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Archive for January 18th, 2011
Rwandan police crack down on environmental damage
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 18th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Rwandan police will begin cracking down on those degrading the environment as part of their widened jurisdiction to shore up ecological protection, a statement said Tuesday.
"The role of the police in this exercise is to protect and prevent environmental degradation," Cyprien Gatete, the head of the police disaster response unit said in the statement.
Building in wetlands, use of plastic bags, unauthorised felling and burning of trees, spitting and smoking in public places are prohibited under...
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Geothermal energy: All the benefits of nuclear – but none of the problems
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 18th, 2011
Guardian: By mass, 99.9% of the Earth is hotter than 100C. That means that not far below our feet is the power to boil unlimited water and generate clean, renewable energy. Is the UK throwing all it can at this extraordinary opportunity? Of course not, who do you think we are? Germans?
That contrasts strikingly with the more glamorous sister of deep geothermal energy, nuclear power. Both ultimately tap the heat generated by the decay of radioactive elements. Geothermal plants send water down holes to bring...
Wheat Research for a Hotter, More Crowded Planet
Posted by ClimateWire: Tiffany Stecker on January 18th, 2011
ClimateWire: A $25 million grant for wheat and barley genetics research will help agronomists develop varieties suited for a warmer world with more mouths to feed.
Headed by the University of California, Davis, the grant will allow 55 researchers, plant breeders and educators across 21 states to examine how evolving wheat and barley varieties -- which use similar technologies in breeding labs -- respond to biotic (pests and diseases) and abiotic (floods and droughts) stresses.
But the biggest stress, according...
City slickers are greener than country cousins
Posted by Telegraph: Richard Alleyne on January 18th, 2011
Telegraph: Researchers found that people with good jobs found in large cities are most likely to recycle, volunteer for environmental organisations and participate in other "green" initiatives.
This is because they are encouraged by their work colleagues and corporations and are more likely to be threatened by environmental problems.
Scientists at the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS) at Michigan State University led the study along with collaborators in the United States and China....
Saving Iraqi marshes from desert
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 18th, 2011
BBC: The Mesopotamian Marshes in southern Iraq were once home to thousands of marsh Arabs, millions of birds - and rebels fighting against Saddam Hussein. In the 1990s he ordered his engineers to drain the land as a punishment, turning the land to dust. Now conservationist and environmental engineer Dr Azzam Alwash is attempting to restore the marshes. The project is the subject of the first in a new series of Natural World. He and cameraman Steve Foote spoke about both the difficulty of the restoration...
Eco power lists: Fatuous, invidious and misrepresentative | George Monbiot
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 18th, 2011
Guardian: Is there anything the Sunday papers can't turn into a fatuous celeb-fest? Two days ago, the Observer published its "eco power list". It will come as no surprise that it featured Brad Pitt – which list doesn't? It was more surprising to find Jay Leno there, on the grounds that he has made the, er, 240 cars he runs "as green as possible". And the chief executive of Ford, because he has just unveiled an electric Ford Focus (sadly he didn't simultaneously veil the gas guzzlers he continues to market)....
South Sudan seeks millions for war-hit wildlife
Posted by Reuters: Jason Benham on January 18th, 2011
Reuters: South Sudan appealed for investors to plough $140 million into its war-hit wildlife parks, seeking to kick-start a tourism industry and wean itself off oil months ahead of its expected independence.
The south has the world's second largest migration of mammals, untamed wildernesses and vast herds of gazelles and antelopes, rivaling anything seen in Kenya, Uganda and other African holiday hotspots, say experts.
But populations of elephants, hippos and other fleshier animals have plummeted after...
Restoring Eden
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 18th, 2011
BBC: Thousands of rare marbled teal return to the wetlands, ornithologists discover
It is thought to be the original Garden of Eden.
A place so beautiful, teeming with water and life, that according to the Christian faith it was the birthplace of mankind.
That was until the 1980s, when Saddam Hussein drained these great wetlands of southern Iraq, destroying them, turning them to desert.
However, since his overthrow, a remarkable effort has begun to restore these Mesopotamian Marshes, among...
Extreme Weather Changes Could Follow Floods
Posted by Inter Press Service: Amantha Perera on January 18th, 2011
Inter Press Service: Weather experts warned Sri Lankan to be prepared for extreme weather changes with hardly any notice following devastating floods here that have affected over one million people.
"Global weather patterns are changing, we should be prepared for extreme changes," Gunavi Samarasinghe, the head of Meteorological Department, said as the country battled floods in the east as temperatures island-wide dropped to sixty year lows.
The drop in temperature was caused by the cloud cover over the island,...
Floodwaters inundate south-east Australia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 18th, 2011
Guardian: Knee-deep water inundated communities in south-east Australia today, splitting one town in two, as swollen rivers carried flood fears downstream and officials urged residents to evacuate.
The state of Victoria is the latest area of Australia afflicted to be hit in the weeks-long flooding crisis that has left 30 people dead, caused once a century floods in many areas and could become the country's costliest natural disaster.
Horsham, in Victoria state, resembled a lake after the Wimmera river...