Erin Brockovich championing hope, empowerment. Climate Isn't Changing Forests as Much as We Thought. Oct 15, 2014 10:48 PM EDT Researchers frequently mention how climate change is playing a heavy hand in the drastic changes forests are going through in the Northern Hemisphere, where cold-loving pines and firs are being bullied out by more adaptable species. Nature World News recently reported how the state of Minnesota alone is experiencing a major overhaul of its forest populations, where tree likes the American basswood, black cherry, red maple, sugar maple, and white oak are becoming increasingly prevalent, while species more characteristic to the region like the white spruce and balsam fir tree struggle to adapt to increasing temperatures and wet winter storms.
However, a researcher from Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences is arguing that climate change is a mere secondary factor for forest overhaul, at least among forest in the eastern United States. "Over the last 50 years, most environmental science has focused on the impact of climate change. Plastic Particles Harm Freshwater Organisms Too. Oct 17, 2014 01:31 PM EDT Scientists have become increasingly worried that plastic pollution threatens marine life in the world's oceans, and now new research shows that they have reason to fear it can harm freshwater organisms, too.
"The main sources of plastic are on land, so it is important to also look at the effects of plastic on land," Professor Bart Koelmans, leader of the Wageningen University and the IMARES research group behind the study, said in a statement. Previous studies have shown that microplastics - microscopic particles of plastic debris - can harm marine life due to their potential physical risks and possible toxicity. But these plastics, as well as plastic nanoparticles, which this recent study focuses on, can impact organisms not just in the seas and oceans but in freshwater bodies, too. For example, these particles slow the growth of algae, cause deformities in water fleas and impede communication between small organisms and fish, according to the researchers.
In the Age of Extinction, which species can we least afford to lose? | Environment | The Guardian. The threatened extinction of the tiger in India, the perilous existence of the orangutan in Indonesia, the plight of the panda: these are wildlife emergencies with which we have become familiar. They are well-loved animals that no one wants to see disappear. But now scientists fear the real impact of declining wildlife could be closer to home, with the threat to creatures such as ladybirds posing the harshest danger to biodiversity.
Climate change, declining numbers of animals, rising numbers of humans and the rapid rate of species extinction mean a growing number of scientists now declare us to be in the Anthropocene – the geological age of extinction when humans finally dominate the ecosystems. Last week a report from WWF, the Living Planet Index 2014, seemed to confirm that grim picture with statistics on the world's wildlife population which showed a dramatic reduction in numbers across countless species. "It's the loss of the common species that will impact on people. Ecotricity windfarm project hopes to power more than 50,000 homes a year | Business. Ecotricity, one of the new breed of independent energy suppliers, has teamed up with Skanska, the construction group, in a bid to build £500m worth of onshore windfarms in the UK within five years.
Dale Vince, the founder of Ecotricity, said it had taken his firm 17 years to build capacity that generates 70 megawatts of wind power but he was hoping to construct 100MW of schemes – enough to power 57,000 homes – every year. He admitted the major expansion plans could be affected if the Conservatives win the general election next year and pressed ahead with plans to drastically reduce onshore wind energy. “Obviously it is a concern but we are still confident that anything (windfarms) in planning up until the end of next summer should be immune from political risk,” he explained.
Steve Cooper, a director at Skanska Infrastructure Development, said the involvement with Ecotricity helped it to meet its wider green agenda. ANU’s fossil fuel divestment based on false information, miner says | Australia news. One of the resource companies slated by the Australian National University for divestment says it is “incredibly confident” it will no longer be judged as harshly once “incorrect, false and misleading” information from a corporate social responsibility adviser is corrected.
The ANU has said it would reconsider its decision to divest from seven resource companies if it was presented with new information – as the argument over its decision-making processes continues to prompt fierce criticism from the government as well as a growing chorus in defence of the university’s right to take a stand. West Australian copper miner Sandfire Resources said the assessment by the advisory firm CAER, upon which the ANU relied for its divestment decisions, was “significantly incorrect” and had apparently relied on an “incredibly cursory” perusal of the company’s website.
Such corporate ethics advisors should be regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, he suggested. Sea level rise over past century unmatched in 6,000 years, says study | Environment. The rise in sea levels seen over the past century is unmatched by any period in the past 6,000 years, according to a lengthy analysis of historical sea level trends. The reconstruction of 35,000 years of sea level fluctuations finds that there is no evidence that levels changed by more than 20cm in a relatively steady period that lasted between 6,000 years ago and about 150 years ago.
This makes the past century extremely unusual in the historical record, with about a 20cm rise in global sea levels since the start of the 20th century. Scientists have identified rising temperatures, which have caused polar ice to melt and thermal expansion of the sea, as a primary cause of the sea level increase. A two-decade-long collection of about 1,000 ancient sediment samples off Britain, north America, Greenland and the Seychelles formed the basis of the research, led by the Australian National University and published in PNAS. “All the studies show that you can’t just switch off this process.
Island nations shouldn't be left to drown from climate change. Islanders from the Tulun Atoll where forced relocation is presently underway are reporting what some believe is the beginning of the end. Breadfruit trees have been destroyed, the soil isn’t good enough to grow crops. The sea water is eating away at the land. Tulun Atoll is not alone. Across the Pacific islanders are reporting similar changes as the sea is creeping up. Given that sea level rise is not uniform across the world (forget the bathtub that fills evenly!) And it won’t get better anytime soon. It’s hardly surprising that leaders of some of the most low-lying island nations in the world, including Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, are more and more desperate to raise the plight of their islands.
The desperation of islanders is understandable. What this means is that island communities are overwhelmingly not responsible for the rises in temperatures and sea levels which are increasingly threatening their survival. With this in mind three key questions remain. Pentagon: global warming will change how US military trains and goes to war | Environment. Global warming is changing the way the US trains for and goes to war – affecting war games, weapons systems, training exercises, and military installations – according to the Pentagon. The defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, will tell a high-level meeting of military leaders on Monday that the Pentagon is undertaking sweeping changes to operation systems and installations to keep up with a growing threat of rising seas, droughts, and natural disasters caused by climate change.
“A changing climate will have real impacts on our military and the way it executes its missions,” Hagel wrote in his introduction to a Pentagon report out today. “We are considering the impacts of climate change in our war games and defence planning scenarios.” But with Monday’s report, climate change moved from potential threat to an immediate factor in a wide range of operational and budgeting decisions.
War games scenarios would now factor in floods or storms instead of assuming optimal conditions, said Goodman. The Phone Co-op offers UK's first ethical smartphone | Environment. The Fairphone, the first smartphone to be marketed as being free of “conflict minerals”, has arrived in the UK this week, after the Phone Co-op inked an exclusive distribution deal for the new technology. The Phone Co-op is the UK’s only consumer-owned mobile phone operator, offering a range of services through its Co-operative Mobile, Co-operative Business Telecoms, and Co-operative Phone and Broadband brands.
The organisation announced yesterday that it has become the exclusive UK stockist of the Fairphone, which was launched earlier this year following a successful crowd-funding campaign designed to finance the development of a new smartphone built to stringent ethical and environmental standards. “We are delighted that our partnership with Fairphone means we are able to build on our reputation as the leading ethical provider of telecoms, by supplying what must be the most ethical mobile handset on the market,” said Vivian Woodell, chief executive of the Phone Co-op.
Has Lockheed Martin really made a breakthrough in nuclear fusion technology? | Environment. Scientists have responded with scepticism to the announcement of a breakthrough in nuclear fusion by Lockheed Martin. The arms manufacturer announced on Wednesday that it was “working on a new compact fusion reactor (CFR) that can be developed and deployed in as little as 10 years”.
But Lockheed’s four paragraph press release and accompanying video are heavy on hyperbole and light on detail. Project leader Tom McGuire, whose company is the Pentagon’s largest supplier of armaments, says the project could usher in a new era of peace and energy security. “As a defence company our increasing mission is to enhance global security and this is how we do that in the energy realm,” says McGuire. But fusion researchers have responded coolly to the Lockheed announcement. Professor Steven Cowley, director of the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, says he is “nonplussed”. It appears that this is because the reactor in question has not been built and tested yet. Romanian politician calls for the army to help control bear population | Environment. In the depths of Transylvania, Romania, a war against one of Europe’s largest brown bear populations is looming. Following a string of cases involving damage to private property from bears in recent months, Csaba Borboly, a senior politician from the Transylvanian region, has called for the army to be brought in.
“The [bear] problem needs the involvement of specialised state institutions such as the police, the paramilitary and even the army.” Borboly’s remarks follow on the heels of a decision made in late September by the Romanian government to raise the bear hunting quota by the largest margin in recent history. The new quota allows for 550 bears to be killed over the next 12 months, up two-thirds from the 2012 quota. At present, hunting is the key method in “controlling” the bear population. However, this is no longer considered to be enough. “Bears need to be considered in line with other natural disasters, such as floods and forest fires,” Borboly said. Can you reduce environmental impacts of business within a budget? - play the game | Guardian Sustainable Business | The Guardian.