Clipmarks | invictus's Environment collection

Water Shortage: Worst nightmare becoming true

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:55:55 GMT

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clipper's remarks: Amy Goodman interviews Peter H. Gleick and Maude Barlow about "water problems" appearing seriously on the horizon, globally.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

For the longest time, people have taken water for granted. Most people don't think about where their water comes from. They just turn on the tap, and they expect it to be there. Those days are ending.

This notion that we'll have water forever is wrong. California is running out. It's got 20-some years of water. New Mexico has got 10, although they're building golf courses as fast as they can, so maybe they can whittle that down to five. Arizona, Florida, even the Great Lakes now, there's huge new demand.

The Nile River doesn't reach its end. The Colorado River, the Yellow River in China, they, for the most part, don't flow anymore to the sea.

You know those movies where there's the comet coming at the earth, and all of a sudden the governments of the world say, "Gee, we're not -- our differences aren't so big anymore, because we're about to all die"? That's really where we are. There is a comet coming at us. It's called water shortage.

Tags: water, climate change, earth, resources, water shortage, science

Alarm over new oil-from-coal plans

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:13:15 GMT

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Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

A Chinese energy company is poised to open a chemical plant to make liquid fuels for cars and aircraft from coal, a move that has alarmed environmental campaigners who say it will increase carbon emissions and worsen global warming.

The plant, in Inner Mongolia, will use technology developed by Germany during the second world war to convert coal directly into synthetic diesel, dubbed "Nazi fuel". China says the process will help break its booming economy's reliance on foreign oil, and that it will build more such plants.

The US and India are also investing heavily in the technology, which is being heavily promoted by coal companies across the world as a cost-effective solution to soaring oil prices and concerns about energy security.

Tags: energy, oil, coal, environment, alternative energy, china, science

Notes on a Sick Planet

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 17:45:06 GMT

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clipper's remarks:

The authors may reach a bit when they try to sound less square, likening the buying of compact fluorescent light bulbs to “an upgrade on your iTunes software.” But they make the science relevant and enjoyable with abundant visuals and conclude with some meaty ways for kids to make a difference. The old standbys are all there (switch light bulbs, recycle, use canvas bags at the grocery store). But I smiled on noticing something new: the authors suggest some “sustainable careers” kids can consider, like meteorologist and “glacial geologist.”

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

There’s no use avoiding it: our kids need to know about the global environmental crisis — climate change, deforestation, species extinction. And as long as we’re teaching them about all that, we may as well teach them some science at the same time. Learning about evaporation can be as boring as watching a pot boil, but if it’s part of a habitat-destroying, polar-bear-killing, actually-somewhat-interesting environmental disaster, maybe that’s something kids could enjoy reading.

Here are two new books that don’t shy away from the complexity of the science or the gravity of our environmental situation, but which also don’t forget their audience. Never before have so many serious ecological ideas been mixed so heavily with flatulence jokes and sad pictures of cute animals. The details of global warming boggle some of the world’s finest minds, but Laurie David and Cambria Gordon’s “Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming” actually makes it easy to understand.

Tags: environment, books, kids, learning, education, earth, book review, science

Congo Diary: Deforestation

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:32:17 GMT

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Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: africa, congo, environment, deforestation

Alien intrusions threaten Sweden's seas

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 19:29:23 GMT

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Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - A gluttonous American pseudo-jellyfish, giant Japanese oysters, and an unidentified virus killing seals: strange intrusions are threatening Sweden's seas and fishermen are concerned.

The biggest threat is called mnemiopsis, an animal that measures about 10 centimetres (four inches) and is not technically a jellyfish but has a gelatinous and translucent appearance. It is not harmful to humans.

The species has never before been seen this far north in Europe and could change the region's entire ecosystem.

"Officially it was first seen a year ago... We know they survived the winter. Suddenly at the end of July there were a lot of them," said Lene Friis Moeller, a researcher at Gothenburg University's marine ecology department.

Tags: environment, ecology, seals, sweden, marine life, science

Investigating Life In Extreme Environments

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 01:36:43 GMT

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Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Science Daily — From the deepest seafloor to the highest mountain, from the hottest region to the cold Antarctic plateau, environments labelled as extreme are numerous on Earth and they present a wide variety of features and characteristics.

Investigating life processes in extreme environments not only can provide hints on how life first appeared and survived on Earth (as early earth was an extreme environment) but it can also give indication for the search for life on other planets.

To examine these issues and other matters the European Science Foundation (ESF) has published a 58-page report Investigating Life in Extreme Environments – A European Perspective. Among other issues, the report has stated how global changes in the recent decades have turned some environments setting into becoming “extreme” conditions for the normal ecosystems (e.g. acidification of the oceans).

Tags: environment, life, earth, science

Boeing Unveils 'Green' Jet

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 22:46:04 GMT

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Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Boeing Unveils 'Green' Jet

July 6, 2007 — The eyes of the aviation world will be fixed on Boeing here Sunday when the U.S. aircraft giant unveils its 787 Dreamliner, the "green" passenger jet it hopes will revolutionize air travel.

The mid-sized plane, which seats up to 330 passengers and is capable of flying long-haul routes using up to 20 percent less fuel while pumping out fewer greenhouse gases, will be rolled out for 300 gathered media.

The 787 — Boeing's first new model in 13 years — will make its maiden test flight later this year before going into commercial service with Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) in 2008.

The new aircraft boasts several revolutionary design features, most notably the use of high-tech plastic composites instead of aluminum.

Up to 50 percent of the primary structure of the plane — including the fuselage and wing — will be made of composites such as carbon-fiber.

Tags: energy, environment, green, aircrafts, boeing, science

Wilderness Vanishing From Earth

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 20:44:58 GMT

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Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Study: Wilderness Vanishing From Earth

Humans have domesticated the planet to such a degree that few untouched spots remain, researchers report in a review article published in the journal Science.

Earth is so tamed that conservationism should shift focus from protecting nature from humans to better understanding and managing a domesticated world, the authors said.

"There is no such thing as nature untainted by people," writes Peter Kareiva, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, a non-profit group. "Facing this reality should change the scientific focus of environmental science."

As of 1995, only 17 percent of the world's land area remained truly wild — with no human populations, crops, road access or night-time light detectable by satellite, the authors reported.

Tags: environment, ecology, wilderness, science, world

Galapagos Islands in Danger

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 02:52:31 GMT

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Clip Source: www.oceanconserve.org

Ecuador: Fragile Galapagos environment in danger, says Unesco

The Galapagos Islands may be listed as "in danger" by the world's top cultural body because tourism is threatening the environment of the islands that helped shape Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Unesco's World Heritage Committee begins a weeklong meeting in New Zealand today and will consider an application from the territory's ruler, Ecuador, to further protect the Galapagos, said the organisation's chairman, Tumu te Heuheu.

The islands have "a very fragile ecosystem and there is a need to manage those activities", he said.

Tags: environment, galapagos

Can Capitalism Become Green?

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:04:26 GMT

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clipper's remarks: From the Orion Magazine... The original article is very long, I just clipped some tiny parts. Reading the source article is recommended.

Clip Source: www.orionmagazine.org

So we try to persuade ourselves that capitalism can become green. I don’t believe that capitalism can become green, simply because the imperatives of environmentalism are not part of its way of reasoning. Capitalism can think profit but it can’t think nature. It’s not in its nature to think nature. What is part of its nature is marketing ("We’re organic! Buy us!"), even while its actions—industrial livestock practices that masquerade as Earth-friendly, for instance—are really only about market share, dividends, and stock value.

Capitalism as a system of ever-accelerating production and consumption is, as we environmentalists continually insist, not sustainable. That is, it is a system intent on its own death. Yet the capitalist will stoically look destruction in the face before he will stop what he’s doing, especially if he believes that it is somebody else whose destruction is in question.

Tags: capitalism, destruction, green policy, environment

Some Common Bird Species Declining

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:34:44 GMT

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Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Some Common Bird Species Declining

June 14, 2007 — The populations of nearly two dozen common American birds — the fence-sitting meadowlark, the frenetic Rufous hummingbird and the whippoorwill with its haunting call — are half what they were 40 years ago, a new analysis found.

The northern bobwhite and its familiar wake-up whistle once seemed to be everywhere in the East. Last Christmas, volunteer bird counters could find only three of them and only 18 Eastern meadowlarks in Massachusetts.

Twenty different common bird species — those with populations more than half a million and covering a wide range — have seen populations fall at least in half since 1967, according to a study by the National Audubon Society. The bird group compared databases for 550 species from two different bird surveys: its own Christmas bird count and the U.S. Geological Survey's breeding bird survey in June.

Tags: ecology, environment, birds

Arctic ice no barrier for plants

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:23:00 GMT

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Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Arctic ice no barrier for plants

Arctic plant species can travel vast distances, researchers suggest

Arctic plants are able to migrate the distances needed to survive changes to the climate, scientists have suggested.

Habitats are expected to shift further north as the planet warms, and plants' inability to move quickly enough has been a cause for concern.

But researchers, writing in the journal Science, suggest seeds can be carried vast distances by the wind and sea ice.

The biggest challenge, they added, was likely to be their ability to establish themselves in the new habitat.

Researchers from Norway and France analysed more than 4,000 samples of nine flowering plant species found on the remote Svalbard islands inside the Arctic Circle.

By analysing the genetic fingerprints of the plants, the team reconstructed past plant colonization and decline in the area.

Tags: arctic, vegetation, climate, environment, science

Warm spring 'affecting wildlife'

Fri, 25 May 2007 06:50:08 GMT

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Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Warm spring 'affecting wildlife'

The survey shows some species are appearing earlier than expected

A warm spring has brought about the early arrival of some UK wildlife, the first results of the Springwatch 2007 survey suggest.

Over the past few months, amateur naturalists have logged more than 24,000 first sightings of six key species of plants and animals.

Some, such as the peacock butterfly and frogspawn, have been spotted earlier than expected.

The Woodland Trust said it was worried "because the changes are so rapid".

Tags: climate change, environment, wildlife

Aquatic Virus Hits Great Lakes

Thu, 24 May 2007 16:34:47 GMT

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Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

May 23, 2007 —A deadly, fast-spreading aquatic virus is reaching epidemic proportions in New York's two Great Lakes and has already spread into the Finger Lakes region in upstate New York, a Cornell University fisheries expert said Tuesday.

The viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus — or VHS — has now been identified in 19 species in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, including muskellunge, New York's No. 2 sport fish, said Paul Bowser, a professor of aquatic animal medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Equally alarming, said Bowser, is the confirmation of VHS in walleye in Conesus Lake, which is the westernmost Finger Lake and is the only New York lake where VHS has been confirmed in a body of water other than the contiguous waters of the Great Lakes.

Tags: virus, epidemic, great lakes, aquatic life, new york

Green groups fear water going up in steam

Thu, 17 May 2007 16:37:12 GMT

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Clip Source: www.theage.com.au

ENVIRONMENT groups have called for a coal-fired power station proposed for the Latrobe Valley to be scrapped due to Victoria's drastic water shortage.

Greenpeace and Environment Victoria have called on the Bracks Government to withdraw $50 million in funding promised for the 400-megawatt coal-fired power station to be operated by HRL at Loy Yang. The Federal Government has also set aside $100 million for the power station, which would open in 2009.

The environment groups say the state's coal-fired energy generators are already putting Victoria's water resources under huge stress.

Greenpeace energy campaigner Mark Wakeham said the five power stations in the Latrobe Valley used the equivalent of almost a third of Melbourne's total water use.

Tags: environment, energy, water