Western lifestyle unsustainable
Hotel guests should have their electricity monitored; hefty aviation taxes should be introduced to deter people from flying; and iced water in restaurants should be curtailed, the world’s leading climate scientist has told the Observer.
Rajendra Pachauri, the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warned that western society must undergo a radical value [...]
Is there any real chance of averting the climate crisis?
Nasa’s James Hansen was the first to point out the perils of climate change to the US Congress. Here, he begins a heated debate with experts from around the world, from China to the threatened Maldives, and argues that our leaders must be shaken out of their complacency. But will they show enough courage at [...]
Peak oil: the summit that dominates the horizon
Crude is still being discovered; existing fields are not being exploited to the full. So it’s hard to predict the exact point at which the world’s dwindling reserves will precipitate a crisis. But it’s coming
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/29/peak-oil
The knock-on effects of peak oil
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/29/peak-oil-prices-rise
Climate change: Gulf stream collapse could be like a disaster movie
The next Ice Age could take only weeks to engulf Britain. Scientists say the last great disruption to the Gulf Stream 12,800 years ago took only a couple of months to trigger a massive plunge in temperatures across Europe.
“It was as if Europe had been shifted 20 degrees north and Ireland moved to Svalbard,” [...]
Teenage pregnancies
A systematic review in the BMJ reports that the most important things associated with early parenthood are dislike of school, poor material circumstances, an unhappy childhood and low expectations for the future. No great surprises there, you may think, but accurate identification of causes can lead to effective interventions. In the second half of the [...]
Science key to agricultural policy
An event, organised by the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) and designed to explore competing visions of food security and how Europe can best meet its supply challenges, took part in Brussels, Belgium this week.
Under the banner ‘Food Supply Forum: Choices and Implications’, the conference attracted over 150 participants to the Concert Noble in Brussels, [...]
Waiting For Blue Gold to Sparkle
Water looks likely to become one of this century’s scarce commodities. Without massive investment in more efficient water use and making seawater drinkable, there won’t be enough to go round.
Global water requirements could rise 53% to 6,900 billion cubic meters over the next two decades, 40% above current accessible, reliable supplies, according to research by [...]
Kenyans draw weapons over shrinking resources
Have the climate wars of Africa begun? Tales of conflict emerging from this remote, arid region of Kenya have disturbing echoes of the lethal building blocks that turned Darfur into a killing ground in western Sudan. Tribes that lived side by side for decades say they’ve been pushed to warfare by competition for disappearing water [...]
Rise in immigrants coming to UK
Immigration to the UK continued to rise last year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
About 590,000 people came to live in Britain in 2008, compared with 574,000 the year before, figures showed.
However, a growing number of people have been leaving the UK permanently. About 427,000 people emigrated last year, up from 341,000 in [...]
New poll shows seven out of ten want immigration slashed
75% worried about impact immigration is having on Britain,5% are pleased. Nearly 2/3rds of Labour voters want immigration sharply cut.
On the day that new Government statistics show that immigration in 2008 was 163,000, a new YouGov poll for Migrationwatch UK reveals the vast majority of the public are concerned about immigration and want it cut [...]
Siberian tiger in severe decline
The researchers counted 56 tigers in a monitoring area of 9,000 square miles
The last remaining population of Siberian tigers has declined significantly, according to research.
The work was carried out by the Siberian Tiger Monitoring Programme, which is coordinated by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Its report says that tiger numbers have shown [...]
New UK nuclear stations unlikely to be on time
A Newsnight investigation suggests that UK government plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations to fill the energy gap by 2020 are wildly optimistic.
The British nuclear regulator has told Newsnight that he would not hesitate to halt construction if problems emerged and that no British nuclear power station had ever been built [...]
“We’re In An Era Of Food Insecurity”
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WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran speaks at the CSIS’s Ending Poverty and Hunger [...]
Nuclear fuel: are we heading for a uranium crunch?
AS THE world prepares for the largest investment in nuclear power in decades, owners of uranium mines last week raised the prospect of fuel shortages. To make things worse, the reliability of estimates of the amount of uranium that can be economically mined has also been questioned.
Volatile oil and gas prices, along with the threat [...]
School lessons to tackle domestic violence
The government plans to offer more help for victims
Every school pupil in England is to be taught that domestic violence is unacceptable, as part of a new government strategy.
Under the plans, young people will be taught from 2011 how to prevent violent relationships.
And from next year, two helplines would be set up to [...]
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
By resolution 54/134 of 17 December 1999, the General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and invited governments, international organizations and NGOs to organize activities designated to raise public awareness of the problem on that day. Women’s activists have marked 25 November as a [...]
Museveni wants adolescents to stop early marriages
Cultural institutions, clan leaders and parents that push young girls below the age of 18 years are to blame for the increasing cases of maternal mortality rate in the country.
President Museveni notes that many cultural institutions, parents and clan leaders push young girls into early marriages.
He was addressing participants at the third International Conference on [...]
The Kids Aren’t Alright: Surveying Pakistan’s Youth
A new survey of Pakistani youth shows why the country is Exhibit A for taking seriously the potent combination of demography and lack of education and employment. Funded by the British Council, the survey shows how Pakistan’s “youth bulge” can be both threat and opportunity.
If it is coupled with investment in education and employment, the [...]
Climate change: Copenhagen in graphics
Where do greenhouse gas emissions come from?
Which countries are most responsible for causing human-induced climate change?
And have governments pledged tough enough cuts so far to keep the global average temperature rise within “safe limits”?
As the UN summit in Copenhagen approaches, we look at the past, present and possible futures of climate change.
more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8359629.stm
MELTING ICE COULD LEAD TO MASSIVE WAVES OF CLIMATE REFUGEES
As the earth warms, the melting of the earth’s two massive ice sheets–Antarctica and Greenland–could raise sea level enormously. If the Greenland ice sheet were to melt, it would raise sea level 7 meters (23 feet). Melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would raise sea level 5 meters (16 feet). But even just partial [...]
New Report Says Climate Change May Cause Human Population Migrations
The Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) within the Earth Institute at Columbia University has a new report on the human migrations that may occur as a result of climate change. The report says climate change may cause vast human migrations on an order not previously experienced. The report, In Search of Shelter: [...]
Global warming science alarming, say climate experts
Three UK groups studying climate change have issued an unprecedented statement about the dangers of failing to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.
The Royal Society, Met Office, and Natural Environment Research Council say the science underpinning climate change is more alarming than ever.
They say the 2007 UK floods, 2003 heatwave in Europe and recent droughts were [...]
African conflicts spurred by warming
Africa is poised to experience a surge in civil wars, causing nearly 400,000 additional battle deaths by 2030 – all as a direct result of rising temperatures. This bold prediction is one of the most alarming results yet to emerge from attempts to discover how climate change will affect patterns of human conflict. It is [...]
Oceans Absorb Less Carbon Dioxide as Marine Systems Change
Photo courtesy NOAA
Seagrass meadows cover about 300,000 kilometers of the ocean and store some 15 percent of the ocean’s carbon.
The oceans are by far the largest carbon sink in the world. Some 93 percent of carbon dioxide is stored in algae, vegetation, and coral under the sea.But oceans are not able to absorb all [...]
Liberia: “The new war is rape”
Monrovia - in Liberia rape survivors are increasingly speaking up and seeking help as awareness of rights increases, but social taboos persist and seeking justice does not always mean that justice is served.
Sexual violence consistently comes first or second (after armed robbery) in monthly police crime listings in the capital Monrovia. The majority of rape [...]
East Antarctic ice sheet may be losing mass
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
The mass loss is probably driven by processes occurring on the coast
The East Antarctic ice sheet has been losing mass for the last three years, according to an analysis of data from a gravity-measuring satellite mission.
The scientists involved say they are “surprised” by the finding, because the [...]
Cumbria floods: there’s more where that came from
It seems unfair, if you are already officially the wettest place in Britain, to be dowsed with the most rainfall ever to fall over 24 hours. But that’s what has just happened to the hamlet of Seathwaite, in Cumbria’s Borrowdale, where, incredibly, [...]
Curbs to ship pollution would stoke global warming, study says
Shipping is slowing climate change by spewing out sunlight-dimming pollution but a clean-up needed to safeguard human health will stoke global warming, experts said Friday.
“So far shipping has caused a cooling effect that has slowed down global warming,” Jan Fuglestvedt, of the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research Oslo (CICERO), told Reuters.
“After some decades [...]
Biodiversity loss is Earth’s ‘immense and hidden’ tragedy, Darwin’s ‘natural heir’ warns
The diversity of life on Earth is undergoing an “immense and hidden” tragedy that requires the scale of global response now being deployed to tackle climate change, according to one of the world’s most eminent biologists.
Prof Edward Wilson, an ecologist who has been described as “Darwin’s natural heir” and hailed by novelist Ian McEwan as [...]
Climate change survey says 83% willing to make sacrifices
More than 80 per cent of people believe climate change is a serious threat and are willing to make sacrifices to combat it, a survey by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) showed today.
Just 17 per cent of the 1,000 people polled were not prepared to change their [...]
Poll lays bare myths of ’safe sex’
More than one in 10 people (11%) do not realise a woman can get pregnant if she has sex standing up, according to a new poll.
The Department of Health and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) commissioned the survey to highlight misconceptions around safe sex.
It found 19% were unaware a woman can get [...]
Migration v ageing population - a tricky trade-off
What do you do given a choice between two demographic time bombs?
The UK’s population is predicted to rise from 61m to 71m by 2033
That’s not a flattering description of what’s happening (because remember, you - if you live in the UK - and me, we are those time bombs), but this is how many see [...]
U.S. group sees worsening coastal flooding threat
ast-melting ice from Greenland and Antarctica will lead to a much sharper rise in sea levels than previously estimated, touching off flooding that will radically alter U.S. East Coast cities from Miami to Baltimore, according to a new study.
Climate change will cause a rise of at least 1 meter (39 inches) in sea levels by [...]
US funding revamps African contraceptive drive
A new 12 million dollar family planning drive launched here Wednesday highlights how Obama administration funding has revamped a contraception drive in Africa and developing states, UN officials said, noting a sharp turnaround from the Bush era.
The change in US policy was praised at a three-day conference on family planning in Kampala which launched the [...]
World Toilet Day
November 19th is World Toilet Day. A day to celebrate the importance of sanitation and raise awareness for the 2.5 billion people (nearly half of the world’s population) who don’t have access to toilets and proper sanitation
http://www.worldtoilet.org/getinvolved.asp?no=19
Green technologies in peril as rich nations dither on climate deal
Vital business investment in clean technology to tackle climate change is being threatened by delays and doubts over the Copenhagen deal on climate change, senior figures have told the Guardian.
Without urgent progress which will stimulate funding for renewables, nations could be locked into high-carbon energy and transport technologies for decades, inflating another unsustainable economic bubble, [...]
UN food summit ends without specific targets for ending global hunger
he three-day United Nations summit on world food security wrapped up in Rome today with its host lamenting that it produced neither measurable targets nor specific deadlines for ending a scourge that afflicts more than 1 billion people around the planet.On its first day, the summit unanimously adopted a declaration renewing a commitment to eradicate [...]
Kenya evicts thousands of forest squatters in attempt to save Rift valley
Kenya evicts thousands of forest squatters in attempt to save Rift valley
Tourism, tea and energy industries threatened after a quarter of huge Mau forest destroyed in 20 years
Buzz up!
Digg it
Xan Rice in Nairobi
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 November 2009 22.48 GMT
Article [...]
GM crops have a role in preventing world hunger, chief scientist says
GM crops have a role to play in preventing mass starvation across the world caused by a combination of climate change and rapid population growth, a senior government scientist said yesterday.
Professor Robert Watson, the chief scientific adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), called for UK trials of [...]
Forced marriage helpline to close
The UK’s only national helpline for victims of forced marriages and so-called “honour” violence is to cease operating after its funding was cut.
The Honour Network Helpline (HNV) has had more than 6,000 calls from people fearing for their lives or of being forced to marry against their will.
The government’s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) gave charity [...]
Carbon sinks less efficient: ‘They are responding to climate change’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/audio/2009/nov/18/carbon-emissions-reduce-absorbing
The Queen’s Speech: education
The legislation also confirms the introduction of compulsory lessons in personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE), which will controversially herald the introduction of sex education in primary schools.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/6597497/The-Queens-Speech-education.html
Skate may be fished to extinction
A species of skate could become the first marine fish driven to extinction by commercial fishing, say scientists.
A study reveals that an error in the classification of the species has meant researchers have failed to see just how close to the brink it is.
The French team reports its findings in the journal Aquatic Conservation.
Marine biologist [...]
World on track for 6 degrees of extra heat
The world is on track to warm by a whopping 6 °C by the end of this century, unless steps are taken immediately to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to research published yesterday.
The Global Carbon Project, a group of 31 scientists from 7 countries led by Corinne Le Quéré at the University of East Anglia [...]
Women Central to Efforts to Deal With Climate Change, Says New UNFPA Report
Women bear the disproportionate burden of climate change, but have so far been largely overlooked in the debate about how to address problems of rising seas, droughts, melting glaciers and extreme weather, concludes The State of World Population 2009, released today by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.
“Poor women in poor countries are among [...]
Largest International Family Planning Conference in 15 Years Convenes in Uganda
Over 1,200 leading policymakers, researchers, academics and health professionals from 59 countries will meet in Kampala, Uganda, from 15 to 18 November, where they will share the latest scientific findings and refocus the world’s attention on family planning’s contribution to development.
“Family planning has been a development and a public health success,” says Werner Haug, Director [...]
UK election: Key policy battles
IMMIGRATION
LABOUR: E-borders, which tracks all movements in and out of UK, fully operational by 2014. Clear asylum backlog by 2011. Tighten entry restrictions for skilled workers from outside EU.
CONSERVATIVES: Keep Labour’s points-based migration system but place an annual limit on numbers admitted to UK. Attract “brightest and best” migrants from around the world to UK. [...]
Plan UK Announces the Launch of ‘Girls Without Voices’
Plan UK today marks the launch of its major Christmas campaign, Girls Without Voices (http://www.girlswithoutvoices.org), with new research finding that British women wish they’d taken more advantage of what the UK education system has to offer.
Further findings have also revealed that women in the UK believe their schooling has a direct link to how they [...]
Great Barrier Reef survival “requires 25 percent CO2 cut”
ustralia’s Great Barrier Reef has only a 50 percent chance of survival if global CO2 emissions are not reduced at least 25 percent by 2020, a coalition of Australia’s top reef and climate scientists said on Tuesday.
The 13 scientists said even deeper cuts of up to 90 percent by 2050 would necessary if the reef [...]
Biotech crops cause big jump in pesticide use
The rapid adoption by U.S. farmers of genetically engineered corn, soybeans and cotton has promoted increased use of pesticides, an epidemic of herbicide-resistant weeds and more chemical residues in foods, according to a report issued Tuesday by health and environmental protection groups.
The groups said research showed that herbicide use grew by 383 million pounds from [...]
Pledge targets teenage pregnancies
Reducing teenage pregnancies to combat health inequalities, child poverty and social exclusion is key Government policy, according to children’s minister Dawn Primarolo.
Her pledge to continue efforts to bring down the numbers follows the publication of the Government’s response to a Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group (TPIAG) report.
Ministers have accepted all the report’s major recommendations, she [...]
Start With A Girl: A New Agenda For Global Health
#fullpost{display:inline;}The Center for Global Development’s latest report, Start With A Girl: A New Agenda For Global Health, sheds light on the risks of ignoring the health of adolescent girls. Like other reports in the Girls Count series, it links broad social outcomes with adolescent health. “Adolescence is a critical juncture for girls. What happens to [...]
World leaders agree to global food strategy
World leaders today rallied around a new strategy to fight global hunger by helping poor countries feed themselves, but refused a UN appeal to put a price tag on funding. The three-day UN food summit in Rome pledged to substantially increase aid to agriculture in developing nations. In effect, the 192 countries were endorsing the [...]
Saving sealife
After years of campaigning, and much debate in parliament, we now have a Marine and Coastal Access Act. This is a truly momentous event for our marine life. As the new age of marine conservation dawns, we are still discovering new marine species. Last month divers discovered two types of sponge never before found in [...]
Lord Mandelson Lays Out Ambitious UK National Skills Strategy
Skills for Growth – The National Skills Strategy sets out a pathway to achieving a bold new ambition for three quarters of the population to go to university or get an advanced technical qualification by the age of 30.
The Government will:
Create a modern class of technicians, through a dramatic expansion of advanced apprenticeships, creating [...]
Fishing body agrees to cut in Atlantic tuna quota
Fishing nations agreed on Sunday to cut by about a third the quota for Atlantic bluefin tuna, a giant fish prized by sushi lovers, numbers of which have been decimated by commercial catches.
The move was denounced as inadequate by environmental groups who had called on the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) [...]
Man-made ponds linked to arsenic in Bangladesh water
Man-made ponds and rice fields irrigated using groundwater may be responsible for arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh, a study has found.
Arsenic is a naturally occurring chemical poisonous to humans and is known to cause skin lesions and cancers of the bladder, kidney, lung and skin.
While it is known that organic carbon triggers the release [...]
Sea rises threaten Australian homes
Nearly a quarter of a million homes along Australia’s coastline could be submerged by 2100 unless action is taken to stop sea levels rising, a government report said on Saturday.
Debate on climate change — and a government proposal to introduce a carbon trading scheme — are the very focal point of political debate, with parliament [...]
Ray Mears: We’ll struggle to survive climate change
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Do you worry about Earth’s future?
The planet will be fine, whether we are is another matter. What’s interesting is that the last time we faced climatic fluctuations as a species, we were hunter-gatherers and could up sticks and move. We can’t do that now, and we’re only just realising that the result of a static [...]
Oil: future world shortages are being drastically underplayed, say experts
An oil rig in California. The International Energy Agency is accused of underestimating when oil will run out. Photograph: David McNew/Getty
A leading academic institute has urged European governments to review global oil supplies for themselves because of the “politicisation” of the International Energy Agency’s figures.
Uppsala University in Sweden today published a scathing assessment of the [...]
Gordon Brown offers too little, too late on immigration
In the year before Labour came to power, British citizenship was granted to 37,000 foreign nationals. In the first nine months of this year, 118,000 people born overseas have already been issued with a British passport. Since 1997, more than 1.3 million grants of citizenship have been made. This is the backdrop for Gordon Brown’s [...]
Britain’s problem with pets: they’re bad for the planet
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A new book with the somewhat provocative title of Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living has triggered a highly charged debate about the environmental efficacy of our pet-owning habits. If we are to examine the environmental impacts of all our lifestyle choices, the book argues, then we must also include [...]
Amazon deforestation ‘record low’
The rate of deforestation in the Amazon has dropped by 45% and is the lowest on record since monitoring began 21 years ago, Brazil’s government says.
According to the latest annual figures, just over 7,000 sq km was destroyed between July 2008 and August 2009.
The drop is welcome news for the government in advance of the [...]
World leaders ‘must not use recession to delay action on climate change’
World leaders cannot use the global recession as an excuse to delay action on climate change, according to leading economists. In a new analysis they predict that the economic downturn will cut carbon emissions by 9% by 2012 and delay the onset of “dangerous” climate change by just 21 months.
The report, published today by the [...]
Plastic-hardening chemical makes men soft
Regular contact with high levels of bisphenol A (BPA), a compound commonly found in plastic food and drink containers, appears to cause erectile dysfunction and other sexual performance problems in men.
The finding, reported in the Washington Post, is likely to add fuel to the controversy over whether exposure to normal lower levels is harmful to [...]
UK climate target seen too optimistic by decades
Britain will miss its ambitious 2050 target for an emissions cut by decades unless it reassesses its course, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers said on Friday.
Last year, Britain passed the Climate Change Act, aimed at cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 from the 1990 level to help mitigate global warming.
“A realistic [...]
Tuna in peril as catches reach triple the limit
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I’ve just come face to face with what is quickly becoming one of the most endangered animals in the world: a Mediterranean bluefin tuna. Twenty years ago, these waters were thick with the mighty ocean-going predators, which can accelerate to up to 80 kilometres per hour in pursuit of prey. Today the population is close [...]
BCC: Growing population requires debate about additional infrastructure
Reacting to the prime minister’s comments on population and immigration today, David Frost, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:
“With the population set to grow by over 10 million in the next 25 years, the focus should not simply be about migration levels. There needs to be active political debate about the [...]
EU offers plan to protect falling swordfish stocks
The swordfish now ranks as one of the Mediterranean’s most vulnerable species, the European Union said Thursday, proposing new measures to protect diminishing stocks.
As well as continuing a swordfish fishing ban for two consecutive months each year — October and November this year — the EU wants to prevent the “by-catch” of swordfish by vessels [...]
Britain has highest number of abortions in Europe
The country has for the first time overtaken France as the abortion capital of Europe - even though France has a population of 65m compared to Britain’s approximate 59m - and now ranks fifth in the world behind Russia, the US, India and Japan.
Teenage pregnancy rates [...]
Greenland ice loss accelerating
Greenland’s ice losses are accelerating and nudging up sea levels, according to a study showing that icebergs breaking away and meltwater runoff are equally to blame for the shrinking ice sheet.
The report, using computer models to confirm satellite readings, indicated that ice losses quickened in 2006-08 to the equivalent of 0.75 mm (0.03 inch) of [...]
Record-high U.S. temps outpace record lows
In another sign of a warming planet, there were twice as many record-high temperatures in the United States as record lows over the last decade, climate scientists reported on Thursday.
This does not mean there are no record lows, just that there are fewer of them, said Gerald Meehl of the National Center for Atmospheric Research [...]
Gordon Brown admits ‘mistakes’ on immigration after BNP TV furore
Gordon Brown will concede today that Labour has made mistakes on immigration as he defends the benefits of workers coming from overseas.
The Prime Minister is expected to echo remarks by Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, who said last week that some parts of Britain are disproportionately affected by an influx of foreigners.
In [...]
Youth unemployment worst in Europe - as jobless rate reaches a million
The number of jobless university leavers is predicted to have reached the 100,000 mark when the latest unemployment figures are released on Wednesday, up from 70,000 last year, raising the prospect of a 2009 “lost generation” of out of work graduates.
Research by Keep Britain Working found [...]
UN agency calls for global day-long fast as symbol of war on hunger
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today called for a day-long, global hunger strike in solidarity with the planet’s one billion people who do not have enough to eat, ahead of next week’s World Summit on Food Security.“I shall personally begin a 24-hour fast on Saturday morning,” FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf told a [...]
Environmental protection should be at the heart of future regional planning
An exclusive pursuit by the Government of economic growth could have dire costs for the countryside, and the wider environment. This is CPRE’s [1] warning as the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill, which reforms regional planning, becomes law this week [2].
New regional Strategies, provided for by the Bill, will set out how many [...]
Mini ice age took hold of Europe in months
JUST months - that’s how long it took for Europe to be engulfed by an ice age. The scenario, which comes straight out of Hollywood blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow, was revealed by the most precise record of the climate from palaeohistory ever generated.
Around 12,800 years ago the northern hemisphere was hit by the Younger [...]
How stable is the ocean circulation?
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is one of the most important large-scale ocean current systems controlling the Earth’s climate. But just how stable will it remain as climate changes and how well do models represent its stability? That’s what a team of scientists from Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research has been investigating.
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“The [...]
The future of oil
The race for the world’s remaining oil reserves could get very nasty. Recently, Nigerian militants announced their determination to oppose the efforts of a major Chinese energy group to secure six billion barrels of crude reserves, comparing the potential new investors to “locusts”. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta told journalists that [...]
A Dollar a Day Not to Get Pregnant
A pregnancy prevention program based at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro that pays 12 to 18 year old girls one dollar for every day they are not pregnant has spurred conversation and raised eyebrows as it has made its way through the blogosphere. College Bound Sisters was founded in its most infant stages [...]
Resources Shrinking Forests: The Many Costs
In early December 2004, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo “ordered the military and police to crack down on illegal logging, after flash floods and landslides, triggered by rampant deforestation, killed nearly 340 people,” according to news reports. Fifteen years earlier, in 1989, the government of Thailand announced a nationwide ban on tree cutting following severe [...]
Energy agency warns of ‘irreparable’ damage
Take all the power stations in the United States. Together, they produce almost 5000 gigawatts of electricity - enough to boil several billion kettles simultaneously.
Now imagine building another five power stations for every one that already exists in the United States. That is about the amount of electricity generation that the world is on track [...]
Million Women Rise - March and rally through London
Calling all women in the UK to join together in one voice to say there are no excuses for male violence against women. Our theme for 2010 is “each one teach one, bring a sister to the Million Women Rise 2010 march and rally in London”
Saturday 6th March 2010. Meet 12pm Park Lane, Central London, [...]
All power to the nimbys
Yesterday saw the announcement of the country’s first national policy statements. Once finalised, these will guide the decisions of the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) on new developments, starting with energy infrastructure such as nuclear plants, large wind farms and pylons. The system is designed to ensure that major planning decisions are taken quickly. It is, [...]
Secretary-General calls for global alliance to protect world’s biodiversity
s a year-long campaign to safeguard the world’s biological diversity gets underway, Secretary-General called on countries and people all over the planet to engage in a global alliance to protect life on Earth.The General Assembly proclaimed 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity to raise awareness of the unprecedented loss of species – at a rate [...]
California Group Blames Immigrants for Climate Change
A California anti-immigration group has created a multimedia ad campaign blaming immigrants for climate change and environmental degradation in California. Californians for Population Stabilization, or CAP, argues that immigrants, legal and illegal, increase their carbon footprint four-fold when they move to the US and “Americanize” their consumption habits, thus exacerbating climate problems.
Listen to the radio [...]
Environment Agency calls for flood defences to protect 900,000 properties
More than 900,000 homes and businesses in England and Wales could be at the highest risk of flooding by 2035 without increasing investment in defences, the Environment Agency warned today.
The agency said the number of properties at the highest risk of inundation could rise by 60% from current figures of 560,000, as it outlined a [...]
Millions of poor across Africa set to suffer deepening food crisis
Despite good global cereal harvests this year, millions of people in dozens of poor countries are in desperate need of emergency humanitarian aid due to stubbornly high food prices, the United Nations agricultural agency warned in a report released today.Critical food insecurity is affecting 31 countries and the situation is particularly acute in East Africa, [...]
Yangtze delta warned to prepare for effects of climate change
China’s most populous river needs massive investment and careful planning to ease the impact of climate change, which is causing floods, droughts and storms to intensify, a new report (pdf) said today.
The Yangtze delta, which is home to about 400 million people, has been warming far faster than the global average for more than a [...]
Labour Concealed a shift in immigration policy
In Parliament yesterday the Immigration Minister denied that there had been any change in immigration policy in 2001 nor, therefore, any political motive. However, there is clear evidence of a Labour shift in immigration policy in 2001-2 which was concealed from the public at the time, according to the Briefing Paper by think tank Migrationwatch.
Commenting, Sir [...]
Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower
The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.
The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay [...]
China ivory demand bodes ill for Africa’s elephants
Tucked into a grimy building in Guangzhou, a small band of Chinese master carvers chip away at ivory tusks with chisels, fashioning them into the sorts of intricate carvings that were prized by Chinese emperors.
A passion for ivory ornaments such as these is what helped decimate African and Asian elephant populations until a 1989 ban [...]
Why the red deer failed to rut
For centuries, the autumnal red deer rut has been one of the stunning sights of the British countryside. The annual event sees giant stags chase rivals, bellow warnings and lock horns in a fight for supremacy. To the winners, the female spoils. To the losers, the consolation that they may appear in a nice photograph.
According [...]
Australian koalas fast declining
Australia’s koalas have suffered a sharp population decline because of development, bushfires and global warming, and could vanish within decades, researchers said Tuesday.
Mainland Australia’s wild koala population was between 43,000 and 80,000, well under previous estimates of more than 100,000, with the animals facing possible extinction in about 30 years, the Australian Koala Foundation said.
“The [...]
Welsh pharmacies’ increasing role in sexual health support
THE community pharmacy network in Wales is made up of more than 700 pharmacies, ranging from the small independent pharmacy to the larger branches of well-known chains.
They are located where people work, shop and live and to many they are the most accessible part of the health service.
We are all aware of the role the [...]
W Australia sea level rising fast
New figures have revealed that sea levels along the coast of Western Australia are rising at a rate double that of the world average.
Statistics from Australia’s National Tidal Centre show levels have increased by 8.6mm a year off the coast of the state capital Perth.
That compares to a global average of just over 3mm.
Scientists have [...]
Britain bins £12bn of food and drink every year, report reveals
More than £12bn worth of food and drink that could have been consumed is thrown out every year by householders, according to new figures today that reveal the scale of the UK’s food waste mountain.
The new statistics from Wrap, the body set up to advise the government on reducing waste and packaging, are the first [...]
‘Last chance’ for tuna authority
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
Tsukiji market in Tokyo is the final destination for a large proportion of bluefin
The annual meeting of the body charged with conserving Atlantic tuna opens on Monday to warnings that this is its “last chance” to manage things well.
The International Commission for [...]
Progress made on population talks
The Scottish Government has claimed to have made “good progress” in talks with Westminster on immigration.
Agreement was reached on several matters in “useful” talks with Immigration Minister Phil Woolas, it said.
The meeting between Mr Woolas and External Affairs Minister Mike Russell centred on how to use the UK’s points-based system to boost population growth in [...]
Population Decisions – Part II
What Are The Decisions?
By
Fred Westmark
Most people views decisions in black and white terms – either or. One decision, in most people’s mind, should cover all the issues. Decisions about population are not one-sided. The issue is very complex.
If a nation’s government is going to control breeding, the first question is how [...]