UN recognizes wildlife crime as threat to rule of law. New York - Poaching and the illicit trafficking of wildlife products were raised on the floor of the United Nations General Assembly for the first time Monday during discussions on strengthening national and international governance. World leaders gathering in New York for the global body’s 67th annual meeting highlighted wildlife trafficking along with other severe threats to the rule of law such as corruption and drug running. In a written statement, permanent Security Council member United States highlighted “the harm caused by wildlife poaching and trafficking to conservation efforts, rule of law, governance and economic development.” The rapidly-growing illicit international trade in endangered species products, such as rhino horn, elephant ivory and tiger parts, is now estimated to be worth $8-10 billion per year globally.
Permanent member France also emphasized the severity and negative impacts of wildlife crime. MPs demand moratorium on Arctic oil drilling | World news. British MPs are calling on Shell and others to halt "reckless" oil and gas drilling in the Arctic until stronger safety measures are put in place. Politicians also want to impose "unlimited" financial liability on operators and the creation of a "no-drill zone" in a new environmental sanctuary. The uncompromising demands have angered the energy industry but come just days after alarming new evidence has emerged about Arctic sea ice melting at record levels. They also come on the day that an environment committee of MEPs in Brussels called for tougher financial guarantees from oil companies to ensure they could pay for spills in European waters. The British initiatives are contained in a report published on Thursday from the cross-party environmental audit committee (EAC) of the House of Commons, which warns that the vulnerable Arctic region is being endangered by a misguided search for hydrocarbons.
Shell postpones plans to start Arctic drilling until next year | Business. Environmental protesters blasted Shell on Monday after the energy giant abandoned controversial plans to start drilling for oil in the Arctic this year when a final test of its environmental protection equipment failed to meet the standards required to gain a full drilling permit. The oil and gas group said a new type of "containment dome" – designed for use in the event of a leaking wellhead – had been damaged during testing. "During a final test, the containment dome aboard the Arctic Challenger barge was damaged," Shell told investors in an update on Monday morning. "It is clear that some days will be required to repair and fully assess dome readiness. " As a result Shell has been unable to secure a permit to undertake full drilling operations and will have to wait at least until after the Arctic winter to resume its efforts.
"In order to lay a strong foundation for operations in 2013, we will forgo drilling into hydrocarbon zones this year," Shell said. How vulnerable could your city be to climate impacts? Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of river floods and extreme temperature events in many parts of Europe. If heavy rain caused rivers to rise by one metre, which European cities could be most at risk from flooding? Which cities could provide relief during heat waves with large green areas and which city designs could most exacerbate the effect of heat waves?
What are the capacities of different European cities to cope with climate change impacts and to adapt to future changes? The recently published EEA report 'Urban adaptation to climate change in Europe' provides initial answers to these and similar questions. Several maps included in the report are now also made available on the interactive Eye on Earth information service. The interactive maps allow users to explore data from more than 500 cities in Europe and get a quick impression of some of the adaptation challenges in Europe’s cities.
Explore the map with more functions in Eye on Earth Links. Africa: Climate Change Threatens Bhutan's Gross National Happiness. Thimphu — Impressive economic and human development gains that contribute to Bhutan's Gross National Happiness are threatened by changing climate conditions with the country's poorest people likely to suffer the worst impact, according to the third National Human Development Report released today in Thimphu. Building resilience is key to the livelihoods of the one quarter of Bhutan's population who live in poverty and depend on subsistence farming and local natural resources which are vulnerable to changing weather patterns and melting glaciers, says the report titled "Sustaining Progress: Rising to the Climate Challenge. " "Alternative development pathways, such as Gross National Happiness (GNH) that we are promulgating will influence the capacity of communities...to adapt to climate change," said Pema Gyamtsho, Minister of Agriculture and Forests, at the report's launch.
How to think about GDP. The FINANCIAL -- Stock in New York are tense. The GDP number for the first quarter of 2012 is about to come out. It is 0.4% lower than expected. The market tanks: stock prices drop dramatically. What is this GDP number that the market seems to care about so much? What is the Gross Domestic Product? The Gross Domestic Product of a country measures how many final goods and services that country produces in a given period of time. A common misunderstanding is that GDP measures how rich a country is. GDP is also not a measure of how much money consumers have to spend. I won’t go into the technicalities of measuring GDP, but it is important to know the difference between real GDP and nominal GDP.
GDP growth -- The number that policy makers and others pay the most attention to is the growth rate of real GDP. Critiques of GDP -- However, there are some critics, who assert the need to look beyond GDP. Why do we keep using GDP? There is something to be said for all of these arguments. China should boost rare earths imports -industry body.