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Archive for February, 2011
Asia Pulp and Paper: why activists are wrong over destructive logging allegations
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2011
Ecologist: Asia Pulp and Paper: why activists are wrong over destructive logging allegations APP has been accused of illegal logging; now the company claims it is leading the way in sustainable practices
Matthew Hancock MP: slash costs and carbon with better property management Undercover police scandal: why we urgently need a judge-led inquiry Laura Sandys MP: why food security must be viewed as a strategic threat Emily Apple: 'I can't forgive Mark Kennedy's betrayal of activists' Financial problems could...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Asia Pulp and Paper: why activists are wrong over destructive logging allegationsMalaysian Forest Ebbing at Rapid Rate, Report Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2011
New York Times: An oil palm plantation covers a swath of land where a forest once stood in Malaysia.
Malaysia is cutting down forests at more than triple the average rate of the rest of Asia, with the destruction concentrated in the highly biodiverse peatland forests on the island of Borneo, a new analysis of satellite data reveals.
Roughly 10 percent of forests in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo were cleared in just the past five years, according to the analysis, which was commissioned by Wetlands...
NASA satellite captures U.S. ‘Big Chill’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2011
ScienceDaily: The current winter storm system blasting much of the United States is depicted in this new NASA satellite image from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite.
The AIRS data create an accurate 3-D map of atmospheric temperature, water vapor and clouds, data that are useful to forecasters. The image shows the temperature of the storm's cloud tops or the surface of Earth in cloud-free regions. The coldest cloud-top temperatures appear in purple, indicating towering...
How humans are changing the world
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2011
ScienceDaily: Human influence on the landscape, global warming, sea level rise, ocean acidification and biodiversity are highlighted in a new set of studies led by University of Leicester researchers.
How this influence will be reflected in the distinctive geological record forms the basis of the studies published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.
Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams from the University of Leicester Department of Geology led the production of the studies into the Anthropocene...
Indonesia set to clear 3 million ha of rainforest in New Guinea
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 1st, 2011
Mongabay: Indonesia set to clear 3 million ha of rainforest in New Guinea
Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry has approved conversion of some 3 million hectares of natural forest in Papua province, on the island of New Guinea, according to new analysis by Greenomics Indonesia, an environmental group.
Data from Greenomics Indonesia indicates 17 companies have been granted concessions to clear natural forest in Papua. Roughly 1 million hectares is earmarked for industrial plantations that will supply the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Indonesia set to clear 3 million ha of rainforest in New GuineaHow one town is recovering from the Australian floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 1st, 2011
Guardian: Beyond a police cordon that still seals off Grantham from the rest of Australia lies a landscape that looks as if it has been rearranged by a giant toddler in a tantrum. In the middle of a field is a house where once there was nothing. Crumpled cars are overturned in paddocks. A Volvo is filled with pebbles. Swaths of riverbank gum trees have been ripped from their sockets. A child's blue bicycle stands on the twisted railway. Strewn across dirt and silt is a truck exhaust pipe, a bath tub, golf...
Steam showers: Save water, ease stress
Posted by Y! Green: None Given on February 1st, 2011
Y! Green: Steam showers are the modern day equivalent of the steam baths of ancient Rome and the traditional Finnish saunas. Historically, wet steam baths have been used for cleansing, relaxation, detoxification and as a social activity. In Scandinavia and the Baltics, saunas and steam baths were often family activities. In fact, most cultures have a tradition of some kind of steam room, including Native American huts and Japanese mishiburo, dating to the 12th century. Warm, moist air opens the pores, increases...
Illegal mining, plantation development rampant in Indonesian Borneo; state losses top $17B
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 1st, 2011
Mongabay: Illegal mining, plantation development rampant in Indonesian Borneo; state losses top $17B
Hundreds of mining and oil palm plantation companies are operating illegally in Indonesian Borneo, according to an investigation by a task force set up by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
As reported by AFP, the task force--which was established to investigate the 'forest mafia'--found that less than 20 percent of plantation companies and less than 1.5 percent of mining firms had the proper permits...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Illegal mining, plantation development rampant in Indonesian Borneo; state losses top $17BPakistan floods last summer could have been predicted
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on February 1st, 2011
Science Centric: Five days before intense monsoonal deluges unleashed vast floods across Pakistan last July, computer models at a European weather-forecasting centre were giving clear indications that the downpours were imminent. Now, a new scientific study that retrospectively examines the raw data from these computer models, has confirmed that, if the information had been processed, forecasters could have predicted extremely accurate rainfall totals 8-10 days beforehand.
The study also finds that the floods...
Malaysian palm oil producers destroying Borneo peat forests faster than ever before
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 1st, 2011
Mongabay: Malaysian palm oil producers destroying Borneo peat forests faster than ever before
Oil palm plantations, peatland, and forest in Sarawak.
Peatlands and rainforests in Malaysia's Sarawak state on the island of Borneo are being rapidly destroyed for oil palm plantations, according to new studies by environmental group Wetlands International and remote sensing institute Sarvision.
The analysis shows that more than one third (353,000 hectares or 872,000 acres) of Sarawak's peatswamp forests...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Malaysian palm oil producers destroying Borneo peat forests faster than ever before