Free Republic

Florida cities and counties wouldn't be able to ban sunscreens containing ingredients that some researchers say harm coral reefs, under a bill passed by the state Senate on Wednesday. The Senate voted 25-14 in favor of the bill after no discussion or debate. If it becomes law, a Key West ordinance to ban the sale of sunscreens containing oxybenzone or octinoxate would be nullified. The Key West ban is set to go into effect next year. Research has shown the chemicals can cause coral bleaching, and the reefs around Key West attract divers, snorkelers and fishing enthusiasts. But Republican Sen....

Glamour at a price in Asia By Thomas Fuller International Herald Tribune TUESDAY, MAY 2, 2006 MAKHAM KHU, Thailand Neighbors gawk and children yell, "ghost!" The manager of the restaurant where Panya Boonchun worked simply told her she was fired. The cream that she applied to her face and neck was supposed to transform her into a white-skinned beauty, the kind she saw on page after page in women's magazines and on television. But rather than lighten her complexion, the illegally produced lotion she bought in a local grocery store near this village in southeastern Thailand disfigured her skin into...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Unusually warm waters are bleaching coral reefs throughout the Caribbean, raising fears of a die-off of the important organisms, scientists and environmentalists said Wednesday. Ocean temperatures have been slowly rising, threatening sea coral that can only live within a narrow temperature band, according to the experts. A slight increase in temperature can induce coral bleaching and eventually kill the coral. Recent data gathered by the University of Puerto Rico shows that up to 95 percent of coral colonies off the island have had some bleaching. "The concern is that we may be witnessing a massive...

The coral bleaching observed in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands over the past several weeks could be caused by global warming -- or it could just be a cycle in nature, scientists say. Either way, it offers an unprecedented opportunity to study the recovery of bleached coral reefs, said scientists who returned Tuesday from a monthlong research cruise to Hawaii's most remote islands. The researchers said they were surprised by the amount of bleached, or dying, coral they observed there, even though they had a clue they might find bleaching because of abnormally high water temperatures. Though the cause of the...