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Archive for March, 2011
Humans on Verge of Causing 6th Great Mass Extinction
Posted by Live Science: Stephanie Pappas on March 2nd, 2011
Live Science: Are humans causing a mass extinction on the magnitude of the one that killed the dinosaurs?
The answer is yes, according to a new analysis — but we still have some time to stop it.
Mass extinctions include events in which 75 percent of the species on Earth disappear within a geologically short time period, usually on the order of a few hundred thousand to a couple million years. It's happened only five times before in the past 540 million years of multicellular life on Earth. (The last great...
Climate change ‘number one issue’
Posted by Al Jazeera: Dahr Jamail on March 2nd, 2011
Al Jazeera: "We have a very clear position," El Salvador's Minister of Environment, Herman Chavez, told Al Jazeera at his office in San Salvador, the capital.
"The President of El Salvador, last year on July 20th, in an extraordinary meeting of presidents that was convened here in San Salvador, launched the intervention process. We put Climate Change as the number one issue for the region."
The government of El Salvador's position, which mirrors that of other Central American countries like Nicaragua,...
Sri Lanka using fines to beat dengue amid rising climate risk
Posted by AlertNet: Amantha Perera on March 2nd, 2011
AlertNet: Dengue fever, a potentially fatal disease that has infected more than 70,000 people and killed over 500 in Sri Lanka since January 2009, has shown the first signs of abating in two years as the government steps up a campaign that includes fines against people and businesses that fail to remove mosquito breeding areas.
The fall in cases comes despite extensive flooding this year, which can encourage dengue-carrying mosquitoes to breed in standing water.
Dengue, a severe, flu-like illness, is...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Sri Lanka using fines to beat dengue amid rising climate riskSugarcane bioethanol: Environmental implications
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 2nd, 2011
ScienceDaily: An article in the current issue of Global Change Biology Bioenergy assessed the net greenhouse gas savings of bioethanol from sugarcane as compared to the use of fossil fuels. Researchers have long promoted biofuels produced from crop biomass as an environmentally sustainable source of renewable energy. A recent study questions whether the potential climate benefit of sugarcane ethanol is diminished when emissions from land use management are considered. Scientists examined the sugarcane ethanol...
Rare Rhino Makes Public Appearance
Posted by National Public Radio: Jonathan Makiri on March 2nd, 2011
National Public Radio: A motion-sensor image of a Javan rhino feeding in Ujung Kulon National Park, Indonesia.
WWF
A motion-sensor image of a Javan rhino feeding in Ujung Kulon National Park, Indonesia.
A rare glimpse at one of the most endangered animals on the planet "” the Javan rhinoceros "” was recently captured on video at Ujung Kulon National Park, on the island of Java in Indonesia. The World Wildlife Fund and Indonesian park officials installed motion-sensor camera traps that recorded four of the estimated...
Scientists: Global warming to blame for big U.S. snowstorms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 2nd, 2011
USA Today: Counterintuitive though it may be, "heavy snowstorms are not inconsistent with a warming planet," says Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for the Weather Underground, a private weather service.
The announcement was made at a news conference on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit environmental group. It was not published in a peer-reviewed study in an academic journal.
"The old adage, 'It's too cold to snow,' has some truth to it," said Masters....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scientists: Global warming to blame for big U.S. snowstormsFrance: 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...
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...