A report released by the Indonesian government shows the country is the world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter, largely as a result of the destruction of rainforests and carbon-dense peatlands. Indonesia accounts for 8 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. The ‘National Council on Climate Change’ report reveals that degradation and destruction of peatlands (45 […]
Woodland caribou is one of the species likely to be extirpated from regions subjected to Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) development. Caribou declines across Alberta have been correlated with the level of industrial development within their ranges.43 In the past ten years, the East Side Athabasca River caribou herd, whose range overlaps much of the […]
Posted by Nate Hagens at The Oil Drum …The liquid tailings, a by product of the oil sands mining process, contain naphthenic acids, unrecovered hydrocarbons and trace metals, making it toxic to aquatic organisms21 and mammals22. Operators are required to store tailings waste on site in large containment dykes because the water is too toxic […]
Forest cover (green curve) versus palm oil production (white curve) in Indonesia. In 2007 Indonesia overtook Malaysia as the world’s largest producer of palm oil. Together the two countries account for more than 85 percent of global production. A study published in May showed that 55-59 percent of oil palm expansion in Malaysia and at […]
Kuala Lumpur (AFP) Sept 16, 2009 – Malaysian police said Wednesday they had dismantled blockades constructed in the Borneo jungles by Penan tribespeople protesting against logging and plantations on their ancestral land. In a separate move police also arrested 17 people, including Penan and other indigenous groups, for mounting a demonstration against a proposed dam […]
AMES, Iowa, September 15, 2009 (ENS) – The emerald ash borer is eating its way through all of the native ash trees across the United States, but Iowa horticulturalist Mark Widrlechner is locked in a battle with the devastating insect. He is collecting and storing ash tree seeds as fast as he can – seeds […]
By Ben Webster, Environment Editor The World Bank is spending billions of pounds subsidising new coal-fired power stations in developing countries despite claiming that burning fossil fuels exposes the poor to catastrophic climate change. The bank, which has a goal of reducing poverty and is funded by Britain and other developed countries, calls on all […]
NAIROBI, Kenya, September 14,2009 (ENS) – A multimillion dollar appeal to save the Mau Forests Complex, the most important source of water for human consumption in the Rift Valley and Western Kenya, was launched by the government of Kenya at a forum hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme last week. Continued destruction of these […]
NKAYA, 11 September 2009 (IRIN) – Degradation of the environment is reaching alarming levels in Nkaya in southern Malawi, where people have to walk ever greater distances to collect firewood and water. Mayi Chambo, a village head in Nkaya, blamed charcoal makers for the deforestation. This is her story. “In the 1980s we had lush […]
ScienceDaily (Sep. 11, 2009) — The world faces a compounding series of crises driven by human activity, which existing governments and institutions are increasingly powerless to cope with, a group of eminent environmental scientists and economists has warned. Writing in the journal Science, the researchers say that nations alone are unable to resolve the […]
