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Archive for September 20th, 2011
Nigeria: FG Worries Over Loss of Biodiversity
Posted by Daily Trust: Tina A. Hassan on September 20th, 2011
Daily Trust: The Federal Government has expressed concern over the degradation of the Hadejia-Jema'are-Komadugu-Yobe dam by climate change leading to decrease in water level and loss of biodiversity.
Speaking to a delegation of the Jema'are Hadejia Komadugu Yobe Trust Fund in Abuja, Minister of Water Resources Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe said government is interested in achieving integrated water management to avoid conflicts among communities sharing water resources which is becoming scarce due to degradation.
She...
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China solar company pledges toxic waste cleanup
Posted by Associated Press: Elaine Kurtenbach on September 20th, 2011
Associated Press: A solar panel maker targeted by violent protests over pollution from one of its factories in eastern China has apologized and says it will do what's necessary to clean it up.
Jinko Solar Holding Co., parent company of the factory in Haining city west of Shanghai, said in a statement Monday that initial tests showed pollutants may have spilled into a nearby river due to "improper storage of waste."
Police detained at least 20 people after hundreds of villagers protested last week, some storming...
US court upholds Chevron oil fine
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2011
BBC: A US court has overturned a block on Ecuadoreans collecting damages totalling $18.2bn (£11.5bn) from Chevron over Amazon oil pollution.
The order reversed a previous judge's ruling that froze enforcement of the fine outside Ecuador.
But it is not the end of the legal saga, which is also going through the courts in Ecuador.
Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, was accused of dumping toxic materials in the Ecuadorean Amazon.
In February, an Ecuadorean court ruled that Chevron should...
Mali farmers adopt short-season crop as rainfall shifts
Posted by AlertNet: Soumaila T Diarra on September 20th, 2011
AlertNet: Mariam Coulibaly surveys the leaves of groundnuts growing in the fields outside her village. The crop is a traditional one in this west African country, but the seed variety is not.
"We no longer grow tikaba (a traditional variety of groundnut)... It has disappeared from our region,' Coulibaly says.
Shifting patterns of rainfall, likely associated with climate change, have shortened the rainy season in Mali to no more than three months. But the old groundnuts took four months to grow, which...
Children want to learn about the environment, survey finds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 20th, 2011
Guardian: Children are so concerned about the environment they would rather learn about it than traditional subjects such as science and history, a survey found today.
And while parents struggle to answer their children's questions on environmental problems, they are bending to pester power to be more green, the research from the Co-operative showed.
The survey of 1,027 youngsters aged seven to 14 revealed that 82% of children rated learning about green issues as important, putting it ahead of science,...
Waste water + bacteria = clean energy
Posted by Science Magazine: Sid Perkins on September 20th, 2011
Science Magazine: For the first time, researchers have sustainably produced hydrogen gas, a potential source of clean energy, using only water and bacteria. The challenge now, scientists say, is to scale up the process to provide large amounts of hydrogen for various purposes, such as fueling vehicles or small generators.
Hydrogen may be the ultimate clean fuel because burning it-in chemical terms, reacting it with oxygen-yields only water vapor. Previously, researchers have produced hydrogen gas in microbial-powered,...