RSS Feed
Archive for April, 2011
Mexican environmental activist shot dead
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 25th, 2011
Mongabay: Mexican environmental activist shot dead
La Morena Mexico in the Petatlán Mountains in the state of Guerroro as viewed by Google Earth.
Javier Torres Cruz, 30, who fought illegal deforestation by drug traffickers in the Mexican state of Guerroro, was murdered a week ago. A member of the local NGO, Environmental Organization of the Coyuca and Petatlán Mountains, Torres Cruz was known as an outspoken activist against illegal logging in the mountainous dry forest region. Logging in the region...
Losing, but slowly, in struggle to fight back the sea
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 25th, 2011
National Public Radio: Some of the nation's richest and most important ecosystems lie where the ocean meets the land. It's these same coastal areas that are going to disappear as sea level continues to rise as a result of climate change.
But in one wildlife refuge in North Carolina, conservationists are attempting what would seem to be impossible: fighting back the sea.
Effects Of Rising Seas
Much of the coastal land in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge is at or near sea level. Maps of this area show the...
Retreating into denial
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 25th, 2011
New York Times: In the U.S., concern over human effects on the natural world began with conservationism, an attachment to particular beloved places and creatures. Then, in 1960s and "˜70s, the ecological movement helped show that the human footprint extends beyond specific locales "” it is systemic, threatening whole species and ecosystems.
Climate change has rendered the green laws of the "˜70s even more far-reaching than their authors intended.
Conservation gave way to environmentalism, the consciousness...
Gold prices spur six-fold spike in Amazon deforestation
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 25th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Deforestation in parts of the Peruvian Amazon has increased six-fold in recent years as small-scale miners, driven by record gold prices, blast and clear more of the lowland rainforest, according to a new Duke University-led study.
The study, published in the online journal PLoS ONE, combined NASA satellite imagery spanning six years with economic analyses of gold prices and mercury imports to document the forces responsible for deforestation in Peru's biologically diverse Madre de Dios region....
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Gold prices spur six-fold spike in Amazon deforestationTexas fires probably due to global warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 25th, 2011
Hamilton Spectator: DALLAS Texas horizons have been red lately, but not from great sunsets.
Wildfires have burned roughly 400,000 hectares and destroyed nearly 200 homes this year during one of the state’s worst droughts and through its driest March.
The manifold Texas calamities take on an apocalyptic, Mad Max quality, with exhausted firefighters attacking flames taller than they are and whole towns on alert for evacuation.
Scientists say the immediate cause is a La Nina, a recurring, months-long pattern that...
Pa. official: End nears for wastewater releases
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 24th, 2011
Associated Press: Pennsylvania's top environmental regulator says he is confident that the natural gas industry is just weeks away from ending one of its more troubling environmental practices: the discharge of vast amounts of polluted brine into rivers used for drinking water. On Tuesday, the state's new Republican administration called on drillers to stop using riverside treatment plants to get rid of the millions of barrels of ultra-salty, chemically tainted wastewater that gush annually from gas wells. As drillers...
Scientists see pattern in Texas’ bad wildfire year
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 24th, 2011
Sacramento Bee: Texas horizons have been red lately, but not from great sunsets.
Wildfires have burned roughly 1.4 million acres and destroyed nearly 200 homes this year during one of the state's worst droughts and through its driest March.
The manifold Texas calamities take on an apocalyptic, Mad Max quality, with exhausted firefighters attacking flames taller than they are and whole towns on alert for evacuation.
Scientists say the immediate cause is a La Nina, a recurring, months-long pattern that blocks...
Gunmen kill environmental activist in Brazil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 23rd, 2011
Associated Press: Police in Brazil say gunmen have killed an environmental activist, his brother and three friends.
The bodies of Jorge Grando, the former head of the environmental protection agency for the city of Pinhais in southern Brazil, and the four others were found inside a house. Their hands were tied behind their backs and each had several bullet wounds in their heads.
Police are seeking two suspects in the "execution-style" killings that took place late Friday.
Authorites said Saturday that while...
Conservation of traditional waterways highlighted
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 23rd, 2011
Times of India: MARGAO: A panel discussion "Confronting reality: Climate and human-induced issues facing Goa" organized by Goa Chitra ethnographic museum, Benaulim, recently, saw speakers expressing concerns over rising sea levels, changing biodiversity in the Arabian Sea, underscoring the need for conserving traditional waterways, besides dwelling on other environmental issues.
Geologist and former Aldona comunidade president Hector Fernandes delivered a talk on the gaunkari system of land management as practiced...
Energy use is up in the state, report shows
Posted by CT Post: None Given on April 23rd, 2011
CT Post: Animals from tropical waters have been showing up in Connecticut waterways and cold-loving creatures, like lobsters, are becoming more scarce. Invasive plants and animals continue to encroach the state's lakes, ponds and woodlots, according to the 2010 annual environmental report compiled by the state Council of Environmental Quality, which was released Thursday.
Although the state of the air, water and wildlife in Connecticut has held mostly constant according to "Environmental Quality in Connecticut,"...