In Sign of Warming, 1,600 Years of Ice in Andes Melted in 25 Years

Glacial ice in the Peruvian Andes that took at least 1,600 years to form has melted in just 25 years, scientists reported Thursday, the latest indication that the recent spike in global temperatures has thrown the natural world out of balance.
The evidence comes from a remarkable find at the margins of theQuelccaya ice cap in Peru, the world’s largest tropical ice sheet. Rapid melting there in the modern era is uncovering plants that were locked in a deep freeze when the glacier advanced many thousands of years ago.
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Elephants Dying in Epic Frenzy as Ivory Fuels Wars and Profits

Elephants Dying in Epic Frenzy as Ivory Fuels Wars and Profits

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/world/elephants-dying-in-epic-frenzy-as-ivory-fuels-wars-and-profits-651819/#ixzz25b7aq9ou

Lake Tahoe clearer, but more complicated

Despite an extreme weather year, clarity at Lake Tahoe improved in 2011, but underlying trends show the overall picture is more complex than previously thought.
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The Breathing Earth Simulation

Welcome to Breathing Earth This real-time simulation displays the CO2 emissions of every country in the world, as well as their birth and death rates.

The Oil Spills We Don't Hear About

The disastrous BP oil spill is now believed to be the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

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Pollution Can Change Your DNA in 3 Days, Study Suggests

Breathing in polluted air may wreak havoc on our DNA, reprogramming genes in as few as three days and causing increased rates of cancer and other diseases

via Guy Kawasaki

AP IMPACT: Tons of drugs dumped into wastewater

U.S. hospitals and long-term care facilities annually flush millions of pounds of unused pharmaceuticals down the drain, pumping contaminants into America's drinking water, according to an ongoing Associated Press investigation.
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One thing is clear: The massive amount of pharmaceuticals being flushed by the health services industry is aggravating an emerging problem documented by a series of AP investigative stories — the commonplace presence of minute concentrations of pharmaceuticals in the nation's drinking water supplies, affecting at least 46 million Americans.

Researchers are finding evidence that even extremely diluted concentrations of pharmaceutical residues harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species in the wild. Also, researchers report that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain drugs.

Continent-size toxic stew of plastic trash fouling swath of Pacific Ocean

In reality, the rogue bag would float into a sewer, follow the storm drain to the ocean, then make its way to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch - a heap of debris floating in the Pacific that's twice the size of Texas, according to marine biologists.

The enormous stew of trash - which consists of 80 percent plastics and weighs some 3.5 million tons, say oceanographers - floats where few people ever travel, in a no-man's land between San Francisco and Hawaii.

Life Beneath Arctic Ice

Beautiful photos here

Water, Water Everywhere, but Guilt by the Bottleful

While I am not an ardent over-the-top environmentalist, there are two environmental issues that really bug me: styrofoam and single-use containers for beverages and foodstuff. This article highlights some of the issues....

In the last few months, bottled water — generally considered a benign, even beneficial, product — has been increasingly portrayed as an environmental villain by city leaders, activist groups and the media. The argument centers not on water, but oil. It takes 1.5 million barrels a year just to make the plastic water bottles Americans use, according to the Earth Policy Institute in Washington, plus countless barrels to transport it from as far as Fiji and refrigerate it.
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Over the last 15 years, the bottled water industry has been astonishingly successful in turning a product that once seemed an indulgence into a daily companion. Savvy marketers even managed to recast this mundane product as a talisman of sexiness — Jennifer Aniston is the new face of Glacéau SmartWater.

But the fickleness of fashion may be tilting against the industry.