News & commentary on sustainability, activism, urban planning, politics, and our world.
17 dams recently built on the Mekong River in Southeast Asia are threatening fisheries, destroying a vast ecosystem, and starving millions. And 11 more dams are currently in the planning process. The dams already in place are blocking fish from traveling upstream to spawn, and the new dams– many of which will sit nearer the [...]
In a possible solution to a marine chemistry mystery that has puzzled scientists for several decades, researchers have now calculated the contribution of teleost fish (bony fish) to marine carbonate (CO3) concentrations. They estimate that such fish secrete up to 15% of the ocean’s carbonate production, through their intestines, or guts (these are conservative estimates; [...]
Unrestricted expansion of rubber tree plantations in South East Asia could lead to “devastating environmental effects”, according to authors Ziegler, Fox and Xu writing in a May, 2009 perspective article in Science. Throughout the “montane” (foot hill and low mountainous) mainland of South East Asia (inclusive of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and China), rubber [...]
Finally, a bit of good news about wild tigers. In Nepal, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (in coordination with the WWF and the National Trust for Nature Conservation) has released an estimated population of critically endangered tigers and snow leopards. And, the tiger population has increased in Chitwan National Park. According to [...]
