We haven’t heard from our favorite eco-warrior, David de Rothschild in some time, but that doesn’t mean the youngest heir to the Rothschild banking fortune has fizzled into obscurity. Instead, since he responded to our call to save Israel’s Adullam Valley from his (extended) family’s oil shale ambitions and published his crew’s riveting account of the [...]
The journal Nature reports that a team of ocean researchers have captured the world’s first video of a giant squid (Architeuthis dux) in its natural environment. The video was captured 700 meters (2300 feet) beneath the Pacific near the Ogasawara archipelago, about 1000 kilometers south of Tokyo Japan. The mission was funded by Japan’s NHK broadcasting [...]
The rich and famous are now buying private submarines. Good or bad for the environment? Brian explores. My search for bamboo yarn took me to an industrial part of Beijing. The air here smelled of hot steel and coal. I walked past some of the warehouses and workshops behind the Made in China label and [...]
Rising acid levels in the world’s oceans now threatens everything from coral reefs to global food security, Jane Lubchenco, the head of America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Monday. The level of acid in oceans now rivals climate change as its “equally evil twin,” she told AP. “We’ve got sort of the perfect [...]
Jason deCaires Taylor uses eco art to conserve a fragile ecosystem See a starfish caress a schoolgirl’s cheek as she holds hands with the boy with the algae beard. Watch a baby shark swirl‘round that Beetle parked curbside to coral and lobsters. Underwater, everything’s magnified. Changing currents and depths cause kaleidoscopic effects. Dive in next [...]
Scientists have always been worried about the runaway effects of climate change. Did anyone think that we might have rising concentrations of cholera-causing bacteria in our oceans as a result of higher temperatures? If rising temperatures on land are enabling bed bugs and drug-resistant diseases to proliferate, it stands to reason that something similar might [...]
Explosive phytoplankton “bloom” in Pacific Ocean, caused by too much CO2 infusion. Photo credit: NASA We have written time and time again in Green Prophet about environmental dangers to the world’s seas and oceans. These dangers include pollution by plastic material, chemicals and other debris; from over-fishing; and from global warming. Global warming is [...]
A National Geographic “emerging explorer,” David de Rothschild talks to Green Prophet about plastic, and how adventures inspire change and action. We wrote about the trip from San Fran to Sydney in a boat made from thousands of plastic bottles. And we reviewed the Plastiki book. Now we bring it all together in this exclusive [...]
Research shows that if we aren’t able to stay the loss of ocean biodiversity, we could witness total ecosystem collapse. The loss of ocean predators such as Bluefin Tuna, which were given insufficient protection at a last year’s International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), and sharks – like those poached by Yemeni [...]
Historical documents and a break down of a telegraph machine suggest tsunamis occurred in the recent past. Will Iran be ready for the next one? A joint workshop in co-operation of the Iranian National Center for Oceanography (INCO) and UNESCO was held in south east of Iran. The purpose of the workshop has been to [...]
Wave energy may be Mankind’s future energy resource. Generating electricity from ocean currents and waves is still far from being an accomplished reality, despite efforts being made by innovators like Shmuel Ovada and his SDE wave energy company. But now, the idea of using the tremendous power of the sea to create energy is much [...]
Big recyclers and important for carbon storage: New evidence explores how important this large mammal is for regulating nutrients in the sea. What does whale excrement, or poop, have to do with enriching the world’s marine environment? Plenty, according to a recent article on Greenbang. The “poop” the article is referring to is that contributed by [...]
The end of the line of the bluefin tuna in Japan? A Doha, Qatar conference proposes a ban on fishing. The verdict: defeat for the ban and the tuna. At the recent CITES Agreement conference in Doha Qatar, a proposal to ban commercial fishing for the Atlantic bluefin tuna, a prized delicacy in Japan, was [...]
Alanna Mitchell’s new book, ‘Seasick‘ encompasses two and a half years of aquatic research over five continents. She has literally gone to the oceans depths to see and report upon the hidden ecological crisis of the global ocean. Reading it, a reader becomes profoundly aware of the oceans breadth, width and depth. Salient facts leap [...]
Unlike popular belief, oil does not come from the remains of dinosaurs, rather from the silica based life-form called diatoms. Diatoms live in the top few meters of oceans and lakes and are able, unlike people, to convert sunlight into energy. In order to remain afloat and to store the energy they soak in, diatoms [...]
Green Prophet had a rare opportunity to interview Andreas Weil, director of EcoOcean. Tell us a little about who you are and what you do. My name is Andreas Weil and I am the co-founder and acting director of the Israeli marine environmental nonprofit organization EcoOcean. I live for environmental issues and education. The sea [...]
The wonderful wild weather of last week, and according to forecasts, in the week to come; has inspired a series of special water-related posts. This first one examines the findings of a new International report focusing on the condition of the World’s Oceans. It does not unfortunately make for happy reading…………………. Ben Halpern, a [...]