conservation – News Stories About conservation - Page 7

GLOSSIES

Dec 14, 2008 6:08 PM CST

5 Drought-Stopping Inventions

Creating more water is the answer with 1.8B facing extreme shortage by 2025

(Newser) - One UN study estimates 1.8 billion people will face extreme water shortage by 2025; the US government projects 36 states could face a similar fate by 2013. Doug Cantor, in Esquire, examines potential shortage solutions:

PlayPump: A pump attached to a children’s merry-go-round extracts water from the ground

...

How Cheap Gas Hurts Green Initiatives, Feds' Bottom Line

ANALYSIS

Nov 24, 2008 9:15 AM CST

How Cheap Gas Hurts Green Initiatives, Feds' Bottom Line

Driving less not great for gov't coffers

(Newser) - Americans are driving less and burning less fuel, but it could be too soon for conservation fans to celebrate. That dip, and global economic gloom, has sent oil and gas prices spiraling down, Joseph White writes in the Wall Street Journal, depriving the government of taxes it needs for transportation...

Bloomberg Calls For Plastic Bag Fee in NYC

Nov 7, 2008 11:37 AM CST

Bloomberg Calls For Plastic Bag Fee in NYC

6¢ charge pleases greenies, would help city's fiscal problems

(Newser) - After an ad campaign urging New Yorkers to use greener alternatives to plastic shopping bags, Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to impose a 6¢-per-bag charge, the Times reports. While environmentalists approve, and the city’s coffers stand to gain, many think the measure will be unpopular with shoppers, and critics...

Greenies Dim
Bright Lights
in Big City

Nov 2, 2008 12:54 PM CST

Greenies Dim Bright Lights in Big City

Big city's bright lights must dim, many say

(Newser) - A dimmer switch looms over Manhattan's bright nighttime skyline, as concerns over conservation and energy costs have prompted skyscraper owners to abandon the practice of blazing all lights at all hours. New York scores a 9 out of 9 on a light pollution scale, and legislators are considering official incentives...

Developers Plan Feast on
Thoreau's 'Silver Platter'

Oct 1, 2008 4:33 PM CDT

Developers Plan Feast on Thoreau's 'Silver Platter'

Prospect of vast swath of homes on Maine lake has locals up in arms

(Newser) - It was once Thoreau’s “gleaming silver platter,” and now developers want to eat off it. A Seattle developer wants to put 1,000 hotel rooms and condos around Maine’s Moosehead Lake, Bloomberg reports. The proposed construction on mostly private land abutting a huge tract of forest...

Strapped Schools
Say Bye to Bus Rides

glossies

Sep 7, 2008 7:55 PM CDT

Strapped Schools Say Bye to Bus Rides

New generation can tell grandkids they walked to school

(Newser) - As high gas prices strangle US school budgets, more officials are cutting back where it hurts student scores least: school buses. Some schools are limiting or redesigning bus routes, but others have nixed busing entirely, leaving thousands of kids to hoof it under adult supervision. Some parents object, but many...

Numbers
Soaring,
S. Africa Mulls
Elephant Cull

Aug 21, 2008 2:19 PM CDT

Numbers Soaring, S. Africa Mulls Elephant Cull

In 13 years since killing ban, overpopulation posing serious threat

(Newser) - South Africa's 1995 ban on culling elephants has proven wildly successful—perhaps too successful, writes Karen Lange in National Geographic. As the population has skyrocketed from 8,000 to 13,000 in the years since, starving elephants are now ravaging vegetation and taxing the nation's ecosystem, forcing experts to consider...

Humpbacks
No Longer in Danger

Aug 12, 2008 9:56 AM CDT

Humpbacks No Longer in Danger

Spectacular success for conservation

(Newser) - Humpback whales, once feared to be on the verge of extinction, have made such a dramatic comeback that the International Union for Conservation of Nature has removed them from its list of vulnerable species. A ban on humpback whaling in the 1960s has allowed their numbers to grow to 55,...

Federal Changes Threaten Endangered Species: Critics

Aug 12, 2008 3:21 AM CDT

Federal Changes Threaten Endangered Species: Critics

Feds can dodge review under rule changes

(Newser) - Critics are raising an alarm over planned White House changes to the Endangered Species Act, reports the Oregonian. The modifications would give federal agencies such as the US Forest Service more leeway to decide whether activities such as logging would harm endangered species—and such determinations would no longer be...

UN Approves China to Buy Ivory

Jul 16, 2008 5:29 AM CDT

UN Approves China to Buy Ivory

Critics say allowing imports plays 'Russian roulette' with elephants' lives

(Newser) - China has been given a green light to begin importing African ivory by a UN body that banned the sale 10 years ago, a decision that has infuriated conservation groups, the Daily Telegraph reports. African states say they need to sell stockpiles of ivory from elephants that are culled or...

Crikey!
Bindi Gets
Her Own Doll

Jul 5, 2008 10:27 PM CDT

Crikey! Bindi Gets Her Own Doll

Crocodile Hunter's daughter continuing in dad's footsteps

(Newser) - Bindi Irwin isn't yet 10, but she's got her own TV show, an Emmy, and now, a doll in her image. An Ohio company is making 10-inch replicas of the young Australian star, the daughter of the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. Bindi inherited her...

Farming Tigers for Profit Best Way to Save Species

OPINION

Jun 22, 2008 5:42 AM CDT

Farming Tigers for Profit Best Way to Save Species

Strategy may dull beasts, but conservation ridiculous when it's at human expense

(Newser) - Though animal conservationists hail the success of India's Jim Corbett National Park in increasing populations of endangered tigers, Kirk Leech complains in Spiked that numbers continue to decline—and that expanding protected areas for tigers harms indigenous human populations. His solution: for-profit tiger farms, where selling animal parts to meet...

Tasmania Moving Its Devils

May 28, 2008 1:22 PM CDT

Tasmania Moving Its Devils

As cancer decimates critters, Aussies quarantine them on old prison peninsula

(Newser) - The Australian government is stepping in to prevent the Tasmanian Devil from extinction, the Wall Street Journal reports, as the ill-tempered beasties have been dying off thanks to the world’s first contagious cancer, which they transfer by biting each other in the face. So zoologists are now working to...

Alaskan City Goes
Green—by Necessity

May 14, 2008 7:11 PM CDT

Alaskan City Goes Green—by Necessity

After avalanche, Juneau is forced to find ways to use less energy

(Newser) - An energy conservation effort born out of necessity has turned the residents of Juneau, Alaska, into poster children for the green movement, the New York Times reports. Electricity rates skyrocketed 400% after an avalanche knocked out several major transmission towers last month; the state capital has since lowered its electricity...

Bison on
Comeback Trail

Apr 30, 2008 4:35 PM CDT

Bison on Comeback Trail

Once nearly extinct, species now approaching 500K

(Newser) - Once facing extinction in North America, bison are well on their way to a stunning comeback, LiveScience reports. After commercial hunting and habitat loss reduced their population to less than 1,100, the estimated bison population is approaching 500,000—thanks in large part to conservation efforts started more than...

Endangered Tigers Fading Fast

Mar 12, 2008 8:51 AM CDT

Endangered Tigers Fading Fast

Numbers plummet as WWF calls for quick action

(Newser) - The World Wildlife Fund has warned that the world's tigers are in grave danger of extinction, reports the BBC. Experts believe tiger numbers have fallen in half over the last 25 years to as few as 3,500 worldwide, the WWF said. The South China tiger and the Sumatran tiger...

Nations Unite to Save Gorillas

Feb 25, 2008 5:00 AM CST

Nations Unite to Save Gorillas

10-year effort is the first to help dying species

(Newser) - Three African nations where the world's last 720 wild mountain gorillas live are finally working together to save the critically endangered animal, the Guardian reports. Until the 10-year plan was announced last week, mistrust and conflict had kept Rwanda, Uganda and the Congo from collaborating as another 10 apes were...

Protections End for Gray Wolf

Feb 22, 2008 5:06 AM CST

Protections End for Gray Wolf

Wildlife groups say it's too soon to remove animals from endangered list

(Newser) - The gray wolf has been taken off the endangered species list in a multi-state area of the northern Rocky Mountains, National Geographic reports. "The wolves are back," said an official of the Department of the Interior. Just 66 of the animals were reintroduced to the region in 1996...

During Bust, Green Groups Make Land Grab

Feb 17, 2008 12:19 PM CST

During Bust, Green Groups Make Land Grab

Conservationists snatch idle land from developers' hands

(Newser) - As the subprime debacle rips through real estate, leveling home values and clogging the market with unsold property, an unlikely group of vultures is descending, reports Newsweek. Conservation groups and local governments alike, which sat on the bench during the last boom, are snapping up land from would-be developers to...

Tiger Numbers Plummet in India

Feb 13, 2008 11:50 AM CST

Tiger Numbers Plummet in India

More than half vanish in 5 years

(Newser) - At least half of India's Bengal tiger population has vanished in the last five years, according to the latest alarming census of the endangered predators. A Project Tiger conservationist blamed "poaching, and loss of quality habitat and prey," reports AFP. A 2002 survey estimated there were 3,700...