Archive for the "Global Warming" Category

  • Conserving indigenous areas would significantly reduce carbon emissions caused by deforestation

    [caption id="attachment_511" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Courtesy of NASA"][/caption] According to a PLOS Biology study reported March 15 in NatureNews, "deforestation in protected areas and indigenous lands is 7–11 times less than in the surrounding areas." Such an observation offers a clear way ahead for advocates of rainforest conservation. By supporting preservation of indigenous lands and other protected areas (ILPAs), organizations "could slow forest loss, conserve biodiversity and preserve local cultures." Given the failure of last December's climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark,

  • Carbon neutrality in Key West’s future?

    Key West Mayor Morgan McPherson hopes to make Key West a carbon-neutral destination, create a new industry on the island and reach out to Cuba to work together on ocean conservation, all in one fell swoop. More

  • Oro azul versus oro amarillo

    Garantizar un mejor acceso y control de los recursos naturales, es fundamental para lograr un desarrollo humano y sostenible.Los glaciares, el “oro azul” no solo son, una atracción turística, o un escenario exótico para desfiles de modelos, sino uno de los tantos servicios que la naturaleza brinda, pero que no se contabilizan en el cálculo del producto bruto interno (PBI). More

  • Expert: U.S. population to hit 1 billion by 2100

    If the USA seems too crowded and its roads too congested now, imagine future generations: The nation's population could more than triple to 1 billion as early as 2100. That's the eye-popping projection that urban and rural planners, gathered today for their annual meeting in Las Vegas, are hearing from a land-use expert. "What do we do now to start preparing for that?" asks Arthur Nelson, co-director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, whose analysis projects that the USA will hit the 1 billion mark sometime between 2100 and 2120. "It's a realistic long-term challenge." The nation currently has almost 304

  • Tropical Bugs: Squashed by Global Warming?

     It's fashionable to fret about how climate change will harm polar bears and penguins. But scientists now predict that, at least among insects, global warming will take its biggest toll in the tropics--home to more than half the world's species. Climate change models agree that temperatures will increase more near the poles than near the equator. Where it's currently chilly, a couple of degrees of initial warming could launch a positive feedback loop: as snow and ice melt, they can't reflect heat from the earth, which then warms even more. Because tropical warming will be less extreme, scientists sometimes suppose that

  • Climate change overwhelming? Consider the mosquito

    LONDON, April 29 (Reuters Life!) - Are you feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of global warming and battered by the constant stream of warnings about coming calamity? Oxford University professor Norman Myers has a message that might help you square your shoulders and face the future. "If you feel you are too small to make a difference then you haven't been in bed with a mosquito," Myers said.

  • Airline in first biofuel flight

    Richard Branson once again at the forefront and everyone is pissed off saying what he's doing wrong, why it won't work, etc., etc. Last I heard he was dropping 3 billion of his own money into biofuels. It would probably be a good thing if people flew less, but what can we do to improve how we fly has to be asked. Better Branson then

  • Wealthy Nations Should Take “Climate Justice” Seriously – FoE

    Internationally renowned environmental scientist Professor Norman Myers suggests through his research that displacement due to climate change is inevitable if nothing is done to slow global warming. Read more

  • The Sun is Growing Jobs

    In California the Green Energy Market is booming, and setting a course for us to recapture the solar market. And set an example for other states to follow. A profile in the NY

  • An Open Letter from Alan Kuper to 60 Minutes

    Alan Kuper is the head of CUSP  60 Minutes Your excellent program "The Age of Warming", Jan. 20, made clear that Global Warming has been accelerating since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Your guests, like James Hanson, emphasized the urgency of taking action, the implication being that technological fixes were required. I'm writing because of the serious omission in your program of human population growth as a causative factor.

  • Tougher CO2 Emissions Cuts Urged

    The current chairman Sir John Lawton and predecessors Sir Tom Blundell and Sir John Houghton, together with Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Sciences Professor Norman Myers say the 60% goal for carbon emissions is based on out-of-date science. More here

  • Conservation success in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!!

    It's one of those rare days. One where you can read conservation news and NOT hear something depressing. A hugely important and strategic piece of land has been purchased in Rio de Janeiro, purely for the environment. It will reconnect one of the most important protected areas on the planet, União Biological Reserve, to nearby tropical rainforest, ending a decades long isolation. This is hugely exciting for me! I identified this piece of land early in my research career (I think in 2000) as probably THE most important place for bird conservation in all of the Americas. Luckily there were many

  • A world dying, but can we unite to save it?

    Pollution in the seas is now speeding global warming, says a devastating new climate report. 'IoS' Environment Editor Geoffrey Lean reports from Valencia       Humanity is rapidly turning the seas acid through the same pollution that causes global warming, the world's governments and top scientists agreed yesterday. The process – thought to be the most profound change in the chemistry of the oceans for 20 million years – is expected both to disrupt the entire web of life of the oceans and to make climate change

  • Global panel releases final report on climate change

    The IPCC has released its final synthesis report of the 4th assessment, summarizing 20 years of effort to understand climate change. The future looks tough, but solutions are available if we can find the leadership to implement them. BBC news report

  • States Set to Sue the U.S. Over Greenhouse Gases

    New York is one of more than a dozen states, led by California, preparing to sue the Bush administration for holding up efforts to regulate emissions from cars and trucks, several people involved in the lawsuit said on Tuesday. The move comes as New York and other Northeastern states are stepping up their push for tougher regulation of greenhouse gases as part of their continuing opposition to President Bush’s policies. Read more

  • Everything’s Cool Makes Great Debut at Bioneers

    Bringing a little humor to the table to help promote the cause of Global Warming. Even Bill McKibben sounds optimistic. Coming to a theater near you in November.

  • More Creative Editing from the Bush Administration

    The White House Wednesday denied charges that it had "watered down" congressional testimony on the impact climate change is having on public health testimony delivered by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As is customary, Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Atlanta-based CDC, a government organization, submitted her report to the administration for review before giving testimony on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Of the 14 original pages in her report, only six survived the White House editing process. Read more

  • U.S. Senators Propose Compulsory Greenhouse Gas Cuts

    WASHINGTON, DC, October 18, 2007 (ENS) – A bipartisan bill introduced today in the U.S. Senate proposes mandatory, not voluntary, limits on greenhouse gases with the goal of reducing the nation's emissions more than 60 percent by mid-century. The bill's authors say the plan is a serious and viable effort to tackle global warming and key Democrats aim to get the legislation out of committee and before the full Senate by early next year. The proposal, introduced by Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman and Virginia Republican John Warner, would impose greenhouse