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Archive for June 16th, 2015
Human Data Can Make Ecosystem Service Models Better, Researchers Say
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2015
Yale Environment 360: Protected forests in Brazil, Costa Rica, Indonesia, and Thailand have prevented the release of more than 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, an ecosystem service worth at least $5 billion, Georgia State University economists found. Their conclusion about the monetary benefit of those forest protections is based on a new method they derived for valuing services such as carbon capture, conservation, and improvements in air and water quality. Instead of relying on modeling alone, the...
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Global freshwater consumption crossing its planetary boundary
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 16th, 2015
ScienceDaily: The new results account for the freshwater effects of different types of human activity over the twentieth century until present time, including effects of changes in land use (e.g., intensified or extended agriculture, deforestation) and water use (e.g., related to hydropower development). These activities have led to an increased loss of freshwater to the atmosphere due to human-driven increase of evapotranspiration, which includes evaporation from surface and soil water and transpiration by plants....
Campaigning for the climate: activism, arrests and hopes
Posted by Guardian: Adam Ramsay on June 16th, 2015
Guardian: When I was a student at Edinburgh, we used to protest at the career fair every year. One time, Esso [ExxonMobil] had got someone to set up their stall, but their staff failed to show up. My sister and I put on our best suits and staffed the stall for the morning, giving students an honest appraisal of what it was like to work for a company whose work is bound up with brutality, corruption, murder and planetary destruction the world over. After hours of these conversations with students, the poor...
Ahead of pope’s climate message, U.S. Catholics split on cause of global warming
Posted by Reuters: Mary Wisniewski on June 16th, 2015
Reuters: Ahead of Pope Francis' much-anticipated encyclical on the environment, a poll released on Tuesday found that U.S. Catholics are divided on the causes of global warming, mirroring the views of the general public.
The survey by the Pew Research Center found 71 percent of U.S. Catholics believed the planet was getting warmer, but less than half, or 47 percent, attributed global warming to human causes. About 48 percent viewed it as a very serious problem.
The numbers are similar to the U.S. population...
Report highlights vulnerability of global food systems
Posted by Blue and Green: Nicky Stubbs on June 16th, 2015
Blue and Green: Global food systems are increasingly susceptible to acute disruption and systemic shocks could lead to food price rises, food riots and changes in stock market values.
The global food system is increasingly vulnerable to acute disruptions that have the potential to cause widespread economic, social and political implications, according to a new report by the insurance firm Lloyds.
It highlights that a combination of just three catastrophic weather events could lead to the quadrupling of Wheat,...
Pope Francis warns of ‘unprecedented destruction’ if climate change is not addressed
Posted by Blue and Green: None Given on June 16th, 2015
Blue and Green: The Pope has warned that there will be “serious consequences” for all unless the world does more to tackle climate change, in a leaked copy of an eagerly anticipated encyclical.
The draft, which has been published by L’Espresso magazine, states, “If the current trend continues, this century could witness climate change [that leads to] unprecedented destruction of ecosystems, with serious consequences for us all.”
The letter points to rising sea levels as an example, noting that a quarter of...