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Archive for October 12th, 2010
30-Mile Logjam on Malaysian River Hints at Forest Crimes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 12th, 2010
NYT: It`s hardly news that the rich virgin rain forests on both the Malaysian and Indonesian sides of Borneo are being steadily sheared away, enriching a few while ravaging unique ecosystems. In fact, it`s such a persistent issue that headlines are rare. But a 30-mile-long logjam created on Malaysia`s longest river after a heavy rainstorm last week has brought new focus to the issue, and new questions about whether the government official who runs just about everything on Sarawak, the ...
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ADB: Asia needs $8 billion annual investment in water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 12th, 2010
Reuters: Asia needs around $8 billion a year to improve water security and meet goals of providing drinking water and sanitation, and most of that will need to come from the private sector, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said. The ADB planned to maintain its current annual investment on water projects of $2-2.4 billion under a proposed 10-year plan, said Arjun Thapan, ADB's senior advisor on water and convenor of four-day water crisis conference in Manila. Thapan said the bank has ...
Indonesia denies deforesting caused Papua floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 12th, 2010
AFP: Indonesia denied on Thursday that flash floods in the remote area of Papua that killed at least 148 people were caused by rampant deforestation. Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said the flooding in West Papua province's Teluk Wondama district last Monday was caused by a natural dam bursting in the area after heavy downpours. "The dam was formed by landslides, and the landslides were caused by heavy rains and probably triggered by earthquakes," Hasan said. "Yes, there is ...
Climate Change And The Farmers’ Fate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 12th, 2010
Bernama: In recent years climate change is seen as the major contributor to the food security threat. While food prices have been rising, farmers in particular have been seeing their crop yield dwindling as the climate change unleashed floods, drought and erratic weather in general. Rising temperatures are already lowering rice yield in Asia, where it is the staple food, according to a recent study by a team of international scientists. Rising temperatures during the past 25 ...
Large swaths of Earth drying up, study suggests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 12th, 2010
LiveScience: The soils in large areas of the Southern Hemisphere, including large parts of Australia, Africa and South America, have been drying up in the past decade, a new study finds. The study is the first major one of its kind to look at the movement of water from the land to the atmosphere, called "evapotranspiration," on a global scale. This phenomenon returns about 60 percent of annual precipitation back to the atmosphere, in the process, using more than half of the solar energy absorbed ...
ALERT! Demand Upcoming Global Biodiversity Meeting Ban Geoengineering
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on October 12th, 2010
By Ecological Internet's Climate Ark Climate Change Portal
TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!
Geoengineering [search] is the proposed large scale manipulation of Earths oceans, soils and atmosphere with the intent of combating climate change. Modifying Earth at a planetary scale is so complex, and ecological and other side effects potentially so severe, that clearly humanity is incapable of safely engineering a biosphere [search]. Will a "Frankensphere" be constructed with dramatic unknown consequences to biodiversity and ecosystems, or will we choose to equitably reduce emissions, consumption and population? Next weeks Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 10) meeting in Japan must pass a moratorium on live geoengineering testing. Failure will mean continued implementation of ecosystem destroying technologies precisely what has gotten us into our current climate dilemma.