RSS Feed
Archive for May, 2010
China spearheads biodiversity efforts: UNEP
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2010
Xinhua: The UN Environment Program (UNEP) has lauded efforts being spearheaded by China to stem a rapid decline in biodiversity that is now threatening extinction for almost half the world's coral reef species. UNEP spokesman Nick Nuttall said China is among the six countries in the world with the highest increase in land being converted or in the process of being converted to organic agriculture - up 300,000 hectares between 2007 and 2008. "However, there is a growing recognition in the ...
Helicopters to drop sandbags for oil protection
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2010
Associated Press: A sandbag airlift is under way in Louisiana. Blackhawk helicopters are picking up sandbags to fly them to be dropped on five points east of Port Fourchon. The project is aimed at protecting Lafourche Parish marshes from the massive oil slick. The spill began creeping farther west of the Mississippi River last week. Workers in a waterfront yard on Sunday packed sand into bags. About a dozen Louisiana National Guard soldiers put straps on one-ton sandbags to ready ...
Weather notes from both poles
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2010
Y! Green: Indicators continue to show disturbing trends and unexpected events, indicating that changes are taking place in the Earth's environment. The South Pole has had its warmest year ever (since record keeping began in the 1950s), and the North Pole experienced unexpected rain in late April. "My business is weird, wild and wacky weather, and this is up there among fish falling from the sky or Niagara Falls running dry," according to David Phillips, a senior climatologist with Environment ...
Oil spill solutions uncertain, slick spreads west
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2010
Reuters: The huge slick from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill threatened Louisiana shores west of the Mississippi Delta on Monday as BP Plc said it was trying multiple options to control the leak, without being sure that they would work. Fears mounted of a prolonged and growing environmental and economic disaster for the U.S. Gulf Coast after a weekend setback in an initial undersea move by the oil giant to contain the spill, which could become the worst in U.S. history. BP Chief Operating ...
World governments fail to halt biodiversity loss
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2010
Reuters: World governments have failed to meet a 2010 target to halt biodiversity loss and action must be taken to preserve the species and ecosystems upon which human life depends, a United Nations report said on Monday. In a move endorsed by the U.N. General Assembly, more than 190 countries committed in 2002 to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. But the report said: "The diversity of living things on the planet continues to be eroded as a result ...
Barcoding life and pricing nature proposed to tackle biodiversity crisis
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2010
Guardian: In 2002, the world's governments agreed to significantly slow the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. Time is almost up, and by most accounts they've failed. Now that climate change is emerging as one of biodiversity's greatest threats, scientists are proposing new ways to tackle the crisis. In the latest, and last, issue of Nature Reports Climate Change, Hannah Hoag reports on some of the most promising efforts underway to protect biodiversity against rising temperature and other impacts of ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Barcoding life and pricing nature proposed to tackle biodiversity crisisNature loss ‘to damage economies’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2010
BBC: The Earth's ongoing nature losses may soon begin to hit national economies, a major UN report has warned. The third Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3) says that some ecosystems may soon reach "tipping points" where they rapidly become less useful to humanity. Such tipping points could include rapid dieback of forest, algal takeover of watercourses and mass coral reef death. Last month, scientists confirmed that governments would not meet their target of curbing ...
Oil spill threatens already weakened wetlands
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2010
Associated Press: Battered by hurricanes, weakened by erosion and flood-control projects, the sprawling wetlands that nurture Gulf of Mexico marine life and buffer coastal sites from storm surges now face another stern test as a monster oil slick creeps ever closer. About 40 percent of the nation's coastal wetlands are clumped along southern Louisiana, directly in the path of oil that was still gushing Monday from a ruptured underwater well. Roughly 3.5 million gallons has escaped in the three weeks ...
Cancer report energizes activists, not policy
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2010
Reuters: A cancer report that concludes Americans are under constant assault from carcinogenic agents has heartened activists, who hope that finally government and policymakers will pay attention to their concerns. Cancer experts say for the most part that we already know what causes most cases of cancer and it's not pollution or chemicals lurking in our water bottles. It's tobacco use and other unhealthy behaviors, says Dr. Graham Colditz of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. ...
BP Considers Options As Oil Keeps Pouring Into Gulf
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2010
National Public Radio: BP was looking for new ways Monday to stop an oil leak that is gushing an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico, after a containment structure placed over the leak clogged during the weekend. Next, the company is considering using a smaller containment box, called a "top hat," or injecting shredded rubber and other debris to stop the well, a procedure known as a "junk shot." On NBC's Today show, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said none of the ...