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Archive for February 28th, 2013
Biofuel production pushes farming communities off land – report
Posted by AlertNet: Chelsea Diana on February 28th, 2013
AlertNet: Increased demand for biofuel production has driven farmers and forest communities from Brazil to Indonesia off their land, threatening those people's wellbeing and food security, a report from GRAIN says.
Research conducted by the Spain-based non-profit, which supports small farmers, found growing need for biofuels has driven about 300 land "grabs' worldwide, forcing forest clearance and draining of wetlands, with Europe at the forefront of the global demand.
In the past decade, 17 million...
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A scaly crisis: why we must act now to save reptiles
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 28th, 2013
Ecologist: Reptiles have inhabited our planet for more than 250 million years, and are adapted to almost every part of it. Yet when it comes to conservation action, reptiles all over the world have been overlooked in favour of more charismatic animals. With only 35% of described reptile species evaluated for the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species, no one knew to what extent reptiles were being affected by our current extinction crisis.
However, a study...
Climate Change ‘Causes Wild Weather’
Posted by Truthdig: None Given on February 28th, 2013
Truthdig: The cause of much of the recent extreme weather across the world is climate change triggered by human activities, scientists say.
The Earth has experienced a range of severe regional weather extremes in recent years, including the heat waves of 2011 in the US and 2010 in Russia, a year that also brought the unprecedented Pakistan floods.
Behind these distinct events, though, there is a common physical cause, according to a team at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Germany....
EU climate chief: Obama would send ‘strong signal’ by nixing Keystone
Posted by The Hill: Ben Geman on February 28th, 2013
The Hill: The European Union’s climate minister said Thursday that White House rejection of the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline would be an “extremely strong signal” of the Obama administration’s second-term intent to confront global warming.
“If you had a U.S. administration that would avoid doing something that they could do, with the argument that in the time we are living in, with the climate change we are faced with, we should not do everything we can do, then I think it would be a very, very...
Drought Fells a Texas Town’s Biggest Employer
Posted by New York Times: Manny Fernandez on February 28th, 2013
New York Times: After two years of drought, people are starting to leave this parched West Texas town. The lack of significant rainfall has slowed the rush of cattle that came to the largest employer here, a beef processing plant that employed 2,300 people in a town of 22,343. When the plant shut this month, it took with it an annual payroll of $15.5 million. The closing has challenged families who had worked at the plant off Interstate 27 for generations. Sons and daughters stood alongside their fathers and mothers,...
Oregon: County Seeks to Back Out of Water Deal
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 28th, 2013
New York Times: The Klamath County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to withdraw from an agreement that lays out how to share scarce water between fish and farms, control power costs for irrigators, and restore broken down ecosystems. Two other signatories of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, the Karuk Tribe and the Klamath Water Users Association, say the county cannot pull out because the agreement is a binding contract that was just renewed for two more years. Greg Addington, executive director of the...
A.F.L.-C.I.O. Backs Keystone Oil Pipeline, if Indirectly
Posted by New York Times: Steven Greenhouse on February 28th, 2013
New York Times: The A.F.L.-C.I.O., the nation’s largest federation of unions, has issued an apparent endorsement of the Keystone XL oil pipeline — apparent because it enthusiastically called for expanding the nation’s pipeline system, without specifically mentioning Keystone. And while some union leaders said the federation’s stance stopped short of an official endorsement, the nation’s building trades unions — eager for the thousands of jobs the pipeline would create — issued a statement saying the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s...