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Archive for October 1st, 2011
On Extinction: How We Became Estranged from Nature by Melanie Challenger – review
Posted by Guardian: Olivia Laing on October 1st, 2011
Guardian: Back in 2008, Henry Porter listed in the Observer some of the words that had been dropped from the then current edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary, among them catkin, minnow, acorn, buttercup, heron, porpoise, raven, blackberry and conker. Springing up in their place were the likes of celebrity, tolerant, citizenship, conflict, bungee jumping, committee, allergic, biodegradable, emotion and endangered.
These kinds of subtle shifts in the cultural landscape are, in Melanie Challenger's estimation,...
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Maryland Team Wins Solar House Contest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 1st, 2011
New York Times: A team from the University of Maryland has taken top honors at the Solar Decathlon, a competition for small, cost-effective solar-powered houses sponsored by the Department of Energy. The entries have been on view on the National Mall in Washington for over a week. A project manual and a video walk-through for the winning entry are here. Recently Joanna Foster reported in The Times on an entry from the New York area.
Fluctuating Climate May Impede Fleeing Animals
Posted by LiveScience: Wynne Parry on October 1st, 2011
LiveScience: Climate change is expected to send many species on one-way migrations in search of new homes as their old ranges become inhospitable. Whether or not they can survive this century depends a great deal on what happens along the route, a new study has shown.
Scientists looked at 15 species of amphibians in the western United States, which they estimated travel about 15 miles (24 kilometers) per decade, following suitable habitat.
Using computer modeling, they found that the fickle nature of climate...
Serengeti Ecosystem Threatened By Climate Change And Highway
Posted by Huffington Post: Boyd Norton on October 1st, 2011
Huffington Post: I’ve been traveling to, and photographing, the Serengeti ecosystem every year for 27 years. In all that time I’ve seen some variations in the life cycles here, particularly among the grazing animals – the wildebeests, zebras, gazelles and others. Some years there has been severe drought and many animals died.
It’s likely that these variations have taken place because of climate change. The rain patterns that used to be so regular and predictable are not so regular. With more than two million animals...
Canadian Arctic Ice Shelves Vanishing
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 1st, 2011
redOrbit: One of Canada’s Arctic ice shelves has virtually vanished, and several others have diminished significantly over the summer, according to a pair of the nation’s foremost experts on the subject.
Luke Copland, an associate professor in the University of Ottawa’s geography department, and Derek Mueller, an assistant professor at Carleton University’s geography and environmental studies department, co-authored research reporting the disintegration of both the Serson Ice Shelf and the Ward Hunt Ice...
Ghana’s cocoa production to decline in 20 years
Posted by Ghanaian Chronicle: Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh on October 1st, 2011
Ghanaian Chronicle: Ghana, which is on track to achieve its one million metric tonnes of cocoa target in the last quarter of the year, will face some gloomy days ahead.
According to climate scientists at the Colombia-based International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), expected increasing temperatures will lead to massive declines in cocoa production by 2030 in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, both in West Africa.
The CIAT’s new report being contracted with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to “Predict...
Can forests offset some climate change impacts?
Posted by Summit Voice: Bob Berwyn on October 1st, 2011
Summit Voice: U.S. Forest Service researchers in western North Carolina said they`re seen a shift toward more extreme precipitation patterns since the 1980s.
“We found significant increases in temperature and in the frequency of extreme wet and dry years since the 1980s,” said Chelcy Ford. “These findings tied with those on management and streamflow have implications for managers in any area where changes in precipitation patterns could occur.”
The scientists at the Forest Service Southern Research Station...
China calls for talks over shelved Myanmar dam
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 1st, 2011
Reuters: China called on Saturday for talks with Myanmar after the government there suspended a controversial $3.6 billion, Chinese-led dam project.
After weeks of rare public outrage against the Myitsone dam, Myanmar's largest hydropower project, President Thein Sein told parliament his government had to act "according to the desire of the people.
Myanmar's then military government proposed the dam in 2006 and signed a contract in 2009 with the Myanmar military-backed Asia World Company and China Power...
Mock trial finds Tar Sands spill ‘bosses’ guilty of ecocide
Posted by Independent: Kevin Rawlinson on October 1st, 2011
Independent: The bosses of two of the world's biggest multi-national corporations were convicted by a jury of "ecocide" at the Supreme Court yesterday for destroying global ecosystems.
They were put on trial under international laws which establish ecocide alongside genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression, as the most serious in existence.
The chief executives may have been actors, the corporations fictional and the trial a mock-up, but the circumstances surrounding the so-called...
United States: Recycled Water Quenches San Antonio’s Thirst
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 1st, 2011
National Public Radio: Gliding along in a flat-bottom boat on the San Antonio River thorough the heart of downtown San Antonio is a beautiful and authentic Texas experience.
There's one thing a boat tour guide is not going to mention, however. Texas is in the middle of a historic drought, and the river that tourists are cruising along with ducks, big bass, catfish and perch is actually treated sewage water.
Despite widespread water restrictions, many large Texas cities and especially their well-to-do suburban neighbors...