The first-ever Sumatran-wide survey of the island’s top predator, the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), proves that the great cat is holding on even as forests continue to vanish. The study, carried out by eight NGOs and the Indonesian government, shows that the tiger is still present in 70 percent of the forests surveyed, providing hope for the long-term survival of the subspecies if remaining forests are protected.

USGS scientists and academic colleagues have investigated how California’s interconnected San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (the Bay-Delta system) is expected to change from 2010 to 2099 in response to both fast and moderate climate warming scenarios. Results indicate that this area will feel impacts of global climate change in the next century with shifts in its biological communities, rising sea level, and modified water supplies. “The protection of California’s Bay-Delta system will continue to be a top priority for maintaining the state’s agricultural economy, water security to tens of millions of users, and essential habitat to a valuable ecosystem,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “This new USGS research complements ongoing initiatives to conserve the Bay-Delta by providing sound scientific understanding for managing this valuable system such that it continues to provide the services we need in the face of climate uncertainty.”

Researchers at the Oxford University have determined that a recovered jawbone and teeth originate from the first modern humans in Europe. The fossilized remains have been carbon dated to reveal the age of the bones. The researchers first believe the fossils, which were found in a prehistoric cave in Italy, were those of the Neanderthal. Through additional research, they concluded that they were in fact from anatomically modern humans. Radiocarbon testing revealed the age of the bones, 43,000 – 45,000 years old, the oldest of any modern human remains in Europe.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 2, 2011) — Did climate change or humans cause the extinctions of the large-bodied Ice Age mammals (commonly called megafauna) such as the woolly rhinoceros and woolly mammoth? Scientists have for years debated the reasons behind the Ice Age mass extinctions, which caused the loss of a third of the large mammals in Eurasia and two thirds of the large mammals in North America.

Democrats on Thursday blocked the first major bill in the Senate that would have delayed the Environmental Protection Agency’s clean air rules. The bill, which needed 60 votes to pass, got only 47 votes. Joe Manchin from West Virginia, who faces reelection next year, was the lone Democrat to vote for the bill. His state is rich in coal, the fuel that could see added costs from a raft of upcoming EPA rules on power plants and industry. The lone Republican to vote against the bill was Olympia Snowe of Maine. The bill, called the Long-Term Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2011 and sponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch, was promoted by Republicans as a jobs measure that would have allowed businesses to hire by reducing regulatory uncertainty. Democrats disagreed. “This is not a jobs bill,” said Senator Barbara Boxer, the chairman of the chamber’s Committee on Environment and Public Works. “If you can’t breathe, you can’t work.”

Controversial ‘fracking’ technique to extract gas from the ground was the ‘highly probable’ cause of earth tremors, report finds Two earthquake tremors in north-west England earlier this year were probably caused by controversial operations to extract gas nearby, a report by the company responsible has concluded. The two tremors, which were felt by people just outside Blackpool, but did not cause any known damage, were reported in April and May, measuring 2.3 and 1.5 on the Richter scale. Since the second event, Cuadrilla Resources has stopped “fracking” operations – where water is injected into rocks at high pressure to extract gas from the cracks. The report, by a team of European seismic experts not usually employed by the company, concluded it was ‘highly probable’ that the two main tremors and a series of aftershocks were caused by Cuadrilla’s operations at the Preese Hall-1 Well in Lancashire.

South Africa – More rhinos have been killed in South Africa in the past 10 months than were killed in all of 2010, new poaching numbers reveal. Statistics from South Africa National Parks show that 341 animals have been lost to poaching so far in 2011, compared to a record total of 333 last year.

The car rental market is one of the markets that are constantly getting greener, offering a growing number of green services from the newest electric cars to car sharing programs. Yet surprisingly, none of the major car rental companies, until now, have published a sustainability report. Well, that was true until last week when Enterprise Holdings (which owns and operates the Alamo, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and National Car brands) took the lead and announced the release of its first ever sustainability report.