Action to save our climate is happening right now in Italy: As you read this our activists are scaling chimneys, chaining themselves to conveyor belts and blocking coal shipments at multiple locations in Italy.
They will be occupying coal-fired power stations during the G8 Summit beginning in Italy today and demanding that world leaders gathering for the summit make serious commitments to reducing world greenhouse gas emissions.
You can take action with them. You can demand that world leaders take personal responsibility for averting catastrophic climate change. You turn the Earth.
Based in Switzerland, a team of over 50 specialists from six countries is working on the Solar Impulse project: a solar-powered airplane capable of taking off autonomously and maintaining itself in flight for several days, entirely propelled by the energy stored in the photovoltaic panels contained in its wings.
The HB-SIA prototype is currently under construction and the round-the-world flight is programmed to happen in 2012, on a flight over land near the equator. Five stops are planned during the route, in order to change pilots and present the adventure to the public and authorities. Each flight leg will last from 3 to 4 days (considered the maximum endurance for a single pilot).
This is certainly a technology many of us have been waiting for, and which seems a natural step in the aviation industry.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals championed for George the 140-year-old lobster's freedom, and won! He was released back into the ocean off the coast of Maine.
A tank in the City Crab and Seafood restaurant in New York had been home to George, a 140-year-old, twenty-pound lobster, for about two weeks.
City Crab and Seafood purchased George the Giant Lobster for $100 after he was caught off Newfoundland, Canada. He was adopted as the restaurant mascot as a tourist attraction and was made available for photos with patrons. It was a restaurant patron who notified PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) of the lobster's confinement.
PETA estimated George's age based on his weight, calculated by multiplying every pound he weighed by seven. If the estimate is correct, the lobster would have been born around 1869, the same year as Mahatma Gandhi.
In PETA's press release regarding their petition for George's release, they made note of a similar incident involving Bubba, a 100-year-old lobster who was caught off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts in 2005. Bubba died after only one week in captivity in an aquarium in Pittsburgh. Bubba had been destined for a tank in a Ripley's Believe it or Not museum.
The City Crab and Seafood restaurant initially denied PETA's request to release George, the elderly crustacean, back into the Atlantic Ocean. However, the restaurant had a change of heart and agreed to release the lobster in an area off the coast of Maine where lobster trapping is banned. George was released in a rocky cove in Kennebunkport near the summer home of former President George H.W. Bush.
All states in the US impose a minimum legal size for keeping lobsters, but the state of Maine also imposes a maximum legal size of five inches carapace length. The carapace is the main body section of the lobster excluding the tail.
According to PETA, because a lobster has a sophisticated nervous system and high sensitivity to pain, live lobster boiling is illegal in some cities, such as Reggio, Italy. PETA also pointed out that lobsters are sensitive to water quality and easily die if too much waste is secreted in their environment. Therefore, tank life for a lobster can be precarious.
"We never intended him to be sold," said Keith Valenti, manager of City Crab and Seafood, "just draw attention to the restaurant, and he did." However, he added that it was a "no brainer" to return the giant lobster to the ocean.
"We applaud the folks at City Crab and Seafood for their compassionate decision to allow this noble old-timer to live out his days in freedom and peace," said Ingrid E. Newkirk, president of PETA.
Study Confirms Amphibians' Ability To Predict Changes In Biodiversity
Biologists have long suspected that amphibians, whose moist permeable skins make them susceptible to slight changes in the environment, might be good bellwethers for impending alterations in biodiversity during rapid climate change.
Now two University of California biologists have verified the predictive power of this sensitive group of animals in a global study of species turnover among amphibians and birds. The study appears this week in the advance online version of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Our study supports the role of amphibians as 'canaries in the coal mine'," said Lauren Buckley, a postdoctoral fellow at UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and the first author of the study. "Amphibians are likely to be the first to respond to environmental changes and their responses can forecast how other species will respond."
"Amphibians are much more tuned in to the changes in their specific environments," said Walter Jetz, an associate professor of biology at UC San Diego and the other author of the study. "They are much more sensitive to differences in environmental conditions as you move geographically from one location to another."
The two scientists used maps of the environment and amphibian and bird distributions to answer the question of how the environment - as well as the distribution of birds and amphibians - changes as one moves from one place to another around the globe.
The researchers found that if the environment changes rapidly as one travels from one location to another, the amphibian and bird communities also change rapidly. However, the species of amphibians would change more quickly than species of birds. This confirms that amphibians are particularly sensitive to changes in the environment, the researchers conclude, and that this sensitivity is particularly acute given their narrow distributions.
Whether one is traveling through a tropical or temperature region also influences how quickly the types of animals change. Given a mountain of a certain size, the researchers found, the amphibian and bird communities change more quickly if one is climbing a mountain in the tropics than in a temperate region.
"There are more species in the tropics and the species are generally more specially adapted to particular environmental conditions," said Jetz. "This suggests that tropical species may be more severely impacted by a given temperature increase as a result of climate change."
For the study, he and Buckley produced a series of global maps of environmental turnover and the associated changes in amphibian and bird communities that reveal that the identities of birds and amphibians change particularly quickly in mountainous regions such as the Andes and Himalayas.
"Understanding how environmental changes over space influence biodiversity patterns provides important background for forecasting how biodiversity will respond to environmental changes over time such as ongoing temperature increases," said Buckley.
The study was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, UC Santa Barbara and the State of California.
Feasible Emission Scenarios Identified That Could Keep CO2 Below Climate Threatening Levels
(In response to news published by ANI on September 11, 2008)
NASA researchers have identified feasible emission scenarios that could enable keeping carbon dioxide (CO2) levels below that considered dangerous for climate by scientists.
When and how global oil production will peak or will decrease has been debated, making it difficult to anticipate emissions from the burning of fuel and to precisely estimate its impact on climate.
To justify how emissions might change in the future, Pushker Kharecha and James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York considered a wide range of fossil fuel consumption scenarios.
For a better understanding of the possible trajectory of future carbon dioxide emissions, Kharecha and Hansen devised five carbon dioxide emission scenarios that span the years 1850-2100. Each scenario reflects a different estimate for the global production peak of fossil fuels, the timing of which depends on reserve size, recoverability and technology.
The first scenario estimates carbon dioxide levels, if emissions from fossil fuels are unconstrained and follow along “business as usual” growing by two percent annually until half of each reservoir has been recovered, after which emissions begin to decline by two percent annually.
The second scenario considers a situation in which emissions from coal are reduced first by developed countries starting in 2013 and then by developing countries a decade later, leading to a global phase out by 2050 of the emissions from burning coal that reach the atmosphere.
The reduction of emissions to the atmosphere in this case can come from reducing coal consumption or from capturing and sequestering the carbon dioxide before it reaches the atmosphere.
The remaining three scenarios include the above-mentioned phase out of coal, but consider different scenarios for oil use and supply.
Next, the team proposes to use a simplified mathematical model, called the Bern Carbon Cycle model, to convert carbon dioxide emissions from each scenario into estimates of future carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere.
The unconstrained “business as usual” scenario resulted in a level of atmospheric carbon dioxide that more than doubled the pre-industrial level and from about 2035 onward levels exceed the 450 ppm threshold of this study.
Even when low-end estimates of reserves were assumed, the threshold exceeded from about 2050 onwards.
The other four scenarios, however, resulted in carbon dioxide levels that peaked in various years but all fell below the prescribed cap of 450 ppm by about 2080 at the latest, with levels in two of the scenarios always staying below the threshold.
The researchers suggested that the results illustrated by each scenario have clear implications for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from coal, as well as “unconventional” fuels such as methane hydrates and tar sands, all of which contain much more fossil carbon than conventional oil and gas.
Forest Love: Do You Love Your Children???? Then You Should Love The Forest Tag: GreenPeaceBuzz By: Arunava Das, Green Peace India
(A promotionary blog for GreenPeace Campaign: Forest Love highlighting the Illegal Timber Business in the European Continent.)
The Request to “Saviour of Forests” Blogspot from Green Peace:
Blogger Alert
This is the first email of its kind for us. Remember that time you told us you have a blog or webpage where you can spread the word about Greenpeace campaigns? Well, this email is all about doing exactly that!
31 JULY 2008: Check out our latest campaign and video:
ForestLove video
Blog this within the next few hours - and help us get this video to the top of the video viral charts!
On September 10, the EU will be voting on a vital law against illegal logging. ForestLove is a controversial campaign to push the EU's vote in the right direction.
This summer we want people to take photos and video of themselves expressing love amongst the trees.
After the deadline of August 31, Greenpeace will edit this material into a collaborative video that will show the EU commissioners just how much everyone loves the forests...
So get blogging to stop the logging! Read about our campaign Grab the embedding code for the video page on YouTube Spread the word on your blog or webpage! (Do you tag your posts? Then please use this one today: greenpeacebuzz)
Get Social Can you do more? Share the campaign on facebook Stumble Upon Tell us your promotion ideas (Greenpeace Forum)
Thank you and good luck out there on the web!
Giona and the forests campaign!!
A link to the Forest Love Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AEZbWtELQI&eurl=http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/forests/eu-ban-illegal-timber/forest-love
The story behind the plot: The European Commission has delayed a vital vote on protecting forests from illegal logging till September. We want to make sure the commissioners don't forget about it during their summer holiday. We need you to help us make an extra impression before the September vote.
Forests are the lifeline for all activities on the planet. It supports a number of rare land ecosystems that balance the seasonal changes on the planet. The heavy the forests are, the denser and greener they are more will be the amount of rainfall in the areas covering the forests and more will be the flora and fauna type of these regions. Moreover, lost of forest cover results in ultimate climate change that can lead to varied types of after effects, like unseasonal and irregularities in rainfalls, rise in global temperature, rise in sea level and increase of intensities of cyclones that in turn cause huge losses in terms of economy and loss of lives and domestic livestocks. It also results in an onslaught on climate and the resultant change is known as Climate Change.
As the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) warns a warming of 0.2 degree Celsius can lead to a staggering rise of 8.6 degrees till the end of the century that can spell havoc as far as the Global Temperature is concerned. The scientific evidence is already evident in the fact that we are getting longer summers, rainfalls not at the right time, heavy rainfalls at unexpected quarters of the year resulting in flooding and loss of lives and government property, no rainfall in some dry parts of the country for a long time creating drought like situations, decreased irritability and poor production of soil, flooding in low lying areas due to increase in sea level. Already we have lost around 56 acres of Mangrove forests due to increase in sea level and also we are on the verge of loosing our cities on the coastal areas if this continues.
Forest also plays a crucial role to the village economy. Half of India’s population is in the villages and they solely depend upon the forest products. When there is forest loss, there will be loss of income for the scores of people who inhabit these villages.
Nearly 2,00,000 villages and 70 million tribals in India are dependent on the forests for their daily bread. As a result, people from the rural areas are forced to migrate to urban areas for feeding their families. In Economics, we call this as “Workforce Migration” that brings about a population burst to already overcrowded Indian cities that serve as lifeline to Indian Economy. Thus we can see that Climate Change is not only impacting the Forest Biodiversity hampering the crucial ecosystems (that serve as linkers between the food chain) but also affecting the economy of almost all countries including India.
Climate Change Projections:
Studies were carried out at the Indian Institute of Science (by Professors Ravindranath, Joshi and Sukumar), using the climate change projections from regional climate model of Hadley centre (HadRM3), obtained from Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, and a global vegetation response model called BIOME (Biogeochemical In¬formation Ordering Management Environment).
The impacts were assessed for the period around 2085 for two (high and moderate) greenhouse gas emission scenarios, with projections of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere at 740 and 575 parts per million by 2085.
An assessment of the impact of climate change projections on forest ecosystems for the two greenhouse gas emission scenarios for 2085 showed that 68 per cent and 77 per cent of forested grid are likely to experience shifts in forest vegetation type.
In other words, there may not be a total replacement of one forest type by another under the projected climate change scenarios, due to differing climate tolerance of the various plant species in a forest. For example researchers at the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun and Kerala, India have given an interesting example:
• If the Montane grasslands of the Western Ghats are invaded by woody plants, including exotic weeds, the endemic Nilgiri Tahr may be threatened.
• Similarly, upward altitudinal migration of plants in the Himalayas could reduce the Alpine meadows and related vegetation, adversely impacting the habitats of several high-altitude mammals including wild sheep, goat, antelope and cattle.
• Further, increased precipitation in Northeastern India may lead to severe flooding of the Brahmaputra and place the wildlife of the Kaziranga National Park at risk.
Biodiversity of the existing forest types will not be totally replaced by the new forest type or species-mix under the changed climate due to complexities of climate tolerance of different species in a forest and the barriers to species migration.
Forest ecosystems are highly vulnerable to climate change. According to IPCC reports, that the unprecedented warming observed in the past few decades has already made an impact on forest ecosystems, such as, pole-ward and upward shift in ranges of plant, insect, bird and fish species. Further, plant flowering, bird arrival, migratory bird patterns, seasonal breeding patterns of animals like tigers, panthers, olive ridley turtles, as well as flowering plants have been observed to be occurring earlier than expected.
See for yourself how much forest cover is deforested for Palm Plantations to feed the DOVE Soap Industries with palm oil, a major component of Dove soaps.
Changing climate requires dynamic forest planning and management strategies. There is a need to incorporate climate change concern in the long-term forest planning and policy making process. The traditional Working Plan approach of managing forests adopted by the Forest Departments, which is not adequate even in a situation of no climate impacts, may need to be improved and made dynamic to incorporate the climate impacts.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests as well as State Forest Departments do not have the luxury of waiting for a perfect understanding of the climate projections or the impacts on forest biodiversity and biomass production at micro level, to plan and implement adaptation practices and strategies. Many of the precautionary and win-win practices and strategies mentioned above could be evaluated and considered for implementation. Forest and biodiversity conservation, prevention of forest fragmentation and multi-species based afforestation are examples of such strategies.
Examples of forest policies, which may reduce the vulnerability of forest ecosystems to climate change, include preventing fragmentation of forests, forest conservation, enhancing the coverage under protected areas and linking them, large afforestation with multiple species to reduce pressure on natural forests, and involvement of local communities in forest conservation and management. India has a large afforestation programme of over one million hectares annually and also has a plan to bring a third of the geographic area under forest cover. These newly planted forests, particularly the long-rotation species such as teak, will be subjected to changing climate parameters. Thus, it is important to consider and incorporate adaptation practices even in the afforestation programme.
Hi I am Arunava Das working for an MNC Market Research company, EmPower Research Knowledge Services Pvt. Ltd. located at Bangalore as a Media Analyst dealing with mainly Pharmaceutics. Anyone who likes nature blogging are welcome. They can post their articles, photos(nature and wildlife only).
Eager to receive requests from you...., so come together let us join hands to save our nature!!!
Do you support the ongoing battle of CPM against the farmers of Nandigram to set up Tata plant in favor of the farmers and Ms. mamata Banerjee, hon. Trinamul Congress leader?
