You are here

Home

Environment

Why Regional Seed Matters

Thu, 2013-06-20 16:59 — Maeryn Obley

Petra is thrilled to be surrounded by gold medal tomatoes, tome verde tomatillos and black beauty eggplant: all are adapting well to the Finger Lakes!

Image: Petra is thrilled to be surrounded by gold medal tomatoes, tome verde tomatillos and black beauty eggplant: all are adapting well to the Finger Lakes!

fruitionseeds.wordpress.com - June 13th, 2013

Each seed tells the story of its entire life history, millions of years in the making.  A few seeds, in a single generation, may travel the globe.  Most will stay within their watershed and most likely, their microclimate.  In this way, seeds become profoundly adapted to place.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
Global
General Topic Tags: 
Agriculture
Environment
Food
Sustainable Development
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Solutions

Toxic waste spill in northern Alberta biggest of recent disasters in North America

Thu, 2013-06-13 17:53 — Gina Angiola

NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE

CALGARY — The Globe and Mail

PublishedWednesday, Jun. 12 2013, 2:10 PM EDT

...The spill was first spotted on June 1. But not until Wednesday did Houston-based Apache Corp. release estimates of its size, which exceeds all of the major recent spills in North America. It comes amid heightened sensitivity about pipeline safety, as the industry faces broad public opposition to plans for a series of major new oil export pipelines to the U.S., British Columbia and eastern Canada....

...“Every plant and tree died” in the area touched by the spill, said James Ahnassay, chief of the Dene Tha First Nation...

Full Article Here

Country / Region Tags: 
Global
General Topic Tags: 
Environment
Pollution
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Problem

Introducing Global Sustainability

Sun, 2013-06-09 21:38 — Kathy Gilbeaux

huffingtonpost.co.uk - by HRH The Prince of Wales - June 3, 2013

I have long been deeply concerned about the effect our modern, highly industrialised approach is having on nature's capacity to sustain life on Earth. There is a growing set of alarming problems which, if not addressed with real urgency, will severely affect nature's capacity to keep her life support systems running and thus guarantee the well-being of billions of people around the world.

Country / Region Tags: 
Global
General Topic Tags: 
Climate
Environment
Sustainable Development
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Solutions
Problem

Climate research nearly unanimous on human causes, survey finds

Fri, 2013-06-07 00:38 — Maeryn Obley

'Our findings prove that there is a strong scientific agreement about the cause of climate change, despite public perceptions to the contrary'. Photograph: John McConnico/AP

Image: 'Our findings prove that there is a strong scientific agreement about the cause of climate change, despite public perceptions to the contrary'. Photograph: John McConnico/AP

guardian.co.uk - May 15th, 2013 - Suzanne Goldenberg

A survey of thousands of peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals has found 97.1% agreed that climate change is caused by human activity.

Authors of the survey, published on Thursday in the journal Environmental Research Letters, said the finding of near unanimity provided a powerful rebuttal to climate contrarians who insist the science of climate change remains unsettled.

The survey considered the work of some 29,000 scientists published in 11,994 academic papers.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
Global
General Topic Tags: 
Climate
Environment
Research
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Problem

Norway, Canada, the United States and the Tar Sands

Fri, 2013-06-07 00:32 — Maeryn Obley

It is crunch time on tar sands. (photo: Greenpeace)

Image: It is crunch time on tar sands. (photo: Greenpeace)

readersupportednews.org - May 11th, 2013 - Dr. James Hansen

Today 36 Norwegian organizations sent an open letter to Prime Minister Stoltenberg expressing opposition to development of Canadian tar sands by Statoil (the Norwegian state is majority shareholder of Statoil). Signatories include not only environmental organizations, but a broad public spectrum, including, appropriately, many youth organizations. It is encouraging that Norwegian youth press their government to stop supporting tar sands development, given the fact that Norway saves much of its oil earnings for future generations and given the fact that Norway is not likely among the nations that will suffer most from climate change.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
Global
Oceans
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Energy
Environment
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Situation Report

400 Parts Per Million

Sat, 2013-05-18 00:00 — Maeryn Obley

Former Vice President Al Gore. (photo: Mario Anzuoni)

Image: Former Vice President Al Gore. (photo: Mario Anzuoni)

readersupportednews.org - May 11th, 2013 - Al Gore

Yesterday, for the first time in human history, concentrations of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming pollutant, hit 400 parts per million in our planet's atmosphere. This number is a reminder that for the last 150 years -- and especially over the last several decades -- we have been recklessly polluting the protective sheath of atmosphere that surrounds the Earth and protects the conditions that have fostered the flourishing of our civilization. We are altering the composition of our atmosphere at an unprecedented rate.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
Global
General Topic Tags: 
Climate
Environment
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Problem

Patuca Reserve Resilience Network

Wed, 2013-05-15 09:18 — mdmcdonald

Honduras' ecosystems are being destroyed at an incredible rate, taking with it the rich natural heritage of biodiversity that has required million of years to evolve.  In 20 years, human populations in Honduras will be be threatend from ecosystem collapses that are likely to create abect misery and population collapses at an extraordinatry level.  Already population crashes are happening in small scale collapses due to the degradation of social ecology.  

There is a need to build a Patuca Reserve Resilience Network to help preserve the remaining 30% of the Patuca Reserve that has not been destroyed by deforestation and gold mining in the rivers. Association Patuca and Dr. Perinjaquet are working on introducing Resilience Capacity Zone Assessments and Mapping in order to identify solution sets local communities would embrace for preserving their environments and livelihoods, considering that they are squating within a national preserve that to date has had no environmental enforcement. 

Country / Region Tags: 
Global
General Topic Tags: 
Adaptation
Capacity
Community
Cooperation
Culture
Demographics
Development
Ecosystems
Environment
Pollution
Population
Resilience
Rivers
Sustainable Development
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Solutions
Problem
Situation Report

Video - TIME, GOOGLE AND NASA: Timelapse of the Earth Over the Last 30 Years

Mon, 2013-05-13 13:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

world.time.com - by Jeffrey Kluger

Spacecraft and telescopes are not built by people interested in what’s going on at home. Rockets fly in one direction: up. Telescopes point in one direction: out. Of all the cosmic bodies studied in the long history of astronomy and space travel, the one that got the least attention was the one that ought to matter most to us—Earth.

Country / Region Tags: 
Global
General Topic Tags: 
Adaptation
Desert
Development
Ecosystems
Environment
Land Use
Population
Science
Time
Visualization
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Situation Report

Victory! Offshore Oil Drilling Stopped in Belize

Wed, 2013-05-01 07:21 — admin

Oceana.org    April 17, 2013   Jessica Wiseman

Yesterday, Belize’s Supreme Court declared offshore drilling contracts issued by the Government of Belize (in 2004 and 2007) null and void, providing a dramatic and potentially definitive setback to The Government of Belize and the petroleum prospecting companies issued the contracts.

The ruling, handed down by Justice Oswell Legall, was in response to a case brought by Oceana, COLA, and the Belize Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage. It effectively ends the Belizean government’s immediate effort to allow offshore oil drilling in the Meso American Reef, the second largest barrier reef in the world.

Country / Region Tags: 
Oceans
General Topic Tags: 
Environment
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Other

The Limits of the Earth, Part 2: Expanding the Limits

Fri, 2013-04-26 19:50 — Maeryn Obley

Limits of Earth logo.Image: Limits of Earth logo.

blogs.scientificamerican.com - April 18th, 2013 - Ramez Naam

As part one of this series showed, we are up against incredible challenges: feeding a world with a rapidly growing appetite, the continuing loss of the world’s precious forests, the ongoing collapse of fish species in the oceans, the rapid depletion of our fresh water resources, and the over-arching threat of climate change, which makes all others far worse.

Ending growth isn’t a realistic option.  Billions of people in the developing world want access to more resources, deserve those resources as much as those of us in the rich world do, and need them in order to rise out of poverty.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
Global
General Topic Tags: 
Economics
Environment
Ideas
Research
Resilience
Sustainable Development
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Solutions

Pages

Subscribe to Environment
howdy folks