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Archive for October 18th, 2010
United Kingdom: Plan to build ‘green’ barrage across Severn estuary abandoned
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
Telegraph: An official study said there was currently no ''strategic case'' for investing public money in such a scheme, the costs of which could run to more than £30 billion, although it said it could be reconsidered as a longer-term option in the future. But the Department of Energy and Climate Change paved the way for new nuclear power plants at eight sites - Bradwell, Essex; Hartlepool; Heysham, Lancashire; Hinkley Point, Somerset; Oldbury, South Gloucestershire; Sellafield, Cumbria; ...
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Lake Mead Hits Record Low Level
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
NYT: Sometime between 11 and noon on Sunday, the water level in Lake Mead, the massive reservoir whose water fills the taps of millions of people across the Southwest, fell lower than it ever has since it was filled 75 years ago. Even as a flurry of thunderstorms dropped rain on the Las Vegas area, with as much as an inch falling in the mountains to the north, Lake Mead`s level dropped to 1,083.18 feet above sea level just before noon, and fell further, to 1,083.09, by 9 local time Monday ...
United Kingdom: River clean-up brings otters back from brink of extinction
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
Guardian: Otters in Britain, which only 30 years ago were thought to be on the brink of extinction, have made a remarkable comeback and are now to be found almost everywhere, according to a report published today by the Environment Agency. In the 1970s, the animal had retreated to Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the far south-west of England, but the report says they are now present everywhere except Kent – and they are expected to return to rivers there too within a decade. The ...
United Kingdom: Back from the brink: otters return to our rivers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
Independent: For the past 40 years or more, the sight of otters playing in England's rivers has been a desperately rare treat. Now, at last, it seems the tide is turning in favour of the country's favourite water dwelling animal, which has been brought back from the brink of extinction against the odds. A report by the Environment Agency published today reveals that numbers of the once elusive animal are at their highest for decades. Poisoned by toxic pesticides in rivers, the animals had ...
Conference tackles loss of biodiversity
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
Press Association: Tackling global loss of wildlife is as big a challenge as addressing climate change, conservation experts have warned as an international meeting gets under way aimed at stopping species and habitats vanishing across the world. Governments are meeting in Nagoya, Japan, hoping to agree on 20 targets to conserve nature and tackle problems including pollution, invasive species, the destruction of habitat, perverse subsidies and over-consumption of resources such as fish. Jane ...
U.N. summit sends S.O.S. on biodiversity
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
CNN: Delegates from all over the world descended on Nagoya in Japan on Monday for talks considered crucial to sustaining the future of animal, plant and human life on Earth. For two weeks, delegates at the 10th meeting (COP10) of the Convention on Biological Diversity will attempt to agree a 20-point plan for the next decade following the comprehensive failure of any government to meet previous targets set out in 2002. "Nagoya is the main global event to communicate the value of ...
UN meeting on saving species opens in Japan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
AP: Delegates from more than 190 nations kicked off a U.N. conference Monday aimed at ensuring the survival of diverse species and ecosystems threatened by pollution, exploitation and habitat encroachment. But the two-week marathon talks of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity face some of the same divisions between rich and poor nations over what actions to take that have bogged down global climate negotiations. Scientists warn that unless we start doing more to protect ...
‘Ten years’ to solve nature loss
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
BBC: The UN biodiversity convention meeting has opened with warnings that the ongoing loss of nature is hurting human societies as well as the natural world. The two-week gathering aims to set new targets for conserving life on Earth. Japan's Environment Minister Ryo Matsumoto said biodiversity loss would become irreversible unless curbed soon. Much hope is being pinned on economic analyses showing the loss of species and ecosystems is costing the global economy trillions of ...
World needs urgent action to stop species loss: U.N.
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
Reuters: The world cannot afford to allow nature's riches to disappear, the United Nations said on Monday at the start of a major meeting to combat losses in animal and plant species that underpin livelihoods and economies. The United Nations says the world is facing the worst extinction rate since the dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago, a crisis that needs to be addressed by governments, businesses and communities. The two-week meeting aims to prompt nations and businesses to take ...
What are the prospects for the Nagoya biodiversity summit?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
Guardian: Shortly before the summit begins, I've finally got round to reading the draft declaration on biodiversity that will be discussed by the governments meeting at Nagoya in Japan. It's 195 pages long. If it were a thesis about the causes and consequences of the decline of the world's wild species, it would get a fairly high mark. As an action plan for doing something about this decline, it's a dead loss. It begins by reminding us of the comprehensive failure of the last big declaration, ...