Archive for the ‘International’ Category

By: Andy Gryce, Population Matters

Pointing out the similarities (and differences) between slavery and the use of fossil fuels can help us engage with climate change in a new way, says Jean-François Mouhot, visiting researcher at Georgetown University, USA.

In 2005, while teaching history at a French university, I was struck by the general disbelief among students that rational and sensitive human beings could ever hold others in bondage. Slavery was so obviously evil that slave-holders could only have been barbarians. My students could not entertain the idea that some slave-owners could have been genuinely blind to the harm they were doing. At the same time, I was reading a book on climate change Read the rest of this entry »

First evidence of physical harm of propeller noise on the mammals

Shipping noise causes chronic stress to whales, scientists have shown for the first time, after using the halt in marine traffic after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to conduct a unique experiment.

The effect on whales of propeller noise, military sonar and explosions set off in the search for oil and gas is highly controversial. Environmental campaigners claim the noise interferes with the singing of whales, or even kills the animals, and are currently suing the US government over the navy’s use of sonar. Read the rest of this entry »

Not all diet plans are nutritious and safe. U.S. News rankings rate each diet’s healthiness

There are some very successful diets on the market - but weight lost doesn’t always equal health gained. That new diet that took inches off your waistline could be harming your health if it locks out or severely restricts entire food groups, like carbs, or relies on supplements with little scientific backing, or clamps down on calories to an extreme.

“People are so desperate to lose weight that it’s really weight loss at any cost,” says Madelyn Fernstrom, founding director of the UPMC-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Weight Management Center and author of The Real You Diet. And when that desperation sets in, says Fernstrom, “normal thinking goes out the window.” Who cares if the forbidden-foods list is longer than War and Peace? Pounds are coming off. You’re happy. But your body might not be. Read the rest of this entry »

Species has lost half its population and 69% of its habitat through deforestation in the past 25 years

The Sumatran elephant has been placed on the list of critically endangered species after losing half of its population in a single generation, prompting calls from conservation groups for emergency measures to halt the destruction of its habitat.

Deforestation is seen as the primary reason for the collapse in numbers in Indonesia, which until recently was seen alongside India and Sri Lanka as one of the last great refuges for elephants in Asia. The animal is now at risk of becoming extinct within decades. Read the rest of this entry »

China began Wednesday streaming live video footage of its pandas around the world via webcam in an attempt to boost awareness of conservation efforts for its beloved but endangered animal ambassadors.

High-definition cameras are set to feature pandas in two reserves at the Bifengxia Panda Center near Ya’an city in China’s southwestern Sichuan province, the media non-profit Explore.org and China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda said in a statement. Read the rest of this entry »

Drought and new Three Gorges Dam blamed as fishers forced to seek other work and freight trade comes to a halt
For visitors expecting to see China’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang is a desolate spectacle. Under normal circumstances it covers 3,500 sq km, but last month only 200 sq km were underwater. A dried-out plain stretches as far as the eye can see, leaving a pagoda perched on top of a hillock that is usually a little island. Wrapped in the mist characteristic of the lower reaches of the Yangtze river, the barges are moored close to the quayside beside a pitiful trickle of water. There is no work for the fisheries. Read the rest of this entry »

Two years ago, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., released a study claiming that inconsistencies between satellite observations of Earth’s heat and measurements of ocean heating amounted to evidence of “missing energy” in the planet’s system.

Where was it going? Or, they wondered, was something wrong with the way researchers tracked energy as it was absorbed from the sun and emitted back into space?

An international team of atmospheric scientists and oceanographers, led by Norman Loeb of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and including Graeme Stephens of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., set out to investigate the mystery. Read the rest of this entry »

The prime minister has no choice – his commitment to the green economy will be judged by his attendance at the Earth Summit
By James Murry (Business Green)

If you were to ask most people whether they would like an all-expenses-paid trip to Rio de Janeiro, expressly designed to demonstrate that they were a nice guy or gal who cared about the planet, it would probably not take them too long to start packing their sunglasses. Sadly, life is not that simple when you are prime minister.

The debate over whether or not David Cameron should attend the Rio Earth +20 Summit continues to rumble on, presenting a potential political land mine for Number 10 that is only going to become more prominent as we get closer the global conference’s kick-off on 20 June. Read the rest of this entry »