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How deforestation shares the blame for the Ebola epidemic

Like most matters involving an Ebola epidemic, chronicling its first horrifying infection is not an easy endeavor. But even in circumstances in which details are hard to come by, certain similarities have emerged. The first contact often occurs in remote, rural communities where a victim handles an infected animal carcass, and things quickly progress downward from there.

One outbreak in Ivory Coast was sparked when an ethologist touched an infected, dead chimpanzee. In Gabon and the Republic of Congo, scientists linked several outbreaks to extensive deaths of forest chimpanzees and gorillas. And in this most current outbreak of Ebola in West Africa — which has been called “out of control”...

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Green Sports Alliance

greensportsalliance.org

The Green Sports Alliance is a non-profit organization with a mission to help sports teams, venues and leagues enhance their environmental performance. Alliance members represent over 230 sports teams and venues from 20 different sports leagues.

Since February of 2010, the Alliance has brought together venue operators, sports team executives and environmental scientists to exchange information about better practices and develop solutions to their environmental challenges that are cost-competitive and innovative.

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NHL Commissioner - Gary Bettman Honored by Green Sports Alliance

NHL Commissioner to receive 2014 Environmental Leadership Award

nhl.com - July 21, 2014

The Green Sports Alliance will honor NHL commissioner Gary Bettman with the 2014 Green Sports Alliance Environmental Leadership Award for his visionary work and guidance in establishing NHL Green and promoting sustainable business practices across the League.

The Green Sports Alliance Environmental Leadership Award is presented to a member of the sports industry who has demonstrated leadership and has provided significant contributions to environmental sustainability. The award is voted on by the Green Sports Alliance Board of Directors, which is comprised of representatives from professional sports organizations, leading environmental nonprofits and other organizations affiliated with the sports industry.

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The Blue Carbon Project

submitted by Joe Browder

      

Offsetting carbon emissions by conserving ocean vegetation

thebluecarbonproject.com

What is Blue Carbon?

The problem: The growing emission of carbon dioxide from a wide range of human activities is causing unprecedented changes to the land and sea. Identifying effective, efficient and politically acceptable approaches to reduce the atmospheric concentration of CO2 is one of society’s most pressing goals.

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Trash Concentration in Ocean as Dangerous as Climatic Change

      

timesofindia.indiatimes.com - June 17, 2014

SYDNEY: Large concentrations of trash in the oceans, also known as "plastic soups", are as dangerous as climatic change, one of the experts in the field, Mike Moore said, Australian media reported.

These high concentrations of ocean garbage "are currently killing a more animals than climate change", Moore said.

. . . "We are facing a new phenomenon. In fact, it is a new habitat which does not have precendents in the planet's history," Moore added.

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CLICK HERE - Tracking the garbage deserts of the ocean

RESEARCH - Origin, dynamics and evolution of ocean garbage patches from observed surface drifters

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Promising solution to plastic pollution

Harvard's Wyss Institute -  Turning shrimp shells into plastic: Harvard's Wyss Institute comes up with fully degradable bioplastic.

Image:  Harvard's Wyss Institute - Turning shrimp shells into plastic: Harvard's Wyss Institute comes up with fully degradable bioplastic.

news.harvard.edu - May 5th, 2014

For many people, “plastic” is a one-word analog for environmental disaster. It is made from precious petroleum, after all, and once discarded in landfills and oceans, it takes centuries to degrade.

Then came apparent salvation: “bioplastics,” durable substances made from renewable cellulose, a plant-based polysaccharide.

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(SEE ALSO CBS' COVERAGE ON THIS STORY)

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Deep Underground, Oceans Of Water May Be Trapped In A Crystal Sponge

Earth's surface oceans are quite apparent, even from satellite images of our blue marble, but now scientists have found oceans' worth of water are hidden deep in Earth's mantle, locked up in a mineral called ringwoodite. 
Credit: NASA/NOAA

npr.org - by L. Carol Ritchie - June 15, 2014

. . . Scientists have discovered evidence of a vast reservoir of water hiding up to 400 miles beneath the surface.

The discovery could transform our understanding of how the planet was formed, suggesting that Earth's water may have come from within, rather than from collisions with large, icy comets.

The water is trapped in a blue mineral called ringwoodite that sits in the mantle, a hot, rocky layer between the Earth's crust and outer core.

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CLICK HERE - STUDY - Dehydration melting at the top of the lower mantle

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Obama Proposes Vast Expansion of Pacific Ocean Sanctuaries for Marine Life

Proposed expansion of a marine monument

President Obama wants to use his executive authority to expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, but he won't decide until after getting public input.

      

SOURCE: Interior Department. GRAPHIC: Patterson Clark. Published June 17, 2014.

washingtonpost.com - by Juliet Eilperin - June 17, 2014

President Obama announced Tuesday his intent to make a broad swath of the central Pacific Ocean off-limits to fishing, energy exploration and other activities.

The proposal, slated to go into effect later this year after a comment period, could create the world’s largest marine sanctuary and double the area of ocean globally that is fully protected.

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Understanding the Connections Between Coastal Waters and Ocean Ecosystem Services and Human Health

submitted by Cheryl Stroud

nap.edu - Institute of Medicine. Understanding the Connections Between Coastal Waters and Ocean Ecosystem Services and Human Health: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2014.

Authors

Rose Marie Martinez and Erin Rusch, Rapporteurs; Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine; Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice (BPH); Institute of Medicine (IOM)

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Emily Penn - Pangaea Exploration - Apple - Apps We Can't Live Without

Emily Penn - Pangaea Exploration - featured in the latest Apple commercial - (in the link below - starting at 1:11)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBSU9KaCYP4&feature=youtu.be&t=1m11s

About Us - Pangaea Exploration

Mission

We believe that the depth, complexity and sheer inertia of the threats to our oceans is significant. Practical solutions and the resources to implement them do still exist. The central challenge is our collective will to act, to care. We also believe that our ultimate success depends on a future generation of inspired conservationists.

We have a two part mission

1. To actively strengthen the health of marine life through Exploration, Conservation and Education work.

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