By TOSHIO TADA10 December 2012 (Asahi Shimbun) – The government will order eight companies to end an illegal dispatch arrangement that allowed a subcontractor to instruct workers to labor under dangerous conditions at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. The labor ministry has already called on plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Tokyo Energy & […]
Manila, 6 December 2012 (AFP) – Efforts to curb overfishing of tuna in the Pacific were blocked by big countries that refused to cut their catch at a meeting of tuna-fishing nations in the Asia-Pacific, delegates said Thursday. The Western and Central Pacific Commission, comprising 30 member nations and territories, ended a five-day meeting in […]
5 December 2012 (other98) – FINALLY: A TV ad that tells it like it is: EXXON HATES YOUR CHILDREN. Go to http://ExxonHatesYourChildren.com if you want to see it on national television! (And go straight to http://bit.ly/XuuWsK to donate.) What would YOU spend the $10 billion on instead? Exxon Hates Your Children via Tamino Technorati Tags: […]
China is now the biggest importer, exporter, and consumer of illegal timber in the world. Its footprint impacts vital forest ecosystems ranging from neighbouring countries such as Myanmar to remote areas of Africa. With domestic forests incapable of meeting surging demand, China has a gaping and growing timber deficit that can only be filled by […]
By Jackie Weidman and Whitney Allen30 November 2012 On November 27th, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced the new and returning House committee chairmen (and yes, they are all men). Some of these congressmen will run committees with jurisdiction over federal climate, energy, and environmental programs. This includes funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, […]
BEIJING, 29 November 2012 (EIA) – China, emergent superpower and the world’s second biggest economy, is effectively standing on the sidelines as its exponential growth devastates forests in a trade worth billions of dollars a year. In the new report Appetite for Destruction: China’s Trade in Illegal Timber, launched today in Beijing, the London-based Environmental […]
By Jeremy Hance29 November 2012 (mongabay.com) – Runaway economic growth comes with costs: in the case of China’s economic engine, one of them has been the world’s forests. According to a new report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), China has become the number one importer of illegal wood products from around the world. Illegal […]
By Katherine Bagley27 November 2012 (InsideClimate News) – The government of Canada’s official position on climate change is that it’s real and requires an “aggressive” response. Despite that, Canada’s ruling Conservative Party government has been leading a slow and systematic unraveling of environmental and climate research budgets, according to local scientists—including shuttering one of the […]
By Jon Gambrell 28 November 2012 By the time ranchers found the rhinoceros calf wandering alone in this idyllic setting of scrub brush and acacia, the nature reserve had become yet another blood-soaked crime scene in South Africa’s losing battle against poachers. Hunters killed eight rhinos at the private Finfoot Game Reserve inside the Vaalkop […]
By Jeremy Hance26 November 2012 (mongabay.com) – Newly released photos by Greenpeace show the dramatic destruction of tropical forest in Cameroon for an oil palm plantation operated by SG Sustainable Oils Cameroon (SGSOC), a subsidiary of the U.S. company Herakles Farm. The agriculture company is planning to convert 73,000 hectares to palm oil plantations on […]
