Environmental News March 24th-April 5th 2010

Chinese Coal Ship Aground on Great Barrier Reef Spills Oil
BRISBANE, Australia, April 5, 2010 (ENS) - Angry Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says "the book should be thrown" at the owners of a grounded Chinese coal cargo ship leaking oil into pristine waters of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
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UK sets up Chagos Islands marine reserve
April 1, 2010
The UK government has created the world's largest marine reserve around the Chagos Islands.
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New Zealand calls for whaling compromise
April 1, 2010
Allowing whaling nations to kill a limited number of the animals is the only way ensure control, New Zealand's representative on the issue has said.
Former PM Geoffrey Palmer said attempts to reach a global deal on whaling would fail unless nations could compromise.
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ConocoPhillips, Shell to expand Alaska drilling
April 1, 2010
(Reuters) - Oil companies with their sights on drilling for oil off Alaska on Wednesday said President Barack Obama's offshore oil announcement allows them to press ahead with big projects there.
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El Nino To Influence Climate Patterns To Midyear: WMO
31-Mar-10

Stephanie Nebehay
The El Nino warming the Pacific Ocean since June has peaked, but is expected to influence climate patterns worldwide up to mid-year before dying out, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.
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Government Set To Unveil Offshore Drilling Plan
31-Mar-10
Tom Doggett
The Obama administration is expected to announce by Wednesday its updated plan for oil and natural gas drilling in U.S. waters, including whether to allow exploration for the first time along the U.S. East Coast.
Read more here.

In Florida, the Seafood Becomes Less Local
March 30, 2010
By DAMIEN CAVE
ISLAMORADA, Fla. — The postcard Florida experience: sun, fun and plenty of local seafood. It was the latter that brought Gary and Vicki Haller from Kansas to Wahoo’s here last week, with its waterfront views, toucan colors and promise of fresh food “from our docks.”
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Barge owner guilty for spill in killer whale reserve
Mar. 30, 2010
A provincial court judge in Campbell River, B.C., has found Ted LeRoy Trucking guilty of all six pollution charges linked to an oil spill in a famed B.C. ecological reserve.
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EPA to intensify its study of BPA
March 30, 2010
Agency to designate it as a 'chemical of concern'
By Meg Kissinger of the Journal Sentinel
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that it is intensifying its look at how BPA affects the nation's wildlife and water supply and will designate the compound as a "chemical of concern."
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Sea Lion Pups Starving Along California Shoreline
March 28, 2010
Starved and emaciated, sea lion pups are beaching themselves along the Pacific Coast.
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Orca the dolphin killer: Families see astonishing attack as they enjoy nature trip
By DANIEL BATES
27th March 2010
This is the shocking moment a killer whale leapt from the sea to kill an exhausted dolphin.
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The Secret of Turtle Island
March 26, 2010
by Lauren Schenkman
In the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, there's an area local fishermen call "Turtle Island." It's real enough, but you'd be foolish to try to sail there. The island is never in precisely the same place, and it changes size from one minute to the next. In fact, you never know when its gleaming shore might disappear altogether, because it's made up entirely of the half-exposed shells of basking loggerhead sea turtles.
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Worst Ice Year Kills Canadian Seals Before Hunters Can
March 26, 2010
CHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island, Canada, (ENS) - Thousands of harp seal pups are presumed dead in Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence and starving pups are being found abandoned on the beaches of Prince Edward Island, victims of the worst ice conditions ever recorded in the region.
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Earth's Hour of Darkness Illuminates Need for Climate Action
GLAND, Switzerland, March 26, 2010 (ENS) - A 24 hour-long wave of darkness will sweep around the globe as people and corporations turn out the lights from 8:30 to 9:30 pm local time on Saturday, March 27 to mark Earth Hour - sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund to promote effective climate change action.
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Trade Beats Conservation At U.N. Wildlife Talks
Date: 26-Mar-10
Author: Regan Doherty
Trade interests trumped conservation at a U.N. wildlife conference at which proposals to step up protection for polar bears, bluefin tuna, coral and sharks all fell flat, delegates said.
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Global Deforestation Slowed Over Last Decade: U.N.
25-Mar-10

Daniel Flynn
Deforestation slowed in the last decade, in the first sign that global conservation efforts are bearing fruit, but an area the size of Costa Rica is still being destroyed each year, the United Nations said on Thursday.
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Sunk by global warming? Wave goodbye to this disputed island
March 25, 2010
By Mark Magnier
India and Bangladesh have been trying to snatch from each other a tiny landmass that first surfaced in the 1970s in the Bay of Bengal. It has resubmerged, an apparent casualty of climate change.
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Dramatic decline of male births in indigenous communities tied to industrial pollution
By Terri Hansen, Today correspondent
Mar 13, 2010
A strange reality exists in at least one indigenous community – babies that should be born boys are instead, born girls.


Read more here.