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Archive for April 11th, 2011
Fresh triumph for ethical tuna fishing campaign
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2011
Independent: Letters from customers and embarrassing headlines have forced the last major British supermarket group to drop a destructive form of tuna fishing.
As the latest domino to topple in one of the most successful environmental campaigns in years, Morrisons told The Independent it would ban purse seining using fish-aggregating devices, or Fads, by the end of 2013.
Fads are man-made rafts that attract tuna and other species such as turtles and sharks -- which are all scooped up in nets and killed...
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NGO sues to save forest for Paraguay natives
Posted by France 24: None Given on April 11th, 2011
France 24: An NGO supporting the rights of native Paraguayans said Monday that it filed complaints with environmental authorities over the destruction of forests in the northwestern Chaco region.
The Support Group for the Totobiegosode (GAT) says that 3,600 hectares (8,900 acres) of virgin forest in land where Paraguay's Ayoreos-Totobiegosode Indians live has been destroyed.
"It is the last redoubt of the Ayoreos-Totobiegosode indians in Paraguay," said Jorge Vera, a member of the non-governmental organization...
Red River floods fields, but U.S. farmers ready
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2011
Reuters: Record flooding in parts of the U.S. Red River Valley has slowed grain movement, but lake-like fields are nothing new to farmers who battle flooding on some scale each spring, industry officials said.
The Red River, which divides North Dakota and Minnesota, is slowly easing from its Saturday crest at Fargo-Moorhead that left widespread flooding in fields north of the city.
Every year, farmers in the valley all but halt deliveries of stored crops to handling facilities due to muddy or flooded...
Wanted: Frack Busters (Costume Preferred)
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2011
New York Times: Meet the New York Water Rangers, the stars of an advertising campaign by environmental groups seeking to mobilize opposition to the natural gas drilling method known as hydrofracking.
New York Water Rangers A promotion intended to counter the gas industry`s plans for hydraulic fracturing in New York States.
The groups, including Riverkeeper, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Catskill Mountainkeeper, are trying to recruit New York State residents to call attention to what they view as...
Dry weather helps Brazil cane harvest to advance
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2011
Reuters: Brazil's 2011/12 cane harvest that started officially last week should progress faster with weather expected to be drier over the next few weeks, Somar meteorologists said Monday.
Forty-four mills had started crushing cane from the new season by last Thursday, but most of the 350-odd mills in the main center-south region should be operational by the end of the month, sugar cane industry association Unica said.
"Between Tuesday and Wednesday we predict some instability that could make the weather...
The Worldwide ‘Thirst’ For Clean Drinking Water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2011
National Public Radio: The typical American uses 99 gallons of water a day for activities like washing clothes, bathing, toilet-flushing and cooking. But that amount doesn't even come close to the amount of water used on a daily basis by electrical power plants.
Each day, coal, nuclear and natural gas plants use about five times the amount of water used on a daily basis by all American households combined "” including 250 gallons of water per American per day to generate our daily electricity usage.
"So your flat-screen...
Cerrado deforestation – video
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2011
Guardian: The Cerrado, a savannah that covers more than one-fifth of Brazil, has experienced ongoing deforestation due to the expansion of soy agriculture, led by demand for soybean to produce feed for factory-farmed animals
Crops for animal feed destroying Brazilian savannah, WWF warns
Wooded grasslands of the Cerrado suffering ongoing deforestation as soy agriculture expands to feed growing demand for meat
Gas from ‘fracking’ worse than coal on climate: Study
Posted by Hill: Ben Geman on April 11th, 2011
Hill: Cornell University professors will soon publish research that concludes natural gas produced with a drilling method called “hydraulic fracturing” contributes to global warming as much as coal, or even more.
The conclusion is explosive because natural gas enjoys broad political support – including White House backing – due to its domestic abundance and lower carbon dioxide emissions when burned than other fossil fuels.
Cornell Prof. Robert Howarth, however, argues that development of gas from...
Study reveals cost of nitrogen pollution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Nitrogen pollution costs Europe between 70 and 320 billion euros ($100bn-$460bn) per year in its impact on health and the environment, according to a major European study launched in Britain on Monday.
The first European Nitrogen Assessment, the result of a five-year research programme, found that the costs represented more than double the benefits for the continent's agriculture sector.
The ENA was to be launched Monday at a five-day international conference in Edinburgh.
The study was...