Water pollution: Dawn of the 'Dead Zones' By Matt Ford for CNNCNN; April 21, 2008http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/20/eco.waterpollution/Story HighlightsAgricultural pollution has caused a 'Dead Zone' in the Gulf of MexicoGlobally the number of Dead Zones has doubled every decade since the 1980'sThe drive to increase biofuel production could increase pollution in rivers and seasPesticide use rose 1000 percent [...]

Lake Erie undergoing 'huge' ecological changes By Sonja PuzicThe Windsor Star; April 28, 2008 PUT-IN-BAY, OHIO -- The Franz Theodore Stone Laboratory on tiny historic  Gibraltar Island in western Lake Erie has hosted generations of students, young biologists and leading researchers for more than 100 years. Nestled among a cluster of other smaller islands near [...]

NEWS ANALYSIS: Fuel Choices, Food Crises and Finger-Pointing By Andrew MartinNew York Times; April 15, 2008http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/business/worldbusiness/15food.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=Fuel%20Choices,%20Food%20Crises%20and%20Finger-Pointing%20&st=nyt&scp=1 But now a reaction is building against policies in the United States and Europe to promote ethanol and similar fuels, with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people. [...]

Workshops focus on conservation By Heather MenziesBay City Tribune; April 9, 2008http://baycitytribune.com/story.lasso?ewcd=3e7a8ae9b42baed8The Matagorda County AgriLife Extension Service will offer, at no cost to the public, four sessions of Earth Kind workshops over two days on from 10 a.m. – noon and 6 -8 p.m. at the Bay City Service Center on Wednesday and Thursday April [...]

Ethanol pollution in Gulf of Mexico The Hindu; Online Edition of India's National Newspaper; Apr 10, 2008http://www.hindu.com/seta/2008/04/10/stories/2008041050801500.htm While the search for alternative fuels is in full swing in many countries in order to reduce dependency on pollution causing conventional fuels an ironic situation is emerging where the rush in the United States to produce corn-based [...]

Dead zones regularly haunt coast By Matthew TresaugueHouston Chronicle; April 3, 2008http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/tech/news/5673526.html Low-oxygen waters known as dead zones have appeared as regularly as the tides along the Texas coast, according to a new Texas A&M University study. Although the first report of a dead zone off Texas came in 1979, researchers now believe the condition [...]

America's grasslands vanishing amid agricultural boom By Sue Kirchhoff and Jeff MartinUSA Today; April 4, 2008  http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/environment/2008-03-27-farming-plowing-grasslands_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip#uslPageReturn DE SMET, S.D. — To the west of this small town, which helped inspire Laura Ingalls Wilder's classic book series that included Little House on the Prairie, the view opens to a vast, unbroken landscape that seems to [...]

'Dead zone' off Texas coast poses threat to marine life By Jack Doyglas, Jr.Ft. Worth Star-Telegram; April 2, 2008http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/560243.html A dead zone of oxygen-depleted water has lurked off the Louisiana coast for years, but a Texas A&M scientist now says the same condition exists off Texas. Although it was only publicly confirmed Tuesday, the dead [...]

Gulf Coast 'dead zone' growing, researchers say By Greg BarrHouston Business Journal, April 2, 2008http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2008/03/31/daily32.html Texas A&M University researchers have confirmed that a still-growing "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico extends along the entire length of the Texas Gulf Coast. A dead zone occurs when there is hypoxia, or oxygen-depleted water. Such low levels [...]

Dead zone plan adrift By Erika EngelhauptEnvironmental Science & Technology Online News Feed; April 2, 2008  http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2008/apr/policy/ee_deadzone.html Critics say the new action plan is not tough enough and won't succeed without federal funding. Last summer, a swath of Gulf of Mexico waters the size of New Jersey was virtually lifeless. For the past 40 years [...]