Clipmarks | zephyr1's 'environment' clips

Soils Offer New Hope As Carbon Sink

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 13:55:20 GMT

clipped by: zephyr1

Science Daily — The huge potential of agricultural soils to reduce greenhouse gases and increase production at the same time has been reinforced by new research findings at NSW Department of Primary Industries’ (DPI) Wollongbar Agricultural Institute in Australia.

Trials of agrichar - a product hailed as a saviour of Australia’s carbon-depleted soils and the environment - have doubled and, in one case, tripled crop growth when applied at the rate of 10 tonnes per hectare.

Agrichar is a black carbon byproduct of a process called pyrolysis, which involves heating green waste or other biomass without oxygen to generate renewable energy.

Tim Flannery is a major advocate of agrichar and pyrolysis. In The Bulletin magazine, Flannery recently ranked “fostering pyrolysis-based technologies” fourth among his five steps for saving the planet, because they convert crop waste into fuel and agrichar which can be used to enhance soil fertility and store carbon long-term.

Tags: carbon, soils, environment, pyrolysis

Emissions trading hot topic at APEC

Mon, 28 May 2007 19:49:21 GMT

clipped by: zephyr1

Clip Source: www.peakoiloz.com

AUSTRALIA will press members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum to consider working towards an emissions trading scheme, at a meeting of APEC energy ministers in Darwin this week.

The wording of the move will be broad in the context of the ministers’ talks on energy sustainability and the environment, allowing for the wide divergence of views among the 21 APEC member countries.

It will be an important recognition that APEC cannot stand aside from the growing world concern over climate change.

The meeting’s host, federal resources minister Ian Macfarlane, has made it clear a formal emissions trading scheme is not being discussed or even proposed but that the APEC ministers will be taking the first steps towards a unified view of how climate change might be handled.

A business forum to be held today ahead of the formal ministerial meeting will concentrate on the question of high energy prices and climate change.

Tags: emissions, trading, sustainability, environment, climate change

Can climate change get worse? It has

Thu, 24 May 2007 01:13:27 GMT

clipped by: zephyr1

Clip Source: www.theage.com.au

Liz Minchin, environment reporter

The world is now on track to experience more catastrophic damages from climate change than in the worst-case scenario forecast by international experts, scientists have warned.

The research, published in a prestigious US science journal, shows that between 2000 and 2004 the rate of increase in global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels was three times greater than in the 1990s.

That is faster than even the worst-case scenario modelled by the world's leading scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, published over recent months, because the updated emissions figures were not available in time to be included.

The climbing emissions mean that average global temperatures are now on track to rise by more than four degrees this century - enough to thaw vast areas of arctic permafrost and leave about 3 billion people suffering from water shortages, including in Australia.

Tags: climate change, carbon dioxide, fossil fuels

Plague kills monkey at Denver Zoo

Wed, 23 May 2007 23:46:54 GMT

clipped by: zephyr1

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Officials at Denver Zoo in the US state of Colorado are taking precautions to avoid an outbreak of plague after a monkey at the zoo died of the disease.

The zoo's 17 remaining capuchin monkeys have been put into an isolated cage and are being treated with antibiotics.

Zoo officials suspect the monkey caught the disease from the carcass of an infected squirrel it may have eaten.

Several squirrels and a rabbit have been found dead of the disease in recent weeks near the zoo.

Veterinarians say there is little risk of the plague spreading to humans but visitors are being warned to avoid squirrels and rabbits.

None of the zoo's other monkeys or animals have shown symptoms of the plague.

The disease is normally found in some wild animals in Colorado during the spring, but usually in rural areas.

"We see it every year in wild rodents," said John Pape, an epidemiologist with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Tags: monkey, plague, zoo

Whales In Hot Water: Global Warming's Effect On World's Largest Creatures

Wed, 23 May 2007 22:18:34 GMT

clipped by: zephyr1

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Science Daily — Whales, dolphins and porpoises (cetaceans) are facing increasing threats from climate change, according to a new report published by WWF and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

The report "Whales in hot water?" examines the impacts on cetaceans including:

Changes in sea temperature

Declining salinity because of the melting of ice and increased rainfall

Sea level rise

Loss of icy polar habitats

Decline of krill populations in key areas. Krill is a tiny shrimp-like marine animal that is dependent on sea ice and is the main source of food for many of the great whales.

“Whales, dolphins and porpoises have some capacity to adapt to their changing environment,” said Mark Simmonds, International Director of Science at WCDS. “But the climate is now changing at such a fast pace that it is unclear to what extent whales and dolphins will be able to adjust, and we believe many populations to be very vulnerable to predicted changes.”

Tags: whales, global warming, sea temperature

Woodstock leads the Green Drive

Tue, 22 May 2007 17:19:38 GMT

clipped by: zephyr1

Clip Source: www.thefirstpost.co.uk

Woodstock is leading us to a better world once more. This time, it is peace, love and the environment.

The Town Board has passed a resolution to reduce carbon emissions from within Woodstock to zero by the year 2017. Smoke another one?

No, they mean it. There are solar panels on the roof of the Town Hall, geo-thermal heating and a super-green system for treating sewage. "We're setting a template," says Randolph Horner. "And we're doing that with the magic of the Woodstock name."

Symbolism, the Board points out, "has a lot of value". But I'm not sure that my neighbours appreciate the irony. Woodstockers vote left but define the term 'bourgeois bohemian': you should see the Mercedes and Range Rovers parked outside the Bear Cafe on a Saturday

night, while Mrs Mason insists on spending $1,000 a year just to heat the swimming pool.

It will be market forces that save us from climate change, not peace and love and good intentions.

Tags: wodstock, green, environment, peace, carbon emissions

Changing bird migration patterns attributed to global warming

Mon, 21 May 2007 00:22:53 GMT

clipped by: zephyr1

Clip Source: www.centredaily.com

BONN, Germany -- Disoriented by erratic weather, birds are changing migration habits and routes to adjust to warmer winters, disappearing feeding grounds and shrinking wetlands, a migration expert says.

Failure to adapt risks extinction. Birds face starvation when they arrive too early or too late to find their normal diet of insects, plankton or fish. In the north, some birds have stopped migrating altogether, leaving them at risk when the next cold winter strikes.

"Species that adapted to changes over millennia are now being asked to make those adaptations extremely quickly because of the swift rise in temperatures," said Robert Hepworth, executive secretary of the Convention on Migratory Species, a treaty under the auspices of the U.N. Environment Program.

Tags: migrating, birds, un, millennia

Japanese Waters Warming Faster Than World Average

Sun, 20 May 2007 16:03:48 GMT

clipped by: zephyr1

Clip Source: www.terradaily.com

The temperature of waters around Japan has risen at a much faster rate than the rest of the world's oceans in the past century, partly because of global warming, according to an official report

Average sea temperatures in areas around Japan rose by 0.7-1.6 degress Celsius between 1900 and 2006, a higher rate than the world average of 0.5 degrees Celsius, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The warmer ocean was expected to impact fish resources and the ecosystem including colonies of corals, said Yasushi Takatsuki, a marine meteorology specialist at the agency.

"It cannot be totally attributed to global warming. There are factors such as natural changes in the ocean environment. We want to check how much global warming accounts for the sea temperature rise," he said.

The findings were based on an analysis of temperatures recorded by ships, mostly merchant vessels, the report said.

Tags: meteorology, oceans, corals, fish, ecosystem

Branson gives $3bn to fight global warming

Sat, 19 May 2007 16:38:22 GMT

clipped by: zephyr1

Clip Source: www.philanthropyguide.com

“The billionaire said business had a duty to future generations and the money would come from the profits of his Virgin Group’s airline and train operations, making it one of the most significant investments by a private firm in green initiatives.

The funds will be invested in schemes to develop new renewable energy technologies, including new biofuels for aircraft which could cut down on damaging CO2 gases.

“As part of the investment, more than half of the profits of Virgin Trains - of which Sir Richard’s Virgin Group owns 51% - will be allocated to the environment.

“Perth-based Stagecoach, which has the remaining 49% stake in Virgin Trains, said it had no plans to match Branson’s pledge.
A Stagecoach spokesman said it had been aware of the Virgin Group’s announcement, and it hoped to pilot some of the renewable energy initiatives financed by Sir Richard.

Tags: global warming, branson, renewable energy, biofuels

Plastic Waste: More Dangerous than Global Warming

Sat, 19 May 2007 14:58:42 GMT

clipped by: zephyr1

Clip Source: www.greenbiz.com

We have all seen those graphic photos depicting the fate of marine mammals tangled in discarded fishing nets. And the sight of a soft drinks bottle floating by while we are canoeing in our local lake or river of choice is not a rarity.

But the real problem with plastic pollution in the world's waters -- the fact that it never, ever, degrades -- is more or less invisible to the naked eye, and is more immediate than anyone thought. And some argue that companies have the potential to alleviate the crisis in a big way.

Stephan Becker, founder of Beautiful Oceans, a for-profit corporate framework that offers courses in marine conservation to scuba divers and snorkelers, is one of those people who believes the corporate world can have a tremendous impact on reducing plastic pollution.

Plastic is particularly damaging because it is not biodegradable, he says, and plastic particles, although invisible, remain unmoving in the water and eventually become part of the food chain.

Tags: plastic, environment, degrade, ocean

Simpler Way to Counter Global Warming

Mon, 14 May 2007 14:47:43 GMT

clipped by: zephyr1

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Science Daily — Writing in the journal Nature, a Cornell biogeochemist describes an economical and efficient way to help offset global warming: Pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere by charring, or partially burning, trees, grasses or crop residues without the use of oxygen.

When bioenergy is produced by pyrolysis (low-temperature burning without oxygen), it produces biochar, which has twice as much carbon in its residue than that from other sources. This makes bioenergy carbon-negative and improves soil health.

This process, he writes, would double the carbon concentration in the residue, which could be returned to the soil as a carbon sink. The exhaust gases from this process and other biofuel production could then be converted into energy.

This so-called biochar sequestration could offset about 10 percent of the annual U.S. fossil-fuel emissions in any of several scenarios,

says Johannes Lehmann, associate professor of soil biogeochemistry

Tags: global warming, environment, bioenergy, pyrolysis, biochar

Solar panels find a home with the Amish

Sat, 12 May 2007 18:48:32 GMT

clipped by: zephyr1

Clip Source: www.cleveland.com

Berlin, Ohio- A drive through the rolling hills of this Holmes County farming community 80 miles south of Cleveland delights the senses with smells of farm manure and sawmill resins mingling with limestone dust rising from the roads.

Amish farmers work the fields with horse-drawn plows while their beef cattle and milk cows slowly graze nearby pastures. Women tend laundry on sagging clotheslines as their toddlers play with wooden toys.

Weaving around horse-drawn buggies, a visitor might miss the sight that seems out of place here - a technology that most Americans only dream about - solar panels.

Designed to turn photons into electrons, the purple-black panels have sprung up in the last five years on the roofs of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Amish homes, barns and greenhouses.

Organic dairy, beef and chicken farmer Owen Nisley on County Road 600 near Charm, describes solar as natural as nature itself - "no different from my cows eating the grass that has captured the sun's energy."

Tags: solar, amish, environment

Visions of a Northwest Hybrid Car Future Abound

Sat, 12 May 2007 13:36:19 GMT

clipped by: zephyr1

Clip Source: www.discovery.org

Visions Of A Northwest Hybrid Car Future Abound

Original article

Imagine at first hundreds of Northwesterners -- but later thousands, and ultimately tens of thousands or even millions -- plugging in their electric hybrid cars every night. Then they all commute the next day without dipping into their fuel tanks.

Imagine that the other cars on the road, still using fuel systems more like today's, get around on the byproducts of cow poop or wheat stubble.

Imagine further that this new fleet of cars carries devices to signal the traffic-light system, reducing congestion by half at rush hour. And imagine these same devices prevent cars from running into one another no matter what their idiot drivers do. The same devices could offer drivers a choice between the fastest route, the cheapest route (because many roads will have tolls) and the "greenest" route.

By: Robert McClure

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Tags: environment, hybrids, electric

Bottled water has high environmental costs

Fri, 11 May 2007 13:28:54 GMT

clipped by: zephyr1

Clip Source: www.news.com.au

Bottled water has high environmental costs

BOTTLED water, the world's fastest growing beverage, carries a heavy environmental cost, adding plastic to landfills and putting pressure on natural springs, the author of a new US report said today.

"Bottled water is really expensive, in terms of environmental costs and economically," said Ling Li, who wrote the report for the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute.

While many in developed countries thirst for safety, cleanliness, taste and social cachet when they buy bottled water, more than one billion of the world's poorest lack access to clean drinking water, bottled or not.

And in developed countries, bottled water may be scrutinised using lower standards than plain tap water, the report said.

The environmental impact can start at the source, where some local streams and underground aquifers become depleted when there is "excessive withdrawal" for bottled water, according to the report.

Tags: environment, plastic, water

Bumble Bees

Wed, 09 May 2007 13:26:00 GMT

clipped by: zephyr1
clipper's remarks: The Bumble bees are in Crisis. Enjoy them now.

Clip Source: www.bumblebeeconservationtrust.co.uk

Tags: insects, general science, environment