RSS Feed
Archive for November 17th, 2011
Canada: Stop the tar sands destruction – outlaw this ecocide
Posted by Guardian: Polly Higgins on November 17th, 2011
Guardian: Imagine this: ecocide is already a crime. Pipelines will no longer exist because we shall no longer be extracting oil. Instead, governments will be granting permits for clean energy solutions. Oil will no longer be part of our energy strategy – instead of pipelines for oil we will be building supergrids for clean energy to be transported. Supergrids can be laid easily and have far less environmental impact. But it goes further back than that. The real source of the problem is the extraction of oil...
Posted in 
An Assault on the Amazon
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 17th, 2011
New York Times: IN 1888, Brazil became the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery -- a profound moral stain for a nation that prides itself today on being a multiracial democracy.
During the long 19th-century struggle against slavery, at a time when abolitionists in Britain were protesting the forced transfer of millions of Africans from their homelands, Brazilian leaders denounced the global abolitionist movement for interfering in the country's internal affairs.
More than a century later, the same...
Report highlights conflict in agricultural research
Posted by SciDev.Net: Yojana Sharma on November 17th, 2011
SciDev.Net: Efforts to increase food production are clashing with efforts to reduce agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions says a group of international scientists. Agricultural research to improve food security often depends on technology to increase yields and crop intensification -- resulting in greenhouse gas emissions that damage the environment and help increase climate change, an independent commission of scientists has said. At the same time, other research projects are working to reduce agriculture's...
Foreign investment in Mali’s arable land jumps by 60%, says report
Posted by Guardian: Claire Provost on November 17th, 2011
Guardian: Foreign investment in arable land in Mali increased by 60% between 2009 and 2010, says a report published on Thursday to coincide with the first international farmers' conference to tackle the global rush for land.
The report, by the US-based Oakland Institute and the Malian national farmers organisation, estimates that more than 544,500 hectares of Malian land have been leased or were under negotiation for lease by the end of 2010. The bulk of these land deals – covering an area the report says...
IPCC expected to confirm link between climate change and extreme weather
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on November 17th, 2011
Guardian: Climate change is likely to cause more storms, floods, droughts, heatwaves and other extreme weather events, according to the most authoritative review yet of the effects of global warming.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will publish on Friday its first special report on extreme weather, and its relationship to rising greenhouse gas emissions.
The final details are being fought over by governments, as the "summary for policymakers" of the report has to be agreed in full by every...
South Africa: ‘Greater effort needed’ to curb water loss
Posted by Sapa: None Given on November 17th, 2011
Sapa: Rainwater harvesting should be made compulsory in all urban areas, the Agriculture Research Council said on Monday.
"The majority of people are not doing enough (to combat climate change)," said CEO Shadrack Moephuli.
"People are still using tap water for their lawns and swimming pools. But they don't cover their pools to prevent evaporation."
Moephuli spoke in Pretoria at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research's conference on water and food.
He said if urban dwellers...
Drought-tolerant maize is critical to increase maize production in West Africa
Posted by Modern Ghana: Godwin Atser on November 17th, 2011
Modern Ghana: Access to improved seeds by smallholder farmers is a prerequisite to increased maize production in West Africa, as climate change hurts yield from traditional varieties, says a study by researchers working under the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Project (DTMA).
The study authored by Dr. Abdoulaye Tahirou et al notes that improved maize varieties tolerant of drought are helping farmers in addressing production risks and called for joint efforts to facilitate their wider dissemination across...
Canada: Oil sands opponents “treacherous”: Canadian environment minister
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 17th, 2011
Reuters: In a sign of the strain the Canadian government is feeling over development of the tar sands, Environment Minister Peter Kent said on Wednesday that opposition legislators who campaigned in Washington against the idea were treacherous.
The right-of-center Conservative government was taken aback last week when the U.S. administration delayed approval of TransCanada Corp's proposed Keystone XL pipeline designed to carry crude from the vast Alberta oil sands to refineries in Texas.
The Conservatives...
Climate change: Sea rise could kill vital marshes
Posted by San Francisco Chronicle: Peter Fimrite on November 17th, 2011
San Francisco Chronicle: The critical tidal marshes of San Francisco Bay - habitat for tens of thousands of birds and other animals - will virtually disappear within a century if the sea rises as high as some scientists predict it will as a result of global warming.
The sea would inundate the coastline and eliminate 93 percent of the bay's tidal wetlands if carbon emissions continue unchecked and the ocean rises 5.4 feet, as predicted by scientists under a worst-case scenario, according to a new study by PRBO Conservation...
Energy Secretary Stephen Chu to Defend Solyndra Loan to Congress
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 17th, 2011
New York Times: An unrepentant energy secretary will square off on Thursday with a Republican-led committee that has spent months arguing that his department showed political favoritism and incompetence when it approved a $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, a California manufacturer of solar modules that later went bankrupt.
Energy Secretary Stephen Chu will tell the House Energy and Commerce Committee that "when it comes to the clean energy race, America faces a simple choice: compete or accept defeat,'...