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Posted by: earthcast     

The United Nations has criticized Russia, saying it ignored the ecological effect of construction projects for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.   In a report that was obtained by The Associated Press the United Nations Environment Program said government assessments did not take into account the effects of the Olympic projects on the region's wildlife.   The Olympic sites in Sochi, a Black Sea resort, are being built from scratch. It is a sensitive region - home to a national park and a huge nature reserve designated as a world heritage site.   Environmental activists say that construction has irreversibly damaged the ecosystems.   Relations between environmental organisations and the authorities responsible for the massive Olympics building programme have deteriorated sharply in recent months.   The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) recently withdrew all co-operation.   It is warning that irreversible damage has already been done to the environment, including the pollution of important rivers and the felling of rare species of trees.   Now the United Nations Environment Programme has added its voice.   The U.N. group recommended a broader review of the impact of other projects. The government said it was aware of the concerns and that the activists were trying to sabotage the Games as a public relations stunt.

Tags: Sochi, Russia, UN, Olympic, Games, 2014
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Posted by: earthcast     

One of the world's experts on biodiversity has warned that humans are driving animals and plants to extinction faster than new species can evolve.   The expert in question is Simon Stuart, chair of the Species Survival Commission for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.   "Measuring the rate at which new species evolve is difficult, but there's no question that the current extinction rates are faster than that; I think it's inevitable," said Stuart.   The IUCN created shock waves with its major assessment of the world's biodiversity in 2004, which calculated that the rate of extinction had reached 100-1,000 times that suggested by the fossil records before humans.   No formal calculations have been published since, but conservationists agree the rate of loss has increased since then, and Stuart said it was possible that the dramatic predictions of experts like the renowned Harvard biologist E O Wilson, that the rate of loss could reach 10,000 times the background rate in two decades, could be correct.   Only 869 extinctions have been formally recorded since 1500, however, because scientists have only "described" nearly 2m of an estimated 5-30m species around the world, and only assessed the conservation status of 3 percent of those, the global rate of extinction is extrapolated from the rate of loss among species which are known.   In this way, the IUCN calculated in 2004 that the rate of loss had risen to 100-1,000 per millions species annually - a situation comparable to the five previous "mass extinctions" - the last of which was when the dinosaurs were wiped out about 65m years ago.   According to Stuart, the IUCN figure was likely to be an underestimate of the problem, because scientists are very reluctant to declare species extinct even when they have sometimes not been seen for decades, and because few of the world's plants, fungi and invertebrates have yet been formally recorded and assessed.   In addition to extinctions, the IUCN has listed 208 species as "possibly extinct", some of which have not been seen for decades.   Nearly 17,300 species are considered under threat, some in such small populations that only successful conservation action can stop them from becoming extinct in future.   This includes one-in-five mammals assessed, one-in-eight birds, one-in-three amphibians, and one-in-four corals.

Tags: Extinction, Evolution, Species, Wildlife
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Reason  

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A species of frog has been found alive on a farm in Australia more than 30 years after it was thought to have become extinct. Environment officials have said a thriving population of yellow-spotted bell frogs has been found in a remote creek in New South Wales. 

The yellow-spotted bell frog is back from the dead. It was thought to have become extinct but has now been seen for the first time since 1973.

Doctor David Hunter, a threatened species officer at the New South Wales Environment Department, was there when about 100 frogs were found in a remote stream, the location of which is being kept secret. "This was definitely the most exciting moment of my career and I'd be surprised if I'll repeat it," he said.  "We really don't want anyone going to the site, trying to see the bell frog or capture the bell frog, because there's always the possibility that that could actually introduce an unknown pathogen into the population and cause a problem.'

The yellow spotted bell frog's disappearance is likely to have been caused by a range of factors, including disease, a loss of habitat and pollution.

Experts believe that exposure to a deadly fungus that arrived in Australia from Africa in the 1970s decimated frog numbers.

A collection of tadpoles has been established at Taronga Zoo in Sydney as part of a plan to re-populate rivers and streams.

The zoo's Michael McFadden says the breeding program should help this vulnerable species survive. "We need to get an insurance population so that if something bad does happen over the next year and they are totally gone, we have at least not lost that species and we can work at re-introducing them back into their natural habitat," McFadden said.

Scientists have warned there are more than 40 threatened frog species fighting for survival in Australia.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature has said that one-third of the world's 6,000 species of amphibians are under threat of extinction.

The New South Wales Environment Minister, Frank Sartor, said the discovery of yellow spotted bell frogs was the amphibian equivalent of discovering the Tasmanian Tiger, a carnivorous Australian marsupial that died out in the 1930s.

Tags: Frog, Australia, Environment, Yellow
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Reason  

Posted by: Editor     

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The melting of ice in the Arctic could result in economic costs of between $2.4 trillion (£1.54tn) and $24 trillion by 2050, according to a major new study that predicts that the loss of "the planet's air conditioner" will accelerate the rate of global warming and lead to an increase in losses associated with heat waves, rising sea levels and other climate change effects.
 
The study, which was commissioned by the Pew Environment Group, was presented to G7 finance ministers gathering for a two-day meeting on Canada's Baffin Island late last week.
 
Reviewed by more than a dozen scientists and economists, the study found that average temperatures are rising faster in the Arctic than in any other region. It warned that the resulting loss of Arctic sea ice and the melting of frozen permafrost had the potential to accelerate global warming by reducing the amount of heat reflected by the ice and increasing emissions of methane.
 
Researchers then calculated how these warming effects equated to carbon emissions and used methodologies for assessing the social cost of carbon to work out the likely economic impact of climate change in the Arctic.
 
"Putting a dollar figure on the Arctic's climate services allows us to better understand both the region's immense importance and the enormous price we will pay if the ice is lost," said Dr Eban Goodstein, co-author of the report and an economist who directs the Bard Center for Environmental Policy at Bard College in New York. "At the mid-range of our estimates, the cumulative cost of the melting Arctic in the next 40 years is equivalent to the annual gross domestic products of Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom combined."
 
The report calculates that this year alone, the warming effects of Arctic melting could have an impact equivalent to emitting three billion metric tons of CO2. "That's equal to 40 per cent of all US industrial emissions this year or bringing on line more than 500 large coal-burning power plants," said Dr Eugenie Euskirchen, co-author of the report and a scientist from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks’ Institute of Arctic Biology.
 
Scott Highleyman, international Arctic director for the Pew Environment Group, called on G7 finance ministers to commission a full economic analysis of the "global climate services" provided by the Arctic.
 
The report comes as climate scientists continue to face the fallout from the so-called Climategate affair, with a new survey by the BBC showing that the number of people who accept that temperatures are rising primarily as a result of human activity has fallen since emails from the University of East Anglia purportedly showing scientists attempting to resist freedom of information requests were stolen.
 
The survey of 1,000 people found that a quarter did not believe in global warming - a rise of eight per cent since a similar poll last year. Meanwhile, a third of those who did accept that temperatures are rising felt the pace and scale of climate change was being exaggerated.
 
Yet despite an unseasonably cold winter in Europe and the US, scientists have found that climate change is impacting the Arctic faster than expected, with a separate study involving more than 370 scientists from 27 countries showing on Friday that sea ice is retreating at a more rapid rate than previous models had predicted.

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Tags: Global, Warming, Ice, Caps, Economy
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Reason  

Posted by: Editor     

 

 

 
Not to deter you from earthcast.tv's motives in bringing you news and support for climate change, we admit that the situation seems to be somewhat strangled. Everytime an image or a video is shown depicting melting icebergs, they are usually from the north pole and greenland. These bergs are free floating and there is a little bit of science that people should be made aware of and in most cases, re-aware of.
 
Archimedes' theory exists as a given in all matters of scientific principality related to the theory. Here, if we apply the same theory, we can see that north pole ice will melt however, there will be no mass gained or lost in the water due to the fact that these tundras are submerged, meaning there will be no rise in sea level should they all melt.
 
However when we look at the South Pole, the melting of ice on the Antarctic will result in a rise in sea levels. In this situation, the Antarctic continent is a land mass which contains a great layer of ice atop it. When this layer melts, that extra water which will join the sea will no doubt increase the sea levels.
 
As the North Pole shows signs of melting, scientists are reporting an increase in ice build up in the South Pole. The land of the South Pole appears to double in the winter months due to the expanding sea ice around the land ice and so long as this happens, we can be assured that there will be no rise in sea level any time soon. However, there may well be in the future, the first sign of which will be the steady decrease in the ice that contributes to the continent's land mass over the winter months. The images used as what we at earthcast.tv like to call 'eco-propaganda' are mere representations of melting ice and should not be mistaken for fear that this is happening now. We always value truth and therefore we would like to express our impartiality in this matter.
 
Do not go running for the hills but carry on being green. Just because sea levels are not rising, there is a possibility that they could rise in the future if we carry on destroying the planet. Stay media-smart and do something that will make the difference. It is not even very difficult to prevent, doing something small like each person driving 5 miles less a week could prevent the ice caps melting, try not to get sucked into the eco-lifestyle just for the sake of it.
 

Tags: Lies, Ice, Melting, Poles, Eco-propaganga
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THE Prince of Wales has met members and supporters of the Marine Stewardship Council - and praised their work on supporting environmentally responsible and sustainable fishing.
 
Prince Charles invited them to reception at Clarence House to celebrate a decade of successful operation. Prior to that he met a number of senior executives from seafood and general food companies across the UK and Europe for a briefing on fish conservation and to review the pace at which the industry is moving towards a more sustainable future.
 
He told the MSC gathering that he had tried to raise the issue of fish stocks many years ago when few people had given much thought to the problem. But back then it was like the arguments which surrounded climate change in that hardly anyone wanted to listen.
 
The Prince said scientists were saying that if nations continued to fish without any care for fish stocks then the industry faced a "nightmare collapse" leading to even worse hunger problems among the poorer nations.
 
The chief executive of the MSC Rupert Howes said he was most grateful to The Prince for hosting the event and joining the MSC in congratulating leaders in the seafood industry and its supporters for their commitments to sustainability.
 
He added: “Transforming the global seafood market to a sustainable basis is a major, but achievable aim. It is one to which everyone, individually or corporately, can make a real contribution by making the most environmentally sound choices when harvesting or buying seafood."
 

Tags: Prince, Charles, Over-Fishing, Fears, Environment...
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Reason  

Posted by: Editor     

 

Cassava leaves and roots both contain glycosides that break down to release toxic hydrogen cyanide when chewed or crushed. Villagers grind cassava roots to make flour, which can be processed to remove cyanide, but leaves are often eaten raw. The cyanide can cause a condition called konzo that permanently paralyses the legs. One study found that 9 per cent of Nigerians suffer some form of cyanide poisoning from eating cassava.

 

Now Ros Gleadow of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, has found that doubling CO2 levels in the air doubles glycoside production in cassava leaves. Since CO2 levels are expected to reach twice pre-industrial levels by the middle of this century, Gleadow believes cyanide poisoning will be a growing problem. Although the plant's roots do not become more toxic, they do grow smaller.

 

Cassava is a fantastic crop," Gleadow told a meeting of the Society for Experimental Biology in Glasgow, UK, last week. "But there is an urgent need to develop varieties that produce less cyanide.

 

Tags: Cassava, Africa, canide, CO2, Emissions, Poisonin...
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(WWF International)

Beijing, China — Major China-based producers and users of palm oil have announced they intend to provide more support for sustainable palm oil, an important boost for efforts to halt tropical deforestation.

 

The public statement, made at the 2nd International Oil and Fats Summit in Beijing on July 9, committed the companies to "support the promotion, procurement and use of sustainable palm oil in China," as well as "support the production of sustainable palm oil through any investments in producing countries."

 

China is currently the world's largest importer of palm oil, accounting for one third of all global trade. Increasing demand for palm oil, which is used in everything from soap to chocolate bars, is causing considerable damage to fragile rainforest environments, threatening endangered species like tigers, and contributing to global climate change.

 

Palm oil producers and buyers making the statement included Wilmar International, IOI Corporation, KLK Berhad, Kulim Malaysia Berhad, Asia Agri., Premier Foods PLC and Unilever PLC. Oxfam International, TransAsia Lawyers, and Solidaridad China were signatories.

 

“Given the massive of volumes of palm oil now being purchased, any move China makes towards using sustainable palm oil will have a big influence on protecting tropical forest resources in South East Asia and other areas,” said WWF-China Country Representative Dermot O’Gorman.

 

WWF helped set up the international Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in 2004, with the aim of establishing global standards for sustainable palm oil production and promoting the use of products containing sustainable palm oil.

 

WWF-China first introduced sustainable palm oil to Chinese companies in 2004, and continues to encourage the country's buyers, producers, and traders to participate in RSPO.

 

Sustainable palm oil received a massive boost in November 2008 when Dr. Huo Jiangguo, President of China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Foodstuffs and Native Produce, attended the RSPO annual conference in Indonesia and announced that China supported the drive for more sustainable palm oil products.

 

“Industry in China acknowledges that sustainability is one of the key criteria of ensuring competence in the global market,” said Dr. Bian Zhenghu, vice president of the China Chamber of Commerce during his opening address to the forum.

 

“The roundtable encourages the entire industry chain to make a move towards sustainability, and also gives Chinese stakeholders a big opportunity to play a significant role achieving the aims of RSPO,” Dr. Bian said.

 

In conjunction with the summit, CFNA and WWF China organized a dialogue on promoting sustainable palm oil in China. More than 100 participants from government and industry attended the summit. Representatives from Malaysia, Indonesia and Europe presented findings on the growth and impact of sustainable palm oil development in key producing countries and trade regions. At the conclusion, the names of pioneer signatories to the Statement of Support for promoting sustainable palm oil in China were announced.

 

Tags: China, WWF, Sustainable, Environment
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Reason  

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Microsoft is launching a music streaming service this month
The service, which Microsoft aims to have ready by the end of July, will offer users the chance to stream music for free and also download to own. Peter Bale, executive producer of MSN, Microsoft's news and entertainment portal, told The Telegraph exclusively: “Music is an important area for Microsoft. We are looking at launching a music streaming service imminently. It will be a similar principle to Spotify but we are still examining how the business model will work.”

 

30,000 criminals in ‘Gangland UK’
Officials have produced the first detailed map of gangsters and their activity in England and Wales – including drugs, guns, fraud and people smuggling networks. It is estimated that around 4,000 gangs are costing the economy up to £40 billion a year. The joint Home Office and Cabinet Office report found that people traffickers think the UK is a soft touch when it comes to getting illegal immigrants across the border.

 

Michael Jackson ‘had two gay lovers’, new book claims
The star was allegedly “madly in love” with a half-Asian construction worker and had another fling with a Hollywood waiter. Writer Ian Halperin claims in his unauthorised biography that “virtually everybody” around Jackson knew that the singer was gay. Jackson's affair with the builder, who was in his early 20s, began in Las Vegas in 2007, according to Halperin. “He rarely left his residence, but when he did, according to one of Jackson's closest confidants, it was to meet a boyfriend at a run-down motel.

 

British soldiers ‘made Iraqis dance like Michael Jackson’
Much of their treatment was meted out in a bid to soften the men up for interrogation. An inquiry into the abuse which opened in London on Monday heard that it may have provided extremists with a “rallying cry” to incite further attacks on UK forces in the war torn country.

 

Cameras captured ‘chilling’ break-in at Fla. home
Byrd and Melanie Billings had a growing brood of adopted children with autism, Down syndrome and other disabilities, and took care to make their nine-bedroom house a safe place for them, wiring it with surveillance cameras in every room. It was those cameras that captured images of the masked men who shot the wealthy couple to death in a break-in executed with chilling precision. Authorities made three arrests over the weekend, plus another arrest announced Monday evening.

 

Obama wants Senate health bill quickly
Moving forcefully on his top domestic priority, President Barack Obama told a powerful Senate chairman on Monday he wants health care legislation ready in the Finance Committee by week's end, according to numerous Democratic officials. These officials said Obama made his wishes known directly to Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., at a White House meeting attended by administration officials and senior Democratic lawmakers.

 

Federal defecit $1 trillion!
The federal deficit has topped $1 trillion for the first time ever and could grow to nearly $2 trillion by this fall, intensifying fears about higher interest rates, inflation and the strength of the dollar. The deficit has been widened by the huge sum the government has spent to ease the recession, combined with a sharp decline in tax revenues. The cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also is a major factor.

 

GOP does political straddle on Sotomayor
It's a delicate chore. Republicans, seeing their best chance to make big points with the American public since Barack Obama won the White House, are trying to strike just the right balance in criticizing Sonia Sotomayor without alienating Hispanics and women. For much of the day Monday, Sotomayor's first before the Senate panel weighing her Supreme Court nomination, that meant Republicans went out of their way to praise her personal story and accomplishments.

 

‘Bruno’ hits box-office fame with $30.4M
Gay Austrian fashion devotee Bruno has landed the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office, though it's uncertain how much staying power he has. Sacha Baron Cohen's “Bruno” started big on opening day Friday but had a huge drop the rest of the weekend, with the Universal Pictures mock documentary finishing with $30.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The movie took in nearly half of its weekend total — $14.4 million — on Friday, then tumbled with just $8.8 million Saturday and an estimated $7.2 million Sunday.

 

CBI: It's time rise in UK's nuclear energy spending
A new report by consultants McKinsey, commissioned by the CBI, says failure to act could result in electricity prices for both industry and consumers rising 30pc by 2030. It gives warning ahead of the Government's renewable energy strategy and White Paper on low-carbon economy, due to be published this week, that the current plans do not go far enough to maintain energy security, stop price volatility or hit climate change targets. The study calls for the Government to change the energy mix within the next 12-15 months.

 

China bans public mourning in Urumqi
The police published a notice banning any meetings, especially “assemblies, marches and demonstrations on public roads and at public places in the open air”. The ban hampered families of the Chinese victims from mourning publicly on the seventh day, in accordance with Chinese tradition. Usually, families visit temples, burn fake money or invite monks to their homes to chant. Security forces in Urumqi remain deeply concerned about the possibility of further violence, one week after a public protest by Uighur Muslims descended into mass violence and bloodshed.

 

Former Vice President Dick Cheney ‘ordered CIA to hide counter-terrorism plan’
The programme was shut down on the very day the Obama administration learned of its existence last month. Details remain cloaked in secrecy, however, and assurances have been given that it was never activated. That has not prevented lurid speculation of an alleged Mossad-style elimination unit, or possible anti-terror operations inside America, which the CIA is legally barred from conducting. Mr Cheney is also the possible target of a criminal investigation for allegedly permitting torture by the CIA.

 

Facebook Slapped With Lawsuit Over Ownership Rights
On Friday, social networking giant Facebook found itself in another legal wrangle as San Francisco based Power.com filed a lawsuit over ownership of content on personal profiles. The controversy centers on Power's key feature which allows users of various social networking sites to share info and access multiple accounts through a single portal. The company has defended its service, saying that it “believes in a borderless Internet where users have the right to control their own data.” Power.com added that users ought to have “complete and total ownership” of all content .

 

Boxer Arturo Gatti found dead
Former world boxing champion Arturo Gatti, who was raised in Montreal, was found dead in northeastern Brazil on Saturday. On a second honeymoon with his Brazilian wife Amanda, Gatti's blood-stained body was found in a room at a resort in Porto de Galinhas, Brazilian police said. Police investigator Edilson Alves told The Associated Press that it was unclear how the 37-year-old died. “It is still too early to say anything concrete, although it is all very strange,” Alves said.

 

McDonald's quits London for Geneva over tax concerns
Senior executives, including Denis Hennequin, president of McDonald's operations in Europe, will be based there. The US company, which opened its first restaurant in London in 1974, joins other large US corporations that have based their European operations in Switzerland, including Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Colgate Palmolive and Yahoo. Google also chose Zurich for its European headquarters, despite having a large office in the UK capital.

 

G8 setup $20 billion fund package for world's poor
At a G8 summit in Italy, the leaders of the world's richest states backed a plan drawn up by President Barack Obama that could transform the international approach to food shortages. Instead of focusing on giving food to the hungry, often at times of famine, the G8 committed itself to investing in increasing developing countries’ own capacity to grow and store food. The G8 plan calls for farmers in developing countries to be given greater access to seeds and fertilizer. Poorer countries will also encouraged to establish regional trade pacts allowing them … McDonald's said the move “enables us to conduct the strategic management of key international intellectual property rights, including the licensing of those rights to our franchisees …

 

Tags: Global, Round-up, News, Weekly
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