The world is likely to build so many fossil-fuelled power stations, energy-guzzling factories and inefficient buildings in the next five years that it will become impossible to hold global warming to safe levels, and the last chance of combating dangerous climate change will be “lost for ever”, according to the most thorough analysis yet of … Continue reading World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns→
By Adam Federman On August 27, 2009, Dan Cincotta, a fisheries biologist with West Virginia’s Department of Natural Resources, was conducting a routine inventory of Dunkard Creek, a small river that runs through West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania. He was accompanied by a consultant and an environmental engineer from the state’s largest coal and gas … Continue reading What Killed Dunkard Creek? Residents in Pennsylvania and West Virginia Say Fracking→
By Lori Pottinger The ongoing COP17 climate meeting in Durban, South Africa is themed “saving tomorrow today.” Yet a global dam boom being promoted by dam proponents — including dozens of megadams proposed for Africa’s major rivers — could make a mockery of this vision, by endangering rivers and the ecosystems we all depend on. … Continue reading Healthy Rivers, Not Dammed Ones, Needed to Combat Climate Change→
By Mongabay Global forest cover, as well as forest loss, is lower than previously estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), according to a new satellite-based assessment that replaces the self-reporting system previously used by the U.N. agency. The survey found the world’s total forest cover amounted to 3.69 billion hectares, or roughly 30 … Continue reading Global forest cover lower than previously estimated, says UN→
by Stephen Corry What’s “development” for? That may be straightforward to people who don’t have water or food, or sewerage in urban areas (faecal contamination is the biggest, easily preventable, manmade killer). But, although millions still lack such basics, they form only a tiny part of what passes for development these days. The duplicity of … Continue reading Do indigenous peoples benefit from ‘development’?→
By Pierre-Henry Deshayes When flamingos, storks, pelicans and other migratory birds undertake their long seasonal flights, they risk their lives winging their way through the endless power grids that cover the world. There are some 70 million kilometres (43 million miles) of power lines on the planet. In Africa and Eurasia alone, tens of millions … Continue reading Power lines a major risk for migratory birds→
ROME — The United Nations has completed the first-ever global assessment of the state of the planet’s land resources, finding in a report Monday that a quarter of all land is highly degraded and warning the trend must be reversed if the world’s growing population is to be fed. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization … Continue reading U.N. Food And Agriculture Organization Warns 25 Percent Of Land Highly Degraded→
The biodiversity loss caused by climate change will result from a combination of rising temperatures and predation — and may be more severe than currently predicted, according to a study by University of British Columbia zoologist Christopher Harley. The study, published in the current issue of the journal Science, examined the response of rocky shore … Continue reading Marine Biodiversity Loss Due to Global Warming Will Be Severe→
If every American took every single action suggested by Al Gore it would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 21 percent. This is a stark truth: even if through simple living and rigorous recycling you stopped your own average American’s annual one ton of garbage production, your per capita share of the industrial waste produced … Continue reading Stop Industrialism→
This is from Jerry Mander’s 1991 book, In The Absence of The Sacred: The Failure of Technology & the Survival of the Indian Nations (p. 128). I am really enjoying this book. To give you a taste of what Mander has to say, I will give the “rule” and a brief passage from his longer … Continue reading Eleven Inherent Rules of Corporate Behavior→
