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Archive for September, 2012
European biofuel targets contributing to global hunger, says Oxfam
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2012
Guardian: European targets to replace fossil fuels with biofuels are contributing to spikes in food prices and global hunger, according to the latest analyis by Oxfam.
The aid organisation is calling for EU energy ministers meeting in Cyprus on Monday to scrap mandates that commit member states to sourcing 10% of transport energy from renewable sources by 2020. It has calculated that the land required to meet these mandates for biofuels for European cars for one year could feed 127 million people.
A...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on European biofuel targets contributing to global hunger, says OxfamUnited Kingdom: Work under way on nature reserve
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2012
BBC: Construction work has begun on Europe's largest man-made nature reserve, located in Essex.
Wallasea Island is being transformed from farmland into a 670-hectare (1,500-acre) wetland.
The site is using 4.5 million tonnes of earth excavated from the Crossrail project, for which a 21km (13 mile) tunnel is being bored through London.
The land will be transformed into marshes, lagoons and mudflats to attract birds and other wildlife.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) reserve...
Climate change: all that is solid melts into water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2012
Guardian: Sometimes, the future arrives with alarming speed. In the 1990s, and again in 2000, climate scientists warned that – unless urgent action was taken – the Arctic Ocean could be clear blue water in summer by 2050. This August researchers making a first analysis of data from the European Space Agency's observation satellite CryoSat-2 were startled to find that the loss of sea ice – as measured both by depth, and by area – was far more dramatic than their own forecasts had predicted. The summer Arctic...
Protecting biodiversity key to food security, adaptation – expert
Posted by AlertNet: Johann Earle on September 17th, 2012
AlertNet: Biodiversity conservation will be key to ensuring food security and effective adaptation in the face of climate change, says Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, secretary general of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
"Much of the response to climate change will have to be based on biodiversity,' said de Souza Dias, head of the CBD, launched in 1992 as part of an international effort to promote sustainable development while protecting ecosystems. "Part of the response will come from new...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Protecting biodiversity key to food security, adaptation – expertDroughts latest wrinkle in climate debate
Posted by Politico: Joel Brinkley on September 17th, 2012
Politico: Climate change is here. Even those who differ over its cause agree that it’s happening. In the United States alone, 28,570 high-heat records have been set so far this year, more than ever before, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported this month.
As if that weren’t problem enough, the world is also plunging into another major food crisis. And what most people don’t know is that the two issues are directly related.
Food prices “soared by 10 percent in July” alone, the World...
Richer cities get more funds for toxic cleanups
Posted by MSNBC: Gwyneth Shaw, Beverly Ford and Evelyn Larrubia on September 17th, 2012
MSNBC: In Oak Creek, Wis., a fence slashed with holes surrounds a barren 300-acre complex of buckling former factories where the soil and groundwater are polluted with arsenic and other chemicals.
Asbestos sprayed for almost six miles from a shuttered textile mill in Sprague, Conn., when children trying to free a canoe set it on fire.
A toxic cocktail of volatile organic compounds, petroleum, hydrocarbons and metals lies alongside the banks of Massachusetts's Malden River.
Despite about $1.5 billion...
Floods Dampen Thai Adaptation Plans
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 16th, 2012
Inter Press Service: Thailand's flood-management blueprint received a jolt when the dykes in Sukhothai were breached by the rain-swollen Yom river last week, submerging large stretches of the former royal capital.Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra toured the flood-damaged historic city 430 km north of Bangkok, reliving relief operations that were mounted last year when the central plains, including the capital, were hit by the worst floods in the country's history.
The barriers designed to prevent the river overflowing...
Climate Change Severely Impacting Food Prices – Analysis
Posted by Eurasia Review: None Given on September 16th, 2012
Eurasia Review: While there are hardly any signs of substantive and forward-looking agreements being reached at the United Nations climate change conference from November 26 to December 7, 2012 in Doha, latest research cautions that impact of climate change on future food prices is being underestimated.
"By the end of the most recent round of climate talks in Bangkok (August 30 to September 5), there was no movement from developed countries to increase the level of their ambition with regard to emissions reductions...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate Change Severely Impacting Food Prices – AnalysisSaving the Top 100 Threatened Species – a Question of Valuing Life
Posted by Inter Press Service: Amantha Perera on September 15th, 2012
Inter Press Service: The Red River Giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) is the stuff of legend in Vietnam. The fabled turtle in Hanoi's Hoan Kiem Lake is popularly known by the name Kim Qui or Golden Turtle God, and it made its first historical appearance in 250 BC.
Today this species could indeed use some divine intervention. Experts at the World Conservation Congress here in South Korea`s southern resort island of Jeju warned that there are only four specimens of the famous turtle known to be alive. And only...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Saving the Top 100 Threatened Species – a Question of Valuing LifeEni says oil spill contained in Nigeria’s Delta
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2012
Reuters: Italian oil firm Eni said on Saturday an oil spill near its facilities in the Niger Delta had been contained, but local people said the pollution had spread and damaged their fishing.
Eni said the spill occurred last week about 10 km (six miles) from the Obama flowstation in Bayelsa state.
"We do not yet have information either on the causes or the amount of oil affected," an Eni spokesman told Reuters.
Oil spills are common in Nigeria, where enforcement of environmental regulations is lax...