Massive oil plume discovered in the Gulf
Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have detected a plume of hydrocarbons that is at least 22 miles long and more than 3,000 feet below the surface of…
BP spill officially the worst offshore oil accident
BP's Gulf of Mexico disaster is officially the worst accidental oil spill on record, U.S. authorities said Monday. Scientists appointed by the Department of Energy now estimate that some 4.9…
Visiting the Gulf: how wildlife and people are faring in America’s worst environmental disaster, an interview with Jennifer Jacquet
"President Obama called it 'the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced.' So I thought I should face it and head to the Gulf"—these are the opening words on the…
Oil devastates indigenous tribes from the Amazon to the Gulf
For the past few months, the mainstream media has focused on the environmental and technical dimensions of the Gulf mess. While that’s certainly important, reporters have ignored a crucial aspect…
Who’s really accountable for the BP oil spill?
Reading articles in the newspapers recently and online, I find the media's focus is on scrutinizing BP's way of paying for the damage done when an estimated 76,934,000 gallons of…
The growing impacts of China’s oil spill
Two oil pipelines exploded Friday in the Chinese province of Liaoning beginning China's worst oil spill; nearly a week later 400,000 gallons of oil have spread over 166 square miles,…
Oil disaster threatens Gulf of Mexico’s deep water titans
As I discovered in the course of researching my book, No Rain in the Amazon: How South America’s Climate Change Affects the Entire Planet (Palgrave, 2010), the oil industry has…
Goodbye to the Gulf: oil disaster hits region’s ‘primary production’
Oil disaster could cripple the Gulf's ecosystem services. According to a new analysis by the World Resources Institute (WRI), the many ecosystem services provided by the Gulf of Mexico will…
Methane and Climate Change: From the Amazon to the Gulf of Mexico
In surveying the environmental damage unleashed from the BP oil spill, could we be missing the 800-pound gorilla in the closet? While oil poses undeniable ecological risks, methane (CH4) could…
Spill may be 40,000 barrels per day
The amount of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico from the blown-out Deepwater Horizon well may be 40,000 barrels, well above the official government estimate of 12,000 and 19,000…
The penguin crisis: over 60 percent of the world’s penguins threatened with extinction
Everyone loves penguins. With their characteristic black-and-white 'tuxedo' markings, upright waddle, and childlike stature, penguins seem at once exotic and familiar: exotic because they live far from most human habitations,…
Will we ever know the full wildlife toll of the BP oil spill?
Will we ever know the full wildlife toll of the BP oil spill? The short answer: no. The gruesome photos that are making the media rounds over the last week…
As Mangroves Die from Oil, U.S. Public Yawns
What if, instead of a nasty oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. public was now confronted with a natural catastrophe in the Grand Canyon or in California…
The Gulf oil spill in context: US oil consumption
The US government has now confirmed that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the United States' largest oil spill and perhaps the nation's worst environmental disaster. While…
BP fails to stop oil spill
BP has failed to stop oil gushing from over a mile below the surface in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill, which has been confirmed as the worst in…
Left Must Fine Tune Its Position on Cuba Embargo in Light of Oil Spill
With no end in sight to the environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, some may wonder whether BP’s spill could become truly international in scope. That, at least, is…
Researchers begin studying long-term effects of oil spill on marine life
As a White House official today announced that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the worst in US history—surpassing even the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in…
BP and the Perilous Voyage of Bama the Manatee
To the degree that Americans are paying attention to the environmental plight of marine wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico, they may focus most upon dolphins and whales. However, the…
NASA image reveals new oil trail hundreds of kilometers long in the Gulf
A new NASA image of the Gulf oil spill shows a trail of oil extending hundreds of kilometers south and then southeast from the spill. At points this new oil…
Spill may be spreading: tar balls wash up in the Florida Keys
Florida had an unwelcome visitor today as tar balls washed on shore at Fort Zachary State Park in Key West, reports Reuters. Local officials fear the tar balls—small blobs of…
Wildlife death toll from BP oil spill likely includes dolphins
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is taking its toll on the region's wildlife: brown pelicans, sea turtles, several species of fish, and now dolphins have been found…
Who’s to blame for the oil spill?
Why we get the oil spill we deserve. America, we deserve the oil spill now threatening the beautiful coast of Louisiana. This disaster is not natural, like the earthquake that…
Gulf oil spill could impact non-coastal songbirds
Even though they don't stop over in the Gulf of Mexico, many migrating songbirds could be impacted by the catastrophic oil spill in the area, warns the American Bird Conservancy…
Oil spill in Gulf of Mexico heading towards full-scale environmental disaster
With the news that the amount of oil leaking from below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico could be as much as five times the original estimate put forward…
After oil rig explosion, leaking crude threatens Gulf of Mexico
Just weeks after a Chinese coal barge rammed the Great Barrier Reef, cutting a nearly two-mile swath through the reef and spilling three tons of engine fuel, fragile marine ecosystems…
Falklands Dispute: Argentine Sovereignty Won’t Solve the Problem
With Britain now moving to explore for oil and gas in the Falkland Islands, Argentina has cried foul. Buenos Aires claims that the Falklands, or the Malvinas as Argentines refer…
Oil spill off Australia potential ‘disaster’ for marine wildlife
Twenty years on, some birds still haven’t recovered from Exxon Valdez oil spill
Twenty years ago today—at 12:04 AM on March 24th, 1989—the Exxon Valdez tanker struck Bligh reef in Prince William Sound causing 10.8 million gallons of crude oil to spill into…
14,000-barrel oil spill in the Ecuadorean Amazon
Special series
Forest Trackers
- License to Log: Cambodian military facilitates logging on Koh Kong Krao and across the Cardamoms
- Forest behind bars: Logging network operating out of Cambodian prison in the Cardamoms
- Indigenous communities in Argentina’s Chaco fear another heavy fire season in 2023
- As tourism booms in India’s Western Ghats, habitat loss pushes endangered frogs to the edge
Oceans
- As one Indian Ocean tuna stock faces collapse, nations scramble to save others
- Conservationists aim to save critically endangered European eels on Italy’s Po River
- Expedition to Pacific ecosystems hopes to learn from their resilience
- Illegal trawling ravages Tunisian seagrass meadows crucial for fish
Amazon Conservation
- Boosted with fresh donations, Amazon Fund reboots stalled projects
- Majority of Brazil’s Congress votes to restrict Indigenous land advances
- Protected areas store a year’s worth of CO₂ emissions, study reveals
- Indigenous land rights key to curbing deforestation and restoring lands: Study
Land rights and extractives
- Dams and plantations upend livelihoods in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo River Valley
- Fish deaths near Rio Tinto mine in Madagascar dredge up community grievances
- Award-winning, Indigenous peace park dragged into fierce conflict in Myanmar
- Logging permit threatens Quilombola bioeconomic ‘paradise’ in the Amazon
Endangered Environmentalists
- Indigenous chief shot in head in Brazil’s ‘palm oil war’ region; crisis group launched
- ‘You don’t kill people to protect forests’: New Thai parks chief raises alarm
- Vietnam’s environmental NGOs face uncertain status, shrinking civic space
- ‘We lost the biggest ally’: Nelly Marubo on her friend Bruno Pereira’s legacy
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
- Aziil Anwar, Indonesian coral-based mangrove grower, dies at 64
- A utopia of clean air and wet peat amid Sumatra’s forest fire ‘hell’
Conservation Effectiveness
- Study shows Kenyan elephant shrew may be adapting to human disturbance, drought
- Saving forests to protect coastal ecosystems: Japan sets historic example
- From scarcity to abundance: The secret of the ‘peace farmers’ of Colombia
- For key Bangladesh wetland, bid for Ramsar status is no guarantee of protection
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
- Robust river governance key to restoring Mekong River vitality in face of dams
