The sense of disarray in the global effort to address climate change deepened Thursday with the resignation of Yvo de Boer, the stolid Dutch bureaucrat who led international climate change negotiations over four tumultuous years.
Astronauts' New Window on the World
The Sahara Desert is visible through the un-shuttered windows of the new viewing cupola on the International Space Station in this astronaut photo. A second picture looks into the “new wing” from outside.
Restructuring the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System
President Barack Obama’s FY2011 budget contains a major restructuring of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) in order to put the critical program on a more sustainable pathway toward success, according to a White House directive. ÛÏThe satellite system is a national priority — essential to meeting both civil and military weather-forecasting, storm-tracking, and climate-monitoring requirements. However, the program is behind schedule, over budget, and underperforming. Independent reports and an administration task force have concluded that the current program cannot be successfully executed with the current management structure, and with the current budget structureÛ_,Û the directive continues. Read the entire directive here.
Lawsuit Filed to Secure Critical Habitat for Endangered Florida Panther
Five conservation groups have filed a lawsuit against the US Fish and Wildlife Service its failure to designate critical habitat for the Florida panther.
Camera snaps jaguar photos below border
One year after the controversial death of Macho B – Arizona’s famed jaguar – a conservation group has snapped photos of another jaguar just south of the US-Mexico border.
GEO needs stronger political and financial support to succeed
Dr. Roy Gibson, first Director General of the European Space Agency and the first Director General of the British National Space Centre, made a strong argument for the need of governments to give priority financial and political support to GEO and GEOSS as speaker at the GEO-IGOS Symposium in Washington DC on 19 November 2009. His adapted speech from that event and a biographical introduction are reprinted here.
Meet a European woodmouse that eats like a dinosaur
The European woodmouse has a unique taste for ferns, a food once eaten by long-extinct dinosaurs, scientists discover. …Read more at the original article here (This article was syndicated in an earlier version of the Earthzine website, but is no longer reproduced here. Hope you enjoy the article at the original source).
Smoke bomb: The other climate culprits
Carbon dioxide may be the villain of the piece when it comes to atmospheric pollution, but we ignore its henchmen at our peril.
Chagos marine protection plan condemned as unethical
A British plan to conserve a large chunk of surviving empire has been backed by the IUCN but condemned by its own ethics lawyers.
LHC set to re-start after break
The Large Hadron Collider will be re-started next week after shutting down late last year for the holiday period.