Archive for April 17th, 2015

Canada revises upward CO2 emission data since 1990

Agence France-Presse: Canada revised its greenhouse gas emission data from 1990 to 2013 in a report Friday, showing it had higher carbon dioxide discharges each year, and a doubling of emissions from its oil sands. All previous years were revised upward by around 12 to 24 megatons, which left total emissions up by 18 percent since 1990, according to the national report made under new reporting guidelines of a UN climate change agreement. Canadian emissions rose to 726 megatons in 2013, up from 715 megatons in 2012,...

4 Ways Show Your Support for Mauna Kea

Indian Country: The construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), which would be a huge structure on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, has sparked strong feelings among Native Hawaiians, who believe the mountain to be sacred. Many have been protesting the project since March 30. “We are not going to stop until this issue is brought to a halt,” said Jon Osorio, professor in the Hawai‘inuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, at a press conference following a university walk-out, which...

Gold rush: How World Bank is financing environmental destruction

Huffington Post: It started as just another farm chore for Elvira Flores, a teenage shepherd in the northern Andean highlands. On Sept. 8, 2013, Flores drove her flock across a dirt road that crosses her family`s rocky green fields and down to a stream. After the sheep drank their fill, something went wrong. ICIJ and The Huffington Post estimate that 3.4 million people have been physically or economically displaced by World Bank-backed projects since 2004. For email updates on our investigation, sign up...

Roadmap needed to ensure future water security, say World Water Forum delegates

Blue and Green: Ensuring the world has a secure supply of water in the future is one of the many challenges associated with climate change and sustainability. Delegates of the World Water Forum, hosted by the World Water Council, have urged countries to deliver a roadmap on the issue. The seventh World Water Forum brought together over 300,000 visitors from 168 countries. Among the delegates were nine heads of State, 80 government ministers and 100 official national governments delegations. The Forum is held...

Video: Dancing & Rallying for Mauna Kea

Indian Country: Thousands are rallying atop Mauna Kea to make sure the Thousand Meter Telescope is not built, but that’s not all it’s about. “It is a rally call that has unified our people, the Hawaiian community,” says protester Hina Wong in the video, posted by KITV on YouTube on April 13. Wong goes on to say that this isn’t just about a telescope, “This is really about our political status, our rights as a Native people of this land.” “So much strength gathered today, so much mana gathered… the power of...

Demonstrators against the Thirty Meter Telescope flood Hawai‘i Island BOR meeting

Kaleo: Demonstrators against the Thirty Meter Telescope flood Hawai‘i Island BOR meeting Mathew Ursua, Photos Editor kaleo.org Sixty-one people testified Thursday at a Board of Regents meeting on the UH Hilo campus, most opposing construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea. Testifiers said the demonstrations, which are happening on Mauna Kea and across the state, signify Hawaiians standing up for what they consider sacred. “It is a part of us as we are a part of it,” Cyrus Johansen...

Hundreds pack Board of Regents meeting to address Mauna Kea

KHON: With a time-out announced by the governor, the University of Hawaii Board of Regents heard from both opponents and supporters of the controversial Thirty Meter Telescope project. Hundreds turned out Thursday for a special meeting at UH Hilo that lasted most of the day. Opponents protesting the construction of the telescope atop Mauna Kea say the site is sacred to Native Hawaiians. The turnout was massive with standing room only. The meeting began at 11:15 a.m. and wrapped up at around 3:15...

It’s Not Just About a Telescope

Huffington Post: The movement to protect and preserve the summit of Mauna Kea, one of the most sacred sites in the Hawaiian Islands, has grown from a small group of local activists to a much larger and diverse coalition around the globe, complete with celebrities and pop stars who have brought wide media attention. Their immediate goal is to stop construction of the giant Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, the world's largest optical telescope, atop the mountain. But as captured in the above news report from KITV,...

All but one oppose telescope at UH Regents meeting

Hawaii News: Hundreds of people packed a special University of Hawaii Board of Regents meeting at UH Hilo Thursday to sound off on plans to build one of the world's largest telescopes at Mauna Kea. All but one of the 62 people who testified opposed building the Thirty Meter Telescope on conservation land at the Big Island volcano. Only about half of the roughly 120 people who signed up were able to testify because after three and a half hours, the regents left to fly back to their home islands and some...

UK acorn crop ‘being hit by climate change’

Guardian: Climate change could be affecting the quality of acorn crops from the UK’s oak trees, the Woodland Trust has said. Research using data recorded by members of the public for the trust’s Nature’s Calendar survey of the changing seasons has found that warmer years tend to lead to less synchronised flowering of oak trees, and as a result smaller crops. Professor Tim Sparks, from Coventry University, analysed more than 160,000 pieces of data and found that the more first flowering dates varied,...