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Half a million Magellanic penguins are among the critters to get protection in a new coastal marine park just established by Argentina.
“It is the first protected area in Argentina specifically designed to safeguard not only onshore breeding colonies but also areas of ocean where wildlife feed at sea,” the Bronx-based Wildlife [...]
By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News
A sustainable global food system in the 21st Century needs to be built on a series of “new fundamentals”, according to a leading food expert.
Tim Lang warned that the current system, designed in the 1940s, was showing “structural failures”, such as “astronomic” environmental costs.
The new approach needed to address key fundamentals like biodiversity, energy, water and urbanisation, he added.
Professor Lang is a member of the UK government’s newly formed Food Council.
“Essentially, what we are dealing with at the moment is a food system that was laid down in the 1940s,” he told BBC News.
“It followed on from the dust bowl in the US, the collapse of food production in Europe and starvation in Asia.
“At the time, there was clear evidence showing that there was a mismatch between producers and the need of consumers.”
Professor Lang, from City University, London, added that during the post-war period, food scientists and policymakers also thought increasing production would reduce the cost of food, while improving people’s diets and public health.
Continue reading Food needs ‘fundamental rethink’
By Amy Norton
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Many people may be surprised by the number of chemicals they are exposed to through everyday household products, a small study finds, suggesting, researchers say, that consumers need to learn more about sources of indoor pollution.
In interviews with 25 women who’d had their homes and bodies tested for various environmental pollutants, researchers found that most were surprised and perplexed by the number of chemicals to which they’d been exposed.
Continue reading Pollution at home often lurks unrecognized
KYANGJIN GOMPA, Nepal (AFP) – Standing in the Himalayan valley of Langtang, Rinjin Dorje Lama remembers where he used to play as a child in the 1960s.
“When I was a kid, it was a lot longer,” said Lama, pointing at the Lirung glacier surrounded by snowy peaks on Nepal’s northern border with Tibet.
“We used to play on the glacier, and it came right down to the monastery, but now it’s about two kilometres (1.2 miles) further back.”
Temperatures in the Himalayas are rising by around 0.06 degrees Celsius (0.108 Fahrenheit) annually, according to a long-term study by the Nepalese department of hydrology.
The rate is far above the global average given last year by the UN’s senior scientists, who said surface temperatures have risen by a total of 0.74 degrees C over the past 100 years.
“I don’t really understand why the glacier has gone so far back, but I am told it’s due to global warming,” said Lama, whose weather-beaten face makes him look older than his 57 years.
Continue reading Himalayan villagers on global warming frontline
By FILADELFO ALEMAN, Associated Press Writer
MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Energy-starved Nicaragua is turning to wind as it tries to reduce its dependence on oil-based power.
In January, the country will begin operating 19 windmills that have the potential to generate 40 megawatts of energy.
Energy Minister Emilio Rappaccioli said the $90 million project will be operating at full capacity by the end of January and contribute 6 percent of the country’s total energy needs.
Nicaragua successfully ended rolling blackouts that left the country without power for hours on many days, but the government struggled to pay higher energy costs as oil prices peaked at more than $147 a barrel earlier this year.
Rappaccioli said the new project will save about $9 million a year in fuel costs, at current prices. The lead developer on the operation is Arctas Capital Group LP of Houston, Texas, which says it is in advanced stages of development for another 40-megawatt installation.
Wind is part of Nicaragua’s efforts to reduce its dependence on oil-based energy to just 3 percent by 2013. The country has also turned to geothermal power from volcanoes, hydroelectric power generated by rivers and sugarcane based ethanol. Those sources provide 34 percent of Nicaragua’s energy.
Continue reading Nicaragua turns to wind power, builds 19 windmills
A major new report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and carried out by the U.S. Geological Survey, cryptically entitled Synthesis and Assessment Report 3.5: Abrupt Climate Change, finds that future climatic shifts have been underestimated [ark], and warns of relatively low probability but debilitating “abrupt” shift in climate [search] that would be [...]
President-Elect Obama’s pick of two of the very best — Jane Lubchenco [search] and John Holden [search] — for important positions in his administration, seems to portend a major focus upon climate by the incoming administration. Early indications are Obama is going to try to seriously address climate change [ark | more\ark] which is [...]
By Michael Perry
SYDNEY (Reuters) – An ancient underground water basin the size of Libya holds the key to Australia avoiding a water crisis as climate change bites the drought-hit nation.
Australia’s Great Artesian Basin is one of the largest artesian groundwater basins in the world, covering 1.7 million sq kms (656,370 sq miles) and lying beneath one-fifth of Australia.
The basin holds 65 million gigaliters of water, about 820 times the amount of surface water in Australia, and enough to cover the Earth’s land mass under half a meter of water, says the Great Artesian Basin Coordinating Committee.
And it is slowly topped up with 1 million megaliters a year as rain filters through porous sandstone rock, becoming trapped in the underground basin.
“There is probably enough water in there to last Australia’s needs for 1,500 years, if we wanted to use it all,” says John Hillier, a hydrogeologist who has just completed the Great Artesian Basin Resource Study.
But he and other experts warn that access to the basin’s water supply is under threat from declining artesian pressure, which forces the water to the surface via bores and springs.
If artesian pressure falls too far, due to excessive extraction of water, the ancient water source will be unreachable, except through costly pumping.
Continue reading Ancient water source vital for Australia
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