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Archive for March 22nd, 2013
Pope Francis Raises Hopes for an Ecological Church
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2013
Inter Press Service: The new pope's choice of the name Francis, to honour the Catholic Church's patron saint of animals and the environment, has awakened the hopes of ecologists and others who are concerned about rampant consumerism and the deterioration of the planet.
In 1979, then Pope John Paul II proclaimed St. Francis of Assisi (1181/1182-1226) the patron saint of ecologists. In his first mass as pope, on Mar. 19, Jorge Bergoglio said: "Let us be protectors of creation, protectors of God`s plan inscribed in nature,...
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Pictures: Dipping Under Unspoiled Rivers
Posted by National Geographic: Michel Roggo on March 22nd, 2013
National Geographic: Swiss photographer Michel Roggo captured this image of Wadi Wurayah in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates as part of his Freshwater Project, a four-year effort to document 30 rivers around the world.
A wadi is a desert stream that is typically dry for much of the year. In this case, Roggo hiked for miles through an arid landscape, and was then startled by the sound of moving water. When he visited, the wadi only had water in it for a few hundred feet before the channel returned to dust.
"There...
Threatened Loggerhead sea turtles get some U.S. government support
Posted by Reuters: Harriet McLeod on March 22nd, 2013
Reuters: Habitats that could save threatened loggerhead sea turtles from extinction were identified on Friday by the U.S. government along 750 miles of Atlantic and Gulf Coast shoreline in six states.
The habitats include islands and mainland areas in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, including 90 beaches, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.
"We are taking a step to draw attention to important habitats needed to support the recovery of this magnificent species,"...
Third World poverty is on the run
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2013
Telegraph: Here's a forecast that brought me up short this week. Within 20 years, on present trends, dire poverty will have been eliminated in Bangladesh -- and others among the world's poorest countries.
It seems incredible. The South Asian nation -- the most densely populated sizeable country on earth -- had long been written off. But the prediction is based on exhaustive, if pioneering, Oxford University research and backed up by other authoritative reports.
In a study published this month, covering...
Senate budget plan to include Keystone XL approval: lawmaker
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2013
Reuters: A Republican lawmaker said he expects a symbolic measure to approve the Keystone XL pipeline will be attached to the Senate's budget plan Friday, and that it will build support for a similar bill likely to be voted on later in the year.
Senator John Hoeven, from North Dakota, told reporters his amendment to allow Congress to approve the pipeline would be selected from hundreds of others for a vote, and that it had at least the 51 backers needed to pass.
TransCanada Corp's more than 800,000-barrel-per-day...
Water as vital to national security as defense, U.N. says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2013
Reuters: Stresses on water supplies aggravated by climate change are likely to cause more conflicts and water should be considered as vital to national security as defense, the United Nations report said on Friday.
About 145 nations share river basins with their neighbors and need to promote cooperation over a resource likely to be disrupted by more frequent floods and heatwaves, it said.
"In the past few decades, definitions of security have moved beyond a limited focus on military risks and conflicts,"...
Study Shows Canada’s Far North Glaciers Are Melting Fast
Posted by Climate News Network: Alex Kirby on March 22nd, 2013
Climate News Network: Canada's Arctic Archipelago glaciers will melt faster than ever in the next few centuries, research by European-funded scientists has shown.
They say 20 percent of the Canadian Arctic glaciers may have disappeared by the end of this century, which would mean an extra sea level rise of 3.5cm (1.4 inches).
The results of the research, part of the EU-funded ice2sea program, will be published in Geophysical Research Letters this week, and the paper, Irreversible mass loss of Canadian Arctic Archipelago...
Expansion of City in Western China Poses Environmental, Safety Risks, Critics Say
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2013
Yale Environment 360: An ambitious plan to expand the western Chinese city of Lanzhou into a regional industrial hub is raising concerns over what critics call lax government oversight of the environmental and safety impacts, including worries that it will siphon huge amounts of water from an already parched region and devastate nearby mountains. Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province, is a city of 3.6 million and a gateway to Tibet and the Xinjiang region. It is known as one of the most polluted cities in China, and...
Indonesia uses Aceh peat swamps as learning grounds for forest governance
Posted by CIFOR: Olivia Rondonuwu on March 22nd, 2013
CIFOR: Indonesia plans to use Rawa Tripa in its westernmost province of Aceh, where the country had a recent victory in peatlands protection, as learning grounds to improve forests governance and legal enforcement through license review.
Rawa Tripa captured headlines early this year when local environmental NGOs reported a suspected breach of a ban to convert deep peat areas by setting fires in its swamps. The Indonesian task force that coordinates efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest...
‘Zero Illegal Deforestation’ Target Set on First World Forests Day
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on March 22nd, 2013
Environment News Service: On the first International Day of Forests, celebrated Thursday by the United Nations, Jose Graziano da Silva proposed that all countries support a Zero Illegal Deforestation target.
FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva, second right, announces a zero illegal deforestation target, (Photo by Alessia Pierdomenico ©FAO)
As director-general of the UN`s Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, Graziano da Silva linked illegal deforestation and hunger at a ceremony marking the UN`s newest International...