Eco-issues

The world as we know today has a very diverse ecology, with macro, micro and nano ecosystems playing out their individual roles. These roles in toto make up the delicate balance that help us thrive or perish. We as humans sometimes play roles in the nurture or wanton destruction of these ecosystems that play so vital a role in keeping our planet with its fauna and flora intact, either unwittingly or for pecuniary gains.

I believe that activism in the form of raising voices, signing petitions and addressing issues with authorities against practices that go against the tenets of maintainence of a healthy ecosystem, should we ever encounter evidence of interests wanting to tamper with the checks and balances that keep our ecosphere ship-shape, wherever in the world it be, would be the goal of Team Eco-issues. Any whimper in the dark speaks more volumes than the defeaning silence of abject acceptance of a wrongdoing, wouldn't it ? cybermyth Feb 19

EU beefs up electronic waste recycling | Environment

But Computer Aid warns EU decision on WEEE directive ignores environmental benefits of refurbishing 'e-waste' The European Parliament has been criticised for waving through revised rules on the disposal of electronic equipment without including any provision to promote the reuse of old equipment. As a result of last week's vote, member states will have to increase their collection of e-waste beyond the current flat-rate target of 4kg per person per year, so that by 2016 they will instead have to collect 45 tonnes for every 100 tonnes of electronic goods put on sale three years previously. By 2019, this target will rise to a collection rate of 65 per cent of sales from three years previous, although countries have the alternative of collecting a comparable figure of 85 per cent of all e-waste generated.

'They're killing us': world's most endangered tribe cries for help | World news | The Observer

Logging companies keen to exploit Brazil's rainforest have been accused by human rights organisations of using gunmen to wipe out the Awá, a tribe of just 355. Survival International, with backing from Colin Firth, is campaigning to stop what a judge referred to as 'genocide' Trundling along the dirt roads of the Amazon, the giant logging lorry dwarfed the vehicle of the investigators following it. The trunks of nine huge trees were piled high on the back – incontrovertible proof of the continuing destruction of the world's greatest rainforest and its most endangered tribe, the Awá.

25 September 2004 Noise pollution killing whales and dolphins [Keyword: ] The world's oceans are now so filled with noise that whales and other marine mammals are dying, biologists say. Britain's Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WCDS) is launching a campaign, Oceans of Noise, to tackle what it says is the increasing problem of noise pollution underwater, the BBC reported. Main sources of undersea noise are the search for oil and gas and the use of low-frequency military sonars, the report said. The WDCS is suggesting an action plan to regulate submarine noise pollution, and says it may be time for a global treaty to tackle the problem. It says there is evidence that noise is causing hearing loss in whales, dolphins and porpoises, injuring them and causing them to strand themselves, and is sometimes killing them.

Noise pollution killing whales and dolphins : Marine and Ocean Conservation News from Earthdive

Energy

Global Warming Climate change

Forest Conservation

Air polution CO2

Ecology Conferences Worldwide Conferences in ecology and related fields

SmartPlanet - We Make You Smarter - People, Business & Technology

Journey to the Sinking Lands

A witness to the world's first evacuation of an entire people due to climate change … yep, turns out the show must go on. In fact, the show is going international (well, Scotland), as I’ve just been invited to give a small-but-perfectly-formed lecture for the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. This will, I think, be my last post.

Madagascar has suffered environmental degradation over a significant part of its land mass. Forests that once blanketed the eastern third of the island have now been degraded, fragmented, and converted to scrub land. Spiny forests in the south are rapidly giving way to "cactus scrub" as indigenous vegetation is cut and burned for subsistence charcoal production. Viewed from above, Madagascar's rivers look as if they are bleeding the country to death as soil is eroded away from the central highlands.

Conservation in Madagascar

The Amazon Conservation Team has developed a well-earned reputation for innovation, efficiency, and effectiveness. Our ethnographic mapping – in which the indigenous people themselves make the map, seizing control of their own cultural and environmental destiny – has now partnered with over 30 tribes to cover 70 million acres acres of ancestral rainforest. Our Shamans’ and Apprentices efforts have developed new and effective methodologies to transmit ancient shamanic wisdom to the next generation of indigenous youth. And our Shamans’ Gatherings have brought indigenous leaders from throughout the Amazon to chart a course forward for their culture and their medicine.

Home — The Amazon Conservation Team

The Human Planet

Comparative analyses reveal that human pathogens increase towards the equator and that the relationship is linked to climate - this has important implications for global biodiversity, public health and environmental epidemiology. Vanina Guernier 1 , 2 * , Michael E. Hochberg 3 , 4 , Jean-François Guégan 1 1 Génétique et Évolution des Maladies Infectieuses, Montpellier, France, 2 Unité Expertise et Spatialisation des Connaissances en Environnement, Montpellier, France, 3 Équipe Génétique et Environnement, Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution de Montpellier, Université Montpellier II, Montpellier, France, 4 National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America

PLoS Biology: Ecology Drives the Worldwide Distribution of Human Diseases

Taxonomy; Identification/Description; Photographs; Illustrations; Introduction History; Impacts; Life Cycle; Habitat; Distribution; Dispersion; Controls; Research; Special Note: Includes information products for sale and bibliographies Introduction History; Impacts; Life Cycle; Distribution; Controls; Special Note: Includes publications, newsletter, links to other resources, research and contacts

Invasive Species: Aquatic Species - Zebra Mussel (Dreissena polymorpha)

Enviromental science