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Archive for March 9th, 2011
Biofuel appeal stokes bullish palm price outlook
Posted by Reuters: Niki Koswanage and Michael Taylor on March 9th, 2011
Reuters: Malaysian plans to subsidize biofuel and the launch of the world's biggest biodiesel plant in Singapore promise to give a fillip to the renewable fuel industry worldwide, planters and traders in the Malaysian capital said on Tuesday.
The moves come as key feedstock palm oil soars to multi-year highs, riding crude oil prices driven higher by fears of spreading unrest in the Middle East that has cut Libyan exports.
Benchmark palm oil prices have gained around 30 percent during the last 12 months,...
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Satellites present a better picture of deforestation
Posted by Scientific American: Dina Fine Maron on March 9th, 2011
Scientific American: BIRD'S-EYE VIEW: Better satellite imagery shows that large swathes of peat forests in Southeast Asia have been replaced with palm oil plantations--increasing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. Image: NASA
The picture of Southeast Asia's deforestation is coming into greater focus.
Scientists have developed a new satellite-imaging technique that allows them to have a better bird's eye view of when carbon-rich peatlands were cleared and to what extent they have been replaced by palm...
Government team produces 10 new varieties of rice
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 9th, 2011
Jakarta Post: The Agriculture Ministry's research and development agency has produced 10 new rice varieties it hopes will boost production and strengthen crops in anticipation of the continuing impact of climate change on food production.
Agency head B. Haryono, told newmen here on Tuesday, that climate change currently was causing unpredictable and extreme weather conditions, wet and dry, as well as pest attacks.
"Therefore, there is a need for rice plants that are resilient to drought, excessive water...
Rising temperature in Fraser River affecting salmon population
Posted by Globe and Mail: Mark Hume on March 9th, 2011
Globe and Mail: The Fraser River is heating up because of climate change and an increasing number of salmon are dying in the warmer water from diseases or parasites or are simply dropping dead from cardiac collapse, a federal judicial inquiry has been told.
Scott Hinch, an expert witness on aquatic ecology, told the Commission of Inquiry Into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River that sometimes 50 per cent of the salmon that return to the river die before they reach the spawning beds.
Dr. Hinch...
Ice Loss Accelerates in Greenland, Antarctica, NASA Study Finds
Posted by Bloomberg: Alex Morales on March 9th, 2011
Bloomberg: Greenland and Antarctica’s ice sheets are shrinking more quickly, suggesting United Nations projections for sea-level rise are too conservative, a U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration-funded study said.
From 1992 to 2009, the two regions lost on average 36.3 billion tons more ice every year than the previous year, scientists led by Eric Rignot at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a study in the Geophysical Research Letters journal. The researchers...
Ice loss quickens, raising seas
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 9th, 2011
BBC: Ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland has accelerated over the last 20 years, research shows, and will soon become the biggest driver of sea level rise.
From satellite data and climate models, scientists calculate that the two polar ice sheets are losing enough ice to raise sea levels by 1.3mm each year.
Overall, sea levels are rising by about 3mm (0.12 inches) per year.
Writing in Geophysical Research Letters, the team says ice loss here is speeding up faster than models predict.
Continue...
Erin Brockovich back in Hinkley testing water
Posted by Associated Press: Noaki Schwartz on March 9th, 2011
Associated Press: At the end of "Erin Brockovich," a housewife sick from toxic chromium weeps with joy as she's handed her portion of a historic $333 million settlement between residents of this small desert town and the utility that poisoned their drinking water.
In real life, that woman is Roberta Walker. She still lives in Hinkley, using her share to buy a new home in what she thought would be a safe four-mile distance from the toxic plume of chromium.
Earlier this year, she and other residents learned that...
Polar ice melt raising sea levels rapidly: study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 9th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: The pace at which the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are melting is "accelerating rapidly" and raising the global sea level, according to findings of a study financed by NASA.
The findings suggest that the ice sheets - more so than ice loss from earth's mountain glaciers and ice caps - have become "the dominant contributor to global sea level rise, much sooner than model forecasts have predicted".
This study, published on Tuesday, the longest to date examining changes to polar ice sheet...
US judge halts damages claim over pollution in Amazon
Posted by Independent: Larry Neumeister on March 9th, 2011
Independent: An American judge has extended his temporary ban on the collection of $18bn (£11.1bn) in damages from Chevron, saying the US oil giant would be irreparably harmed if it had to pay compensation -- ordered by a court in Ecuador -- for pollution in parts of the Amazon rainforest.
District Judge Lewis Kaplan said there was evidence that lawyers for 30,000 Ecuadorean plaintiffs would move swiftly to pursue multiple enforcement actions and asset seizures around the globe, including in areas where Chevron...
A New Study Shows That Palm Oil Plantations For Biofuels Leads to Deforestation
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 9th, 2011
Time: Another day and there's another study that undermines the case for biofuels as an eco-friendly source of energy. This time it's the booming palm oil plantations of Southeast Asia, which yield the raw ingredients for biodiesel, used most often in Europe. Activists have been warning for some time that the growth of palm oil is leading to deforestation in Southeast Asia, where forested land has often been cleared to build palm plantations. Malaysia and Indonesia produce 87% of the world's palm oil,...