Global Governance Monitor. Produced by the Council on Foreign Relations and MediaStorm Executive ProducersStewart Patrick, CFRBrain Storm, MediaStorm Producer/Writer: Kaysie Brown and Farah Faisal ThalerMultimedia Producer: Jeremy SherlickConsulting Fellow: Mark P. LagonResearch Associates: Isabella Bennett, Ryan Kaminski, Emma Welch MediaStorm Original Design and Development: Jacky Myint & Tim KlimowiczProducer: Andrew HidaSupervising Producer: Eric Maierson Phase2 Project Manager: Joema ScottDirector of Engineering: Doug MarceyTechnical Lead: Josh CaldwellTechnical Lead: Mike CrittendenUser Experience Lead: Joshua LiebVisual Design Lead: Laura SchoppaDeveloper: RJ PittmanDeveloper: Peter SchuelkeDeveloper: Jake StrawnQA Analyst: Tom NeffQA Analyst: CJ PachallVisual Designer: Brian CordyackEngagement Manager: Mike Morris Research and Writing: Yvonne Chow, Seth Goldstein, Hilary Novik, Patrick Sims, Kamille Turner, and Noor Zafar Special Thanks to: Richard Haass, Jim Lindsay, Eric Voeten, and Nyi Nyi Teza.
Master Gardeners: Learning how to save seeds may help species facing extinction. By Martha ProctorUC Marin Master Gardener Posted: 10/01/2011 08:20:00 PM PDT PLANTS ARE VITAL to life on this earth. We depend upon plants for many of our basic needs: the air we breathe, the food we eat, as a source of fuel, clean water, fiber, clothing, shelter, and as the basis for a growing number of lifesaving medications.
Plants are a key element of biodiversity, an important constituent of habitat infrastructure for many ecosystems and the key to the earth's environmental equilibrium and stability. Despite the essentialness of plants to our existence, today almost one quarter of all plant species face the threat of extinction. Four plant species risk extinction every day. Without human intervention, many plant species will disappear in our lifetime. The disappearance of so many plant species in the midst of ever-increasing population growth sets up one of the greatest challenges we face as a species.
In a survey report released in September, the U.S. If you go. Al Gore: Climate Change Is A 'Human' -- Not 'Political' -- Issue. Climate change is a "human" -- not "political" -- issue, former Vice President Al Gore said Thursday at an event concluding his 24-hour Climate Reality Project intended to convert skeptics of global warming. In order to have an intelligent conversation about climate change, Gore said, we need to "to start with an acceptance of what the reality is that we are actually facing.
" Gore compared the controversy and skepticism over global warming to tobacco companies that would manufacture public doubt about the harm of their product. And what the Earth is facing, he said, is extreme weather events -- from massive flooding in Pakistan, to extreme drought and wildfires in Texas. Gore appeared in Midtown Manhattan -- greeted with a standing ovation -- and addressed a number of common arguments from skeptics, even calling out House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). Gore played a clip of Boehner essentially saying volcanoes could contribute more to global warming than humans. Vegetable oil: What’s cooking? OIL markets are full of uncertainty. Asian demand is booming and doubts abound over the ability of supply to match the world's appetite. What goes for crude oil also applies to the stuff squeezed out of vegetable matter. The price of stir-frying and dressing a salad has rarely been higher.
Over the past decade the price of vegetable oils has all but quadrupled. Kona Haque of Macquarie, an Australian bank, points to two structural factors behind oil's sizzle: China and biodiesels. In the past few years a new source of demand has emerged for vegetable oils. The effect of growing demand for the two main types of vegetable oil, palm and soya (see chart), is amplified by supply problems. Palm oil, also used to make soaps and cosmetics, comes almost exclusively from Indonesia and Malaysia.
Finding more land has unpalatable costs. Nuab0rj Shared by UnderdogLib. Climate change presentation. Al Gore A Filipino environmentalist shared the stage with Al Gore at a 24-hour live-streamed global event from New York that kicked off the former US vice president’s fresh global campaign to stem the climate crisis. Rodne Galicha of Haribon Foundation and Friends of the Earth Philippines was set to make a presentation on the climate crisis at the event dubbed “24 Hours of Reality” at around 4 p.m. Thursday (Philippine time). Solomon Islands Galicha was to deliver a multimedia presentation “to connect the dots between our changing climate and the extreme weather we have been seeing around the world,” the Climate Reality Project said in an advisory.
Galicha’s presentation would highlight the impact of climate change on the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. He joins Gore and 22 others who will speak “about how the climate crisis is impacting us all.” Connecting the dots Climate reality project. Facebook. Undersea Robots Exploring Ice-Covered Oceans May Hold The Key To Climate Change. Humans have stepped foot on the moon more times than we've been to the deepest floors of our oceans.
As science looks to survey new species, prospect minerals, and monitor how climate change is altering the depths, engineers need to find new ways to get us there, or at least send our mechanical eyes and ears. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has built Nereus (rhymes with “serious”) to get us there. A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that can hit 11,000 meters underwater--that's almost twice the height of Everest--without any trouble, Nereus is a test bed for a new suite of technologies shedding ROVs clunky, ship-tethered past. Nereus is among a new class of underwater robotic vehicles being designed to autonomously explore some of the harshest environments in our oceans and better understand our atmosphere. Powered by 3,000 lithium-ion batteries, the ROV can autonomously map underwater landscapes then return safely to the research ship under its own power.
[Image: Wikipedia] Gore tweaks climate call with '24 Hours of Reality' | Digital Media. Climate change activist, former vice president, and near-president Al Gore will present a 24-hour live Webcast--"24 Hours of Reality"--on September 14-15 that's meant to counteract what a statement about the event calls misinformation on global warming. The Webcast consists of 24 back-to-back screenings of a new multimedia presentation by Gore, introduced live by presenters in 24 different parts of the world, and in 13 different languages. It heralds a new focus for Gore's nonprofit Alliance for Climate Protection, which is changing its name to The Climate Reality Project. Reads a statement on the Reality Project's Web site: This campaign comes at a critical time.
As the impacts of climate change are growing more prevalent, so is the resistance to finding the truth and implementing solutions. Gore's new multimedia presentation focuses on the connection between the changing climate and extreme weather events, and on how shifting weather patterns are affecting countries worldwide. A Climate Deniers Must-See: Al Gore to Present '24 Hours of Reality' Courier-journal. Bill McKibben: Moving Planet Begins Around the World. For me, it’s the closest thing to Christmas come early. For three years now 350.org has coordinated giant worldwide rallies -- CNN has called them ‘the most widespread days of political activity in the planet’s history,’ involving every nation but North Korea. But if you think it gets old, you think wrong.
The first pictures from this year’s Moving Planet-extravaganza are starting to stream in from those places where the Saturday sun has already risen, and they are as stunning as ever. In Tonga, villagers are gathering on their sinking coastline for a dawn ceremony to bless the day. Nearby in Tuvalu, people are preparing for a day of swimming lessons and disaster drills to prepare for the sea level rise that's already inevitable (it will be up to us to make sure it doesn't get worse). And in Cairo, where it’s still Friday, but where they jumped the gun to take advantage of the traditional day of gathering, and are busy creating a huge human Nile, a flood of blue, swamping the main street.
Tar Sands Jailbird: What Did My Husband and I Do for His 65th Birthday? Get Arrested. Tar Sands Jailbird: What Did My Husband and I Do for His 65th Birthday? Get Arrested I have never been arrested before, though I’ve been to many demonstrations and protests since the late 70s. My decision to defy police orders on August 29 by refusing to move from my spot on the sidewalk in front of the White House came after nearly three decades of working for climate solutions. My husband and I agreed to face arrest together on behalf of our children and all children around the world. We were arrested on my husband’s 65th birthday, as part of the largest act of collective nonviolent civil disobedience in years; 1,252 people were arrested at the White House in late August and early September to block the Keystone XL pipeline.
There have been many protests against the proposed pipeline, a colossal project that would carry vast amounts of fossil fuel from Alberta, Canada, through the American heartland to Texas. James Hansen was the primary spark for the civil disobedience.