Climate change: The evidence in pictures. A very quick overview of the evidence and consequences of human overconsumption of planetary resources. By the way, there is still a choice.
Category:5 Environment
Grab land! The food is running out.
South Korea’s biggest is 1.3 million hectares in Madagascar. China’s is 1.24 million in the Philippines. With rich, resource-poor nations increasingly outsourcing their food production to less developed nations, a new website aims to expose the extent of the agricultural land-grab epidemic. It’s a simple if iniquitous equation: rich countries with limited land resources snap …
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Home by Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Famous for his ‘earth from above footage’, photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s new film, Home, is a feast for the eyes with a strong ecological message. It’s not the usual eco-movie. It’s filmed from above, which makes it spectacular. It gradually unfolds a story, starting with the birth of Earth, and then moves onto how it developed, …
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Organic ‘mainstream agriculture in waiting’
We’ve known for a long time that organic agriculture is what the planet needs. A new report shows how much it has to offer and that it must become the mainstream. The new independent report by the University of Reading shows that organic farming has “much to offer” and “is, perhaps, mainstream agriculture in waiting.” …
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Sharks becoming extinct because of overfishing.
The latest report from International Union for Conservation of Nature. This is the first time that IUCN Red List criteria, considered the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the conservation status of plants and animals, have been used to classify open ocean, or pelagic, sharks and rays. The Red list gives the status of 64 types …
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US over-regulation to outlaw organic growing?
There are concerns circulating on the internet that organic farming could be ‘banned’ by a new Bill about to be presented to the US House and Senate. The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (bill HR 875) proposes measures to enforce the use of pesticides and fertilisers to ensure ‘food safety’. The Bill’s jurisdiction might …
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Watch the planet breathe.
Sometimes its hard to see the big picture. Its difficult to step outside ourselves and realise that we are part of something larger than ourselves. Our plant is a living system and we are an organism on its skin – one that is rather parasitic at the moment though we could be benign. To get …
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Carbon risks and opportunities in the S&P 500
Carbon risks and opportunities in the S&P 500 a report by TruCost, commissioned by IRRCi, finds the carbon intensity of companies varies widely even within sectors. This has important implications for investors: * Companies that are less carbon intensive than their sector peers stand to gain competitive advantage from proposed ‘polluter pays’ cap-and-trade regulation. * …
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The destruction of the Amazon is real (in pictures).
We are destroying the Amazon rain forest so that we can have cheap burgers. The slide show linked here shows the rapid decimation of the ancient forest. It takes centuries to regrow. Without it our biosphere is made vulnerable to climate volatility. It sounds like a foolish, short sighted trade-off doesn’t it? (The solution? Fewer …
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20 years on, the ozone hole lingers
The global recognition of CFCs’ destructive potential led to the 1989 Montreal Protocol banning the production of ozone-depleting chemicals. Scientists estimate that about 80% of the chlorine (and bromine, which has a similar ozone-depleting effect) in the stratosphere over Antarctica today is from human, not natural, sources. Models suggest that the concentration of chlorine and …
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