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Amazon Deforestation Trend On The Increase

January 7, 2009 – 3:07 am

ScienceDaily (Jan. 6, 2009) — Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon forests has flipped from a decreasing to an increasing trend, according to new annual figures recently released by the country’s space agency INPE.

Commenting on the figures, Brazilian environment minister Carlos Minc confirmed that the government will on Monday announce forest related carbon emission reduction targets, which will link halting deforestation to the national climate change campaign.

From August 2007 to July 2008, Brazil deforested 11,968 square kilometers of forests in the area designated as the Legal Amazon, a 3.8 per cent increase over the previous year and an unwelcome surprise following declines of 18 per cent over the previous period.

From 2003-2004 to 2006-2007, annual deforestation totals from the agency fell from 27,423 km2 to 11,532 km2. There were fears that the current trend could have been worse but for new measures introduced part way through the year when it became apparent that annual deforestation was accelerating towards a possible 15,000 hectare level.

WWF-Brazil has praised in particular restraints on credit for properties not complying with environmental rules on deforestation licenses, legal reserve and permanent preservation areas, strengthened land ownership rules, increased patrolling activity and a sharing of responsibility for halting deforestation with states and municipalities   Keep Reading

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Bush Administration Finalizes Timber Giveaway

January 6, 2009 – 3:26 am

>мебелиon logging planned for salmon watersheds

December 31, 2008

Seattle, WA — On the last day of 2008 the Bush administration finalized a huge giveaway of public forest land to the timber industry. The administration announced six “Records of Decision” that could change the course of how 2.6 million acres of public forests in Oregon are managed. The last-minute Bush timber giveaway promises over 500 million board feet of lumber per year to the timber industry at the expense of salmon spawning streams, healthy old-growth forests, and habitat for rare birds such as the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet.

“The Bush administration needs to make a New Year’s resolution to stop harming our land, water, and wildlife,” said Kristen Boyles, an attorney with the environmental legal firm Earthjustice. “Instead, it is working overtime to give away as much of the public’s forests as possible before being shown the door.” Earthjustice intends to file a legal challenge to this giveaway of public resources.

The Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR) rezones thousands of acres of Oregon forest managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management to make them available for industrial logging. These forest lands have been governed under the Northwest Forest Plan since 1994. The WOPR calls for increasing overall logging on these lands while slashing protections for sensitive streams and waterways. Most of the logging will be executed via clear-cut logging. The WOPR came about after the Bush administration and the timber industry entered into a sweetheart settlement of a lawsuit aimed at removing these sensitive wild lands from the protections of the Northwest Forest Plan.

The Bush administration consistently ignored highly critical scientific reviews that found the WOPR was based on insufficient study, incomplete modeling, and would likely not comply with laws safeguarding fish and wildlife habitat.

The WOPR represents the most far-reaching decision regarding forest management in the Pacific Northwest since the Northwest Forest Plan. The WOPR would undermine the science-based guidelines found in the Northwest Forest Plan at a critical juncture. The proposal comes after prior attempts by the Bush administration to strip Northwest forests of critical protections were soundly rejected in a number of court rulings.

“We successfully fought off the previous Bush administration attempts to destroy the Northwest’s forests and with today’s news, it’s clear we’ll be needed well into the future to fight this parting shot from the worst environmental presidency in modern times,” said Boyles of Earthjustice. “With our old-growth forests affecting so much of our lives, from providing clean drinking water to helping stave off global warming, it doesn’t make any sense to cut these forests down.”

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Earthjustice Chairman Honored By Wilburforce Foundation

January 5, 2009 – 1:40 am

Earthjustice Chairman Honored By Wilburforce Foundation

Leadership award recognizes conservation leadership by Ed Lewis

December 30, 2008

Ed Lewis

Oakland, CA — Ed Lewis, chairman of the Earthjustice Board of Trustees, has been honored with the prestigious Wilburforce Foundation Leadership Award for his many contributions to conservation.

“We all know how well-deserved this award is, recognizing Ed’s conservation leadership as Earthjustice’s board chair, as board chair of TREC, as a key player in land conservation in the Northern Rockies, and as a consultant and advisor to many organizations,” said Earthjustice President Trip Van Noppen.

Past winners include Earthjustice Vice-President of Litigation Patti Goldman.

The Wilburforce Foundation protects wildlife and wildlands in Western North America by supporting organizations and leaders advancing conservation solutions. According to the foundation, the leadership award is one of a series of grants honoring individuals for exceptional leadership in the conservation movement.

The foundation devotes a substantial part of its resources to assisting organizations in developing and strengthening their administrative, strategic and programmatic capabilities. With this award, Wilburforce extends its support to provide recognition to the hard-working individuals who help lead those organizations.

The Conservation Leadership Award includes a cash award of $10,000 to the individual, plus an accompanying $5,000 to the organization where the recipient works. There are no stipulations attached to the award. Van Noppen noted — with gratitude — that Lewis gave Earthjustice the $5,000 gift that comes with the award.

“It’s our wish that the recipients use the funds however they’d like,” said Tim Greyhavens, executive director of the foundation. “This award truly is for the individual as our way of recognizing outstanding dedication and extraordinary efforts.”

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Epic Environmental Fail: Landowners sue Tennessee Valley Authority for $165M over Coal Ash Spill

January 4, 2009 – 3:55 am

Clean Coal Fans, Take Note As reported here on TreeHugger and on Discovery News last week: “Monday night 2.6 million cubic yards (the equivalent of 525.2 million gallons, 48 times more than the Exxon Valdez spill by volume) of coal ash sludge broke through a dike of a 40-acre holding pond at TVA’s Kingston coal-fired power plant covering 400 acres up to six feet deep, damaging 12 homes and wrecking a train.” Read on for more….

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ZapRoot: Rights for Chickens

January 3, 2009 – 1:05 am

On this week’s episode: Chickens need love, too. And, these days, they are getting lots of attention. Meet the rock that rocks. It can capture CO2 emissions from the air.

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Emission Accomplished?

January 2, 2009 – 1:45 am

Huffington Post

Randall Amster

Posted December 29, 2008 | 06:37 PM (EST)

With the Bush train-wreck at long last getting ready to leave the station for good, it’s hard to know precisely where to focus one’s critical gaze amid the scattered carnage. Iraq and the economy obviously stand near the top of the list, with civil liberties and human rights close behind. Education and health care deserve mention as well. Indeed, the Bush legacy is one that will take us decades to unravel in its fully disastrous dimensions.

Unsurprisingly, the final days of the Bush era are being spent in two distinct yet related ways. The first is “legacy management,” with the cabal pounding the points that America has been kept safe since 9/11 and that liberation has come to millions in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are touting their national security record and beginning the revisionist process of placing the Bush Administration in the category of sage saviors in difficult times.

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Coffee next in line as biofuel source

January 1, 2009 – 3:34 am

Paula Leighton

31 December 2008 | EN | ES

Flickr/miscpix

Coffee grounds — currently wasted or used as garden compost — could become a cheap and environmentally friendly source of biodiesel and fuel pellets, says a study.

Spent coffee grounds contain 11–20 per cent oil, depending on their type. “This is competitive with other major biodiesel feedstocks such as rapeseed oil (37–50 per cent), palm oil (20 per cent), and soybean oil (20 per cent),” say researchers writing in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Scientists at the US-based University of Nevada, Reno, used an inexpensive process to extract oil from the leftovers of making espressos, cappuccinos and other coffee preparations from a multinational coffeehouse chain.

This oil was then converted into biodiesel, which could be used to fuel cars and trucks.

The world’s coffee production is more than 7.2 million tonnes per year, according to US Department of Agriculture figures cited in the study. This could yield about 340 million gallons of biodiesel, say the researchers.

“It is easy and economical to extract oil from used coffee grounds compared to traditional feedstocks,” said Mano Misra, an author of the study. Further, coffee oil has some antioxidants which are required for biofuel stability,” he told SciDev.Net. After the oil extraction the remaining solid waste from processed coffee can be used as garden compost or fuel pellets.

The process “would be ideal for countries where coffee is produced. A lot of defective coffee beans are discarded into the landfills every year. Processing these beans as well as coffee grounds would be an economical approach,” said Misra.

The researchers calculate that in the United States an annual profit of more than US$8 million could be made from biodiesel and pellets from one major coffee chain alone.

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Microbiology has much to offer climate change science

December 31, 2008 – 3:03 am

Rising temperatures, which promote algal blooms and the spread of pathogens, are setting a new agenda for microbiologists, says Bernard Dixon.

In reporting and debating climate change impacts and solutions, the popular media tends to focus on researchin climatology, ecology, meteorology, and computer modelling. But given that microorganisms play diverse roles in driving some of the largest-scale phenomena on the planet — from photosynthesis and nitrogen cycling to pandemics of infectious disease — microbiology can also make important contributions.

Algal blooms

Changing patterns in the abundance of cyanobacteria (more commonly known as blue-green algae, one group of the tiny water-borne plants called phytoplankton), which can ‘bloom’ in huge numbers in aquatic ecosystems,are one emerging challenge. For example, there is growing anxiety about the threats they pose to Lake Taihu in China and Lake Victoria in Africa.

Algal blooms make lakes cloudy, and can kill fish and invertebrates. Although the algae photosynthesise by day, at night they consume oxygen, driving levels dangerously low. Some also produce toxins, which can not only harm wildlife but also cause liver, neurological, and other diseases in humans.

Keep Reading »

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Planet before profit for climate change films

December 30, 2008 – 1:08 am

Films and television programmes about climate change should be made freely available beyond their initial broadcast, argues Nalaka Gunawardene.

Films and television programmes about climate change should be designated a ‘copyright free zone’.

This was the call made by broadcasters and independent film-makers at an Asian media workshop held in Tokyo last month (October).

For years, broadcasters have dutifully reported on evolving scientific and political aspects of climate change. They have also made or carried excellent documentaries analysing causes of, and solutions to, the problem. But these are often not widely available, because of tight copyright restrictions.

Limited distribution

Most media companies hang on to their products for years, sometimes long after they have recovered their full investment.

Even when film-makers or producers themselves want their creations to circulate beyond broadcasts, company policies get in the way. In large broadcast or film production companies, lawyers and accountants — not journalists or producers — decide how and where content is distributed.

It isn’t just climate-related films that are locked up with copyright restrictions. Every year, hundreds of television programmes or video films — many supported by public, corporate or philanthropic funds — are made on a variety of development and conservation topics.

Keep Reading »

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Abrupt Climate Change: Will It Happen this Century?

December 29, 2008 – 1:01 am

ScienceDaily (Dec. 27, 2008) — The United States faces the potential for abrupt climate change in the 21st century that could pose clear risks to society in terms of our ability to adapt.”Abrupt” changes can occur over decades or less, persist for decades more, and cause substantial disruptions to human and natural systems.

A new report, based on an assessment of published science literature, makes the following conclusions about the potential for abrupt climate changes from global warming during this century.
Climate model simulations and observations suggest that rapid and sustained September arctic sea ice loss is likely in the 21st century.
The southwestern United States may be beginning an abrupt period of increased drought.
It is very likely that the northward flow of warm water in the upper layers of the Atlantic Ocean, which has an important impact on the global climate system, will decrease by approximately 25-30 percent. However, it is very unlikely that this circulation will collapse or that the weakening will occur abruptly during the 21st century and beyond.   Keep Reading

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