Crops Eating Into World’s Natural Land Base (via Environment News Service) DAVOS, Switzerland, January 24, 2014 (ENS) – Lands covering an area the size of Brazil could be degraded by 2050 if conversion of natural lands to crop lands continues, warns a report by the UN Environment Programme, presented at the ongoing World…
In the name of “conservation”: Kenya Burns Indigenous People Out of Ancestral Lands
Kenya Burns Indigenous People Out of Ancestral Lands (via Environment News Service) NAIROBI, Kenya, January 22, 2014 (ENS) – The Kenyan government has sent Kenya Forest Service guards, with police support, to Embobut Forest in the Cherangany Hills to forcibly and illegally evict thousands of Sengwer indigenous people from their ancestral…
Understanding climate change: join the free online course
We are observing drastic changes in our climate. More changes are predicted, but there are still some people who do not want to believe it. Do they understand the science behind Global Worming? Do we understand it? If your answer is no, then consider learning about it! Here is a golden opportunity to learn the Read More …
OECD: Pressure on the environment continues to grow
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published it’s 2013 edition of ‘Environment at a Glance’ – a compilation of key environmental indicators. “Good” news The report shows progress in some areas such as air pollution, transport and biodiversity protection. Since the 1990s pressure on the environment has generally been at a slower pace than Read More …
Humanity continues to drive species to extinction
Large Carnivores Disappearing From the Earth (via Environment News Service) CORVALLIS, Oregon, January 10, 2014 (ENS) – The decline of large predators such as lions, leopards, wolves, otters, and bears is changing landscapes from the tropics to the Arctic, finds a new study from scientists in the United States, Australia,…
Vehicle emissions & grilling might have much more negative impacts than thought
Chemicals 400 Times as Mutagenic as Known Carcinogens Found (via Environment News Service) CORVALLIS, Oregon, January 6, 2014 (ENS) – Newly identified compounds produced by chemical reactions in vehicle exhaust or by grilling meat are hundreds of times more mutagenic than their cancer-causing parent compounds, according to scientists at…
The complexity of evolution: zoo husbandry + medical research + animal husbandry accidentally create a new virus strain
Fantastic new research by Niewiadomska and Gifford sheds light how extraordinary complex evolution can be and how human actions can create newly emergent disease. The human actions involved were all good-meaning and intended as beneficial for the conservation of biodiversity and to combat human disease: captive breeding in zoos and human medicine. Unforeseeable circumstances and Read More …
United Nations Proclaims March 3 as World Wildlife Day
Well, we had the International Year of Biodiversity – 2010 –, for which an international commitment to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss was declared (Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 2002). It failed. See, for example, the articles by Vié et al. 2009 and Butchard et al. 2010. Now we Read More …
Why should business value nature? WBCSD launches “Pitch For Nature”
Together with the world’s top 25+ organizations working with business on natural capital, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has developed a new video explaining why natural capital is important for business. Excellent! The two minute “Pitch For Nature” video is available in 20 languages.
Starvation, Poverty Follow Indigenous Land Sales in Indonesia
Starvation, Poverty Follow Indigenous Land Sales in Indonesia (via Environment News Service) By Sophie Chao ZANEGI, Papua, Indonesia, September 3, 2013 (ENS) – The village of Zanegi in Merauke Regency of Papua Province, Indonesia, lies desolate and silent, in contrast to the rumble and drone of bulldozers and chainsaws in the distance. At…