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Eye in the Sky | Most Recent First
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Death Stalks Millions in Drought-Stricken Areas
December 27, 2000 — Severe droughts continue to plague large areas of Africa and Central and South Asia, threatening millions with death by starvation and disease in 2001. International aid officials say they will be hard-pressed to meet the growing need for food, safe drinking water, and health care. GO>>
Keeping Tabs on Icebergs
December 26, 2000 — Arctic icebergs are chunky free-floaters, like the one that put a tragic end to the maiden voyage of the Titanic. At the other extreme of the planet lurk the behemoths of berg-dom: island-sized slabs that clunk and bump around the periphery of Antarctica, sometimes for decades, rearranging geography and wildlife habitat as they go. GO>>
Still Waiting For the Big One On the Mississippi
December 22, 2000 — To hardly anyone's disappointment, the great earthquake predicted ten years ago this month for the little Mississippi River town of New Madrid, Missouri, failed to materialize. But experts say the pressures underground are still building; and when they do break loose, the damage to major population centers like Memphis and St. Louis will be staggering. GO>>
Mexico's Popocatépetl: To Flee or Not To Flee
December 21, 2000 — Government trucks racing through village streets blaring warnings didn’t do it. Neither did clanging church bells, or soldiers begging residents to leave. Not even the sight of ash, smoke, and large, red—hot rocks shooting 650 feet (200 meters) into the sky could convince thousands of Mexicans this week that the time finally had come to flee Popocatépetl, the “friendly volcano.” GO>>
Explorers Pinpoint Source of the Amazon
December 21, 2000 — Long a subject of argument and speculation, the source of the Amazon River has now been pinpointed by a five-nation National Geographic expedition using state-of-the-art Global Positioning System (GPS) navigational gear. The point of origin is a trickle of water coming off a cliff high in the Peruvian Andes. GO>>
Getting Serious About Asteroid Strikes
December 20, 2000 — The early space program gave us an image of Earth as a lustrous blue pearl, serenely sailing through space. But a more accurate metaphor might be a goose in hunting season, flying though a hail of bullets. Earth orbits amidst a swarm of potentially threatening asteroids, some large enough to cause a planet-wide disaster should there be a collision. GO>>
When Green Earth Turns Into Sand
December 19, 2000 — Like a growing number of areas in Africa, a large part of Tanzania is threatened with conversion to desert due to continued loss of forest. Government officials are tackling the problem with replanting programs and attempts to restrict further deforestation, but they warn that it may already be too late for much of the country. GO>>
In a Rage Over Alaska Trees
December 19, 2000 — Grizzly bears, salmon, bald eagles and humpback whales live among its islands, peaks and valleys. But trees are the true trademark of Alaska’s vast Tongass National Forest: magnificent, towering stands of old-growth hardwood that form some of the most extensive tracts of virgin temperate rain forest left in North America. GO>>
Costa Rica Deals With Environmental Pressures
December 14, 2000 — Like many other countries, tiny Costa Rica came under intense pressure from loggers and agricultural interests in the 1960s to strip its forests, thus decimating astonishing variety of plant and animal species. Costa Rica has responded with an aggressive program that has put 27 percent of its land under some form of protection. But the pressure continues - including more recent threats growing from the country's increasing popularity as a tourist destination. GO>>
Still Green in Luzon
December 14, 2000 — For once, the worst didn’t happen. Dire predictions that one of the largest stands of triple-tier rain forest left in Asia would be destroyed by illegal logging once its U.S. military guardians pulled out have not come true. In fact, in the intervening seven and a half years, the forest—located at the former U.S. military base in the Philippines—has come under the de facto protection of an unlikely new set of guardian angels: land developers. GO>>
Reclaiming the Florida Everglades
December 13, 2000 — Political unity is something that the state of Florida has not been winning any medals for recently. But for one shining moment just before this year’s presidential election, an unlikely combination of political bedfellows came together to approve what is being hailed as the most ambitious environmental project in U.S. history. GO>>
La Niña Returns, Bringing Blizzards and Misery
December 9, 2000 — Predictions of colder-than-normal weather over much of temperate North this winter promise blizzards and the misery they bring, courtesy of La Niña. This weather pattern's better-known and milder-mannered twin, El Niño, was responsible for last winter's record warmth. Fierce, frigid La Niña may have been responsible for record-breaking blizzards of the past. GO>>
Clinton Proclaims Yellowstone of the Sea
December 5, 2000 — President Clinton signs an executive order creating the single largest nature preserve ever established in the United States-an 84-million-acre (34-million-hectare) archipelago of pristine islands and waters in the northwestern part of Hawaii. The reserve creates the strongest level of protection for oceans ever enacted by the United States, setting, according to Clinton, "a new global standard for reef and marine wildlife protection." GO>>
Fish-Free Zone
December 4, 2000 — From the surface you would never know it’s there. But beneath the waves of the Gulf of Mexico lurks the “dead zone,” a vast area off the Louisiana-Texas coast where oxygen-depleted water collects every summer and suffocates sea life. Fish and shrimp swim away; starfish, sea anemones and other bottom-dwellers die. This barren area has grown as large as the state of New Jersey. GO>>
Mysterious Deaths Deepen Concern About Russia's "Sacred Lake"
December 1, 2000 — It is one of the aquatic marvels of the world, a virtual inland sea so vast that it has been called the Australia of fresh waters. But scientists and environmentalists say that Lake Baikal—the world’s oldest and largest lake in terms of volume—is sliding toward an ecological catastrophe due to continuing industrial contamination that has its roots in the Cold-War era. GO>>
Protests Grow Over Plan For More Turkish Dams
December 1, 2000 — Despite growing international protests, Turkey is proceeding with the next stage of its grand plan for a series of 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric plants strung along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Critics say the Ilisu Dam planned for the Tigris will reduce water flow to downstream countries Syria and Iraq, harm the environment, flood cultural sites, and suppress the Kurdish minority in southeast Turkey. GO>>
Alaska Resdents Remain Divided Over Arctic Oil
November 30, 2000 — It’s a cold and bleak place in winter. But every spring Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge comes alive, bursting with such a profusion of birds and animals that some call it an American Serengeti. GO>>
Migrating Monarch Butterfly
November 22, 2000 — Most insects get swatted, squashed or sprayed without a second thought. But not the monarch butterfly. Despite its kinship to such dreaded pests as gypsy moths and European corn borers, the black and orange butterfly has sailed straight into the hearts of a continent. GO>>
Paving Over the Ho Chi Minh Trail
November 21, 2000 — The government of Vietnam hopes that when its new Ho Chi Minh Highway is completed in 2003 it will give the country's chronically weak economy a jump-start. But the massive project has stirred unprecedented public controversy within Vietnam; and environmentalists warn it could deal a serious blow to many of the country's fragile ecosystems. GO>>
Women Begin Trek Across Antarctica
November 15, 2000 — One of the first things they did was cut their hair. Now it’s easier for American Ann Bancroft and Norwegian Liv Arnesen to keep it tucked away and unfrozen as they attempt to become the first women to cross Antarctica. GO>>
Vacation Dreams Can Be Preservation Nightmares
November 13, 2000 — With the end of summer, the thoughts of millions turn to a matter of overriding importance: Where to go on next year’s vacation. The booming global economy is making it possible for many to consider exotic destinations, from Amazonian rainforest to Himalayan mountain-tops. Unfortunately, some of the world’s most popular sight-seeing attractions are also among the most in danger of being loved to death. GO>>
On the Trail of Nabokov's "Blues"
November 9, 2000 — Think of butterflies and elegant creatures come to mind. Fritillaries with gaudy silver spangles, or kite-like swallowtails with their trailing wings. In the flashy, fancy world of butterflies, the great masses of dowdy 'true blues' are so common that most people overlook them. GO>>
Forecasting the Journey South
November 11, 2000 — A pilot radar ornithology program called Birdcast is providing online forecasts of bird migrations through the mid-Atlantic area. Each day during the spring and fall migration seasons Birdcast posts a prediction for mass bird movement between dusk and midnight, the period when bird migration peaks for the day. GO>>
Australia's Salt Crisis Threatens Farms
October 11, 2000 — Government officials estimate that dryland salinity resulting from land clearing is now threatening an area of land about half the size of the entire Australian state of Victoria—and in turn, the farming and ranching that is the underpinning of the national economy. In the words of a country song popular in the outback during the mid—1980s: “Stock won’t graze on pastures turned to salt.” GO>>
When Hurricane's Threaten
September 22, 2000 — Thousands of homes lie abandoned under a darkening sky. Traffic clogs the roads on a biblical scale. Cars overheat, and so do the people inside. They know as they inch along that an alarmingly few miles away, rising from the sea like a frothing monster, a killer hurricane is bearing down on them. GO>>
Dreams of a United Africa
September 21, 2000 — Once again, Africans are dreaming of unity. But observers both on and off the world’s second largest continent say they will have to deal with some serious demons before a United States of Africa can ever become a reality. GO>>
Australia's Coral Perils
September 15, 2000 — Australian Environment Minister Robert Hill recently reported that the reef generally is in good shape—protected in part by its sheer gargantuan size. But conservationists on the island continent and elsewhere are sounding alarms over the future of this 1,250—mile (2,000—km) underwater wonderland. GO>>
As Cold as it Gets
August 12, 2000 — Here’s a thought for anyone pondering the speed and durability of global warming while sweltering in the heat that’s blistering much of the northern hemisphere this summer: It’s winter in Antarctica. And it doesn’t get much colder than the cold season on the southern continent. GO>>
De-trashing Denali
August 8, 2000 — It’s enough to ruin your day. You’re poking along on one of the most ravishingly beautiful trails in the world—the West Buttress approach to the ice-crowned summit of Mt. McKinley—and you trip over a bag of trash. Or a cache of discarded camping gear hidden in the snow. Or a pile of human...well, you know. GO>>
Too Many People
July 28, 2000 — Images of suffering innocents in Somalia seized the attention of the world seven years ago, propelling a U.S.-led intervention to provide humanitarian relief. Now it’s happening all over again: another cycle of poverty, war, drought—and a fourth horseman that whips on the other three: overpopulation. GO>>
Water and Peace in the Middle East
July 14, 2000 — A 12th—century sultan ordered it built to carry water from the Nile to Cairo. Napoleon filled in the arches and turned it into a wall. Now, after another year of severe drought in the Middle East, the government has ordered the city’s ancient aqueduct restored to slake the thirst of modern Egyptians. GO>>
Red Wind Blowing
July 10, 2000 — Born on a parched African plain, it loops and swirls across the Atlantic each spring, leaving a film of microscopic dust over everything it passes: islands, rain forests, huts, mansions. Once again the red wind is blowing, and this year it is especially fierce. GO>>
Into the Deep with R2D2
June 30, 2000 — It’s cold and dark down there, not to mention wet, and enough pressure to crush a human like a grape. Not surprisingly, the “new era of ocean exploration” that President Clinton recently announced at a White House conference will take place mostly by remote control. GO>>
Peace Prospects Imperil Korea's Wildlife Paradise
June 23, 2000 — Bullets and artillery shells once made the Ch’orwon Valley a bloody no—man’s land. Today along the dividing line between North and South Korea, the only things whistling through the air have feathers: A lush wildlife preserve has grown up inside the world’s most heavily fortified border—now home to a number of endangered species. GO>>
Ancient City's Artifacts Include Satellite Images
June 16, 2000 — Waters that once nourished the ancient Roman city of Zeugma on the Euphrates River now threaten to bury it. If Turkish plans to complete a dam project resume within the next few days as expected, a computer model made from satellite images of what once was may be among the few remnants of a lost age. GO>>
Can Turks and Greeks Live in Peace on Cyprus?
June 14, 2000 — Miss Turkey wasn’t even born when her country last invaded Cyprus. But in May the dark-eyed beauty queen skipped this year’s Miss Universe 2000 pageant, held in Nicosia, after Cyprus turned down Turkey’s demand that she travel through the Turkish-occupied northern part of the island. GO>>
Perfectly Deadly
June 9, 2000 — The terror begins with a gentle swell and a certain feeling in the air. For ships, the best advice is to bear away with all speed. But sometimes a storm at sea is like an excited mother hen, rushing up with wings flapping, sweeping into her heaving breast everything in her path. Leaving may not be an option. GO>>
Israel's Golan Heights: The Long Goodbye?
June 6, 2000 — Among these rugged hills is the very spot where Abraham’s people say God promised the land to them. Today on the boat-shaped Golan Heights, the Israelis grow fruits and vegetables, grapes for wine, and graze cattle and sheep—always keeping a wary eye on their ancient blood enemy to the north, Syria. GO>>
Los Alamos Sparks Debate on Burn Policy
May 17, 2000 — The same flames that have destroyed hundreds of houses in New Mexico will lead to creation of new and better homes for untold numbers of deer, fox, owls, and other creatures of the forest, according to wildlife ecologists. But some experts believe that the immediate devastation of a “prescribed burn” that went horribly wrong dramatizes a need to seriously re-examine the U.S. government’s decades-long policy of deliberately putting selected wilderness areas to the torch. GO>>
Canada's Hardy Inuit Hope for Better Times
May 8, 2000 — They live in a land about the size of Mexico that is frozen solid most of the year. With no roads to connect their tiny villages, they are dependent entirely on the air and the sea for physical contact with the outside world. Their suicide rate is six times higher than the rest of Canada and they have the highest rates of family violence, unemployment, sexually transmitted disease, alcoholism, and substance abuse. Nevertheless, the native people of Canada's eastern Arctic embrace life in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. GO>>
The Case of the Vansihing Islands
April 28, 2000 — Marsh grass and fiddler crab holes fill some of the front yards. Other yards have become mud flats, and hip boots may be required to navigate Main Street during twice-monthly high tides. Nevertheless, some 450 hardy souls stubbornly cling to a way of life on Maryland's Smith Island. GO>>
Elusive Goal for Earth Day 2000
April 21, 2000 — It seemed daring at the time, even a little revolutionary. But then, revolutionary ideas were in vogue 30 years ago—along with tie-died clothes, the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix—when some 20 million Americans first came together to demand a cleaner environment. They called it "Earth Day." GO>>
Cuba, the U.S., and Little Elian
April 11, 2000 — It's been likened to a community conducting its own foreign policy, or to the defiance of southern governors during the desegregation wars of the 1950s and 60s. Rarely have so many Americans been more visibly enraged with their national government than in these days of arms—linking and fist—shaking in Miami over the fate of Elian Gonzales. GO>>
'Tis the Season for North Pole Hikes
April 6, 2000 — It’s not exactly a traffic jam up there yet, but it’s getting a little congested. Seven expeditions are currently trekking across the frozen Arctic Ocean, including teams from France and Norway that are racing to be the first to cross from Russia to Canada via the North Pole without supplies being flown in along the way. That’s not counting two teams that have given up attempts to reach the Pole this season. GO>>
Yup, It's Definitely Getting Warmer
March 30, 2000 — Once again, the flowers have come and gone. The culprit: too much warm weather, too soon. After the balmiest U.S. winter on record, people will complain that the second—earliest Washington cherry blossom peak is yet another sign of global warming. GO>>
Deadliest Tornadoes
March 28, 2000 — Describing it as merely awesome barely does it justice. It touched down at about one o’clock on a rainy, breezy March afternoon in Missouri and took off like a dervish, noisy as a freight train, spinning across three states with winds clocked at 300 mph (483 kph)—a cloud eating the ground, as one survivor recalls. It disappeared into thin air at around 4:20 p.m., leaving a 219-mile (352-kilometer) trail of wrecked buildings and lives snuffed. GO>>
Bloody Kashmir: Peril in Paradise
March 22, 2000 — The Indian government calls it "the pride of India." Pakistanis call it an occupied territory. All agree that the state of Jammu and Kashmir, with its dramatic snowcapped mountains and flowering valleys, is both an earthly paradise and the nuclear powder keg of South Asia. GO>>
Mozambique's Tides of Misery
March 16, 2000 — Under criticism for getting a late start, international aid organizations and several countries are mobilizing a long-term reconstruction effort in flood-and-cyclone-ravaged Mozambique, where new rains continue to hamper relief work. GO>>
Turmoil Over Taiwan
March 9, 2000 — The tiny island of Taiwan hangs like an afterthought 100 miles (160 km) off the vast southeast flank of China. But this would-be nation of 22 million is at the center of giant complications between China and the United States – including the specter of a shooting war. GO>>
Pain at the Pump?
March 2, 2000 — Many analysts believe OPEC will vote at its semi-annual strategy session to increase production, and thus drive prices down. If so, the questions are: when and by how much? GO>>
Is Europe's Far Right on a Comeback Trail?
February 24, 2000 — Police in Spain arrest more than 20 people in a far-right political rally. German authorities report a ten percent increase in right-wing violence - the first rise in five years. In France, tens of thousands rally in cities across the country to protest the anti-immigrant National Front. GO>>
Roots of Chechen Rebellion Embedded in Russian History
February 17, 2000 — Camouflaged troops fire at shadows in burned-out skeletons of buildings. Bodies of soldiers and civilians entwine on bomb-blasted sidewalks. Survivors recall the stench of burning. GO>>
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