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Archive for March 1st, 2012
Dwindling Resources Trigger Global Land Rush
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 1st, 2012
Inter Press Service: A global scramble for land and mineral resources fuelled by billions of investment dollars is threatening the last remaining wilderness and critical ecosystems, destroying communities and contaminating huge volumes of fresh water, warned environmental groups in London Wednesday.
No national park, delicate ecosystem or community is off limits in the voracious hunt for valuable metals, minerals and fossil fuels, said the Gaia Foundation’s report, "Opening Pandora's Box". The intensity of the hunt...
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Schmallenberg virus could spread to sheep across the UK
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 1st, 2012
Guardian: More cases of an exotic virus that has caused deformed and stillborn lambs across England are "inevitable", with the disease potentially spreading across the entire UK, scientists said on Thursday. They blamed climate change for bringing the virus to the country and said other new viruses could follow.
Since the Schmallenberg virus was first detected in England in January it has been confirmed on 83 farms from Norfolk to Cornwall, and has left thousands of lambs dead. Across Europe, 1,129 sheep,...
No Magic Solutions for the Extinction of Species
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 1st, 2012
Inter Press Service: The Earth's life support system, which generates the planet's air, water and food, is powered by 8.7 million living species, according to the latest best estimate. We know little about 99 percent of those unique species, except that far too many are rapidly going extinct.
What can be done to slow down this process, which could eventually lead to the extinction of the human species?
"The challenge is to find the middle ground between economic interests, livelihoods and conservation," says Braulio...
How a Gold Mining Boom is Killing the Children of Nigeria
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Elizabeth Grossman on March 1st, 2012
Yale Environment 360: In early 2010, while working in the impoverished rural region of Zamfara in northwestern Nigeria, the group Médecins Sans Frontières -- Doctors Without Borders -- encountered many young children suffering from fevers, seizures, and convulsions. An unusually high number of very young children, many under age five, were dying, and there were many fresh graves.
The doctors initially suspected malaria, meningitis, or typhoid, all common in the region. But when the sick children didn’t respond to anti-malarial...
Thickest Parts Of Arctic Ice Cap Are Melting Faster
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 1st, 2012
redOrbit: A new NASA study revealed that the oldest and thickest Arctic sea ice is disappearing at a faster rate than the younger and thinner ice at the edges of the Arctic Ocean’s floating ice cap.
The thicker ice, known as multi-year ice, survives through the cyclical summer melt season, when young ice that has formed over winter just as quickly melts again. The rapid disappearance of older ice makes Arctic sea ice even more vulnerable to further decline in the summer, said Joey Comiso, senior scientist...
New spymaster runs undercover operations against activists
Posted by Guardian: Rob Evans on March 1st, 2012
Guardian: A new police chief is now in charge of running undercover officers in protest groups.
Detective Chief Superintendent Christoper Greany has been appointed to be in charge of the police's so-called "domestic extremism" unit.
He has spent much of his career in counter-terrorism and intelligence, according to this biography of him.
Recently he was in charge of Operation Withern, the investigation into crimes committed in London during last August's riots.
You can see him taking about the...
Climate Change: A planet in flux
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 1st, 2012
Nature: Human activities have added billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide to Earth's atmosphere, causing global temperatures to rise. We are beginning to see how warmer temperatures are altering climates all over the planet and to understand the effects they are having on animals, agriculture and people. What will Earth look like in the year 2100? How will climate change have altered the planet's biology? A changing world
Fly over the high Arctic in summer and you will see a landscape speckled with shallow...
Climate change can dry south Indian river, says new study
Posted by SciDev.Net: M Sreelata on March 1st, 2012
SciDev.Net: Climate change could lead to huge water shortages in southern India's fertile Godavari river basin, a new study based on computer simulations shows.
The study by scientists from India and Norway, started in February 2009, is part of several compiled into a book, 'Water and Climate Change: an integrated approach to adaptation challenges', released last month (1 February).
The study -- funded by Bioforsk, the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research -- was implemented by...
Sunderbans bear brunt of climate change, says recent study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 1st, 2012
Times of India: The Sunderbans, a world heritage site, is becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change and government policies must take into account present and future climate impact to counter the scenario, says a study on the mangrove forests that straddle the Indian state of West Bengal as well as Bangladesh.
The study titled "Living with changing climate" has been carried out by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi-based public interest research and advocacy organisation. It was...
End of “easy water” forces businesses to adapt
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 1st, 2012
Business Green: Companies must acknowledge the age of "easy water" is over and adapt to the increasing likelihood of shortages by moving to innovative new business models, the president of the World Water Council (WWC) has cautioned.
Loic Fauchon said many utilities are already looking to collaborative working practices and building closer relationships with clients as weather becomes less predictable and demand for water increases with population growth.
This means fewer resources are likely to be available...