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Archive for December 2nd, 2015
Tracking imperiled elephants w/ cutting-edge technology
Posted by Mongabay: Caleb O'Brien and Sue Palminteri on December 2nd, 2015
Mongabay: Sitting at a conference table in Washington DC, Iain Douglas-Hamilton taps at an iPhone clad in a bright red case. Douglas-Hamilton, 73, is one of the world’s leading experts on African elephants, having studied the largest land animal for more than half a century. Through Save the Elephants, a research and conservancy organization he founded in 1993, Douglas-Hamilton works as a tireless advocate for elephants—fundraising, lecturing around the world and combating the resurgent trade in elephant tusks....
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Comments Off on Tracking imperiled elephants w/ cutting-edge technologyParis climate summit: Earth may warm by 6°C – even with deal
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 2nd, 2015
New Scientist: The offers on the table for the UN`s climate summit in Paris this month are not enough to limit warming to 2 °C, a level considered to be relatively safe.
But a series of recent analyses suggest a deal could put us on course to keep warming below 3.7 °C - perhaps as low as 2.7 °C.
The analyses are based on the actions countries are prepared to take, known as their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions. These only cover the period up to 2030, and many are very vague, so a host of assumptions...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Paris climate summit: Earth may warm by 6°C – even with dealBetter manure management to help cut EU farm emissions by 2025
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 2nd, 2015
Reuters: Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture are expected to decline slightly by 2025 helped by better management of manure and a drop in beef production, which accounts for half of total EU farm emissions, the European Commission said on Wednesday.
Agriculture is estimated to be a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions linked to rising global temperatures, notably due to cattle manure whose decomposition produces methane and nitrous oxide emissions.
In a presentation at the EU Agricultural...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Better manure management to help cut EU farm emissions by 2025California’s snowpack is deeper than last year, but more is needed, officials say
Posted by La Times: Veronica Rocha on December 2nd, 2015
La Times: First, the good news: Thanks to a series of frosty winter storms, California`s snowpack is now double what it was last year at this time, according to officials.
Now the bad news: The amount of water actually contained in the fluffy white stuff is still well below average.
Snow levels measured statewide on Tuesday showed that water content was 56% of the historical average for Dec. 1. One year earlier, the water content measured just 24% of average.
Interested in the stories shaping California?...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on California’s snowpack is deeper than last year, but more is needed, officials sayLeast to Blame, Hardest Hit: Vulnerable Nations Show Leadership at COP21
Posted by Climate Nexus: Bridgette Burkholder on December 2nd, 2015
Climate Nexus: As the high-level Heads of State meeting wrapped up, emerging economies and developing nations took the spotlight at the COP21 Paris climate talks.
The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), representing more than 20 countries around the world most at risk from climate change, backed the inclusion of a goal to transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 in the Paris Agreement. CVF, which includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Vietnam, also reaffirmed their commitment to a strict limit on global...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Least to Blame, Hardest Hit: Vulnerable Nations Show Leadership at COP21Record rains flood south Indian state; more to come
Posted by Reuters: Sandhya Ravishankar on December 2nd, 2015
Reuters: The heaviest rainfall in over a century caused massive flooding across the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, driving thousands from their homes, shutting auto factories and paralysing the airport in the state capital Chennai. The national weather office predicted three more days of torrential downpours in the southern state of nearly 70 million people. "There will be no respite," Laxman Singh Rathore of the India Meteorological Department told reporters on Wednesday. No deaths were reported in the latest...
India Holds Up Farmers’ Plight from Extreme Weather for COP21 Delegates
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 2nd, 2015
Inter Press Service: "If you look at the submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs, the national commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030) by over 150 countries, most have announced mitigation-centric targets, whereas climate change is also about adaptation. India is among the few that has given a comprehensive INDC," Ashok Lavasa, a key official of India's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and part of its COP21 team at Paris, told IPS.
A new report by Delhi-based non-profit...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on India Holds Up Farmers’ Plight from Extreme Weather for COP21 DelegatesCove director’s new doc warns of impending ecological catastrophe
Posted by Guardian: Johnny Langenheim on December 2nd, 2015
Guardian: In early 2014, a story made headlines around the world. At a factory in Wenxhou, southeast China owned by a Mr Li, whale sharks were being slaughtered in their hundreds, their various constituent parts distributed for food, medicine and cosmetics not just in China, but in the west too.
Footage of an undercover sting in the factory is among the most viscerally shocking sequences in Racing Extinction, which airs tonight on the Discovery Channel in the UK. The new documentary by Louis Psihoyos, director...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Cove director’s new doc warns of impending ecological catastropheMassive El Niño sweeping globe is now the biggest ever recorded
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 2nd, 2015
New Scientist: The current extreme El Niño is now the strongest ever recorded, smashing the previous record from 1997-8. Already wreaking havoc on weather around the world, the new figures mean those effects will probably get worse. Climate change could be to blame and is known to be making the extreme impacts of El Niño on weather more likely.
The 1997-8 El Niño killed 20,000 people and caused almost $97 billion of damage as floods, droughts, fires, cyclones and mudslides ravaged the world.
Now the current...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Massive El Niño sweeping globe is now the biggest ever recorded