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: Almost Half of Australia Untouched by Humans: Study
Reuters: More than 40 percent of Australia, an area the size of India, remains untouched by humans, making the country as critical to the world's environment as the Amazon rainforests, a study said on Wednesday. Australia has some of the last great wilderness, with three million square kilometres (1.1 million square miles) largely unchanged by industrial civilisation, a report for international conservation watchdogs the Pew Environment Group and Nature Conservancy said. "It's rare on ...
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: Inquiry into Murray water crisis
Canberra Times: The Senate will hold an urgent inquiry into the immediate availability of water for the Murray River, the Coorong and lower lakes in South Australia. Greens leader Bob Brown said he believed the inquiry would be better able to determine water storages than the independent audit of the Murray-Darling Basin promised two weeks ago by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The motion was moved by new Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young and supported by the Government, the Opposition and South ...
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Australia: Australian wilderness disappearing fast
Advertiser: A STUDY has identified 40 per cent of Australia - three million square kilometres - as the largest intact wilderness on Earth that ranks in quality with the Amazon forest, Antarctica and the Sahara. Fairfax newspapers report that the Wild Australia Program Study will be made public today and, was made by international conservation organisations Pew Environment Group and Nature Conservancy, which scanned the world for the last great wilderness areas. "Few Australians realise the ...
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Australia: Dam busters: governments ready to buy land to unlock water
Australian: TOORALE station in northwestern NSW is expected to be purchased by Canberra in partnership with NSW for an estimated $25 million, in response to mounting pressure on the Rudd Government to respond more quickly to the water crisis in the Murray-Darling Basin. Dams across the Warrego River on the 92,000ha cotton and grazing operation would be removed to boost flows from Queensland to the basin by up to 90 gigalitres a year. Government sources said federal Water Minister Penny ...
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Poor nations need $130 bln a year on climate-WWF
Reuters: Rich nations will need to provide about $130 billion a year by 2030 to help developing countries cope with climate change, or about five times current flows, the WWF conservation group said on Wednesday. A WWF study showed that there were 16 funds, run by U.N. agencies, the World Bank and others, channelling money to poor nations to help them curb rising greenhouse gases and adapt to effects of warming such as droughts, floods and rising seas. But a big worry was that Africa, ...
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Scientists: Save the planet—have fewer kids
Chicago Tribune: There are plenty of ways to cut your carbon footprint, whether it's driving less or buying an energy-efficient refrigerator. But the British Medical Journal, in an editorial last month, urged a more controversial one: having fewer children. With 60 million people already living in one of the most densely populated countries in the world, the journal said, British couples should aim to have no more than two children as part of their contribution to worldwide efforts to reduce carbon ...
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As wildfires spread, so does the red ink
Christian Science Monitor: Ten months after a wildfire swept through his neighborhood in Ranch Bernardo, a community nestled in the coastal mountains north of San Diego, Brian Toth is incredulous. "I'm looking at homes with dead trees and fields of brown grass, and it's unbelievable" that such fire-friendly fuel hasn't been removed, he says. Four homes on his street burned to the ground, but "people still don't get it. It boggles my mind to think that they've forgotten so quickly what can happen ...
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Conquering the World's Waste Mountains
Reuters: Waste management experts around the world are starting to consider digging up old trash from existing landfill sites to recycle decades-old plastics and other materials into new products or energy sources. But at the same time, the world is also seeking to reduce the mountains going into landfill by encouraging people to recycle more before it is thrown away, according to a Reuters survey of collection in major cities worldwide. Here are some facts and figures about the world's ...
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Food riots as Indian floods destroy 250000 homes
Reuters: Food riots erupted on Wednesday in eastern India, where more than 2 million people have been forced from their homes and about 250,000 houses destroyed in what officials say are the worst floods in 50 years. One person was killed in Madhepura district when angry villagers fought among themselves over limited supplies of food and medicines at overcrowded relief centres. The Kosi river in Bihar, one of India's poorest states, smashed through mud embankments and changed course ...
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Report: Climate Shift Could Profoundly Alter Md. Shore
Washington Post: Climate change could profoundly alter Maryland in the next century, swallowing 200 square miles of low-lying land, making heat waves more deadly and allowing Southern species to colonize its woodlands and the Chesapeake Bay, according to a new state report. The "Climate Action Plan," released today by the state's Commission on Climate Change, says that "Maryland is poised in a very precarious position" if temperatures continue to warm. It says the state is particularly vulnerable to a ...
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Slow Food Nation To Release Healthy Food And Agriculture Declaration
CounterCurrents: 'We, the undersigned, believe that a healthy food system is necessary to meet the urgent challenges of our time,' begins the final draft of the Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture. Initiated by Roots of Change and half a year in the drafting, it will be released August 29 at Slow Food Nation (SFN) at San Francisco`s City Hall. Organizers of the Labor Day weekend celebration to follow expect to draw over 50,000 people to a variety of events, including a victory garden, food ...
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Climate report urges Md. to cut greenhouse gases
Baltimore Sun: Faced with future coastline flooding from climate change, Maryland should try to curtail its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent to 50 percent by 2020 by implementing more than 40 reduction measures, according to a state report released today. The Maryland Commission on Climate Change released its "Climate Action Plan," which outlines future problems over the coming century that Maryland could face from rising sea levels and warmer temperatures. "The findings ...
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Australia: Coalition support for water inquiry
Australian: THE federal Opposition has vowed to support a plan to launch a senate inquiry into ways of securing vital water for South Australia's Coorong wetlands and the lower lakes of the Murray River. The Australian Greens want to investigate the volume of water which could be provided to the Murray-Darling system to replenish the lower lakes and Coorong, including options for sourcing and delivering the water. It would consider possible incentive and compensation schemes for current ...
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: New habitat protections for rare bay butterfly
San Francisco Chronicle: The federal government has selected thousands of acres in Northern California to protect a rare butterfly scientists say is threatened by global warming and a loss of habitat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday designated 18,293 acres in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties to help the bay checkerspot, which was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1987. Under the designation, development on the land is restricted. Environmentalists say the ...
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Vast Amount of Arctic Carbon Could Be Released
LiveScience: As global warming thaws the frozen soils of the Arctic, more stored-up carbon could potentially be released into the atmosphere than previously thought, a new study suggests. Much of the frigid Arctic's soil is permafrost, or permanently frozen ground. Seasonal freeze-thaw cycles can mix up the soil layers, a process called cryoturbation, forcing organic (carbon-based) material into the subsurface layers and storing it in the permafrost. With Arctic temperatures ...
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Eliminating California's suburban sprawl
San Jose Mercury News: For 30 years, as California's growing population led to sprawling suburbs, traffic jams and fewer farms, attempts to craft statewide laws to stop it have failed again and again. City councils worried about losing local control. Property rights advocates bristled. And the ranch house with a backyard – the centerpiece of Sunset magazine and the Brady Bunch lifestyle – proved a powerful symbol. But now, in what many observers are calling the most significant environmental bill of ...
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Not-So-Permafrost: Big Thaw of Arctic Soil May Unleash Runaway Warming
Scientific American: "Drunken" trees listing wildly, cracked highways and sinkholes–all are visible signs of thawing Arctic permafrost. When this frozen soil warms, it releases carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases as microbes start to thrive on the organic material it contains–a potentially potent source of uncontrollable climate change. Now new research published in Nature Geoscience shows that such frozen Arctic soil holds nearly twice as much of the organic material that gives rise to ...
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Wind farms put pressure on bats
BBC: Bats are at risk from wind turbines, researchers have found, because the rotating blades produce a change in air pressure that can kill the mammals. Canadian scientists examined bats found dead at a wind farm, and concluded that most had internal injuries consistent with sudden loss of air pressure. Bats use echo-location to avoid hitting the blades but cannot detect the sharp pressure changes around the turbine. The scientists say wind farms are more of an issue for ...
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Wolves spreading westward across Europe
Indo-Asian News Service: The mournful howling of wolves is echoing these days through the forested woodlands of eastern Germany for the first time in centuries, according to conservationists, who say that wolves are spreading into Western Europe now that all their natural enemies have disappeared. The cunning canine is even outsmarting its most dangerous mortal enemy - man. Wolves are encroaching on urbanized areas, even being spotted on the outskirts of large cities like Berlin. Earlier this year, ...
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India: Armed forces roped in to save Tibetan antelope, yak etc
Press Trust of India: Tibetan antelope, popularly known as Chiru, blue sheep, wild Yak and many other rare and threatened species in the high-altitude Himalayan region have greater hope of survival with wildlife experts and armed forces joining hands for their conservation. A research project has been initiated by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in collaboration with forest department of Jammu and Kashmir, ITBP and Army in Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary's Changchenmo valley in Ladakh to identify threats ...
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Coast beauty spots will be given up to the sea
Telegraph (UK): Ten of Britain's most iconic coastal landmarks face being lost forever after conservationists admitted defeat in the battle against rising sea levels. Experts have said it is no longer possible to hold back the long term tide and Britain's entire coastline will be dramatically altered in the coming decades. The causeway linking St Michael's Mount to the Cornish mainland will vanish and it will become a true island The National Trust, which owns 700 miles of British ...
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Ecological Society Of America Criticizes Administration's Overhaul Of The Endangered Species Act
Science Daily: The Ecological Society of America today criticized the Bush administration's August 15 proposal to reinterpret the Endangered Species Act, which would impose regulatory changes eliminating the requirement for federal projects to undergo independent scientific review. The proposal would allow federal agencies to decide for themselves whether their projects would harm endangered plants and animals. "The concept of independent scientific review has been in practice since the 18th ...
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India: Elephant patrol to check poaching in Kerala forests
Indo-Asian News Service: An elephant patrol will roam the deep forests of Kerala in a bid to check poaching. The anti-poaching patrol in Wayanad district consists of three elephants, mahouts and forest officials. "We started the patrol Monday. The team has around 15 members. We arranged this patrol following information from Tamil Nadu authorities that poachers could become active along Kerala-Tamil Nadu border this season," K. Radhakrishna Lal, assistant wildlife warden at Muthanga in Wayanad, told ...
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High population growth undermines Uganda's development
Africa Science News Service: High population growth undermines Uganda's development Written by Pius Sawa Tuesday, 26 August 2008 High fertility and population growth rate undermining Uganda's natural resources and challenging nationalDevelopment. Uganda's national development is being undermined by high food prices, climate change, forest denudation,land degradation, water shortage, declining oil supplies, species extinction and destruction of ecosystems. The root of these problems is the ruthless ...
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One Degree Temperature Rise Causes 10-percent Drop In Rice Output
Antara: A one degree Celsius rise in temperature at night may cause a 10-percent drop in rice output, an expert warns, calling on scientists to find drought-resistent rice seeds right now to deal with the impact of global warming in the future. "In the past 20 years, temperature in Indonesia rose 0.3 degree Celsius, that`s why we need to anticipate possibilities in the future," Inez Loedin, chief of the molecular biology section of the biotechnology research and development center at the ...
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Sea buries a Ghanan village, and more may follow
Associated Press: The old shore road to Totope is now under the sea, and when developers began carving out another one, it was washed away so often they abandoned it. Now the road to this village is just a track across the sand. On this southern coast of Ghana, the Atlantic Ocean is rising. Every few years, residents of a string of villages leave their homes and build new ones farther back, abandoning them to the encroaching sand and water. "When I was young, you had to climb a coconut tree to ...
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UK 'should end biofuel subsidies'
BBC: The government should stop funding biofuels and use the money to halt the destruction of rainforests and peatland instead, a think tank has said. Policy Exchange said the switch would have a bigger impact on climate change because trees and peatland remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The government currently spends £550m annually on biofuel subsidies. The Conservatives said biofuels "may be damaging the environment and endangering food security". Under the ...
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Wind turbines make bat lungs explode
New Scientist: "Beware: exploding lungs" is not a sign one would expect to see at a wind farm. But a new study suggests this is the main reason bats die in large numbers around wind turbines. The risk that wind turbines pose to birds is well known and has dogged debates over wind energy. In fact, several studies have suggested the risk to bats is greater. In May 2007, the US National Research Council published the results of a survey of US wind farms showing that two bat species accounted for 60% of ...
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Australia: NSW station first river crisis target
Advertiser: THE Federal Government is reportedly ready to move on its commitment to buy properties to release flows into the ailing Murray-Darling river system. Toorale station, in northwestern NSW, is expected to be bought by the Government for around $25 million, The Australian newspaper reports today. Dams across the Warrego River on the 92,000ha cotton and grazing property would be removed to boost flows from Queensland to the river system by up to 90 gigalitres a year. In Adelaide ...
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Climate change threatens South Asia food supplies
Associated Press: Melting Himalayan glaciers, rising sea levels and depleting fresh water sources as a result of global climate change are posing grave threats to food production and economic development in the populous South Asia region, experts said Monday. Dozens of scientists and policy makers from 18 countries and international agencies gathered Monday at the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, for the start of a six-day conference to discuss ways to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on food ...
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