Obama’s Latest Choice for Commerce a Proven Conservationist
WASHINGTON, DC, February 26, 2009 (ENS) – “Gary knows the American Dream. He’s lived it. And that’s why he shares my commitment to do whatever it takes to keep it alive in our time,” President Barack Obama said Wednesday, announcing former Washington Governor Gary Locke as his choice to lead the Commerce Department. “It is [...]
Read More »Gulf Council Seeks Emergency Longline Closure to Save Turtles
TAMPA, Florida, February 4, 2009 (ENS) – Sea turtles in the eastern Gulf of Mexico could soon get more protection if the federal government approves an emergency request from a federal fisheries management agency to temporarily halt the use of fishing gear that injures and kills them. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council Thursday [...]
Read More »Obama’s Commerce Secretary Pick No Environmental Champion
WASHINGTON, DC, February 3, 2009 (ENS) – President Barack Obama today named U.S. Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, a Republican, to fill the slot of Commerce Secretary in his cabinet. If confirmed by the Senate, Gregg will join Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Defense Secretary Robert Gates for a total of three Republicans in [...]
Read More »Obama Urged to Address Deteriorating Oceans
WASHINGTON, DC, December 19, 2008 (ENS) – More than four years after two independent expert panels urged the Bush administration and Congress to immediately overhaul the nation’s oceans policy, few of their recommendations have been implemented and the state of the oceans is deteriorating rapidly. Overfishing, pollution and climate change are wreaking havoc with ocean [...]
Read More »As Commerce Secretary, Richardson Will Govern Air, Oceans
CHICAGO, Illinois, December 4, 2008 (ENS) – President-elect Barack Obama has tapped New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to be his Secretary of Commerce, a position with many natural resources responsibilities. Richardson will be in charge of rebuilding the U.S. economy on a basis of clean energy and green jobs – two of the essential pillars [...]
Read More »Ozone Layer Healing as Emissions Are Cut Back
WASHINGTON, DC, November 17, 2008 (ENS) – The emissions of ozone-depleting substances should have “a negligible effect on ozone in all regions beyond 2070,” as long as governments continue to comply with the Montreal Protocol, according to a new assessment of the global ozone layer led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA. The [...]
Read More »Cook Inlet Beluga Whales Listed as Endangered Over Palin Protests
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, October 18, 2008 (ENS) – The Cook Inlet beluga whale population near Anchorage is in danger of extinction, and has been listed as an endangered species, federal fisheries regulators announced Friday. “In spite of protections already in place, Cook Inlet beluga whales are not recovering,” said James Balsiger, acting assistant administrator for the [...]
Read More »Ship Speed Limit Again Proposed to Aid Endangered Whales
WASHINGTON, DC, August 26, 2008 (ENS) – Large ships traveling along the east coast of the United States would have to slow to 10 knots in designated areas used by endangered North Atlantic right whales under a federal government proposal issued Tuesday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the final environmental impact statement for [...]
Read More »More Major Storms Forecast for Intense Atlantic Hurricane Season
CAMP SPRINGS, Maryland, August 7, 2008 (ENS) – Government weather forecasters said today that they expect two more named storms and hurricanes to form in the Atlantic Basin this year than they predicted in May, and warned of an increased likelihood that 2008 will be an above-normal hurricane season. In its August update to the [...]
Read More »Plan to Rid Freshwaters of Harmful Algal Blooms Short on Solutions
WASHINGTON, DC, August 6, 2008 (ENS) – A report on ways to minimize the impacts of harmful algal blooms in freshwaters across the United States presented by federal government agencies on Monday offers few solutions and relies heavily on future research to develop responses to the noxious and often toxic plants. These algae can form [...]
Read More »Oil Spill Closes 80 Miles of the Mississippi River
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, July 24, 2008 (ENS) – Crews are struggling to contain and clean more than 419,000 gallons of fuel oil from an 80 mile closed stretch of the Mississippi River that extends from New Orleans downstream to the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spilled early Wednesday near downtown New Orleans when the 600-foot [...]
Read More »U.S. Urged to Merge Land and Oceans Agencies into One
WASHINGTON, DC, July 9, 2008 (ENS) – Today’s federal environmental research, development, and monitoring programs are not structured to handle such major problems as global climate change, declines in freshwater, and loss of biodiversity, warns a group of former senior federal officials who want to form a new agency by merging two existing ones. In [...]
Read More »Global Warming Chief Among Threats to Coral Reefs
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, July 7, 2008 (ENS) – Nearly half of U.S. coral reef ecosystems are considered to be in “poor” or “fair” condition according to a new analysis of the health of coral reefs under U.S. jurisdiction by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA. The report was released by NOAA today at the [...]
Read More »New Satellite Will Improve Weather, Climate, Ocean Forecasts
PASADENA, California, June 23, 2008 (ENS) – A new NASA-French space agency oceanography satellite was lofted into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base early Friday morning on a three year mission to record sea level, a vital indicator of global climate change. The mission is expected to return a vast amount of new data that [...]
Read More »Caribbean Monk Seal Declared Extinct
WASHINGTON, DC, June 9, 2008 (ENS) – After a five year review, federal government scientists have determined that the Caribbean monk seal has gone extinct. No Caribbean monk seal has been seen for more than 50 years. Also known as the West Indian monk seal, this was the only subtropical seal native to the Caribbean [...]
Read More »USGS Offers New Emergency Backup for Flood Forecast Data
WASHINGTON, DC, June 4, 2008 (ENS) – The U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, is better prepared to help protect the public this hurricane season than in the past by ensuring that emergency managers have quick storm-proof access to critical water information. A new downlink backup system located in South Dakota guarantees the availability of streamflow information [...]
Read More »More Atlantic Hurricanes Than Normal Predicted for 2008
WASHINGTON, DC, May 22, 2008 (ENS) – This year, there is a 65 percent chance of an Atlantic hurricane season with more storms than normal, officials with the federal government’s Climate Prediction Center warned today. The Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, issued the prediction at a news conference called [...]
Read More »U.S. Coastal Waters Less Toxic Than 20 Years Ago
SILVER SPRING, Maryland, May 12, 2008 (ENS) – U.S. environmental laws enacted in the 1970s are reducing overall contaminant levels in coastal waters of the United States, finds a 20 year study released today by scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA. But the study shows continuing elevated levels of toxic metals and [...]
Read More »Portal Opens to Northern California’s Three Marine Sanctuaries
SAN FRANCISCO, California, April 29, 2008 (ENS) – The latest scientific research conducted within three West Coast national marine sanctuaries is now displayed on a new website hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA and enriched by nearly 100 contributing partners. The site, sanctuarysimon.org, integrates scientific monitoring data from Gulf of the Farallones, [...]
Read More »Survey Finds Bush Administration Interfering with EPA Scientists
WASHINGTON, DC, April 24, 2008 (ENS) – The Bush administration has frequently meddled with scientists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a survey released today by a scientific advocacy group. The Union of Concerned Scientists reports that nearly two-thirds of the 1,586 staff EPA scientists who responded to a questionnaire complained of recent [...]
Read More »NOAA Offers $200,00 to Help Clean Biscayne Bay
MIAMI, Florida, April 15, 2008 (ENS) – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, is investing $200,000 in Florida’s Miami-Dade County to expand the scope of Baynanza, an annual celebration and cleanup of Biscayne Bay that started 26 years ago. The funding is the largest NOAA contribution ever made towards a community marine debris cleanup [...]
Read More »House Votes to Expand Marine Sanctuaries on California Coast
WASHINGTON, DC, March 31, 2008 (ENS) – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to protect one of the nation’s most biologically important stretches of coastal waters. The measure would increase the size of two existing marine sanctuaries along the coast of Northern California to safeguard a unique upwelling marine ecosystem. The House approved H.R. [...]
Read More »Freezing Plants in a Warming World
OAK RIDGE, Tennessee, February 29, 2008 (ENS) – Widespread damage to plants from a sudden freeze that occurred across the Eastern United States from April 5 to 9, 2007 was made worse because it had been preceded by two weeks of unusual warmth, according to an analysis published in the March 2008 issue of the [...]
Read More »Developing Countries Get Help to Cope with Climate Change
WASHINGTON, DC, February 28, 2008 (ENS) – Assistance for developing countries to manage water resources, combat drought, and measure climate change will be forthcoming under a new agreement signed today by the World Bank and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department. The first projects are planned for [...]
Read More »U.S. Scientists Head to Antarctica for Climate Research
WASHINGTON, DC, February 21, 2008 (ENS) – More than 30 scientists will embark on a research cruise this month to the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica. There they will combat cold and wind to study how gases that impact climate change move between the atmosphere and the ocean under high winds and seas. The Southern [...]
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