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Archive for May 4th, 2011
Indonesia signs agreement with EU to end the sale of illegally logged wood
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 4th, 2011
Mongabay: Indonesia signs agreement with EU to end the sale of illegally logged wood
No pictures please: Illegal logger harvesting timber. On a recent trip to Borneo, Rhett Butler caught photographic evidence of illegal logging in Gunung Palung National Park. Photos by Rhett A. Butler, 2011.
The EU and Indonesia today signed an agreement in Jakarta that aims to keep illegally logged wood from reaching the European market. This is the first Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) signed by an Asian nation...
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Maryland prepares lawsuit over PA gas drilling effect on water
Posted by Reuters: Dave Warner on May 4th, 2011
Reuters: The state of Maryland plans to sue the company that operated a gas well that ruptured in Pennsylvania, spilling fluids into a fresh water tributary that eventually flows into the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland's attorney general said on Wednesday.
The well in Bradford County blew out on April 19, spilling "thousands of gallons" of fracking fluids into the Towanda Creek, which pours into the Susquehanna River, Attorney General Douglas Gansler said. The Susquehanna supplies 45 percent of the fresh water...
Aquifer’s Depletion Poses Sweeping Threat
Posted by New York Times: KATHARINE Q. SEELYE Matthew Staver on May 4th, 2011
New York Times: A ranch outside parched Boise City, Okla.
The small town of Boise City, Okla., which I wrote about in Wednesday`s Times, survived the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. But now it faces a confluence of dangers that could push it to the edge of extinction.
These include a record drought, a lack of economic development and a declining population. But another important factor that I did not have the space to discuss in the paper is the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, which...
Wolves to lose U.S. federal protection on Thursday
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 4th, 2011
Reuters: Federal protections for some 1,200 gray wolves in Montana and Idaho officially end on Thursday under unprecedented legislation passed by Congress last month removing them from the endangered species list.
The effective date of the de-listing, which places the wolves under state wildlife control and opens them to licensed hunting, was announced on Wednesday by U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in a conference call with reporters.
Another 4,000 wolves in the western Great Lakes region could...
Alabama Taking Careful Toll of Casualties From Storms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 4th, 2011
New York Times: Nearly a week after the devastating outbreak of tornadoes, it is still not clear what the wind wrought.
Storms Are the Subject as Alabama Residents Go to Church (May 2, 2011)
While the names of the dead have started to come out, adding a specificity to the grim count, the death toll continues to fluctuate by the day. According to the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, the death toll here in Marion County dropped by 12, for a new total of 23; the state's overall toll dropped to 236 from 250....
Britain facing drought: If the Romans could make a water grid, why can’t we?
Posted by Telegraph: Philip Johnston on May 4th, 2011
Telegraph: On May Day, I took one of my favourite walks, through woods strewn with bluebells and across pastures yellowed by buttercups. The sweet, cloying smell of the hawthorn blossom hung heavily in the air; a cuckoo made its increasingly rare presence known. It was the quintessence of an English spring -- except for one thing: the landscape was utterly parched. In the best of weather, this particular ramble can be a soggy affair; yet familiar ponds had been reduced to puddles and one usually boggy tract,...
NASA image reveals extent of deforestation in western Brazil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 4th, 2011
Mongabay: NASA image reveals extent of deforestation in western Brazil
Top image shows deforestation in Brazil's western state of Rondônia in 2000. Bottom image shows deforestation as of 2010. Images courtesy of NASA .
The Brazilian state of Rondônia has undergone tremendous change over the past decade as revealed by the NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite. A hotspot for recent deforestation, Rondônia was once home to over 50 million acres (208,000 square...
Indonesia, EU sign pact on sustainable timber
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 4th, 2011
AFP: Indonesia and the European Union signed an agreement Wednesday to fight against the trade in illegal timber, one of the drivers of deforestation and a major source of greenhouse gases.
The Voluntary Partnership Agreement aims to ensure that by 2013 all the timber products exported to Europe from Indonesia are certified as having been logged sustainably.
"Not only is Indonesia the first Asian country to conclude VPA negotiations with the EU, it is also by far the largest timber exporter to enter...
Dam Spells Hope and Fear for Small Jungle Town
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 4th, 2011
Inter Press Service: Arturo Sánchez, 72 years old and nearly blind, dreams of bringing ecotourism to Cachuela Esperanza, a Bolivian town of 1,336 people on the Beni river, and hopes the construction of a huge hydroelectric dam will give a boost to his dreams.
Fourteen years living in Brazil, where he worked as a skilled quality control technician in the automobile and steel industries on the outskirts of São Paulo, and seven years as a head cook in the United States make him an unusual resident of this small town...
Forest deal for EU and Indonesia
Posted by BBC: Richard Black on May 4th, 2011
BBC: EU and Indonesia sign deal on illegal timber Orangutans are among the animals threatened by illegal logging in Indonesia Indonesia and the European Union have finalised an agreement aimed at ending the trade in illegally-sourced wood.
The agreement will mean that EU companies will only be able to import timber that is certified as complying with Indonesian environmental laws.
The East Asian nation possesses some of the world's most lavish forests, which in turn support spectacular wildlife....