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Archive for February 21st, 2011
50 million ‘environmental refugees’ by 2020, experts say
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Fifty million "environmental refugees" will flood into the global north by 2020, fleeing food shortages sparked by climate change, experts warned at a major science conference that ended here Monday.
"In 2020, the UN has projected that we will have 50 million environmental refugees," University of California, Los Angeles professor Cristina Tirado said at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
"When people are not living in sustainable conditions,...
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Climate change said threat to food safety
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2011
United Press International: The safety of the world's food supply is under threat from climate change and the damage is going to get worse unless action is taken, a U.S. researcher says. Michigan State University Professor Ewen Todd says the effects of climate change on food safety, though poorly understood, is inevitable and must be addressed, a MSU release reported Monday. There are already examples of climate change taking its toll on the world's food supply, he said, giving as an example a disease pathogen known as vibrio,...
2% GDP could turn global economy green
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2011
Mongabay: Investing around $1.3 trillion, which represents about 2% of the world's gross domestic product (GDP), into ten sectors could move the world economy from fossil-fuel dependent toward a low carbon economy, according to report by the UN Environment Program (UNEP). In addition, the investments would alleviate global poverty and keep stagnating economies humming, while cutting humanity's global ecological footprint nearly in half by 2050 even in the face of rising populations.
"With 2.5 billion people...
First strike against illegal gold mining in Peru: military destroys miners’ boats
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2011
Mongabay: First strike against illegal gold mining in Peru: military destroys miners' boats
Around a thousand Peruvian soldiers and police officers destroyed seven and seized thirteen boats used by illegal gold miners in the Peruvian Amazon, reports the AFP. The move is seen as a first strike against the environmentally destructive mining. Used to pump silt up from the river-bed, the boats are essential tools of the illegal gold mining trade which is booming in parts of the Amazon.
Along the Inambari...
Sustainability solutions need the power of networks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2011
ScienceDaily: The choices an individual makes about environmental issues are affected by family, friends and others in a person's social network. Michigan State University scientists are studying how to harness the power of social networks to better communicate sustainability science.
"Instead of trying to communicate with thousands of people, we can be more effective by using the structure of social networks to spread information," says Thomas Dietz, MSU assistant vice president for environmental research...
Climate change affecting food safety
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2011
Physorg: Climate change is already having an effect on the safety of the world's food supplies and unless action is taken it's only going to get worse, a Michigan State University professor told a symposium at this year's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Ewen Todd, an MSU professor of advertising, public relations and retailing, organized a session titled "How Climate Change Affects the Safety of the World's Food Supply" at which several nationally known experts warned...
United States: Sea level is rising, changing sands
Posted by Jacksonville Daily News: None Given on February 21st, 2011
Jacksonville Daily News: The shifting sands and ever-changing shape of North Carolina's coast may be most evident along the area's barrier islands, where beach towns are the front line in the conflict between human development and the natural processes that can threaten the homes and property built there.
One response to maintain beaches and fight erosion is projects that pump sand onto the shoreline.
On Topsail Island, Surf City and North Topsail Beach continue to pursue a federal beach nourishment project for the...
El Salvador’s environmental crisis
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2011
Aljazeera: Boanerge Lovo lives in a subsistence community on Isla de Monte Cristo near the central coast of El Salvador. His community is self-sustaining and relies on fish, crab, and growing cashews for its survival.
Lovo is president of his community development association, a position that ccarries the responsibility of watching out for the wellbeing of the 27 families in this community.
Along with weather events like floods and hurricanes of increasing extremes that are attributed to climate change,...
Recent Swiss drought sign of things to come, weather expert says
Posted by World Radio: None Given on February 21st, 2011
World Radio: Recent prolonged dry spells in the west and south of Switzerland--theworst seen inmore than 30 years--raised questions about whether the phenomenon is another example of global warming. To shed more light on the meteorological issue, WRS`s Pete Forster talks to Professor Sonia Seneviratne, the coordinator of a Swiss research group on droughts in the country.Seneviratne says the dry episode was indeed particularly severe in certainregions and that less than normalprecipitation can be expected in the...
Why you need to use your ‘environmentally friendly’ cotton carrier bag 171 times to be green
Posted by Daily Mail: Colin Fernandez on February 21st, 2011
Daily Mail: Cotton bags offered by many supermarkets may be less 'green' than plastic carriers - and may cause more global warming, according to scientists.
As a greater amount of energy goes into making a cloth carrier than a polythene one, a cotton bag has to be used 131 times before it has the same environmental impact than its plastic counterpart
And if a plastic bag is re-used as a bin liner, a cotton bag has to be used 173 times - nearly every day of the year - before its ecological impact is as...