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Archive for June 20th, 2010
China devastated by floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 20th, 2010
Guardian: Huge floods in southern China have killed at least 132 people and displaced 800,000 others, the government said today as the annual storm season picked up ferocity. Local media showed images of people abandoning their homes in rubber dinghies in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, one of the worst hit areas. Many carried small bundles of possessions salvaged from the rising waters that turned the streets into rivers. More than 10 million people have lost property, been injured or ...
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Clear-Cutting Declines in Brazil’s Rainforest, but Fires Are on the Rise
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 20th, 2010
AAAS: Although the Brazilian Amazon has recently experienced a decline in deforestation rates, researchers writing in Science say that forest fires in the region are on the rise--and that the benefits of decreased deforestation could be partially offset by increased carbon dioxide emissions from those fires. The growing incidence of forest fires appears to be primarily linked to human agricultural activities near re-forested areas or forest edges. As a result, the researchers report, a ...
Is New Environmentalism the Answer or the Problem?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 20th, 2010
AlterNet: Take your well-disciplined strengths and stretch them between two opposing poles. Because inside human beings is where God learns. –Rainer Maria Rilke There is a battle going on for the soul of environmentalism. How it plays out will determine our ability to respond to a whole host of environmental dilemmas, especially climate change. All of us are partners in this struggle, since battle lines are being drawn not simply on the street or in policy debates ...
Ridge clue to Antarctic ice loss
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 20th, 2010
BBC: The discovery of an underwater ridge in West Antarctica could help explain why there has been an acceleration in the ice flowing from a glacier in the area. Researchers suggest that the base of Pine Island Glacier once sat on the ridge, but recently became detached from the feature. The team made the discovery during surveys that used a unmanned submarine to examine waters under the glacier. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Geoscience. "We ...
Plan to pump water into Dead Sea makes environmentalists see red
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 20th, 2010
Guardian: In a plastic-lined hole in a spit of sand stretching out into the Dead Sea, something is growing in the water. Floating on top of the greenish pool – a mixture of 70% water from the Dead Sea and 30% water from the Red Sea – is a white scum of algae. This is Pool No 9, dated March 2003. Next to it is Pool No 8, with exactly the same proportions of Dead Sea and Red Sea waters, created a year ago. Here the colour of the water is red. No one knows why the two pools are ...
Dispute Over Pesticide for California Strawberries Has Implications Beyond State
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 20th, 2010
New York Times: Even as the sweet strawberry harvest reaches its peak here, a bitter disagreement has erupted between the State Department of Pesticide Regulation and a scientific review committee over the approval of a new chemical, the outcome of which could affect farmers across the country. In a report and in public testimony Thursday before the State Senate Food and Agriculture Committee, members of the review committee said the state's decision to approve the new pesticide, methyl iodide, was ...
ALERT! Protest Madagascar’s Breaking of Moratorium on Illegal Rosewood Log Exports from Protected Rainforests
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on June 20th, 2010
TAKE ACTION!
Despite a recent two year moratorium on further illegal logging [search] and export of precious timber from the protected areas of Madagascar, the government recently approved shipment of nearly $16 million worth of timber stolen from the country's rainforest parks. Post-coup illegal log and wildlife trade continue to threaten Madagacar's biodiversity rich rainforest [search] remnants, ecological sustainability and future potential for national advancement. Let Madagascar's transitional government, shipping industry, and French government know they will be held responsible for these ecological crimes.
TAKE ACTION!