Who’s a clever boy then? Parrot pinches passport

Polly wants a passport – and isn’t above stealing one. A brazen parrot spotted a Scottish man’s passport in a coloured bag in the luggage compartment of a bus, nabbed the document and made off into dense bush with it.

Ships to avoid key feeding zones for North Atlantic right whales

Years of study and effort by NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard will pay off this summer when two changes to shipping lanes into Boston are implemented. Both changes significantly reduce the risk of collisions between large ships and whales.

Climate pressure ‘building on US’

Climate negotiations are to begin in Bonn with pressure building for the US to deliver deeper emissions cuts.
Delegates are dealing with the reality that although they are wrangling with the Obama administration, US Congress will help determine the final outcome.

Water from Melting Greenland Ice Sheath May Impact Northeast US Coast

New research by the National Center for Atmospheric Research points to the possibility that water from the melting Greenland Ice Sheath could change oceanic circulation in the North Atlantic, in a way that would raise sea levels off the Northeast by about eight inches more than the average global sea level rise that is expected with global warming.

Study Links Stranded Marine Animals to Environmental Toxins

Cape Cod is one of the top areas in the world for marine mammal strandings. The animals are sometimes loaded with parasites or are sick. But, despite a long history of pollution in our coastal waters, the toll pollution takes on sea creatures has been harder to establish.

Research reveals Pacific Ocean threats and solutions

The Pacific Ocean, occupying a third of the planet’s area, faces threats that will render some coastal areas uninhabitable.

US Fish & Wildlife Service: Live Eagle Cam

A bald eagle nest located along the Potomac River is the focus of this live Web cam maintained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

Warming means new threats from bugs, heat waves

Tree-devouring beetles, disease-carrying mosquitoes and deer ticks that spread Lyme disease are three living signs of the threat that climate change is likely to pose to human health.

U.S. says rich nations likely to miss carbon targets

Rich nations as a group are unlikely to reach the deep 2020 cuts in greenhouse gas emissions urged by developing nations as part of a new U.N. climate treaty, the top U.S. climate envoy said on Friday.

Pollution may contribute to rise in liver disease

Pollutants may be contributing to a sharp increase in the number of cases of liver disease, U.S. researchers said on Friday.

Jet Biofuel Ready for Takeoff

Jet fuels derived from algae, camelina and jatropha — plants that pack an energy punch, are not eaten as food and do not displace food crops — could be approved and replacing petroleum fuels in commercial flights as early as next year, a Boeing executive said yesterday.

Conservation setback may doom Christmas Island pipistrelle bat to extinction

When last we wrote about the Christmas Island pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus murrayi), things didn’t look good for this rare species that is both tiny in size and in population. Just 20 or so of the microbats remain in the world, and conservationists hoped to capture the remaining wild population and start a captive-breeding program, a last-gasp chance to save the species for extinction.