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Archive for November, 2010
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...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Local efforts block attempt to ship illegal rosewood from MadagascarPrivate 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...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on The floods in Pakistan show our vulnerability to climate chaosGlobal scheme to boost rice yields while reducing damage to environment launched
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2010
ScienceDaily: One of the world's largest global scientific partnerships for sustainable agricultural development has launched a bold new research initiative that aims to dramatically improve the ability of rice farmers to feed growing populations in some of the world's poorest nations. The efforts of the Global Rice Science Partnership, or GRiSP, are expected to lift 150 million people out of poverty by 2035 and prevent the emission of greenhouse gases by an amount equivalent to more than 1 billion tons of carbon...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Global scheme to boost rice yields while reducing damage to environment launchedWater managers weigh costs of sea level rise
Posted by South Florida Sun-Central: Andy Rei on November 10th, 2010
South Florida Sun-Central: For millions of South Floridians, life on a peninsula means melting icecaps in Greenland aren't just something for polar bears to worry about.
South Florida's coastal flood-control structures, counted on to protect low-lying communities from getting swamped, already are at risk from sea level rise due to climate change, according to scientists for the South Florida Water Management District.
In the coming months, the district's governing board will be asked to endorse more scientific studies...
How do we know: Groundwater
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2010
Climate Central: Groundwater makes up about 20 percent of the world's fresh water supply. Find out how scientists are tracking the changing groundwater supplies around the world, and what it means for changes in global climate.
Migrants spread farming to Europe
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2010
BBC: Farming in Europe did not just spread by word-of-mouth, but was introduced by migrants from the ancient Near East, a study suggests.
Scientists analysed DNA from the 8,000 year-old remains of early farmers found at an ancient graveyard in Germany.
They compared the genetic signatures to those of modern populations and found similarities with the DNA of people living in today's Turkey and Iraq.
The study appears in the journal PLoS Biology.
Wolfgang Haak of the University of Adelaide in...
Climate change the new flood risk for Qld
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Tony Bartlett on November 10th, 2010
Sydney Morning Herald: Queensland will be threatened by higher flood levels from intense torrential downpours brought on by climate change, a local government conference has been told.
Councils throughout the state have been warned to stop worrying about how to cope with the rare massive floods that happen only once a century and focus more on the threat of climate change.
The recommendation is contained in a new study on the impact of inland flooding, released on Wednesday by Climate Change and Sustainability Minister...
How France eclipsed the UK with Brittany tidal success story
Posted by Ecologist: Robert Williams on November 9th, 2010
Ecologist: The UK may have turned its back on the Severn barrage but across the channel they have been harnessing tidal energy from the River Rance for more than 40 years - and it may yet point to a way forward for smaller-scale renewable projects
Although France is rich in many areas, it is very poor in energy resources. The Germans and Spanish have coal, Britain has enjoyed an abundance of oil, gas and coal, the Dutch have gas from the North Sea, and the Swiss enjoy plentiful hydro-electric power.
French...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on How France eclipsed the UK with Brittany tidal success story