As aid workers return to war-weary Liberia they are finding a country in complete ruins. The needs are overwhelming. One million Liberians have been displaced. Malnutrition is soaring. Perhaps worst of all, a cholera epidemic is lurking around the corner.
Along a shoreline in northwest Africa, scientists made a gruesome discovery: the carcasses of 230 dolphins, a pilot whale, and 15 endangered sea turtles. These animals were probably killed as "bycatch"—unwanted creatures accidentally hauled aboard fishing vessels. Bycatch totals at least 30 million tons of sea life each year.
Twenty-five years ago, it would have been impossible to find a woman smokejumper in the United States. Today, 27 serve in the elite corps that drops by parachute into the nation's backcountry to fight wildfires.
According to the "small world" theory, you should be just six
handshakes or e-mail messages away from Madonna, Tiger Woods, or Nelson Mandela. But can anyone in the world really reach anyone else through a chain of just six friends? Yes, say researchers at Columbia University.
The death of a British marine biologist after she was attacked by a leopard seal in the Antarctic has focused attention on the little-known predator. Scientists fear increased human activity in the southernmost continent could lead to further fatal encounters.
Olly & Suzi, as they are known professionally, are London-based artist-explorers who have portrayed wild dogs, lions, killer whales, polar bears, Arctic foxes, tarantulas, and grizzlies. The artists also encourage the wild creatures to interact with their canvases. This story airs tonight on our U.S. cable television program National Geographic Today.
At fantasy camps, folks can learn guitar licks from rock-and-roll greats, shag flies with baseball Hall of Famers, or cook at the elbows of celebrity chefs. But to aspiring photographers, 13 high school students probably enrolled in the best camp of all: Photo Camp at the National Geographic Society.
National Geographic News recently spoke with Ultimate
Explorer television correspondent Michael Davie in Freetown, Sierra
Leone, shortly after his evacuation from the Liberian capital of
Monrovia. Davie described his experiences in the war-torn West
African nation.
Twenty years ago, scientists discovered a hole in the Earth's ozone layer above Antarctica. The protective atmospheric layer showed signs of other widespread damage. Now after a decade-long ban on ozone-depleting chemicals, scientists report on the first hints of recovery.
The Southern Ocean ecosystem is threatened by overfishing, say scientists. The warning came at a major conference in London in July, with Antarctic researchers forecasting increased pressure on krill and fish stocks. They fear this could have a devastating impact on sea birds and marine mammals.
Ichthyosaurs were the giant marine predators of Jurassic and Cretaceous seas, thought to have specialized on squid-like prey. Now a new fossil with turtle and bird remains in its gut is causing some experts to question why the group disappeared.
In a stark, almost alien landscape in southern Africa is one of the world's most plentiful, and endangered, ecosystems—a desert called the Succulent Karoo. Here researchers are studying flora for impacts of global warming. This story airs tonight on our U.S. cable television program National Geographic Today.
A thunderstorm that pounded south-central Nebraska in June ended up leaving something for the record books: The largest hailstone ever recovered in the United States, a 7-inch (17.8-centimeter) chunk of ice almost as wide as a soccer ball.
The Greek government has decided to build an Olympic rowing center on the ancient Athenian battle site of Marathon in the western Schinias marsh. Conservation groups are fighting for the protection of the site before the 2004 Olympics in Athens kick off.
