BE VEG, GO GREEN 2 SAVE THE PLANET!

What Can Be Done to Slow Climate Change?

2012-01-16T10:22:00.005+08:00

Source: ScienceDaily, 12th Jan, 2012
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120112193442.htm

A new study led by a NASA scientist highlights 14 key air pollution control measures that, if implemented, could slow the pace of global warming, improve health and boost agricultural production.

The research, led by Drew Shindell of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, finds that focusing on these measures could slow mean global warming 0.9 ºF (0.5ºC) by 2050, increase global crop yields by up to 135 million metric tons per season and prevent hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year. While all regions of the world would benefit, countries in Asia and the Middle East would see the biggest health and agricultural gains from emissions reductions.

"We've shown that implementing specific practical emissions reductions chosen to maximize climate benefits would also have important 'win-win' benefits for human health and agriculture," said Shindell.

The study was recently published in the journal Science.

Shindell and an international team considered about 400 control measures based on technologies evaluated by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. The new study focused on 14 measures with the greatest climate benefit. All 14 would curb the release of either black carbon or methane, pollutants that exacerbate climate change and damage human or plant health either directly or by leading to ozone formation.

Black carbon, a product of burning fossil fuels or biomass such as wood or dung, can worsen a number of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The small particles also absorb radiation from the sun causing the atmosphere to warm and rainfall patterns to shift. In addition, they darken ice and snow, reducing their reflectivity and hastening global warming.

Methane, a colorless and flammable substance that is a major constituent of natural gas, is both a potent greenhouse gas and an important precursor to ground-level ozone. Ozone, a key component of smog and also a greenhouse gas, damages crops and human health.

While carbon dioxide is the primary driver of global warming over the long term, limiting black carbon and methane are complementary actions that would have a more immediate impact because these two pollutants circulate out of the atmosphere more quickly.

Shindell and his team concluded that these control measures would provide the greatest protection against global warming to Russia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, countries with large areas of snow or ice cover. Iran, Pakistan and Jordan would experience the most improvement in agricultural production. Southern Asia and the Sahel region of Africa would see the most beneficial changes to precipitation patterns.

The south Asian countries of India, Bangladesh and Nepal would see the biggest reductions in premature deaths. The study estimates that globally between 700,000 and 4.7 million premature deaths could be prevented each year.

Black carbon and methane have many sources. Reducing emissions would require that societies make multiple infrastructure upgrades. For methane, the key strategies the scientists considered were capturing gas escaping from coal mines and oil and natural gas facilities, as well as reducing leakage from long-distance pipelines, preventing emissions from city landfills, updating wastewater treatment plants, aerating rice paddies more, and limiting emissions from manure on farms.

For black carbon, the strategies analyzed include installing filters in diesel vehicles, keeping high-emitting vehicles off the road, upgrading cooking stoves and boilers to cleaner burning types, installing more efficient kilns for brick production, upgrading coke ovens and banning agricultural burning.

The scientists used computer models developed at GISS and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, to model the impact of emissions reductions. The models showed widespread benefits from the methane reduction because it is evenly distributed throughout the atmosphere. Black carbon falls out of the atmosphere after a few days so the benefits are stronger in certain regions, especially ones with large amounts of snow and ice.

"Protecting public health and food supplies may take precedence over avoiding climate change in most countries, but knowing that these measures also mitigate climate change may help motivate policies to put them into practice," Shindell said. The new study builds on a United Nations Environment Program/World Meteorological Organization report, also led by Shindell, published last year.

"The scientific case for fast action on these so-called 'short-lived climate forcers' has been steadily built over more than a decade, and this study provides further focused and compelling analysis of the likely benefits at the national and regional level," said United Nations Environment Program Executive Director Achim Steiner.

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Note : The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

CLIMATE CHANGE vs PLANT AND ANIMAL DIVERSITY

2012-01-16T10:09:00.004+08:00

Source: SCIENCE DAILY, 3rd Jan, 2012
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120103211054.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ftop_news%2Ftop_environment+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Top+News+--+Top+Environment%29

Climate Change Models May Underestimate Extinctions: Animals and Plants Could Be On a Collision Course Created by Climate Change

Predictions of the loss of animal and plant diversity around the world are common under models of future climate change. But a new study shows that because these climate models don't account for species competition and movement, they could grossly underestimate future extinctions.

We have really sophisticated meteorological models for predicting climate change," says ecologist Mark Urban, the study's lead author. "But in real life, animals move around, they compete, they parasitize each other, and they eat each other. The majority of our predictions don't include these important interactions."

Plenty of experimental studies have shown that species are already moving in response to climate change, says Urban, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut. For example, as temperatures rise over time, animals and plants that can't take the heat are moving to higher altitudes where temperatures are cooler.

But not all species can disperse fast enough to get to these more suitable places before they die off, Urban says. And if they do make it to these better habitats, they may be out-competed by the species that are already there -- or the ones that got there first.

With coauthors Josh Tewksbury and Kimberly Sheldon of the University of Washington, Urban created a mathematical model that takes into account the varying rates of migration and the different intensities of competition seen in ecological communities. The goal was to predict just how successful species within these communities would be at shifting to completely new habitats.

Their results showed that animals and plants that can adjust to climate change will have a competitive advantage over those that don't.

Animals with small geographic ranges, specific habitat needs and difficulty dispersing are likely to go extinct under climate change, their model shows. Further, these animals are more likely to be overrun by other species that can tolerate a wider range of habitats.

"When a species has a small range, it's more likely to be out-competed by others," Urban says. "It's not about how fast you can move, but how fast you move relative to your competitors."

Urban likens this scenario to a train traveling up a mountain on a track. If each boxcar -- representing a species -- travels at the same speed, they will likely all reach the top eventually. But in reality, each car can move at a different speed, creating a collision course.

"There's always a car in front of you and a car behind," explains Urban. "When you introduce the ability to move at different speeds, they're constantly bumping into one another, even running each other over. It's a recipe for disaster."

Importantly, the authors speculate that current predictions of biodiversity loss under climate change -- many of which are used by conservation organizations and governments -- could be vastly underestimating species extinctions.

Tropical communities, for example, which often have many species living in small areas, could be among the hardest hit by climate change. Urban says this is a first step toward making climate change predictions of biodiversity more sophisticated.

"This is a first step -- to include in our models things that we know are true, like competition and dispersal," says Urban. "Knowing these things, can we predict which species might be most at risk?"

Urban's paper was published in the Jan. 4 online edition of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation.

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Worldwide Nitrogen Deficit Constrains Carbon Dioxide Uptake by Plants

2011-12-17T12:07:00.004+08:00

Source: Sciencedaily.com (dated: 21st Jan, 2011)
(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100121164209.htm)

ScienceDaily (Jan. 21, 2010) — Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plants; limits on available nitrogen constrain how much plants can grow. This in turn affects the amount of carbon dioxide plants can absorb, which affects the global climate.

Using a framework that considers interactions of carbon and nutrients, Wang and Houlton have developed a new global estimate of nitrogen fixation rates.

The authors considered the amount of nitrogen plants require to store additional carbon and found that a substantial deficit of nitrogen exists for plants in most areas of the world. They argue that most climate models that do not take into account nitrogen have overestimated carbon uptake and therefore underestimated predicted global warming.

The authors suggest that it is important that the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change consider interactions between the nitrogen and carbon cycles.

The research appears in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Authors include Ying-Ping Wang, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research and CAWCR; Benjamin Z. Houlton, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis.

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Biodiversity hotspot

2011-11-28T11:55:00.003+08:00

SOURCE:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/b/biodiversity_hotspot.htm

Biodiversity hotspot
A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region that is both a significant reservoir of biodiversity and is threatened with destruction.

The term biodiversity hotspot specifically refers to 25 biologically rich areas around the world that have lost at least 70 percent of their original habitat.

The remaining natural habitat in these biodiversity hotspots amounts to just 1.4 percent of the land surface of the planet, yet supports nearly 60 percent of the world's plant, bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian.

Hotspot (geology)
(Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/h/hotspot_(geology).htm)
In geology, a hotspot is a location on the Earth's surface that has experienced active volcanism for a long period of time.

Hotspots were thought to be caused by a narrow stream of hot mantle convecting up from the mantle-core boundary called a mantle plume, the latest geological evidence is pointing to upper-mantle convection as a cause.

This in turn has re-raised the antipodal pair impact hypothesis, the idea that pairs of opposite hot spots may result from the impact of a large meteor.

Geologists have identified some 40-50 such hotspots around the globe, with Hawaii, Reunion, Yellowstone, Galapagos, and Iceland overlying the most currently active.

Biodiversity
(Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/b/biodiversity.htm
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the diversity of life.

There are a number of definitions and measures of biodiversity.

Biodiversity is commonly identified at three levels.

First there is genetic diversity, which is the diversity of genes within a species.

There is a genetic variability among the populations and the individuals of the same species.

Secondly there is species diversity, or diversity among species in an ecosystem.

"Biodiversity hotspots" are excellent examples of species diversity.

Third there is ecosystem diversity, diversity at a higher level of organization, the ecosystem.

This has to do with the variety of ecosystems on Earth.

Conservation biology
(Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/c/conservation_biology.htm)
Conservation biology is the protection and management of biodiversity that uses principles and experiences from the biological sciences, from natural resource management, and from the social sciences, including economics.

Put another way, conservation biology is the scientific study of the phenomena that affect the maintenance, loss, and restoration of biological diversity.

Seedbank
(Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/s/seedbank.htm)
Seedbanks store seeds as a source for planting in case seed reserves elsewhere should be destroyed

Old-Growth Rainforests Must Be Saved for Tropical Biodiversity

2011-11-28T11:24:00.003+08:00

Recent studies on man-made impacts- the main causes of tropical forests degradation leading to a marked decrease in biodiversity in affected areas. The following report was featured in SCIENCE DAILY. (Greensleeves)

SOURCE:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110914131331.htm

ScienceDaily (Sep. 14, 2011) —

A team of researchers from Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, the UK and the USA has carried out a comprehensive assessment to estimate the impact of disturbance and land conversion on biodiversity in tropical forests. In a recent study published in Nature, they found that primary forests -- those least disturbed old-growth forests -- sustain the highest levels of biodiversity and are vital to many tropical species.

Rampant rates of logging and agricultural expansion have transformed the world's tropical forests, leaving little remaining primary forests unaltered by humans. The value of these rapidly expanding degraded and converted forest landscapes is hotly debated, and was the subject of the study.

"Some scientists have recently argued that degraded tropical forests support high levels of biodiversity," says Luke Gibson, the lead author from the National University of Singapore (NUS). "Our study demonstrates that this is rarely the case," he adds.

Drawing on information from 138 scientific studies spanning 28 tropical countries, Gibson and his colleagues compared biodiversity in primary forests to that in regenerating forests and forests degraded by logging and converted to agriculture. Overall, biodiversity values were substantially lower in disturbed forests.

"There's no substitute for primary forests," says Gibson. "All major forms of disturbance invariably reduce biodiversity in tropical forests," he adds.

Selective logging, in which machinery is used to extract a limited number of trees from the forest, appears to be the least harmful human disturbance. "As selective logging is rapidly expanding throughout the tropics, ecological restoration of such areas might represent an effective strategy to alleviate threats to biodiversity," says Lian Pin Koh of ETH Zurich.

Parks, however, will remain a critical conservation strategy in protecting the world's remaining primary tropical forests. "We urgently need to expand our reserves and improve their enforcement," says Tien Ming Lee, co-lead author at the University of California, San Diego. "Effective reserves have the added benefit of reducing overall carbon emissions," adds Lee.

However, many of these tropical parks are far from secure. "A growing number of reserves are being degraded, downsized, if not entirely degazetted, so holding on to the last remaining large tracts of primary forests within existing reserves will be a crucial part of the conservation mission this century," says Carlos Peres of the University of East Anglia.

Compared to Africa and the Americas, the authors found that tropical forests in Asia suffered the greatest loss in biodiversity. "Southeast Asia, representing most of the Asian studies, emerged as a conservation hotspot and must be one of our top priority regions," suggests Lee. Not surprisingly, Southeast Asia has the lowest remaining forest cover, highest rates of deforestation, and the highest human population densities among all major tropical regions.

This study was initiated by the late Professor Navjot Sodhi, a conservation ecologist at NUS, who devoted his career to studying the biodiversity crisis in Southeast Asia and around the planet.

With the global population projected to surpass 9 billion by 2050, tropical forests will face increasing threats posed by human-driven land-use changes. "Human populations are exploding and very few areas remain untouched by the expanding horizon of human impacts," says Gibson, who was mentored by Professor Sodhi. "It is therefore essential to limit the reach of humans and to preserve the world's remaining old-growth rainforests while they still exist. The future of tropical biodiversity depends on it," he concludes.

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Major Ecological Study On Borneo's Deforested Landscapes Launched

2011-11-28T11:00:00.004+08:00

Science Daily featured the following report on one of the world's largest ecological studies in the rainforest state of Sabah in Malaysia....

SOURCE:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110201084240.htm

ScienceDaily (Feb. 1, 2011) —
A giant-scale experiment on deforestation, biodiversity and carbon cycling has got underway in the spectacular forests of Sabah, a Malaysian state on the tropical southeast Asian island of Borneo. Scientists hope the results will help guide the management and conservation of remaining rainforests in tropical Asia.

One of the largest ecological studies in the world, encompassing 8000 hectares (an area larger than Manhattan), the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) Project is led by researchers at Imperial College London and was officially launched this week by the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Over the next ten years, scientists from Malaysia and the UK will be studying how deforestation and forest fragmentation alter the ability of this tropical landscape to support a unique diversity of life. They will also be investigating the impact of agricultural development on the ecosystem's ability to absorb carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas. This is the first time an experiment of this magnitude, nature and influence has been attempted, more than doubling the size of previous experiments conducted over the last 30 years.

The SAFE Project involves distinguished researchers from Imperial, the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. It is supported by the UK Royal Society's South East Asia Rainforest Research Programme (SEARRP) and a generous donation of 30 million Malaysian ringgit (about £6.1 million) from the Sime Darby Foundation in Malaysia.

Project leader, Dr Robert Ewers, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London said: "The potential impact of the SAFE Project is global and far-reaching. The findings of this study will help scientists to design landscapes that maintain agricultural production at least cost to biodiversity."

In an area that has been gazetted for conversion to plantation for the last 20 years, the scientists will take advantage of a planned and government-approved oil palm conversion to make experimental changes to the forest, among the world's most biodiverse tropical ecosystems, to create a fragmented forest that closely resembles recently developed land.

Professor Andrew Balmford from the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge said: "The end goal we are aiming for is to understand how a tropical rainforest functions, and how that functioning changes when you place the forest under pressure from humans. We can get answers to these questions by controlling how exactly the forest is disturbed, under experimental conditions. Careful observation of how the ecosystem becomes disrupted when it is damaged will tell us a tremendous amount about how it functions when it is left alone."

The SAFE Project consists of four interconnected projects. The first of these will scrutinise differences in ecosystem function and species' persistence in the forest as it is incrementally damaged by light and heavy logging, becomes fragmented, and is eventually converted into an oil palm plantation.

The second will investigate how managed deforestation, which often leaves isolated fragments of forest of different sizes and in different locations within a plantation, can be designed to minimise the ecological damage caused by converting forests to agriculture.

A third is focussed on the role of forest fragments in protecting water supplies and biodiversity in the streams that pass through forests and plantations.

And the fourth project will quantify how the carbon cycle of the forest changes as it is converted and fragmented, and how the resilience of this carbon cycle to climate change can be maximised.

Professor Yadvinder Malhi, Director of the Centre for Tropical Forests at the University of Oxford said:
"The concept of a 'natural ecosystem' is fast disappearing in many regions of the tropics as humans modify the world at an ever-accelerating rate, meaning much of the forest biodiversity and ecosystem services must now persist and be protected in human-modified landscapes. The SAFE Project is conducting one of the world's largest ecological experiments to understand the myriad ways in which logging, deforestation and forest fragmentation cause release of greenhouse gases, and modify the functioning and climate sensitivity of remaining tropical rainforest. How can we maximise the carbon retention and climate benefits of remaining tropical forests in a human-modified landscape, benefits we urgently need to maintain in our struggle to avoid dangerous climate change?"

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How to discuss climate change with your uncle during the holidays

2011-11-27T16:04:00.004+08:00

If your holiday dinner conversation turns into a debate over global warming, here are a few tips for staying cool while standing up for science.

Most people know better than to bring up politics, religion or climatology in polite company. It's a recipe for arguments, or at least for awkwardness.

But when families get together for big holiday meals like Thanksgiving and Christmas, that recipe is often dusted off anyway. And whether it's your nephew demonizing the Tea Party, your niece deifying Tim Tebow, or your aunt and uncle arguing about polar bears, no one wants squabbling to overshadow gobbling at a holiday feast.

Still, not all taboo topics are the same. Fuzzier issues like politics and religion are often sensitive, since they're largely matters of opinion and faith. But climate science is a little different, thanks to the "science" part. It's one thing to bite your tongue while a relative rants about taxes or morality, but what if the conversation turns to coral bleaching or glacier loss? Is it worth risking an argument to set the record straight?

In most cases, probably not. It's not like your relative is addressing the United Nations, and you might just come off as uptight and self-righteous for trying to squelch dissent. If your uncle had two glasses of wine and wants to grumble about Al Gore, you're probably better off letting him. Otherwise, you could just end up convincing him even further that environmentalists want to control his life.

But that's not to say you should never speak up for science at family gatherings. Polite enlightenment is possible; it just requires being knowledgeable and confident without seeming nitpicky or condescending. And even if you can do that, it still depends on your audience, which may have little patience for a science lesson.

If you decide it's worth the risks, though — maybe your uncle can be open-minded, or you know your cousin will back you up — here's a quick guide for explaining climate change without raining on everyone's parade:

1. Don't blow hot air: Whether you're debating your uncle or a stranger, it helps to know what you're talking about. Doing your homework will help ensure you always have a response ready without resorting to hyperbole. Below are a few examples of claims you might hear from a climate-change denier, along with a rebuttal to each (and links to more comprehensive lists). If you want a cheat sheet, consider printing out this guide or loading it on your smartphone for easy reference.

•"There's no evidence of global warming, and computer models are unreliable."
Scientists don't need computer models to tell them global warming is under way. For that, they can look to surface-temperature records, satellite data, ice-sheet borehole analysis, measurements of sea-level rise and sea-ice extent, and observations of permafrost loss and glacier melting. Computer models are helpful for predicting future climate patterns, and they're becoming increasingly accurate, but they're hardly the only evidence we have.

•"Global temperatures stopped rising in 1998."
This argument has lost some steam lately, especially since 2005 and 2010 tied as the hottest years on record. But it was never very convincing to begin with, since it implies that only a linear year-to-year rise indicates a trend. 1998 was hot, but it's considered an outlier because a strong El Niño skewed it even hotter. This graph shows yearly variability of global temperature anomalies (thin line) as well as as the "smoothed" average (bold line) from 1880 to 2010:

•"Glaciers are actually growing."
There are about 160,000 glaciers on Earth, and since scientists can't monitor them all collectively, they study groups of "reference glaciers." According to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, the average reference glacier has lost 12 meters (39 feet) of water-equivalent thickness since 1980. Some glaciers are stable, and a few are even growing, but many that provide key freshwater supplies are melting at an alarming rate. As glaciologist Bruce Molnia told MNN in 2010, warming affects low-elevation glaciers first, since temperatures are cooler in the mountains. "The lower the elevation of origin, the more dire the time period when the glacier will be affected," Molnia said.

•"The climate has changed before, so we can't be blamed for changing it now."
Earth's climate has changed lots of times without human help, but does that really mean humans are incapable of changing it? As Skeptical Science points out, that's "like arguing that humans can't start bushfires because in the past they've happened naturally." When the climate changed eons ago, it was because something made it change — extra sunshine warmed it up, volcanic clouds cooled it down. We know carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, and we're now releasing those gases at a record pace. And the main problem is that modern-day climate change is happening faster than in the past, potentially outpacing some species' ability to adapt.

•"Global warming is good for humans."
CO2 does help plant growth, and warmer weather can initially boost crops in northern regions. But this view ignores widespread, long-term dangers in favor of scattered, short-term benefits. Climate change encourages extreme weather — including longer droughts in some places and bigger storms in others — that can decimate crops, and it also helps some pests expand their range. Global warming poses too many threats to list here, but they include: the loss of fisheries and marine ecosystems to ocean acidification; the loss of coastal communities to rising seas; the loss of freshwater supplies due to melting glaciers; and increased conflict due to droughts, floods and famine.

For a full list of responses to these and other climate claims, check out this 2009 report by the University of Oregon's Climate Leadership Initiative, this guide for "How to talk to a climate skeptic" by journalist Coby Beck, and this list of arguments and myths by Skeptical Science. A wealth of information about climate change can also be found at NOAA's climate.gov as well as climate.nasa.gov and epa.gov/climatechange.

2. Don't be insulting:
There's no going back from ad hominem attacks. Don't treat your uncle like he's dumb, and don't be rude or condescending. Admit it when you don't know something; give your uncle credit when he's right. This will help your credibility, and maybe even help prevent a holiday fracas with your family.

3. Cite your sources:
No one expects you to bring a bibliography to Thanksgiving but it would help if you could at least rattle off a few reputable sources of your information. That shouldn't be too hard, since most major scientific organizations around the world have reached a consensus that global warming is real and human activity contributes to it. NOAA, NASA and the EPA are good places to start, as is the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (which, coincidentally, is holding a big climate summit next week in South Africa). Be respectful of your uncle's sources, too, but if he brings up "Climategate," feel free to point out it's been debunked.

(UPDATE: As MNN's Karl Burkart reports, a new campaign dubbed "Hackergate" has just surfaced two years after Climategate. Nothing revelatory has emerged from the newly leaked emails so far, but if your uncle wants to press the issue, just remind him that climate change has been confirmed by far more scientists than the ones who wrote these emails — and they haven't actually been discredited, either.)

4. Don't mix science and politics:
Climate change will never be solved without broad, coordinated political action, but that doesn't mean it needs to start at your dinner table. Opposition to climate science is largely born from deeply entrenched political attitudes about government regulation, so subjects like cap and trade are often even more sensitive than the polar ice caps. Try to keep the conversation light-hearted, or at least civil, and steer it away from politics if you can.

5. Take a break:
Your family is a captive audience during a holiday meal, so don't bore them with endless bickering. Even if your uncle wants to keep debating solar flares and the heat-island effect, spare your relatives and suggest continuing the discussion later, maybe via email so you can both provide links to your sources.

However you decide to handle a climate-change denier at the dinner table, don't forget the reason you're both sitting there. Holiday meals are a celebration of family and friends, and you shouldn't let a scientific debate kill the good vibes. It's a smart strategy to apply elsewhere, too — if you can explain global warming without losing your cool, you might give environmentalists everywhere something to be thankful for.

For a more detailed read on the above: http://www.mnn.com/family/family-activities/blogs/how-to-discuss-climate-change-with-your-uncle-during-the-holidays

A Fifth of Global Energy Could Come from Biomass Without Damaging Food Production

2011-11-27T15:50:00.003+08:00

ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2011) — A new report suggests that up to one fifth of global energy could be provided by biomass (plants) without damaging food production.

The report reviews more than 90 global studies. It has been produced by the Technology and Policy Assessment function of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), which addresses key controversies in the energy field, and aims to provide authoritative and accessible reports that set very high standards for rigour and transparency.

A debate has been raging about the role biomass could play in the future energy system: some say it could play a major role in fuelling the planet, others argue it risks an environmental disaster. To get to the heart of the controversy, UKERC scientists at Imperial College London have undertaken the first systematic review of the evidence base.

The report finds that the main reason scientists disagree is that they make different assumptions about population, diet, and land use. A particularly important bone of contention is the speed with which productivity improvements in food and energy crop production can be rolled out.

"If we make the best use of agricultural residues, energy crops and waste materials then getting one fifth of current global energy supply from biomass is a reasonable ambition," says Dr Raphael Slade, the report's lead author and a Research Fellow at Imperial College London. The report finds that getting more than this is technically possible but requires assumptions about food production and changes in diets that look increasingly challenging, especially as people in Asia and Latin America begin to adopt a high meat western diet as incomes rise.

"The more bio-energy you want the harder it becomes to reconcile demand for food, energy and environmental protection" says Slade. Replacing all fossil fuels with biomass would be equivalent to all of global agriculture and commercial forestry combined, and would only be possible if we can grow more food on less land.

Technical advances could be the least contentious route to increased bio-energy production, but policy will need to encourage innovation and investment. A renewed focus on increasing food and energy crop yields could deliver a win-win opportunity as long as it is done without damaging soil fertility or depleting water resources. The report highlights the potential for policy to promote learning by encouraging development of sustainable biomass now, rather than waiting for the definitive answer on the ultimate potential.

"The main mistake is to think of this as all or nothing. There's plenty of scope for experimentation to make sure we get it right," says Dr Slade.

Energy is an essential input into global agriculture, and the interactions between these two areas need to be better understood. The report stresses the need for scientists working on food and agriculture to work more closely with bio-energy specialists to address challenges such as water availability and environmental protection. If biomass is required to play a major role in the future energy system the linkages between bio-energy and food production will become too important for either to be considered in isolation.

Bioenergy may need to play a part in a future low carbon energy mix," says Dr Ausilio Bauen, Head of Bioenergy at Imperial College's Centre for Energy Policy and Technology. "Ensuring bio-energy, food and forests don't compete for land won't be straightforward. But, if we use land more productively, and make better use of available plant material, we should be perfectly capable of producing bio-energy, feeding a growing population, and conserving the environment all at the same time."

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SOURCE:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111125161027.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ftop_news%2Ftop_environment+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Top+News+--+Top+Environment%29

World's oceans in peril

2011-11-18T11:37:00.008+08:00

Climate change is causing our oceans to become increasingly acidic, threatening to alter life as we know it. - Dahr Jamail
Source : Aljazeera (dated 16th Nov, 2011)

"From a climate change/fisheries/pollution/habitat destruction point of view, our nightmare is here, it's the world we live in."

This bleak statement about the current status of the world's oceans comes from Dr Wallace Nichols, a Research Associate at the California Academy of Sciences. Al Jazeera asked Dr Nichols, along with several other ocean experts, how they see the effects climate change, pollution and seafood harvesting are having on the oceans.

Their prognosis is not good.

Dr Nancy Knowlton is a marine biologist at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. Her research has focused on the impact of climate change on coral reefs around the world, specifically how increasing warming and acidification from carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have affected oceans.

While she is unable to say if oceans have crossed a tipping point, Dr Knowlton offered this discouraging assessment, "We know it's bad and we know it's getting worse, and if we care about having coral reefs, there's no question we have to do something about CO2 emissions or we won't have coral reefs, as we do now, sometime between 2050-2100."

Since at least one quarter of all species of life in the oceans are associated with coral reefs, losing them could prove catastrophic.

"Coral reefs are like giant apartment complexes for all these species, and there is intimacy," Dr Knowlton explained. "If that starts breaking down, these organisms, which include millions of species around the world, lose their homes. Even if they aren't eating coral, they depend on it."

CO2 is the main greenhouse gas resulting from human activities in terms of its warming potential and longevity in the atmosphere, and scientists continually monitor its concentration.

In March 1958, when high-precision monitoring began, atmospheric CO2 was 315.71 parts per million (ppm). Today, atmospheric CO2 is approaching 390 ppm.

350 ppm is the level many scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments say is the safe upper limit for CO2 in the atmosphere.

"You see evidence of the impact of climate change on the oceans everywhere now," Dr Nichols said. "The collapsing fisheries, the changes in the Arctic and the hardship communities that live there are having to face, the frequency and intensity of storms, everything we imagined 30 to 40 years ago when the environmental movement was born, we're dealing with those now … the toxins in our bodies, food web, and in the marine mammals, it's all there."

Bleak scenario
The Zoological Society of London reported in July 2009 that "360 is now known to be the level at which coral reefs cease to be viable in the long run."

In September 2009 Nature magazine stated that atmospheric CO2 levels above 350 ppm "threaten the ecological life-support systems" of the planet and "challenge the viability of contemporary human societies."

In their October 2009 issue, the journal Science offered new evidence of what the earth was like 20 million years ago, which was the last time we had carbon levels this high. At that time, sea levels rose over 30 metres and temperatures were as much as 18 degrees C higher than they are today.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, carbon emissions have already risen "far above even the bleak scenarios."

Oceans absorb 26 per cent (2.3bn metric tonnes) of the carbon human activities released into the atmosphere annually, according to a 2010 study published by Nature Geocience and The Global Carbon Project.

Unfortunately, global carbon emissions, rather than slowing down in order to stem climate change, are continuing to increase.

At a 2008 academic conference Exeter University scientist Kevin Anderson showed slides and graphs "representing the fumes that belch from chimneys, exhausts and jet engines, that should have bent in a rapid curve towards the ground, were heading for the ceiling instead".

He concluded it was "improbable" that we would be able to stop short of 650 ppm, even if rich countries adopted "draconian emissions reductions within a decade".

That number, should it come to pass, would mean that global average temperatures would increase five times as much as previous models predicted.

According to the National Climate Data Centre in the US 2010 was the warmest year on record. September 2011 was the 8th warmest September on record since 1880. At 15.53°C, August's global temperature is 0.53 C higher than the 20th Century average for that month.

Even if CO2 emissions were completely stopped immediately, ongoing impacts from climate change would take centuries to stop.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a study in 2009 showing that a new understanding of ocean physics proved that "changes in surface temperature, rainfall, and sea level are largely irreversible for more than a thousand years after carbon dioxide emissions are completely stopped".

Increasing acidification
Many factors concern Knowlton and Nichols, but one in particular, the increasing acidification of the oceans has been gaining more attention as of late.

Historically, oceans have been chemically constant, but less than 10 years ago oceanographers were shocked when researchers noticed the seas were acidifying - 30 per cent more acidic - as they absorbed more of the carbon dioxide humans have emitted into the atmosphere, a process that Britain's Royal Society has described as "essentially irreversible."

The oceans are already more acidic than they have been at any time in the last 800,000 years. At current rates, by 2050 it will be more corrosive than they have been in the past 20 million years.

Acidification occurs when CO2 combines with seawater to form carbonic acid.

Sarah Cooley, a marine geochemist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, wrote this about acidification:

"As CO2 levels driven by fossil fuel use have increased in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, so has the amount of CO2 absorbed by the world's oceans, leading to changes in the chemical make-up of seawater. Known as ocean acidification, this decrease in pH creates a corrosive environment for some marine organisms such as corals, marine plankton, and shellfish that build carbonate shells or skeletons."

Already ocean pH has slipped from 8.2 to 8.1, and the consensus estimate is that the pH will drop to 7.8 by the end of this century.

Acidification has been the research focus of biological oceanographer Dr Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez with the National Oceanography Centre at Britain's University of Southampton. She has researched how phytoplankton, which are the major contributors to sinking carbon in the oceans, are able to absorb carbon now and into the future when human impact on the atmosphere is changing the chemistry of the oceans and how this will affect the oceans ability to sink carbon in the future.

"The oceans are becoming more alkaline now and this will affect marine life and marine animals and plants," Iglesias-Rodriguez told Al Jazeera. "The chalk producing calcifying organisms are introducing chalk into these increasingly acidic conditions, and it is dissolving."

These chalk produced by these organisms traps and stores carbon, so when increasing acidification decreases the amount of calcium carbonate, it decreases the ocean's ability to store carbon.

"Calcification affects fisheries because many fish's diet is based on these organisms, so this has food security impacts as well," added Iglesias-Rodriguez. "The changes we are seeing now are happening faster than they have for 55 million years. The worry is that these organisms may not be able to keep up with these changes."

In this kind of environment, shellfish cannot produce thick enough shells. By 2009, the Pacific oyster industry was reporting 80 per cent mortality for oyster larvae due to the corrosive nature of the water.

"Acidification has the potential to change food security around the world, so I think it's incumbent upon the entire world to recognise this and deal with it," Cooley told Al Jazeera.

Cooley said that less developed countries that are more dependent on seafood will have less to eat as acidification progresses, and they will be forced to migrate somewhere where there is a better food supply.

Further complicating the situation, rising sea levels, also caused by climate change, will affect migration patterns from island nations as well.

In addition to food security issues, increasing acidification will also cause coral reefs to be degraded, which will affect tourism, coastal protection, and heritage values of coastal regions.

Prof Matthias Wolff is a fisheries biologist and marine ecosystem ecologist working for Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Ecology, as well as a research professor and professor at university of Bremen, Germany.

"Plankton, organisms that produce much of the carbon in the sea and coral, are dying off," he told Al Jazeera. "So people believe that CO2 level may double from the pre-human times to more than 400-500 ppm by the end of the century, which would be a unique situation in history. This would have a tremendous effect on these organisms that would affect the whole ecosystem."

Cooley points out that while some species will benefit from increasing acidification, others like corals and molluscs will suffer, along with others that are pH sensitive that cannot control their intercellular biology as well.

"We think there will be shifts in ecosystems, and the current array of species present in an ecosystem is going to shift and there will likely be a new dominant species," she said. "Past studies have shown us that any real decrease in species in an ecosystem can be a bad thing. On land, we see that monoculture fields are really susceptible to a virus or bug. So if acidification decreases diversity, it creates a less stable system in the future. We're anticipating, if things go as they are going now, we really could be seeing some profound shifts in what we know and what we currently benefit from."

Myriad problems
In addition to climate change and acidification, there are many other problems that concern scientists as well.

"Probably every sea turtle on the planet interacts with plastic at some point in its life" [GALLO/GETTY]

"Marine pollution, this is a big issue," Dr Iglesias-Rodriguez said, "There is this idea that oceans have unlimited inertia, but the effect of nano-particles of plastic getting into marine animals and the food chain and these are affecting fish fertility rates, and this effects food security, and on coastal populations. Pollution is having a huge impact on the oceans, and is urgent and needs to be dealt with."

Dr Nichols describes the crisis of the oceans as a three-fold problem.
"We're putting too much in, in all forms of pollution, we're taking too much out by fishing, overfishing, and bi-catch, and we're destroying the edge of the ocean - these places where there is the most biodiversity like reefs, mangroves, sea grass, etc."

Nichols said he finds plastic on literally every beach he visits across the globe, and added, "Probably every sea turtle on the planet interacts with plastic at some point in its life."

Nichols believes that, rather than the polar bear, sea turtles should be the "poster species" for climate change.

"The sex of sea turtles is temperature dependent, so as temperature warms more males are produced, cooling produces more females, and obviously you need the right mix to maintain numbers," he explained, "We're seeing some eggs literally cooking on beaches now because the temperature has moved out of the tolerable range."

Prof Wolff explained another issue complicating the situation.

"The oceans warm up, and this affects spatial distribution of fish," he explained, "Those needing colder waters need to migrate and change the distribution, other fish can extend their distribution greatly when the water warms, so now they can reach polar regions where they weren't before. So there is a great change in distributional patterns of the resources of the fisheries to be expected in the future."

Wolff points to Greenland fisheries as an example of how an area warms up, there are longer periods for fish production, while in other areas like Brazil and Indonesia, productive areas are shrinking and there will be a great decrease in fishing potential.

"This is already happening," said Wolff.

Dr Knowlton is concerned about how increasing ocean temperatures are causing the bleaching of coral reefs.

Bleaching causes a lot of problems for corals, because if it's severe and prolonged the algae starves to death because the amount of nutrition coral needs is not there," she said. "The 1998 El Nino bleached 80 per cent of the corals in the Indian Ocean and 20 per cent of them died."

She is concerned by the fact that high temperature events like the 1998 El Nino are becoming increasingly common, and added, "We've been having bleaching for close to 30years now."

Like others, Knowlton sees poor water quality from pollution, overfishing and other problems that are causing ocean conditions to become increasingly unfavourable for corals.

She believes if there is not a major shift to correct the pollution problem, the next 10 years are going to be bleak.

"Increasing numbers of dead zones and collapsing fisheries," Knowlton says is what we can expect, "Then ultimately the collapse of these deep ecosystems that are dependent on things like coral reefs."

WHAT TO DO?
Despite these grave concerns, Knowlton feels there is something that can be done.

"Even though the long term prognosis with business as usual is pretty grim, we know there are smaller areas where reefs are protected and those are very healthy, and we can reduce local stresses and that builds resilience in ecosystems."

Prof Wolff pointed out that, while more than 75 per cent of fish stocks are overfished or already depleted, there are a number around the globe that are regenerating.

"Increasing numbers of dead zones and collapsing fisheries," Knowlton says is what we can expect, "Then ultimately the collapse of these deep ecosystems that are dependent on things like coral reefs."

"In 2009 we saw that more than 50 per cent of overfished areas are being rebuilt because they responded to the situation of heavy over-exploitation, so I'm a little more optimistic than many other scientists. By reducing fishing, we can allow the stocks to rebuild."

But he believes that in order for this to happen, we need to create more protected areas in the oceans.

According to Wolff, roughly 10 per cent of our lands are protected, but far less than 1 per cent of oceans are protected.

"We need to aim for 10 to 20 per cent of oceans being protected, because that is what is needed to maintain ecosystem functioning and to rebuild the stocks," he said.

Wolff has been working in the Galapagos Islands on conservation, and cites them as an example of what can happen with protected areas, since there has been no fishery there since 1998.

"If you go diving there you see an abundance of large fish and sharks, which I've never seen anywhere else, you see 200 to 300 sharks in one dive," he said. "To me, this is a promising example of the way we need to go. We need more money for this than for subsidies for fisheries, which is ridiculous. Right now, they are getting as much money as we'd need to manage protected areas of 15 per cent of the oceans."

Nichols believes it is no longer about trying to avert disaster, but more along the lines of mitigating the problems that are already upon us.

"I think we're in it right now," he said, "So it's not about, here's how much time we have. The clock in many ways has already run out. We're still growing our use of fossil fuels, we're not even in a mode of trimming them down, same with our use of plastic and the plastic pollution generated from it. There's more conversation about this than ever, but it's not translating into societal change or evolution."

Nichols makes his point by way of example of ocean types.

"If ocean 1.0 is the pristine natural ocean, 2.0 is the ocean we have now under the petroleum product regime of 100 years of use, and 3.0 is the future ocean," he said. "It can either be a dead ocean, or we can come up with some very innovative solutions that right now people aren't even talking about."

He said we can come up with new ways of getting food from the oceans that don't involve long line fishing and bottom trawling, as well as eliminating packaging and taking a zero-waste approach to consumer goods, both of which he says are possible, "if we can muster the political and personal motivation."

"We could have a healthy ocean in 50 years if we make some bold moves, it wouldn't be 1.0 or 2.0, but it would be a cleaner from a more responsible set of actions for how we get energy from the oceans and how we use them as a source of food."

If that is not done, then we most likely will face a future predicted in a 2008 report co-authored by NASA's James Hansen, a leading climate scientist, titled, Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?

"Humanity today, collectively, must face the uncomfortable fact that industrial civilisation itself has become the principal driver of global climate," reads the report, "If we stay our present course, using fossil fuels to feed a growing appetite for energy-intensive lifestyles, we will soon leave the climate of the Holocene, the world of prior human history. The eventual response to doubling pre-industrial atmospheric CO2 likely would be a nearly ice-free planet, preceded by a period of chaotic change with continually changing shorelines."

Follow Dahr Jamail on Twitter: @DahrJamail

Climate Change Causing Massive Movement of Tree Species Across the West

2011-11-15T12:31:00.009+08:00

The following report from SCIENCE DAILY keeps tabs on the devastating effects of climate change on the habitats of both flora and fauna on planet earth. Is there no end to the onslaught that is endangering their natural habitats resulting in our wildlife to continue dwindling in numbers and facing total disappearance in the very near future? Can we make a difference and bring about a change in the way we live our lives and in the ways we treat our forests and environment? (GREENSLEEVES)

Here's the research report in full:

ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2011)
— A huge "migration" of trees has begun across much of the West due to global warming, insect attack, diseases and fire, and many tree species are projected to decline or die out in regions where they have been present for centuries, while others move in and replace them.

In an enormous display of survival of the fittest, the forests of the future are taking a new shape.

In a new report, scientists outline the impact that a changing climate will have on which tree species can survive, and where. The study suggests that many species that were once able to survive and thrive are losing their competitive footholds, and opportunistic newcomers will eventually push them out.

In some cases, once-common species such as lodgepole pine will be replaced by other trees, perhaps a range expansion of ponderosa pine or Douglas-fir. Other areas may shift completely out of forest into grass savannah or sagebrush desert. In central California, researchers concluded that more than half of the species now present would not be expected to persist in the climate conditions of the future.

"Some of these changes are already happening, pretty fast and in some huge areas," said Richard Waring, professor emeritus at Oregon State University and lead author of the study. "In some cases the mechanism of change is fire or insect attack, in others it's simply drought.

"We can't predict exactly which tree (species) will die or which one will take its place, but we can see the long-term trends and probabilities," Waring said. "The forests of our future are going to look quite different."

Waring said tree species that are native to a local area or region are there because they can most effectively compete with other species given the specific conditions of temperature, precipitation, drought, cold-tolerance and many other factors that favor one species over another in that location.

As those climatic conditions change, species that have been established for centuries or millennia will lose their competitive edge, Waring said, and slowly but surely decline or disappear.

This survey, done with remote sensing of large areas over a four-year period, compared 15 coniferous tree species that are found widely across much of the West in Canada and the United States. The research explored impacts on 34 different "eco-regions" ranging from the Columbia Plateau to the Sierra Nevada, Snake River Plain and Yukon Highlands.

It projected which tree species would be at highest risk of disturbance in a future that's generally expected to be 5-9 degrees Fahrenheit warmer by 2080, with perhaps somewhat more precipitation in the winter and spring, and less during the summer.

Among the findings:
•Some of the greatest shifts in tree species are expected to occur in both the northern and southern extremes of this area, such as British Columbia, Alberta, and California.

•Large declines are expected in lodgepole pine and Engelmann spruce, and more temperate species such as Douglas-fir and western hemlock may expand their ranges.

•Many wilderness areas are among those at risk of the greatest changes, and will probably be the first to experience major shifts in tree species.

•Some of the mild, wetter areas of western Oregon and Washington will face less overall species change than areas of the West with a harsher climate.

•More than half of the evergreen species are experiencing a significant decrease in their competitiveness in six eco-regions.

•Conditions have become more favorable for outbreaks of diseases and insects.

•Warming will encourage growth at higher elevations and latitudes, and increased drought at the other extremes. Fire frequency will continue to increase across the West, and any tree species lacking drought resistance will face special challenges.

"Ecosystems are always changing at the landscape level, but normally the rate of change is too slow for humans to notice," said Steven Running, the University of Montana Regents Professor and a co-author of the study. "Now the rate of change is fast enough we can see it."

Even though the rate of change has increased, these processes will take time, the scientists said. A greater stability of forest composition will not be attained anytime soon, perhaps for centuries.

"There's not a lot we can do to really control these changes," Waring said. "For instance, to keep old trees alive during drought or insect attacks that they are no longer able to deal with, you might have to thin the forest and remove up to half the trees. These are very powerful forces at work."

One of the best approaches to plan for an uncertain future, the researchers said, is to maintain "connective corridors" as much as possible so that trees can naturally migrate to new areas in a changing future and not be stopped by artificial boundaries.

Also collaborating on the research was Nicholas Coops at the University of British Columbia. The work has been supported by NASA, and the study is being published in two professional journals, Ecological Modelling and Remote Sensing of Environment

NOTE FROM GREENSLEEVES:

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Environmental watchdog makes scientific expedition in Tambunan

2011-11-14T12:11:00.006+08:00

Much has been said about the importance of water - a natural resource that we should protect and conserve in light of climate change. Polluted waterways is one of the main worries for many developing countries. Even developed nations are not exempted.
Efforts have been made and continue to be made to safeguard this precious commodity from contaminations and further destruction.

It is heartening to read about these efforts that are taking place all over the planet and the following is one of them which was reported in THE STAR on 14th Nov, 2011 (GREENSLEEVES)

KOTA KINABALU: A scientific expedition was made to an important water catchment area deep in Sabah’s interior to ensure it is well preserved and continues to be a pristine source of life.

Environmental watchdog WWF-Malaysia made the trip with Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) to the Liwagu sub-catchment area in Tambunan, about 80km from here from Nov 10 to today.

The main objective of the expedition was to gather information that contributes towards building critical knowledge for supporting the management of the sub-catchment area and the natural resources within it.

The expedition included surveys and investigations, as well as identification and establishment of sampling and research plots for future data collection.

“UMS is very excited to work with WWF-Malaysia and we believe we can complement each other in terms of expertise, skills and resources,”

said UMS’ Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation director Dr Abdul Hamid Ahmad.

The collaboration between WWF-Malaysia and UMS will continue beyond the expedition and will extend throughout further research undertakings in the Liwagu sub-catchment area in the future including in documentation and distribution of research findings.

“This expedition will be an interesting one as this will be WWF-Malaysia’s first scientific expedition that focuses on upland catchment area in Sabah,” said WWF-Malaysia freshwater coordinator Daria Mathew.

The Liwagu sub-catchment in Tambunan has been WWF-Malaysia’s project area since January last year and will end by December 2012. It is fully funded by HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd.

This project site focuses on sustainable management of freshwater resources and water catchment.

Its core targets are to improve the protection and sustainable management of freshwater resources, enhance management, conservation and restoration of wildlife in the area as well as to enhance the capacity and participation of local communities in catchment and natural resources management.

About WWF-Malaysia:
WWF-Malaysia (World Wide Fund for Nature-Malaysia), the national conservation trust, currently runs more than 75 projects covering a diverse range of environmental protection work. Since 1972, WWF-Malaysia has worked on important conservation projects, from saving endangered species such as tigers and turtles, to protecting our highland forests, rivers and seas. We also undertake environmental education and advocacy work to achieve conservation goals. By conserving our natural resources, WWF-Malaysia is helping to protect our livelihoods, food and water supply, thus securing our good quality of life and our children’s bright future. We thank our supporters whose donations enable our conservation work. If you would like to donate to WWF-Malaysia or learn more about our projects, please call: +603-78033772 or visit our website at: wwf.org.my

Click and read about this effort as it appeared in THE STAR.

Protecting nature's nomads

2011-11-14T11:21:00.007+08:00

I have just read an online news article from the local tabloid regarding the annual migratory birds from the cold regions in the northern hemisphere to warmer areas in the south in search of food and warmth. When the south gets too cold , the cycle repeats itself and the birds embark on the return journey to the north. This natural phenomenon, which occurs annually, has been the factor that keeps our animal species alive and continue to flourish on this planet throughout the ages.

To many of us, this instinct for survival remains a mystery still. It is as though the birds and animals have an inborn radar built in their respective systems. Otherwise, how do we explain their sense of direction and the innate trait that is characteristic of the animal kingdom? Modern day science has attempted to find answers to their natural behaviour and have answered our many questions but more remains to be learned from the wonders that now surround us.

The following article is an in-depth study on the subject by ACHIM STEINER as it appeared in the Aljajeera, dated 13th Nov, 2011. It shows the impacts of man-made factors and climate change in the paths of migratory birds and animals and how vulnerable these defenseless creatures can become. At the end of it all, will they win the battle but lose the war? (GREENSLEEVES)

Migratory patterns of 10,000 species are being destroyed by barriers, habitat degradation, pollution and climate change.

For the elephants that are returning to southern Angola, after herds were devastated during the country's civil wars, the battle is far from over.

Old land mines, sown during the decades of conflict that ended in 2002, are threatening the lives and limbs not only of people, but also of the growing elephant populations that are crossing into Angola from northern Botswana on ancient migration routes that continue into Zambia. Mines are a particularly stark example of how humans interfere with migratory journeys that have linked breeding and feeding sites across the globe for millennia.

Up to 10,000 animal species are thought to migrate. Yet, increasingly, air, water and land routes are being destroyed by barriers, ranging from roads, fences, dams and power lines to unsustainable hunting or fishing practices, habitat degradation, pollution and climate change.

One example is the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin, found in the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia. Barriers to its migration range from entrapment in fishing nets to conditions caused by gold mining and dam building.

Likewise, someone strolling through Norway's Fennoscandia region in the 1900s would have marvelled at the abundance of Lesser White-fronted Geese, which then numbered in the thousands. Today, only 20-30 breeding pairs remain - the result, according to the World Wildlife Fund, of the drainage of wetlands in countries such as Greece, and of hunting along the bird's migration routes.

In North America, one of the world's fastest land animals, the Pronghorn antelope, faces obstacles such as highways and fencing. The harsh winter in 2010 left herds stranded and hungry, blocked by fences while they burned up their fat reserves searching for ways through. Similarly, in South Africa, 12 per cent of Blue Cranes, South Africa's national bird, and 30 per cent of Ludwig's bustards are dying annually in collisions with a growing number of power lines.

Climate change is also having a severe impact on the world's most peripatetic animals. Migratory species, from Monarch butterflies to humpback whales, are suffering as a result of shifts in temperature and the disruption of the traditional timing, abundance and location of food sources.

The trend looks bad. But some countries are taking action. Since the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals entered into force in 1983, its membership has grown steadily to include 116 countries in Africa, Central and South America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. To date, the CMS has concluded agreements and memoranda of understanding to conserve more than 26 migratory species.

Economic considerations of conservation
Thanks to the CMS, Papua New Guinea and Mozambique, for example, recently agreed on cooperative arrangements to conserve migratory dugongs, animals once thought by seafarers to be mermaids. Likewise, a 20-year agreement has recently helped to increase the number of harbour seals in the Wadden Sea, shared by Germany and the Netherlands.

Protecting migratory species benefits not only the animals concerned, but humans as well. A ten-year program to restore and conserve seven million hectares of wetlands in China, Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia has improved conditions for the critically endangered Siberian crane, as well as drinking-water supplies, inland fisheries and carbon storage.

Austin, Texas, is home to the world's largest urban colony of migratory bats, which live underneath the city's central Congress Avenue Bridge. On summer nights, hundreds of people visit to witness the bats emerge for their nightly feed. Not only do the bats act as natural pest controllers, consuming up to 4,000 mosquitoes each per night; they also underpin a local tourism industry that generates an estimated $10 million a year.

On November 20-25, the CMS will hold its tenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties in Bergen, Norway. Among other success stories, the participants can cite the example of the tiny Pacific island nation of Palau. Many shark species are now at high risk, owing to growing consumption of their fins, which are widely believed to boost sexual potency and enhance general health. But Palau is helping to reverse this trend.

Two years ago, Palau became the first country to declare its coastal waters a shark sanctuary - scientists estimate that shark-diving tours now generate around eight per cent of the country's GDP, and that a single shark generates revenues from ecotourism amounting to €1.9 million ($2.6 million) over its lifetime.

Nature should never be prized merely for its economic value. But, in a world of competing demands and limited resources, economic considerations can help to tip decisions in favour of conservation rather than degradation. This kind of strategic thinking can help to ensure that the world's 10,000 migratory species continue their journeys, so that future generations can also marvel at these nomads of the natural world.

Achim Steiner is United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Program.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

A version of this article was first published on Project Syndicate.

You can also click and read the original article here.

5 ways to help your pet live longer

2011-11-13T07:34:00.011+08:00

We take a breather today and take a listen to some good and helpful advice on caring ways to show our love for all our animal companions. Our responsbilities towards them do not end with just providing them with one or two meals a day but much more. They are creatures with souls and have emotions and feel love, pain and rejection/approval just like you and I. If we love our own children we try as much as possible to provide them with all things necessary towards their upbringing. Our animal companions probably don't need as much as a human child but still, we are morally obligated to provide for their basic needs... plus, a huge dose of love and hugs!(GREENSLEEVES)

BY: Sarah D Bunting (SHINE, Yahoo) dated 11th Nov, 2011

We all want our pets to live long, healthy lives – and we'd all do just about anything to ensure that our cats and dogs can stay with us as long as possible. What five things can you do to keep your pet safe, happy, and by your side longer? We've listed them below, and chances are, you're probably on top of them already.

But one hint may surprise you…

Keep your furry friend indoors
Staying inside, or at least on a leash, protects your pet from all kinds of dangers. Indoor living shields cats from infectious diseases; digestive upset caused by snacking on poisonous plants or other foreign objects; fights with other cats, dogs, wild animals, or mean humans; and speeding cars.

And as pets age, they can't regulate their body temperatures as effectively, making them more prone to serious weather-related ailments like heat stroke if they're outdoors too long.

Of course it's fine to walk your dog, and the occasional (closely supervised) feline foray into the yard isn't the end of the world. But it's particularly important for cats to do their toileting inside; that way, the humans can monitor them for signs of tummy upset, urinary-tract issues, and so on.

Putting a "catio" in your window for bird-watching purposes, and planting cat grass in pots, can bring the outside in -- without compromising Fluffy's health.

Watch his weight
Obesity in dogs and cats causes the same serious health problems that it does in humans – high blood pressure, breathing problems, diabetes, and joint pain. It's not easy to put a portly pet on a diet, but NOT doing so could shorten his lifespan (and from a practical – and more selfish – standpoint, you really don't want to have to give a cat daily insulin injections).

If your dog or cat is on the spherical side, enlist your vet's help to change his diet. Invest in new toys for your cat that will get him more active, and try switching from "free feeding" to controlled portions at specific meal times. Take dogs for longer or more frequent walks, and get strict about table scraps and extra biscuits.

Aging pets who have maintained normal weights for years may start to plump up as their metabolisms slow down. Changing your senior dog or cat's regular food to a formula that's higher in protein and lower in fat may help, and dogs may benefit from "nutriceutical" supplements. Again, consult with your vet.

Don't skip vet appointments
It's tempting to bail on the vet if your pet seems healthy – the exams, shots, and treatments can add up to a big yearly bill if you don't have pet insurance. But our pets can't tell us when they don't feel quite right, or whether that diarrhea is a passing thing or a symptom of something more serious. The vet CAN tell you – sometimes just by looking into your dog's eyes!

As your pet ages, you may need to bring her in more frequently – every six months, instead of every year – for senior-wellness check-ups. Your vet is trained to spot conditions and concerns you can't see, and catching geriatric diseases or cancer early is the best way to find a treatment that time – quality time – to your pet's life.

Dental health is overall health
Most of these tips are common sense – but the importance of taking care of your pet's teeth may come as a surprise. It's the most common major health problem affecting cats and dogs, actually; the bacteria from dental and gum disease can travel elsewhere in their bodies, causing more serious issues.

With that said, we understand that you feel ridiculous brushing your cat's teeth. (And your cat feels even more ridiculous.) But it might seem less absurd if it adds years to your kitty's life. Check your pet's teeth and gums about once a week, if you can. Feed kibble and treats that promote dental health, and keep an eye out for signs of dental or gum disease, including bad breath, lethargy, decreased appetite, weight loss, and facial swelling. Call the vet if you think your cat or dog is having trouble eating due to mouth or tooth pain.

And yes, brush your pet's teeth – using specially formulated brushes and pastes, not "people products." Some pets grow to love the fish-flavored toothpaste; others will fight you tooth and nail. (Forgive the pun.) Even if it's a battle, remind yourself that it's worth fighting – bad teeth can reduce your dog's lifespan 2-4 years in some cases.

Spay and neuter your pets
Spaying or neutering your pet doesn't just prevent overpopulation. It can protect your pet down the line from various reproductive cancers – of the prostate and ovaries, for instance. And some studies have shown that fixed pets live longer than "intact" pets, although scientists aren't quite sure why.

We all love an adorable pile of puppies – but coo at pictures online, and get your pet spayed or neutered.

Even more tips for pet longevity!

1) Cat-proofing your house : http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/cats/tips/cat_proofing_your_house.html

(2) 7 Tips to keep doggie brains youthful:
http://www.pawnation.com/2011/10/10/7-tips-to-keep-doggy-brains-youthful/

(3) Ensure older pets get enough to eat & drink
http://www.webvet.com/main/2008/06/11/geriatric-cats

You can read the original text of this posting by clicking on it.

Huge Alaska storm passes, leaves widespread damage

2011-11-11T13:21:00.005+08:00

Further to our recent posting, dated 9th Nov, on the impending Alaskan Storm, here is a special news report on the aftermath as seen through the pages of Associated Press dated 11/11/11. (GREENSLEEVES)

SOURCE:
http://news.yahoo.com/huge-alaska-storm-passes-leaves-widespread-damage-223125767.html

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A massive storm that battered Alaska's western coast with hurricane-strength winds and towering sea surges has passed out of the region in a much weaker state, but it left behind widespread damage and worries that a man may have been swept out to a churning sea.

So far, 37 communities have reported some form of damage, said Jeremy Zidek, spokesman for the state's emergency management agency. Most of those communities have opened emergency community shelters, Zidek said.

The strongest storm to hit the state's western coast in almost four decades also left behind tales of human endurance.

In one remote village that lost heat and power early Wednesday, about 20 vehicles lined up along an airstrip and used their headlights to guide in a plane carrying repair workers.

Other residents there came together and did traditional Eskimo dances used during whaling season to seek good weather.

On Thursday, rescuers searched for a 26-year-old man who authorities said may have been washed into the Bering Sea during the storm.

Kyle Komok, of Teller, was last seen at 4 p.m. Wednesday as he headed toward a jetty where waves were cresting as high as 10 feet, Alaska State Troopers said.

Komok's sister, Maggie Christofferson, of Kodiak, told The Associated Press that her brother is an experienced mechanic.

"We're hoping he's just stuck somewhere, and we're just praying that he's safe."

Emergency responders called the storm an epic event that displaced residents, flooded the shoreline, ripped up roofs and knocked out power in many villages.

The process of gauging the full extent of the damage will begin soon, officials said Thursday. They noted some of the hardest-hit communities are in areas where winter daylight comes late in the day and mornings are in pitch darkness, which slowed down inspections.

Another storm stepped in to replace the tempest, but forecasters said the new storm was much weaker and expected to begin dying down later Thursday. It brought winds ranging from 20 to 40 mph, said National Weather Service meteorologist Don Moore.

In comparison, the storm that pounded the Bering Sea coast this week carried gusts of nearly 90 mph and created tides as high as 10 feet above normal.

Though far less powerful, the new storm contributed to already high water levels and kept them from receding as quickly, Moore said.

Communities hard hit include the northwest Alaska villages of Point Hope, built on a large gravel spit, and Kivalina, one of the most eroded communities in the state.

Point Hope Mayor Steve Oomittuk said the strong winds downed three or four power lines and blew away several shacks. Also, water lines busted, flooding some homes in the Inupiat Eskimo community of about 700 people.

About 550 had taken shelter at the village school, which has its own generator, during the worst of the storm. The community had been without electricity and heat since early Wednesday.

By Thursday evening, about 100 people were left in the school and three-quarters of the community had the power back on, Oomittuk said.

Oomittuk said the community lined up about 20 cars at the airstrip to light up the runway Thursday morning. It was still dark at 10 a.m. when a plane carrying electricians arrived.

"The mood of the community, they're happy because they're going home," Oomittuk said. "We say when we need the weather to change to out liking we have an Eskimo dance. Last night we had a good dance to have the weather calm down."

Among those seeking shelter at the school was Nellie Sears, the school librarian. She said every classroom was full of residents seeking shelter.

For a while there was a warning Wednesday that the barreling storm could get worse. So villagers started performing the traditional Eskimo dances they do during whaling season, when they are seeking good weather. Just before 10 p.m., they got word that the warning had been canceled, Sears said.

"We dance to get help," she said.

Kivalina, 75 miles down the coast, got a "good surge from the ocean," said village spokeswoman Colleen Swan. But mornings are very dark and the extent of flooding was not immediately known beyond water washing over the village dump site and onto the beach, she said.

She later toured the area and said there was no damage to the dump even though water reached a part of it. She said the beach was stressed and the ice lagoon cracked by the huge waves clocked in at 25 mph. At first glance, the village escaped with minimal impact.

"People were looking around and I think a lot of them are totally relieved," she said. "We're very thankful it did not get bad enough to flood the village. Not knowing was the worst."

Most of the community's 460 residents, including those nearest the ocean and lagoon, were evacuated to the school.

Swan said the door of a community building was ripped off during the storm's fury. When she awoke Thursday morning, there was a quiet stillness.

"The moon is out. It's very beautiful," she said Thursday morning. "It is very calm, as if nothing ever happened."

The storm battered the oceanfront homes in the tiny village of Shaktoolik, but structures appeared to have been spared, said Michael Sookiayak, a planner for the Shaktoolik tribal council.

There has been no preliminary reports of major damage here in Shaktoolik," he said Thursday morning. "Of course, that might change over the course of a day."

Sookiayak is among those who live on the oceanfront.

"I think the worst part for me and my family ... was watching the waves come up closer and closer to the houses on the ocean side of the community," he said.

The waves crested over the 2009 storm line, which is just a few feet from the homes, Sookiayak said.

A few families evacuated to the school, including Sookiayak's children, but he rode out the storm Wednesday at home.

"I think this storm tested the will of the people in Shaktoolik," he said. "There was a lot of anxiety in the community."

Still of concern is a little spit of land about three miles from the community surrounded by a river on one side and the ocean on the other, separated by just a few feet.

Sookiayak said officials haven't yet had a chance to survey the area.

"And if that ocean erodes into the river, then we basically become an island," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Mark Thiessen contributed to this report.

Tree-planting activity to celebrate the Year of Forest

2011-11-11T13:11:00.003+08:00

Source : Metro, The Star dated 11th Nov, 2011
http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2011/11/11/central/9863161&sec=central

NETS Printwork Sdn Bhd and the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) joined hands recently in the efforts to preserve the environment through the “Plant-A-Tree with Meeco” campaign in conjunction with the International Year of Forest 2011.

This community activity was arranged to inspire people to recognise their responsibilities and play their part in conserving the environment.

The tree-planting event was one of the signature activities promoted by Meeco — Nets’ special eco-force agent who was appointed to recruit supporters to embrace a green makeover.

The primary objective of this event was to support the research to generate new value in wood resources.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the climate benefits of sustainably-managed forests coupled with the production of sustained yield of fiber from the forest, could make a significant contribution in reducing atmospheric carbon.

With that in mind, Nets invited the corporate sector and the general public to contribute a seedling for Mother Earth. The response was welcoming, with over 110 participants taking part in the tree-planting activity.

The participants gathered at the entrance of the botanical gardens before they were led through a 1km path before reaching a large shaded hut called the “Climber House”, where they registered their participation and complimentary T-shirts were handed out.

A FRIM officer gave them a brief on the species of tree that they were about to plant (chengal).

Added information on the tree species were also shared, such as its maximum height, age, and its conservational status as being ‘vulnerable’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species, and its uses for boats, pillars, and bridges.

Participants were also taught planting techniques, such as how to dig up the earth to a proper depth to place the tree without suffocating the roots.

After the tree-planting, the participants were treated to refreshments and goodie bags courtesy of Nets.

A creative sport was also planned to encourage participants to create an innovative item using limited resources like waste paper, boxes and plastic bottles.

Participants were divided into several groups and the “Best Eco-Innovative Prize” was awarded to Group 3 for designing a “green suit” equipped with body armour, a helmet and a sword.

The panel of judges included Nets Group of Companies corporate sustainability director Teh Leong Sim, Dua Space dance theatre managing director and choreographer Anthony Meh and Hideaki Fashion Studio principal consultant Hideaki Lim. Nets also received a “Friends of FRIM” , a testament of its dedication and commitment to sustainable solutions.

Australia passes landmark carbon price laws

2011-11-10T12:44:00.002+08:00

Source: Reuters
Link : http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/11/20111182305852473.html

Putting a price on emissions is one of the biggest economic reforms in a decade, giving impetus to global climate talks.

Australia's parliament has passed landmark laws to impose a price on carbon emissions in one of the biggest economic reforms in a decade, giving new impetus to December's global climate talks in South Africa.

The scheme's impact will be felt right across the economy, from miners to LNG producers, airlines and steel makers and is aimed at making firms more energy efficient and push power generation towards gas and renewables.

Australia accounts for just 1.5 per cent of global emissions, but is the developed world's highest emitter per capita due to a reliance on coal to generate electricity.

Tuesday's vote is a major victory for embattled Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who staked her government's future on what will be the most comprehensive carbon price scheme outside of Europe despite deep hostility from voters and the political opposition.

The scheme is a central plank in the government's fight against climate change and aims to halt the growth of the country's growing greenhouse gas emissions from a resources-led boom and age-old reliance on coal for power generation.

It sets a fixed carbon tax of A$23 ($23.78) a tonne on the top 500 polluters from July 2012, then moves to an emissions trading scheme from July 2015. Companies involved will need a permit for every tonne of carbon they emit.

"Today marks the beginning of Australia's clean energy future. This is an historic moment, this is an historic reform, a reform that is long overdue," Finance Minister Penny Wong told the upper house Senate as she wrapped up the marathon debate.

Alaska braces for "epic" storm; evacuations begin

2011-11-09T12:06:00.002+08:00

Further to our recent postings on how climate changes have been affecting global weather patterns - here's the latest news for reference. (GREENSLEEVES)

Source: Reuters dated 9th Nov, 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/alaska-braces-epic-storm-evacuations-begin-020349170.html

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - An "epic" storm was bearing down on western Alaska on Tuesday, the National Weather Service said, warning that it could be one of the worst on record for the state.

The storm, moving inland from the Aleutian Islands, was expected to bring hurricane-force winds with gusts up to 100 miles per hour, heavy snowfall, widespread coastal flooding and severe erosion to most of Alaska's west coast, the National Weather Service said.

"This will be an extremely dangerous and life threatening storm of an epic magnitude rarely experienced," the service said in a special warning message.

Nome and the rest of the Seward Peninsula, a section of land that juts out toward Siberia, were expected to be the hardest-hit areas, said Andy Brown, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in Anchorage.

Powerful storms in the North Pacific and Bering Sea are common this time of year, but this event is unusual because of its trajectory, Brown said.

"It's going very far north," he said.

Officials in Nome issued an evacuation order late on Tuesday for people living along Front Street, a beachside avenue that serves as the finish line for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and for other low-lying areas in town.

At least three other communities were housing residents in local shelters as of Tuesday afternoon, said Bryan Fisher, chief of operations for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

But long-distance evacuations from the remote region were not considered feasible, Fisher told a media briefing in Anchorage.

NATIVE VILLAGES IN HARM'S WAY
"Air traffic will not be flying in the weather that we're expecting in the next 24 to 48 hours," he said.

Posing an additional threat is the lack of sea ice off northwestern Alaska, forecasters said.

The last time a storm of a similar magnitude was sent in the same northward direction was 1974, but the sea surface was much more frozen then, Brown said.

"History tells that the sea ice helps subdue the storm surge," Brown said. "With no sea ice there, we could see the full brunt of that 6- to 9-foot storm surge."

Arctic sea ice this year reached the second-lowest coverage since satellite records began in 1979, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.

"Forty years ago, a big storm like this would come through and the sea ice would act as sort of a buffer," said Mark Serreze, director of the Snow and Ice Data Center.

"The Bering Sea has and always will have these strong storms. What is different now is their potential destructiveness as you lose the sea ice cover," he added.

Federal, state and local agencies were making emergency preparations in advance of the storm. The state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management set up an incident command, with numerous agencies coordinating responses.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it has staged helicopters in the region and sent a cutter to prepare for emergency responses, with a special focus on the crab-fishing fleet.

Numerous government agencies have set up an incident command, said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Nome, with 3,600 residents, is one of the largest cities in western Alaska. The communities spread along the coastline are mostly traditional Native settlements, with a few hundred to a few thousand inhabitants, and no roads linking communities.

Although the region is sparsely populated, the storm presents significant dangers, Alaska Senator Mark Begich said in a written statement.

"I realize we are in a remote part of the country, but many people and communities are in harm's way," Begich said.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Cynthia Johnston)

(This story corrects the spelling of Bryan Fisher)

The Peoples Agreement - On the Rights of Mother Earth

2011-11-07T13:12:00.003+08:00

Source : http://allafrica.com/stories/201111040821.html

This is an extract from 'The Peoples Agreement' taken from the publication 'From Kyoto, Copenhagen, Cochabamba, Cancun and to Durban: will Africa be incinerated'. The document is a tool for popular education and mobilisation. It contains four documents relevant to the climate change negotiations: 1. The Peoples Agreement, 2. Copenhagen Accord, 3. Kyoto Protocol, 4. Cancun Agreement.

The World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth took place in April 2010 in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba after the 15th United Nations Conference of Parties (COP15) climate meetings in Copenhagen during December 2009. The event was attended by around 30,000 people from over 100 countries and issued the The Peoples Agreement, an extract of which is reproduced below.

Today, our Mother Earth is wounded and the future of humanity is in danger. If global warming increases by more than two degrees Celsius, a situation that the 'Copenhagen Accord' could lead to, there is a 50 per cent probability that the damages caused to our Mother Earth will be completely irreversible. Between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of species would be in danger of disappearing. Large extensions of forest would be affected, droughts and floods would affect different regions of the planet, deserts would expand, and the melting of the polar ice caps and the glaciers in the Andes and Himalayas would worsen.

Many island states would disappear, and Africa would suffer an increase in temperature of more than three degrees Celsius. Likewise, the production of food would diminish in the world, causing catastrophic impact on the survival of inhabitants from vast regions in the planet, and the number of people in the world suffering from hunger would increase dramatically, a figure that already exceeds 1.02billion people.

The corporations and governments of the so-called 'developed' countries, in complicity with a segment of the scientific community, have led us to discuss climate change as a problem limited to the rise in temperature without questioning the cause, which is the capitalist system.

We confront the terminal crisis of a civilizing model that is patriarchal and based on the submission and destruction of human beings and nature that accelerated since the industrial revolution.

The capitalist system has imposed on us a logic of competition, progress and limitless growth. This regime of production and consumption seeks profit without limits, separating human beings from nature and imposing a logic of domination upon nature, transforming everything into commodities: water, earth, the human genome, ancestral cultures, biodiversity, justice, ethics, the rights of peoples, and life itself.

Under capitalism, Mother Earth is converted into a source of raw materials, and human beings into consumers and a means of production, into people that are seen as valuable only for what they own, and not for what they are.

Capitalism requires a powerful military industry for its processes of accumulation and imposition of control over territories and natural resources, suppressing the resistance of the peoples. It is an imperialist system of colonization of the planet.

Humanity confronts a great dilemma: to continue on the path of capitalism, depredation, and death, or to choose the path of harmony with nature and respect for life. It is imperative that we forge a new system that restores harmony with nature and among human beings. And in order for there to be balance with nature, there must first be equity among human beings.

We propose to the peoples of the world the recovery, revalorization, and strengthening of the knowledge, wisdom, and ancestral practices of Indigenous Peoples, which are affirmed in the thought and practices of 'Living Well', recognizing Mother Earth as a living being with which we have an indivisible, interdependent, complementary and spiritual relationship.

To face climate change, we must recognize Mother Earth as the source of life and forge a new system based on the principles of:

- Harmony and balance among all and with all things;

- Complementarity, solidarity, and equality;

- Collective well-being and the satisfaction of the basic necessities of all;

- People in harmony with nature;

- Recognition of human beings for what they are, not what they own;

- Elimination of all forms of colonialism, imperialism and interventionism;

- Peace among the peoples and with Mother Earth;

The model we support is not a model of limitless and destructive development. All countries need to produce the goods and services necessary to satisfy the fundamental needs of their populations, but by no means can they continue to follow the path of development that has led the richest countries to have an ecological footprint five times bigger than what the planet is able to support.

Currently, the regenerative capacity of the planet has been already exceeded by more than 30 per cent. If this pace of over-exploitation of our Mother Earth continues, we will need two planets by the year 2030. In an interdependent system in which human beings are only one component, it is not possible to recognize rights only to the human part without provoking an imbalance in the system as a whole.

To guarantee human rights and to restore harmony with nature, it is necessary to effectively recognize and apply the rights of Mother Earth. For this purpose, we propose the project for the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth, in which it's recorded that:

- The right to live and to exist;

- The right to be respected;

- The right to regenerate its bio-capacity and to continue it's vital cycles and processes free of human alteration;

- The right to maintain their identity and integrity as differentiated beings, self-regulated and interrelated;

- The right to water as the source of life;

- The right to clean air;

- The right to comprehensive health;

- The right to be free of contamination and pollution, free of toxic and radioactive waste;

- The right to be free of alterations or modifications of it's genetic structure in a manner that threatens it's integrity or vital and healthy functioning;

- The right to prompt and full restoration for violations to the rights acknowledged in this Declaration caused by human activities.

The 'shared vision' seeks to stabilize the concentrations of greenhouse gases to make effective the Article 2 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which states that 'the stabilization of greenhouse gases concentrations in the atmosphere to a level that prevents dangerous anthropogenic inferences for the climate system.'

Our vision is based on the principle of historical common but differentiated responsibilities, to demand the developed countries to commit with quantifiable goals of emission reduction that will allow to return the concentrations of greenhouse gases to 300 ppm, therefore the increase in the average world temperature to a maximum of one degree Celsius.

Emphasizing the need for urgent action to achieve this vision, and with the support of peoples, movements and countries, developed countries should commit to ambitious targets for reducing emissions that permit the achievement of short-term objectives, while maintaining our vision in favour of balance in the Earth's climate system, in agreement with the ultimate objective of the Convention.

The 'shared vision for long-term cooperative action' in climate change negotiations should not be reduced to defining the limit on temperature increases and the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but must also incorporate in a balanced and integral manner measures regarding capacity building, production and consumption patterns, and other essential factors such as the acknowledging of the Rights of Mother Earth to establish harmony with nature.

Developed countries, as the main cause of climate change, in assuming their historical responsibility, must recognize and honour their climate debt in all of its dimensions as the basis for a just, effective, and scientific solution to climate change. In this context, we demand that developed countries:

- Restore to developing countries the atmospheric space that is occupied by their greenhouse gas emissions. This implies the decolonization of the atmosphere through the reduction and absorption of their emissions.

- Assume the costs and technology transfer needs of developing countries arising from the loss of development opportunities due to living in a restricted atmospheric space;

- Assume responsibility for the hundreds of millions of people that will be forced to migrate due to the climate change caused by these countries, and eliminate their restrictive immigration policies, offering migrants a decent life with full human rights guarantees in their countries;

- Assume adaptation debt related to the impacts of climate change on developing countries by providing the means to prevent, minimize, and deal with damages arising from their excessive emissions;

- Honour these debts as part of a broader debt to Mother Earth by adopting and implementing the United Nations Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth.

The focus must not be only on financial compensation, but also on restorative justice, understood as the restitution of integrity to our Mother Earth and all its beings.

Climate change link to extreme weather

2011-11-07T12:59:00.004+08:00

SOURCE :
GULF TIMES (Daily Newspaper published by Gulf Publishing & Printing Co. Doha, Qatar)
Updated: 6th Nov, 2011
(http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=468533&version=1&template_id=39&parent_id=21)

A new UN report concludes that man-made climate change has boosted the frequency or intensity of heat waves, wildfires, floods and cyclones and that such disasters are likely to multiply in the future.

The draft document, which has been three years in the making, says the severity of the impacts vary, with some regions more vulnerable than others.

Hundreds of scientists working under the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) will vet the phonebook-sized draft at a meeting in Kampala of the 194-nation body later this month.

“This is the largest effort that has ever been made to assess how extremes are changing,” said Neville Nicholls, a professor at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and a co-ordinating lead author of one of the review’s key chapters.
The report’s authors stress that the level of “confidence” in the findings depends on the quantity and quality of data available.

But the overall picture that emerges is one of enhanced volatility and frequency of dangerous weather, leading in turn to a sharply increased risk for large swathes of humanity in coming decades.

AFP obtained a copy of the draft report’s 20-page Summary for Policymakers, which is subject to revision by governments before release on November 18.
A series of natural catastrophes around the world has boosted the need to determine whether such events are freaks of the weather or part of a long-term shift in climate.

In 2010, record temperatures fuelled devastating forest fires across Siberia, while Pakistan and India reeled from unprecedented flooding.
This year, the United States has suffered a record number of billion-dollar disasters from flooding in the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to Hurricane Irene to a drought in Texas.

China is reeling from lack of water too, even as central America and Thailand count their dead from recent flooding.

These events match predicted impacts of global warming, which has raised temperatures, increased the amount of water in the atmosphere and warmed ocean surface temperatures – all drivers of extreme weather.

But teasing apart the role of natural fluctuations in the weather and rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has proven devilishly difficult.

The nine-chapter Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation, or SREX, pored over hundreds of recent scientific studies in search of patterns.

The new report’s main conclusions about future trends include:
**It is “virtually certain” – 99-100% sure – that the frequency and magnitude of record-hot days will increase over the 21st century on a global scale.

** It is “very likely” (90-100% certainty) that the length, frequency and/or intensity of warm spells, including heat waves, will continue to increase over most land areas.
** Peak temperatures are “likely” (66-100% certainty) to increase – compared to the late 20th century – up to 3.0 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2050, and 5C (9F) by 2100.
** Heavy rain and snowfall is likely to increase, especially in the tropics and at high latitudes.

** At the same time, droughts will likely intensify in the Mediterranean region, central Europe, North America, northeastern Brazil and southern Africa.

** Rising and warming seas are also very likely to boost the destructive power of cyclones, while melting glaciers and permafrost, along with heavier precipitation, will trigger more landslides.

The Carnegie Institution’s Chris Field, co-chair of the IPCC’s Working Group 2, would not comment on the report’s conclusions, but said they would help shape political choices.

“When the SREX is finalised and approved by the world’s governments, it will provide a solid foundation for smart policies on managing risks from climate extremes and climate-related disasters,” he said by e-mail.

2015 climate ‘roadmap’ idea well received, says EU’s Hedegaard.
The EU’s top climate diplomat said yesterday that the bloc’s proposal for upcoming UN talks to lay down a new “roadmap” leading to a comprehensive global deal by 2015 has been well received.

“I have had very positive signals about the EU proposal for a roadmap,” Connie Hedegaard, European climate commissioner, told the Austrian daily Der Standard in an interview.

The idea “would give countries more time, namely until 2015, to comply with international climate protection obligations and to introduce the corresponding monitoring”, the Dane said in comments published in German.

Negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have made little progress since the stormy Copenhagen Summit of December 2009. The next talks are set for Durban, South Africa, from November 28 to December 9.

Hedegaard said however the new roadmap should be “binding” and aim to encompass 80-85% of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, compared with only around a third covered by the Kyoto Protocol.

“We will insist (in Durban) that without binding commitments there can be no successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012,” Hedegaard said.
Kyoto currently only covers some three dozen rich nations. China, the world’s top carbon emitter overall – but not per capita – was excluded as a developing nation, and the United States, the number two polluter, opted out.

Topanga Naturally: Climate Change Began With Us

2011-11-07T12:47:00.005+08:00

November 3, 2011 - By Meghan Walla-Murphy
Source: TOPANGA MESSENGER - Santa Monica Mountains News and Arts
(http://www.topangamessenger.com/story_detail.php?ArticleID=4790)

People once doubted that gravity existed. Galileo was charged with heresy and subjected to house arrest for his belief that the earth revolved around the sun. Evolution was and still is contested as a mere trend that will pass.

Similarly, a large percentage of people in the United States believe that climate change, also referred to as global warming, has been manufactured by the media. Or, as assemblymember Betsy Butler stated at a joint informational climate change hearing on October 20, she regularly encounters people who do not believe climate change is occurring; we are simply between ice ages, they say.

Even in the face of staggering statistics, unprecedented fluxes in weather patterns and rising annual temperatures, many still doubt that global warming is really happening. The reality is that the last 150 years have seen an increase in some greenhouse gases but the last 50 years have seen a tremendous spike in carbon dioxide emissions due to the burning of fossil fuels.

Climate Change is Complex

Perhaps the apathy to acknowledge that we are headed for a brick wall at astonishing speed without a proper safety belt stems from the complex nature of climate change.

In the past, climate change referred to fluctuations in temperatures that resulted from the earth’s natural processes, e.g., ice ages or El Nino. Currently though, climate change is often used synonymously with anthropogenic global warming. Yet global warming only refers to the increase of temperature on the earth’s surface. The term climate change is more inclusive, encompassing increased temperatures as well as all the consequences of increasing greenhouse gases.

To understand greenhouse gases, one must imagine the earth and its atmosphere as a giant greenhouse, where gases such as water, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, methane and human manufactured gases act like a layer of glass. These greenhouse gasses allow sunlight into the earth’s atmosphere where some is absorbed by the earth. The energy not absorbed by the earth is then reflected back into the atmosphere where it is either stored or released into space. In a balanced system the amount of heat received from the sun should be roughly the same amount of heat radiated back into space. Such a working system leaves the earth’s temperature relatively constant over long periods of time.

U.S. Largest Contributor of Greenhouse Gases

Normally, the earth metabolizes carbon emissions through multiple processes known as the carbon cycle. One example of a carbon cycle process is the consumption of carbon dioxide by photosynthetic plants. In the past the earth neutralized 6.1 billion metric tons of human-made carbon dioxide emissions. Unfortunately humans currently create 3.2 billion metric tons more than the 6.1 billion tons the earth can deal with naturally. The United States is the largest contributor of greenhouse gases in the world.

This imbalance between emissions and absorption essentially creates a thicker greenhouse “glass” that continues to allow sunlight in, but does not allow excess heat to escape, which results in an increase in the earth’s average temperature.

The Reality of Rising Sea Levels

Temperature change is not the only consequence of excess greenhouse gases. Another effect of climate change includes a rise in sea levels. While this does not immediately affect Californians, 50-year projections show our sandy beaches eroded and our flat seaside communities like Marina Del Rey underwater. Property lines will change, but so will the salinity of our ground water. Fresh water, essential to our coastal riparian ecosystems, will become brackish and many of our native species will succumb to habitat loss. The quality of water for people who have wells sunk into the coastal water table will be undrinkable.

Another consequence of climate change will be dramatic floods and droughts. Projections show an intensifying of weather patterns. Although California will receive the same approximate rainfall, the rain will come in deluges of massive storms that will create floods rather than rain scattered over a season. This weather pattern that we are already seeing means greater runoff, less water storage in the land and more erosion. In addition, Sierra snowpack, responsible for a large percentage of California’s annual water use, will melt earlier and faster, again causing storage-usage problems in the future.

Sitting opposite the floods will be tremendous drought. Areas in California that are already dry will experience more days and weeks over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. What little rain that does fall in these areas will be evaporated more quickly due to increased temperatures.

And this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg that is melting. Many other significant changes will impact life as we experience it today. But unlike those who challenged Newton, Galileo or Darwin, to disbelieve that climate change exists condemns not only your own existence but also the entirety of the earth’s living communities.

In order to change this outcome we must each accept the role we play in climate change and begin, today, to alter our daily habits.

The state of California has already begun to do this through Cal-Adapt, a product of the Public  Interest Energy Research (PIER) program. Visit: http://cal-adapt.org/ to better understand climate change and how you can create positive human change

Biggest jump ever seen in global warming gases

2011-11-04T13:34:00.003+08:00

The following news report from Associated Press was featured at Yahoo on 4th Nov, 2011.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/biggest-jump-ever-seen-global-warming-gases-183955211.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record, the U.S. Department of Energy calculated, a sign of how feeble the world's efforts are at slowing man-made global warming.

The new figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago.

"The more we talk about the need to control emissions, the more they are growing," said John Reilly, co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

The world pumped about 564 million more tons (512 million metric tons) of carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009. That's an increase of 6 percent. That amount of extra pollution eclipses the individual emissions of all but three countries — China, the United States and India, the world's top producers of greenhouse gases.

It is a "monster" increase that is unheard of, said Gregg Marland, a professor of geology at Appalachian State University, who has helped calculate Department of Energy figures in the past.

Extra pollution in China and the U.S. account for more than half the increase in emissions last year, Marland said.

"It's a big jump," said Tom Boden, director of the Energy Department's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center at Oak Ridge National Lab. "From an emissions standpoint, the global financial crisis seems to be over."

Boden said that in 2010 people were traveling, and manufacturing was back up worldwide, spurring the use of fossil fuels, the chief contributor of man-made climate change.

India and China are huge users of coal. Burning coal is the biggest carbon source worldwide and emissions from that jumped nearly 8 percent in 2010.

"The good news is that these economies are growing rapidly so everyone ought to be for that, right?" Reilly said Thursday. "Broader economic improvements in poor countries has been bringing living improvements to people. Doing it with increasing reliance on coal is imperiling the world."

In 2007, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its last large
report on global warming, it used different scenarios for carbon dioxide pollution and said the rate of warming would be based on the rate of pollution. Boden said the latest figures put global emissions higher than the worst case projections from the climate panel. Those forecast global temperatures rising between 4 and 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century with the best estimate at 7.5 degrees.

Even though global warming skeptics have attacked the climate change panel as being too alarmist, scientists have generally found their predictions too conservative, Reilly said. He said his university worked on emissions scenarios, their likelihood, and what would happen. The IPCC's worst case scenario was only about in the middle of what MIT calculated are likely scenarios.

Chris Field of Stanford University, head of one of the IPCC's working groups, said the panel's emissions scenarios are intended to be more accurate in the long term and are less so in earlier years. He said the question now among scientists is whether the future is the panel's worst case scenario "or something more extreme."

"Really dismaying," Granger Morgan, head of the engineering and public policy department at Carnegie Mellon University, said of the new figures. "We are building up a horrible legacy for our children and grandchildren."

But Reilly and University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver found something good in recent emissions figures. The developed countries that ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas limiting treaty have reduced their emissions overall since then and have achieved their goals of cutting emissions to about 8 percent below 1990 levels. The U.S. did not ratify the agreement.

In 1990, developed countries produced about 60 percent of the world's greenhouse gases, now it's probably less than 50 percent, Reilly said.

"We really need to get the developing world because if we don't, the problem is going to be running away from us," Weaver said. "And the problem is pretty close from running away from us."

For more online reading:
Government carbon dioxide info center: http://cdiac.ornl.gov/

China's glaciers in meltdown mode: study

2011-11-03T17:29:00.001+08:00

Sharp increases in temperature driven by global warming are melting China's Himalayan glaciers, an impact that threatens habitats, tourism and economic development, says a study released Tuesday.

Of 111 weather stations scattered across southwestern China, 77 percent showed significant upticks in temperatures between 1961 and 2008, according to the study, published in a British peer-reviewed journal, Environmental Research Letters.

At the 14 monitoring stations above 4,000 metres (13,123 feet), the jump over this period was 1.73 degrees Celsius (3.11 degrees Fahrenheit), roughly twice the average global increase over the last century.

Researchers led by Li Zhongxing of the Chinese Academy of Sciences identified three changes occurring in glaciers that could be caused, at least in part, by this steady warming trend.

Many of the glaciers examined showed a "drastic retreat" as well as large loss of mass, they reported.

The Pengqu basin's 999 glaciers, for example, had a combined area loss of 131 square kilometres (51 square miles) over two decades, from 1980 to 2001.

The study also showed that glacial lakes -- fed by runoff from melting ice masses -- had expanded in size.

"The implications of these changes are far more serious that simply altering the landscape," the researchers warned.

"Glaciers are an integral part of thousands of ecosystems and play a crucial role in sustaining human populations."

All told, southwestern China has 23,488 glaciers, covering an area of 29,523 square kms (11,399 sq. miles) across the Himalayas and the Nyainqntanglha, Tanggula and Hengduan mountains.

Changes in rain and snowfall was less marked, but still consistent with predictions by climate change models, the study found.

"It is imperative we determine the relationship between climate change and glacier variations, particularly the role of precipitation, as the consequences of glacier retreat are far reaching," Li said

Source :
http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-glaciers-meltdown-mode-study-231000298.html

Dated : Oct 24th, 2011

Huge Crack Discovered in Antarctic Glacier

2011-11-03T17:21:00.005+08:00

Here's the latest report from NASA as it appeared in the following link:
http://news.yahoo.com/huge-crack-discovered-antarctic-glacier-212405650.html

Dated : Nov 2nd, 2011

A huge, emerging crack has been discovered in one of Antarctica's glaciers, with a NASA plane mission providing the first-ever detailed airborne measurements of a major iceberg breakup in progress.
NASA's Operation Ice Bridge, the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown, is in the midst of its third field campaign from Punta Arenas, Chile. The six-year mission will yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. The glaciers of the Antarctic, and Greenland, Ice Sheets, commonly birth icebergs that break off from the main ice streams where they flow in to the sea, a process called calving.

The crack was found in c, which last calved a significant iceberg in 2001; some scientists have speculated recently that it was primed to calve again. But until an Oct. 14 IceBridge flight, no one had seen any evidence of the ice shelf beginning to break apart. Since then, a more detailed look back at satellite imagery seems to show the first signs of the crack in early October.

"We are actually now witnessing how it happens and it's very exciting for us," said IceBridge project scientist Michael Studinger of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "It's part of a natural process, but it’s pretty exciting to be here and actually observe it while it happens."

Gravity pulls the ice in the glacier westward along Antarctica's Hudson Mountains toward the Amundsen Sea. A floating tongue of ice reaches out 30 miles (48 kilometers) into the Amundsen beyond the grounding line, the below-sea-level point where the ice shelf locks onto the continental bedrock. As ice pushes toward the sea from the interior, inevitably the ice shelf will crack and send a large iceberg free. [Photo Album: Antarctica, Iceberg Maker]

Pine Island Glacier is of particular interest to scientists because it is big and unstable and so is one of the largest sources of uncertainty in global sea level rise projections.

A primary goal of Operation IceBridge is to put the same instruments over the exact same flight lines and satellite tracks, year after year, to gather meaningful and accurate data of how ice sheets and glaciers are changing over time. But discovering a developing rift in one of the most significant science targets in the world of glaciology offered a brief change in agenda for the Oct. 26 flight, if only for a 30-minute diversion from the day's prescribed flight lines.

The IceBridge team observed the rift running across the ice shelf for about 18 miles (29 km), using an instrument called the Airborne Topographic Mapper, which uses a technology called lidar (light detection and ranging) that sends out a laser beam that bounces off a surface and back to the device. The lidar instrument measured the rift's shoulders about 820 feet (250 meters) apart at its widest, although the rift stretched about 260 feet (79 meters) wide along most of the crack. The deepest points from the ice shelf surface ranged from 165 to 195 feet (50 to 60 meters.

When the iceberg breaks free, it will cover about 340 square miles (880 square kilometers) of surface area. Radar measurements suggested the ice shelf in the region of the rift is about 1,640 feet (500 meters) feet thick, with only about 160 feet of the shelf floating above water and the rest submerged.

It is likely that once the iceberg floats away, the leading edge of the ice shelf will have receded farther than at any time since its location was first recorded in the 1940s.

This story was provided by OurAmazingPlanet.com, a sister site of SPACE.com. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Environmental problems putting global progress at risk - UN report

2011-11-03T17:04:00.003+08:00

Environmental deterioration threatens to reverse recent progress in human development for the world?s poorest, warns a United Nations report released today, calling for urgent action to slow climate change, prevent further degradation and reduce inequalities.
By: UN News, Nov 2nd, 2011

SOURCE:
http://www.speroforum.com/a/CHWDYPNKQK6/Environmental-problems-putting-global-progress-at-risk--UN-report

Environmental deterioration threatens to reverse recent progress in human development for the world"s poorest, warns a United Nations report released today, calling for urgent action to slow climate change, prevent further degradation and reduce inequalities.

The annual UN Human Development Report, this year entitled Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All, argues that human development is intricately linked to environmental sustainability, and that this in turn must be approached as a matter of basic social justice for current and future generations.

"Sustainability is not exclusively or even primarily an environmental issue, as this report so persuasively argInvestments that improve equity " in access, for example, to renewable energy, water and sanitation, and reproductive health care " could advance both sustainability and human development.ues," says UN Development Programme (UNDP) chief Helen Clark in the report"s foreword.

"It is fundamentally about how we choose to live our lives, with an awareness that everything we do has consequences for the seven billions of us here today, as well as for the billions more who will follow, for centuries to come."

The report, launched in Copenhagen today by Miss Clark and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, notes that remarkable progress has been made by poor countries with low rankings on the Human Development Index (HDI). In the past 40 years alone, the countries placed in the lowest 25 per cent of the global rankings improved their overall HDI by 82 per cent.

The report states that if this pace of improvement continues, most countries would be able to enjoy the HDI of the top 25 per cent by the year 2050, which would represent an extraordinary achievement for global human development.

However, the report also warns that if left unchecked, environmental degradation could reverse this growth trend, requiring immediate action from governments to prevent this from happening.

The report paints a scenario in which food prices could soar by up to 50 per cent and efforts to expand water, sanitation and energy access to billions of people could be reversed, particularly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa if countries fail to take measures to achieve sustainability.

The report notes that people in the poorest countries are particularly vulnerable to climate-driven disasters such as drought and flooding, as well as exposure to air and water pollution. It adds that it is not only environmental disasters, but general environment deterioration which threatens other factors crucial to human development.

"Half of all malnutrition worldwide is attributable to environmental factors, such as water pollution and drought-driven scarcity, perpetuating a vicious cycle of impoverishment and ecological damage," the report says.

In addition, the report stresses that growth and high living standards need not be tied to carbon-fuel activities, and presents evidence that fossil-fuel consumption does not correspond with other measures of human development such as life expectancy and education, making it possible for countries to experience growth while at the same time reducing their carbon footprint.

"Growth driven by fossil fuel consumption is not a prerequisite for a better life in broader human development terms," Miss Clark said. "Investments that improve equity " in access, for example, to renewable energy, water and sanitation, and reproductive health care " could advance both sustainability and human development."

The report also includes the HDI rankings, which covered 187 countries according to standard of living taking into account health, education and income data.

This year, Norway, Australia and the Netherlands lead the rankings, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Niger and Burundi are at the bottom of the list.

Head of UN health agency outlines reforms to improve efficiency

2011-11-03T16:53:00.003+08:00

The head of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today stressed that planned reforms are intended to make the agency more efficient as it strives to improve global health amid multiple challenges that have an impact on human well-being.
By : Margaret Chan,
Director-General of the World Health Organization
Nov 2nd, 2011

Source:
http://www.speroforum.com/a/FOIPCXHUSY19/Head-of-UN-health-agency-outlines-reforms-to-improve-efficiency

The head of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today stressed that planned reforms are intended to make the agency more efficient as it strives to improve global health amid multiple challenges that have an impact on human well-being.

"On top of enduring fuel, food, and financial crises, the challenges of climate change, conflicts, emerging and epidemic-prone diseases, ageing populations, bulging cities, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), mental disorders, disabilities, and rapidly rising health-care costs will certainly aggravate inequities in both health determinants and outcomes within and between countries," said Margaret Chan, the WHO Director-General, addressing the opening session of the agency"s Executive Board special session on reform in Geneva.

"The case for reform is clear. The world needs a strong WHO to lead global efforts to improve health. The world needs a WHO that has a broad and wise vision, is quick to act, and never afraid to act in the interests of public health. [It] requires a WHO that is effective, efficient, transparent, and accountable," said Dr. Chan.

She emphasized that stronger leadership from WHO will align its actions with the priorities and capacities in countries that receive its services in ways that build self-reliance, and add value to investments in health.

Dr. Chan said she looked forward to a future "where the gaps in health outcomes have narrowed and access to universal health care has expanded."

The anticipated reforms should help more developing countries build resilient health systems that are based on the provision of primary health care to enable them achieve their poverty reduction and social development goals, prevent NCDs, and cope with disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and the health hazards of a changing climate.

"Money is tight. Countries and development partners want value for money. They want results that they can measure, and show to taxpayers and parliamentarians. And they want a quick return on their investments.

"Our job as public health officials is to demonstrate a thirst for efficiency and an intolerance of waste. Many of the proposed reforms are driven by this keen desire for efficiency and for measurable results, especially at the country level," she added.

Climate Change: Soon every African village will know what the weather may bring

2011-11-03T16:32:00.004+08:00

The following article as it appeared in SPERO NEWS dated Nov 2nd, 2011

Source:
http://www.speroforum.com/a/BPCCRWBASO5/Climate-Change---Soon-every-African-village-will-know-what-the-weather-may-bring

Information about how climate change may affect any city, town or village in Africa until the next century will be available by mid-2012 as scientists localise global climate data.

The Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX), an initiative of the World Meteorological Organization is now able to render the data from regional climate models to the scale people live in, and decision makers work at. The information will not only help countries but also communities in their efforts to adapt to changing weather patterns, and to tailor their disaster risk reduction plans.

The effort is geared to feed into the next assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), due to be released in 2014.

Although CORDEX aims to “downscale” the data for all regions of the world, Africa has been identified as the most vulnerable by the IPCC and a priority for the initiative. Historically the continent has been under-researched, but for the next two years will be a focus for the programme.

Chris Lennard, a scientist at the Climate Systems Analysis Group at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa, which has one of the only two climate modelling groups downscaling the projections in Africa, said by mid-2012 climate data for people living within 50 kilometres from each other will be available across Africa.

The other African group, also in South Africa, is based at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria.

"There are climatologists outside the project who are downscaling up to a 22 km resolution as well," said Lennard. “Although this means data at the scale of cities will be available, when assessing vulnerabilities to climate change in a place like Johannesburg there are many other factors that need to be considered external to the city, such as water and food security and power provision, for example.”

How it works
Projecting the impact of climate change is a complicated process that takes into account changes in the long-term averages of daily weather patterns and many other factors. Climate models are used to simulate processes that occur in the atmosphere, such as the movement of moisture and heat as well as the possible impact of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases on these processes.

During two meetings in 2011, over 20 African climate scientists met to analyse CORDEX produced data. They decided to divide Africa into three regions for analysis -Southern, East and West. They then sub-divided the regions according to the common characteristics of the rainfall patterns in them. For instance, West Africa has been split into a Southern and Northern region because the south has two peaks per rainy season and the north has only one.

Climatologists often split regions according to common rainfall patterns because the variables that affect rainfall - movement of air, pressure, temperature, radiation, moisture content - also drive climate change.

Unfortunately, not all African countries can be assessed because of a lack of adequate scientific support and observational data.

During the first stage of CORDEX, scientists tested the ability of the various regional climate models to generate data based on actual climate statistics for the period 1988-2010. "The selected historical timeframe is too small to look at any long-term trends," said Lennard. "We wanted to see how the regional climate models simulated the past so we can say something about how they might simulate the future."

The 14 regional climate models also include factors like the level of small-scale convection, and the interaction between the land surface and the atmosphere. The scientists then work on a consensus position based on the results generated by all the models.

"We have completed this stage and are busy writing up our results so they can be included in the IPCC 5th assessment report," said Lennard.

The teams are now awaiting results of global projections of climate change from 12 global climate modelling groups already at work in Europe, the US and elsewhere.

These groups - including the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy; the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute; the Danish Meteorological Institute; and the Iowa State University - are among the world's foremost global climate modelling institutions. They have simulated the earth's climate as far back as 1950 and look as far forward as 2100.

"Once the global climate model data become available we will start downscaling them, and the downscaled results will be shared with the African teams for analysis. We expect to have the first downscaled model data early in November," Lennard said.

Making sense of the numbers
The projections are critical for communities that must adapt to a moodier climate with limited resources. Initial IPCC assessment reports tended to focus on global climate models and predictions that did not factor in underlying socioeconomic conditions or the vulnerability of communities, writes Saleemul Huq, one of the IPCC’s lead authors.

"So, for example, model-based physical impacts in the Netherlands look similar to those in Bangladesh - in part because the two countries share a similar topography, both being low-lying deltas - but in reality the impacts on people, and the options for adapting to these, are likely to differ widely,” Huq notes in a briefing paper for the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

“The Netherlands is technologically and financially rich and can adapt to rising sea levels by raising dykes. Bangladesh, on the other hand, cannot afford to build dykes around its entire coast, even if that was the best adaptation solution." More recent IPCC reports have gone for a "more rounded picture of which countries and regions are at highest risk from climate change".

One of the unique characteristics of the CORDEX Africa campaign is that African climatologists will meet with other African scientists who study vulnerability, adaptation and the impact of climate change on people, to translate the model numbers into meaningful, usable information. Experts from countries that include Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe will analyse the data.

"These scientists [who study humanitarian impact of climate change] know for example what thresholds, which, if crossed more frequently would impact detrimentally on communities, so whether the people in a certain area are more vulnerable to five days or eight days of continuous rainfall,” said Lennard.

“We are coming together so that the impacts scientists can ask climatologists their questions, who will then analyse the model output with these questions in mind and provide them with information they can use."

Their answers will also inform the analysis included in the IPCC's fifth assessment, which is devoting four chapters to adaptation. The previous report, in 2007, carried just one chapter on the topic.

What is Organic Farming?

2011-11-01T21:21:00.005+08:00

Source : http://organic.about.com/od/cropsfarming/f/What-Is-Organic-Farming.htm

Question: What is Organic Farming?
There is no clear universally accepted definition of organic farming. However, we can look at some various ideals surrounding the term organic farming.

Answer:
In general, most consider organic farming a specific production system which aims to avoid the use of synthetic and harmful pesticides, fertilizers, growth regulators and livestock feed additives.

Almost all organic farming systems rely on what some call, "Alternative farming methods" such as crop rotation, mechanical cultivation, animal manures, green manure and integrated pest management to maintain healthy soil, grow healthy plants and to control pests and weeds. The kicker is that these alternative farming methods are older, from a historical perspective, than newer farming methods that include using pesticides and other synthetic farming applications.

In the USA, the National Organic Program (NOP) provides the most commonly used definitions of organic farming. That said, USDA organic farming standards don't truly cover the maximum in sustainable farming practices. Some feel that organic farming methods should include sustainable practices, while some argue that sustainability is not a necessary component of organic farming, thus the non-universal acceptance of a clear organic farming definition.

Numerous U.S. states, regions and local farmers have additional organic farming standards in place that exceed basic NOP standards. Additionally, other countries have their own established organic farming standards that differ from USA standards.

More reading:
http://organic.about.com/od/organiccertification/f/Are-Organic-Seeds-Required-For-Organic-Certification.htm

http://organic.about.com/od/achievecertification/tp/What-Goes-In-An-Organic-System-Plan.htm

http://organic.about.com/od/organicdefinitionscd/g/Certified-Organic-Definition-Of-Certified-Organic.htm

http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa122100c.htm

Can Organic Farming End World Hunger?

2011-11-01T21:02:00.003+08:00

We take a listen here to what they say about Organic Farming and its good effects...

Source: http://environment.about.com/od/healthenvironment/a/organicfarming.htm

Research Shows Organic Farming Can Feed the World Without Harming the Planet
From Earth Talk

Dear EarthTalk: I’ve heard some environmental advocates claim that organic farming could produce enough food to feed the world. Is this true? -- Gabe Morello, Lynnwood, WA

Advocates of modern agriculture reliant on pesticides and widespread single crop plantings (known as “monoculture”) have bragged for decades about the increased productivity their high-tech methods can yield. Indeed, several studies in the U.S., Britain and Australia have shown that such methods produce as much as 40 percent more than the more benign methods that served mankind well for thousands of years.

As a result, seed growers and pesticide makers are now working in poor countries to promote the same “green revolution” there, capable, they say, of growing enough food to feed the desperately hungry.

Research Confirms Organic Farming Produces Higher Yields
But a spate of new research has shown that organic farming actually yields better results than modern techniques when evaluated more holistically. A series of peer-reviewed papers published by the international journal, Nature, showed that organic methods for growing rice, corn and wheat all produced significantly higher yields—and at less the cost—than monoculture farms. And research at England’s Essex University has shown that farmers in India, Kenya, Brazil, Guatemala and Honduras have doubled or tripled their yields by switching to organic agriculture. Cuban farmers, who cannot access fertilizers and pesticides due to the U.S. embargo, have also realized greater yields by taking up organic farming.

Organic Farming Improves Soil Fertility and Prevents Erosion
According to Dr. Christos Vasilikiotis of the University of California, Berkeley, a vocal advocate of organic farming, chemically intensive farming is highly undesirable due to the toll it takes on the land and the pollution it generates. “Organic…farming methods continually increase soil fertility and prevent loss of topsoil to erosion, while conventional methods have the opposite effect,” he says. He further maintains that “only a conversion to organic farming will allow us to maintain and even increase current crop yields.”

Organic Methods More Cost-Effective for Farmers
Dr. Liz Stockdale of Britain’s Institute of Arable Crops Research agrees, and points out that even when organic yields are less than conventional ones, organic farmers make up the financial difference by not having to buy costly pesticides and fertilizers. She adds that improved growing techniques and new natural pest controls could eventually level the playing field, giving organic farmers the economic advantage.

The Number of Organic Farms is Increasing
According to the trade group, Organic Consumers Association, only slightly more than two percent of all farms in the U.S. are currently organic. But with sales of domestic organic food growing about 20 percent annually, the organization expects that figure to rise exponentially in years to come.

Still, though, feeding the world is a tall order, and everyone from organic farmers to environmental leaders to human rights workers agrees that ending hunger is dependent more upon political will than agricultural prowess. “Until governments tackle the social and political factors involved in poverty and food distribution, millions of people will continue to go hungry,” concludes Stockdale

Additional Resources for Consumers:
U.S. Department of Agriculture National Organic Program

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to:
EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/,
or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com.

EarthTalk is a regular feature of E/The Environmental Magazine. Selected EarthTalk columns are reprinted on About Environmental Issues by permission of the editors of E.

Cardinal Pell of Australia expresses unorthodox views about climate change

2011-11-01T13:42:00.002+08:00

BY: Speroforum dated 27th Oct, 2011

SOURCE :
http://www.speroforum.com/a/LGLNBEOTBL9/Cardinal-Pell-of-Australia-expresses-unorthodox-views-about-climate-change?utm_source=web&utm_medium=topbanner&utm_campaign=images

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney George Pell questioned the morality and cost/benefits of following government-imposed policies in the cause of curbing global climate change. Speaking on October 25, the Australian cardinal gave a lecture to the controversial Global Warming Policy Foundation, chaired by former British chancellor Nigel Lawson, in London.

Said the Australian cleric, "Whatever our political masters might decide at this high tide of Western indebtedness," Cardinal Pell said, "they are increasingly unlikely, because of popular pressure, to impose new financial burdens on their populations in the hope of curbing the rise of global temperatures, except perhaps in Australia, which has 2 per cent of the world's industrial capacity and only 1.2 per cent of its CO2 emissions, while continuing to sell coal worth billions of dollars to Asia.

"In 1135, the water flow in the Danube was so low that people could cross it on foot. Somewhat earlier, the Rhine had suffered the same fate. Around the middle of the Little Ice Age, the year 1540 was the warmest and driest for the millennium in central Europe. Once again, the Rhine dried up.

"We can only imagine the excitement such events would provoke today.

"Extreme weather events are to be expected, but are unexpected in every period. No one towards the end of the medieval warming in Europe expected the rapid descent into the cold and wet of the Little Ice Age, for example, or the freezing gales, winds and heavy rains that produced the short summers and the terrible developing famines of 1315 to 1320. Surprises such as these will continue into the future."

"We need to be able to afford to provide the Noahs of the future with the best arks science and technology can provide," Cardinal Pell said.

"In essence, this is the moral dimension to this issue. The cost of attempts to make global warming go away will be very heavy. Efforts to offset the effects on the vulnerable are well intentioned but history tells us they can only ever be partially successful."

UN expert urges leaders at G-20 summit to put right to food before industry interests

2011-11-01T13:26:00.005+08:00

Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
By : Olivier De Schutter
Dated : 31st Oct, 2011

Source:
http://www.speroforum.com/a/QNDLEQDULB27/UN-expert-urges-leaders-at-G20-summit-to-put-right-to-food-before-industry-interests

A United Nations expert urged world leaders today to put the right to food before industry interests when committing to a food security plan later this week at the G-20 summit in Cannes, France, warning of the negative impacts that biofuels and financial speculation have on this basic human right.

"The G-20 made an important statement of intent by placing food security at the top of its agenda. But agreeing on a food security action plan without addressing biofuels and speculation would be like running a bath without putting in the plug. All of the good ideas simply drain away," said Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, in a statement.

Mr. De Schutter called for governments to put an end to biofuels mandates and subsidies as they are a major factor that causes food prices to rise and creates a high demand for farmland in developing countries.

"Leaders are yet to prove that they heard the joint recommendations of international organizations five months ago, which urged G-20 governments to stop subsidising biofuels. It is not enough to name-check the issue " the G-20 must put the human right to food before the vested interests of some of its industries," he said.

Mr. De Schutter also called for leaders to put financial regulations in place to stop speculation on food commodity prices, making them rise unnecessarily, and said the action plan agreed by G-20 agriculture ministers in June is too weak and requires a stronger stance to have an impact.

"Food commodity markets must not be a refuge when other financial markets have dried up. Speculation on these markets is rife, and instead of allowing producers and buyers to hedge against risk, it has increased risk and led to price changes unconnected to the underlying fundamentals."

In addition, Mr. De Schutter said food reserves can be used to stimulate the growth of small farmers, prevent famines, and bring stability to the food market.

"We must be more ambitious, and use food stocks as a tool for stabilizing the market. If we buy from small-scale farmers when supply is plentiful, and release these stocks when markets are tight, we can prevent the volatile price swings and supply shocks which create humanitarian crises in the first place."

The expert warned that unless bolder actions are taken, the world will be unable to feed the nine billion people estimated to inhabit the planet by the year 2050.

"Time is running out for world leaders, who must go beyond rhetoric and deliver real change. The hungry cannot wait," he said.

A Warm Welcome to the 7 Billionth Baby

2011-11-01T13:13:00.007+08:00

We take a moment here to welcome the 7th billionth baby into our world.
And here's a comment from the following article by STEVEN W MOSHER as it appeared in
the SPERO NEWS dated 31st Oct, 2011.

Source:
http://www.speroforum.com/a/TMTYZBLYEF25/A-Warm-Welcome-to-the-7-Billionth-Baby?utm_source=web&utm_medium=topbanner&utm_campaign=images

A few seconds after midnight a baby emerged from the womb of her mother, drew her first breath, and announced her arrival into the world with a tiny cry. This is Baby Seven Billion. Today, 31 October 2011, is her birthday.

This day — the day that our planet becomes home to seven billion human beings — marks an important milestone. But is it a milestone on humanity's upward path that we should celebrate, or a warning of impending catastrophe over which we should despair?

For the population controllers at the UN Population Fund and Planned Parenthood the answer is clear: They would have preferred that Baby Seven Billion had never been born.

We, on the other hand, celebrate the birth of Baby Seven Billion. This little child has been born into a world that is more prosperous than our forebears could ever have imagined.

As our numbers have grown, incomes have soared. In 1800, when there were only 1 billion of us, per capita income worldwide was a mere $100. By 1927 our numbers had doubled, but incomes had already increased five times to $500. By the time we reached 3 billion in 1960, income had tripled again to $1500. Today, as we pass the billion mark, per capita income has soared to $9,000.

In 2100, when the population will be between 7 and 8 billion (and falling), it is projected to be $30,000 in current dollars.

Driving the so-called “population explosion” has been a real explosion in health and longevity. As late as the 19th century, four out of every 10 children died before reaching age five. Today under-five mortality is under 6 percent and falling. Two hundred years ago, human life expectancy was under 30 years. Today it is 69 years and climbing.

As people live longer, naturally there are more of us around at any given time.

By nearly every measure of well-being, from infant mortality and life expectancy to educational level and caloric intake, life in Africa, Asia, and Latin America has been getting dramatically better. According to the World Bank, the average income in the developing world has quadrupled since 1960

Enough grain is produced for every person on earth to consume 3,500 calories daily. There is no need for anyone to starve in the midst of this plenty.

Population has more than doubled since 1960, but crop yields per hectare have kept pace. World food and resource production has never been higher.

Economies continue to expand, productivity is up, and pollution is declining. Life spans are lengthening, poverty is down, and political freedom is growing. The human race has never been so well off.

In fact, underpopulation, not overpopulation, is the real threat that much of the world faces today. Some 80 countries representing over half the world's population suffer from below replacement fertility — defined as less than 2.1 children per woman.

The populations of the developed nations today are static or declining. The UN predicts that, by 2050, Russia's population will have declined by 25 million people, Japan's by 21 million, Italy's by 16 million, and Germany's and Spain's by 9 million each. Europe and Japan are projected to lose half their population by 2100.

Countries with below replacement rate fertility will eventually die out. It's just a question of time.

Even in the developing world family size has shrunk, from around 5 children per woman in 1960 to less than 3 today. And the decline continues.

According to the UN's “low variant projection” — historically the most accurate — the population of the world will peak at 8 plus billion in 2040 or so, and then begin to decline.

High fertility rates are becoming rare. The UN numbers for 2010 show only 10 countries with population increase rates at or above 3.0 percent.

By 2050, persons aged 65 and above will be almost twice as numerous as children 15 years and younger. The economic consequences of population aging will be closing schools, declining stock markets, and moribund economies.

Ignoring these facts, the population controllers continue to spread their myth of overpopulation.

The UNFPA and other population control organizations are loath to report the truth about falling fertility rates worldwide, since they raise funds by frightening people with the specter of overpopulation. They tell us that too many babies are being born to poor people in developing countries. This is tantamount to saying that only the wealthy should be allowed to have children, and is a new form of global racism.

We should stop funding population control programs, and instead turn our attention to real problems, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and infectious diseases. As mortality rates fall, so will birth rates.

Let us also join together in celebrating the birth of Baby Seven Billion. He or she is a sign of our future, our hope and our prosperity.

People are our greatest resource. Extraordinarily gifted people have helped to enrich civilization and lengthen life spans. But the fact is, everyone, rich or poor, is a unique creation with something priceless to offer to the rest of us.

Baby Seven Billion, boy or girl, red or yellow, black or white, is not a liability, but an asset. Not a curse, but a blessing. For all of us.

NOTE:
Steven W. Mosher is the President of the Population Research Institute

(The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author only, not of Spero News.)

ACT NOW plea to the Malaysian Govt and Citizens

2011-10-28T10:27:00.003+08:00

The following news article was featured in THE STAR 28th October, 2011

Source:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/10/28/nation/9787967&sec=nation

Act now to lessen impact of climate change, Govt urged
(Stories by RAHIMY RAHIM, EMBUN MAJID, LEE YEN MUN and JOSEPH KAOS)

An environmentalist wants the Government to take steps to lessen the impact of unusual rainfall due to climate change.

Centre for Environment, Technology and Development Malaysia (Cetdem) chairman Gurmit Singh said it should prohibit development in flood-prone areas.

He said some developers build their infrastructure in low-lying deltas and coastal areas where floods occur.

“They must realise that a change in climate is already taking place and policies must be implemented so Malaysia will not end up like Thailand.”

Thailand is facing its worst floods and people and businesses are forced to build water barriers around their homes and workplaces.

Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) national hydrology and water resources division director Datuk Lim Chow Hock said Malaysia was receiving higher-than-average rainfall even when it wasn’t the monsoon season.

“In terms of national average, we received some 2,400mm per year in the peninsula alone,” he said.

“We estimate that the figures will be much higher this year.

Given the current outlook, the level will spiral to at least 2,700mm while Sabah and Sarawak can go up to 3,000mm of rain this year,” he told The Star.

He said this year’s rainfall was exceptionally higher.

“Prolonged light rain in a few days followed by at least twice heavy rain in a month from November until March could lead to flooding.”

Tips on How To Save the Environment (Part 8) - YOUR WORK

2011-10-26T12:19:00.004+08:00

Most of us spend the better part of our 24-hour day in our workplace. It is also the place where we are most likely confronted with non-environmental friendly items. Taking the initiative and leading the way to a Greener workplace will help enhance the efficiency and the work performance of you and your staff. Your colleagues may just be waiting for you to take the initiative and the first step to start the ball rolling.... GO FOR IT! And here's some quick tips on how to go about it (opt for those applicable to your situation). (Greensleeves)

Source: http://globalstewards.org/ecotips.htm

YOUR WORK
•Recycling Program: If a recycling program has not already been started at your company, start one yourself (or improve the program already in place). Learn more at Recycling in the Workplace.

•Recycled Material: Encourage the office/purchasing manager to purchase products containing recycled material (paper, plastic, etc.). Learn more at Recycled Plastic Products (U.S. and Canada).

•Materials Exchange: You can find exchange programs at Recycler's World and State-specific Materials Exchange Programs (U.S.)

•Product Design: Better by Design helps in designing environmentally friendly products.

•Green Purchasing: Learn about green purchases through:
◦Responsible Purchasing Network
◦Green Seal of Approval
◦Purchasing environmentally-friendly building products (free software)
◦Environmental Yellow Pages
◦Green Pages Online

•Energy Reduction: Schedule an energy audit through your local energy provider to determine how to reduce energy use. Learn more at Energy Star for Small Business.

•Environmental Policy: Strategic Planning resources for defining your company's environmental policy:
◦Source Reduction
◦Waste Prevention World
◦WasteWi$e (EPA)
◦National Environmental Performance Track (EPA)
◦Other EPA Voluntary Programs
◦Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI)
◦The Natural Step
◦Natural Capitalism
◦Biomimicry
◦Cradle to Cradle
◦CERES (Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies)

•Green Meetings and Conventions: A growing number of businesses are greening their meetings and conventions. Get started with 10 Easy Tips. Learn more through the EPA and the Green Meeting Industry Council.

•Green Building: Encourage your company to look into building or leasing space in a "green" building. The EPA can provide information through their Business Improvement program.

•Shipping: Whenever possible, choose environmentally-friendly packaging material. If your company uses pallets to ship boxes stabilized with stretch wrap, strapping, or corner boards, look into switching to more environmentally-friendly unitizing systems such as Lock n' Pop (no endorsement intended).

•Junk Mail: Check into ways to reduce business junk mail

•Computers: Buy refurbished computers for less. Also consider donating used computer equipment. If you purchase new equipment, the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool and Guide to Greener Electronics can help you make greener choices.

•Zero Waste: EPA: Zero Waste and Zero Waste Alliance provide information on shifting your business toward producing zero waste.

•Reusing Ink Cartridges: Cartridge World will refill your printer cartridges at half retail price.

•Renewable Energy Certificates (REC): If you don't have the ability to switch to renewable energy, consider buying an REC which let's you essentially purchase renewable energy without switching electricity suppliers.

•Paper Use: Use both sides of each piece of paper -- for note taking or printing documents from your computer (at home or work). At work, designate a printer to be stocked with once-used paper for drafts. Where possible, configure computer systems to automatically hold documents in printer queues so that manual release is required to print the document. Create notepads by stapling together once-used paper.

•Office Supplies: Create a used supplies drawer and ask employees to place any unwanted office supplies from work or home in the drawer for reuse.

•Lunch: Pack a Waste-Free Lunch whenever possible.

•Break Room: Ask co-workers to bring their unwanted cups, mugs, plates, cloth napkins, and silverware to work to replace disposable items.

•Green Hotels: Encourage your company to use the Green Hotel Initiative's Best Practices Survey to determine which hotels to book traveling employees or visitors at.

•Environmental Career: Looking for an environmental job? Check out:
◦NRDC Green Jobs
◦Environmental Jobs and Careers
◦Environmental Career Opportunities
◦Green Jobs Ready
◦Business for Social Responsibility
◦Environmental Career.com
◦Green Dream Jobs
◦GreenBiz.com Job Listings
◦Environmental Jobs
◦Employment, Career, Volunteer Opportunities
◦WebDirectory Environmental Job Listing Sites

Tips on How to Save the Environment (Part 7) - Your Home & Finances

2011-10-26T11:44:00.007+08:00

The Home is the best place to begin our campaign against global warming. Making our homes a safe haven for our loved ones should be everyone's top priority in terms of our health and well-being. Start out by making sure we are not using any chemical-laden cleaning agents which are not only harmful to us but to our pets as well. Every bit counts - and our loved ones are counting on us to take the lead on alternative and healthier household products. (Greensleeves)

Part (7) on How we Can Help Save the Environment shows the many ways we can make our homes a safer place to dwell in....

SOURCE : http://globalstewards.org/ecotips.htm

Create a non-toxic, safe home for your family and pets. Gather up all products in your house or garage that contain unsafe chemicals and drop off at your local hazardous waste facility. Switch to alternatives containing nontoxic and biodegradable ingredients (some products labeled 'green' aren't really safe - look for green certification labels).

NON-TOXIC HOME•
Hazardous Waste: Dispose of the following products at a hazardous waste facility:

◦Building Materials - paint , varnish, paint thinner, solvents, rust remover, wood preservatives and driveway sealer

◦Automotive products - gasoline, transmission oil, brake fluid, kerosene, charcoal lighter fluid, power steering fluid, used motor oil,used oil filters, used antifreeze

◦Household cleaners - spot removers, rug cleaners, metal cleaners, bathroom cleaners, oven cleaner, drain cleaner

◦Pesticides - insect killers, weed killers, flea products, moth crystals, fertilizers with weed killer

◦Miscellaneous - photographic chemicals, acids and corrosive chemicals, pool chemicals, compact fluorescent light bulbs (mercury) , mercury thermometers, Ni-Cd batteries.

HOME MADE PRODUCTS : Suggested recipes for home-made cleaning products:

◦Make Your Own Nontoxic Cleaning Kit
Link : http://www.care2.com/greenliving/make-your-own-non-toxic-cleaning-kit.html

◦All-Purpose Spray Cleaner
Link : http://www.care2.com/greenliving/cheap-all-purpose-cleaning-spray.html

◦The Healthy Home
Link : http://www.care2.com/greenliving/healthy-home

◦Better Basics for the Home is a great resource book.

•Green Certified Products: The Eco-labels center evaluates the different eco-label programs so that you can pick your products based on the most rigorous certification processes.

•Dry Cleaning: If available, clean your "dry clean only" clothes at a dry cleaning facility that uses wet cleaning techniques. Or, safer yet, when
possible avoid purchasing clothes that require dry cleaning.

•Clothing: Whenever possible, buy clothing made from organic cotton and/or hemp. Locate a store that sells organic cotton products through the International Organic Cotton Directory.

•Soap Nuts: Check out environmentally-friendly soap nuts (Sapindus) to replace your laundry detergent. It can also be used as a general cleaning soap.

•PVC: Avoid purchasing plastic #3, PVC/vinyl. Information: PVC Alternatives Database and waste crisis from disposal of PVC.

•Plants: Learn about the top plants for removing toxins from the air in your home in the article: Using Plants to Clean Indoor Air Pollutants.

Natural Body Products
•Natural Products: You can find nontoxic products at SkinDeep: Cosmetic Safety Database. Head over to your local natural products store to pick up natural, cruelty-free body products.

•Cruelty-Free: To learn about and find cruelty-free products, check out Animal Ingredients and Their Alternatives and Companies That Don't Test on Animals.

•Home-Made: Great book on safe, home-made personal care products.

Building or Remodeling Your Home
•Contractor: Find a building contractor who will follow the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star Homes Program. You can locate a "green building" professional through the Green Building Council Directory.

•Resources: Access the Sustainable Building Sourcebook and/or Green Building Concepts for information about building an environmentally-friendly home.

•New Home Location: If you are considering building a new home, seek out a location that has already been built on in the past (vs. building on "pristine" land).

•Energy Efficient Mortgages (U.S.): EEM's let you borrow extra money to pay for energy efficient upgrades to your current home or a new or old home that you plan to buy.

•Building Materials: Building material ideas (no endorsement of any company intended):
◦Eco-Friendly Flooring Guide
◦straw bale
◦bamboo -- two sites to check out: Plyboo and Teragren
◦true (natural) linoleum
◦previously used wood -- one site to check out: Vintage Timber Works
◦cob -- three sites to check out: Cob, Cob Cottage, and EcoBusiness-Cob Building Resources
◦composite decking -- The Latest Trend in Decking
◦samples of sustainable flooring material
◦rammed earth homes
◦greenroofs.com -- plant-based roofing
◦sustainably harvested wood -- search for suppliers through the Forest Stewardship Council

•Buy/Sell Green Home: If you are looking to buy or sell a green home, check out ListedGreen.

PERSONAL FINANCES :
•Roadmap: The New Roadmap Foundation's Your Money or Your Life program offers a wonderful nine-step program for personal financial transformation.
( Blogger's Note: Or check with your local banks for GREEN Investments available )

•Investing: Information on environmentally and socially responsible investing can be found at:
◦Socially Responsible Investing (article/links)
◦Social Investment Forum
◦GreenMoney Online Guide
◦Ethical Investment Research Service

What is Biodegradable Plastic anyway?

2011-10-25T16:45:00.004+08:00

SOURCE: http://www.tofinotime.com/articles/A-T901-26frm.htm

By: Lisa Fletcher, Tofino

The other day, a friend of mine commented on the number of green doggie bags she'd noticed littered along the beach. Granted, no one likes the sight of or to step in dog poo, but somehow wrapping it up in a neat little package and leaving it on the beach doesn't make sense either. This got me thinking about these biodegradable plastic bags. Do they really breakdown completely, even in our chilly Pacific Ocean? We've definitely come a long way with the use of plastic bags, but this whole 'biodegradable' phenomenon has somehow managed to ease people's minds without a second thought.

First, a few terms: Degradable is given to a substance that can be broken down by natural processes into smaller parts, with no time frame for when it will break down. Everything is 'degradable' eventually, even if it takes 1000's of years.

Photodegradable is given to a substance that breaks down with exposure to ultraviolet light (uv). Biodegradable materials can be broken down completely by naturally occurring microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, and algae) and converted in raw materials of nature. Compostable refers to something being biodegradable within in a certain time frame, under typical composting conditions.

Until recently, plastics were commonly used. We now know that plastics, being made from oil, may not be the most sustainable solution. They are harmful to wildlife and can take 1000's of years to decompose. As a 'greener' solution, biodegradable plastics have been manufactured from a variety of materials, including starch-based polymers (potato, corn, wheat or tapioca starch), polyester (still made from oil products), water-soluble polymers, polymers that degrade with light or oxygen, or a blend of these.

Two very common types of biodegradable plastics are oxo-biodegradable and hydro-biodegradable. Oxo-biodegradable plastics are usually still made from an oil by-product but contain an additive, allowing them to break down in the presence of oxygen to be consumed by microorganisms. Hydro-biodegradable plastics are starch-based plastics (sometimes a blend with oil-based material) that degrade with moisture. Bags made of 100% cornstarch can break down very quickly in the right conditions. The more starch in the blend, the faster it will degrade. However, the controversy with starch products is similar to that of the bio-fuel debate; food crops for non-food use. Although hydro-biodegradable plastics tend to degrade faster, oxo-biodegradable plastics are used more often because they are less expensive and easier to manufacture.

Common misconceptions of these 'green' solutions are that they can be recycled, composted or sent to the landfill where they will completely breakdown. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Biodegradable plastics vary in the rate that they degrade and in their effects on the environment, depending on what they are made from. Many products cannot be recycled because there are few facilities set up for it. If they are added to regular plastic recycling, they can 'contaminate' the process because they are made from different substances. Plastic bags labeled "compostable" have passed a standard test to break down within a specific time period. For plastics to be compostable they must:

1.Break down into carbon dioxide (CO2), water and biomass.
2.Decompose at the same rate as other compostable materials (like plants).
3.Not emit any type of toxin into the environment.

Of course, each compost time varies depending on substances, amount of air it receives, and how often it is turned. As for sending things to the landfill, in all reality anything bio?degradable that ends up in a landfill probably does not get enough oxygen, sun, or dirt (or microorganisms) it needs to return to the earth naturally. Most gets buried and therefore stays relatively intact (this is why you can find newspapers from 20 years ago). Some landfills are now actually being designed to promote biodegradation through the injection of water, oxygen, and even microbes, which could potentially even be marketable for soil.

The topic of biodegradable plastics is pretty complicated. It seems the more heat, moisture, and air there is, the faster things will degrade. As for the little green bags, I'm not sure how they decompose in the frigid waters of the Pacific Ocean, but they do have 'Do Not Litter' written right on them. Ultimately it is up to consumers to find out the proper disposal methods of biodegradable plastics. It seems to me that by reducing our dependency on plastics, whether they are biodegradable or not, is part of the solution.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After finishing years of university, Lisa finally gets to save the world!

GOING GREEN WITH BIODEGRADABLE PRODUCTS

2011-10-25T16:21:00.006+08:00

SOURCE: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2011/10/25/lifefocus/9591906&sec=lifefocus

Biodegradable food containers are touted as a solution to our throwaway society but it appears that the answer is not that simple.

CONVENTIONAL plastics have been accused of a slew of crimes. They are said to deplete non-renewable resources such as oil and when disposed off, degrade extremely slowly, if at all. When carelessly discarded, they are an eyesore and can choke wildlife. They are also said to take up valuable landfill space.

This has led to a plethora of measures to replace plastics, especially for single-use applications, with other materials such as paper or bioplastics made of plant-based materials, like starch or complex sugars.

The central assumption behind such thinking is that paper or starch-based materials will degrade quickly and leave no trace after a few months or a year or two (common assumptions by people on what biodegradability is all about).

The move to replace plastics – such as shopping bags, packaging, food containers (clamshells, plates, cups, bowls) and cutlery – is currently focused on areas where they are the most visible. Penang has banned retailers from handing out free plastic bags to shoppers and disallowed food sellers in municipal council-operated hawker centres from using polystyrene clamshells and plates. Selangor is toying with the same idea.

Manufacturers of alternatives to disposable plastic foodware are quick to trumpet the biodegradability of their products. Selangor-based Greatpac, manufacturer of the Jasa Eco (jasa-eco.com) range of disposable tableware that is bio-based (a blend of 70% corn starch and 30% conventional polypropylene, or PP), said its products can be expected to degrade within five years after being landfilled.

“We are confident that 70% of the product will degrade and this is still better than totally no degradation,’’ said senior manager Douglas Tan

The company also makes a polystyrene clamshell (codenamed JEF2) which contains additives that will make it biodegrade under low or zero oxygen (anaerobic) conditions. It clarified that while JEF2 is not a bio-based product (like its starch-based series), the clamshell can be expected to biodegrade within two to five years in local landfills (based on extrapolated lab results).

Penang-based Return 2 Green (return2green.com.my), which makes clamshell boxes from agricultural waste such as sugarcane bagasse, said its products will “return to nature at 180 days of composting”.

Both companies offer products that need moisture, warmth, oxygen and microbial action to decompose, either partly or totally. This is in contrast to another range of plastic that does not need microbial action to decompose, a phenomenon known as oxodegradability (commonly seen in supermarket shopping bags, such as the ones offered by Carrefour).

Degrees of degradation
However, biodegradability itself is a debatable concept, and in the absence of a qualifying statement, a largely meaningless notion. One would be sadly mistaken if one thinks that putting the used lunchbox or plate into a compost pile would yield great results within weeks, which is what most people expect of a “biodegradable” product.

This plate — made of 70% corn-yam starch and 30% polypropylene — will be compostable if conditions stipulated under the ASTM D6400 are met in a composting facility.

The Great Garbage Project, conducted between 1987 and 1995 by a group of archaeologists from the University of Arizona in the United States, found newspapers which were still readable despite being buried for five years, and even retrieved 40-year-old newspapers from landfills, blowing away the misconception that the landfill is a huge composting facility that will take care of all biodegradable waste.

There are two types of biodegradation: aerobic (in the presence of oxygen) and anaerobic (without oxygen or in very low levels of oxygen). Aerobic degradation gives out water and carbon dioxide, while anaerobic degradation gives out methane, other than carbon dioxide and water. In the hundreds of open dumps found in the country, organic materials get piled up and create anaerobic conditions.

In properly managed sanitary landfills, such as those in North America, the law stipulates that the trash must be kept away, as much as possible, from moisture and sunlight, factors that speed up biodegradation. Hence, scientists now acknowledge that just because a material is organic does not mean that it will decompose as fast as we would like it to.

While it is clear that biodegradation cannot be taken for granted in landfills, Penang is placing its hope that the use of biodegradable foodware will somewhat help slow down the growth of waste. Its executive councillor for the environment, Phee Boon Poh, believes that such items will degrade in landfills, and help with waste management.

Whether a landfill should be managed in such a way as to speed up or retard biodegradability is still an open issue, contends Prof P. Agamuthu of Universiti Malaya’s Institute of Biological Sciences.

The bigger picture of solid waste management is a rather grim one. On a national scale, the current challenge is how to efficiently collect the 20,000 tonnes of waste that is being generated daily.

According to Datuk Dr Nadzri Yahaya, director-general of the National Solid Waste Management Department, there are presently 176 dumpsites, and many more are needed to handle the increasing amount of waste. It is understood that 11 more sanitary landfills will be built under the 10th Malaysia Plan, and five mini incinerators are expected to be running soon.

To Dr Nadzri, using biodegradable foodware is just substituting one throwaway product with another. “What benefit is there with a cornstarch plate replacing a polystyrene plate, when both are thrown out into the bin after use? Promoting throwaways is actually missing the bigger picture,’’ he said.

In countries where waste is incinerated, such as Singapore, biodegradable food containers offer no real benefits over conventional plastic disposables as waste is carted away daily to incinerators.

Even if one is to accept the premise that biodegradable food containers will degrade anaerobically after a few years, it is doubtful whether this will lead to any real improvements in our landfills. The wet waste portion, consisting chiefly of food waste, contributes to around 45% of the average household waste (by weight), and sometimes up to 60%. This is followed by plastics (24%), paper (7%), metals (6%), glass (3%), while other miscellaneous materials make up the remaining 15%. After the extraction of recyclables, the mix that eventually gets buried in the dump contains nearly 70% food waste.

Even Greatpac acknowledges that no biodegradable food containers can degrade in a matter of weeks in our landfills, though it still argued that its products are better compared to plastics, and their decomposition under local conditions surpasses those found in North America. “Regular products may take more than 500 years to break down because they repel microbes but our products will break down between two to five years, which is still a vast improvement,’’ said Tan.

US-based company Natureworks LLC admitted that its polylactic plastic made of corn-derived sources (brand name Ingeo biopolymer, not sold here) will not biodegrade in American landfills “due to the low oxygen concentration and drop in temperature.”

Competing for food?
Some argue against using bioplastics on the grounds that the products employ food materials. Greatpac’s defence is that its products will not have an impact on the overall supply of food as it uses starch that is unfit for human consumption. “Industrial cornstarch comes from corn parts deemed not to be of high enough quality for human consumption. In that process, there is no waste as everything from the stalk to the leaves are used,” said the company on its website.

Likewise, Natureworks, a major producer of PLA (polylactic acid) plastics, said that the sugar (in the form of dextrose) used in its products is derived from corn grown for non-food applications. “Our production utilises dextrose as the base feedstock in a fermentation process which converts sugar to lactic acid. We use that lactic acid to create a polymer, which is later converted to a variety of packaging and fibre applications.

“When our plant is at capacity, NatureWorks LLC will use less than 0.05% of the available annual global corn crop. Our process does not require corn, but we only need a sugar source. This could include sugar beets, sugar cane, wheat and more. In the future we plan to move to non-food cellulosic feedstocks.”

Olive Green argued that hunger is a social phenomenon linked to poverty, and has nothing to do with crop substitution or land use patterns. “People are hungry because they are too poor to buy food. There is a shortage of purchasing power, not a shortage of food. It is not a question of whether we have enough food or how we deal with them, it is a question of how we can distribute the right food, at the right time, to the right people,” said the company on its website (olivegreen.com.sg).

Dr Theng Lee Chong, a solid waste management specialist, remains sceptical of such claims. “Starch is food, no matter if it is low-grade starch, or high-grade starch. Making food service utensils from these so-called renewable materials is akin to diverting food from the masses. Can we tell a starving African that low-grade starch cannot be eaten? And planting crops for the production of bioplastics would mean that real food crops would have to give way. There is always an opportunity cost to be paid.”

Biodegradable foodware also loses a bit of lustre when they are viewed from a life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) perspective.

The widespread cultivation of corn for plastics is not possible without a significant input of fossil fuel that comes in the form of fuel and electricity used by farm machinery, fertilisers (derived from oil), transport, and water consumption.

“From an LCI perspective, biodegradable plastics do have negative impacts, when you grow tapioca or corn just to produce it. So, the best thing is to avoid plastics in all forms and to use reusable containers,’’ said Agamuthu.

The Singapore National Environment Agency, for instance, specifies the use of reusable tableware when procuring catering services whenever possible, and encourages partners and other public sector agencies to be environmentally friendly in the organisation of events.

More methane
At the moment, the high percentage of food waste in Malaysia ends up producing landfill gas containing approximately 50% to 60% methane (by volume), and most is just vented into the atmosphere without any flaring or gas-capture systems. As methane has a global-warming potential 21 times greater than CO2, this poses a serious environmental problem. According to the national greenhouse gas inventory, landfills are the leading source of methane here, contributing more than half of this noxious emission (53%), followed by palm oil mills (38%). Seen in this light, widespread use of biodegradable foodware will in fact boost methane release.

Looking at some developed countries, a growing trend is to divert untreated organic waste like food waste, away from the landfill, rather than allowing it to ferment inside and produce methane. The European Union decreed in 2008 that untreated organic waste can no longer be landfilled. In these places, the solutions include industrial-scale composting, fermentation in digesters to produce methane for electricity, or waste-to-energy incinerators.

Some parties are already disenchanted with the promises of compostability. Early this month, the US Congress announced that 90% of the Capitol Complex’s non-recyclable solid waste, amounting to 5,385 tonnes per year, would be sent to waste-to-energy facilities soon, after an unsatisfactory experiment with composting in 2009and 2010. The composting programme was cancelled in January; high cost was a major factor. Apparently, stocking the cafeteria with corn-based utensils and then subsequently transporting the waste to an on-site shredder only saved the amount of carbon emitted by a single car a year, but the price tag came close to RM1.5mil. Polystyrene foodware has now been reintroduced at the cafeteria.

Theng, the national co-ordinator of the Malaysia-Japan intergovernmental collaboration on solid waste management, said that the solution for Malaysia lies in concerted education on waste minimisation and proper recycling, so that more resources can be diverted from landfills in the first place.

In the light of what really happens (or is unlikely to happen) within a landfill, consumers need to be aware of marketing hype. Dr William Rathje, director of the Garbage Project, in his book Rubbish (co-authored with Cullen Murphy) summed up the situation well: “The truth is, however, that the dynamics of a modern landfill are very nearly the opposite of what most people think. Well-designed and managed landfills seem to be far more apt to preserve their contents for posterity than transform them into humus or mulch. They are not vast composters; rather they are vast mummifiers.”

As for Theng, the slew of so-called green products is an indication that unfettered commercialisation can sometimes take over the initially noble cause of creating a better environment. “Sometimes, it is just hype.”

PRICE FACTOR
USING disposable ware, biodegradable or otherwise, has its advantages, if you ask those who are in the catering industry.

“I need to deploy much more manpower if the function has to use reusable plates, cups and cutlery. It is usual for guests to leave them all over the place, and the caterer will also have to absorb some breakages along the way,’’ said Norsyaliza Mohamad, assistant manager of Arena Events & Services.

Another operator said that manpower requirements can vary by up to 40% at a large function when reusable plates and cutlery are used. “And it is not enough to bring just 1,000 plates when you are catering for 1,000. You need to bring at least 2,000 plates as people are known to leave half-empty plates all over, and will not hesitate to grab a fresh plate. Using disposables is much easier as they are light and require no washing or collection,’’ said a cook from Creative Catering.

When Sariya Yatim, owner of Dapur Emas Catering, offered to use tableware made of tapioca, her customers were not interested as they did not want to pay for the price difference compared to foam plates. “But generally, most of my clients do not request for disposable tableware as the perception is that the event will not appear classy if disposable utensils are used,’’ she said.

A polystyrene clamshell can be as cheap as 7.5 sen each, or even less for larger orders, while a biodegradable option easily costs four times as much.

BLOGGER'S NOTE :
The above article was written by MENG YEW CHOONG as it appeared in THE STAR (Star2Green)on 25th October, 2011

BEWARE OF FAKE 'GREEN' CLAIMS

2011-10-25T16:10:00.003+08:00

Source: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2011/10/25/lifefocus/9601410&sec=lifefocus

To be sure that the product biodegrades, look for the right label. GIVEN that the concept of biodegradability is open to many interpretations, the United States is very stringent when it comes to allowing such claims on products. In June 2009, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged a few large retailers for falsely claiming that their paper products were “biodegradable”.

According to FTC, the claims of “degradable”, “biodegradable” and “photodegradable” should be substantiated by competent and reliable scientific evidence to “show that the entire product or package will completely break down and return to nature (decompose into elements found in nature) within a reasonably short period of time after customary disposal”.

All three companies which were charged by FTC – Kmart Corp (for American Fare disposable plates), Tender Corp (Fresh Bath moist wipes) and Dyna-E International (Lightload compressed dry towels) – settled the cases and withdrew their claims of biodegradability.

“The breakdown of any material happens very slowly in landfills, where most garbage is taken. Even biodegradable materials like paper or food may take decades to break down because they’re buried under tonnes of other garbage. Just because a product claims to be biodegradable or photodegradable doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s better for the environment, especially if it winds up in a landfill,” said the commission on its website (ftc.gov).

As far as FTC advertising guidelines go, compostable means that all the materials in the product or package will break down into, or otherwise become part of, usable compost (soil-conditioning material or mulch) in a safe and timely manner in an appropriate composting programme or facility, or in a home compost pile or device. A compostable material is believed to leave behind residues that are beneficial to the soil, versus biodegradation, which most people believe to mean that the material disappears completely, leaving no trace.

Many manufacturers rely on third-party certification of agreed standards on what constitutes biodegradability and compostability. The most well-known certification comes from ASTM International (astm.org), formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials, which offers the ASTM D5511-11 certification for biodegradability and the ASTM D6400 certification for compostability.

The Jasa Eco range of bio-based plates and cutlery (containing up to 30% polypropylene) cannot claim to be compostable, but it is supplying a range of compostable (as per ASTM D6400) utensils for the North American market. Its JEF-2 polystyrene clamshell, impregnated with an organic additive that will hasten the decomposition process, is certified as biodegradable in accordance to ASTM D5511-11.

Materials that are compliant with ASTM D6400 can be expected to compost satisfactorily within 180 days, but in this case, it means 60% biodegradation under municipal and industrial aerobic composting facilities. This kind of scenario is usually found in industrial composting, where machines regulate the temperate, humidity and oxygen levels of the compost pile which is agigated mechanically, and not in a small home compost pile that is left to degrade undisturbed.

Another certification to look out for is the EN13432 which is required in order to claim that a product is compostable in the European marketplace. This standard requires biodegradation of 90% of the materials within 180 days, and is said to be more stringent than the ASTM D6400. But in essence, both standards must be viewed within the context of commercial composting conditions, and cannot be generalised to include the home compost pile.

FTC’s research shows that consumers commonly think “biodegradable” means the product will simply break down into its natural components within a year after customary disposal (in landfills). A straw poll by this writer revealed that journalists would expect a biodegradable product to “disappear” after about a few months (only one person said it could mean anything from two to five years).

A more professional survey commissioned by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) among 1,000 American adults showed that most believe that a biodegradable material will decompose naturally within a span of a year in their backyard, landfill or natural environment.

In Malaysia, the situation is still very much a free-for-all, with many manufacturers (be it paper or plastic) making all sorts of claims with little, dubious, irrelevant, or absolutely no certification attached. This is only to be expected given that there are no national standards on what constitutes biodegradability. It really is a case of buyer beware, as what is promised on paper is not necessarily what is delivered in the real world.

BLOGGERS NOTE: The above article was written by MENG YEW CHOONG and was featured in THE STAR (Focus) on 25th October, 2011

Tips on How to Save the Environment (Part 6) - OUT IN NATURE & YOUR GARDEN

2011-10-25T12:25:00.008+08:00

Can we imagine what it is like if this earth we call home is just barren land? With no trees, no flowers, birds, fishes and a whole lot more to color and beautify our lives? Mother Earth is the only planet with this amazing biodiversity realm of fauna and flora. We are so wonderfully blessed by their presence..... let's all work tgether to save the planet for ourselves and them too! (GREENSLEEVES)

Source: http://globalstewards.org/ecotips.htm

Out in Nature
•Trash: When you are out hiking, pick up trash along the way.

•Hiking Tips: Leave No Trace, Outdoor Ethics - provides tips for campers, climbers, and hikers.

•Restoration: Organize a community group to clean up a local stream, highway, park, or beach. For opportunities to do restoration work for a local organization, check out VolunteerMatch. The American Hiking Society coordinates week long volunteer vacations to help restore trails.

•Tree-Planting: Form a tree-planting group with family and/or friends: commit to planting and maintaining an agreed-upon number of trees over your life times. Plan regular gatherings for tree-planting and watering. Log your commitments in the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign.

•Parks: Visit and help support local parks. In the U.S., reserve a campsite at a National Park through the U.S. National Park Service Reservation Center or Reserve America (includes some state parks).

•Frogs: In the USA, help to track frog and toad populations through Frogwatch USA.

•Birds: In North America, help to track bird populations through Citizen Science.

•Balloons: Never release balloons outdoors. They frequently find their way to open water (even from 100's of miles away) and can harm or kill turtles, whales, and other marine mammals.

•Stargazing: Stargazing schedule - provides current information about stargazing events.

•Educational Sites:

◦Animals: Animal Diversity Web and Wild Sound Stories

◦Biology: The Biology Project

◦Marine Biology: OceanLink

◦Birds: Peterson's Perspective and Introduction to the Aves

◦Microbes: The Microbe Zoo

◦Astronomy: Nine Planets Solar System Tour

◦WWF Fun and Games

◦Environmental Kids Club

◦For Teachers: Environmental Education Resources and Environmental Defense's Teacher's Guide

YOUR GARDEN
Create a Backyard Wildlife Habitat

As people take over more and more of the land, we need to provide food, water, and shelter to the animals that are now relying on us for their survival.

•Backyard Wildlife Habitat:
A backyard wildlife habitat or "naturescape" can be created in your own backyard. A miniature version can even be created on your patio or deck. Basic elements include fresh water (i.e., a bird bath and, if in a yard, water low to the ground); plants and feeders that provide nourishment for birds, insects, etc.; and rocks, trees, bushes and/or bird houses for shelter and nesting. Purchase plants that are native to your area. The National Wildlife Federation has an excellent program: The Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program which provides some helpful, detailed examples.

•Attracting Animals: Learn how to attract:
◦Hummingbirds
◦Butterflies
◦Birds

•Protecting Birds: The greatest danger to birds in your yard is window collisions. Audubon provides tips for minimizing collisions.

•Resources: How to Naturescape provides inspiration and information on switching to native plants.

GARDENING TIPS
*Organic Gardening: Go organic!! - here are some basics:-

•Native Garden: Learn about creating a Native Garden from eNature. Get to know the specific ecosystem your home is located in (e.g., Oak Woodland, Grasslands) and select plants native to this ecosystem.

•Xeriscape: Tips on how to grow an environmentally friendly lawn can be found at the Xeriscape.

•Climate-Friendly Gardens: Learn about becoming a climate-friendly gardener from UCS.

•Rain Garden: Create a rain garden on your property to reduce runoff into storm drains.

•Veggies in Containers: Tips on growing great vegetables in containers.

•Window Farms: Innovative way to grow food from recycled containers hanging in windows.

•Composting: Composting provides important nutrients for your organic garden. Learn more at Wikipedia's Compost page.

•Free Dirt Exchange: Find free soil in your area for your landscaping project or garden through Tons of Dirt.

•Worm Composting: Learn about worm composting (vermiculture) at Earthworm FAQ.

•Mulching: Mulching mowers are available which will convert cut grass into a natural fertilizer.

•Carbon Debt: Work off your carbon dioxide "debt" by planting trees! Find out how much you need to work off with the Climate Change Calculator.

•Pesticides: Learn about current toxicity and regulatory information for pesticides in the PAN Pesticide Database.

•Resources: Links to great sites on everything from worm composting (vermiculture) to organic farming can be found at Useful Links.

Tips on How To Save the Environment (part 5)- CONSERVE WATER

2011-10-25T12:04:00.004+08:00

Human activities which include indiscriminate usage, agricultural and farming methods are some of the main factors adding to the wastage and pollution of our natural water resources. What we normally take for granted is, to many, a precious gift....year-long droughts in many third-world countries ought to wise us up to why we need to Protect and Conserve Water. (Greensleeves)

Part (5) on How To Save the Environment continues with how to go about doing this.

Source : http://globalstewards.org/ecotips.htm

CONSERVE WATER

Freshwater degradation is a looming crisis that we must face head on with strong and effective actions. Please do your part to protect this precious resource and call upon your elected representatives to take action today to protect not just future generations but our own future by adopting sustainable water practices. Only 3% of the earth's water is freshwater - we must protect this critical resource. In addition, water-related energy consumes a large amount of energy. In California, for example, water use consumes 19% of the state's electricity, 30% of it's natural gas, and 88 billion gallons of diesel fuel annually.

•Set Goals: To reduce your water consumption:

◦Set specific water reduction goals -- for example, commit to using 20% less per month

◦Determine a baseline to start reducing from. Print the energy and water consumption chart and post in a visible spot in your home.

◦Chart the number of gallons of water used in the last 12 months (for comparison to each month this year) (if water consumption is listed by CCF (hundred cubic feet), one CCF equals 748 gallons.

◦Make specific changes in products used and family member habits:
■buy water saving products where needed

■get your family involved by asking for specific changes in everyone's habits (e.g., place signs near water outlets reminding family members to reduce consumption (e.g., shorter showers, turning the faucet off when not needed, only watering outdoor plants in the morning or evening)

■look for additional ideas below:-
◦Once a month, add the new usage information to the charts and make adjustments as needed to reach your goals

◦If you have children, increase their allowances by the amount saved to encourage them to get involved in finding new ways to conserve

•Resources: You'll find several water conservation ideas at House Water Saver Home including a Top 5 Water Savers page and 10 Ways to Save Water.

•Water Consumption: Each time you turn on a water faucet use the lowest pressure necessary. Keep the water turned on only while it is needed. For drinking water, keep a pitcher in your refrigerator so you don't have to let water run to cool.

•Fix Leaks Promptly!: It is estimated that 13.7% of household water is wasted by leaks. Check your water meter when no one is using water in the house. If it's moving there's a leak. A running toilet can waste 2 gallons a minute. Check by adding food coloring to the tank without flushing. After 10 minutes, look for leaks indicated by color in the bowl. This is most likely a worn flapper valve that can easily be replaced.

•Low Flow Toilets: One of the best ways to avoid wasting water is to switch to low flow or dual flush toilets. Visit Terry Love's consumer toilets report for a great review on available low flow toilets. Flush your toilet only every other time or when it has solid waste. LeakAlerter notifies you if your toilet is leaking.

•Showers: Replace existing shower heads with the lowest flow product you can find. Shower heads with a mist setting let you reduce water flow even further. Shower instead of taking a bath. Time your showers - try to keep them to 5 minutes. If taking a bath, limit how high you fill the tub.

•Aerators: Install flow restrictor aerators inside all faucets for a savings of 3 to 4 gallons per minute.

•Full Loads: Always run full loads of laundry and dishes. Choose the short cycle at low water levels whenever possible. Set the clothing washer at the lowest possible temperature needed and for single rinse only. If you buy a new appliance, compare the water efficiency of each washing machine and switch to a water-conserving model (e.g., front loading washer).

•Dish Washing: Use your dishwasher and don't rinse dishes beforehand (for an average 20 gallon savings).

•Native Plants: Fill your yard with native plants. This will cut down significantly on watering requirements and, in the process, provide much needed food and shelter to local wildlife.

•Mulching: Mulch your gardens to reduce water evaporation around your plants (this also reduces weeds and builds healthy soil).

•Drip Irrigation: Install a drip irrigation system to water your plants more effectively

•For Your Hoses: Buy a squeeze nozzle for all of your hoses. However, if you're watering plants, use a watering can to reduce water waste.

•Best Time to Water: Water at night to minimize evaporation.

•Leftover Water: If you have house plants, whenever possible water them with leftover or unused water from drinking, cooking, and showering. Keep a water pitcher near your sink or bathtub and collect unused water running from the tap (waiting for cooler or warmer water).

•Car Wash: Take your car to a car wash that recycles water. If you wash it yourself, use a bucket and sponge and rinse sparingly.

•Greywater System: Find out if creating a greywater/waste water system would work for you.

•Water Pollution: Protect our water supply by following the steps outlined in How to Clean Up Our Water: 12 simple actions to help stem the tide of polluted runoff.

•Tap Water: Make the switch back to environmentally-friendly tap water instead of bottled water.

•Cooking Vegetables: Steam rather than boil your veggies to save a quart or more of water. Better yet, try giving vegetables a quick rinse, placing them in a covered bowl, and microwaving them for a minute or two.

•Drinking Water: In the U.S., learn more about your drinking water at EPA's Ground Water and Drinking Water site.

•Water Shortage Issues: Organizations that are working on international water shortage issues include:
◦Worldwatch Institute
◦Green Cross International

Tips on How to Save The Environment - (part 4) CONSERVE ENERGY

2011-10-25T11:34:00.004+08:00

Part (4) on how to mitigate climate change is geared towards learning how to manage and utilise energy and fuel in the home,office and mode of transport. Get into the habit of turning and plugging off when appliances are not in use. Not only will it help lessen GHG but also will save you $$$ at the end of the day. Actively supporting energy saving ideas will help towards sustainable daily living. (GREENSLEEVES)

SOURCE: http://globalstewards.org/ecotips.htm

CONSERVE ENERGY

Please do not wait to start conserving as much energy as you can to reduce your climate change emissions! And please ask your elected representatives to push for strong legislation to move toward overall reduced energy usage and increased alternative energy production.

•Quick & Easy Energy Tip: Take the Zero-Volt Challenge and reduce your energy bill today!

•Set Goals: To reduce your energy consumption:
◦Set specific energy reduction goals (for electricity, gas, and gallons of fuel consumed in your car(s)) -- for example, commit to using 20% less per month
◦Determine a baseline to start reducing from. Print the energy and water consumption chart and post in a visible spot in your home. Updates:
■for your car(s): chart the number of miles you drive each month

■for your home/office: chart the gas "therms" and/or electric kilowatts per hour (kWh) used in the last 12 months (for comparison to each month this year)

◦Make specific changes in products used and family member habits:
■buy energy saving products where needed

■read the Sustainable Solutions for Getting Around Town page for ideas on reducing mileage/increasing mileage efficiency

■get your family involved by asking for specific changes in everyone's habits (e.g., tape signs to light switches reminding family members to turn out lights when they leave a room, tape a sign to your car dashboard reminding the driver to check tire pressure during the first week of each month, assign someone to turn out all lights and cut power to unused appliances (to reduce standby power usage) each night)

■look for additional ideas below : -
◦Once a month, add the new usage information to the charts and make adjustments as needed to reach your goals

◦Use the money saved to do something fun with your family (if you have children, increase their allowances by the amount saved to encourage them to get involved in finding new ways to conserve)

◦Join the Carbon Conscious Consumer program by New American Dream to receive new ideas monthly.

Buy Green Energy: If possible, choose a utility company focused on renewable energy. If you live in a deregulated state in the U.S., Green-e provides information about certified "clean electricity" providers for your state. In the U.K., visit Green Helpline.

•Resources: The following pages provide tips on how to save energy:
◦Tips from StopGlobalWarming.org
◦EPA Climate Change Site: Actions for Individuals
◦Personal Emissions Calculator, Calculate Your Impact, and Carbon Calculator
◦Best Going Green Tips Library
◦Home Energy Saver
◦Energy Star Energy Efficient Appliances
◦Choosing Energy Efficient Products
◦Energy Efficient Windows
◦Consumer Energy Information
◦Home Improvement Toolbox
◦Energy Efficiency: First Things First
◦Energy Efficient Home Articles

•Kitchen: Kitchen Unplugged -- ways to conserve energy in the kitchen

•Carbon Footprint: The Carbon Footprint Calculator helps you to determine your carbon dioxide emissions from major sources: home energy consumption and transportation by car and plane. This information can be tracked over time, allowing you to gauge the impact of actions you take to reduce your carbon footprint.

•Carbon Offsets: If you are taking a trip, consider buying carbon emission offsets. Two popular organizations: Terrapass and Carbonfund.

•Home Shade: In hot areas, if you have west-facing windows use window tints, blinds, deciduous trees or trellises to help keep out heat from the summer sun. In general, you will lower your summer air-conditioning bill by planting trees and bushes along the west side of your home.

•Paint Colors: Paint your home a light color if you live in a warm climate and a dark color if you live in a cold climate.

•Insulation: Insulate your hot water heater (a tank that is warm to the touch needs added insulation), as well as hot water pipes and ducts located in unheated areas.

•Standby Power: Reduce "standby power" (the energy used while an appliance is switched off or not performing) at home and at work. The easiest way is to unplug appliances that are not being used. You can also plug your appliances into power surge protector strips (with multiple electrical outlets) and turn the power off at the strip.

•Lights Off: Whenever possible, keep lights off during the day. Consider installing a well insulated skylight if more light is needed. Encourage family members to get in the habit of turning off lights when they leave a room (taping small reminder notes to light switches can help).

•Location of Home: Choose a place to live that reduces the need to drive (easy access to public transit, easy biking routes, close to work and stores, walk able community, etc.).

•Solar Cooker: Consider using a solar cooker to cook some of your meals.

•Cool Water: When turning on a water faucet, unless you need warm water choose the coolest water setting.

•Energy Efficient Mortgages (U.S.): EEM's let you borrow extra money to pay for energy efficient upgrades to your current home or a new or old home that you plan to buy.

•Renewable Energy Certificates (REC): If you don't have the ability to switch to renewable energy, consider buying an REC which let's you essentially purchase renewable energy without switching electricity suppliers.

•Invest in Energy: Investing in renewable energy production is the same as investing in a home or office building. Buying energy from a utility, on the other hand, is like renting - at the end of fifteen years you don't have anything to show for it - and you are left vulnerable to the fluctuating costs of energy. One investment option is solar panels which can produce energy for 40 years or more - far longer than it takes to pay off the installation costs (currently around 15 years for homeowners and only 7 years for businesses). Wind power, where available, has a far quicker payback period.

For more information on renewable energy, check out: ◦
*Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network site
◦Hydrogen, Fuel Cell, and Renewable Energy Links
◦The American Solar Energy Society - Factbase (click on "Solar Guide")
◦Geoexchange (geothermal energy)
◦American Wind Energy Association
◦Renewable Energy Policy Project
◦National Renewable Energy Laboratory site
◦Home Power -- The Hands-On Journal of Home-Made Power
◦Clean Power
◦Wavegen (wave generated energy)
•Dark-Sky: Change outside light fixtures so that light does not shine up into the sky. The International Dark-Sky Association works to educate individuals and communities about the use of energy-efficient, properly designed lighting that allows for good night sky viewing. The Fatal Light Awareness Program educates individuals about how urban lights harm migratory birds.

BLOGGER'S NOTE : The above list contains items that may not be applicable or available in your area. You are encouraged to initiate them and get like-minded people to join in for group effort and support.

Tips on How To Save The Environment (Part 3) YOUR FOOD

2011-10-24T12:18:00.008+08:00

Part 3 - tips to help you change your eating habits which can and will help Save the Environment from climate change. Let us all be worthy stewards of Mother Earth.... Eat Peace.......(Greensleeves)

SOURCE: http://globalstewards.org/ecotips.htm

YOUR FOOD
Switching to a vegetarian diet is a powerful way to help protect our environment and help ensure everyone has enough to eat. The United Nations recently released Livestock's Long Shadow–Environmental Issues and Options, which concludes that the livestock sector (primarily cows, chickens, and pigs) emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to our most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. It is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases - responsible for 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalents. By comparison, all transportation emits 13.5% of the CO2. It produces 65% of human-related nitrous oxide (which has 296 times the climate change potential of CO2) and 37% of all human-induced methane (which is 23 times as warming as CO2). It also generates 64% of the ammonia, which contributes to acid rain and acidification of ecosystems. In addition, the enormous amounts of grain required to feed livestock reduces the amount of food available for the world's hungry. Buying organic, locally grown food also reduces climate change emissions and helps protect the environment.

"The world is producing the wrong kind of food, by a process that leaves millions of people landless, homeless, cashless, and unable to feed themselves." Anita Roddick

Organic: The What is Organic? page explains what organic produce is and how it is certified.

•Local: Buy food (and drink - ideally tap - water) from local companies whenever possible. Each pound of local food you purchase prevents a quarter pound of climate change (C02) emissions. Support your area's Farmer's Market. If possible, grow your own fruits and vegetables using organic gardening practices. You can find local farmer's markets, community supported agriculture, restaurants that cook with regional cuisine, and food cooperatives through Local Harvest.

•Vegetarian/Vegan Diet: Consider becoming a vegetarian or vegan (no animal products). Informational sites:
◦Vegetarian and Vegan Resources
◦Why Vegan
◦Vegan Action
◦Vegetarianism: A Few Facts
◦101 Reasons I'm a Vegetarian
◦Diet Bio
◦Notmilk!

•Vegetarian/Vegan Restaurants: Restaurant locators:
◦HappyCow
◦VegGuide
*lovingbhut.com (international chain of VEGAN Restaurants)(added on by Greensleeves)

•Healthy School Lunches: Support efforts to increase healthy food choices in school lunches (US)

•Green Calculator: Learn about the effect your diet is having on the environment with the Eating Green Calculator.

•Score Your Diet: Learn how your diet scores on nutrition, the environment and animal welfare with Score Your Diet.

•Non-GMO: There are many organizations that are working to protect our food supply from genetically engineered produce. Please get involved in any way you can. Whenever possible, buy products containing non-GMO soy, cotton, and corn. Ask your local supermarket to carry non-GMO products and ask your friends to also make this request - have faith that your requests will get back to the growers and store headquarters. This trend will only turn around when customer demand non-GMO products. Your pocketbook is your most effective voice.

•Unprocessed Food: Eat unprocessed/unpackaged food whenever possible.

•Smart Seafood: If you purchase seafood, consult a seafood choices chart to select environmentally smart seafood. Also, learn more about avoiding mercury in your seafood at NRDC.

•"Dolphin Safe" Tuna: Only purchase tuna labeled "dolphin safe".

•Shade-Grown Coffee: Buy shade-grown coffee to protect desperately needed migratory bird habitats. Many "fair trade certified" coffees are shade-grown.

•Free-Range: If you eat meat, buy "free-range" raised animals. According to the EPA, "there are approximately 450,000 AFOs (Animal feeding operations - livestock-raising operations, such as hog, cattle and poultry farms, that confine and concentrate animal populations) in the United States. About 6,600 of these operations fall into the largest category and are referred to as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)."

NOTE FROM GREENSLEEVES:
Personally, I don't condone the eating of meat and its by-products. The rearing of animals for food and the subsequent production and consumption of meat and dairy products remain as one of the topmost critical causes for climate change. If there is only one thing left that I can do to hinder global warming, I'd opt to go Vegan for the rest of my days.

QOUTE:
"Livestock is the main driver of deforestation. Livestock is the largest single source of water pollution. Livestock produces more greenhouse gases than all worldwide transportation combined."
(FAO, UN on Livestock's Long Shadow)

Tips on How To Save The Environment (Part 2) REUSE & RECYCLE

2011-10-24T11:48:00.012+08:00

Note : Our 2nd Part on what each and every one of us can do to contribute towards a safer, cleaner and better world for ourselves, our children and theirs, for now and the future.
Take care....(Greensleeves)

Source: http://globalstewards.org/ecotips.htmSecond: Reuse

The media has done a wonderful job of selling us on the attractiveness and benefits of buying "new", "improved", "special", etc. products. However, we already collectively own so much that we could all survive for quite a while on the existing products - if we just reused them a few times!

SECOND : RE-USE
•Garage Sales: Shop at and hold garage sales - this is a great way to reuse products.

•Reusables: Switch from disposable to reusable products: food and beverage containers, cups, plates, writing pens, razors, diapers, towels, shopping bags, etc.

•Donations: Donate (and buy used):
◦household items - clothes, furniture, dishes, books, sports equipment, magazines, appliances, electronics, business attire, wedding attire, etc. (to charity)

◦women's business attire (to Dress for Success)

◦computer equipment◦cell phones, cameras, iPod/MP3 Players, laptops, PDAs (to Recycling for Charities)

◦cell phones and ink cartridges(to Cure Recycling - profits from reuse of items support the CURE Childhood Cancer organization. Free postage. Another place to donate cell phones is Collective Good). If you would like to start your own recycling program, check out Wireless Recycling. Learn how to erase cell phone data with this free data eraser.

◦building material (to companies who specialize in selling used material). One organization: Habitat for Humanity

◦eyeglasses (to Lions Club, For-Eyes, Pearle, or Lenscrafters)

◦extra hangers (to your local dry cleaners)

◦art materials (to a school or cultural organization)

◦unwanted boxed/bagged/canned food (to homeless shelters, food banks, or soup kitchens)
◦etc.

•Buy/Sell Used Items: Buy and sell your items on sites such as:
◦local thrift stores
◦Ebay
◦Craigslist
◦Amazon (search on specific refurbished product)
◦local newspaper listings
◦local material exchange sites (search in your area)
◦garage sales (search in your area in the 'for sale' > 'garage sales' section
◦used refurbished computers (check your computer manufacturer's website or Amazon
◦local used furniture stores (search in your area)
◦local consignment shops (search in your area)
◦Recycler's World facilitates buying and selling used products (for home and work)

•Freecycle: The Freecycle Network provides an online community tool for giving and receiving free stuff.

•Share: thingloop facilitates sharing our belongings with each other.

•Throwplace: Throwplace.com lets you list items online that you would like to give to nonprofit organizations, businesses, or individuals.

•Community Swap: Organize a community swap program (i.e., designate a place where people can leave unwanted items for others to use).

•Packing Peanuts: Drop off at a local packing, shipping or moving store.

•Wash and Reuse Plastic Bags: With either a wooden bag dryer or in the washing machine.

•Buy Durables: Buy products that will last and take care of them.

•Teach Thrift: Teach your children the value of being thrifty (the wise economy in the management of money and other resources; frugality).

•Frugal Printing: Use both sides of each piece of paper -- for note taking or printing documents from your computer (at home or work). Create note pads by stapling together once-used paper.

•Kitchen Reuseables: Instead of buying these items new, save and reuse all: paper bags, rubber bands, twisties, boxes, and packaging material. Reuse your plastic bags with a handy bag dryer.

•Library: Pick up books from your local library or used book store. The library is also many times a great place for finding magazines, CDs, books-on-tape, and videos.

•Share with Neighbors: Join in with neighbors to purchase infrequently used products such as lawn mowers, ladders, etc.

•Refurbished Computers: Buy refurbished computers for less

•Rechargeable Batteries: Purchase rechargeable batteries and a battery recharger (some battery rechargers will also recharge regular alkaline batteries). Solar powered battery rechargers are available online.

•College Reuse: Dump and Run is a nonprofit organization that organizes the collection of college students' castoff items in the spring, so they can be sold to incoming students in the fall. The proceeds are then donated to nonprofits.

THIRD : RECYCLE
•Recycle Bins: Create designated holding "bins" for each type of recycled product and place in convenient locations in your home/garage

•Recycling Fact Sheet: Create a local recycling fact sheet for yourself and interested neighbors. The local Yellow Pages, Internet Consumer Recycling Guide and Recycling Resources are great resources. Find out where you can recycle:
◦glass
◦paper products
◦plastic grocery bags (better yet - use cloth bags)
◦plastic - including 1 - 7 identification codes
◦aluminum
◦cardboard
◦tin cans
◦scrap metal
◦motor oil (one quart of oil can kill fish in thousands of gallons of water)
◦ink cartridges
◦household appliances such as refrigerators
◦computer equipment and other electronic devices
◦aseptic packaging (square boxes used for liquids)
◦styrofoam
◦tires
◦athletic shoes (contact a local sporting goods or athletic shoe store - some donate used shoes, others recycle them)
◦etc.

•Recycled Content: Ask your local retailers to stock more products made from recycled materials and buy products made from the highest recycled content whenever possible.

•Green Paper: In general, try to buy products/containers made from recycled material as often as possible to support the recycled product market. When purchasing paper products (toilet paper, etc,), look for paper that has been recycled using a minimum of 50% post-consumer waste. Also, purchase from companies that do not use chlorine to bleach their paper products (which creates dioxin waste).

•Natural Fertilizer: Leave grass clippings on the lawn as fertilizer.

•Composting: Start a compost pile with yard trimmings and food scraps. Learn more at Wikipedia's Compost page.

•Pack-it-Out: If you are traveling and no recycle bins are available, pack your recyclables home with you whenever possible.

•Eco-Friendly Burials: For the ultimate in recycling, check out the growing movement in eco-friendly burials and conservation burial. Also, eco-friendly recycled paper coffins are becoming available.

•Recycled Gold: If you are shopping for wedding rings or other jewelry consider buying recycled gold jewelry and synthetic diamonds and gemstones.

•Hazardous Waste: The other key aspect of dealing with waste effectively is to dispose of toxic products at a hazardous waste facility. Products requiring special handling include:
◦Building Materials - paint , varnish, paint thinner, solvents, rust remover, wood preservatives and driveway sealer
◦Automotive products - gasoline, transmission oil, brake fluid, kerosene, charcoal lighter fluid, power steering fluid, used motor oil,used oil filters, used antifreeze
◦Household cleaners - spot removers, rug cleaners, metal cleaners, bathroom cleaners, oven cleaner, drain cleaner
◦Pesticides - insect killers, weed killers, flea products, moth crystals, fertilizers with weed killer
◦Miscellaneous - photographic chemicals, acids and corrosive chemicals, pool chemicals, compact fluorescent light bulbs (mercury), Ni-Cd batteries

Tips on How to Help Save the Environment (Part 1) REDUCE

2011-10-24T11:08:00.009+08:00

NOTE : Here is the first instalment of some Environmental Saving Tips and Sustainable Solutions that we can check out to help save Planet Earth. Some may not be applicable or available in your area - but you can adapt and be creative and innovative with your noble ideas/ideals. Form a small group of like-minded people for support and to boost each other's morale when the going gets tough OR when you meet up with ridicule from 'those-who-don't-give-a-damn'. We may not be able to give 100% of our time and effort BUT every little bit counts..... and Planet Earth is counting on YOU and I to do our part...... Be blessed!
(GREENSLEEVES)

SOURCE : http://globalstewards.org/ecotips.htm

FIRST : REDUCE
The critical first step of waste prevention has been overshadowed by a focus on recycling. Please help to promote a greater awareness of the importance of the "Reduce" part of the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle mantra. For a great overview of how raw materials and products move around the world, see the video The Story of Stuff.

•Simplify: Simplify your life as much as possible. Only keep belongings that you use/enjoy on a regular basis. By making the effort to reduce what you own, you will naturally purchase less/create less waste in the future. For information on voluntary simplicity, check out Voluntary Simplicity Websites.

•Reduce Purchases: In general, think before you buy any product - do you really need it? How did the production of this product impact the environment and what further impacts will there be with the disposal of the product (and associated packaging materials)? When you are thinking about buying something, try the 30-Day Rule -- wait 30 days after the first time you decide you want a product to really make your decision. This will eliminate impulse buying.

The Compact : Join or form a Compact in your area -

•Replace Disposables: Wherever possible, replace disposable products with reusable ones (i.e., razor, food storage, batteries, ink cartridges (buy refill ink), coffee filters, furnace or air conditioner filters, etc.).

•Buy Used: Buy used products whenever possible. Some sources:
•local thrift stores
•Ebay
•Craigslist
•Amazon (search on specific refurbished product)
•Freecycle (free!)
•local newspaper listings
•local material exchange sites (search in your area)
•garage sales (search in your area in the 'for sale' > 'garage sales' section
•used refurbished computers (check your computer manufacturer's website or Amazon.
•local used furniture stores (search in your area)
•local consignment shops (search in your area)

•Borrow From Friends: If you only need something temporarily, ask if a friend or neighbor would loan it to you. (Blogger's note: AND PLEASSSEEE remember to return it after use.....)

•Share With Friends: Share things like books, magazines, movies, games, and newspapers between friends and neighbors.

•Tree-Free Home: As much as possible, create a tree-free home:
◦replace paper napkins with cloth napkins
◦replace paper towels with a special set of cloth towels/napkins (or cut up old t-shirts for great towels) - store the used ones in a small container in your kitchen and just wash and reuse
◦purchase bleach-free, toilet paper that is made from the highest post-consumer waste content you can find (80% minimum)
◦if you print documents, print on once-used paper and/or bleach-free, recycled paper with the highest post-consumer waste content available (or hemp/alternative-source paper, if you can afford it)
◦reuse envelopes, wrapping paper, the front of gift cards (as postcards) and other paper materials you receive wherever possible
◦read books, magazines, and newspapers from your local library
◦create and use note pads from once-used paper
◦leave messages for family members/roommates on a reusable message board
◦make your own cards/letters from once-used products or handmade paper
◦if you will be doing construction on your house, search out alternatives to using newly cut wood (no endorsement of any company intended):
■Eco-Friendly Flooring Guide
■straw bale
■bamboo -- two sites to check out: Plyboo and Teragren
■true (natural) linoleum
■previously used wood -- one site to check out: Vintage Timber Works
■cob -- three sites to check out: Cob, Cob Cottage, and EcoBusiness-Cob Building Resources
■composite decking -- The Latest Trend in Decking

•Bulk Purchases: Avoid products that are packaged for single use (i.e., drinks, school lunches, candy, cat and dog food, salad mixings, etc.). Instead, buy in bulk and transfer the products to your own reusable containers. Many health food stores have bulk bins where they sell everything from grains to cereal to cleaning products. For additional ideas, read the Precycling information page.

•Buy Only What You Need: Buy only as much as you know you'll use for items such as food, cleaning supplies, and paint.

•Avoid Creating Trash: Avoid creating trash wherever possible: when ordering food, avoid receiving any unnecessary plastic utensils, straws, etc. (ask in advance), buy ice cream in a cone instead of a cup, don't accept "free" promotional products, buy products with the least amount of packaging, etc. Every little bit of trash avoided does make a difference!

•Shopping Bags: While shopping, if you only buy a few products skip the shopping bag. For larger purchases, bring your own. Learn about pollution caused by plastics.

•Junk Mail: For ideas on how to reduce junk mail, check out:
◦Reduce Personal and Business Junk Mail
◦Do-it-yourself: Stop junk mail, email and phone calls
◦How to Get Rid of Junk Mail, Spam, and Telemarketers
◦Opt-Out

•Waste-Free Lunches: Pack a Waste-Free Lunch whenever possible.

•Mug-to-Go: Carry a mug with you wherever you go for take out beverages.

•Address Early Consumption Habits: New American Dream offers tips for protecting your children from intrusive and harmful advertising that promotes mindless consumption.

•Encourage Hotels to Reduce Waste: When staying at a hotel, motel, or bed and breakfast let the management know that you like to support businesses that adopt environmentally responsible practices (including reducing waste). Print out and drop off the Sustainable Solutions for Green Hotels environmental tips list. To locate environmentally friendly hotels, search on the Internet under "ecotourism" and/or visit Green Hotels Association.

Earth Day Recycling Ideas for Kids

2011-10-22T11:54:00.003+08:00

NOTE: Children hold the key to a better world.... and it is the responsibility of both parents and teachers to inculcate life's worthwhile values to them. They are our only hope for the future and the solution to making this planet a safer and cleaner home for God's creation. Love them, teach and guide them well to respect and hold in high regard the importance of how everyone, including themselves and loved ones, can be affected by how we treat the environment and others. Make EARTH DAY a daily happening in their lives.
(Greensleeves)

Earth Day occurs each year on April 22nd. It is a day devoted to focusing on the health of our planet and the actions that we still need to take to protect our environment. Kids can actively take part in Earth Day by learning about recycling and the reuse of materials. There are different activities that kids can do to help keep the planet healthy.

School Recycling Center
For Earth Day, kids can work with their teachers to create a recycling center at their school. To make a recycling center, kids can bring large cardboard boxes or bins to their school. They can create labels for each box so people know in which box to recycle paper, glass or metal. The kids can then hang posters around the school to notify everyone of the recycling center. At the end of each school week, kids can help transport the recycled materials from the school to a recycling center.

At-Home Recycling
To get kids interested in Earth Day, have them set up their own recycling boxes in the house. Provide them with a box or two that they can place glasses and jars in. You can teach kids how to rinse out each jar and remove the lid or cap before recycling it. Kids can begin to recycle bottles and jars that they use at home. They can bring home bottles that they find to add to their recycling box. If you have curbside recycling, you can get the kids to organize the bottles in a bin on the curb for recycling pick-up, or you can find the nearest
recycling center.

Recycled Crafts
On Earth Day, kids can learn to make crafts with recycled materials. For example, kids can take an empty cardboard egg carton and turn it into a jewelry box. They can add jewelry items in each compartment. Have kids glue Styrofoam balls in some of the egg compartments. They can then stick earring studs or stick pins into the Styrofoam balls. Kids can also use recycled egg cartons to make a flower garden. Have kids poke a small hole in the bottom of each egg compartment and then fill each compartment about three-quarters of the way full with potting soil. They can add flower seeds to the soil and then water the plants. Place the egg carton in a sunny location, such as on a windowsill.

Earth Day Grocery Bags
Kids can take part in Earth Day by participating in the Earth Day Groceries Project (earthdaybags.org). Teachers borrow paper grocery bags from a local grocery store and then give them to students to decorate. Students create "Earth Day Grocery Bags" by decorating the bags with messages about recycling and protecting the Earth. Students and teachers can return the bags to the grocery store, and then on Earth Day, the grocery store can use the students' decorated bags to pack customers' groceries in. Kids can take part in the Earth Day Groceries Project by contacting their local grocery store and asking the store to team up with their school to create Earth Day bags. Kids can find out more about how to participate in this activity on the Earth Day Groceries Project website.

Source: The above tips were sourced from eHow.com

How To Participate in Earth Day Activities And Help Save the Planet

2011-10-22T11:39:00.005+08:00

Note: Below are some great tips on what you and I can do to help Save The Planet... not just on Earth Day which comes around once a year BUT make it an Every Day habit in our daily living. Every little effort counts and MOTHER EARTH is COUNTING ON YOU!
Take care....(Greensleeves)

Earth is the only planet we have to call home. Since we live here, it is our responsibility to care for our living environment by keeping it clean and reducing pollution.

The first Earth Day was held in 1970 and reoccurs every year on April 22nd as an invitation for everyone to learn about, and participate in activities that promote the well-being of our planet.

Here are just a few ideas to put into practice to help save our environment on Earth Day and every day.

BECOME BETTER INFORMED
There are many different ways the Earth and all things living on it are being affected by the habits of modern human life. There are also many ways to reduce the destructive impact we have on our planet. For Earth Day, learn what you can do to take an active role that promotes better care for at least one thing that would improve Earth's environmental well-being.

Some simple ideas to get started with for Earth Day include:

1. Get in the habit of turning off lights, computers and appliances when they are not in use.

2. Replace standard light bulbs with energy efficient fluorescent bulbs to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Buy energy efficient household appliances and yard tools.

3. Switch from chemical-type cleaners to natural products like vinegar, baking soda, soap and water.

4. Keep your car tuned and leak-free and dispose of used motor oil and cooling fluids at designated recycling centers. Keep tires properly inflated.

5. Try using mass transit, carpooling, walking or riding a bike as
often as possible.

6. Do not let the water run wastefully. Water the lawn in the early morning or late afternoon. Run washing machines and dish washers only when full. Repair leaky pipes, faucets and toilets.

7. Purchase products that contain recycled-content materials as often as possible.

8. Reduce the amount of plastic bags that pollute the environment by purchasing re-usable bags for your shopping. Any plastic bags you do get can be returned to the stores and placed in recycle bins, or you can reuse them for small garbage pail linings.

9. SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Get your children involved in Earth Day lessons, activities and habits. There are many ideas for childrens activities online, and in books that you can find at your library, that are very useful to educate and get children involved in Earth Day and habits to help save our environment.

10. You can promote Earth Day in your office by starting a recycling program one by setting out a recycling box for office paper. Paper that has only been printed on one side can be cut up and used as note paper. Also use blank backsides of envelopes that have already been mailed as note paper. Get rid of Styrofoam cups that don't decompose in landfills and suggest everyone bring in their own coffee cups for use.

11. At home, set up bins and recycle any plastics, cardboard (including packaged food boxes and toilet paper & paper towel rolls), aluminum, newspaper, tin/steel cans and glass products that your local recycling center will take. Reuse newspapers and shredded papers in the bottom of small animal cages or with mulch in gardens. Donate old household items and clothing to a local thrift store, pass on to others who may need it, adverstise to sell them or have a yard sale.

12. Have an Earth Day party! Remember to not use disposable dishes and paper napkins that pollute the environment. Send out electronic or person-to-person invitations, rather than paper ones. Present ideas for crafts, activities and discussions that involve caring for our planet.

13. CONNECT WITH EARTH THROUGH NATURE
Visit a nature center, get out in the wilderness, sit by a river, or even go to the park and enjoy the outdoors.

14. Learn about different species and their living environment, any dangers that pose a threat to their existence, and what you might be able to do to reduce those threats.

15. If you drive everywhere, choose an alternative form of transportation for the day, such as walking, carpooling, bicycling, or public transportation.

16. Participate in litter or a river cleanup, plant a tree or garden.

Source : http://www.ehow.com/how_4900667_participate-day-activities-save-environment.html

How to Help Save Our Earth

2011-10-22T11:18:00.002+08:00

How to Help Save Our Earth - 10 Tips To Saving The Planet

Earth is a very important part of our lives. Most of us wouldn't think of polluting our bodies, yet we are polluting our planet by misuse and overuse of our natural resources. As responsible individuals we should at least do what we can to help reduce, reuse, and recycle what we can as a first step.

We are not completely to blame; we inherited a polluted Earth, but we can do something to ensure that our children can grow up in a cleaner, safer planet than ourselves.

Don't ever let someone get away with saying "what can I do, I am only one person". Each and every person can do a lot, and you can influence others to do something as well.

Instructions
Things You'll Need :
WILL POWER
DESIRE TO LIVE IN A CLEANER, SAFER WORLD

1
Remind the politicians that you have a vote and a voice about the environment. Write your politicians and tell them how important the environment is to you and to your children. Let the politicians know that you are a registered voter and that you vote for the environment (if you are not - then register to vote).

2
It is great to talk about how important the Earth's environment is to you; but it is more important to put words into action. Some actions on our part are very simple and effective such as: Put on a sweater and socks and turn down the heat in the winter (even a degree or two will make a difference in the heating bill). Adjust the heat when you are out of the house.

3
Many grocery stores sell reusable bags (usually 99 cents), buy them and use them.

4
Turn off the lights when you are not in the room (this is an easy one that is quickly forgotten). Also, unplug your appliances when not in use; even when not in use they can be an "energy sink" just by being plugged in.

5
Plant a tree or other plants. You might want to think about raising some edible plants (help the environment, save money on food, and feed healthy food to your family - what could be better)

6
Use refillable bottles for water. Bottled water is a huge culprit to having a clean environment. Stop buying all of those water bottles that fill up our land-fills. If you need special water, buy a water filter.

7
Reuse what you can, like boxes for mailing and padded envelopes can have several uses in them. Be sure to black out the previous addresses and remove the used stamps.

8
Plan your trips and combine as many errands into an outing as possible. See if you can carpool to work, or take a bus; or ride a bike to work.

9
Use natural cleaners whenever possible like lemons and baking soda. It is healthier for the environment as well as for your family.

10
Pay your bills online and save a tree and 42 cents on postage.

Tips & Warnings these are just a few tips, there are many more. Not only are these tips good for the environment but most cost little to nothing to implement.

Some of these tips will actually save you money as well.

NOTE : The above article was written by Branaic and was featured in eHow.com

Read more: How to Help Save Our Earth (10 tips to saving the planet) | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4515525_save-earth-tips-saving-planet.html#ixzz1bTgS3Qno

Challenges Loom as World Population Hits 7 Billion

2011-10-22T11:06:00.004+08:00

By : David Crary (AP writer)- Monday 17th October, 2011

She's a 40-year-old mother of eight, with a ninth child due soon. The family homestead in a Burundi village is too small to provide enough food, and three of the children have quit school for lack of money to pay required fees.

"I regret to have made all those children," says Godelive Ndageramiwe. "If I were to start over, I would only make two or three."

At Ahmed Kasadha's prosperous farm in eastern Uganda, it's a different story.

"My father had 25 children — I have only 14 so far, and expect to produce more in the future," says Kasadha, who has two wives. He considers a large family a sign of success and a guarantee of support in his old age.

By the time Ndageramiwe's ninth child arrives, and any further members of the Kasadha clan, the world's population will have passed a momentous milestone. As of Oct. 31, according to the UN Population Fund, there will be 7 billion people sharing Earth's land and resources.

In Western Europe, Japan and Russia, it will be an ironic milestone amid worries about low birthrates and aging populations. In China and India, the two most populous nations, it's an occasion to reassess policies that have already slowed once-rapid growth.

But in Burundi, Uganda and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, the demographic news is mostly sobering as the region staggers under the double burden of the world's highest birthrates and deepest poverty. The regional population of nearly 900 million could reach 2 billion in 40 years at current rates, accounting for about half of the projected global population growth over that span.

"Most of that growth will be in Africa's cities, and in those cities it will almost all be in slums where living conditions are horrible," said John Bongaarts of the Population Council, a New York-based research organization.

Is catastrophe inevitable? Not necessarily. But experts say most of Africa — and other high-growth developing nations such as Afghanistan and Pakistan — will be hard-pressed to furnish enough food, water and jobs for their people, especially without major new family-planning initiatives.

"Extreme poverty and large families tend to reinforce each other," says Lester Brown, the environmental analyst who heads the Earth Policy Institute in Washington. "The challenge is to intervene in that cycle and accelerate the shift to smaller families."

Without such intervention, Brown says, food and water shortages could fuel political destabilization in developing regions.

"There's quite a bit of land that could produce food if we had the water to go with it," he said. "It's water that's becoming the real constraint."

The International Water Management Institute shares these concerns, predicting that by 2025 about 1.8 billion people will live in places suffering from severe water scarcity.

According to demographers, the world's population didn't reach 1 billion until 1804, and it took 123 years to hit the 2 billion mark in 1927. Then the pace accelerated — 3 billion in 1959, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987, 6 billion in 1998.

Looking ahead, the UN projects that the world population will reach 8 billion by 2025, 10 billion by 2083. But the numbers could be much higher or lower, depending on such factors as access to birth control, infant mortality rates and average life expectancy — which has risen from 48 years in 1950 to 69 years today.

"Overall, this is not a cause for alarm — the world has absorbed big gains since 1950," said Bongaarts, a vice president of the Population Council. But he cautioned that strains are intensifying: rising energy and food prices, environmental stresses, more than 900 million people undernourished.

"For the rich, it's totally manageable," Bongaarts said. "It's the poor, everywhere, who will be hurt the most."

The executive director of the UN Population Fund, former Nigerian health minister Babatunde Osotimehin, describes the 7 billion milestone as a call to action — especially in the realm of enabling adolescent girls to stay in school and empowering women to control the number of children they have.

"It's an opportunity to bring the issues of population, women's rights and family planning back to center stage," he said in an interview. "There are 215 million women worldwide who need family planning and don't get it. If we can change that, and these women can take charge of their lives, we'll have a better world."

But as Osotimehin noted, population-related challenges vary dramatically around the world. Associated Press reporters on four continents examined some of most distinctive examples:

THE ASIAN GIANTS
It's 6 p.m. in Mumbai, India's financial hub, and millions of workers swarm out of their offices, headed to railway stations for a ride home.

Every few minutes, as a train enters the station, the crowd surges forward.

For nearly 7 million commuters who ride the overtaxed suburban rail network each work day, every ride is a scramble. Each car is jam-packed; sometimes, riders die when they lose their foothold while clinging to the doors.

Across India, the teeming slums, congested streets, and crowded trains and trams are testimony to the country's burgeoning population. Already the second most populous country, with 1.2 billion people, India is expected to overtake China around 2030 when its population soars to an estimated 1.6 billion.

But even as the numbers increase, the pace of the growth has slowed. Demographers say India's fertility rate — now 2.6 children per woman — should fall to 2.1 by 2025 and to 1.8 by 2035.

More than half of India's population is under 25, and some policy planners say this so-called "youth dividend" could fuel a productive surge over the next few decades. But population experts caution that the dividend could prove to be a liability without vast social investments.

"If the young population remains uneducated, unskilled and unemployable, then that dividend would be wasted," says Shereen Jejeebhoy, a Population Council demographer in New Delhi.

Population experts also worry about a growing gender gap, stemming largely from Indian families' preference for sons. A surge in sex-selection tests, resulting in abortion of female fetuses, has skewed the ratio, with the latest census showing 914 girls under age 6 for every 1,000 boys.

Family planning is a sensitive issue. In the 35 years since one government was toppled for pursuing an aggressive population control program, subsequent leaders have been reluctant to follow suit.

For now, China remains the most populous nation, with 1.34 billion people. In the past decade it added 73.9 million, more than the population of France or Thailand.

Nonetheless, its growth has slowed dramatically and the population is projected to start shrinking in 2027. By 2050, according to some demographers, it will be smaller than it is today.

"It's like a train on the track that's still moving but the engine is already off," says Gu Baochang, a professor of demography at Beijing's Renmin University.

In the 1970s, Chinese women had five to six children each on average. Today China has a fertility rate — the number of children the average woman is expected to have in her lifetime — of around 1.5, well below the 2.1 replacement rate that demographers say is needed to keep populations stable in developed countries.

Three decades of strict family planning rules that limit urban families to one child and rural families to two helped China achieve a rapid decline in fertility but the policy has brought problems as well.

Before long, there will be too few young Chinese people to easily support a massive elderly population.

Also, as with India, there's a gender gap. The United Nations says there are 43 million "missing girls" in China because parents restricted to small families often favored sons and aborted girls after learning their unborn babies' gender through sonograms.

"China is always so proud of how quickly we brought down fertility from high to low, and how many births were avoided but I think we did it too quickly and reduced it to too low a level," says Gu. "I wish that India can learn this: 'Don't make it too quick.'"

WESTERN EUROPE AND THE US
Spain used to give parents 2,500 euros (more than $3,000) for every newborn child to encourage families to reverse the country's low birth rate. But the checks stopped coming with Spain's austerity measures, raising the question of who will pay the bills to support the elderly in the years ahead.

It's a question bedeviling many European countries which have grappled for years over how to cope with shrinking birth rates and aging populations — and are now faced with a financial crisis that has forced some to cut back on family-friendly government incentives.

Spain and Italy, both forced to enact painful austerity measures in a bid to narrow budget deficits, are battling common problems: Women have chosen to have their first child at a later age, and the difficulties of finding jobs and affordable housing are discouraging some couples from having any children at all.

In 2010, for the fourth consecutive year, more Italians died than were born, according to the national statistics agency.

Italy's population nonetheless grew slightly to 60.6 million due to immigration, which is a highly charged issue across Europe.

Italy's youth minister Giorgia Meloni said earlier this year that measures to reverse the birth rate require "millions in investment" but that the resources aren't available.

Unlike many countries in Europe, France's population is growing slightly but steadily every year. It has one of the highest birth rates in the European Union with around 2 children per woman.

One reason is immigration to France by Africans with large-family traditions, but it's also due to family-friendly legislation. The government offers public preschools, subsidies to all families that have more than one child, generous maternity leave, and tax exemptions for employers of nannies.

Like France, the United States has one of the highest population growth rates among industrialized nations. Its fertility rate is just below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman, but its population has been increasing by almost 1 percent annually due to immigration. With 312 million people, the US is the third most populous country after China and India.

AFRICA
Lagos, Nigeria, is expected to overtake Cairo soon as Africa's largest city. Private water vendors there do a brisk business in the many neighborhoods that otherwise lack access to potable water.

The drone of generators is omnipresent, at offices and markets, in neighborhoods rich and poor, because the power grid doesn't produce enough power. Periodic blackouts extend for hours, days, sometimes weeks.

Such is daily life in Nigeria's commercial capital, where the population is estimated at 15 million and growing at 6 percent or more each year. Problems with traffic congestion, sanitation and water supplies are staggering; a recent article in UN-Habitat said two-thirds of the residents live in poverty.

The rest of Nigeria isn't growing as fast — estimates of its growth rate range from 2 percent to 3.2 percent. But it's already Africa's most populous country with more than 160 million people.

Ndyanabangi Bannet, the UN Population Fund's deputy representative in Nigeria, notes that 60 percent of the population is under 30 and needs to be accommodated with education, training and health care.

"It is a plus if it is taken advantage of," he said of Nigeria's youth. "But if it is not harnessed, it can be a challenge, because imagine what hordes of unemployed young people can do."

In Uganda, another fast-growing country, President Yoweri Museveni used to be disdainful of population control and urged Ugandans, especially in rural areas, to continue having large families.

Recently, the government has conceded that its 3.2 population growth rate must be curbed because the economy can't keep pace. Earlier this year, anti-government protests by unemployed youths and other aggrieved Ugandans flared in several communities, and nine marchers were killed in confrontations with police.

"The government has been convinced that unless it invests in reproductive health, Uganda is destined to a crisis," says Hannington Burunde of the Uganda Population Secretariat.

Among those who are struggling is John Baliruno, 45, of Mpigi in central Uganda, a father of nine.

"I never intended to have such a big number," he said. "I with my wife had no knowledge of family planning and ended up producing one child after another. Now I cannot properly feed them."

Looking ahead, he's pessimistic.

"The environment is being destroyed by the growing population. Trees are being cut down in big numbers and even now we can't get enough firewood to cook food," he said. "In the near future, we will starve."

Another of the fastest-growing countries is Burundi. With roughly 8.6 million people, it's the second most densely populated African country after neighboring Rwanda.

Omer Ndayishimiye, head of Burundi's Population Department, said continued high growth coincides with dwindling natural resources. Land suitable for farming will decline, and poverty will be rampant, he said, noting that 90 percent of the population live in rural areas and rely on farming to survive.

The government has been trying to raise awareness about the demographic challenges among the clergy, civic leaders and the general public.

"We are suggesting couples to go to health clinics to get taught different birth control methods," Ndayishimiye said. "But we are facing some barriers ... Many Burundians still see children as source of wealth."

At her modest house in Gishubi, Godelive Ndageramiwe ponders the changes that have made her regret her large family.

"Children were a good labor force in the past when there was enough space to cultivate," she said. "Today I can't even feed my family properly. My kids just spend days doing nothing."

After her fourth child, she began to worry how her family could be cared for.

"But my husband was against birth control and wanted as many children as possible," she said. "It was delicate because he could marry another wife.

"My friends advised me to go to a nearby clinic, but I was told I must come with my husband.

Now I have laid the issue in the hands of God."

David Crary reported from New York. Associated Press writers Alexa Oleson in Beijing, Nirmala George in New Delhi, Angela Charlton in Paris, Daniel Woolls in Madrid, Victor Simpson in Rome, onesime Niyungeko in Bujumbura, Burundi; Yinka Ibukun in Lagos, Nigeria, and Godfrey Olukya in Kampala, Uganda, also contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22267&page=4

A Record-Breaking New Ozone Hole In the Arctic

2011-10-21T20:48:00.004+08:00

Scientists are still struggling to understand why an ozone hole of unprecedented size formed in the early part of 2011 over the Arctic. A team of researchers just published initial research on the topic. While small compared to the Antarctic ozone hole that inspired worldwide action to curb the use of chlorofluorocarbons, a hole in the ozone layer in the Arctic could have more severe consequences. Simply, more people live closer to the North Pole than the South, so more would be affected by stronger UV rays reaching the Earth's surface.

The following is a comment on the subject from the blogpost of KERT DAVIES dated October 3rd, 2011:

An ozone hole opened up this past spring over the Arctic. Not good. While we have had thinning before, this is new. This isn't breaking news - it was in April - but an international team of scientists just had their study published in the journal Nature yesterday. I was on Al Jazeera English news last night trying to explain it.

That's a complicated task; aside from the fact that some people are confused that the ozone hole is what lets in all that global warming, and that the ongoing melt down of the Arctic sea ice gets a lot of attention, this discovery of an ozone hole at the north pole is disturbing and the science is complex.

We all remember the ozone hole in Antarctica, (which by the way still exists and is having a really bad year in 2011) linked to the emissions of chlorine in CFCs by research from Rowland and Molina, who won the Nobel Prize for their work in the 1970s revealing this threat. That's almost 40 years ago and it will take another 40 years to heal the ozone layer if all goes well... 80 years.

Bottom line is about six companies, including Dupont, Honeywell, Arkema and Solvay are responsible for manufacturing the majority of the chlorine-contaning CFCs (FREON was the most common brand name) that have loaded the stratosphere with chlorine, continuing to erode the ozone layer today and for decades to come.

In fact, ozone depleting chemicals are still being emitted in spite of the success of the Montreal Protocol and the whole mess of F-gases the CFCs and the HFCs and HCFCs that replaced them are now causing a large slice of the global warming we are feeling. Methyl bromide, an ozone depleting pesticide is used under a 'critical use exemption' filed annually by the US Government for tomatoes and strawberries... critical to certain farmers wallets.

CFCs were used in everything from hair spray to foam to refrigerators and air conditioners. These chemicals were built to be tough and when they leaked or were sprayed into the atmosphere they last a long time... so long that they are able to drift 15 miles (25 km) up in the sky to the thick of the ozone layer. That layer has the same effect as wearing 70 SPF sun block - when its not there, we burn badly.

Think about that for a minute... that thin delicate atmosphere that keeps us warm from the cold of space and the ozone layer protects us from the suns radiation, the crucial part is only 15 miles up...from you to the next town, straight up, thin as the skin on an apple.

What happened this spring in the Arctic is an unprecedented cold spot caused by a vortex over the north pole. When it's really cold, like minus 70C, ice crystals and particles provide the surface for the ozone destroying chlorine to do its nasty work on the O3 Ozone and break it apart.

Scientists are wondering if this Arctic ozone hole will become more common. They are worried that the ozone hole travelled over inhabited regions by late March - Scandanavia, northern Europe was receiving big doses of UV rays at that time. There have been papers in the past about the warming of the lower atmosphere trapping heat that should get back to the stratosphere and keep it too warm for ozone destruction to happen.

The health impacts of such events are not known, but exposure can cause skin cancer and cataracts.

The dangerous experiments with our atmosphere and the polar ecosystems continue.

Thanks for nothing Dupont.

Ref: http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/campaign-blog/our-thin-sky-arctic-ozone-hole-discovered/blog/37156/

The ABC facts of Environmental issues

2011-10-21T20:18:00.003+08:00

Here are some interesting information on the ABC facts and terms used when we talk about the environment and climate change issues.

Link: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2032.html

Environment - current issues: air pollution from industrial and vehicular emissions; water pollution from raw sewage; deforestation; smoke/haze from Indonesian forest fires

Definition: This entry lists the most pressing and important environmental problems. The following terms and abbreviations are used throughout the entry:

Acidification - the lowering of soil and water pH due to acid precipitation and deposition usually through precipitation; this process disrupts ecosystem nutrient flows and may kill freshwater fish and plants dependent on more neutral or alkaline conditions (see acid rain).

Acid rain - characterized as containing harmful levels of sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxide; acid rain is damaging and potentially deadly to the earth's fragile ecosystems; acidity is measured using the pH scale where 7 is neutral, values greater than 7 are considered alkaline, and values below 5.6 are considered acid precipitation; note - a pH of 2.4 (the acidity of vinegar) has been measured in rainfall in New England.

Aerosol - a collection of airborne particles dispersed in a gas, smoke, or fog.

Afforestation - converting a bare or agricultural space by planting trees and plants; reforestation involves replanting trees on areas that have been cut or destroyed by fire.

Asbestos - a naturally occurring soft fibrous mineral commonly used in fireproofing materials and considered to be highly carcinogenic in particulate form.

Biodiversity - also biological diversity; the relative number of species, diverse in form and function, at the genetic, organism, community, and ecosystem level; loss of biodiversity reduces an ecosystem's ability to recover from natural or man-induced disruption.

Bio-indicators - a plant or animal species whose presence, abundance, and health reveal the general condition of its habitat.

Biomass - the total weight or volume of living matter in a given area or volume.

Carbon cycle - the term used to describe the exchange of carbon (in various forms, e.g., as carbon dioxide) between the atmosphere, ocean, terrestrial biosphere, and geological deposits.

Catchments - assemblages used to capture and retain rainwater and runoff; an important water management technique in areas with limited freshwater resources, such as Gibraltar.

DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane) - a colorless, odorless insecticide that has toxic effects on most animals; the use of DDT was banned in the US in 1972.

Defoliants - chemicals which cause plants to lose their leaves artificially; often used in agricultural practices for weed control, and may have detrimental impacts on human and ecosystem health.

Deforestation - the destruction of vast areas of forest (e.g., unsustainable forestry practices, agricultural and range land clearing, and the over exploitation of wood products for use as fuel) without planting new growth.

Desertification - the spread of desert-like conditions in arid or semi-arid areas, due to overgrazing, loss of agriculturally productive soils, or climate change.

Dredging - the practice of deepening an existing waterway; also, a technique used for collecting bottom-dwelling marine organisms (e.g., shellfish) or harvesting coral, often causing significant destruction of reef and ocean-floor ecosystems.

Drift-net fishing - done with a net, miles in extent, that is generally anchored to a boat and left to float with the tide; often results in an over harvesting and waste of large populations of non-commercial marine species (by-catch) by its effect of "sweeping the ocean clean."

Ecosystems - ecological units comprised of complex communities of organisms and their specific environments.

Effluents - waste materials, such as smoke, sewage, or industrial waste which are released into the environment, subsequently polluting it.

Endangered species - a species that is threatened with extinction either by direct hunting or habitat destruction.

Freshwater - water with very low soluble mineral content; sources include lakes, streams, rivers, glaciers, and underground aquifers.

Greenhouse gas - a gas that "traps" infrared radiation in the lower atmosphere causing surface warming; water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, hydrofluorocarbons, and ozone are the primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere.

Groundwater - water sources found below the surface of the earth often in naturally occurring reservoirs in permeable rock strata; the source for wells and natural springs.

Highlands Water Project - a series of dams constructed jointly by Lesotho and South Africa to redirect Lesotho's abundant water supply into a rapidly growing area in South Africa; while it is the largest infrastructure project in southern Africa, it is also the most costly and controversial; objections to the project include claims that it forces people from their homes, submerges farmlands, and squanders economic resources.

Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) - represents the 145,000 Inuits of Russia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland in international environmental issues; a General Assembly convenes every three years to determine the focus of the ICC; the most current concerns are long-range transport of pollutants, sustainable development, and climate change.

Metallurgical plants - industries which specialize in the science, technology, and processing of metals; these plants produce highly concentrated and toxic wastes which can contribute to pollution of ground water and air when not properly disposed.

Noxious substances - injurious, very harmful to living beings.

Overgrazing - the grazing of animals on plant material faster than it can naturally regrow leading to the permanent loss of plant cover, a common effect of too many animals grazing limited range land.

Ozone shield - a layer of the atmosphere composed of ozone gas (O3) that resides approximately 25 miles above the Earth's surface and absorbs solar ultraviolet radiation that can be harmful to living organisms.

Poaching - the illegal killing of animals or fish, a great concern with respect to endangered or threatened species.

Pollution - the contamination of a healthy environment by man-made waste.

Potable water - water that is drinkable, safe to be consumed.

Salination - the process through which fresh (drinkable) water becomes salt (undrinkable) water; hence, desalination is the reverse process; also involves the accumulation of salts in topsoil caused by evaporation of excessive irrigation water, a process that can eventually render soil incapable of supporting crops.

Siltation - occurs when water channels and reservoirs become clotted with silt and mud, a side effect of deforestation and soil erosion.

Slash-and-burn agriculture - a rotating cultivation technique in which trees are cut down and burned in order to clear land for temporary agriculture; the land is used until its productivity declines at which point a new plot is selected and the process repeats; this practice is sustainable while population levels are low and time is permitted for regrowth of natural vegetation; conversely, where these conditions do not exist, the practice can have disastrous consequences for the environment .

Soil degradation - damage to the land's productive capacity because of poor agricultural practices such as the excessive use of pesticides or fertilizers, soil compaction from heavy equipment, or erosion of topsoil, eventually resulting in reduced ability to produce agricultural products.

Soil erosion - the removal of soil by the action of water or wind, compounded by poor agricultural practices, deforestation, overgrazing, and desertification.

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation - a portion of the electromagnetic energy emitted by the sun and naturally filtered in the upper atmosphere by the ozone layer; UV radiation can be harmful to living organisms and has been linked to increasing rates of skin cancer in humans.

Water-born diseases - those in which bacteria survive in, and are transmitted through, water; always a serious threat in areas with an untreated water supply.

Source: CIA World Factbook - Unless otherwise noted, information in this page is accurate as of October 14, 2011

Millions 'face environment hazards'

2011-10-20T21:39:00.004+08:00

Source : The Sydney Morning Herald
dated : 20th Oct, 2011

Millions of people will be "trapped" in areas at increasing risk from environmental hazards, such as flooding, around the world, a report into future migration warned on Thursday.

And millions will move into places which are more vulnerable to the impacts of environmental changes brought on by global warming and pressure on resources, such as low-lying cities, the study by 300 experts from 30 countries said.

The Foresight report into environmental change and migration over the next 50 years said the focus had previously been on those who would leave areas affected by floods, droughts and extreme weather - often termed 'climate refugees'.

But the experts behind the report said the future would also see people migrating into areas which are more at risk from a range of environmental problems, with 192 million extra people predicted to be living in urban coastal floodplains in Africa and Asia by 2060.

And they warned that millions of people, particularly the poorest, would struggle to move out of areas which were at risk, raising the spectre of humanitarian disasters in the face of severe environmental shocks such as floods.

They also issued a warning against policies which attempted to prevent or constrain migration, which they said could be part of the solution to coping with environmental changes as well as part of the problem.

For example, money sent home from migrants working abroad in 2009 totalled $US300 billion ($A294 billion), three times the total overseas development aid provided by governments that year, with cash helping people pay for education, improve their lives and protect themselves against environmental disasters.

Professor Sir John Beddington, the government's chief scientific adviser, said: "Environmental changes threaten to have a profound impact on communities around the world - particularly in low income countries.

"However, this report finds that the nature of the global challenge goes beyond just focusing on those that might try to move away from areas of risk.

"Millions will migrate into - rather than away from - areas of environmental vulnerability, while an even bigger policy challenge will be the millions who will be 'trapped' in dangerous conditions and unable to move to safety.

The evidence is also clear that under some circumstances migration, particularly in low income countries, can transform a community's ability to cope with environmental change."

Professor Beddington said the issues of migration in the face of environmental changes, much of which will be in poor countries, needed to be dealt with by the international community, including the UK, as a failure to do so could lead to humanitarian disasters and failed states.

The report calls for international policies on development and adapting to problems such as climate change to recognise the role of migration, and to acknowledge that it can sometimes be part of the solution, and for long term urban planning to address critical issues such as water availability in cities.

Link : http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/millions-face-environment-hazards-20111020-1m9ge.html

PLEA FOR CLIMATE ACTION.....

2011-10-20T21:21:00.003+08:00

More than 280 global investors issue fresh plea for climate action

Number of investors calling for ambitious global climate change treaty doubles as firms with $20tr of assets under management demand action

By: James Murray
Dated : 19th Oct, 2011
Source : BUSINESS GREEN - Sustainable Thinking

A coalition of more than 280 of the world's largest institutional investors has today issued a global plea for governments to take "new and meaningful steps" in their efforts to tackle climate change.

The group of 285 investors, which together manage assets worth more than $20tr, today issued a new report and statement to G20 governments calling for an urgent acceleration in the development of domestic and international low carbon policies.

The group is calling for the creation of "investment-grade policy" based around government incentives and stable policy frameworks that serve to reduce the risk associated with investing in low carbon projects.

In particular, the statement calls for the adoption of clear emissions reduction targets, the creation of financial incentives that "shift the risk-reward balance in favour of low-carbon assets", and the development of policies that accelerate the development of low carbon technologies.

It also urges diplomats at the UN's upcoming Durban Climate Summit to continue progress towards an international treaty, provide more detail on the proposed Green Climate Fund, and accelerate efforts to tackle deforestation.

The statement has been orchestrated by the US-based Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), the European Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) and the Investors Group on Climate Change (IGCC) in Australia and New Zealand, alongside the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), and the Advisory Council of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).

According to the group, the statement represents the largest coalition of international investors, by both number and assets under management, to demand action on climate change.

The group is also double the size of the group of 150 investors that issued a similar call for climate action in November 2003.

Speaking to BusinessGreen, Ian Simm, chief executive of Impax Asset Management Group, said growing numbers of institutional investors now supported calls for more ambitious climate policies.

"There is increasing understanding and agreement amongst asset managers that in a world of seven billion people, rising to nine billion by 2050, there will be more pressure put on the planet and weak infrastructure is not going to deliver the standards of living we want," he said. "[That means] future investment in low carbon areas is going to become more plentiful and more lucrative."

Stephanie Pfeifer, Executive Director at the IIGCC, said that low carbon investment was largely dependent on the policy environment created by governments.

"Policy risk has a critical influence on investment in low-carbon growth areas such as renewable energy," she said. "Attracting capital at the scale required to meet climate change goals will only be possible when low carbon investments are seen as attractive relative to higher carbon investments. Determined leadership on national and international climate and energy policy will be fundamental in shifting this risk/return balance in favour of low carbon investments."

Paul Clements Hunt, head of UNEP FI, added that measures to drive low carbon investment could offer a means of ending the global economic downturn.

The type of smart finance we are calling for, one that clears the way for the low-carbon economy's vast business opportunities, could prompt the reversal of the current climate of economic insecurity," he said. "It holds the potential to act as a major driver of growth and job creation."

The statement was welcomed by the head of the UN climate change secretariat, Christiana Figueres, who said vocal support from private investors could help give governments "the confidence and the knowledge" to put effective low carbon incentives and policy mechanisms in place.

The move comes just days ahead of the launch of a similar call to action from the Corporate Leaders Group, which is urging businesses to sign up to its Two Degree Challenge Communiqué calling on governments to step up efforts to limit rising global temperatures.

Source: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2118221/280-global-investors-issue-fresh-plea-climate-action?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Updated%3A+More+than+280+global+investors+issue+fresh+plea+for+climate+action

HOW MUCH PROTEIN DO YOU REALLY NEED?

2011-08-15T12:18:00.005+08:00

The following article is sourced from:
http://shine.yahoo.com/event/green/how-much-protein-do-you-really-need-2523319/

Written and posted by :
Sarah B. Weir and Lori Bongiorno on Aug 8, 2011 in GREEN

Guess how much protein is in a juicy, 8-ounce cheeseburger washed down with a milkshake? This single meal contains two to three times as much as most people need per day.

It’s no great surprise that Americans chow down on a lot of protein. We love beef and consume about 67 pounds per capita annually (that’s four times the international average). The popularity of low-carb regimes such as Atkins has also made meat the go-to food for dieters.

In fact, the average person eats about double the amount of protein that their body requires, according to the results of 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

How to fulfill your daily protein requirement
The human body uses protein to repair damaged cells and to build new ones. Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition at NYU and author of What to Eat, estimates that the average adult man needs about 65 grams of protein a day and the average adult female needs about 55 grams. Some sources, such as the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization say you can maintain a healthy diet with even less.

What does this actually mean in terms of food choices? The National Institutes of Health explains that most people can meet their daily protein requirement by eating two to three small servings of a protein-rich food a day.

Examples of a single serving of protein include:

•1 egg
•2 tablespoons of peanut butter
•2-3 ounces of red meat, poultry, or fish (about the size of a deck of cards)
•½ cup of cooked dried beans such as black beans or chickpeas

Whole grains, seeds, and some vegetables also contain protein, so consuming enough is not difficult even if you don’t eat meat. Vegetarians and vegans can easily get what they need by balancing complimentary proteins such as corn and beans or rice and tofu. Nutritionists used to recommend combining foods at the same meal, but research now shows that is unnecessary.

Are there drawbacks to eating more protein?
Eating large amounts of red and processed meats is associated with higher rates of heart disease and cancer, and most nutritionists such as Marion Nestle recommend cutting back on meat, especially on fatty cuts.

However, it’s less well known that your protein choices can have a substantial impact on the environment. Meat and dairy production requires tremendous amounts of fuel, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers, and generates greenhouse gases. The Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) recently published Meat Eater’s Guide points out that if you ate once less burger a week it would be the environmentally-positive equivalent of taking your car off the road for 320 miles.

Meat is also expensive. Not all proteins are created equal -- neither at the doctor’s office, nor the cash register. Here’s a comparison of three typical proteins:

Porterhouse steak
Serving size: 4 ounces
Protein: 22 grams
EWG carbon footprint rating: 2 nd worst out of 20 analyzed
Cost: 4 dollars
Fat: 22 grams
Saturated fat: 9 grams

Farm-raised salmon
Serving size: 4 ounces
Protein: 22 grams
EWG carbon footprint rating: 5th worst
Cost: 3 dollars
Fat: 10 grams
Saturated fat: 2 grams

Lentils
Serving size: 1 cup
Protein: 17.9 grams
EWG carbon footprint rating: best
Cost: 20 cents
Fat: zero
Saturated fat: zero

Many people find meat to be a delicious and satisfying component of their diet that they don’t want to sacrifice. But if you want to save money, eat a nutritionally sound diet, and are concerned about the impact meat and dairy production has on the planet, consider reducing your consumption.

Here are some tips from the EWG's Meat Eater’s Guide:
•Reduce portion sizes by eating one less burger or steak each week, or participate in Meatless Mondays by skipping meat (and cheese if you can swing it) just one day a week.
•Choose the healthiest protein sources when you can. Beans, low-fat yogurt, and nuts are all high in protein and low-impact.
•When you do eat meat and cheese, eat the highest quality that you can afford. (One way to save money is to eat less, but better quality meat and dairy products.) Here’s a guide decoding the labels, from cage-free to grass-fed.
•Don’t waste meat. Uneaten meat accounts for about 20 percent of meat’s greenhouse gas emissions.
You don’t have to become a vegetarian or go to other extremes. These small changes will help reduce your impact, while providing plenty of protein in your diet.

For more reading on the impact of a meat rich diet on your health and the environment: >http://breakingnews.ewg.org/meateatersguide/at-a-glance-brochure/

VISIONS OF THE 21st CENTURY : Will We Still Eat Meat?

2011-07-28T11:00:00.005+08:00

The following article was written (at the end of the 20th century) by ED AYRES, editorial director of the Worldwatch Institute and author of "God's Last Offer: Negotiating For A Sustainable Future".

VISIONS OF THE 21ST CENTURY : Will We Still Eat Meat

"Maybe not, if we wake up to what the mass production of animal flesh is doing to our health-- and the planet's." - Ed Ayres

When Julius Caesar made his triumphal entrance into Rome in 45 B.C., he celebrated by giving a feast at which thousands of guests gourged on poultry, seafood and game. Similar celebrations featuring exorbitant consumption of animal flesh have marked human victories - in war, sport, politics and commerce - since our species learned to control fire. Throughout the developing world today, one of the first things people do as they climb out of poverty is to shift from their peasant diet of mainly grains and beans to one that is rich in pork or beef. Since 1950, per capita consumption of meat around the globe has more than doubled.

Meat, it seems, is not just food but reward as well. But in the coming century, that will change. Much as we have awakened to the full economic and social costs of cigarettes, we will find we can no longer subsidize or ignore the costs of mass-producing cattle, poultry, pigs, sheep and fish to feed our growing population. These costs include hugely inefficient use of freshwater and land, heavy pollution from livestock feces, rising rates of heart disease and other degenerative illnesses, and spreading destruction of the forests on which much of our planet's life depends.

First, consider the impact on supplies of freshwater. To produce 1 lb of feedlot beef requires 7 lbs of grain, which takes 7,000 lbs of water to grow. Pass up one hamburger, and you'll save as much water as you save by taking 40 showers with a low-flow nozzle. Yet in the U.S., 70% of all the wheat, corn and other grain produced goes to feeding herds of livestock. around the world, as more water is diverted to raising pigs and chickens instead of producing crops for direct consumption, millions of wells are going dry. India, China, North Africa and the U.S. are all running freshwater deficits, pumping more from their aquifers than rain can replenish. As populations in water-scarce regions continue to expand, governments will inevitably act to cut these deficits by shifting water to grown food, not feed. The new policies will raise the price of meat to levels unaffordable for any but the rich.

That prospect will doubtless provoke protests that direct consumption of grain can't provide the same protein that meat provides. Indeed, it can't. But nutritionists will attest that most people in the richest countries don't need as much protein as we're currently getting from meat, and here are plenty of vegetable sources - including the grains now squandered on feed - that can provide the protein we need.

Unfortunately, this isn't just a matter of productive capacity. Mass production of meat has also become a staggering source of pollution. Maybe cow pies were once a pastoral joke, but in recent years, livestock waste has been implicated in massive fish kills and outbreaks of such diseases as pfiesteria, which causes memory loss, confusion and acute skin burning in people exposed to contaminated water. In the U.S.' livestock now produce 130 times as much waste as people do. Just one hog farm in Utah, for example, produces more sewage than the city of Los Angeles. These megafarms are proliferating, and in populous areas their wastes is tainting drinking water. In more pristine regions, from Indonesia to the Amazon, tropical rainforest is being burned down to make room for more and more cattle. Agriculture is the world's biggest cause of deforestation, and increasing demand for meat is the biggest force in the expansion of agriculture.

What has proved an unsustainable burden to the life of the planet is also proving unsustainable for the planet's dominant species. In China, a recent shift to meat-heavy diets has been linked to increases in obesity, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and colorectal cancer. U.S. and World Health Organization researchers have announced similar findings for other parts of the world. And then there are the growing concerns about what happens to people who eat the flesh of animals that have been pumped full of genetically modified organisms, hormones and antibiotics.

These concerns may seem counterintuitive. We evolved as hunter-gatherers and ate meat for a hundred millenniums before modern times. It's natural for us to eat meat, one might say. But today's factory-raised, transgenic, chemical-laden livestock are a far cry from the wild animals our ancestors hunted. When we cleverly shifted from wildland hunting and gathering to systematic herding and farming, we changed the natural balances irrevocably. The shift enabled us to produce food surpluses, but the surpluses also allowed us to reproduce prodigiously. when we did, it became only a matter of time before we could no longer have the large area of wildland, per individual, that is necessary to sustain a top-predator species.

By covering more and more of the planet with our cities, farms and waste, we have jeopardized other top predators that need space as well. Tigers and panthers are being squeezed out and may not last the coming century. We, at least, have the flexibility - the omnivorous stomach and creative brain - to adapt. We can do it by moving down the food chain: eating foods that use less water and land, and that pollute far less, than cows and pigs do. In the long run, we can lose our memory of eating animals, and we will discover the intrinsic satisfactions of a diverse plant-based diet, as millions of people already have.

I'm not predicting the end of all meat eating. Decades from now, cattle will still be raied, perhaps in patches of natural rangeland, for people inclined to eat and able to afford a poterhouse, while others will make exceptions in ceremonial meals on special days like Thanksgiving, which link us ritually to our evolutionary and cultural past. But the era of mass-produced animal flesh, and its unsustainable costs to human and environmental health, should be over before the next century is out.

For more reading on the author and his book :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Ayres

http://hammerbooks.org/bookayres1.html

EAT LESS MEAT FOR A GREENER WORLD

2011-07-27T10:33:00.003+08:00

Posted By : Jake Richardson on www.care2.com, 25 July, 2011

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) released a reported titled A Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change + Health: What You Eat Matters. Their main point is that the production of meat for mass consumption contributes very much to climate change. It also creates large amounts of pollution and consumes vast stretches of land that used to be part of the wild, but were converted to factory farming. Beef, cheese, lamb, pork and farmed salmon generate the most greenhouse gases, according to EWG. They also have the largest environmental impact, other than farmed salmon.

“Producing tremendous quantities of meat and dairy requires large amounts of pesticides, chemical fertilizer, fuel, feed and water. It also generates greenhouse gases and massive amounts of toxic manure and wastewater that pollute groundwater, rivers, streams and, ultimately, the ocean.” (Source: EWG)

The amount of feces and urine generated by factory farms is huge. As it was reported on this site recently, they generate 100 times the waste of human sewage plants. Excess manure generates methane, a greenhouse gas, and factory farming is the fastest growing source of it, according to Mercy for Animals. Dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico where there is no, or virtually no, marine life are created by excess fertilizer on crop fields that are grown to feed factory farm animals. The runoff of animal feces and urine also
contributes to these dead zones. One hundred and fifty million acres of land in the U.S. is used just to grow food for farm animals.

In a sense, the connection between meat and dairy consumption and climate change has already been covered by a United Nations report from several years back. The UN report stated agriculture contributes more to climate change than all transportation combined. (One might have assumed emissions from cars, trucks, buses, trains and planes, etc. were the greater contributor to climate change.)

The EWG report contains some shocking statistics, such as this one: “From 1971 to 2010, worldwide production of meat tripled to around 600 billion pounds while global population grew by just 81 percent (US Census Bureau, International Data Base).” (Source: EWG) They also say by 2050 if the rate of production remains the same, the total globally could be 1.2 trillion pounds per year.

Each one of the above factors should be a compelling enough reason to reduce meat intake or stop altogether, but there is still another major issue with mass meat production. Most antibiotics in the U.S. are used on factory farms, and they wind up in the environment where they could create resistance in bacteria that eventually could make people sick.

The global human population is also steadily increasing, a trend that will undoubtedly make climate change worse. Our food choices on an individual level do make a big difference collectively.

Read more:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/eat-less-meat-for-greener-world.html#ixzz1TGmDnBV8

100 WAYS TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT (part 3)

2011-07-26T11:39:00.004+08:00

This is the final instalment.

WAYS TO PROTECT OUR AIR

1. Ask your employer to consider flexible work schedules or telecommuting.

2.Recycle printer cartridges.

3. Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work.

4. Report smoking vehicles to your local air agency.

5. Don't use your wood stove or fireplace when air quality is poor.

6. Avoid slow-burning, smoldering fires. They produce the largest amount of pollution.

7. Burn seasoned wood - it burns cleaner than green wood.

8. Use solar power for home and water heating.

9. Use low-VOC or water-based paints, stains, finishes and paint strippers.

10. Purchase radial tires and keep them properly inflated for your vehicle.

11. Paint with brushes or rollers instead of using spray paints to minimize harmful emissions.

12. Ignite charcoal barbecues with an electric probe or other alternative to lighter fluid.

13. If you use a wood stove, use one sold after 1990. They are required to meet federal emissions standards and are more efficient and cleaner burning.

14. Walk or ride your bike instead of driving, whenever possible.

15. Join a carpool or vanpool to get to work.

WAYS TO USE LESS WATER

1. Check and fix any water leaks.

2. Install water-saving devices on your faucets and toilets.

3. Don't wash dishes with the water running continuously.

4. Wash and dry only full loads of laundry and dishes.

5. Follow your community's water use restrictions or guidelines.

6. Install a low-flow shower head.

7. Replace old toilets with new ones that use a lot less water.

8. Turn off washing machine's water supply to prevent leaks.

WAYS TO PROTECT OUR WATER

1. Revegetate or mulch disturbed soil as soon as possible.

2. Never dump anything down a storm drain.

3. Have your septic tank pumped and system inspected regularly.

4. Check your car for oil or other leaks, and recycle motor oil.

5. Take your car to a car wash instead of washing it in the driveway.
Learn about your watershed.

FOR MORE reading on the sustainable way of living:
http://seql.org/100ways.cfm

100 WAYS TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT (Part 2)

2011-07-26T11:20:00.007+08:00

This is the 2nd part instalment.

IN YOUR HOME - REDUCE TOXITY

1. Eliminate mercury from your home by purchasing items without mercury, and dispose of items containing mercury at an appropriate drop-off facility when necessary (e.g. old thermometers, batteries).

2. Learn about alternatives to household cleaning items that do not use hazardous chemicals.

3. Buy the right amount of paint for the job.

4. Review labels of household cleaners you use. Consider alternatives like baking soda, scouring pads, water or a little more elbow grease.

5. When no good alternatives exist to a toxic item, find the least amount required for an effective, sanitary result.

6. If you have an older home, have paint in your home tested for lead. If you have lead-based paint, cover it with wall paper or other material instead of sanding it or burning it off.

7. Use traps instead of rat and mouse poisons and insect killers.

8. Have your home tested for radon.

9. Use cedar chips or aromatic herbs instead of mothballs.

IN YOUR YARD

1. Avoid using leaf blowers and other dust-producing equipment.

2. Use an electric lawn- mower instead of a gas-powered one.

3. Leave grass clippings on the yard-they decompose and return nutrients to the soil.

4. Use recycled wood chips as mulch to keep weeds down, retain moisture and prevent erosion.

5. Use only the required amount of fertilizer.

6. Minimize pesticide use.

7. Create a wildlife habitat in your yard.

8. Water grass early in the morning.

9. Rent or borrow items like ladders, chain saws, party decorations and others that are seldom used.

10. Take actions that use non hazardous components (e.g., to ward off pests, plant marigolds in a garden instead of using pesticide).

11. Put leaves in a compost heap instead of burning them or throwing them away. Yard debris too large for your compost bin should be taken to a yard-debris recycler.

IN YOUR OFFICE

1. Copy and print on both sides of paper.

2. Reuse items like envelopes, folders and paper clips.

3. Use mailer sheets for interoffice mail instead of an envelope.

4. Set up a bulletin board for memos instead of sending a copy to each employee.

5. Use e-mail instead of paper correspondence.

6. Use recycled paper.

7. Use discarded paper for scrap paper.

8. Encourage your school and/or company to print documents with soy-based inks, which are less toxic.

9. Use a ceramic coffee mug instead of a disposable cup.

CREATE LESS TRASH

1. Buy items in bulk from loose bins when possible to reduce the packaging wasted.

2. Avoid products with several layers of packaging when only one is sufficient.
About 33 of what we throw away is packaging.

3. Buy products that you can reuse.

4. Maintain and repair durable products instead of buying new ones.

5. Check reports for products that are easily repaired and have low breakdown rates.

6. Reuse items like bags and containers when possible.

7. Use cloth napkins instead of paper ones.

8. Use reusable plates and utensils instead of disposable ones.

9.Use reusable containers to store food instead of aluminum foil and cling wrap.

10. Shop with a canvas bag instead of using paper and plastic bags.

11. Buy rechargeable batteries for devices used frequently.

12. Reuse packaging cartons and shipping materials. Old newspapers make great packaging material.

13. Compost your vegetable scraps.

14. Buy used furniture - there is a surplus of it, and it is much cheaper than new furniture.

For more : http://seql.org/100ways.cfm

100 WAYS TO SAVE OUR ENVIRONMENT (Part 1)

2011-07-26T10:54:00.009+08:00

This is the 1st instalment of the many ways we can help save our Environment. Small contributions from an individual may seem small and insignificant BUT always remember that a little goes a long, long way.

IN YOU HOME - CONSERVE ENERGY

1. Clean or replace air filters on your air conditioning unit at least once a month.

2. If you have central air conditioning, do not close vents in unused rooms.

3. Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 120.

4. Wrap your water heater in an insulated blanket.

5. Turn down or shut off your water heater when you will be away for extended periods.

6. Turn off unneeded lights even when leaving a room for a short time.

7. Set your refrigerator temperature at 36 to 38 and your freezer at 0 to 5 .

8. When using an oven, minimize door opening while it is in use; it reduces oven temperature by 25 to 30 every time you open the door.

9. Clean the lint filter in your dryer after every load so that it uses less energy.

10. Unplug seldom used appliances.

11. Use a microwave when- ever you can instead of a conventional oven or stove.

12. Wash clothes with warm or cold water instead of hot.

13. Reverse your indoor ceiling fans for summer and winter operations as recommended.

14. Turn off lights, computers and other appliances when not in use.

15. Purchase appliances and office equipment with the Energy Star Label; old refridgerators, for example, use up to 50 more electricity than newer models.

16. Only use electric appliances when you need them.

17. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs to save money and energy.

18. Keep your thermostat at 68 in winter and 78 in summer.

19. Keep your thermostat higher in summer and lower in winter when you are away.

20. Insulate your home as best as you can.

21. Install weather stripping around all doors and windows.

22. Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work.

23. Plant trees to shade your home.

24. Shade outside air conditioning units by trees or other means.

25. Replace old windows with energy efficient ones.

26. Use cold water instead of warm or hot water when possible.

27. Connect your outdoor lights to a timer.

28. Buy green electricity - electricity produced by low - or even zero-pollution facilities.

For more :
http://seql.org/100ways.cfm

Learn to Love Lentils (Dhal)

2011-07-26T10:40:00.003+08:00

When the Environmental Working Group this week released its Meat Eaters Guide to Climate Change and Health, much was made of the heavy-emissions end of the spectrum, where beef and cheese land, owing to the greenhouse emissions from cows (starting with the pesticides and fertilizers used to grow their feed, and ending with their gassy stomachs). But on the lighter side of the spectrum, you'll find the humble lentil.

Sure, chicken may be the best meat, but no protein-rich food is as light on the environment as lentils, according to the Environmental Work Group's analysis of greenhouse gas emissions from food production and distribution.

Lentils are a superfoods, not only high in protein but also fiber and a variety of other nutrients; it's one of the top 10 sources of iron. And they're virtually fat-free.

Even know lentils are among the oldest cultivated crops in the world, they may take a little getting-to-know. Typically sold dry (canned lentils may have BPA, like any other canned food), the most common types of lentils are green or brown, but they come in a rainbow of colors, from yellow, orange and red to black. The most common types tend to retain their shape after cooking, while those
colorful varieties are more likely to turn to a mush reminiscent of a zesty Indian dal.

Fortunately, among legumes, lentils are among the most versatile and easy to work with. Unlike other beans that need to be soaked overnight, lentils can be prepared in as little as 20 minutes. Boil three cups of water per cup of lentils while you separate and rinse the dry beans. Add the lentils to the boiling water and allow the pot to return to a simmer before covering and letting cook for 20-30 minutes, until they're tender.

Try out this great yummy recipe:
INDIAN LENTIL VEGETABLE STEW

SERVINGS : 6

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups brown Basmati rice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 tablespoons minced, peeled fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala (or 1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder plus 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon)
1 garlic clove, chopped
4 cups water
2 cups green lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes
1 can (14 to 14 1/2 ounces) vegetable broth (1 3/4 cups)
Salt
1 bag (9 ounces) fresh spinach or 1 package (10 ounces) frozen leaf spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

PREPARATION
1. Prepare Basmati rice as label directs.

2. Meanwhile, in 6-quart saucepot, heat oil over medium heat until hot. Add onion and cook 8 to 10 minutes or until tender and lightly browned. Stir in ginger, garam masala, and garlic, and cook 1 minute. Add water, lentils, potatoes, tomatoes, broth, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; heat to boiling over high heat.

3. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 25 minutes or until lentils and potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally. Add spinach; heat through. Serve stew with rice.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION (based on individual servings)
Calories: 520
Total Fat: 5 g
Saturated Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 675 mg
Carbohydrates: 97 g
Fiber: 17 g
Protein: 25 g

Read more for more recipes :
http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/recipes/333#ixzz1TAxUFfVI

Help Protect the Climate

2011-07-26T10:29:00.003+08:00

When carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are released into the air they blanket the Earth, trapping heat inside the atmosphere. This is known as the greenhouse effect, and it keeps our planet at a temperature at which life can thrive. The problem is the massive increase in the output of these and other greenhouse gases since industrialisation has caused the effect to intensify.

How your diet can help
Meat eating is responsible for at least a third of all biological methane emissions.24 Methane is produced by bacteria in the stomachs of sheep, cattle and goats and is released through the animals’ bodily functions.

Molecule for molecule, methane is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.25

They said it...
“The livestock sector is a major player, responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2 equivalent. This is a higher share than transport.” (Transport causes 13.5%) - The United Nations FAO26

Factory farming uses massive inputs of fossil fuels. The vast majority of this energy is used in producing, transporting and processing feed.27

A vegan diet uses substantially less energy than a diet based on animal products and therefore contributes much less to air pollution, acidification, oil spills, habitat destruction and global warming.

A University of Chicago study comparing a typical US meat-based diet with a vegan diet found that the ‘typical’ US diet generates the equivalent of nearly 1.5 tonnes more carbon dioxide per person per year than a vegan diet. The authors of the study concluded that it would be more environmentally effective to go vegan than to switch to a petrol electric hybrid car.28

The felling of forests to grow food for the exploding population of cattle, pigs and chickens, results in fewer trees to absorb carbon dioxide and is a major contributor to global warming.

Source:
http://www.vegansociety.com/resources/environment/climate.aspx

Help Protect the Environment

2011-07-26T10:18:00.002+08:00

It is widely agreed that agriculture is one of the most environmentally damaging activities that man undertakes. As consumers, we can make a difference by choosing food that is produced in an environmentally sustainable way. As has been shown, livestock consume more protein and calories than they produce. This alone makes animal farming an unsustainable use of the Earth’s resources.

On top of this, the consumption of animal products contributes to global warming, pollution, water scarcity, land degradation, deforestation and loss of biodiversity – in other words, all the major environmental problems.

We should all be aware of the impact that our lifestyles have on the world around us: switching to a vegan diet will significantly limit your individual impact on our increasingly threatened environment.

Discover for yourself what a difference a vegan diet can make by visiting: http://www.myfootprint.org/en/ These sites will help you to calculate your ecological foot print. First put in omnivore, then change it to vegan and see the difference this makes!

Food miles
Environmentally conscious consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of buying locally produced food to cut down on ‘food miles’ (the distance travelled by lorry, ship or aeroplane by our food before it reaches our plates).

The livestock connection:
When considering food miles, many people think only of the miles travelled by the ‘end product.’ They think that British chicken, pork or beef is an environmentally friendly option because the animals have not arrived from overseas, building up air miles.

However, British animals increasingly eat feeds such as soya, manioc and tapioca that have been imported from abroad, consequently the environmental footprint left by eating British meat can be just as great as eating imported animal products.

Vegan foods are better for the environment because eating vegetable protein direct, rather than through the intermediary of an animal, uses far less land. Eating locally grown vegetables is better still.

Source:
http://www.vegansociety.com/resources/environment/the-planet.aspx

Ice Melt in Greenland Set Record in 2010: Report

2011-07-18T12:43:00.004+08:00

The following news report was published in The Epoch Times on 01/25/2011.
Written by : Jack Phillips

The Greenland Ice Sheet melted at a record rate last year, according to a report published in the Environmental Research Letters.

The report found that large areas in the south part of the island underwent melting as many as 50 days longer compared to the 1979-2009 average.

Melting started "exceptionally early at the end of April and [ended] quite late in mid September," the report said.

June and July saw a temperature increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees F), and August and September saw an average increase of 3 degrees C (5.4 degrees F), which greatly triggered more ice melt.

“This past melt season was exceptional, with melting in some areas stretching up to 50 days longer than average,” stated study leader Dr. Marco Tedesco, the head of the Cryospheric Processes laboratory at the City College of New York.

Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, had the warmest spring in 2010 since records began in 1873.

Overall, bare ice was exposed earlier to the Sun and longer than in previous years.

“Bare ice is much darker than snow and absorbs more solar radiation,” said Professor Tedesco. “Other ice melting feedback loops that we are examining include the impact of lakes on the glacial surface, of dust and soot deposited over the ice sheet and how surface meltwater affects the flow of the ice toward the ocean.”

Scientists have noted in the past that ice melting in Greenland could contribute to the rise in ocean water levels around the world.

If Greenland's ice were to melt entirely, researchers speculate that it would prompt ocean levels to rise by more than 20 feet, easily flooding and destroying a multitude of cities. However, that scenario does not appear to be plausible soon.

WWF climate specialist Dr. Martin Sommerkorn told ScienceDaily that “sea level rise is expected to top 1 [meter] by 2100, largely due to melting from ice sheets."

He added that "it will not stop there—the longer we take to limit greenhouse gas production, the more melting and water level rise will continue.”

Tedesco told the Washington Post that the runoff last year was at 530 gigatons, almost double the 1958-2009 average of 274 gigatons.

Read more at:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/49956/

Record Melt will see Arctic ice- free in summer of 2030

2011-07-18T12:36:00.004+08:00

SEA ice in the Arctic is melting at a record pace this year, suggesting warming at the north pole is speeding up and a largely ice-free Arctic can be expected in summer months within 30 years.

The area of the Arctic ocean at least 15 per cent covered in ice is this week about 8.5 million square kilometres - lower than the previous record low set in 2007 - according to satellite monitoring by the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado.

As well, data from the University of Washington Polar Science Centre shows that the thickness of Arctic ice this year is also the lowest on record. In the past 10 days, the Arctic ocean has been losing as much as 150,000 square kilometres of sea ice a day, NSIDC director Mark Serreze said.

''The extent [of the ice cover] is going down, but it is also thinning. So a weather pattern that formerly would melt some ice, now gets rid of much more.

''There will be ups and downs, but we are on track to see an ice-free summer by 2030. It is an overall downward spiral.''

Global warming has been melting Arctic sea ice for the past 30 years at a rate of about 3 per cent a decade on average. But the two new data sets suggest that, if these trends continue, a largely ice-free Arctic in summer months is likely within 30 years.

That is up to 40 years earlier than was anticipated in the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment report.

Sea ice, which is at its maximum extent in March and its lowest in September each year, is widely considered to be one of the ''canaries in the mine'' for climate change, because the poles are heating up faster than anywhere else on Earth.

According to the NSIDC, air temperatures for June 2011 were between 1 degree and 4 degrees warmer than average over most of the Arctic ocean.

The findings support a recent study in the journal Science that suggested water flowing from the Atlantic into the Arctic ocean is warmer today than at any time in the past 2000 years and could be one of the explanations for the rapid sea-ice melt now being observed.

Computer simulations performed by NASA suggest that the retreat of Arctic sea ice will not continue at a constant rate.

Instead, the simulations show a series of abrupt decreases such as the one that occurred in 2007, when a ''perfect storm'' of weather conditions coincided and more ice was lost in one year than in the previous 28 years combined. Compared with the 1950s, over half of the Arctic sea ice had disappeared.

What concerns polar scientists is that thicker ice which does not melt in the summer is not being formed as fast as the ice is melting. On average each year about half of the first year ice, formed between September and March, melts during the following summer.

This year, the founder of the Weather Underground climate monitoring website, Jeff Masters, said a high pressure system centred north of Alaska had brought clear skies and plenty of ice-melting sunshine to the Arctic.

Sea ice has an important effect on the heat balance of the polar oceans, since it insulates the relatively warm ocean from the much colder air above, thus reducing heat loss from the oceans.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/record-melt-will-see-arctic-icefree-in-summer-by-2030-20110712-1hcah.html#ixzz1SQeAECnn

Arctic sea ice headed for another record melt: Scientists

2011-07-18T12:26:00.002+08:00

Source : Nunatsiaq News - July 11 2011
Link : http://www.canada.com/technology/Arctic+headed+another+record+melt+Scientists/5085212/story.html

Last month saw the second lowest Arctic ice cover since 1979, continuing the downward trend of summer ice cover, says the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado.

Ice extent shrank in June at an average rate of 80,800 square kilometres per day, about 50 per cent faster than the average drop recorded from June 1979 to 2000.

At this rate, the Arctic Ocean may be ice free in summer by 2030, said Mark Serreze, director of the NSIDC, calling the decline of the extent of the sea ice and its loss of thickness "an overall downward spiral."

The average ice extent for June fell below that for June 2007, which, until now, had the lowest minimum ice extent at the end of summer.

June ice extent was lower than normal in much of the Arctic, but Siberia's Kara Sea region had particularly low ice.

Ice has also started to break up off the coast of Alaska in the Beaufort Sea. These open water areas absorb the sun's energy, which will help to further ice melt through the summer, scientists say.

Arctic sea ice has entered "a critical period of the melt season," they say.That's because the weather over the next few weeks will determine whether the Arctic sea ice cover will again approach record low reached in 2007.

Air temperatures for this past June were 1 C to 4 C warmer than average over most of the Arctic Ocean, except in the Beaufort and Greenland seas, where temperatures were near normal or slightly below normal, the NSIDC said.

As well, water temperatures may be warming, according to an article published recently in the journal Science, which showed that the flow of ocean heat into the Arctic Ocean from the Atlantic is now higher than at any time in the past 2,000 years.

Sunflowers May Heal Fukushima’s Radioactive Soil

2011-07-12T12:11:00.005+08:00

Here's an interesting bit of news for the environment.... looks like we have to rely on nature to undo the damages of man-made disasters. Let's protect and preserve Earth's beautiful and natural resources.... love the planet, save it from further destructions.

The following article by Matthew Battles was featured @fastcompanyon 1st July, 2011

Source:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1764489/in-fukushima-sunflowers-sow-hope-for-a-radioactive-free-future

A young Japanese entrepreneur is trying to convince people to sow sunflower seeds in Fukushima Prefecture, intending the plants to cleanse the soil of radioactive contamination. Project leader Shinji Handa has sold some 10,000 packets of sunflower seeds at 500 yen ($6) to people throughout Japan, ostensibly to produce seeds that will be sent to Fukushima to create a sunflower maze.

Given the scope of the Fukushima disaster, planting sunflowers may seem quixotic at best, but the principle behind it is sound. Many plants have evolved mechanisms to adapt to high levels of toxins and even radiation, taking up heavy metals and radioactive isotopes and sequestering them in disposable parts like stems and leaves. Scientists last year reported on several varieties of domestic plants, including sunflowers, that are thriving around Chernobyl, gradually reducing contamination levels in the soil.

Green plants evolved in periods of Earth’s history when radiation levels were higher than they are in our own era. And plants, of course, can’t simply move to get away from toxic environments--thus, adaptations for taking up and getting rid of poisonous and even radioactive substances are fairly widespread throughout the plant kingdom. In recent years a variety of domestic crops such as amaranth, pennycress, and wheat have been used to remove toxic and radioactive chemicals from soils around the world at a fraction of the cost of physical removal, a process called phytoremediation.

But the Fukushima sunflower project glosses over the complexity of the process: Those plants are still heavily radioactive. The contaminated plant matter must be harvested, reduced, and disposed of carefully to prevent further contamination, which makes it an unlikely component of any crowdsourced approach to radiation cleanup--rendering Handa’s notion of sunflower mazes fanciful if not downright dangerous.

Given the scope of contamination at Fukushima, however, more formal and systematic phytoremediation projects could play a major role in making the region safe again. And Handa’s intuition about about the symbolic power of sunflowers feels right; few sights inspire a sense of confidence and renewal like fields of bright blooms nodding in the sun.

For more follow-ups on the project:
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110709p2a00m0na022000c.html

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_n3_v150/ai_18518620/?tag=content;col1

In Vitro Hamburger Meat Currently in Development

2011-07-08T10:52:00.007+08:00

Human population is set to increase in the years to come. So it is with the consumption of meat and its related products. Will there be enough meat to meet this increasing demand? The shortage of food and climate changes due to the raising of livestock for food are prompting scientists to experiment with 'man-made meats' to cope with the problem.

Perhaps, it's time we take an alternative choice and seriously consider a plant-based diet to offset the impending crisis we will have to confront in the very near future. BE VEGAN - for our health and wellness, peace of mind and the planet!

Take a read and don't be too surprised if the burger you are munching could very well be 'grown' in a lab...

By Lacy J. Hansen for DietsInReview.com
Source:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/in-vitro-hamburger-meat-currently-in-development.html

It’s entirely possible that we’re less than a year away from reading the food review of the world’s first in vitro hamburger. Yes, you read that correctly.

In response to the world’s growing population and increasing meat consumption, scientists in the Netherlands are nearly ready to debut meat grown from stem cells of healthy cows. The scientists have been working to develop muscle tissue from a small number of stem cells extracted from the cows.

As awkward as this all sounds, the scientists believe the result will be of benefit to the world. Trends lead us to believe that the world’s meat consumption could grow by 50 percent by the year 2050, and this man-made meat will remove the need for livestock.

It’s anticipated that this “test-tube” meat will to be more affordable and help sustain the demands of our growing population. In vitro meat production could lead to a 35 to 60 percent reduction in energy consumption. Land requirements for farming would decrease by 89 percent and the production of greenhouse gasses would decrease due to unconventional farming.

This product is not alone in its unique nature. In 2009, strips of pork were grown using a similar stem cell method and fish fillets have been grown in a lab from the muscle tissue of goldfish.

Think it’s too difficult to farm these days? Well, maybe growing burgers in a lab is the answer. Maybe? These practices are still in the very early stages and it’s unclear when or if these products will be available to the public.

For some, curiosity will linger as to how it will actually taste. For others, their internal argument over becoming a vegetarian might finally be justified.

For more reading:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-scary-and-new-genetically-modified-foods.html

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/five-curious-food-inventions-youve-never-heard-of.html

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/meat-could-be-grown-in-labs.html

CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTS BIODIVERSITY

2011-07-05T11:35:00.004+08:00

Source: http://www.globalissues.org/article/172/climate-change-affects-biodiversity

The link between climate change and biodiversity has long been established. Although throughout Earth’s history the climate has always changed with ecosystems and species coming and going, rapid climate change affects ecosystems and species ability to adapt and so biodiversity loss increases.

Biodiversity and Climate Change, Convention on Biological Diversity, December, 2009
From a human perspective, the rapid climate change and accelerating biodiversity loss risks human security (e.g. a major change in the food chain upon which we depend, water sources may change, recede or disappear, medicines and other resources we rely on may be harder to obtain as the plants and forna they are derived from may reduce or disappear, etc.).

The UN’s Global Biodiversity Outlook 3, in May 2010, summarized some concerns that climate change will have on ecosystems:

Climate change is already having an impact on biodiversity, and is projected to become a progressively more significant threat in the coming decades. Loss of Arctic sea ice threatens biodiversity across an entire biome and beyond. The related pressure of ocean acidification, resulting from higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, is also already being observed.

Ecosystems are already showing negative impacts under current levels of climate change … which is modest compared to future projected changes…. In addition to warming temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events and changing patterns of rainfall and drought can be expected to have significant impacts on biodiversity.—
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2010), Global Biodiversity Outlook 3, May, 2010, p.56

Some species may benefit from climate change (including, from a human perspective, an increases in diseases and pests) but the rapid nature of the change suggests that most species will not find it as beneficial as most will not be able to adapt.

Climate change impacts on biodiversity in the Arctic
The Arctic, Antarctic and high latitudes have had the highest rates of warming, and this trend is projected to continue, as the above-mentioned Global Biodiversity Outlook 3 notes (p. 56).

In the Arctic, it is not just a reduction in the extent of sea ice, but its thickness and age. Less ice means less reflective surface meaning more rapid melting. The rapid reduction exceeds even scientific forecasts and is discussed further on this site’s climate change introduction.

In terms of biodiversity, “the prospect of ice-free summers in the Arctic Ocean implies the loss of an entire biome”, the Global Biodiversity Outlook notes (p. 57).

In addition, “Whole species assemblages are adapted to life on top of or under ice — from the algae that grow on the underside of multi-year ice, forming up to 25% of the Arctic Ocean’s primary production, to the invertebrates, birds, fish and marine mammals further up the food chain.” The iconic polar bear at the top of that food chain is therefore not the only species at risk even though it may get more media attention.

Note, the ice in the Arctic does thaw and refreeze each year, but it is that pattern which has changed a lot in recent years.

The extent of floating sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, as measured at its annual minimum in September, showed a steady decline between 1980 and 2009.
Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center, graph compiled by Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2010) Global Biodiversity Outlook 3, May 2010.

It is also important to note that loss of sea ice has implications on biodiversity beyond the Arctic, as the Global Biodiversity Outlook report also summarizes:

•Bright white ice reflects sunlight.
•When it is replaced by darker water, the ocean and the air heat much faster, a feedback that accelerates ice melt and heating of surface air inland, with resultant loss of tundra.
•Less sea ice leads to changes in seawater temperature and salinity, leading to changes in primary productivity and species composition of plankton and fish, as well as large-scale changes in ocean circulation, affecting biodiversity well beyond the Arctic.—
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2010), Global Biodiversity Outlook 3, May, 2010, p.57

FOR MORE LINKS TO THIS ISSUE:
http://www.globalissues.org/article/233/climate-change-and-global-warming-introduction

http://www.globalissues.org/article/740/dominance-in-the-arctic