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Archive for December, 2011
Smart Guide to 2012: The Rio Earth Summit
Posted by New Scientist: Fred Pearce on December 25th, 2011
New Scientist: Spaceship Earth needs a pilot. It's time we stepped into the cockpit and took over the controls. That will be the theme of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June. Natural disasters, food and water shortages and biodiversity loss show that humanity is crossing planetary boundaries, making our world more dangerous. At Rio we will have to push for a global system of "environmental governance".
Earth has nine critical life-support systems vital to our survival. They have some resilience...
Asia Pacific region faces rising costs from storms, disasters
Posted by Voice of America: Ron Corben on December 25th, 2011
Voice of America: Climate and disaster risk experts say the Asia Pacific region faces rising costs from storms and disasters often tied to climate change, creating new challenges for regions as they try to prepare and recover from such events. Warning comes as Thailand and the Philippines attempt to bounce back from recent disasters and the region gets ready to mark the seventh anniversary of the devastating 2004 Indonesian earthquake and tsunami.
The backhoe lifts piles of discarded rubbish left from flood-stricken...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Asia Pacific region faces rising costs from storms, disastersA farm lives high and clean off the hog
Posted by LA Times: David Zucchino on December 25th, 2011
LA Times: Loyd Bryant used to pump manure from his 8,640 hogs into a fetid lagoon, where it raised an unholy stink and released methane and ammonia into the air. The tons of manure excreted daily couldn't be used as fertilizer because of high nitrogen content.
The solution to Bryant's hog waste problem was right under his nose -- in the manure itself.
A new waste-processing system -- essentially a small power plant -- installed on his 154-acre farm uses bacteria to digest the waste and burns methane...
Florida Looks for Curbs on Some Snake Species
Posted by New York Times: Lizette Alvarez on December 25th, 2011
New York Times: To live in South Florida is to make peace with flying cockroach behemoths, brigades of lizards that dart across walls (bedroom and otherwise) and frogs the size of cannonballs that loiter on driveways. But even in a state as hospitable as this one to scaly, slithering creatures, enough is enough. Florida has the highest number of nonnative amphibians and reptile species, according to a recent University of Florida study, and some of them are obliterating native Floridian creatures. Florida’s Congressional...
Politics stamps out oil sands pipeline, yet it seems likely to endure
Posted by New York Times: John M. Broder and Dan Frosch on December 24th, 2011
New York Times: The Obama administration confirmed this week that a provision in the payroll tax bill requiring a quick decision on the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from western Canada to the Gulf Coast will probably lead to cancellation of the project. But does that mean the $7 billion pipeline project is dead forever? Will its cancellation curb the inexorable global demand for the exploitation of Canada’s huge oil sands deposits? Will it affect the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide in beneficial...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Politics stamps out oil sands pipeline, yet it seems likely to endureUnited States: Water pollution: Acid drainage not just a mine issue anymore
Posted by Globe and Mail: Tasha Eichenseher on December 24th, 2011
Globe and Mail: Colorado's Snake River carves a swift path from snowmelt sources in the Rocky Mountains through decaying remnants of the state's more-than-century-old mining history and the heart of its busy winter resort region before spilling into the Blue River and eventually feeding the Colorado.
The Snake's waters are pulled in all directions. Plagued by mining pollution, siphoned by local towns and ski developments, and prodded by fishermen and scientists, the river has become a poster child for how competing...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United States: Water pollution: Acid drainage not just a mine issue anymoreALERT! Brazilian Forest Code Revisions Threaten Amazon Rainforest, National Advancement, and Ecological Sustainability
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on December 22nd, 2011
By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal
TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!
Brazil's industrial agriculture lobby has forced through their Congress changes to the forest code [search], the primary legal instrument related to Amazon rainforest protections. It has been done without any scientific inputs, and in a way that will greatly expand industrial agriculture by reducing ecological protections. Newly elected President Dilma Rousseff must be encouraged to veto the bill, something she promised to do during the election. Efforts to address forest code deficiencies must recommence in a manner that incorporates the latest agro-ecological science regarding sustainable agriculture and the importance of large, connected and intact rainforest ecosystems within agricultural landscapes. Without a veto, recent progress in Amazon rainforest protection is at stake just as Brazil is to host the Rio+20 Earth Summit in 2012.
Posted in Uncategorized Comments Off on ALERT! Brazilian Forest Code Revisions Threaten Amazon Rainforest, National Advancement, and Ecological SustainabilityGive the Gift of Rainforests: Support Ecological Internet to Protect Old Forests
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on December 15th, 2011
Please help Ecological Internet protect and restore standing old forests for local and global benefit. Please donate what you can afford including by check to support our brave, quixotic, and highly successful campaign to end primary forest logging at http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/donate/ . We have raised $12,303 from 125 donors thus far, 31% to our goal of $40,000.
Dear rainforest colleagues,
Ecological Internet is the only major global rainforest action network working to end primary rainforest and old forest logging. We understand these sacred, nurturing shrines of life must remain standing for local forest peoples advancement, and local and global ecosystem sustainability. Ecological Internet has bravely and at great personal expense protested the huge business of greenwashing the killing of ecologically intact rainforest and selling of the ill-gotten timbers for unnecessary consumption with claims of being sustainable.
Posted in Uncategorized Comments Off on Give the Gift of Rainforests: Support Ecological Internet to Protect Old ForestsRAINFOREST ALERT! Protest Belize National Park Being Opened by Corrupt U.S. Oil Exploration to Illegal Logging
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on December 14th, 2011
By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal
TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!
Belizes renowned rainforests [search], beaches, and Mayan homelands are threatened with a resource rampage by a corrupt government confronted with massive foreign debt. With the Prime Minister's permission, Colorado-based oil company US Capital Energy is drilling seismic testing lines through the ecologically spectacular Sarstoon-Temash national park - against international treaty commitments and a Belizean Supreme Court ruling. These cleared lines are now being used by poachers to ransack the rainforest, with stolen timbers transported to Guatemala and onward to China.
Posted in Uncategorized Comments Off on RAINFOREST ALERT! Protest Belize National Park Being Opened by Corrupt U.S. Oil Exploration to Illegal LoggingRELEASE: Another Tar Sands Pipeline Postponed in Major Victory for First Nations and Ecological Internet
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on December 12th, 2011
Firm opposition by Canadian First Nation, Ecological Internet, and innumerable others delays the Northern Gateway tar sands pipelines through British Columbia temperate rainforests, threatening the native salmon economy, and onward to Asia.
By Ecological Internet, http://www.climateark.org/
Contact: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org
Last week the Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline [search] approval process - meant to transfer filthy tar sand oil from Alberta, Canada to Asia was delayed one year until at least the end of 2013. The $5.5-billion, 1,200-kilometre double pipeline would transport up to 525,000 barrels per day of crude from Albertas environmentally devastating tar sands oilfields traversing innumerable waterways, temperate rainforests, and sensitive coastal ecosystems to ocean-going tankers for transport to Asia. The Enbridge Northern Gateway joint review panel announced the decision by email, noting significant public interest in the Northern Gateway project.
The pipelines would go through B.C.'s sensitive Pacific North Coast ecosystem, and threatens First Nations land and salmon economy. One mishap such as project developer Enbridges recent broken pipeline fouling the Yellowstone River will bring disastrous results and long-term loss of marine life, pristine waterways, and sensitive coastal ecosystems. First Nation opposition is strong and united, making clear the pipeline will never be allowed ...
Posted in Uncategorized Comments Off on RELEASE: Another Tar Sands Pipeline Postponed in Major Victory for First Nations and Ecological Internet