Home/Archive for July, 2010
Archive for July, 2010
Climate & Change, Nature, Jul 31st, 2010,
The latest figures from Xinhua News put the death toll due to massive floods in Pakistan at 900. A further one million people are homeless as a result of the recent monsoon rains. The deluge has destroyed schools, homes, hospitals, roads, railroads and other infrastructure, causing billions of euros in damage. Rescue teams including the Pakistani military, along with civil government groups, are working around the clock to save the more than one million who remain stranded, but manpower and facilities are insufficient and international help is urgently needed. Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has requested United Nations and…
Tags: Afghanistan, flooding, floods, homeless, Pakistan
Climate & Change, Health, Nature, ,
The worst flooding in decades hit northwestern Pakistan recently, killing over 800 people and forcing the evacuation of thousands. The total number of people affected by the flooding so far has surpassed 1 million, including those missing or infected with waterborne diseases. All it took was a few days of heavy, torrential rains and it was only a matter of time before the rivers unleashed their wrath on the villages. Earlier this week, Information Minister, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, stated: “According to initial reports received from all districts, 408 people have so far been killed [since Wednesday]” … “We fear the…
Tags: breaking news, flood, monsoons, more than 1 million affected, over 800 dead, Pakistan, torrential rains, worst flood in decades
Climate & Change, Wildlife & Flora, ,
Bites caused by Blanford flies – a regional species of black fly in the UK – are on the rise this summer, with human activity and hot weather taking the blame. One factor contributing to the rise in black fly bites in the Norwich area of England include the large amount of water features being built in British gardens, which facilitate the flies’ reproduction in suburban areas. From a report in the Telegraph: Experts blamed the recent warm and humid [weather] which has made insects, including horseflies, mosquitoes and midges, more active, particularly in the evening. People are also spending…
Tags: bites, black, Blanford, England, flies, fly, garden, temperatures, UK, warm, weather
Videos & Documentaries, Wildlife & Flora, ,
Dolphins are a common sight in the calm, warm waters of the Greek Mediterranean and Aegean Sea. There they can be observed living free in their natural habitat. And so it may seem strange that a dolphinarium – an aquatic animal park featuring dolphins – exists in Greece. Animal welfare activists believe so and are protesting a dolphin park at the Attica Zoo in Athens, which they believe to be cruel. The dolphinarium’s operators disagree, claiming the park has educational as well entertainment benefits. Click on the below link to watch the BBC News report on the story: Greek dolphin…
Tags: animal, cruel, dolphinarium, dolphins, entertainment, Greece, Greek, welfare
Climate & Change, Science & Technology, Jul 30th, 2010,
A new Met Office report, compiled of several recent studies, documents what scientists consider undeniable evidence of a changing climate and warming planet. 10 indicators of global warming were incorporated in the report, including rising land and sea-surface temperatures, ocean heat, sea levels and humidity; and a reduction in Arctic sea ice, glaciers and springtime snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere. From an article in the Wall Street Journal: The State of the Climate 2009 report, published Wednesday as a special supplement to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, was compiled by 300 scientists from 48 countries and drew…
Tags: change, climate, evidence, global, hottest, indicators, Met Office, record, report, scientists, temperatures, warming
Climate & Change, Nature, ,
Phytoplankton – the microscopic algae that form the basis for marine food chains – have declined by 40% since 1950, at a rate of 1% per year. Phytoplankton also absorb CO2 and produce roughly half the Earth’s breathable oxygen. According to the first large-scale plankton-measuring study of its kind, researchers have correlated the decline in phytoplankton to climate change. From an article in The Ecologist: The authors suggest rising sea surface temperatures linked to global warming are the reason for the decline. As ocean temperatures rise they become more stable and less nutrients are brought up towards the surface where…
Tags: algae, chain, food, marine, oxygen, phytoplankton
Business, Politics, ,
The UK’s new Conservative lead coalition government is doing more or less what Tory governments are expected to do: make public spending cuts. But this is the ‘new’ Tory leadership, softened by cuddly Liberal Democrat partners and promises to be Britain’s greenest government yet, albeit a belt-tightening one in a time of economic crisis and ‘necessary’ fiscal austerity. Well, here is an example of this compromise vis-à-vis Britain’s electric car scheme, first announced in March by the previous Labour government. Two articles from the UK press put a different shine on the proceedings. From a short, but positive article in…
Tags: Britain, car, coalition, cut, electric, government, Grant, Labour, scheme, Tory, transport, UK, vehicles
Climate & Change, Science & Technology, Jul 29th, 2010,
Last night, I was watching the Weather Channel and something rather interesting was brought to my attention. A new report on Global Warming was published recently. The report was written by more than 300 scientists from 48 countries and confirms what we’ve known all along: Global Warming is here and it’s not going anywhere, any time soon. Although the report (which is the 20th in a series) is mainly about Global Warming, it doesn’t cite any particular causes of it. However, it does make one thing perfectly clear: “Global warming is undeniable.” One thing that was pointed out in the…
Tags: 10 indicators of a warming world, Annual State of the Climate Report, BAMS, climate change, global warming, NOAA, report, study
Recycling, Videos & Documentaries, ,
When I lived in the US we separated our newspapers, cans and some plastic bottles and put them into a container to be collected by a truck once a week. In Sweden we divided glass (both dark and light), metal, plastic, paper, batteries and light bulbs in a special structure in front of my apartment building. In Ireland we just chucked everything into a big tip to be sorted through at a processing plant and then sold to the UK, which also has its own methods of recycling. Below are two separate video reports by Al Jazeera English on two…
Tags: Cairo, China, Egypt, garbage, plastic, Recycling, waste
Politics, ,
The autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain has banned bullfighting by a vote of 68 to 55 with 9 abstentions in the Catalonian parliament. The vote was brought on by a petition organized by the animal rights campaign Prou! (‘Enough!’) and signed by 180,000 people, who believe the practice to be barbaric and outmoded, though there may have also been a bit of Catalonian nationalism involved. From a BBC News report: But while the official debate is over animal rights, many believe this process is an attempt by nationalist-minded Catalans to mark their difference from the rest of Spain by…
Tags: animal rights, ban, bullfighting, bullfights, Catalonia, Catalonian, parliament, Prou!, Spain, Spanish
Nature, ,
It was only three months ago that southern China was suffering from its worst drought in living memory. Now the heaviest rains in over a decade are causing floods, mudslides and other destruction there, as well as threatening the integrity of the massive Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in Hubei province. According to a BBC report, Chinese authorities have stated that the recent flooding left 823 people dead and 437 missing, the latest count including 37 deaths after a bridge collapsed in Henan province and a further 21 who are feared dead due to mudslides in Sichuan province….
Tags: China, dam, dead, death, flooding, floods, Gorges, Hubei, river, three, Yangtze
Conservation, Nature, Weird & Wonderful, Wildlife & Flora, Jul 28th, 2010,
This week’s Creature Feature takes us to Africa and the Middle East, where you’ll find a rather odd member of the Ibis family. The Northern Bald Ibis (aka the Hermit Ibis or Waldrapp) is a decent sized member of the Ibis family (about 28-31 inches or 70-80 cm). Once found across northern Africa, southern Europe, and the Middle East, this critically endangered bird is now limited to Morocco (about 500) and Syria—where less than 10 remain. Although there have been some semi-wilding breeding colonies or reintroduction programs added to a few countries, including Turkey, Austria, and Spain, these birds are…
Tags: Africa, bird, Creature Feature, critically endangered species, Europe, Hermit Ibis, Middle East, Northern Bald Ibis, spiritual, Thoth, Waldrapp
Climate & Change, Politics, ,
Cap and trade or emissions trading schemes can be confusing. They have been touted as the chief market-based solution for limiting greenhouse gas emissions, preserving valuable natural resources like forests, while making money for rich and poor countries alike. The far right and climate change skeptics hate them for obvious – and sometimes less obvious – reasons: they hate government meddling in the free market and regulating business and industry to the point that they believe in a vast ‘socialist’ conspiracy involving all prominent climate scientists. Or is it just a simple question of which class and which industries will…
Tags: activist, cap and trade, carbon, change, China, climate, copenhagen, Decodcidio, emissions, environmentalist, European, exchange, hacked, justice, market, scheme, social, trading
Pollution, Wildlife & Flora, ,
Yesterday the United States experienced two more oil spills: One in the Gulf of Mexico, the other in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. A tug boat, which was pushing a barge, ran into an abandoned well in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday morning, causing gas and oil to spew 100ft (30m) into the air. The well is located in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, some 65 miles (105km) south of New Orleans. Barataria Bay is an ecologically rich wetlands and fishing area that has been unused since the Deepwater Horizon spill began on April 10th. This is at least the third…
Tags: Barataria, bay, gas, Granholm, Gulf, Kalamazoo, leak, Michigan, oil, pipeline, river, spill, well
Politics, Sustainable living, ,
On Friday London begins its well-publicized bicycle rental scheme, introduced by mayor Boris Johnson, run by London Transport and sponsored by Barclays plc. Over the past few years London has become more cycle-friendly with more bike lanes and cycle paths, reducing stress on public and private transport – which have both become more costly, thereby encouraging more people to travel by bike. But despite recent growth in cycle traffic, London still trails other British cities and lags astronomically behind the European bicycle Meccas of Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Enter Barclays Cycle Hire, which resembles bike rental schemes in other European and world cities,…
Tags: Barclays, bicycle, bike, Boris, cycle, cyclists, European, hire, Johnson, london, private, public, rental, scheme, UK
Conservation, Pollution, Jul 27th, 2010,
Mining giant Vedanta Resources will be having its annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday in London, where the company is headquartered. But this year, shareholders will be met by a well-publicized protest. Activist groups including Amnesty International have consistently criticized Vedanta for human rights violations and poor environmental practices, particularly in the Indian state of Orissa. From an article in the Observer: […] a damning Amnesty report criticised Vedanta’s record in Orissa, where it runs an alumina refinery at the foot of the Niyamgiri hills, alleging river pollution and damage to crops. The hills are home to around 8,000 Dongria Kondh…
Tags: activist, Amnesty, Avatar, Dongria, India, international, Kondh, london, Na’vi, Niyamgiri, Orissa, protest, shareholders, Vedanta
Business, Science & Technology, ,
Latin America has huge potential for wind and solar power. Brazil already has large and long-established hydropower and biofuel industries, but along with Mexico, Colombia and other Latin American countries, they are increasingly looking towards European models of renewable energy. From an article in Scientific American: European wind farms dwarf Latin American efforts in terms of production today, but this will change dramatically if Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and other countries in the region continue their wind energy efforts. Whereas Spain generates 20,000 megawatts from wind energy and plans to double that capacity by 2020, Brazil has a capacity to produce…
Tags: America, Brazil, Chile, energy, EU, European, industries, Latin, Mexico, Peru, power, renewable, Solar, Solarpack, Spain, T-Solar, wind
Climate & Change, Pollution, ,
Here are some pictures of the large bloom of blue-green algae currently covering 377,000 sq km of the Baltic Sea. The satellite picture comes from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the aerial photos are from the Swedish Coast Guard. Large carpets of algae create dead zones in marine environments and are a human health hazard because they spread cynanobacteria. Swimming in affected areas should therefore be avoided. From a BBC News report: This accelerated growth also reduces the amount of oxygen available to other plant and animal species in the affected area; raising fears that it could destabilise fragile…
Tags: aerial, algae, algal, Baltic, Bloom, Coast Guard, ESA, European, photo, satellite, sea, Swedish
Science & Technology, Sustainable living, Videos & Documentaries, Jul 26th, 2010,
For those of you who didn’t swoon when Edward Norton urged us to ban the plastic bag, here is another National Geographic video featuring Hollywood starlets Natalie Portman and Chloe Sevigny. I dare you to watch it without afterwards gleefully smashing your energy-sucking bulbs and rushing out for a bunch of those efficient twirly CFL thingies. These moppets of the big screen want us to switch from incandescent to fluorescent bulbs because it will save lots of cute animals, our families and the planet. Ambitious? Well, fluorescent bulbs typically last 10 to 20 times longer are 11 times more energy…
Tags: bulbs, CFL, Chloe, efficient, energy, EU, fluorescent, LED, lighting, lights, Natalie
Climate & Change, Videos & Documentaries, ,
The heat wave punishing much of Europe has hit Russia especially hard. Desperate to find relief from record high temperatures, many Russians are seeking out lakes, rivers, pools and fountains to cool off. Unfortunately, many are also combining swimming with alcohol and this combination has lead to a rash of drowning deaths across the country. The temperature in Moscow, the capital of Russia, hit 35 degrees Celsius on Thursday, which was recorded as the hottest day in 30 years. –Al Jazeera 300 drowning deaths occurred in Russia last week alone. Unfortunately the heat wave is forecast to continue with temperatures…
Tags: deaths, drowning, fountain, heat, heat wave, Moscow, record, Russia, temperature, video
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