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Archive for March 15th, 2010
Canada: Money spent on tar sands projects could decarbonise western economies
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2010
Guardian: The £250bn cost of developing Canada's controversial tar sands between now and 2025 could be used to decarbonise the western economy by funding ambitious solar power schemes in the Sahara or a European wide shift to electric vehicles, according to a new report released today. The same amount of investment would also help the world to hit half of the Millenium Development Goals in the 50 least-developed countries, says the research from The Co-operative and conservation group, WWF, ...
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Oilsands on the defensive after double attack
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2010
Canwest News Service: Canada's oilsands were the target of a major public relations offensive in Britain on Monday with the nationwide premiere of the film Dirty Oil narrated by Canadian actor Neve Campbell, and the simultaneous release of a World Wildlife Fund report claiming that a host of global ills -- including four million child deaths annually from poor sanitation and other causes -- could be prevented by diverting the billions being invested by oil giants in Alberta to UN health programs. "This ...
Drought drives Cotabato monkeys deeper into forests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2010
Philippine Daily Inquirer: Lack of food due to the drought has forced monkeys to leave their sanctuary in the village of New Israel here and seek refuge in nearby forested areas. "It all started when severe heat due to effect of El Niño phenomenon wilted some crops in the village including some banana plants that serve as food for these animals," Darwin Paraiso, a village councilman, said. Paraiso said the monkeys started to form groups and fight each other every time food, particularly bananas donated ...
Will fight for Pachauri: Ramesh
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2010
India Blooms News Service: Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday said the UPA government will back Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chairman RK Pachauri on the Himalayan glacier issue. "We are backing the IPCC chairman and will fight any attempt to unseat him," Ramesh said in the Rajya Sabha on Monday. He further said the Fourth Assessment Report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), suggesting disappearance of Himalayan glaciers by 2035, was based on poorly ...
All Eyes on Forest Protection Body
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Seemingly unstoppable development has made a mockery of the protected status of this southern Indian region, which houses vast biodiversity and some of the finest examples of moist deciduous and tropical forests. In the last decade alone, the urban sprawl has reached these mountains, which have seen forests give way to more and more human settlements, as well as to a wide range of commercial activities. But a newly resurrected people's movement may yet reverse that trend. Just ...
Australian cities must transform for population growth
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2010
Reuters: Australia circa 2050, population 35 million, climate change induced rising sea levels have flooded the Gold Coast resort region, apartment blocks are now used to grow food and people commute in monorail pods above the sea. In another city, Australians live on floating island pods with apartments both below and above sea level, the population has shifted from land to the sea because of the sky-rocketing value of disappearing arable land. Climate change has also forced many ...
Amazon confusion: new research shows forest is resilient to drought, but is this the whole picture?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2010
Mongabay: A drought that happens once in a hundred years had little negative or positive effect on the Amazon rainforest according to a NASA funded study in Geophysical Research Letters. "We found no big differences in the greenness level of these forests between drought and non-drought years, which suggests that these forests may be more tolerant of droughts than we previously thought," said Arindam Samanta, the study's lead author from Boston University. Employing NASA MODIS satellite ...
Poll charts rising U.S. environmental satisfaction
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2010
Reuters: Americans have grown more content about current environmental quality over the past year, though 53 percent still rate conditions as only fair to poor, according to a Gallup poll released on Monday. Forty-six percent of the 1,014 adults surveyed March 4 to 7 described current U.S. environmental conditions as excellent or good. That was up from 39 percent in March 2009 and was the highest positive environmental rating measured by Gallup since 2002. The percentage of Americans ...