By Ian Johnston26 April 2013 (NBC News) – An “extensive” slaughter of elephants appears to be underway in the Central African Republic with reports of their meat being sold openly in markets, according to activists. Rebel fighters pushed into Bangui, the capital of the impoverished but mineral-rich country, in March and ousted President Francois Bozize. […]
By Elliot Spagat24 April 2013 SAN DIEGO (AP) – Seven people have been charged with smuggling bladders from an endangered fish in what authorities said Wednesday may be a growing international practice in which the bladders are sold for up to $20,000 each to be used in a highly desired soup. U.S. border inspectors in […]
Global Highlights The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for March 2013 tied with 2006 as the 10th warmest on record, at 0.58°C (1.04°F) above the 20th century average of 12.3°C (54.1°F). The global land surface temperature was 1.06°C (1.91°F) above the 20th century average of 5.0°C (40.8°F), the 11th warmest March […]
By Joel Connelly22 April 2013 (Seattle PI) – Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, oft-faulted for a go-it-alone governing style, became a coalition builder Monday, joining with other city officials and Indian tribes in a new organization designed to build opposition to location of big coal export terminals in Northwest waters. In an interview, McGinn suggested that […]
By Jeremy Hance16 April 2013 (mongabay.com) – A survey late last year found that the Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis) population has been cut in half in just six years. During a 44-day survey, experts estimated 1,000 river porpoises inhabited the river and adjoining lakes, down from around 2,000 in 2006. The ecology of […]
By Jayashree Nandi15 April 2013 NEW DELHI (TNN) – India represented 8% of the increase in global energy-related CO2 emissions between 2000 and 2010 according to a report by US based Climate Policy Initiative (CPI). In contrast, China represented a whopping 68% of the increase in global CO2 emissions. The study released on Monday at […]
15 April 2013 (Reuters) – Coal-fired power generation in Asia and cattle ranching in South America are the most damaging businesses for nature with hidden costs that exceed the value of their production, a U.N.-backed report said on Monday. Global output of basic goods from cement to wheat caused damage totalling $7.3 trillion a year […]
14 April 2013 (NPR) – It’s widely known that the world’s icecaps are melting. While most people are focused on what we’re losing, some have considered what might be gained by the disappearance of all that ice. In 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey released a report estimating that 13 percent of the world’s remaining undiscovered […]
Andrew Brandler, the CEO of CLP Group, Hong Kong’s biggest utility, talks about how Asia plans to balance its soaring energy demands with the planet’s need to wean itself from fossil fuels. By David Whitford, editor-at-large8 April 2013 (Fortune) – China Light and Power’s roots are more than a hundred years deep in Hong Kong. […]
By William Wan3 April 2013 BEIJING (Washington Post) – In this country of almost 1.4 billion people, life is an unending struggle for resources — money, property, even spouses. And it doesn’t get easier in death. Prices for graves are skyrocketing, driven by decades of unbridled development and scarce city land. The government’s answer to […]
