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Archive for October 23rd, 2011
Canada warns EU on oil sands ranking plan
Posted by Reuters: Jeffrey Hodgson on October 23rd, 2011
Reuters: Canada warned on Sunday it will "defend its interests" if the European Union (EU) goes through with a proposal to rank Canadian oil sands as a highly polluting fuel.
In a letter to EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver also said the European Commission's Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) potentially violates the EU's international trade obligations.
"Canada objects to policy measures that ignore evidence-based approaches to meet the stated goal...
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The God Species: Rethinking Environmentalism
Posted by Forbes: WILLIAM PENTLAND on October 23rd, 2011
Forbes: The trouble with Mark Lynas`s otherwise excellent new book, The God Species, is that it isn`t controversial enough.
Lynas, a veteran English environmentalist trained at Oxford University, prescribes a "new" paradigm for managing the planet based on the concept of "planetary boundaries." Drawing on research published in the journal Nature in 2009, Lynas carves the natural systems that sustain life on Earth into nine separate processes, which he labels biodiversity, climate change, aerosols, ocean...
Ore. study shows downside to burning biomass
Posted by Oregonian: Eric Mortenson on October 23rd, 2011
Oregonian: Oregon's blue-sky thinking on alternative energy envisions the state's forests as a terrific source of biomass. Woody debris from thinning, brush clearing and removing dead trees could generate electricity, heat manufacturing plants and be turned into biofuels.
Better yet, the thinking goes, such work could restore forest health and provide jobs in rural communities in addition to helping the state meet its renewable energy goals. The Oregon Forest Resources Institute calls it the "woody biomass...
Child six billion hopes for peace as population races on to next milestone
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on October 23rd, 2011
Guardian: In a modest flat in Visoko, near Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 12-year-old Adnan Nevic is playing with a globe. "America, Australia, Asia," he says, pointing out the places he would like to visit on the slightly deflated blow-up toy.
His favourite subject at school is geography and he wants to be a pilot when he grows up, the better to fulfil his dreams of global travel.
That Adnan has such an international outlook is hardly surprising: at only two days old, he was held aloft in a Sarajevo...
Paul Ehrlich, a prophet of global population doom who is gloomier than ever
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 23rd, 2011
Guardian: The population of Earth has doubled since Paul Ehrlich first warned the world that there were too many humans. Three and a half billion people later, he is more pessimistic than ever, estimating there is only a 10% chance of avoiding a collapse of global civilisation.
"Among the knowledgeable people there is no more conversation about whether the danger is real," Ehrlich told the Guardian. "Civilisations have collapsed before: the question is whether we can avoid the first time [an] entire global...
Why current population growth is costing us the Earth
Posted by Guardian: Roger Martin on October 23rd, 2011
Guardian: The 7 Billion Day is a sobering reminder of our planet's predicament. We are increasing by 10,000 an hour. The median UN forecast is 9.3 billion by 2050, but the range varies by 2.5 billion – the total world population in 1950 – depending on how we work it out.
Every additional person needs food, water and energy, and produces more waste and pollution, so ratchets up our total impact on the planet, and ratchets down everyone else's share – the rich far more than the poor. By definition, total...
Myanmar Replaces Myitsone Dam Construction With Gold Mining
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on October 23rd, 2011
Environment News Service: Myanmar Replaces Myitsone Dam Construction With Gold Mining Environment News Service (ENS)
Myanmar Replaces Myitsone Dam Construction With Gold Mining
NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar (Burma), October 21, 2011 (ENS) - Just five days after Myanmar President Thein Sein announced the suspension of the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam construction due to the "will of the people," local authorities ordered residents evicted to make way for a government-led gold mining operation at the dam site.
On September 30, President...
Thailand: Bangkok braces for more flooding
Posted by Guardian: Tania Branigan on October 23rd, 2011
Guardian: Bangkok was preparing for more flooding on Sunday after the Thai prime minister warned that authorities were racing against time to protect the city. "Water is coming from different places, and headed in the same direction. We're trying to build walls but there will be some impact on Bangkok," Yingluck Shinawatra said.
Thailand has had its worst floods for half a century after months of unusually heavy rainfall, with 356 people killed since late July and more than 110,000 forced to move to shelters....
Crowded Earth: How many is too many?
Posted by Agence France-Presse: Marlowe Hood and Richard Ingham on October 23rd, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Already straining to host seven billion souls, Earth is set to teem with billions more, and only a revolution in the use of resources can avert an environmental crunch, experts say.
As early as 1798, Thomas Malthus gloomily forecast that our ability to reproduce would quickly outstrip our ability to produce food, leading to mass starvation and a culling of the species.
But an industrial revolution and its impact on agriculture proved Malthus and later doomsayers wrong, even as our numbers doubled...
United States: Federal study sparks debate on benefits, detriments of ethanol
Posted by Ames Tribune: Hannah Furfaro and Robert Zientara on October 23rd, 2011
Ames Tribune: Mid-Iowa biofuel advocates, academicians and environmentalists are debating the merits of a new study by the National Research Council that questions whether alternative fuel produced from cellulosic plants and grasses can be done cheaply enough to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.
Iowa State University has advocates on both sides of the question. Economics professor John Miranowski was a panelist for the research council's study, while professors Kenneth Moore, agronomy, and Larry Johnson,...