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Archive for June 11th, 2014
United Kingdom: Vivienne Westwood on anti-fracking campaign
Posted by ITV: None Given on June 11th, 2014
ITV: The designer, Dame Vivienne Westwood, is attending an event in Swansea later today called 'We need to talk about fracking.' It's part of a nationwide tour following on from an open letter printed in the Times and signed by over 150 celebrities and scientists calling for more debate on fracking.
There are reserves of shale gas in parts of south Wales and licences for exploratory drilling have already been granted by several councils. The UK government supports the extraction saying it could reduce...
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Climate change set to triple drought, bushfires and floods in Australia
Posted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Karen Palenzuela on June 11th, 2014
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: CLIMATE CHANGE IS LIKELY to almost triple the frequency of bushfires, floods and drought in Australia from one event every 17 years to one every 6 years, according to a paper published today in Nature. The Indian Ocean Dipole is an atmospheric phenomenon that affects Australia's climate as well as those of other countries on the Indian Ocean and is a significant contributing factor to rainfall variability. Its positive phase usually results in droughts in the eastern Indian Ocean and floods in the...
Australia says Barrier Reef water quality on the mend
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 11th, 2014
Agence France-Presse: Australia on Thursday said it was confident the Great Barrier Reef will avoid a World Heritage downgrade after a new report card showed pollutants entering the water had been significantly reduced.
UNESCO has warned that without action on water quality and rampant coastal development the reef -- covering an area roughly the size of Japan -- would be declared "World Heritage in Danger".
Queensland state Environment Minister Andrew Powell said progress had been made as he released a government...
Might Our Ecosystem Crash?
Posted by Gulfshore Life: AC Shilton on June 11th, 2014
Gulfshore Life: Rising tides actually could mean drier Everglades going forward as climate change reshapes our landscape.
When a ranger from glacier national park tried to paint her park as the poster child for climate change, Gary Bremen thought: au contraire. A ranger at Biscayne National Park--which has a high point of just 6 feet above sea level--Bremen insists that few national parks will be affected the way his will. Glacier National Park may lose its glaciers, but Biscayne National Park may cease to exist....
Can You Call Yourself An Environmentalist And Still Eat Meat?
Posted by National Public Radio: Eliza Barclay on June 11th, 2014
National Public Radio: Earlier this week, we told you about a school backed by director James Cameron and his wife, Suzy Amis Cameron, that may become the first vegan school in the U.S.
In describing the couple's path to veganism, Amis Cameron told us she's eventually come to believe that, "You can't really call yourself an environmentalist if you're still consuming animals. You just can't." (James Cameron made a similar statement in 2012 at the BLUE Ocean Film Festival and Conference.)
We tweeted out Amis Cameron's...
Global Warming to Triple Frequency Drought, Floods Along Indian Ocean
Posted by Mashable: None Given on June 11th, 2014
Mashable: The frequency of extreme forms of a climate cycle that can cause devastating droughts and flood events from Indonesia to India to Kenya, may triple in the coming decades, according to a new study published Wednesday. The study, published in the journal Nature, ties manmade global warming to shifts in the behavior of a naturally-occurring climate cycle, known as the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD).
Like the Pacific Ocean, which gives rise to El Niño and La Niña events, the Indian Ocean has its own inherent...
New Report Analyzes Tar Sands Threat to America’s Migratory Birds
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on June 11th, 2014
EcoWatch: Tar sands mining in the heart of Canada`s boreal forest is putting millions of America`s migratory birds in jeopardy and has already resulted in hundred of thousands of fatalities, according to a new report released today by the National Wildlife Federation and Natural Resources Council of Maine.
An area approximately the size of Florida is being destroyed by tar sands operations: huge open-pit mines, toxic waste tailings ponds, extraction wells, noisy compressor stations, refineries and networks...
China battles be 1st ecological civilisation
Posted by New Scientist: Catherine Brahic on June 11th, 2014
New Scientist: SO YOU want to live in a country that is guided by a philosophy of "ecological civilisation", run by people with the vision to implement policies that will benefit their children even if it costs more in the short term? Move to China.
Not convinced? Last week, news circulated that China is considering limiting its greenhouse gas emissions so that they peak in 2030, followed by an orchestrated fall.
It was one man's view, expressed at a Beijing conference, not an official announcement. But He...
Chilean Patagonia spared from US$10 billion mega-dam project
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 11th, 2014
Guardian: The Chilean government yesterday rejected plans to build the HidroAysén mega-dam project on two of Patagonia’s wildest rivers, prompting jubilation among citizens and campaigners and one observer to herald it as the Chilean environmental movement’s “greatest triumph.”
“All those things that people think about when they think of Patagonia would have been impacted,” Patricio Segura, from CODESA, a Patagonian NGO, told the Guardian.
The decision was made by Chile’s highest administrative authority,...
The ‘microbial garden’ taking the shine off glaciers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 11th, 2014
PhysOrg: The first ecological study of an entire glacier has found that microbes drastically reduce surface reflectivity and have a non-negligible impact on the amount of sunlight that is reflected into space.
The research, led by the University of Leeds and published today in the journal FEMS Microbiology Ecology, will help improve climate change models that have previously neglected the role of microbes in darkening the Earth's surface.
Observing how life thrives at extreme cold temperatures also...