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Archive for June 18th, 2012
Women march in Rio to protest ‘green economy’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 18th, 2012
Agence France-Presse: Thousands of women representing social and farm movements marched in central Rio Monday to rail against the "green economy" advocated by the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development.
Behind a large banner from the international peasant movement Via Campesina proclaiming "the peoples are against the mercantilization of nature", they marched several miles to the Flamengo park, the venue for the "People's Summit" organized by civil society groups on the sidelines of the Rio+20 event.
Several...
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The global environment: Boundary conditions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 18th, 2012
Economist: PULL a spring, let it go, and it will snap back into shape. Pull it further and yet further and it will go on springing back until, quite suddenly, it won’t. What was once a spring has become a useless piece of curly wire. And that, in a nutshell, is what many scientists worry may happen to the Earth if its systems are overstretched like those of an abused spring.
One result of this worry, in the autumn of 2009, was the idea of planetary boundaries. In the run-up to that year’s climate conference...
Planning for urban population surge will limit crises – experts
Posted by AlertNet: Laurie Goering on June 18th, 2012
AlertNet: Nearly all the expected surge in the world's population from 7 billion people to 9 billion by 2050 will come in urban areas of Asia and Africa, and planning for it will be crucial to limit the spread of slums and related social and environmental problems, experts say.
That many fast-growing cities today have informal settlements and black-market economies "is in part a testament to failure to accommodate and plan for urban growth effectively and fairly', said Gordon McGranahan, principal researcher...
Climate change adversely affecting agriculture
Posted by Times of India: Times Of India on June 18th, 2012
Times of India: Climate change, the greatest global challenge, is already a reality for the farmers of Rajasthan. It is increasing the pressure on already scarce resources and if proper measures are not taken, migration towards the cities will soon reach new heights.
According to the Rajasthan State Action Plan on Climate Change (RAPCC) report by the Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board prepared with the help of a multi-disciplinary team of experts from TERI with support from GIZ says, 'enough is already known...