Associated Press: Strong southern winds pushed the Adriatic Sea into Venice again yesterday, submerging parts of the lagoon city a day after an unusually high tide caused the worst flooding in 20 years. Yesterday's tidal surge peaked at 3 feet, 4 inches, well below Monday's level of 5 feet, 1 inch, which marked the fourth-highest tide in the city's recorded history and the worst since 1986. Still, the water yesterday was high enough to flood the landmark St. Mark's Square and other ...

Orlando Sentinel: Hurricane experts and others meeting this week near Orlando delivered more dire warnings Wednesday about the urgent, short-term need to harden existing homes and build stronger structures, while planning for the long-term loss of coastal buffer zones that will make Florida and other states even more vulnerable to big storms. Leaving aside the political debate over global warming, the evidence is clear that financial losses to catastrophic storms have been soaring worldwide, sea levels ...

Fiji Daily Post: Ocean warming, frequent tropical cyclones, flash floods and droughts are likely to have a devastating impact on food production systems in Pacific island countries, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned this week. Climate change-related disasters are already imposing serious constraints on development in the islands, which appear to be in a "constant mode of recovery," according to a new report titled Climate Change and Food Security in Pacific Island Countries, jointly ...

Guardian: Lonesome George, the conservation icon of the Galapagos islands and last surviving tortoise of his kind, looks set to stay lonely after again failing to produce offspring. Galapagos National Park officials announced yesterday that eight eggs laid by the giant tortoise's two female companions are infertile. Conservationists' hopes were raised in July when George's mates produced eggs after no fewer than 36 years of encouragement by park rangers. The eggs were placed in an ...

Guardian: Wales took the biggest step yet towards its target to become the UK's leader in renewable energy yesterday when the government granted permission for a 750MW wind farm off the north coast which, when finished in 2014, will be the second largest in the world. The Gwynt y Môr wind farm, to be built by the energy company Npower Renewables, will be eight miles off the coast of north Wales and, at maximum capacity, will be capable of generating enough power for the annual needs of more ...

Associated Press: A conservation group went to court Wednesday to force the federal government to consider adding Pacific walrus to the list of threatened species. The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne for failing to act on a petition seeking protection for walrus under the Endangered Species Act. Walrus are threatened by global warming that melts Arctic sea ice, according to the group, which was one of the parties that ...

Times (UK): Nature reserves designed to provide safe havens for marine wildlife are to be created as part of legislation announced yesterday. The announcement of a marine Bill, a Labour manifesto pledge, with powers to create protected zones within Britain's 200-mile limit marks the final phase of a conservation campaign that has lasted more than 15 years. At least 100 different types of marine habitat are under consideration for protection as marine conservation zones and a high ...

BBC: Increasing noise pollution in the world's oceans is threatening the survival of whales and dolphins, a UN-backed conference has heard. Experts say the noises sea creatures use to communicate are being drowned out by noises from commercial shipping, new military sonar and climate change. They become disoriented, cannot find mates or food and behave differently, scientists say. Suggestions to cut noise include installing quieter engines. The Convention on the ...

redOrbit: According to research from Sweden, large sources of pollution to the Baltic Sea have been missed by existing monitoring effects. The Baltic Sea has had more and more health issues since the 1960s, due to the disposal of untreated human waste and toxic materials such as heavy metals. The countries that border the Baltic Sea have put together an action plan to stem the tide of contaminants entering the sea. Gia Destouni, a professor from Stockholm University, said these ...

Reuters: Man-made noise in the world's seas and oceans is becoming an increasing threat to whales, dolphins and turtles who use sound to communicate, forage for food and find mates, wildlife experts said on Wednesday. Rumbling ship engines, seismic surveys by oil and gas companies, and intrusive military sonars are triggering an "acoustic fog and cacophony of sounds" underwater, scaring marine animals and affecting their behavior. "There is now evidence linking loud underwater noises ...

Guardian: A marine bill to protect the UK's ocean wildlife and improve public access to the coast was included in today's Queen's speech after years of campaigning by conservation groups. The marine and coastal access bill is a new approach to managing the marine environment that will include conservation zones, a new planning system, reform of fisheries and access to the coasts. It will also include the establishment of a new organisation to manage the seas around the UK. Marine ...

Inter Press Service: She was born, grew up and lived all her life just a few steps from the sea, in the part of the city that everyone knows simply as La Playa (the beach). Although she was lucky enough to return to a home and belongings that withstood Hurricane Paloma's mighty waves, Iramis Rodríguez has made up her mind to move inland. "If they'll take me, I'll go," the 30-year-old Santa Cruz resident told IPS. Rodríguez is part of the janitorial staff in a government facility located "right here in ...

Guardian: Way back in Napoleonic Paris, a Monsieur Girard had a novel idea about energy: power from the sea. In 1799, Girard obtained a patent for a machine he and his son had designed to mechanically capture the energy in ocean waves. Wave power could be used, they figured, to run pumps and sawmills and the like. These inventors would disappear into the mists of history, and fossil fuel would instead provide an industrializing world with almost all its energy for the next two centuries. But ...

Business Green: Scottish first minister Alex Salmond yesterday formally launched the £10m Saltire Prize for the first team to develop a commercially viable wave or tidal technology capable of generating power for thousands of homes, claiming that the country had the potential to generate up to a quarter of Europe's marine energy over the coming decades. Under the terms of the competition, which was first announced earlier this year, £10m will be awarded to the team that can demonstrate in Scottish ...

Telegraph: The development of 250 turbines, each up to 540ft tall, will provide enough energy to power half a million homes. It is the latest in a drive to see the UK source a fifth of its energy needs from the new technology. However the local community fear the turbines, visible from the coast, will destroy the local tourism industry. And energy analysts warned the controversial technology will only provide intermittent power. The Gwynt y Mor wind farm, that will start ...

Greenpeace: Greenpeace activists are blocking the ship Hanjin Imabari, carrying coal from Richards Bay, South Africa to the Danish coal plant Enstedværket, in Aabenraa, from offloading its many tonnes of coal. Activists have blocked a crane used to unload the coal, while the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior is urging the Danish government to "Quit Coal". The action, which began yesterday morning in the Baltic Sea(1), coincides with negotiations within the European Union to agree its 'climate ...

Business Green: The government has given the green light for what will be the world's second largest offshore wind farm to be built off the coast of North Wales. The Gwynt y Mor site, which will provide 750MW from some 250 turbines, is to be developed by npower renewables. Energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband said offshore wind was a key part of the UK's future energy mix. "The North Wales coast is set to become a powerhouse for renewable energy," he said. "Gwynt y Mor will ...

Reuters: A group of 43 small island states called on Wednesday for tougher goals for fighting global warming than those being considered at U.N. climate talks, saying that rising seas could wipe them off the map. "We are not prepared to sign a suicide agreement that causes small island states to disappear," Selwin Hart of Barbados, a coordinator of the alliance of small island states, told Reuters at the 187-nation meeting. The December 1-12 talks in Poznan, Poland, are reviewing ...

Agence France-Presse: Venice was under water again on Tuesday after suffering its worst flooding in 22 years, as a new tide left the Renaissance city awash up to about thigh level. On Monday the "acqua alta" (high water) reached 1.56 metres, the highest level since 1986, before beginning to recede. Lower parts of the tourist mecca, including the world-famous St Mark's Square, remained under water at midday on Tuesday after reaching a high of 1.02 metres, according to the ANSA news agency. The ...

Environment News Service: A new analysis of economic activity generated by Florida's coral reefs finds that some 70,000 jobs and more than $5.5 billion in business in the state could disappear if climate change destroys the reefs. "A business-as-usual approach to climate change could mean a lot less business for Florida," said Jerry Karnas, Florida project director at Environmental Defense Fund, which commissioned the report, "Corals and Climate Change: Florida's Natural Treasures at Risk." Florida ...