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Archive for January 10th, 2013
China’s one child policy analysed
Posted by BBC: Rebecca Morelle on January 10th, 2013
BBC: People growing up under China's one-child policy are less trusting, more risk averse and more pessimistic, a study concludes.
An Australian team of researchers compared people who were born just before the policy was introduced with those born after.
They used economic games and surveys to assess the participants' behavioural and personality traits.
The findings are published in the journal Science.
The lead author of the study Professor Lisa Cameron, from Monash University in Victoria,...
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Cyberstalkers Threaten Pipeline Security
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
New York Times: In a recent annual review, a team at the Department of Homeland Security that works to counter the threat of attacks on critical computer infrastructure counted 198 incidents in fiscal 2012. The events reported ranged from the use of malware to sabotage systems to phishing attacks for retrieving sensitive information. In roughly 40 percent of those cases, the target was the energy sector – “an alarming rate,” the report said. Last year the Obama administration championed passage of a Cybersecurity...
Up to 50 Percent of Food Is Wasted Worldwide, Report Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
Yale Environment 360: As much as half of the food produced globally is wasted each year as a result of inefficient agricultural practices, inadequate storage facilities and transportation systems, and wasteful consumer habits, a new report says. While the world community produces about 4 billion metric tons of food annually, roughly 1.2 to 2 billion metric tons of that food — or 30 to 50 percent — is never consumed, according to the UK-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The causes of waste vary from region to...
Colombia to double the size of massive Amazon rainforest reserve
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
Mongabay: Colombia may more than double the size of the remote and poorly-known Chiribiquete National Park to make it the biggest protected area in the Colombian Amazon, reports El Espectador.
Under a proposal laid out last year, Colombia's national park service is slated to expand Chiribiquete to about 3 million hectares, up from its current 1.3 million hectares. The park, located in southern Colombia, was established in 1989 and is home to more than 300 bird species, 7 monkey species, and 300 butterfly...
Did climate change play role in 2012 extreme weather?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
Minnesota Public Radio: Every Thursday, MPR meteorologist Paul Huttner joins The Daily Circuit to talk about the latest research on our changing climate and the consequences that we're seeing here in Minnesota and worldwide.
This week on Climate Cast, we discussed the role climate change may have played in Hurricane Sandy and the drought, and looked at some of the most extreme Minnesota weather events in 2012.
Here is an edited transcript of the conversation:
Kerri Miller: I'm going to play a little tape here to...
Pennsylvanians Opposed to Fracking Speak Out to Gov. Corbett
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on January 10th, 2013
EcoWatch: On Jan. 8, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN) presented Pennsylvania Gov. Corbett with more than 35 video messages from Pennsylvania residents opposed to shale gas drilling. The videos were collected and assembled by the DRN, and shown to Gov. Corbett by Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum during a State House meeting in Harrisburg, PA.
The video shows Gov. Corbett the raw emotions of residents who have suffered from the harmful impacts of fracking as well as those who are concerned about...
A Critical Moment to Harness Green Infrastructure—Not Concrete—to Secure Clean Water
Posted by World Resources Institute: Todd Gartner on January 10th, 2013
World Resources Institute: Natural ecosystems provide essential services for our communities. Forests and wetlands, for example, filter the water we drink, protect neighborhoods from floods and droughts, and shade aquatic habitat for fish populations.
While nature provides this “green infrastructure,” water utilities and other decision-makers often attempt to replicate these services with concrete-and-steel “gray infrastructure”--usually at a much greater cost. Particularly where the equivalent natural ecosystems are degraded,...
Along Big Muddy, the Warning Signs of Climate Change are Clear
Posted by Huffington Post: Rocky Kistner on January 10th, 2013
Huffington Post: When officials confirmed this week that 2012 was the hottest year on record in the contiguous U.S., it came as no surprise to anyone who walked through the cauterized corn fields of America's breadbasket last summer, talking to farmer's traumatized by the searing 100-degree heat that seemed to have no end.
But last year's record heat continues to have repercussions. I witnessed that on a family trip last month to St. Louis, where the mighty Mississippi River is shrinking to record levels from...
Concern as mercury emissions grow
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
BBC: Developing nations are facing growing health and environmental risks from increased exposure to mercury, according to a UN report.
It says a growth in small-scale mining and coal burning are the main reasons for the rise in emissions.
As a result of rapid industrialisation, South-East Asia is the largest regional emitter and accounts for almost half of the element's annual emissions.
The findings appear ahead of a meeting that aims to cut global demand by 2015.
The Global Mercury Assessment...
Paradigm shift needed to avert global environmental collapse
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
Mongabay: Global strategist, trained educator, and international lecturer Daniel Rirdan set out to create a plan addressing the future of our planet. His book The Blueprint: Averting Global Collapse, published last year, does just that.
"It has been a sixty hour a week routine," Rirdan told mongabay.com in a recent interview. "Basically, I would wake up with the burden of the world on my shoulders and go to sleep with it. It went on like this for eighteen months."
It becomes apparent when reading The...