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Archive for July 1st, 2015
Amazon’s Wildlife Threatened By Hydropower Dams, Study Says
Posted by National Geographic: Wendy Koch on July 1st, 2015
National Geographic: As countries build more hydropower projects, new research warns that massive dams pose an extinction threat to mammals, birds and tortoises—at least in the Amazon. Brazil’s Balbina Dam has turned what was once undisturbed forest into an artificial archipelago of 3,546 islands where many vertebrates have disappeared, according to a study published Wednesday by England’s University of East Anglia. “We’re watching extinction unfold right in front of us,” says co-author Carlos Peres, a Brazilian professor...
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A Sustainable Earth Depends on Indigenist Future
Posted by Dissident Voice: Dr. Glen Barry on July 1st, 2015
Dissident Voice: Long prophesied by native thinkers, Earth is dying. The global ecological system is collapsing under the weight of industrial development. More ecosystems including the atmosphere have been lost and degraded than the biosphere can bear. Concurrently perma-war, injustice, and inequity have hit epidemic proportions and are worsening ecocide and obstructing solutions.
While social movements of many types work on these issues, the forces of ecocide are pernicious, resolute, and massive. To date adoption...
Field fires hamper French grain harvest as heatwave builds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 1st, 2015
Reuters: Fires linked to hot, dry weather are disrupting the early stages of this year's grain harvest in France, the European Union's top producer, destroying hundreds of hectares and triggering fire prevention measures in some areas. Wednesday saw record temperatures for the time of year either side of 40 degrees Celsius in several parts of the country as a heatwave intensified, adding stress on crops in central and northern France that faced a dry spell this spring. Fires can be sparked by combine harvesters...
Hawai’s sacred mountain ‘Maunt Kea’ – battleground scientists and locals
Posted by Empire Tribune: None Given on July 1st, 2015
Empire Tribune: Hawai`s tallest mountain 'Maunt Kea` has been a battle ground between scientists and Native Hawaiians for the past seven years. The sacred mountain which has more than 250 shrines and burial sites, is said to be the place where the mother and father of the Hawaiian race first met. While it`s a sacred site for the Native people, scientists claim its an ideal location for a planned telescope that could be revolutionary for Astronomers.
Campaigners protesting against it say the $1.4 billion, 18-story-high...
10 Powerful Images from Mauna Kea
Posted by Indian Country: None Given on July 1st, 2015
Indian Country: Dennis Miller Photography has set up a Facebook page called We Are Mauna Kea to document what’s been happening on the sacred mountain, where protectors recently were able to stop construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope “until further notice.”
We wanted to call attention to some of these powerful images, which the page calls “reflections of aloha and of a people fighting for the protection of sacred lands.” The page says the images are meant to “support this integral effort to preserve pristine...
How Will We Feed a World of Nine Billion People?
Posted by National Geographic: Simon Worrall on July 1st, 2015
National Geographic: By 2040, the world’s population is predicted to rise to nine billion. That means two billion more mouths to feed. Even now, the earth groans under the weight of those numbers. More than 800 million people are malnourished. Another two billion are short of essential micronutrients, which affect health. A billion more consume too many calories and are obese. What can be done? In his new book, The End of Plenty: The Race To Feed A Crowded World, Joel K. Bourne Jr., a former senior editor for National...
Water Use Fracking Has Skyrocketed, Stressing Drought-Ridden States
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on July 1st, 2015
EcoWatch: Fracking operations in the U.S. have gotten thirstier in the last 15 years, consuming more than 28 times the water they did a mere 15 years ago.
A new study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in partnership with the American Geophysical Union, shows that not only has the number of such operations grown as fracking has expanded its reach and improved technology has allowed drilling in harder to reach locations, but individual wells are consuming more water as well. The median amount of water...
Humans causing catastrophic ecosystem shifts, study finds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 1st, 2015
Reuters: Never before has a single species become the top predator on land and sea, and human dominance over the natural environment has caused shifts in world ecosystems unprecedented in the last 500 million years, researchers said on Tuesday.
Human activity is leading to an international decline in the variety of plants and animals through extinction, as organisms not useful to human needs are killed off by ecosystem changes or over-exploitation, according to a new study.
The biggest immediate losers...
Canada: Keystone developer says new regulations justify the project
Posted by Hill: Devin Henry on July 1st, 2015
Hill: Recent Canadian action on climate change helps justify the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, a TransCanada executive said in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry this week. The Alberta government’s hike of the province’s carbon tax, as well as Canada’s commitment to international climate change agreements, means the Keystone project has to meet high environmental standards in both Canada and the United States, Kristine Delkus, TransCanada's executive vice president and general counsel,...
With dwindling water supplies Catalina seeks more desalination
Posted by KPCC: None Given on July 1st, 2015
KPCC: Los Angeles County supervisors are considering ways to aid desalination plans on Catalina Island, where supplier Southern California Edison is considering requiring unprecedented 50% cuts in water use.
The island is home to some 4,000 people year-round, and it boasts hotels and a harbor that collectively have invested $40 million to boost the number of visitors to around 700,000 a year.
What Catalina doesn't have much of is water, which comes from a few wells and a desalination plant.
With...