Tag archives for North America
Did the Chesapeake Bay Turn the Corner in 2011?
Posted by Dan Klotz on January 4, 2012 2011 may go down in history as the turning point for the Chesapeake Bay. The largest estuary in the United States, the Bay’s watershed includes almost 20 percent of the country’s Atlantic coast and produces an estimated 500 million pounds of seafood every year.
Durban Plan for Climate Treaty Greeted With Mixed Feelings
Posted by Leon Marshall of Environmental Journalist, News Watch South African Contributor on December 12, 2011 The COP17 round of climate negotiations in Durban has once again shown just how hard it is to devise a cohesive international response to this threatening phenomenon. It is for this reason that the conference’s agreement to sign up to an all-inclusive legal commitment to reduce carbon emissions has been hailed as a major breakthrough,…
Posted by As we remember and honor today all the men and women who did war service, National Geographic has published A Soldier’s Sketchbook, the remarkable drawings and memories of Joseph Farris, an internationally published cartoonist whose works have appeared in the New Yorker and many other major publications.
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I’ve always loved fresh fish. As a chef, there’s nothing like cooking a striped bass or bluefish straight from the Chesapeake — watching as the skin darkens, caramelizes, and releases just a hint of the unmistakably sweet, yet salty, fragrance of the Bay. But as a sustainability advocate, I’ve also grown concerned about the health of a key food source for these and many other species along the Eastern seaboard — a small fish known as menhaden.
Path of the Pronghorn Leading To New Passages – Part 2
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on November 9, 2011 WCS Scientists blog from the field in a 2-part series that looks at pronghorn encountering difficult highway crossing points during their fall migration. The animals get a glimpse of the construction of underpasses and overpasses meant to keep wildlife and motorists off a collision course.
Mapping Our Nation’s Ascendancy
Posted by Juan Valdes on November 3, 2011 This year marks the beginning of the Civil War’s Sesquicentennial. Just six months after commemorations began, sales of National Geographic’s Battles of the Civil War map have increased exponentially. It appears this key period of our nation’s history remains in the hearts and minds of many of our citizens. I was well reminded of this…
Path of the Pronghorn Leading To New Passages
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on November 2, 2011 WCS Scientists blog from the field in a 2-part series that looks at pronghorn encountering difficult highway crossing points during their fall migration. The animals get a glimpse of the construction of underpasses and overpasses meant to keep wildlife and motorists off a collision course.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom joined a number of leading zoos today in treating their animals to Halloween pumpkin treats. The animals are entirely unaware of Halloween, of course, but their keepers seem to welcome any opportunity to have fun for themselves and visitors — while the animals no doubt welcome a change of diet and an…
Cecil Manuel, of the Cecil B. Manuel Inter-Tribal Dancers, shared his cultural and spiritual knowledge at the recent BioBlitz in Saguaro National Park. Among the dances he demonstrated was the Hoop Dance. “There are so many different stories that we tell about the dances. Different tribes have different versions of how they came about,” he…
Posted by If you can’t recall the last time such a bizarre snowstorm hit the northeastern U.S. in October, it’s not because your memory’s failing. The nor’easter that dumped snow from Virginia to Maine over the weekend—as much as 30 inches in some places—was something new.
Bats, Vultures and Owls Face More Tricks than Treats
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on October 28, 2011 As children prepare for their beloved Halloween trick-or-treat ritual, nature is playing tricks of its own with some of our autumnal holiday’s winged icons. Two expert conservationists with the Wildlife Conservation Society argue that to protect bats, owls, and vultures perhaps it’s time to give them some treats in the form of environmental and habitat protection.
Science and Conservation Gets a Boost from Google
Posted by Jeff Wells on October 28, 2011 The latest technology from Google coupled with a partnership that blends science, technology and activism has resulted in a coast-to-coast virtual tour of Canada’s boreal forest.
The 24-hour BioBlitz in Arizona’s Saguaro National Park last weekend added more than 400 species to park lists, including 190 species of invertebrates and 205 species of fungi previously unknown to the park, the National Geographic Society said in a news announcement today.
Project Noah is an awesome social media website that takes your wildlife encounters and puts them online to share with people all around the world, says David Munson, director of education for the project.
Saguaro National Park, Arizona–Jamie Trevillyan is the Arts Coordinator for Saguaro National Park. A community project she worked on for the 2011 BioBlitz in the park — hosted this weekend by National Geographic and the National Park Service — was aimed at both young and retired people. Some 200 groups (local schools and retirement centers)…
“Sometimes, all you need is a map”
Posted by Juan Valdes on October 20, 2011 It’s 5:45 a.m. on a chilly October morning. The office is dead calm and my cup of coffee has just kicked in. Thirty emails await my response and two handfuls of map projects need to be reviewed. Half of them, of course, are time sensitive. Where to begin? The project requiring the most urgent attention…
Our food system is in desperate need of reform; people, animals and the Earth are suffering, says Gene Baur, an advocate for raising awareness about the negative consequences of industrialized factory farming . “Thankfully, we are beginning to pay attention. Many citizens are demanding more transparency around how food, and especially animal products, are produced. We are no longer comfortable accepting how agribusiness keeps animals who are raised for food hidden from us,” he says in this guest post.
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Do eco-thrill attractions actually help people learn anything about ecology? Jonathan Tourtellot visits a nature theme park in Vancouver, B.C. and gets some surprise insights about the rain forest—and about long-term thinking.
America’s best idea just got better, with the announcement today of an addition of some 40 square miles of fossil-rich lands to the U.S. Petrified Forest National Park (PFNP).
What the California Shark Fin Ban Means
Posted by Valerie Craig of National Geographic's Ocean Initiative in Ocean Views on September 8, 2011 
California Assemblymen Paul Fong (D-Mountain View) and Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), with the support of conservation organizations, introduced Assembly Bill 376, which bans the possession, sale or trade of shark fins. “It’s a great day for sharks in California,” said Michael Sutton, vice president for Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Center for the Future of the Oceans, a co-sponsor of the legislation.
By Patrick J. Kiger As horrifyingly deadly and destructive as the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington were, it’s perhaps even more chilling to realize that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Kuwaiti Al Qaeda operative who has been indicted for planning the attacks, originally had something much bigger in mind. According to Mohammad’s 2008…
By Patrick J. Kiger Unfortunately, there’s no way to undo the tragedy of the September 11 attacks. But just as we wonder how history might have been different had Abraham Lincoln chosen not to go to Ford’s Theater on that fateful night in 1865, or what might have happened had U.S. Naval Intelligence gotten wind…
Chances are, you probably remember exactly what you were doing on the morning of September 11, 2001, at the moment when you first learned about the attack on the World Trade Center. And if you were one of the millions who stared in horror at the television images of smoke billowing from the crippled towers, you undoubtedly can recall the intense, excruciatingly painful surge of grief and anger and sadness that you felt.
Posted by Read the full “Overfishing 101″ series here. Everyone loves a good comeback story, but sometimes a storyline emerges prematurely. Mark Twain famously responded to a press inquiry regarding his supposed demise by saying, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” Similarly, declarations earlier this year that overfishing had ended in America provide a case…
Read the full “Overfishing 101″ series here. Since 1784, a five-foot wooden carving of a cod has hung from the ceiling of the Massachusetts State House—a symbolic reminder of the important place this fish holds in the hearts of New Englanders. Cod, along with other groundfish such as haddock and flounder, has supported coastal towns and economies…
