Author Archive
Time, BBC & others drive historic deal protect Canada Great Bear Rainforest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 27th, 2016
Guardian: Earlier this month, a groundbreaking agreement was reached to prohibit logging in the majority of the 6.4m-hectare Canadian rainforest known as the Great Bear Rainforest – a stretch of coastal ecosystem nearly the size of Ireland.
The winners in the deal were environmental groups and the First Nations peoples who call the land their ancestral home. But there was also a less obvious contingent: an international assortment of business interests that used their influence to push for a deal.
More...
United Kingdom: How to combat climate change from your garden
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 27th, 2016
Telegraph: When the screenwriter William Goldman said "nobody knows anything", he was talking about the inability of anyone in Hollywood to predict what would turn out to be the next blockbuster. But he might equally have been talking about gardening and climate change, where no one seems to know for sure what to expect, or how to prepare for it.
So I was intrigued to see a report of a project by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh attempting to answer that question. Edinburgh and its three regional outposts...
California Natural Gas Leak Officially Largest Leak in U.S. History
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 26th, 2016
Yale Environment 360: The four-month natural gas leak that sickened hundreds of Los Angeles residents and forced the evacuations of 1,800 homes this winter has officially been deemed the largest methane leak in U.S. history, according to a study in the journal Science. The California leak spewed a total 97,100 metric tons of methane into the atmosphere, up to 60 tons per hour—the equivalent of the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 572,000 cars. Methane is a greenhouse gas dramatically more potent than carbon dioxide...
Fiji cyclone disaster is a sign of future challenges
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 26th, 2016
ClimateWire: Small island states and environmentalists say the devastating cyclone that lashed Fiji on Saturday illustrates why the world must get serious about helping climate-vulnerable countries cope with warming.
Cyclone Winston was the most damaging storm ever to hit the small Pacific nation. The death toll was at 36 yesterday. Fiji’s representatives spent yesterday assessing the damage and securing aid.
“The government of Fiji’s first concern is to provide humanitarian emergency assistance, food,...
California cut water use 17.1% in January, falling short of target for the first time
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 26th, 2016
LA Times: When Gov. Jerry Brown called for a statewide 25% cut in urban water use last April, drought-weary Californians snapped quickly into compliance.
They slashed consumption enough to easily exceed Brown`s order for four straight months, cheering state water regulators.
But as temperatures cooled and the calendar turned to fall, conservation slowed. And on Thursday, officials said the state`s cumulative water savings fell below 25% for the first time in eight months of reporting, to 24.8%.
Officials...
18 elephants to be flown to US zoos as drought puts pressure on Swaziland wildlife
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 26th, 2016
Guardian: Eighteen elephants, due to be culled because the intense drought in southern Africa has left a national park in Swaziland without food, could be flown to zoos in the US. It is hoped that moving them will give endangered rhinos more chance of survival.
The three male and 15 female elephants from parched Hlane national park are being held temporarily by a local conservation group pending a court case brought by US animal welfare groups concerned about their export.
But they are planned to be...
Vital to food output, bees and other pollinators at risk
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 26th, 2016
Reuters: Bees and other pollinators face increasing risks to their survival, threatening foods such as apples, blueberries and coffee worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year, the first global assessment of pollinators showed on Friday.
Pesticides, loss of habitats to farms and cities, disease and climate change were among threats to about 20,000 species of bees as well as creatures such as birds, butterflies, beetles and bats that fertilize flowers by spreading pollen, it said.
"Pollinators are...
Australia: Feral cats targeted to protect turtle hatchlings
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 26th, 2016
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Rangers and conservationists concerned for the welfare of turtle hatchlings have carried out a feral cat trapping program in Exmouth.
The Jurabi coastline, located on the point of the Cape Range National Park in Western Australia, is a major nesting ground for local turtle populations.
In a trapping program undertaken last week, seven cats were captured and destroyed using cages and soft jaw leg traps, designed to restrain the animals without causing any physical pain.
Department of Parks...
Zika Epidemic Offers Sanitation a Chance in Brazil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 26th, 2016
Inter Press Service: Three decades of dengue fever epidemic did not manage to awaken a sense of urgency in Brazil regarding the need for improving and expanding basic sanitation. But the recent surge in cases of microcephaly in newborns, associated with the Zika virus, apparently has.
Both dengue and Zika are transmitted by the same vector, the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Back in the 1950s this kind of mosquito was supposedly eliminated in this country in a campaign against yellow fever.
But it made a comeback two...
Mountaintop mining, crop irrigation can damage water biodiversity
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 26th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Aquatic life can suffer when high concentrations of dissolved salts enter freshwater ecosystems, a process known as salinization.
An international, multi-institutional team of researchers that includes a Virginia Tech graduate student recommends ways that humans can protect freshwater from salts in an article Friday (Feb. 26) in the journal Science.
The recommendations include the use of less water for agricultural practices, less salt for road de-icing, less discharge or sequestering salts...