Genetically modified plants were found to be growing in the wild along roadsides. The problem with these plants is two-fold: these so-called superweeds are resistant to some sort of herbicide, so are more difficult to control, and there are fears that these plants have crossbreed with native plants, making even more superweeds.

The Study
The USDA used a computer model to compare the environmental impact of four herds: two raised entirely indoors, one that spent seven months on pasture and the rest of the year inside, and one raised entirely on pasture. The amount of pollution by each herd was calculated over a 25-year period.

Overfishing is a term which describes an unsustainable fishing practice wherein more fish are caught than the ecosystem can naturally produce. Overfishing depletes natural stocks of fish and in many cases destroys their ability to ever produce again.

We can thank the cows of the world, along with other ruminant livestock, for contributing about 28 percent of global methane emissions related to human activity by dint of their enthusiastic flatulence. Methane capture is one way to get a handle on the situation, but a group of scientists in Australia has chosen to confront the problem at the source. They’ve identified a bacteria in wallabies that could help cows and other large ruminants produce less methane gas while digesting their food — sort of like Beano, but for bovines.

Around the world, more and more nations and states are deciding to protect sharks, magnificent creatures which you may be surprised to find out are more worth alive than dead. Sharks keep ecosystems healthy and it’s profitable for tourism to have sharks around for visitors to view. Nonetheless, 26-73 million sharks are killed every year out of ephemeral desire for their fins! But the good news: governments around the world have taken action to stop people from killing sharks for their fins.

Well, Russia is one key actor threating Western grey whales with extinction, but it has also taken a step forward in protecting the critically endangered species. “Companies seeking oil extraction rights to a newly available concession off Russia’s Sakhalin Island will not be permitted to conduct activities while Western gray whales are present,” WWF wrote last week.

The Russian government’s new restriction will mean that companies can only operate in the area from late November to late May.

A group of students at Texas A&M University has hit upon a way to farm shrimp and grow a new biofuel crop in a combined process. The project comes from the AgriLife program, which draws from diverse parts of the school including the  Texas Forest Service and the Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory as well as the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. It’s a broad approach that mirrors our transition to a more interconnected and sustainable way of harvesting energy.

Global fish production has reached an all-time high, according to Nourishing the Planet’s latest research for the Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs Online publication. Aquaculture, or fish farming—once a minor contributor to total fish harvest—increased 50-fold between the 1950s and 2008 and now contributes nearly half of all fish produced worldwide.

Many environmentalists are preoccupied with proving that global warming isn’t a hoax, but there is another important issue to focus attention upon as well. It’s time to be concerned about the honey bee. The UN has noted serious collapses in populations across the world. Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa are all seeing honey bee numbers drop. It’s not a gentle downturn either. The falls are sudden and significant.

As the U.S. population grows, so does the number of cattle, and that in turn is giving rise to one heck of big, strange waste disposal problem. At least one cattle carcass recycling method that was used in the past is no longer available in this country, so billions of pounds of waste meat and bone have been classified as fit only for disposal, contributing to overburdened landfills. Now a team of scientists at Clemson University have come up with a way to recycle at least part of the mess by converting cattle bone meal into bioplastic.

A team of researchers from Stanford University has estimated that rivers could provide about 13 percent of the world’s current energy needs, but they’re not talking about hydropower. Instead, they envision renewable energy based on the principle of entropy, as energy is produced when fresh water from rivers disperses into salt-laden seawater. While 13 percent might be something of an overreach given the current state of the technology, the team has developed a new entropy based system that could lead to the widespread use of river-generated renewable energy.

We’ve been talking a lot about the disease risks associated with factory farms lately.

In addition to spawning epidemics of zoonotic diseases such as bird flu that can “jump” from livestock to humans, industrial farms are contributing to an outbreak of ‘superbugs’ – bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.