RSS Feed
Archive for October 6th, 2011
Australia’s endangered bettong reveals how weather effects species distribution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 6th, 2011
ScienceDaily: Australian scientists studying the reliability of species distribution models for revealing the response of animals to climate change have focused their research on the endangered marsupial, the Northern Bettong. The research, published in Ecography demonstrates that studying weather events, rather than the gradual changes of the climate, offers a clearer insight into the Bettong's movements, range boundaries and likely contact with competitors.
"Scientists often use Species Distribution Models...
Posted in 
UN calls for secure contraceptives as wildlife group hands out Endangered Species condoms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 6th, 2011
Mongabay: Sometime at the end of this month, the seventh billion person on Earth will be born: that's seven billions mouths to feed, seven billion throats to water, and seven billion bodies to keep warm. But the population continues to rise: experts believe the global human population could hit 10 billion by 2050. A UN meeting last month said that to meet the needs of the world's women, the developing world needs a secure supply of contraceptives and voluntary family planning initiatives.
"As of 31 October,...
Chilean court backs dam project
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 6th, 2011
BBC: A Chilean appeals court has ruled in favour of a multi-billion-dollar dam project in Patagonia, in Chile's south.
The court lifted a suspension order on the HidroAysen project that had been issued following objections by environmentalists, who fear it will damage Patagonia's fragile ecosystem.
The government says the project's dams are essential to meet Chile's growing energy needs.
The project's opponents said they would take their case to the Supreme Court.
The appeals court in the...
Featured video: Arctic ice melt creates mass walrus ‘haul-outs’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 6th, 2011
Mongabay: The disintegration of the Arctic sea ice, which hit the second lowest record this year, is forcing a number of Arctic animals to change their behavior. The footage below is of thousands of walrus hauling out of the water onto shore land to rest. In years past, these walruses would've spent this time foraging in the sea and resting on sea ice, but lacking sea ice they are forced onto thin strands of shore line. Biologists are studying these change in order to understand how the loss of sea ice may...
World’s newest nation faces prospect of famine
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 6th, 2011
Mongabay: As East Africa reels from a devastating famine, which is hitting Somalia the hardest, there are new fears that another African nation could soon slip into a similar situation. On July 9th of this year, South Sudan became the world's newest nation; however a few months later drought, conflict, refugees, and rising food prices could push the eastern region of South Sudan into a famine, warned officials from the fledgling nation yesterday.
"Lower harvests due to unreliable rains coupled with the...
Glacial Melting Put Animals on the Run
Posted by Science Now: Daniel Strain on October 6th, 2011
Science Now: Cool-weather animals, put on your running shoes. A new study of historic climate patterns suggests that, as our current world warms, slower-moving critters may go extinct in far greater numbers than their speedier counterparts. The findings highlight the importance of giving animals enough room to move freely in the face of future climate change, researchers say.
Nearly 21,000 years ago, during what scientists call the Last Glacial Maximum, thick ice tracts swaddled much of North America and Europe....
Certified Green Buildings in Europe to Quadruple by 2016, Report Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 6th, 2011
Yale Environment 360: European mandates for improved energy efficiency and reduced carbon emissions will help drive a steep growth in the market for green construction in the coming years, with the amount of certified green building space projected to nearly quadruple by 2016, according to a new market study. With all new building construction and major renovations subject to nearly zero-energy standards by 2020, a report from U.S.-based Pike Research projects that the percentage of total building space certified as green...
Keystone XL approval would be Barack Obama’s ‘biggest environmental failure’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 6th, 2011
Guardian: Allowing the construction of a 1,711-mile pipeline carrying oil from Canada's tar sand fields to the Gulf of Mexico would be the biggest environmental failure of Barack Obama's presidency, according to leading US environmental activist Bill McKibben.
In an interview with the Guardian ahead of his keynote speech at this weekend's Schumacher conference in Bristol, McKibben said giving the green light to the Keystone XL pipeline would be a bigger personal mistake than Obama's efforts at the doomed...
Emails reveal ties between Obama and lobbyists
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 6th, 2011
Guardian: Environmental groups have raised new concerns about the close ties between Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and lobbyists for the controversial Keystone XL project to carry crude from the tar sands of Alberta to the refineries of Texas.
Friends of the Earth said on Thursday they were expanding their freedom of information request for emails between State Department officials and the pipeline company after learning of seven more pipeline lobbyists who had worked on Obama and Clinton's presidential...
Cambodia: ‘Climate Change’ Blamed as Flooding Continues
Posted by Voice of America: Kong Sothanarith on October 6th, 2011
Voice of America: Flash floods, the worst to hit Cambodia since 2000, have killed at least 150 people in this Southeast Asian nation since August, the government said.
“This flood is clearly the result of climate change.”
As flooding continued in Cambodia on Thursday, a group of high-ranking officials said they blamed regional climate change and urged Cambodia to find a response.
Authorities say at least 176 people have now died in flooding that began in August and has continued across the country. Nearly...