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Archive for October 18th, 2010
‘People don’t get biodiversity’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
BBC: People do not understand the threat to our way of life posed by the destruction of biodiversity, the director of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has said. Jane Smart explains how the human race is dependent for its survival on biodiversity.
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Farming Practices Can Ease Impact of Climate Change on Wetlands
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
Kansas City infoZine: Climate change in the Prairie Pothole Region poses problems for wetland-dependent organisms such as ducks, but farmers could help ease the impact by the way they farm. Brookings SD - infoZine - Newswise - Adopting such practices as strategic use of biomass crops and conversion of row crops to managed grass near wetlands could compensate for a Celsius degree or two of warming, South Dakota State University wetland ecologist W. Carter Johnson said. Johnson, a distinguished professor ...
Forest values
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
BBC: They fall as mere raindrops but quickly transform into cogs in a billion-dollar machine crucial to the future of a nation's economy. That's the startling conclusion of new research into the economic value of the preserving Kenya's Mau Forest, the country's largest. In the jargon of environmental science, the forest's ability to generate rain and to store water is "an ecosystem service" worth huge sums to activities downstream. The forest stretches over hills between the ...
UK crops to face water supply crunch, may relocate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
Reuters: Agricultural crops in Britain may need to be moved to new areas as the threat of both drought and flooding rises in the coming decades, a report commissioned by the Royal Agricultural Society of England said on Monday. The report said climate change was expected to produce higher temperatures, drier summers and wetter winters across much of England. "This is likely to mean reduced river flow and less water available for agriculture," said one of the report's authors, Alison ...
Walmart takes on Amazon deforestation
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
Mongabay: Walmart mandates zero deforestation in beef, palm oil sourcing The world's largest retailer last week announced new sourcing criteria for commodities closely associated with deforestation: palm oil and beef from the Amazon. Walmart will require sustainably-sourced palm oil for all its private brand products globally by the end of 2015, a move that will provide critical support for initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of palm oil, which has at times been produced at ...
Conservationists must recognize “biases and delusions” to succeed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
Mongabay: As nations from around the world meet at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan to discuss ways to stem the loss of biodiversity worldwide, two prominent researchers argue that conservationists need to consider paradigm shifts if biodiversity is to be preserved, especially in developing countries. Writing in the journal Biotropica, Douglas Sheil and Erik Meijaard argue that some of conservationists' most deeply held beliefs are actually hurting the ...
UN meet to curb species loss opens in Japan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
AFP: A UN conference on global biodiversity loss kicked off in Japan on Monday aiming to tackle how to curb the world's rapid loss of animal and plant species and the habitats they live in. The 193 members of the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity are gathering in the central city of Nagoya, with experts warning the planet is now in the grip of its sixth mass extinction phase -- the first that is man-made. The 12-day conference aims to throw a spotlight on a global ...
Copenhagen repeat? Failure looms for global biodiversity conference
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 18th, 2010
Spiegel: The world is gathered in Japan this week in an effort to put an end to the extinction of plant and animal species across the globe. But while everyone agrees that biodiversity is important, the conference may fail anyway -- partially because the Americans don't seem interested. The group dressed in blue had arranged themselves in a row before Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. In front of each of the activists was a large photo of an animal species now extinct: an aurochs, a Chinese river ...