Archive for the ‘The America’s’ Category

Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich all tout anti-environmental credentials ahead of crucial New Hampshire primary

By the end of the year the USA will be deciding who will occupy the White House come 2013. This will have a crucial affect on the direction of US environmental and climate change policy.

Just4theplanet has been critical of the GOP in the past. Indeed one wonders whether they should replace their elephant logo – to an osterich – with it’s head buried in the sand.
True to form – the first week of campaigning of election year saw a series of interventions where Republican nominees and their supporters reiterated their opposition to a raft of climate change and environmental policies, underscoring how green issues are likely to emerge as one of the major dividing lines during the presidential campaign. Read the rest of this entry »

Study says rapidly thinning sea ice in north Atlantic has ravaged seal numbers, making annual commercial seal hunt superfluous

Just4theplanet and j4tp ambassador Stevie Riks have often spoke out against the disgusting practice of seal pup culling. The cause against this most inhumane of activities has also been highlighted by many well known personalities – including Merseysides favourite son – Sir Paul McCartney. A new study now reveals that these beautiful animals face even more danger from melting ice – making culling an even worse crime than it already is.

And so Canada has faced fresh calls to shut down its commercial seal hunt on Thursday, following new evidence that death rates among seal pups had dramatically increased due to thinning winter sea ice. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s always sunny in low-Earth orbit, so what better place to look for a source of solar energy?

With the end of “cheap oil” rumored to be rapidly approaching (if not already upon us), not to mention the effects of fossil fuel use upon the environment and climate, sources of alternate, clean and renewable energy appear to be the unavoidable wave of the future.

But the key factor in all these ventures is efficiency — how to get the most “bang for the buck” in the harnessing, creation and distribution of energy. Read the rest of this entry »

Wandering Male Wolf Traveled Hundreds of Miles to Reach New Home in Northern California

SAN FRANCISCO— For the first time in more than 85 years, a gray wolf has been documented in California. The 2 ½-year-old male, known as OR-7, journeyed more than 700 miles from the northeastern corner of Oregon, crossing into California’s Siskiyou County on Wednesday, according to the California Department of Fish and Game. OR-7, and any other wolves that wander into California, are federally protected by the Endangered Species Act. Read the rest of this entry »

A monkey sporting a ginger beard and matching fiery red tail, recently discovered in a threatened region of the Brazilian Amazon, is believed to be a species new to science.

The primate was found in relatively untouched pockets of forest in Mato Grosso, the region that has been worst-affected by illegal deforestation and land conflicts. Julio Dalponte, the scientist who made the discovery, said it showed the extraordinary biodiversity of the area and the vital importance of conservation. Read the rest of this entry »

In 2011, researchers at the California Academy of Sciences added 140 new relatives to our family tree. The new species include 72 arthropods, 31 sea slugs, 13 fishes, 11 plants, nine sponges, three corals, and one reptile. They were described by more than a dozen Academy scientists along with several dozen international collaborators.

Proving that there are still plenty of places to explore and things to discover on Earth, the scientists made their finds over six continents (all except Antarctica) and three oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian), climbed to the tops of mountains and descended to the bottom of the sea, looked in their owns backyards (California) and on the other side of the world (Cameroon). Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook has made a major commitment to renewable energy, pledging to work with Greenpeace to source more clean energy to power its giant data centres.

The social networking giant announced this afternoon that it will work closely with Greenpeace to enhance the energy efficiency of its IT infrastructure, switch from coal to renewable energy where possible, and promote clean energy to its millions of users.

The agreement represents a major victory for the green NGO, which has run a high-profile, two-year campaign dubbed Unfriend Coal, designed to encourage Facebook to reduce its reliance on the coal-fired power stations it often uses to run its giant server farms. Read the rest of this entry »

A last-gasp international deal was agreed in the early hours of the Durban Summit yesterday morning, which for the first time commits all countries to signing on to a new legally bound climate change treaty.

In dramatic scenes, Ministers reached an agreement on a new text almost 36 hours after the scheduled close of the two week summit.

The text, known as the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, will see the EU and a handful of other countries extend the Kyoto Protocol into a second commitment period, allowing for the continuation of emission reduction initiatives enabled by the treaty such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Read the rest of this entry »