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Archive for February 2nd, 2011
China and Brazil Inundate Latin America with Dams
Posted by Inter Press Service: Mario Osava*a on February 2nd, 2011
Inter Press Service: The growing presence of Chinese and Brazilian capital in Latin America's energy sector is facilitating the construction of hydroelectric complexes, but is also the fuelling nationalist stances that are adding to the environmental criticisms of those major projects.
The three biggest hydroelectric dams in Ecuador are being built by Chinese companies, which have broken the hegemony of Brazilian construction firms like Odebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez.
Financing from China's Export-Import Bank,...
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From Cambodia to California: world’s top 10 most threatened forests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2011
Mongabay: From Cambodia to California: the world's top 10 most threatened forests Asia-Pacific forests are the most endangered, including 5 of the top 10 threatened forests. Growing populations, expanding agriculture, commodities such as palm oil and paper, logging, urban sprawl, mining, and other human impacts have pushed many of the world's great forests to the brink. Yet scientists, environmentalists, and even some policymakers increasingly warn that forests are worth more standing than felled. They argue...
E.P.A. Plans Limits on Chemicals in Water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2011
New York Times: E.P.A. Plans First Rules Ever on Perchlorate in Drinking Water
The Obama administration announced on Wednesday that it planned to regulate toxic substances in drinking water more strictly and would issue the first limits ever on perchlorate, a dangerous chemical found in rocket fuel that has seeped into groundwater in at least 400 locations.
The move, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, is a major step toward modernizing the nation’s clean water...
Indonesia Makes Startling Admission on Forests
Posted by Jakarta Globe: None Given on February 2nd, 2011
Jakarta Globe: Orangutans captured in Kalimantan province. The primates, searching for food, were captured in Sungai Pinyuh village and beaten, resulting in the death of one orangutan late last year. Indonesia admitted on Tuesday that hundreds of mine and plantation companies are operating illegally in Central Kalimantan, and promised to beef up law enforcement to protect forests and threatened species. (Reuters Photo/Ferry Latif)
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Malaysia destroying its forests three times faster than all Asia combined
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2011
Telegraph: The pictures also show that its carbon-rich peat soils of the Sarawak coast are being stripped even faster than its rainforests.
A report commissioned by the Netherlands-based Wetlands International says Malaysia is uprooting an average two per cent of the rainforest a year on Sarawak, its largest state on the island of Borneo, or nearly 10 per cent over the last five years.
Most of it is being converted to palm oil plantations, it said.
The deforestation rate for all of Asia during the...
Malaysia rapidly destroying forests for palm oil: Group
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2011
Reuters: Malaysia, the world's second largest palm oil producer, is destroying large areas of carbon-rich peatswamp forests to expand plantations, a leading conservation group said on Tuesday.
Wetlands International and Dutch remote sensing institute Sarvision said palm oil plantations are being expanded largely in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo island.
"Unless this trend is halted, none of these forests will be left at the end of this decade," said the report released on Tuesday.
It said...
EPA to limit rocket fuel chemical in tap water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2011
Associated Press: The Environmental Protection Agency is setting the first federal drinking water standard for a toxic rocket fuel ingredient linked to thyroid problems in pregnant women and young children, the Obama administration announced on Wednesday.
Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson said that setting the standard will protect public health and spark new technologies to clean up drinking water. Based on monitoring conducted from 2001 to 2005, 153 drinking water sources in 26 states...
EPA to limit rocket fuel chemical in tap water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2011
Associated Press: The Environmental Protection Agency is setting the first federal drinking water standard for a toxic rocket fuel ingredient linked to thyroid problems in pregnant women and young children, the Obama administration announced on Wednesday.
Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson said that setting the standard will protect public health and spark new technologies to clean up drinking water. Based on monitoring conducted from 2001 to 2005, 153 drinking water sources in 26 states...
Hanoi to become the latest destination on world eco-cities list
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2011
Independent: Architecture firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) was awarded a commission to develop Hanoi's first "green tech corridor," merging two existing villages and cutting the area's carbon emissions.
The firm, designer of the re-development of Canary Wharf in London and the Eastern Harbor in Alexandria, was awarded the project during the week ending January 30.
The development plan for the Vietnamese city involves the redevelopment of two villages to create a miniature city roughly 180 hectares...
Malaysian palm oil destroying forests, report warns
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2011
Guardian: Malaysia, the world's second-largest palm oil producer, is destroying large areas of carbon-rich peat swamp forests to expand plantations, according to a report released late yesterday.
The report from Wetlands International said palm oil plantations are being greatly expanded, largely in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo island.
Unless the trend is halted, none of these forests will be left by the end of this decade, said Marcel Silvius, a senior scientist at Wetlands International....