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Archive for May 13th, 2011
Conservation International ‘agreed to greenwash arms company’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 13th, 2011
Ecologist: A leading environmental charity has been accused of corporate 'greenwashing' after a senior employee was secretly filmed by undercover reporters discussing ways in which the organisation could help an arms company boost its green credentials, the Ecologist can reveal.
Options outlined by the representative of Conservation International (CI) included assisting with the arms company's green PR efforts, membership of a business forum in return for a fee, and sponsorship packages where the arms company...
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Manitoba ranchers move cattle as floodwaters rise
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 13th, 2011
Reuters: Manitoba will go ahead on Saturday morning with a much-delayed deliberate breach on its Assiniboine River dike, swamping some homes and farms in the Canadian province to avoid a bigger, unplanned flood.
Opening the dike will flood at least 225 square kilometers (55,600 acres) and 150 homes, while taking the pressure off strained dikes.
"Our intention is to keep this to a slow, controlled flow," said Steve Topping of the province's water stewardship branch, adding that a dry forecast will help...
Is climate change causing the Mississippi River flooding?
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on May 13th, 2011
Climate Central: From swarms of deadly tornadoes to record flooding and tinderbox drought conditions, it seems that Mother Nature threw everything in her arsenal against the Lower-48 States during April, with impacts continuing into May. The combination of a weather pattern associated with La Niña, a natural climate cycle involving ocean currents in the tropical Pacific Ocean, as well as other factors helped fuel what was, by any measure, an extremely unusual month.
In a series of explainers, Climate Central is...
Shades of Brown
Posted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Natasha Harradine on May 13th, 2011
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: As the wait for dam filling rains drags on, the colour of Perth's roadside landscape is changing.
Trees in metropolitan Perth and across the south west are turning brown and dying.
Last year's dry winter, followed by a hot, dry summer is to blame.
But scientists say we should get used to it as climate change begins to take a toll in Western Australia.
The City of South Perth says at least 350 of its mature street trees are affected by severe dehydration.
The City is taking decisive...
Nuclear fusion in four years? Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is betting on it
Posted by Fast Company: Ariel Schwartz on May 13th, 2011
Fast Company: Ethonomic Indicator of the Day: 1,000 liters--the equivalent amount of gas you would need to get the nuclear fusion power of one liter of seawater.
Nuclear power is having a bit of a low moment these days. But that's just because we don't know how to do it right, the way the sun does. General Fusion--a startup that just announced that Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos is providing financial backing as part of a $19.5 million funding round--claims it's going to solve the nuclear problem by creating...
Scientists find a ‘toolbox’ to develop more disease-resistant wheat
Posted by Climate Wire: Tiffany Stecker on May 13th, 2011
Climate Wire: Agricultural researchers have unfurled the genetic maps for two aggressive plant diseases, laying the groundwork for better methods to fight pathogens in wheat and poplar trees.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and several other institutes published their findings from investigations on two separate fungus genomes: poplar leaf rust (Melampsora larici-populina) and wheat and barley stem rust (Puccinia graminis). The study appears in the May...
Coastal nations urged to preserve Arctic waters
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 13th, 2011
Globe and Mail: Two hundred miles above Canada's most northern shore lies a body of international water that has been covered in ice for more than 800,000 years -- a sea the size of the Mediterranean kept beyond reach of commercial fishing interests by a vast frozen dome of white.
But the ice shield is melting and no agreements are in place to prevent boats from China, Japan and other fishing nations from entering the High Arctic to reap an undersea bounty that could become accessible in just a few years.
Environmentalists...
RELEASE/ALERT: Time to Boycott Rainforest Action Network for Its Primary Rainforest Logging
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on May 13th, 2011
By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet
http://www.ecoearth.info/newsdesk/
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org
Ecological Internet calls for Americas largest and wealthiest rainforest protection organization to resign from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) [search] and finally end their shameful greenwash of primary forest logging [search]. Until their enabling of the final industrial destruction of global rainforests stops, and RAN resigns from FSC, Ecological Internet calls for an immediate boycott of Rainforest Action Network. If you love rainforests, you really must take action on this one and call-out the rainforest logging greenwash apologists so that together we can move to protect and restore old forests.
TAKE ACTION HERE NOW
Demand RAN resign from FSC primary forest logging
- ask RAN about their FSC primary logging support on their Facebook page please
ALERT! Tell Old Forest Loggers and Apologists to End Primary Rainforest Logging
- note there are two respectful protest emails, including one to RAN
The worst is yet to come from the mighty Mississippi
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 13th, 2011
Independent: The bursting Mississippi was threatening last night to submerge still more farmland, homes and even towns as an enormous swell of water fed by spring rains and snow-melt forged its way to the Gulf of Mexico, unleashing some of the worst flooding since the Great Depression.
While some towns already soaked by the river's wrath further to the north -- including Memphis in Tennessee and Cairo in Illinois -- were yesterday beginning the task of cleaning up as water levels begin to fall, the worst is...
‘Exceptional’ reforestation program in China preventing future disasters
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 13th, 2011
Mongabay: Reforestation program in China preventing future disasters
China's response to large-scale erosion with reforestation is paying off according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). The 10-year program, known as Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP), is working to turn some 37 million acres back into forest or grasslands after farming on steep slopes in the Yangtze and Yellow River basins had made them perilously susceptible to erosion and flooding.
"It's a...