Since 2006, 20 to 40 percent of the bee colonies in the United States alone have suffered “colony collapse.” Suspected culprits ranged from pesticides to genetically modified food. Now, a unique partnership — of military scientists and entomologists — appears to have achieved a major breakthrough: identifying a new suspect, or two. A fungus tag-teaming with a virus have apparently interacted to cause the problem, according to a paper by Army scientists in Maryland and bee experts in Montana in … Read ahead
Source: nytimes.com
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. – President Barack Obama declared Gulf Coast beaches clean, safe and open for business Saturday as he brought his family to the Florida Panhandle and promised residents that the government wouldn’t forget them once efforts to stop the leak are finished. On a warm and muggy day, Obama pledged to “keep up our efforts until the environment is cleaned, polluters are held accountable, businesses and communities are made whole, and the people of the Gulf Coast are back on their feet.” Obama is in the region for a brief weekend trip with first lady Michelle Obama, daughter Sasha (her sister Malia is at summer camp) and the family dog, Bo. Their 27-hour stop in the Sunshine State is as much a family vacation as it is an attempt by the president to convince Americans that this region, so dependent on tourism revenue, is safe for travel — and that its surf is clean. To reinforce that message, Obama and Sasha swam in the Gulf’s waters on Saturday, according to White House spokesman Bill Burton. The highly anticipated dip was away from the media’s view. Obama said his family planned to “enjoy the beach and the water — to let our fellow Americans know that they should come on down here.” The first family ventured to Lime’s Bayside Bar & Grill, where they relaxed on an outdoor deck overlooking the water and ate a lunch of fish tacos, chicken tenders and burgers. After a quiet afternoon at their beachfront hotel, the Obamas headed into town for a family miniature golf outing. Nine-year old Sasha stole the show, hitting a hole-in-one off the first tee, much to the delight of her father, an avid golfer. “That’s how you do it!” the president exclaimed, before shooting par with his two strokes on the first hole. The White House scheduled the trip after facing criticism that the president wasn’t heeding his own advice that Americans vacation in the Gulf. Obama has vacationed in North Carolina and Maine this year and is heading to Martha’s Vineyard, off the Massachusetts coast, later in August. Mrs. Obama also traveled to Spain this month with Sasha. Gulf Coast residents and local officials are hoping the president’s stop here will jump-start the tourism industry, which has been reeling since the spill. Although only 16 of the 180 beaches in the western part of the Panhandle were affected by the spill, tourism officials say many potential visitors have stayed away, deterred by images of oil-slicked waters and tarball-strewn beaches in other parts of the region. “It’s the biggest single commercial you could imagine,” Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said of the president’s visit. Crist was among the local officials and small business owners who joined Obama earlier in the day at a meeting to discuss the pace of recovery efforts. Obama, who is on his fifth trip to the region since the spill began, said he knows Gulf Coast residents have been frustrated by the slow payment of claims from a $20 billion BP fund for those who have suffered damages as a result of the spill, and he pledged to rectify that. “Any delay by BP or those managing the new funds are unacceptable, and I will keep pushing to get these claims expedited,” the president said. Alabama’s attorney general on Thursday sued BP and others companies associated with the spill, seeking unspecified economic and punitive damages. At least 300 federal lawsuits have been filed in 12 states against BP and the other three main companies involved in the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drill rig. The president’s trip came as the government’s point man on the Gulf spill said he wants additional testing before he orders BP to finish drilling a relief well that will allow the oil giant to plug the well for good. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen told reporters on Saturday that it could be late Monday or early Tuesday before officials know the results of those tests. That means it would be Tuesday at the earliest before he gives his final order to proceed with the relief well, and next weekend at the earliest before the relief well intercepts the runaway well. ___ Associated Press writer Bill Kaczor contributed to this report. … 
Sharks have trawled the world’s oceans for millions of years—the earliest species predated the dinosaurs. Today, many species rule as apex predators that dominate the top of the underwater food chain. In every ocean in the world—at astonishing depths and shallow waters alike—they hunt. Sharks also stimulate the imaginations of humans, who seem eternally fascinated by their strength, speed, and unmatched ability as predators. Indeed, the popularity of … 
New York City] with the smallest environmental impact possible." The owners tow the components of the stand behind their bikes and set up shop in locations around the city. Once they've put together the bar, they hand grind the beans for each cup. The cold coffee is cold brewed, and the hot filters through a set of handsomely modified Chemex glass beakers. Each cup of coffee—hot or cold brewed—costs $2.50, which is pretty reasonable considering it might be the most sustainably produced eye-opener in town. … 
It sounds like a promising prospect, actually: an ocean where no one has to worry about the threat of a sleek, dark shape rising from the depths with a million teeth and an appetite for limbs. Seals everywhere would rejoice, no doubt. But an ocean without sharks is actually a troubling, potentially disastrous prospect in terms of marine ecosystems—and a disturbingly possible one if things keep going at the rate they are. “This is a pressing concern, and we are in danger of living in a world effectively devoid of sharks,” said Stuart Sandin, a marine ecology expert from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. “Fishermen around the world are devastating shark populations.” It could mean an unfitting end to an animal that has outlived the dinosaurs and plied the oceans for more than 400 million years, surviving near-global extinction events and outliving countless other marine species. But according to several studies, sharks nearly everywhere are in serious decline due to human activity. A report from the … 
Washington over the last three years. “The Weather of the Future,” by Heidi Cullen — a senior research scientist with Climate Central, a nonprofit research organization — offers a scorching vision of what life might be like in … 
Gulf. But marine scientists now fear that colorless, odorless natural gas that escaped from the ruptured well is also destroying the delicate ocean ecosystems—and BP might never be held accountable for the damage this "invisible villain" causes. Investigations have so far indicated that the rig explosion was caused by natural gas—likely triggered when a highly pressurized surge of gas shot up through the well and ignited when it came into contact with machinery. But in the aftermath, the role all this gas—some 40 percent of what is escaping from the well—will play in the destruction of marine life has seldom been discussed. … 
Belize. There it dropped anchor — and plunged into controversy over severe damage to a coral reef system officially recognized by the United Nations as one of the world’s most magnificent and irreplaceable treasures. "The guys from the area told me they were beside the boat before it dropped anchor, and they were yelling and waving their hands, shouting, ‘No! No, don’t drop here,’ ” recounted Melanie McField, a marine scientist with the Smithsonian Institution who surveyed the Central American reef shortly after the incident. "It was bad. There was a lot of damage." The owner of that yacht? Billionaire Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene. The real estate mogul from Palm Beach was not aboard the boat at the time. And, oddly, Greene today says the incident never happened, despite extensive publicity about it at the time (including statements from his representatives), eyewitness accounts, scientific surveys of the damage and an extensive case file at the country’s Department of Environment. "Jeff Greene doesn’t take a penny of special interest money, so career politicians are attacking him with ridiculous stories about something that didn’t even happen five years ago on a boat he wasn’t even on,” said campaign spokesman Luis Vizcaino. Asked how he could say it never happened when Greene’s own employees at the time acknowledged a problem on the reef with … 
WASHINGTON — The nation's farmers could face severe restrictions on the use of pesticides as environmentalists, spurred by a favorable ruling from a judge in Washington state, want the courts to force federal regulators to protect endangered species from the ill effects of agricultural chemicals. The eight-year-old ruling by a federal judge in Seattle required the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Environmental Protection Agency to review whether 54 pesticides, herbicides and fungicides were jeopardizing troubled West Coast salmon runs. The agencies moved recently to restrict the use of three of the chemicals, including a widely used one with the trade name Sevin, near bodies of water that flow into salmon-bearing streams, and they're considering restrictions on 12 additional chemicals. The Washington State Department of Agriculture says such restrictions would prevent pesticide use on 75 percent of the state's farmland. …