Endangered fish comic

It's the latest Arctic Circle comic strip by Alex Hallatt on The Daily Green blog

For more Arctic Circle's click here

Board the train to a National Park

National Parks Traveler reports on visiting East Coast parks via train.

Look for tips on what trains and parks to visit near Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore and Washington D.C. among others.

Washington, D.C. Among the easiest NPS areas in the country to reach by train are those in the nation's capital. Once you arrive at Union Station you don't even need to leave the building to make a connection to the city's Metro system—or you can just walk from the station to some key sites. Even if you aren't traveling by train, the food court in the lower level of Union Station, together with several restaurants elsewhere in the building, offers a variety of choices for reasonably priced meals.

This is a series and NPS will also have trips for Central and Western regions soon.

Read the full story: Visiting National Parks by train - Eastern U.S.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Kansas bison preserve to lure tourists

USA Today reports on the Kansas bison preserve that hopes to lure tourists.

Leaders from the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve near Strong City hope the 20 [bison] will be the beginning of a herd of about 100 that will roam the public parkland in the Flint Hills for all to see. They hope it is the beginning of much — a new tourist attraction, a new start for a species that once dominated the Flint Hills, and a new window for people to see the unique beauty of one of the continent's rarer ecosystems.

"Some of the beauty of our grasslands is a little more subtle," said Kristen Hase, chief of natural resources for the Flint Hills preserve. "This is going to be a big bang, basically."

Read the full story: Kansas preserve hopes bison will be a "big bang" for tourism

Photo by Travis Morisse / The Hutchinson

Nuclear waste found in Rio Grande

The Los Angeles Times reports on the nuclear waste runoff found in New Mexico's river Rio Grande.

More than 60 years after scientists assembled the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, lethal waste is seeping from mountain burial sites and moving toward aquifers, springs and streams that provide water to 250,000 residents of northern New Mexico.

Isolated on a high plateau, the Los Alamos National Laboratory seemed an ideal place to store a bomb factory's deadly debris. But the heavily fractured mountains haven't contained the waste, some of which has trickled down hundreds of feet to the edge of the Rio Grande, one of the most important water sources in the Southwest.

Read the full story: Toxic waste trickles toward New Mexico's water sources

Photo by Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

Deforestation caused Peruvian natives decline; study

Reuters reports that deforestation caused the decline of Peruvian natives called the Nasca according to a new study.

The Nasca people, famed for the lines that depict animals or geometric shapes most clearly visible from the air, became unable to grow enough food in nearby valleys because the lack of trees made the climate too dry, scientists said.

The report, led by Cambridge University in England, said that the findings showed a need for more action now to protect the world's arid lands.

Read the full story: Deforestation sped demise of Nasca in Peru: study

Photo from Thomson Reuters

Stroll down "streets of fear"

USA Today reports on spooky street names across the nation.

FEARnet.com compiled a list called "streets of fear"; basically streets with names like Bloody Pond Road (pic. left) or Gore Orphanage Road. Most of them have some sort of historical or haunted story behind them.

Read the full story: Scary street names across the USA

Photo from FEARnet

1 man, 1 year, 1 car, around the world

Associated Press Art Director Nicolas Rapp is quitting his job next month to travel around the world solo with only his newly-equipped Land Cruiser.

It's not exactly an eco-trip since he will be driving, and where he can't drive he'll ship his car and fly... but he will be camping most of the way and basically living in his car.

He estimated his total expenses to be around $45,000, but we think he should add in some more for border bribes and/or other bribes to get out of sticky situations along the way.

We wish him luck and will be following his travels.

Follow his trip at transworldexpedition.com

Map by transworldexpedition.com / AP

Food recycling mandatory now in SF

NPR reports on the new law in San Francisco that makes recycling food scraps mandatory.

It's the first program of its kind in the nation [that requires all businesses and residences to recycle organic waste], and so far, it's a mandate San Franciscans seem to relish. In fact, many residents and landlords began implementing the law before it took effect, using their city-provided food recycling bins to separate waste.

"It doesn't smell so bad," says Linda Corso, the the Cathedral Hill Plaza apartments manager. "Our trash room doesn't stink like it used to."

That's because none of the wet garbage, the food waste, goes down there anymore, Ms. Corso says. Instead, food scraps go into sealed compost bins that get picked up by the city. Corso says the program has significantly trimmed the building's garbage costs.

"We used to have two bins picked up every day," she says. "Now we're down to one bin every day. So we've cut that in half."

Read the full story: Food recycling law a hit in San Francisco

Photo from Recology

Bears prefer minivans

Los Angeles Times travel blog reports on the study showing that bears at Yosemite National Park prefer to break into minivans more than other types of vehicles.

[The] Journal of Mammalogy study [was] drawn from seven years of park data on bear-related break-ins.

Analyzing reports on 908 Yosemite Valley vehicle break-ins, authors Stewart W. Breck, Nathan Lance and Victoria Seher classified automobiles in nine categories. They found that 26% of the victimized vehicles were minivans.

The authors offer four possible reasons, beginning with one that won’t surprise many parents of small children. Perhaps, the authors say, the black bears like minivans because “minivans are more likely to emit food odors, based on the fact that minivans are designed for families with children, who are more likely to spill food and drink in a vehicle."

Read the full story: Yosemite bears' car of choice

Photo by Gary Kazanjian / Associated Press

Saving Ecuador's condors

Reuters video reports on Ecuador's efforts to save their endangered condor.

Indigenous to the country, the scavenger birds are being bred in captivity because their native habitat is now occupied by people. Ecuadorian conservationists hope to revive the birds that have already been wiped out in neighboring Venezuela.

Watch the report below:

Coral smuggler to be sentenced

The Christian Science Monitor reports on German businessman who plead guilty in a federal court in Portland, Oregon this week for smuggling 40 tons of coral from the Philippines.

Gunther Wenzek, [a German businessman from Essen], runs a company called CoraPet, which sells sand, pebbles, sponges, and shells for aquariums, terrariums, and ponds.

According to documents filed in the case, Mr. Wenzek illegally smuggled two 20-foot shipping containers of coral into the US [from the Philippines to Miami and Portland in 2008]. The containers were falsely labeled as holding “rock” or “gravel.”

Read the full story: German businessman smuggled coral into US from Philippines

Photo by Scott Keeler / Newscom

Nature and budget conscious fall travel

Travel + Leisure magazine via CNN reports on nature-loving fall travel on a budget.

Trips include kayaking among whales in the Pacific Northwest (picture left), biking through the Northeast autumn colors, and hiking amongst the natural scenery of Utah.

Read the full story: Best affordable fall adventures

Picture from Pacific Northwest Adventures.

English pumpkin mural draws Halloween visitors

Reuters video reports on the West Essex, England "pumpkin house" mural created every year around Halloween by Tony Smith.

Watch the video below:

Electric cars not so clean; report

Reuters reports that electric cars aren't as clean as touted according to a new scientific report.

"For electric vehicles to become a major green alternative, the power fuel mix has to move away from coal, or cleaner coal technologies have to be developed," said Jared Cohon, the chair of a National Research Council report released on Monday called "Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use."

About half of U.S. power is generated by burning coal, which emits many times more of traditional pollutants, such as particulates and smog components, than natural gas, and about twice as much of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Read the full story: Electric cars don't deserve halo yet: study

Photo by Thomas Peter / REUTERS

Get fresh produce at vending machine

Mother Nature Network reports on German farmers selling fresh produce via vending machine.

[Farm] Peter-und-Paul-Hof spawned the idea as a solution to a problem which faces many local farmers worldwide. After efforts to deliver milk directly to customers became too time-consuming and costly, they first tried to encourage customers to collect the milk from fridges on their farm, but of course that only shifted the burden onto the customers. Vending machines simply offered them the smartest middle ground solution to the problem.

Perhaps even more unusual, the company has chosen to place several of these upstart Regiomats alongside popular hiking trails in Switzerland.

Read the full story: Farmers using vending machines to sell produce

Photo from Regiomat

Kenya wildlife starve through drought

Global Post reports on how Kenya's drought is affecting not only the people but also the wildlife.

Ten Rare white rhinos (picture right) were moved from drought-stricken Lake Nakuru National Park and released at Nairobi NP, but they are among the lucky survivors

“This is the third year without rain so all the grass is gone. What we’re left with is a barren land of carcasses,” Cynthia Moss (a renowned conservationist who studies the elephants of Kenya’s Amboseli National Park) told GlobalPost.

Moss said this year’s drought is about as bad as she has known in 37 years of researching Amboseli’s elephants. “We had very bad droughts in '76, '84 and 2000 but this is the worst I’ve seen. The old Maasai — the wazee — say it hasn’t been this bad since the 1960s.”

Read the full story: Drought hits Kenya's wildlife

Photo by Thomas Mukoya / Reuters

National Park trip planner website online now

National Parks Traveler reports on the new National Park Service website that will enable travelers to plan their next trip.

Dubbed Plan Your Visit to America's Best Idea (Your National Parks): Fall, Winter, Spring 2009-2010, the site provides a rundown of events and activities at the parks for the fall, winter and spring months. It also provides some tips, such as where to get the right pass for the parks, a suggestion that you stop at visitor centers and ask rangers questions, and, naturally, a suggestion that you visit www.nps.gov before you leave home to gather more information on the park of your choice.

Read the full story: National Park Service launches new website

Photo from National Park Service

Man-made noise is threat to animals; report

BBC Earth News reports on the study that shows how man-made noise torments animals.

Sounds produced by vehicles, oil and gas fields and urban sprawl interfere with the way animals communicate, mate and prey on one another.

The sounds are becoming so ubiquitous that they may threaten biodiversity, say the review's authors.

Even the animals living in protected National Parks in the US are being exposed to chronic levels of noise.

Writing in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, three scientists based in Fort Collins, Colorado, US detail the extent to which noise pollution is now harming wild animals.

Read the full story: Noise pollution threatens animals

Photo by Dietmar Nill / NPL

Madagascar lemurs and forests decimated by gangs

New Scientist reports on the rampant bush meat and illegal logging trades currently happening in Madagascar.

This African island's legendary lemurs and other animals as well as its forests are under threat by loggers and poachers after a March coup that ousted the former president reports the magazine.

In August, Conservation International reported that 15 bushmeat traders, contracted by a restaurant, were arrested carrying hundreds of endangered lemurs, which had been killed and roasted. "This happened in one of the country's best managed parks," says Edward Louis, a conservation biologist at the Omaha Zoo, who has been working in Madagascar for a decade. "If it's happening there, I can't begin to imagine what is happening elsewhere."

Read the full story: Madagascar biodiversity under threat as gangs run wild

Photo from Madagasikara Voakajy a capacity building project

Alaska polar bear sightseeing rise

USA Today reports on Alaska's boom in polar bear tourism.

It's not hard to understand the allure of these giant white bears. Regal and majestic, but also somehow cuddly, there is a natural magnetism that draws us. Add the sense that their future is in doubt, and it translates into heightened public interest in seeing bears. Worldwide, there are 19 known polar bear populations, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Two are in Alaska— the other is in the Chukchi Sea on the western coast.

In May 2008, the polar bear was listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act after research indicated the sea ice vital to the bears' existence is declining. The decline is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

Read the full story: Polar bear tourism booms on Alaska's North Slope

Photo by Steve Amstrup / U.S. Fish and Wild Life Service

Idaho fall nature pics

The Idaho Statesman has a gorgeous photo gallery of flowers and animals (like this trout taken by Roger Phillips) abundant around this time of year.

Check out the gallery here: 2009 Natural Wonders

Biking "world's most dangerous road" Boliva

Bolivia is a mountainous country that boasts the "world's most dangerous road." Of course now there are many adventure bike tours over that road.

Watch an interesting video about this:

Drive through and create power

Reuters video reports on a New Jersey fast food drive-thru that is helping to test an energy capturing prototype.

New Energy Technologies Inc. is testing a new kinetic energy capturing device that looks like a speed bump at a Hillside, New Jersey Burger King. When cars slow down to go over the Motion Power bump, energy is captured and can be used to power the restaurant.

Watch the video below:

More deer hit by NC cars; study

The Charlotte Observer reports that more deer are being hit by cars now that man is encroaching on their habitat.

A new study shows deer-related crashes reported to police hit a high last year in Mecklenburg and across the state, as new residents and increasing development gobble up habitat.

Rapid growth across the state also means fewer places to hunt - still the most effective way to cull the deer population, said Jon Shaw, an N.C. Wildlife Commission biologist in charge of Mecklenburg and nine other western counties.

The above photo shows a deer just before it's hit by the Google Street View car.

Read the full story: It's wild: wrecks due to deer have surged in North Carolina

Photo from Computer Weekly

Hike in Swiss Alps, see climate change

BBC video reports on climate change hikes in the Swiss Alps.

A Swiss resort is offering climate change hiking trips to show the changes in the landscape scientists say are the result of global warming.

Mobile phones with GPS show the area as it once was, but melting and retreating glaciers have caused huge changes to the area - not least flooding and landslides.

Imogen Foulkes reports from the Swiss resort of Grindelwald.

Click to watch the video: Climate change hikes in Alps

Waterfall snaps

CNN's iReport's latest travel picture submissions were of some spectacular waterfalls.

Inspired by this we at Ecotravel News found the artist Olafur Eliasson's waterfall installation under New York's Brooklyn Bridge.

Click here for all the CNN waterfall pictures

Photo is Artist rendering: Olafur Eliasson - Courtesy Public Art Fund/Handout/Reuters

Australia koalas dying of stress

The Seattle Times reports that koalas are dying of stress-related disease.

The iconic Australian marsupials are being crowded out of their native forests by human populations; and with this comes stress.

The stress is bringing out a latent disease that infects 50 to 90 percent of the animals.

The problem came to national attention in August, when the well-known Sam the Koala (picture above) died during surgery to treat the disease, called chlamydia. Sam captured the world's attention during major wildfires in February, when she was photographed drinking from the water bottle of a firefighter in a smoldering forest.

Chlamydiosis is a virus that breaks out in koalas in times of stress - like cold sores in humans - and leads to infections in the eyes and urinary, reproductive and respiratory tracts. It can cause blindness, infertility and death.

Read the full story: Stress-related disease killing off Australia's koalas

Photo by Mark Pardew / AP

10 best American hikes

Conde Nast Traveler compiles their list of America's 10 best hikes.

Among their recommendations are:

New Hampshire's Presidential Traverse (picture right) that "strings together the seven summits named for U.S. presidents in New Hampshire's White Mountains."

Angels Landing in Utah's Zion National Park where hikers get gorgeous high views but must pass over extremely steep sandstone with the help of permanently bolted-in chains.

Read the full story: America's best hikes

Photo from concierge.com

Wash State trail is "classic"

USA Today reports on Washington State's Olympic National Park High Divide Trail, calling it a "classic."

The 18.2-mile wilderness loop on the Olympic Mountains' northwest side is a sampler of what the park has to offer: old-growth forest, river canyons and waterfalls, subalpine meadows, a high, rugged basin dotted by peaceful lakes, views of Mount Olympus and other peaks — nearly everything but the park's ocean beaches and rain forests. You won't be lonely — it's justifiably popular as one of the Pacific Northwest's classic backpacking trips — but there's more than enough room to be off by yourself.

Read the full story: Olympic National Park's High Divide Trail is a Pacific Northwest classic

Photo By George Tibbits, AP Photo

Ride the rails on the "10 greatest" train trips

ABC News.com reports on 10 of the "world's greatest train journeys."

Among the journeys is the number 7: Hejaz Jordan Railway (picture right) through Syria and Jordan where "you'll be off rattling along tracks built by the Ottomans, through dusty red countryside, little towns and under tunnels through towering gray mountains."

Also on the list is Switzerland's Glacier Express (that we at Ecotravel News have been on and highly recommend for beautiful mountain scenery), The Eastern & Oriental Express from Singapore to Bangkok, Thailand, and the Settle-Carlisle Railway through England's countryside.

Read the full story: World's 10 greatest train journeys

Photo from ABC News.com