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Archive for March 2nd, 2011
France: Climate change threatening survival of Claret
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 2nd, 2011
Daily Mail: Claret has joined polar bears, glaciers and icebergs on scientists' extinction risk list because of global warming.
Experts say the steady rise in temperatures threatens the vineyards around Bordeaux producing some of the most esteemed and expensive wines on earth.
By 2050 the region may be unsuitable for winegrowing at all, making chateaux such as Lafite, Petrus and Latour redundant and their supreme wines mere memories.
Germany's Der Spiegel magazine reported this week that winegrowers...
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CO2 farming could help Australia brake emissions
Posted by Reuters: David Fogart on March 2nd, 2011
Reuters: Australia's farms and vast outback could help cut or offset up to a fifth of the economy's greenhouse gas emissions, a senior scientist says, as the government struggles to put a price on carbon pollution. The country is a major coal exporter and consumer and is among the highest per-capita producers of planet-warming carbon emissions in the rich world. And those emissions are rising from an economy fueled by a resources boom and soaring wealth. The government is battling to win political and industry...
VIDEO: Fish vital to pearl mussel breeding
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 2nd, 2011
BBC: Thousands of baby fish are being released into Northumberland rivers as part of a project to increase the numbers of an endangered mollusc.
Pollution has had a massive impact on the ability of pearl mussels to reproduce, as the species can only survive in very clean water.
But the pearl mussel also depends on healthy fish stocks, as its fertilised eggs must latch on to fish to develop.
Scientists working at the Kielder Hatchery have successfully implanted mussel larvae into the gills of...
VIDEO: High hopes for pearl mussel project
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 2nd, 2011
BBC: Freshwater pearl mussel breeding project in Northumberland
The Environment Agency and scientists are celebrating encouraging signs in a lengthy project to try to get pearl mussels to breed.
They have been trying to recreate breeding conditions at Kielder Hatchery in Northumberland for seven years but with little success.
Now the work has finally paid off with 6,000 baby sea trout playing host to pearl mussel larvae.
The endangered molluscs' unusual breeding process means that fertilised...
Australian Farms ‘Vulnerable’ to Climate Change, Garnaut Says
Posted by Bloomberg: Wendy Pugh on March 2nd, 2011
Bloomberg: Australia, the fourth-largest wheat exporter, risked more climate-change damage than other developed countries partly because of the threat to its agriculture, said Ross Garnaut, the federal government’s adviser on the topic.
“Our agriculture is particularly vulnerable,” Garnaut told reporters in Canberra. “Australia is already a country of climate extremes where in many places in some parts of the year, temperatures are already near the upper limits of agriculture.”
Australia, also the fourth-largest...
Sh220 Million Boost for Mau Forest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 2nd, 2011
Daily Nation: The European Commission and United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) will spend Sh220 million (2 million dollars) on the restoration of the Mau Forest complex until 2013.
The funding is part of the wide-ranging new partnership deals aimed at furthering sustainable development in the 21st century announced on Thursday by the European Union's (EU) commissioner for the Environment Janez Potonik and UN Under-Secretary-General and Unep executive director Achim Steiner.
The Mau forest, the two...