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Archive for November 10th, 2010
World Bank should shift carbon focus off hydro – report
Posted by Carbon Finance: None Given on November 10th, 2010
Carbon Finance: The World Bank Group has been urged to curtail buying carbon credits from hydropower projects, shifting the emphasis of its carbon finance activities to areas where it can have more influence.
A report by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) says: "Carbon finance needs to be redirected away from hydropower, where it has minimal impact on project bankability, to applications where it can have more leverage.'
Post-2012 funds run by the bank, such as the Carbon Partnership Facility, should focus...
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World scientists in $600 million plan to boost rice yield
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2010
Reuters: Scientists launched a $600 million global initiative on Wednesday to raise rice yields and reduce the impact of rice production on the environment, which they said could also help 150 million people escape poverty by 2035.
The Global Rice Science Partnership will oversee research over the next five years to boost yields and breed stronger strains that can resist flooding and threats from climate change.
The scheme, led by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and partners, was launched...
United States: New York Harbor, Then and Now
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2010
NYT: A modern-day view of New York Harbor, with Governors Island in the foreground.
Since 1909, the city has tested the waters within New York Harbor to measure their overall quality. The effort started when the harbor, with nearly 600 miles of waterfront and about 240 miles of shipping channels, received hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage discharged straight from the sewer pipes.
Such dumping still occurs but to a far lesser extent (when heavy rain overwhelms the city`s waste treatment...
Lead shot laws failing to protect birds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2010
Telegraph: Shooting duck, geese, snipe or golden plover with lead shot became illegal in England in 1999. Those found guilty of using the wrong ammunition can be fined up to £1,000.
The law was brought in to protect rare birds like whooper swans that ingest stray shot along with the grit they swallow to aid digestion. In Europe it is thought that just under one million birds are poisoned every year. In the UK the figures is estimated to be in the tens of thousands.
But research published by the Department...
Stone age etchings found in Amazon basin as river levels fall
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2010
Guardian: Brazil Stone age etchings found in Amazon basin as river levels fall
Drought in Brazil reveals engravings up to 7,000 years old – evidence of ancient civilisation
A series of ancient underwater etchings has been uncovered near the jungle city of Manaus, following a drought in the Brazilian Amazon.
The previously submerged images – engraved on rocks and possibly up to 7,000 years old – were reportedly discovered by a fisherman after the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Amazon river, fell to...
United States: Vt. nuclear plant restarting after leak is fixed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2010
Associated Press: Vermont's only nuclear power plant is back online following an unplanned shutdown caused by a leak of radioactive water.
Plant officials say the Vermont Yankee reactor was reconnected to the New England power grid at 5:18 a.m. Thursday.
The plant in Vernon, Vt., was shut down Sunday after a leak of radioactive water was spotted during routine surveillance.
Technicians found the leak was coming from a welded-over section of pipe in the feed water system, a closed loop system that carries...
Scientist at Work: A Last Look at South American Birds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2010
NYT: It is clear that fish are the stars of this year’s show. The main things on the schedule are finishing up our report drafts, and a practice run-through of the presentation we’ll give here in Iquitos tomorrow. The bird draft has already been turned in, so we don’t have a lot to do besides presentation practice. Juan will present the bird section, so I am theoretically just paying close attention and making incisive comments. But instead I am writing this and thinking, "What a cool fish," as Armando...
Local efforts block attempt to ship illegal rosewood from Madagascar
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2010
Mongabay: Authorities in Madagascar successfully blocked an attempt to ship illegally logged rosewood from the port of Vohemar over the weekend, according to local reports. The incident--while isolated--suggests citizens, the Waters and Forests Administration, local media, and shipping companies are having an impact on slowing the rosewood trade that has devastated Madagascar's rainforest parks, wildlife, ecotourism industry, and rural communities.
News of the pending shipment broke on November 2 when a...
Private equity sees buckets of money in water buys
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2010
Reuters: Water scarcity will generate big returns for the irrigation sector once climate change and population growth take their toll on farming, private equity managers said on Tuesday.
Asked at an agriculture investing conference whether it is possible to make money from water, typically a public good rather than a bankable commodity, Judson Hill of NGP Global Adaptation Partners was unequivocal.
"Buckets, buckets of money," he told the meeting of bankers and investors in Geneva, a leading European...
The floods in Pakistan show our vulnerability to climate chaos
Posted by Guardian: Rina Saeed Khan on November 10th, 2010
Guardian: The floods in Pakistan show our vulnerability to climate chaos
Just before the monsoon deluges that killed 2,000, left 4 million people homeless and one-fifth of my country submerged, our lakes had dried up. We need global action urgently
After the massive floods hit Pakistan this summer, international attention was drawn to the damaging effects of climate change in the region. The "tsunami from the sky" caused by unprecedented monsoon rainfall in late July made the rivers swell and burst their...