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Archive for February 21st, 2012
Tough rules sought to keep invasive species from Great Lakes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2012
Reuters: Ships entering the Great Lakes should be made to kill all the creatures that hitch a ride in their ballast tanks, environmental groups said on Tuesday, challenging as too lax a proposed government standard to combat invasive species.
Zebra mussels, spiny water fleas, round gobies and other invaders brought into the lakes in ships' ballast water have damaged the Great Lakes' $7 billion fishery and allowed algae - some that produce toxins that foul the world's largest body of fresh surface water...
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Environmental pollutant level during pregnancy linked with grown daughters who are overweight
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2012
ScienceDaily: The levels of the environmental pollutant perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) that mothers had in their blood during pregnancy increased the risk of obesity in their daughters at 20 years of age. The findings come from a recent study of Danish women in which the Norwegian Institute of Public Health participated.
In recent decades, there has been a sharp increase in the number of overweight children and adults worldwide. It is suspected that diet and exercise alone cannot explain this large weight increase....
United States: Earth First! activist Nathan Coe: radical cultural shifts required to stave off ecological collapse
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2012
Mongabay: Many ideals, actions, and movements considered as fringe or radical by the standards of mainstream culture have gained prominence as global biodiversity withers and the biogeochemical cycles of the entire Earth System are upset by human activities. As endangered species and ecosystems are increasingly threatened, direct confrontation between activists and the entities that drive environmental damage seems also to be increasing. At the same time, concern that present global governance and distribution...
Drought may be new norm for UK, says environment secretary
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2012
Guardian: Drought may be the new norm for the UK, with drastic measures including growing genetically modified crops likely to be considered as part of the solution, the environment secretary has said.
With large parts of the south and south-east of England officially in drought, and areas of the Midlands at risk, Caroline Spelman warned that households across the south-east were likely to face water usage restrictions this spring, starting with hosepipe bans. Reservoirs have reached record lows in some...
Global Permafrost Regions Depicted in High-Resolution Maps
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2012
Yale Environment 360: Swiss researchers have released a series of high-resolution maps depicting the global distribution of permafrostand highlighting those regions where thawing permafrost as a result of global warming could have the most profound effects. In a study published in The Cryosphere, glaciologist Stephan Gruber from the University of Zurich estimated that permafrost regions cover about 22 million square kilometers worldwide -- or about one-sixth of Earth’s exposed land surface -- including vast regions of...
ALERT! Only a Couple Days to Support European Union Labeling of Tar Sands as Highly Polluting
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on February 21st, 2012
TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!
The European Commission the executive branch of the European Union (EU) will be voting in the next couple days whether to designate Canadas tar sands [search] as being highly polluting. Given tar sands terrible ecological impacts upon our shared global atmosphere and Canadian boreal forests, water, and indigenous peoples - the answer should be painfully obvious, and a resounding YES. Such a designation would be a significant setback for tar sands growth. Yet given the power of the ecocidal oil oligarchy which rules Canada and much of the world, empowered global citizens need to let the EU know the world expects, indeed demands, the EU do the right thing in condemning tar sands in order to establish a level playing field for a renewable, efficient, and conservation based energy future.
Interactive map reveals the human cost of mountaintop mining
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2012
Mongabay: Environmental degradation can have major impacts on a community's quality of life and a new interactive map of mountaintop mining for coal in the U.S. makes this abundantly clear: based on 21 scientific studies, the map highlights how communities near mountaintop mining have lower life expectancy, higher birth defects, worsening poverty, and are more likely to suffer from cancer, as well as heart and respiratory disease. Created by the non-profit Appalachian Voices and posted on ilovemountains.org,...
EU oilsands policy could spark trade complaint
Posted by CBC: None Given on February 21st, 2012
CBC: Canada has threatened the European Union with action at the World Trade Organization if the bloc's plan to classify oilsands crude as more harmful to the environment than other fuels goes ahead.
David Plunkett, the ambassador to the EU, wrote in a December letter to the bloc's commissioner for climate action that "Canada would not accept oilsands crude being singled out."
"Canada will explore every avenue at its disposal to defend its interests, including at the World Trade Organization," Plunkett...
Carbon capture can curtail CO2 emissions, conference hears
Posted by PostMedia News: Scott Simpson on February 21st, 2012
PostMedia News: Carbon capture and storage won't save the world from global warming, but it can play a significant role in curtailing global emissions of carbon dioxide, say experts.
At the American Association for the Advancement of Science convention that wrapped up Monday in Vancouver, specialists in carbon capture and storage indicated that the technology can work on a global scale to cut CO2 emissions by 25 per cent over the next century.
Speakers representing carbon capture projects in Germany, Illinois...
Scientists Urge Reform for a Broken Global System
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2012
Inter Press Service: Unless governments work actively to build a brighter future for humanity, climate change, poverty and loss of biodiversity will worsen and continue to exacerbate existing global problems, top scientists warned ministers at the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) governing council meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, on Monday.
Replacing GDP as a measure of wealth, ending damaging subsidies, and transforming systems of governance are some possible steps they can take, the scientists said.
"The...