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Archive for July, 2011
South Africa: Rhino poaching on record pace
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 8th, 2011
Mongabay: Nearly 200 rhinos have been killed in South Africa through the first six months of 2011, reports TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network.
Statistics from South Africa's national parks department show that rhino poaching is on track to break 2010's record of 333 rhinos killed.
126 rhinos have been killed in Kruger National Park. 146 were killed in the park in 2010.
TRAFFIC says rhino poaching is being conducted by criminal syndicates that sell rhino horn to consumers in China and Vietnam,...
Climate change and the Phoenix dust cloud – what’s the connection?
Posted by Climate Change: Alyson Kenward on July 8th, 2011
Climate Change: On Tuesday night, a massive dust storm rolled into Phoenix, Arizona knocking out power in much of the city, reducing visibility to nearly zero, and grounding flights overnight. Photos of the 100-mile wide dust cloud swallowing the city up circulated yesterday, and the event looked practically apocalyptic. In fact, if the photos weren't in color, and there weren't YouTube videos of the dust storm, I would have thought I was looking at old-timey images from the 1930's dust bowl. Now, a couple days...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Climate change and the Phoenix dust cloud – what’s the connection?Ethanol subsidies besieged
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 8th, 2011
New York Times: Federal subsidies for corn ethanol have long been considered untouchable in Washington — not least because politicians want the votes of Iowans, who have traditionally held the first nominating caucuses in the contest for the presidency. But this year, cutting the budget deficit holds more allure than courting corn farmers, making a turning point in ethanol politics. In Washington, there is growing consensus that the ethanol industry has reached financial stability, making much government assistance...
Kenya: Jatropha: an Italian company and the forest of Dakatcha
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 8th, 2011
Rainforest News: Dakatcha is located in southeastern Kenya and it hosts tropical dry forests, grasslands and farmlands. The region is rich of biodiversity, and it represent a corridor for elephant. Besides the Golden-rumped Elephant Shrew, in the area live 11 other endangered species live in the forest area. In addition, the Dakatcha forest home to many rare bird species. For this reason, Dakatcha was declared in 2001as "Important Bird Area". Dakatcha is also home to more than 20,000 indigenous peasants of the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Kenya: Jatropha: an Italian company and the forest of DakatchaEthanol Industry Greets Compromise
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 8th, 2011
New York Times: Any other year, the ethanol industry would have declared a defeat, not a victory. As I mention in Friday’s Times, three senators — one an ethanol opponent and the other two supporters — came up with a grand compromise on Thursday that would end the $6 billion in annual tax credits that go to blenders of ethanol in gasoline and a tariff designed to keep Brazilian ethanol out of the United States. The deal would direct $1.33 billion of that unspent money toward lowering the federal budget deficit...
Spain: Climate change may alter conditions for growth of oak trees in Euskadi
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 8th, 2011
EurekAlert: The research was undertaken on the basis of the most pessimistic and severe scenarios for conditions of climate change in the future and claims that for 2080, the oak woods of the Basque Country would undergo a significant or almost total reduction of their habitat, given that, in our territory, wooded areas will not meet the variables of temperature and humidity necessary for their development. Neiker-Tecnalia experts consider that this study illustrates the tendency towards the 'Mediterraneanisation"...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Spain: Climate change may alter conditions for growth of oak trees in EuskadiEast Africa crisis could have been prevented with early action
Posted by Guardian: Alison Rusinow on July 8th, 2011
Guardian: Images of people arriving at refugee camps in east Africa this week have brought home the stark reality of the impact of drought in the region.
Many have walked for days or weeks to get to the camps, carrying children and a few possessions. In some cases, older people have been brought in wheelbarrows or in makeshift carts.
Those arriving at camps like Dadaab in northern Kenya, now home to nearly 400,000, are the "lucky ones", still in need of additional support and food, but finally protected...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on East Africa crisis could have been prevented with early actionPapua New Guinea: Iconic turtle is ‘harvested’ out
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 8th, 2011
BBC: Numbers of pig-nosed turtles have declined steeply over the past 30 years, researchers have discovered.
The unique reptile has become an international conservation icon, due to it having no close relatives and being considered the turtle most adapted to life underwater in freshwater ponds and rivers.
Yet demand for its eggs and meat in Papua New Guinea, one of the turtle's main homes, has led to the species being dramatically over-harvested by indigenous people.
Details of the decline are...
Australia: Climate change threatens endangered freshwater turtle
Posted by SPX: None Given on July 8th, 2011
SPX: The Mary river turtle (Elusor macrurus), which is restricted to only one river system in Australia, will suffer from multiple problems if temperatures predicted under climate change are reached, researchers from the University of Queensland have shown.
The scientists, who are presenting their work at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual conference in Glasgow on 3rd July 2011, incubated turtle eggs at 26, 29 and 32 degrees C. Young turtles which developed under the highest temperature showed...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: Climate change threatens endangered freshwater turtleCalif. groups sue EPA over civil rights complaint
Posted by Associated Press: Gosia Wozniacka on July 8th, 2011
Associated Press: Sixteen years ago, soon after she gave birth to her first baby, Maricela Mares-Alatorre joined residents of three small California farmworker towns who alleged they were being discriminated against by environmental regulators, because all three of the state's toxic waste dumps were located in or near poor rural Latino communities.
But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which received that civil rights complaint when Bill Clinton was president, hasn't addressed it and all the dumps continue...