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Archive for March 7th, 2011
Elephants cooperate as well as chimps
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 7th, 2011
Mongabay: Elephants cooperate as well as chimps
A new study proves that elephants understand how sometimes two is better than one. Working with Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, researchers reconstructed a classic cooperation test that was originally developed for chimpanzees. Subjects must pull on a rope to receive a reward, such as food, however--and here's the crux--the treat is only released if two subjects cooperate by pulling on two different ropes simultaneously....
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Plant Call-to-Arms Against Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 7th, 2011
Discovery News: Florida's vegetation has changed its structure over the last century in response to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide and ecologists see the change as a plant-based call-to-arms, heralding dry times to come.
Plants breath in air and breath out moisture through tiny pores called stomata. Comparing a variety of contemporary plants growing in Florida with museum samples and peat bogs dating back 150 years ago, an international team of ecologists found that as the amount of carbon dioxide in the air...
Equality for women can reduce world hunger, says UN report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 7th, 2011
Associated Press: Giving women better access to land, technology and other agricultural resources could reduce the number of hungry people by up to 150 million, according to the UN food agency.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said that about 925 million people across the globe were undernourished in 2010. Of these, 906 million live in developing countries.
Giving women the same tools and resources as men, including financial services, education and access to markets, could increase agricultural production...
United Kingdom: The next food fight must be for sustainable eating
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 7th, 2011
Guardian: Some might argue we have too much on our plates with the multiple ongoing debates around food trends. But could it be that food campaigns are missing the scale of the problem?
Food is responsible for 30% of UK greenhouse gas emissions. The Brazilian savannah is being destroyed faster than the Amazon due to soy production – most of which is fed to the animals we eat. Over in Borneo, ancient tropical forests are being felled to plant palm trees to provide palm oil for our bread and low-fat spread....
Gambia: Farmers sensitized on climate change, weather and farming
Posted by Today: None Given on March 7th, 2011
Today: Farmers from the North Bank and Lower River regions have been sensitized on the impact of climate change and weather on farming. Organized by the Department of Water Resources, the objective of the one-day synergy was to empower farmers with relevant information and how they can obtain valuable information on climate and weather to plan production.
Delivering the opening remarks, Mohamed Saho, director of the regional health management team in Farafenni noted that the government's concern on food...
East Antarctic ice sheet: Freezing from the bottom up
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 7th, 2011
Climate Central: The story of how Antarctica got its ice is about as firmly established as anything in Earth science. Although the southern continent is the world's driest, any snow that does fall there, with extraordinarily rare exceptions, stays more or less forever. Even if it only snows a fraction of an inch per year, a few million years' worth of snowfalls, piled one on top of another, eventually adds up. That's why the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is nearly two miles thick.
It's also why Antarctica and Greenland...
UN climate change chief says world needs plan for scarce resources
Posted by National: James Reinl on March 7th, 2011
National: With global temperatures, food prices and population rising, it is more urgent than ever to formulate ways to make life on the planet more sustainable, the UN's climate change chief says.
The warning by Janos Pasztor comes as a UN panel on sustainability prepares to meet in Helsinki in May to draft a plan to address the problems of global warming, poverty and water scarcity.
The panel, which includes Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the UAE Foreign Minister, faces a "tough project" to meet the December...
Oil spike renews food-vs-biofuel debate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 7th, 2011
Carbon Positive: The latest jump in the oil price above $100 per barrel has renewed the food-versus-fuel debate over biofuels. The rising oil price makes biofuel production more cost competitive but there are longstanding concerns over biofuels squeezing food production. The relationship between fossil-based oil, biofuels and food production and prices is complex. Some environmental NGOs and food companies argue that that increasing crop-based biofuel production reduces food production and raises global food prices....
Forest loss threatens Sierra Leone water supplies
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 7th, 2011
Reuters: The slopes of Leicester Peak, a protected rainforest on a hill above Sierra Leone's capital, are a jumble of haphazard development and half-finished villas.
Concrete buildings cluster against a tangle of trees and vines -- a construction site in a forest reserve that supplies the city of Freetown with its water and where building is meant to be banned.
It highlights a common problem across Africa, where efforts to halt forest loss are routinely flouted, often with the consent of a cash-strapped...
React correctly to climate change
Posted by Citizen Daily: None Given on March 7th, 2011
Citizen Daily: The East African Community (EAC) is intending to set up a climate change fund to mitigate weather-related disasters. Although overdue, the measure is welcome taking into account the fact that vagaries of weather have been hitting East Africa for so long.
Drought, floods, landslides and hailstorms have been occurring intermittently. Downpours have swept away homes and crops, killing or injuring people or leaving economies in disarray with damaged infrastructure. Drought has scorched crops and caused...