Single cruise ship can destroy an acre of reef in one day, official says.

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands - The government said Tuesday it has banned cruise ships from anchoring at a port where their huge chains have damaged coral reefs.

Environmental officials say some coral can be preserved despite extensive damage along the sea floor near the Spotts Dock facility, which is used as an alternative port when seas are too rough for cruise ships to call on the George Town harbor.


Read full article: 'Cayman Islands ban cruise docking near coral'

THE United States' leading hurricane forecaster says global ocean currents, not human-produced carbon dioxide, are responsible for global warming.

William Gray, a Colorado State University researcher, also said the Earth may begin to cool on its own in five to 10 years.

Speaking to a group of Republican MPs, Dr Gray had harsh words for researchers and politicians who said man-made greenhouse gases were responsible for global warming.

"They are blaming it all on humans, which is crazy," he said.

"We're not the cause of it."


Read full article: 'Ocean currents to blame for warming'

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Apr 25, 2007 04:52 EST) A 14-year campaign to clean up Malaysia's rivers has been branded a failure by the country's environment minister after nearly one in ten have become so polluted they are unsafe for humans to touch, reports said Wednesday.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Azmi Khalid said despite the "Love Our Rivers" campaign, increasing pollution had rendered 17 of Malaysia's 186 river systems so toxic the water was unsafe for humans to touch.


Read full article: '14-year Campaign to Clean-up Rivers a Failure'

Malaysia's Sipadan island, widely regarded as one of the world's top dive sites, is set to get a face lift, a senior official said Tuesday, following criticism that its facilities were falling into disrepair.

"It's important to spruce up Sipadan because it is a national treasure and a key tourism destination," said Masidi Manjun, acting tourism minister for Sabah state. Sipadan is off the coast of Sabah state on Borneo island.


Read full article: 'Malaysia to fix up famed dive island'

By Emmanuelle Landais

Dubai: Islands in the Pacific as well as man-made islands will be reduced to diving experiences for scuba divers as a direct result of global warming, according to former president of Costa Rica and head of the World Economic Forum.

Jose Maria Figueres spoke to pupils from Dubai American Academy yesterday on the efforts that need to be made to reduce our impact on the world, as part of activities for Earth Week.


Read full article: ' Pacific islands to become scuba diving areas'

By Michael McCarthy, Environmental Editor

The map of Greenland will have to be redrawn. A new island has appeared off its coast, suddenly separated from the mainland by the melting of Greenland's enormous ice sheet, a development that is being seen as the most alarming sign of global warming.

Several miles long, the island was once thought to be the tip of a peninsula halfway up Greenland's remote east coast but a glacier joining it to the mainland has melted away completely, leaving it surrounded by sea.

Shaped like a three-fingered hand some 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle, it has been discovered by a veteran American explorer and Greenland expert, Dennis Schmitt, who has named it Warming Island (Or Uunartoq Qeqertoq in Inuit, the Eskimo language, that he speaks fluently).

Read full article: ' An island made by global warming'

Manado, Indonesia (Apr 24, 2007 05:44 EST) A court in Indonesia on Tuesday cleared US mining giant Newmont of dumping tonnes of toxic waste, closing for now a case that risked the nation's efforts to increase foreign investment.

Prosecutors had sought a three-year jail term for company executive Richard Ness in a high-profile case closely watched by international business leaders, environmentalists and the Indonesian government.

Both Ness and the local branch of Newmont, the world's largest gold miner, were acquitted, although prosecutors said they would appeal.


Read full article: 'Court Clears U.S. Mining Giant On Charges of Dumping Toxic Wastes'

On Saturday, April 14, 2007, a group of divers and snorkelers consisting mainly of tourists with some Bonaire residents met at the Dive Friends Bonaire location at Port Bonaire to clean this area underwater, which had never been cleaned before.

The group of 29 was made up of 23 divers, two snorkelers, and four persons who were available for shore support and “critter control.” Dive Friends Bonaire also added four staff in the water to assist the divers and snorkelers, as well as one for shore support.

After a comprehensive briefing by Susan Davis of NetTech, the divers geared up in their buddy teams, entered the water, and headed out of the area in a southward direction.


Read full article: 'Bonaire Underwater Cleanup'

Shanghai, China (Apr 23, 2007 11:33 EST) Prominent Chinese environmental activist Wu Lihong is in police custody after he was arrested for alleged blackmail, his wife said Monday.

Dozens of police stormed Wu's house in eastern China on April 13, ransacked it and took his computer and personal documents, said Xu Jiehua.

"He has been accused of blackmail," she told AFP. "This is the 10th day he remains in police custody."


Read full article: 'Chinese Environmental Activist Still In Jail'

Buyat Bay, Indonesia (Apr 23, 2007 11:24 EST) Junaidi, a 20-year-old fisherman, proudly shows off his catch as children play nearby in the turquoise waters of Indonesia's Buyat Bay.

"I would not move anywhere else, where else would you easily get this much fish?" asked Junaidi, pointing to a tub full of fish caught in the bay.

Like many in this tranquil and remote coastal community, Junaidi rejects claims that the bay on the northern tip of Sulawesi island has been polluted by US mining giant Newmont.


Read full article: 'Fish, Tumors and Controversy in Indonesia'

By Frank Zeller

Hanoi, Vietnam (Apr 22, 2007 08:58 EST) For three months crude oil spills have sullied beaches, mangroves and aquaculture farms along Vietnam's long coastline, but the government says the source of the pollution remains a mystery.

While soldiers and volunteers have scraped over 1,600 tons of congealed oil and sand off Vietnam's shores since late January, officials remain at a loss to explain whether the oil was dumped by a tanker or leaked from a platform.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has said that Hanoi has asked for help from its South China Sea neighbours in finding the source of the slicks, while ruling out the country's own offshore wells as the origin.


Read full article: 'Vietnam Oil Spill Mystery Plot'

Athens, Greece (Apr 22, 2007 17:39 EST) The popular Greek holiday island of Santorini is threatened by an oil slick leaking from a cruise ship that sank near its shores over two weeks ago, a Greek daily reported on Sunday.

Ethnos daily reported that the oil slick had broken through floating barriers to spread to a distance of five kilometres (three miles) from the site of the shipwreck, a bay near the island port of Fyra.


Read full article: 'Greek Holiday Island Threatened by Cruise Oil Spill'

Patpeete, French Polynesia (Apr 21, 2007 15:51 EST) Tennis balls, 10-year-old aluminum cans and neon tubes were among more than a tonne of junk collected in recent days on the tiny Polynesian atoll bought by Marlon Brando in the 1960s, the actor's son said.

The garbage had washed ashore with the tides, and Teihotu Brando made the Friday announcement as a way of drawing attention to pollution and other types of environmental destruction.


Read full article: ''Ton of Junk' Collected from Brando's Polynesian Atoll'

Jakarta, Indonesia (Apr 20, 2007 16:01 EST) US mining giant Newmont voiced confidence Friday it would win a controversial pollution trial next week, saying claims the company and one of its executives poisoned an Indonesian bay were baseless.

Newmont executive Richard Ness said the prosecution's case against him and the Indonesian unit of the company had been "torn apart" during the 20-month trial closely watched by foreign investors.

An Indonesian court is expected to rule Tuesday on whether Newmont and Ness polluted Buyat Bay in northern Sulawesi with arsenic and mercury from its now defunct gold mine on the island.


Read full article: 'US Mining Giant Confident on Indonesian Ocean Pollution Verdict'

19 Apr 2007
Helsinki, Finland – With the summer holiday season rapidly approaching, WWF is calling on shipping companies operating in the Baltic to protect the marine environment by halting the practice of dumping polluted waste water into the sea.

According to the global conservation organization, cruise ships and ferry boats operating in the Baltic Sea carry up to 80 million passengers annually. Overall shipping activity is expected to increase significantly in the coming years.

Read full article: 'Banning ship waste in the Baltic'