution, Aug 29th, 2010,
Although the Mediterranean sea covers only one per cent of the world’s marine areas, it contains some six per cent of its marine species. Some of the world’s most endangered species, can be found in the Mediterranean. Fish stocks are down to 20 per cent of natural levels in some areas and the Mediterranean is now a net importer of fish. Today, 82 million people live in coastal cities; by 2025 there will be an estimated 150-170 million. The southern countries account for 32 per cent of the region’s population; by 2025 that is expected to have reached 60 per…
Tags: Climate change, coastal, ecosystems, environmental, EU, Europe, Mediterranean, sea, warming, Wildlife & Flora
Climate Change, Nature, Pollution, Wildlife & Flora, Aug 28th, 2010,
The Loggerhead Sea Turtle is exposed to a wide array of threats throughout its life-cycle, both when
using beach areas and while at sea.
Tags: Mediterranean, Pollution, turtle
Videos & Documentaries, Wildlife & Flora, Aug 6th, 2010,
The Census of Marine Life is a 10-year worldwide project conducted by a network of researchers and coordinated in part by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. The aim of the census – the first global study of its kind – is to ‘explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans’. From an article in the Telegraph: They hope that by creating the first catalogue of the world’s oceans we can begin to understand the great ecological questions about habitat loss, pollution, overfishing and all the other man-made plagues that are being visited on the sea. The truth…
Tags: biodiversity, census, ecological, fish, life, marine, Mediterranean, ocean, overfishing, Pollution, sea
Politics, Pollution, Aug 5th, 2010,
Despite low public opinion on deep sea drilling and an overall global shift away from the practice, including the Obama administration’s moratorium in the US, the UK government – the ‘greenest government eva’ – has decided to go against the grain and allow exploratory drilling in the North Sea. A spokeswoman for the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change was quoted in an article in the Independent: We will not consent to the drilling of any well unless we are convinced that it is designed to the very highest standards, that the equipment used is fully tested and that…
Tags: ban, BP, coalition, deep, Deepwater, drilling, government, Greenpeace, Gulf, Italian, Libya, Mediterranean, Mexico, moratorium, North Sea, oil, sea, spill, UK
Conservation, Nature, Weird Stuff, Wildlife & Flora, Jul 15th, 2010,
This week’s Creature Feature is about a little flower found in the Mediterranean. This little flower is special because it’s part of the IUCN’s Top 50 Plants Campaign. The campaign’s purpose is to save 50 plant species that face a high level of extinction in the Mediterranean region. The Buglosse Crépu (Anchusa crispa) is a critically endangered species and can only be found in 2 places: the French island of Corsica and the Italian island of Sardinia. Their habitat on both islands is limited to the sandy soils found along the upper part of beaches and covers an area less…
Tags: buglosse crepu, buglosse crepue, Corsica, Creature Feature, critically endangered species, flower, France, Italy, Mediterranean, Sardinia, Top 50 Plants Campaign
Climate Change, Nature, Science & Technology, Weird Stuff, Wildlife & Flora, Jun 9th, 2010,
This week’s Creature Feature follows a tale of mistaken identity. The Balearic Shearwater is a critically endangered seabird native to the Balearic Islands: an archipelago near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal, Spain, etc.). Until recently, this bird was listed under several wrong classifications, including: a subspecies of the Manx Shearwater, a subspecies of the Mediterranean Shearwater, and finally it was settled as a distinct species from the Yelkouan Shearwater. Balearic Shearwaters are approximately 14 to 16 inches (35-40 cm) in length and have a wingspan between 33 and 36 inches (85-90 cm). They nest in burrows, though…
Tags: archipelago, Balearic Islands, Balearic Shearwater, Creature Feature, critically endangered species, habitat loss, Iberian Peninsula, invasive species, Mediterranean, mistaken identity, Pollution, predators, seabird
Nature, Weird Stuff, Wildlife & Flora, May 13th, 2010,
A gray whale has been spotted in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel. Gray whales, thought to be extinct in the Atlantic Ocean – what to speak of the Mediterranean – are large baleen whales previously believed to only live in the North Pacific. From a BBC News report: Once, three major populations of gray (also spelt grey) whale existed: in the western and eastern North Pacific Ocean, and in the North Atlantic. However, the North Atlantic population of gray whale became extinct sometime in the 17th or 18th Century, for reasons that are not clear. Scientists are…
Tags: Atlantic, False Creek, gray, Mediterranean, north, ocean, Pacific, scientists, sighting, Vancouver, whale
Climate Change, Feb 25th, 2010,
An awareness poster from the Catalonia Department of Environment (Departament De Medi Ambient) reads: All around the world, 8 million tonnes of waste reach the sea EVERY DAY. All this refuse is generated by human activity. This non-recyclable rubbish is thrown into the toiler, onto the streets, into gullies, onto the sand and into the sea, turning it into a tangible destroyer of marine life. But you can stop this from happening. Uncontrolled waste is a thread to the seas I find it quiet striking… how about you? By Murielle Ungricht
Tags: endangered, garbage patch, Mediterranean, oceans, plastic, Pollution, refuse, seas, waste
Climate Change, Videos & Documentaries, Weird Stuff, Oct 18th, 2009,
Australia Many of you have probably already heard about the dust storms that plagued Australia in September, coating the states of Queensland and New South Wales – including the cities of Sydney and Brisbane – in a haze of red Outback clay. Well, they’re back again. The Sydney Morning Herald reports today (October 13th) that the dust has returned, albeit to a lesser extent than the storms three weeks ago. Rains are hoped for by Christmas, but more dust storms are feared. This latest storm is the third in three weeks for western Queensland, according to another article in the…
Tags: australia, dust, dust storm, Mediterranean, mucilages, National Geographic, Sydney
