Free Access to Every Species on the Planet

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ENVIRONMENT, Science/Tech, WILDLIFE

new-species-of-squid-coml.jpg

A Web Page for Each of the World’s Creatures

By Stephen Leahy

May 10 (IPS) – Scientists launched a global initiative Thursday called the “Encyclopedia of Life” that will document the Earth’s 1.8 million known species and track the impacts of habitat loss and climate change.

The ambitious electronic encyclopedia will catalogue the details of every species thus far identified and put all this information on the Internet so anyone can access it.

“This will be a fantastic resource for the developing world,” said James Edwards, the new executive director of the Encyclopedia of Life project headquartered in Washington at the Smithsonian Institution.

Continue reading →

Observatorium: Pity the SUV Owner

Stephen Interconnections

Copyright 2006 Renate LeahyA shiny, giant 4X4 SUV rolls by, jacked up a half-metre off the ground to leap manhole covers with its 500 horses snorting toxic gases. Anger becomes sadness then slips into despair and slowly shifts to pity:

Folks place such personal value and investing so much of themselves into hunks of unfeeling metal.

And they miss the pleasure of walking on a beautiful spring day — too busy to pause and enjoy — too busy to play because they must pay and pay again for their shiny bauble.

Pity.

Can Capitalism Be Green?

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, economics, Energy, ENVIRONMENT, Global Issues and Perspectives, Multilingual Versions, News, sustainability , , ,

Copyright 2006 Renate LeahyCan Capitalism Be Green?

By Stephen Leahy

Experts say continuous economic growth, intrinsic to capitalism, is not viable on a planet with increasingly scarce natural resources.

May 7 (IPS/IFEJ) – Capitalism has proven to be environmentally and socially unsustainable, so future prosperity will have to come from a new economic model, say some experts. Just what this new model will look like is the subject of intense debate.

One current states that continuous growth can be environmentally compatible if clean and efficient technologies are adopted, and if economies stop producing material goods and move towards services. This is known as sustainable prosperity.

International agreements to fight global problems, like the thinning of the atmosphere’s ozone layer and climate change, used market principles to achieve compliance by the private sector.

But the problem is, “We are consuming 25 percent more than the Earth can give us each year,” says William Rees, of the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia.

Continue reading →

Feeding the World Without Destroying It

Stephen Agriculture/Food, developing world, ECOLOGY, Forests, Global Issues and Perspectives

Farming Will Make or Break the Food Chain
By Stephen Leahy

May 2 (IPS) – As the world population swells to nine billion by 2050, global biodiversity will be under extreme pressure unless new ways to grow food are developed, experts say.

An additional one billion hectares of wild lands — mainly forests and savanna — will be converted to food production fields by 2050. While this may provide enough food, it is likely to result in a massive decline in biodiversity, undermining ecosystems that provide vital services such as clean water and air, and capture carbon to slow the build-up of climate-altering gases in the atmosphere.

Sixty percent of the Earth’s ecosystems are in trouble right now, warned the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report last year.

What state will they be in by 2050? Continue reading →

Canadian Government Thinks People Are Stupid

Stephen CANADA, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING

copyright Pembina Institute

Canada’s New Plan “Pretends” to Curb Emissions, Say Activists

By Stephen Leahy

Apr 26 (IPS) – Canada’s newest plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions will be much too little and too late, environmentalists said Thursday.

Its third climate action plan in less than two years, the Canadian government proposal titled “Turn the Corner”, released Thursday afternoon, proposes to reduce emissions 20 percent by 2020. However, that would be a 20 percent reduction from 2006 levels.

“That would leave Canada 11 percent above its Kyoto commitments many years after the country is legally obligated to meet them,” says John Bennett of the Climate Action Network Canada, a coalition of environmental groups.

“This government is all about pretending to reduce emissions,” Bennett told IPS.
Continue reading →

How to Lay the Foundations for a New World

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, Culture, ENVIRONMENT, Global Issues and Perspectives

EARTH DAY: Happiness Is a Smaller Eco-Footprint

blue marble

“… more children knew the characters of the video game Pokemon than could recognise an oak tree or an otter…”

By Stephen Leahy

Apr 21 (IPS) – Today’s children will live in a new world of climate change and greatly diminished natural resources, which may give way to a nightmarish reality, or it could give birth to a happier and lighter way of living on the Earth, say environmentalists.

The scientific evidence for environmental troubles — from rising sea levels to species extinction to desertification — sends a clear signal that we are running into the limits of spaceship Earth to support us as it has for millennia.

“This world is ending; we need to lay the foundations for a new world,” says Alice Klein, a magazine editor and documentary filmmaker in Toronto. “We have a great opportunity to make a better world,” she told IPS.

Klein’s film “Call of the Hummingbird“, to premiere on Earth Day — Apr. 22 — at Toronto’s Hot Docs film festival, tracks the 13 days when some 1,000 teachers, eco-activists, farmers, Mayans, Rastafarians, holistic health-workers, non-governmental organisation executives, student leaders from all over Latin America and a few from Europe and North America camped out together in central Brazil in 2005.

Continue reading →

57 Tips On Going Green and Saving Money

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, Energy, Interconnections, sustainability ,

shodou-calligraphy.gifFrom the Frugalist – a guy who loves to make lists here’s 57 tips on going green and saving money.

Some good ideas here although I’m not sure how he arrived at the dollar savings of going green i.e car pooling will save you $780 a year, but he’s right it would save a pile of money. As will many of his other green money savers — lots of great links as well.

[FYI: I’m an independent journalist who supports his family and the public interest writing articles about important environmental issues. This is now only possible with your support (see Collapse of Media). A small contribution ($5, $10, $20) is the ONLY way this can continue.  PayPal or Credit Card Or contact me for mailing address.

6 Easy Ways to Green your Transport and save $$

  1. Bike or walk to work. The only gas you’ll use with this option is oxygen. Savings: $1,560 per year.
  2. Telecommute. Learn about this quiet revolution [PDF link] in the workplace. Telecommuting twice a week can save you 40 percent of your gas costs according to the Telework Coalition. Savings: $624 per year.
  3. Carpool. If you must use your car, share your ride. Find a ride in your local paper or try craigslist. Savings: $780 per year if shared with one other person.
  4. Keep your car tuned. A well-tuned car uses approximately nine percent less gas than a poorly tuned car, and you can lose about two percent in fuel economy for every pound of pressure your tire is under the recommended level. Savings: $150 per year.
  5. Learn to drive. Rapid acceleration and braking can lower your gas mileage by five percent around town and 33 percent on the highway, or an average of $0.55 per gallon. And, you get less mileage for your money (23 percent less or $0.67 per gallon) if you drive over 60mph. Savings: $1.22 per gallon, or $634 per year.
  6. Decrease your drag. If you aren’t using that overhead luggage rack, take it off (do you really need to carry that much luggage in the first place?). Also, it may help to turn off the AC and open up your windows to conserve gas, but not when you’re cruising down the highway at 60mph. Open windows at that speed increases drag and is less conservative than using the AC

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Related stories:

How to Kick-Start the 21st Century Eco-Economy

Consumption, Consumerism and Global Warming – Connecting the Dots

Global Warming Is Real But I Didn’t Do It

Can Capitalism Be Green?

Everything’s Green Except the Media

Sushi, Moonies, Whales and $Commerce

Stephen Agriculture/Food, ECOLOGY, Whales

Top U.S. Sushi Company Linked to Whaling
By Stephen Leahy

Blue whale, courtesy IFAW

Apr 11 (IPS) – An investigation has revealed that the U.S. supplier of sushi to more than 6,000 restaurants is associated with a Japanese company that sells millions of tins of whale meat.

Despite a global ban on killing whales, Japan’s Kyokuyo, a multinational seafood conglomerate, sells between 10 and 20 million cans of whale meat a year, according to an Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) report released Tuesday. Continue reading →

Overcoming Climate of Despair and Apathy

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY

a.jpeg“Climate Change, Despair and Empowerment” roadshow is coming to North America starting in Miami April 14 and on to Arkansas, Ontario, US Northeast. Author and eco-activist John Seed of Australia leads a series of ‘pay-what-you-can’ workshops designed to start, invigorate and support grassroots climate study/action groups.

The evening or day long workshops address the hopeless despair that many people feel and provide tools to transform despair into empowerment and effective action. This will be based on the Despair & Empowerment work of Joanna Macy and will:

* unveil the false and “business as usual”, solutions being touted by the major political parties such as nuclear power and so called “clean coal”.

* raise awareness and inspire political action towards the real solutions that we, the people, must insist upon. (eg. end the many billion dollars a year in subsidies to the fossil fuel industries, support energy efficiency, solar, wind etc.)

* provide resources for the many things that we can all do to turn the situation around.

* Support a network of Climate Study/Action Groups across N America.

Highly recommended — see this recent story for more about the roadshow and what it hopes to accomplish:

Passion Needed to Meet Climate Challenge