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News
EcoEarth.Info Environment RSS Newsfeed
EcoEarth.Info Environment RSS Newsfeed
Vast Environmental Sustainability News and Information from http://www.EcoEarth.Info/: An Information Gateway Empowering the Movement for Environmental Sustainability
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09/04/2010 03:00 PM
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Why your sustainable fish may not be as guilt-free as you think
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Independent: Since its establishment more than a decade ago, the reputation of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has been as spotless as the consciences of shoppers who buy fish bearing its blue "tick" logo in the expectation it has been sustainably caught. Until now. In a trenchant attack on the world's biggest certifier of ethical fish, a group of six marine experts have accused the MSC of giving in too readily to the demands of big trawler organisations and endorsing fisheries racked by ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Mariner Rig Accident Undercuts Efforts to End Drilling Moratorium
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NYT: An oil rig caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, forcing workers to dive overboard to escape the flames, and sending chills through a region just beginning to recover from one of the worst oil spills in history. For many, the images of smoke and flames engulfing the rig recalled the fire that sank the Deepwater Horizon rig back in April and set off an uncontrollable undersea oil leak that lasted for nearly three months. Yet despite some superficial resemblances to the ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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What now for Gulf? Fire complicates drill debate
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AP: What now for the Gulf? News of another oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico, so soon after the BP oil spill, has set off a wave of anxiety along the Gulf Coast and prompted calls for the government to extend its six-month ban on deepwater drilling. Just when it seemed the Obama administration might be ready to lift the unpopular ban, the fire raises new questions about the dangers of offshore drilling, leaving the industry wondering when it can get back to work. "Anything ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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UN to hold crisis talks on food prices as riots hit Mozambique
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Guardian: The UN has called an urgent meeting on rising global food prices in an attempt to head off a repeat of the 2008 crisis that sparked riots around the world. Seven people, including two children, were killed in Mozambique this week during three days of protests triggered by a rise in the cost of bread. There has also been anger over increasing prices in Egypt, Serbia and Pakistan, where floods destroyed a fifth of the country's crops. The UN's announcement came after Russian ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Interior chief Salazar voices doubt on Arctic drilling
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Reuters: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Friday he cannot predict whether Royal Dutch Shell, which has invested $3.5 billion in an offshore Arctic oil-development program, will be allowed to drill the five wells it plans next year in Alaska's Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. "We will be making that decision in the several months ahead," he said at an Anchorage news conference, citing pending reports on offshore drilling safety and the results of an investigation into the Deepwater Horizon ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Brazil: Amazon may be headed for another bad drought
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Reuters: Drought has cut Peru's Amazon River to its lowest level in 40 years and it is already below the minimum set in 2005, when a devastating dry spell damaged vast swaths of South American rainforest in the worst drought in decades. Scientists in Peru and Brazil say the lack of rainfall, which is typical for this time of year, should continue for a few more weeks until the start of the rainy season. But there is some concern that the dryness could persist as what is shaping up to be ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Could solar cells harm the environment?
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Independent: Photovoltaic cells provide environmental benefits but unless properly disposed of they could amount to over 600,000 tons of un-recycled waste per year. The rapidly expanding market for photovoltaic (solar) cells brings obvious environmental benefits, encouraging the use of alternative energy resources and reducing the world's reliance on oil. Yet despite these advantages, the disposal of photovoltaic cells creates an environmental problem: it is estimated that 1.4 million tons ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Japan whale meat case echoes apartheid: Greenpeace chief
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AFP: Greenpeace chief Kumi Naidoo on Friday likened Japan's treatment of two of its anti-whaling activists to the tactics of the former apartheid regime he once campaigned against in his native South Africa. The activists, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, face possible jail terms Monday for stealing a box of whale meat, which they later presented to media and authorities as proof of embezzlement in the state-run whaling programme. Naidoo, at a Tokyo news conference, condemned Japanese ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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BP: Deepwater Horizon oil well will be permanently sealed 'in two weeks'
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Guardian: BP said today it is a fortnight away from sealing the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico for good, as it revealed that the bill for containing and cleaning up the oil spill – the largest in American history – has reached $8bn. Depending on the weather, the oil giant hopes to seal the well for good in mid-September. Since 15 July, no new oil had flowed into the gulf from the ruptured well, BP said. It continues to search for oil on the surface. The bill has steadily risen ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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East Europe Takes to Too Many Cars
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IPS: Quality of life in Eastern European cities will continue to fall unless outdated systems of city life dominated by cars are abandoned, NGOs in the region say. At a meeting in Prague last week environmental groups from countries from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia said city authorities were failing to address growing traffic problems and lagging far behind the West in approaches to what has become a serious problem in some parts of the region. They said that ...
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Climate Ark Climate Change & Global Warming RSS Newsfeed
Climate Ark Climate Change & Global Warming RSS Newsfeed
The Climate Ark is a Climate Change Portal and Internet Search Tool that provides access to reviewed climate change and renewable energy news and information -- http://www.climateark.org/
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Mariner Rig Accident Undercuts Efforts to End Drilling Moratorium
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NYT: An oil rig caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, forcing workers to dive overboard to escape the flames, and sending chills through a region just beginning to recover from one of the worst oil spills in history. For many, the images of smoke and flames engulfing the rig recalled the fire that sank the Deepwater Horizon rig back in April and set off an uncontrollable undersea oil leak that lasted for nearly three months. Yet despite some superficial resemblances to the ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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What now for Gulf? Fire complicates drill debate
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AP: What now for the Gulf? News of another oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico, so soon after the BP oil spill, has set off a wave of anxiety along the Gulf Coast and prompted calls for the government to extend its six-month ban on deepwater drilling. Just when it seemed the Obama administration might be ready to lift the unpopular ban, the fire raises new questions about the dangers of offshore drilling, leaving the industry wondering when it can get back to work. "Anything ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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UN to hold crisis talks on food prices as riots hit Mozambique
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Guardian: The UN has called an urgent meeting on rising global food prices in an attempt to head off a repeat of the 2008 crisis that sparked riots around the world. Seven people, including two children, were killed in Mozambique this week during three days of protests triggered by a rise in the cost of bread. There has also been anger over increasing prices in Egypt, Serbia and Pakistan, where floods destroyed a fifth of the country's crops. The UN's announcement came after Russian ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Why Hurricane Earl Weakened on Path to Cape Cod
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National Geographic: Changes in the towering wall of vertical clouds surrounding the storm's eye helped diminish Hurricane Earl's intensity as it roared toward North Carolina's Outer Banks (map) Thursday morning, meteorologists say. Earl was a very intense storm with winds exceeding 140 miles (225 kilometers) an hour as it moved northward along the U.S. East Coast. But as of Friday morning, Earl had diminished to a Category 1 hurricane with peak winds of about 85 miles (137 kilometers) an ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Interior chief Salazar voices doubt on Arctic drilling
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Reuters: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Friday he cannot predict whether Royal Dutch Shell, which has invested $3.5 billion in an offshore Arctic oil-development program, will be allowed to drill the five wells it plans next year in Alaska's Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. "We will be making that decision in the several months ahead," he said at an Anchorage news conference, citing pending reports on offshore drilling safety and the results of an investigation into the Deepwater Horizon ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Brazil: Amazon may be headed for another bad drought
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Reuters: Drought has cut Peru's Amazon River to its lowest level in 40 years and it is already below the minimum set in 2005, when a devastating dry spell damaged vast swaths of South American rainforest in the worst drought in decades. Scientists in Peru and Brazil say the lack of rainfall, which is typical for this time of year, should continue for a few more weeks until the start of the rainy season. But there is some concern that the dryness could persist as what is shaping up to be ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Could solar cells harm the environment?
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Independent: Photovoltaic cells provide environmental benefits but unless properly disposed of they could amount to over 600,000 tons of un-recycled waste per year. The rapidly expanding market for photovoltaic (solar) cells brings obvious environmental benefits, encouraging the use of alternative energy resources and reducing the world's reliance on oil. Yet despite these advantages, the disposal of photovoltaic cells creates an environmental problem: it is estimated that 1.4 million tons ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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New England braces for Hurricane Earl's wind, rain
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AP: A weakening Hurricane Earl swiped past North Carolina on Friday on its way to New England, where officials urged residents to stay vigilant even as the area threatened by storm's full force was shrinking. The storm blew sustained winds of 85 mph, a Category 1 storm, and was 350 miles south-southwest of Nantucket as of 11 a.m., according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm was expected to pass about 50 to 75 miles southeast of Nantucket on Friday ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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BP: Deepwater Horizon oil well will be permanently sealed 'in two weeks'
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Guardian: BP said today it is a fortnight away from sealing the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico for good, as it revealed that the bill for containing and cleaning up the oil spill – the largest in American history – has reached $8bn. Depending on the weather, the oil giant hopes to seal the well for good in mid-September. Since 15 July, no new oil had flowed into the gulf from the ruptured well, BP said. It continues to search for oil on the surface. The bill has steadily risen ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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East Europe Takes to Too Many Cars
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IPS: Quality of life in Eastern European cities will continue to fall unless outdated systems of city life dominated by cars are abandoned, NGOs in the region say. At a meeting in Prague last week environmental groups from countries from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia said city authorities were failing to address growing traffic problems and lagging far behind the West in approaches to what has become a serious problem in some parts of the region. They said that ...
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Forests.org: Forest Protection Portal RSS Newsfeed
Forests.org: Forest Protection Portal RSS Newsfeed
Vast Rainforest, Forest and Biodiversity Conservation News and Information -- http://forests.org/
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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BP says offshore oil limits could hurt payouts in spill
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AFP: Proposed US limits on offshore oil drilling could hurt BP's ability to pay for damages stemming from the huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a company executive said in an interview Friday. David Nagle, executive vice president for BP America, told the New York Times that legislation pending before Congress could have an impact on the company's ability to compensate losses from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Of particular concern is a bill passed by the House of Representatives on ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Fears grow over global food supply
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Financial Times: Wheat prices rose further on Friday in the wake of Russia's decision to extend its grain export ban by 12 months, raising fears about a return to the food shortages and riots of 2007-08. In Mozambique, where a 30 per cent rise in bread prices triggered riots on Wednesday and Thursday, the government said seven people had been killed and 288 wounded. Vladimir Putin's announcement on Thursday extended an export ban first introduced last month until late December 2011, sending ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Is Organically Produced Food More Nutritious?
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NPR: Reporting in the journal PLoS ONE, researchers write that organically grown strawberries contain more antioxidants and vitamin C than conventional berries. Ira Flatow and guests discuss the findings, and whether the differences would have any meaningful impact on Americans' health.
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill's 30-Year Legacy
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IPS: A surprisingly small number of scientists have studied the impacts of the oil spill resulting from the 1979 blowout at the Ixtoc I oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Wes Tunnell, who first studied the spill's effects in July and August of 1980 and has returned many times since, is one of the few exceptions. Days after speaking to IPS in June, he flew back to Veracruz to see what remnants, if any, are still present from the disaster - the largest accidental oil spill in history before the ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Google building infested by bed bugs
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Guardian: They are reddish-brown, smaller than an apple seed, have a taste for human blood and when they bite they itch like hell. And now the onward march of the common bedbug has extended into cyberspace. The search engine giant Google confirmed today that its 9th Avenue offices in Manhattan have been infested with the bugs. Parts of the headquarters, a futuristic space renowned for having a Lego room and scooters for staff to move around, have been found to be harbouring the parasites, ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Hot rocks and high hopes
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Economist: OVER the course of the next ten years a company called Geodynamics, based in Queensland, Australia, is planning to drill as many as 90 wells, each 4,500-5,000 metres deep, in the Cooper Basin, a desert region in South Australia with large energy reserves. But the company is not drilling for oil or gas. It is looking for an energy source that is far cleaner and more abundant than any fossil fuel: heat emanating from hot rocks deep beneath the Earth's surface, a promising emerging form of ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Wolves fail to halt aspen decline
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BBC: The re-introduction of wolves in a US National Park has not helped re-establish quaking aspens, as many researchers had hoped. Writing in the journal Ecology, a team of scientists found that wolves in Yellowstone Park were not deterring elk from eating young trees. It had been assumed that the presence of wolves would create a "landscape of fear" and no-go areas for elk. The team says more work must be done if the park's aspens are to be protected. Writing in the ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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US government pumps fresh cash into biofuel research
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Business Green: The US government has announced almost $9m (ÂŁ5.8m) of fresh funding to support research into second-generation cellulosic biofuels that do not affect food supplies. The research grants, to be administered by the Departments of Agriculture and Energy, will help to increase US independence from foreign oil, officials said. The two departments will award $8.9m in grants to teams researching how to generate energy from lignocellulosic material. Researchers claim lignocellulosic ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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More CO2 means more poison ivy
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UPI: Rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may threaten climate change and be bad news for humans but poison ivy likes it, U.S. researchers say. A report in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives last year said the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has grown by 22 percent since 1960, not so good for humans but great for poison ivy and other vines, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. In a study in Durham, N.C., a researcher simulated the carbon dioxide content in the air 50 ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Pakistan flood data wasted, say critics
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SciDev.Net: A huge effort to collect and analyse data on the devastating floods wreaking havoc in northern Pakistan has been severely undermined by a lack of strategies for disaster management and the dissemination of information, scientists and disaster experts have said. The Pakistan Meteorological Department's flood forecasting division provides information on the size and flow of the floods using data from an extensive network of weather radars along the Indus river as well as an Indus flood ...
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Water Conserve: Water Conservation RSS Newsfeed
Water Conserve: Water Conservation RSS Newsfeed
"Water Conserve" is a Water Conservation Portal and Internet Search Tool that provides access to reviewed water conservation news and information
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09/04/2010 03:00 PM
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Why your sustainable fish may not be as guilt-free as you think
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Independent: Since its establishment more than a decade ago, the reputation of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has been as spotless as the consciences of shoppers who buy fish bearing its blue "tick" logo in the expectation it has been sustainably caught. Until now. In a trenchant attack on the world's biggest certifier of ethical fish, a group of six marine experts have accused the MSC of giving in too readily to the demands of big trawler organisations and endorsing fisheries racked by ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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UN to hold crisis talks on food prices as riots hit Mozambique
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Guardian: The UN has called an urgent meeting on rising global food prices in an attempt to head off a repeat of the 2008 crisis that sparked riots around the world. Seven people, including two children, were killed in Mozambique this week during three days of protests triggered by a rise in the cost of bread. There has also been anger over increasing prices in Egypt, Serbia and Pakistan, where floods destroyed a fifth of the country's crops. The UN's announcement came after Russian ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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BP says offshore oil limits could hurt payouts in spill
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AFP: Proposed US limits on offshore oil drilling could hurt BP's ability to pay for damages stemming from the huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a company executive said in an interview Friday. David Nagle, executive vice president for BP America, told the New York Times that legislation pending before Congress could have an impact on the company's ability to compensate losses from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Of particular concern is a bill passed by the House of Representatives on ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill's 30-Year Legacy
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IPS: A surprisingly small number of scientists have studied the impacts of the oil spill resulting from the 1979 blowout at the Ixtoc I oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Wes Tunnell, who first studied the spill's effects in July and August of 1980 and has returned many times since, is one of the few exceptions. Days after speaking to IPS in June, he flew back to Veracruz to see what remnants, if any, are still present from the disaster - the largest accidental oil spill in history before the ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Hot rocks and high hopes
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Economist: OVER the course of the next ten years a company called Geodynamics, based in Queensland, Australia, is planning to drill as many as 90 wells, each 4,500-5,000 metres deep, in the Cooper Basin, a desert region in South Australia with large energy reserves. But the company is not drilling for oil or gas. It is looking for an energy source that is far cleaner and more abundant than any fossil fuel: heat emanating from hot rocks deep beneath the Earth's surface, a promising emerging form of ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Pakistan flood data wasted, say critics
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SciDev.Net: A huge effort to collect and analyse data on the devastating floods wreaking havoc in northern Pakistan has been severely undermined by a lack of strategies for disaster management and the dissemination of information, scientists and disaster experts have said. The Pakistan Meteorological Department's flood forecasting division provides information on the size and flow of the floods using data from an extensive network of weather radars along the Indus river as well as an Indus flood ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Brazil: Sugarcane's Electrical Potential Goes to Waste
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Inter Press Service: Sugarcane could replace the energy produced by three hydroelectric dams like the Belo Monte in the Amazon, claims the Brazilian sugarcane industry, which remains relegated to marginal participation in the national electricity matrix. Brazil's sugarcane straw and pulp could generate 12,200 megawatts, while the Belo Monte dam, to be built on the northern Amazonian XingĂș River, will generate just 4,571 megawatts on average, according to UNICA, the sugarcane industry association, in the ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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River managers discuss future Columbia water issues
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Missoulian: The Columbia River Treaty doesn't come up much in casual conversation. Even at this week's Legislative Council on River Guidance in Missoula, the 45-year-old agreement was an eye-opener for the representatives of Montana, Oregon, Idaho and Washington. It governs the fate of 8.5 million acre-feet of stored water in Canada, which can produce around 450 megawatts of electricity before it reaches the U.S. border and goes through more reservoirs and dams. The council members were ...
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09/02/2010 03:00 PM
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African livelihoods at risk as species threatened: IUCN
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AFP: Millions of Africans may lose a key source of livelihoods as a fifth of freshwater African species are threatened with extinction, the updated Red List of endangered species showed Thursday. Scientists conducting a survey on 5,167 African freshwater species found that some 21 percent of species of fish, molluscs, crabs, dragonflies and aquatic plants were at risk of becoming extinct, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in a statement. As fish is ...
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09/02/2010 03:00 PM
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21% of Africa's freshwater plants and animals threatened
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Mongabay: 21 percent of African freshwater plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, according to a five year assessment of 5,167 freshwater species by 200 scientists. The IUCN study cites pollution, invasive species, increased water diversion for agriculture, and dams as the chief threats to aquatic biodiversity. "Freshwaters provide a home for a disproportionate level of the world's biodiversity. Although they cover just one per cent of the planet's surface, freshwater ...
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Ocean Conserve: Ocean Conservation RSS Newsfeed
Ocean Conserve: Ocean Conservation RSS Newsfeed
"Ocean Conserve" is an Ocean Conservation Portal and Internet Search Tool that provides access to reviewed ocean conservation news and information
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09/04/2010 03:00 PM
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Why your sustainable fish may not be as guilt-free as you think
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Independent: Since its establishment more than a decade ago, the reputation of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has been as spotless as the consciences of shoppers who buy fish bearing its blue "tick" logo in the expectation it has been sustainably caught. Until now. In a trenchant attack on the world's biggest certifier of ethical fish, a group of six marine experts have accused the MSC of giving in too readily to the demands of big trawler organisations and endorsing fisheries racked by ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Mariner Rig Accident Undercuts Efforts to End Drilling Moratorium
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NYT: An oil rig caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, forcing workers to dive overboard to escape the flames, and sending chills through a region just beginning to recover from one of the worst oil spills in history. For many, the images of smoke and flames engulfing the rig recalled the fire that sank the Deepwater Horizon rig back in April and set off an uncontrollable undersea oil leak that lasted for nearly three months. Yet despite some superficial resemblances to the ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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What now for Gulf? Fire complicates drill debate
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AP: What now for the Gulf? News of another oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico, so soon after the BP oil spill, has set off a wave of anxiety along the Gulf Coast and prompted calls for the government to extend its six-month ban on deepwater drilling. Just when it seemed the Obama administration might be ready to lift the unpopular ban, the fire raises new questions about the dangers of offshore drilling, leaving the industry wondering when it can get back to work. "Anything ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Interior chief Salazar voices doubt on Arctic drilling
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Reuters: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Friday he cannot predict whether Royal Dutch Shell, which has invested $3.5 billion in an offshore Arctic oil-development program, will be allowed to drill the five wells it plans next year in Alaska's Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. "We will be making that decision in the several months ahead," he said at an Anchorage news conference, citing pending reports on offshore drilling safety and the results of an investigation into the Deepwater Horizon ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Japan whale meat case echoes apartheid: Greenpeace chief
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AFP: Greenpeace chief Kumi Naidoo on Friday likened Japan's treatment of two of its anti-whaling activists to the tactics of the former apartheid regime he once campaigned against in his native South Africa. The activists, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, face possible jail terms Monday for stealing a box of whale meat, which they later presented to media and authorities as proof of embezzlement in the state-run whaling programme. Naidoo, at a Tokyo news conference, condemned Japanese ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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BP: Deepwater Horizon oil well will be permanently sealed 'in two weeks'
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Guardian: BP said today it is a fortnight away from sealing the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico for good, as it revealed that the bill for containing and cleaning up the oil spill – the largest in American history – has reached $8bn. Depending on the weather, the oil giant hopes to seal the well for good in mid-September. Since 15 July, no new oil had flowed into the gulf from the ruptured well, BP said. It continues to search for oil on the surface. The bill has steadily risen ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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BP spill costs 5.8 billion pounds as crews unearth clues
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AFP: Oil giant BP revealed Friday it has so far spent 5.1 billion pounds to battle the Gulf of Mexico disaster, as its crews worked to retrieve key evidence from the seabed. Robotic submarines recorded the delicate operation as engineers sought to raise a failed blowout preventer from the sunken rig to the surface and hand it over to the US Justice Department. The US government is conducting what could be a criminal investigation into the April 20 explosion and subsequent oil spill ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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BP says offshore oil limits could hurt payouts in spill
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AFP: Proposed US limits on offshore oil drilling could hurt BP's ability to pay for damages stemming from the huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a company executive said in an interview Friday. David Nagle, executive vice president for BP America, told the New York Times that legislation pending before Congress could have an impact on the company's ability to compensate losses from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Of particular concern is a bill passed by the House of Representatives on ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Earth 'facing mass extinction'
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AAP: THE world is facing a mass extinction event that could be greater than that of the dinosaurs, new Australian research shows. Macquarie University palaeobiologist Dr John Alroy used fossils to track the fate of major groups of marine animals throughout the Earth's history. He compiled data from nearly 100,000 fossil collections worldwide, tracking the fate of marine animals during extreme extinction events some 250 million years ago. The findings, published this week in ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill's 30-Year Legacy
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IPS: A surprisingly small number of scientists have studied the impacts of the oil spill resulting from the 1979 blowout at the Ixtoc I oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Wes Tunnell, who first studied the spill's effects in July and August of 1980 and has returned many times since, is one of the few exceptions. Days after speaking to IPS in June, he flew back to Veracruz to see what remnants, if any, are still present from the disaster - the largest accidental oil spill in history before the ...
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Rainforest Portal RSS Newsfeed
Rainforest Portal RSS Newsfeed
"Rainforest Portal" is an Internet Search Tool that provides access to reviewed rainforest conservation news and information
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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UN to hold crisis talks on food prices as riots hit Mozambique
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Guardian: The UN has called an urgent meeting on rising global food prices in an attempt to head off a repeat of the 2008 crisis that sparked riots around the world. Seven people, including two children, were killed in Mozambique this week during three days of protests triggered by a rise in the cost of bread. There has also been anger over increasing prices in Egypt, Serbia and Pakistan, where floods destroyed a fifth of the country's crops. The UN's announcement came after Russian ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Brazil: Amazon may be headed for another bad drought
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Reuters: Drought has cut Peru's Amazon River to its lowest level in 40 years and it is already below the minimum set in 2005, when a devastating dry spell damaged vast swaths of South American rainforest in the worst drought in decades. Scientists in Peru and Brazil say the lack of rainfall, which is typical for this time of year, should continue for a few more weeks until the start of the rainy season. But there is some concern that the dryness could persist as what is shaping up to be ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Brazil: Amazon deforestation rate slashed
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Carbon Positive: The rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen by almost half over the past year, according to government data. The figures are only preliminary and need to be confirmed with satellite data, but indications are that the estimate of a 47.5 per cent decline in lost forest area in the period August 2009 and August 2010 is close to the mark. Deforestation of tropical forests is a major contributor to greenhouse emissions worldwide. Forest loss adds billions of tonnes of ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Earth 'facing mass extinction'
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AAP: THE world is facing a mass extinction event that could be greater than that of the dinosaurs, new Australian research shows. Macquarie University palaeobiologist Dr John Alroy used fossils to track the fate of major groups of marine animals throughout the Earth's history. He compiled data from nearly 100,000 fossil collections worldwide, tracking the fate of marine animals during extreme extinction events some 250 million years ago. The findings, published this week in ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Energy in Brazil: Ethanol's mid-life crisis
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Economist: IT IS what passes for a winter's day in upstate SĂŁo Paulo. The sun is blazing from a blue sky feathered lightly with cirrus cloud. In a large, sloping field overlooking the city of Piracicaba, a mechanical harvester chomps through a stand of three-metre-high sugar cane, fat and juicy from months of sunshine. The harvester slices the cane into 20cm chunks and regurgitates them into a 30-tonne trailer moving alongside that will lug them a few kilometres to the Costa Pinto mill (pictured). ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Tanzania: New road threatens wildebeest migration
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Guardian: X
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Vietnam Raids Restaurants Selling Exotic Meats
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NYT: Vietnamese forestry officials seized hundreds of pounds of illegal wildlife from restaurants in a popular tourist province this week, in what was one of the country`s largest such enforcement actions. Illegal meat from from pangolins, mouse deer, monitor lizards and sambar deer was confiscated, as well as bear paws and skins from clouded leopards, binturong (also known as the Asian bearcat), and several monkey and ape species. A dozen restaurant owners were arrested, and a ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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Brazil: Sugarcane's Electrical Potential Goes to Waste
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Inter Press Service: Sugarcane could replace the energy produced by three hydroelectric dams like the Belo Monte in the Amazon, claims the Brazilian sugarcane industry, which remains relegated to marginal participation in the national electricity matrix. Brazil's sugarcane straw and pulp could generate 12,200 megawatts, while the Belo Monte dam, to be built on the northern Amazonian XingĂș River, will generate just 4,571 megawatts on average, according to UNICA, the sugarcane industry association, in the ...
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09/03/2010 03:00 PM
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River managers discuss future Columbia water issues
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Missoulian: The Columbia River Treaty doesn't come up much in casual conversation. Even at this week's Legislative Council on River Guidance in Missoula, the 45-year-old agreement was an eye-opener for the representatives of Montana, Oregon, Idaho and Washington. It governs the fate of 8.5 million acre-feet of stored water in Canada, which can produce around 450 megawatts of electricity before it reaches the U.S. border and goes through more reservoirs and dams. The council members were ...
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09/02/2010 03:00 PM
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African livelihoods at risk as species threatened: IUCN
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AFP: Millions of Africans may lose a key source of livelihoods as a fifth of freshwater African species are threatened with extinction, the updated Red List of endangered species showed Thursday. Scientists conducting a survey on 5,167 African freshwater species found that some 21 percent of species of fish, molluscs, crabs, dragonflies and aquatic plants were at risk of becoming extinct, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in a statement. As fish is ...
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