Mother Nature Network has a slide show of eight eco-friendly beaches around the world.
Terra Curve reports on the Global Conservation Award win by the Emirates Hotels & Resorts.The Tourism for Tomorrow Awards are the World Travel & Tourism Council’s highest-profile global accolade, recognizing best practices in sustainable tourism development, conservation and biodiversity protection.Read the full story: Emirates wins big for conservation
Within the Emirates Group, the Emirates Hotels & Resorts (EH&R) portfolio encompasses three major conservation projects spread across three continents: Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa in Dubai; Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa in Australia; and the forthcoming Cap Ternay Resort & Spa in the Seychelles.
Concierge.com reports on 12 lush and gorgeous gardens worth visiting around the world.
Orange County Register via The Wichita Eagle reports on epic train journeys around the world.VIA Rail: Vancouver-Jasper. The route from Vancouver to Jasper in the Canadian Rockies is called "the ski train" in winter. Come summer, the 1950s dome car features views of pine forests, vast lakes and some of the tallest peaks on the continent.Read the full story: Great train journeys: riding the rails around the world
The Indian-Pacific, Australia: This epic 2 1/2-day Australian rail ride from Sydney on the Pacific Ocean to Perth on the Indian Ocean covers 2,704 miles.
Rovos Rail, South Africa: A fatal accident has cast a shadow over the once exemplary record of this luxury train that operates throughout South Africa and sometimes to the north. Rovos excursions in the past include an epic trip to Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border and then on to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Southwest Chief: The successor to the classic Santa Fe train roughly parallels old Route 66 from Los Angeles to Chicago.
New Scientist reports that Australia's drought could be caused by the rainfall moving south to Antarctica.Tas van Ommen and Vin Morgan of the Australian Antarctic Division studied snowfall records in ice cores from East Antarctica's Law Dome. They found that in the last few decades, its snowfall rates far exceeded anything in the past 750 years. The timing matches the Australian drought.Read the full story: Australia's rain may have moved to Antarctica
The Seattle Times reports that koalas are dying of stress-related disease.The stress is bringing out a latent disease that infects 50 to 90 percent of the animals.Read the full story: Stress-related disease killing off Australia's koalas
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.
Migaloo, the world's only known white humpback whale has been recently spotted off the coast of Australia, to the delight of whale watchers.
BBC reports on the Australian climate change policy protesters who say it is inadequate."The new measures, announced on Monday, include cutting emissions by between between 5% and 15% by 2020, from 2000 levels, and introducing a carbon trading scheme in 2010.Read the full story: Australians condemn climate plan
But activists say the changes will not go far enough to prevent catastrophic change. Many have called for emissions to be cut by at least 25% by 2020 - as recommended by the UN's specialist Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change."
Reuters reports on the study showing Canada to be one of the most developed nations lax on environmental standards."Canada's government has been widely criticized for being soft on greenhouse gas emissions, which have been on the rise, partly due to booming development of the Alberta oil sands."According to the study, the only two countries with worse environmental records are Australia and the United States.
"In economic modelling conducted by Wilson and Edwards, cattle and sheep for meat could be dramatically reduced in Australia's rangelands by 2020, with cattle dropping from 7.5 million to 500,000 and sheep from 38.7 million to 2.7 million.Read the full story: Eat kangaroos to save climate?
The scientists conclude that this would allow for a net carbon saving of 16 megatonnes of GhG emissions by 2020, around 28 percent of Australia's agricultural emissions. "
Australia's The Sydney Morning Herald reports on Pope Benedict XVI's visit and urgent message to Australians (that he delivered from his plane before he landed) to save the environment by changing ones lifestyle.
Australia's endemic marsupial, the Tasmanian Devil, was officially declared endangered by the state government of Tasmania, according to Reuters.
"Terri Irwin said the 135,000-hectare (333,450-acre) Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve on Cape York Peninsula in Australia's far northeast was home to a number of vulnerable species and needed to be protected.Read the full story: Terri Irwin fighting to block mining in wildlife zone
The lease to the site, purchased by an Irwin family company with the help of the Australian government in 2006 and renamed in tribute to the "Croc Hunter", is the subject of an application from a mining company to mine 50 million tonnes of bauxite, she said."
Environmental News Network reports that rising CO2 levels are threatening koala bears."Koalas are fussy about the species of eucalypts that they eat as different species contain different ratios of nutrients to anti-nutrients. Some eucalypt species may have high protein content, but anti-nutrients such as tannins bind the protein so it can't be used by the koala"Read the full story: Koalas under threat from climate change
