Earth, Environment & Endangered Species 01 (May 08 - Mar 11)

Re: Earth, Environment & Endangered Species 01 (May 08 - Feb 11)

Postby winston » Sun Jan 23, 2011 12:44 pm

Vicious cold snap puts northern US in deep freeze

There is a brutally frigid point on the thermometer -- minus 40 degrees -- where Celsius and Fahrenheit meet, and it was even colder than that in parts of the US Midwest as an Arctic blast struck over the weekend.

Americans were bundling up Saturday as the coldest weather of the season was forecast to sock cities from Chicago to New York and Boston, with temperatures that have already prompted weather service warnings.

The coldest weather in two years slammed Minnesota, where International Falls -- which proudly proclaims itself the "Icebox of the Nation" -- recorded a shocking 46 degrees below zero (-43 Celsius).

The Friday temperature tied the town's coldest reading since it began keeping records in 1897.

By Saturday morning it had risen to a balmy -13 degrees (-25 C), the town's airport reported, but the forecast wind-chill factor was far colder, and the National Weather Service issued a hazard advisory warning of frostbite and "life-threatening hypothermia."

Much of New York state and the US northeast region known as New England will see temperatures barely reach the Fahrenheit teens on Saturday, forecasters at The Weather Channel (TWC) reported.

Friday's -4 degrees (-20 C) in Chicago marked the coldest January 21 in the Windy City in 27 years, broadcaster WGN reported.

January regularly brings frigid cold to the US heartland and the northeast, but the latest chill is exceptional, several meteorologists have said.

"We have got an Arctic chill in store" for much of the eastern half of the United States, TWC said, with temperatures as much as 25 degrees below average.

Meteorologists were also forecasting yet another major snow storm to hammer parts of the US southeast and northeast by the middle of next week, the latest in a series of storms that have cancelled thousands of flights and left cities scrambling to clear deep drifts of snow.

Residents in Minnesota appeared to be taking the winter blast in stride.

"We're used to that. Well, maybe not 46 below, but we're used to the cold," Addie Khalar, a reserve postmaster in Babbitt, told the Duluth News Tribune, which reported that many people did not let the cold snap deter them from ice fishing or playing outdoor hockey.

"You plug in your car. You keep it in the garage. You dress for it. And you show up for work," Khalar said.

Source: AFP American Edition
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Re: Earth, Environment & Endangered Species 01 (May 08 - Feb 11)

Postby winston » Mon Jan 24, 2011 8:50 am

Are you willing to give out old bank notes and use old red packets for CNY this year ?

Public urged to go green with red packets

An environmental group has called on the public to reuse Lunar New Year lai see packets to save more than 9,000 trees every year.

"We have calculated that Hong Kong people use 180 million red packets every year," said Kwok Ying- ying, project officer of Greeners Action.

"It means we have cut down 9,253 trees. Citizens generally dump the used red packets and that is not environmentally friendly."

The group distributed more than 10,000 used red packets to pedestrians in Mong Kok yesterday. Kwok said the group collected 120,000 used red packets last year.

"The response was not bad because we had expected the number would be 30,000. It demonstrates that people are more aware of our environment," she said.

"We will distribute the collected red packets to more than 40 organizations such as schools to raise people's awareness of environmental protection. In fact, a red packet can be reused for three years. And the old red packets can even be remade for decoration."

Kwok urged citizens not to readily accept red packet giveaways from businesses.

"When you apply for a credit card or go to fast-food restaurants, you will be given a pack of red packets as a gift. We should think twice before we take these free red packets," she said.

A passerby surnamed Fung said she supports the idea.

"I use more than 100 red packets every year. Almost all of them have been used before. When some new packets are not used, I will keep them for next year," she said.

"Although there is a tradition that we should use everything new in the Lunar New Year to have a new start, I do not really care about it."

Another passerby, surnamed Lee, started reusing packets two years ago. "I started reusing the old ones for the environment. Half of them have been used before," said Lee, who gives 80 red packets every year.


http://thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.a ... 10124&fc=1
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Re: Earth, Environment & Endangered Species 01 (May 08 - Feb 11)

Postby winston » Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:20 am

2012 coming ..

Huge Numbers Of Dead Animals, Dead Birds And Dead Fish – What In The World Is Happening Out There?

Just what in the world is going on out there? Large groups of animals are keeling over dead, thousands of birds are falling out of the sky dead and millions of dead fish are washing ashore all over the globe.

Something is happening. Do any of you know what is causing all this, because I sure don't.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch ... -out-there
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Re: Earth, Environment & Endangered Species 01 (May 08 - Feb 11)

Postby winston » Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:52 pm

Birds vanishing in the Philippines

The number of birds flying south to important wintering grounds in the Philippines has fallen sharply this year, with experts saying the dramatic demise of wetlands and hunting are to blame.

Despite some harsh, cold weather across the Eurasian landmass, some waterbirds that usually migrate in huge flocks to the tropical islands have been completely absent, said Philippine-based Danish ornithologist Arne Jensen.

"The flyway populations of several waterbird species are in constant and dramatic decline," Jensen, who advises the Philippine government on species conservation, told AFP.

"Hence the urgent need to establish real and well-managed, hunting-free waterbird sanctuaries along the migratory flyways."

Candaba, a swamp two hours' drive north of Manila that has long been used as a pit stop by hundreds of species as they fly staggering distances between the Arctic Circle and Australia, appears emblematic of the downfall.

Jensen said that bird watchers routinely counted 100,000 ducks at Candaba in the 1980s as they stopped there for a rest while traversing the East Asian-Australasian flyway.

But volunteers recorded just 8,725 waterbirds and 41 species during the annual census last weekend, Wild Bird Club of the Philippines president Michael Lu told AFP at Candaba at the end of the count.

Northern pintails, common pochards, and green-winged teals were absent, and just one tufted duck was seen, while numbers for northern shovellers shrank and only garganeys were easily seen along with resident Philippine ducks.

Lu said the number of waterbirds counted at Candaba was down from more than 11,000 last year.

"The main threat is hunting," said Lu, amid occasional loud bangs that were apparently gunfire or firecrackers set off by local residents seeking to flush out the birds.

But Lu also pointed to the dramatic shrinkage in the size of the swamp over the past 50 years as the region was converted into farmland, mainly rice fields.

The swamp two generations ago covered 27,000 hectares (66,690 acres), but it is now just 77 hectares -- or less than one percent of its original size -- according to figures provided by Lu, Jensen and the local government.

Hunters, farmers, and watersports also threaten Paoay Lake, another wild bird habitat in the far north of the Philippines that is close to southern China.

The lake lacks surface plant life after the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos ordered the water lilies removed so he could jetski from his lakeside mansion, while a former local official used to shoot ducks there, Lu said.

Since the water lily purge, water levels have continued to drop as farmers siphoned off water to irrigate farmland, while poor residents around the lake cut down trees, which they burnt to sell as charcoal, local bird watchers said.

The government has banned hunting of ducks on the lake, but things could still get worse with plans for a wakeboarding park, Lu said.

In the annual Paoay bird census this month, fewer than 700 waterbirds were counted compared with more than a thousand the previous year, said Elsie Nolasco, an official at the local environment ministry office.

The scenarios at the Paoay and Candaba wetlands are a microcosm of the general state around Asia, said Carlo Custodio, head of the coastal and marine management office at the Philippines' environment ministry.

"If you look down the coasts from China, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and down to Australia, you can see fast economic development, especially in China," Custodio told AFP.

"In the course of this development, habitats are destroyed as big segments of the populations move to the coasts. This also increases the chances that the birds will be hunted."

Environment group Wetlands International reported last year that waterbird populations in Asia were shrinking at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world because their habitats were being destroyed.

"The combination of rapid economical growth and weak conservation efforts (in Asia) appears to be lethal," Wetlands International said.

Source: AFP Global Edition
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Re: Earth, Environment & Endangered Species 01 (May 08 - Feb 11)

Postby winston » Sat Jan 29, 2011 9:49 am

Saving Water

If you have a long bath tub underneath your shower, you can save the water from your shower, in that long bath tub.

The water can then be recycled eg. mopping the floor or to flush the toilets.

You would be surprized to see the amount of water that you use in a shower ie. about 1/3 full of a long bath-tub.
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Re: Earth, Environment & Endangered Species 01 (May 08 - Feb 11)

Postby winston » Thu Feb 03, 2011 6:05 pm

Oysters disappearing worldwide: study

WASHINGTON (AFP) - – A survey of oyster habitats around the world has found that the succulent mollusks are disappearing fast and 85 percent of their reefs have been lost due to disease and over-harvesting.

Most of the remaining wild oysters in the world, or about 75 percent, can be found in five locations in North America, said the study published in BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences.

An international team of researchers led by Michael Beck of the Nature Conservancy and the University of California, Santa Cruz, examined the condition of native oyster reefs in 40 ecoregions, including 144 bays.

"Oyster reefs are at less than 10 percent of their prior abundance in most bays (70 percent) and ecoregions (63 percent)," said the study.

"They are functionally extinct -- in that they lack any significant ecosystem role and remain at less than one percent of prior abundances in many bays (37 percent) and ecoregions (28 percent) -- particularly in North America, Australia and Europe."

By averaging the loss among all regions, the researchers came up with an estimate that 85 percent of oyster reef ecosystems have been lost, but said that figure was likely low because some areas lacked historical records for comparison.

The study also did not include oyster reefs in parts of South Africa, China, Japan, and North and South Korea.

Other studies and observations in those areas "suggest that wild oyster abundance was much higher in the past and that reefs have declined greatly in abundance or have disappeared altogether," the authors said.

The one bright spot in the oyster world was in the Gulf of Mexico, where native oyster catches are "the highest in the world despite significant declines in abundance and reefs," according to the study.

Five regions where oyster catches were globally the highest were located in eastern North America, from the Virginia coast southward and also in the Gulf of Mexico.

Oysters are important to ecosystems because they filter impurities from water and provide food and employment for people living in coastal communities.

The decline in oyster population often begins when trawling or dredging destroys the structure of parts of the reef, leaving surviving oysters vulnerable to stresses in the environment.

In some cases, non-native species of oysters are introduced after a population decline, and they bring with them diseases that further kill off the native oysters.

The authors recommended that any reefs with less than 10 percent of their former abundance be closed to further harvesting until the oysters can build up their numbers again.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20110203/t ... 2e412.html
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Re: Earth, Environment & Endangered Species 01 (May 08 - Feb 11)

Postby behappyalways » Fri Feb 04, 2011 10:26 am

First film footage of remote Amazon rainforest tribe

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12360013
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Re: Earth, Environment & Endangered Species 01 (May 08 - Feb 11)

Postby winston » Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:12 pm

14 whales die in mass stranding in New Zealand

At least 14 whales from a pod of more than 80 beached on the New Zealand coast have died, with officials fearing others may be stranded elsewhere after freeing themselves on Saturday.

Department of Conservation staff were searching beaches west of the South Island tourist city of Nelson looking for survivors.

"We don't know whether they have managed to swim safely (out to) sea or whether they may have stranded somewhere else along the coast," department spokeswoman Trish Grant said.

Residents at Farewell Spit, 150 kilometres (93 miles) from Nelson, said the whales began beaching themselves early Friday afternoon.

Conservation staff rushed to the area to keep the whales cool and hydrated in the afternoon sun but 14 had died before they refloated themselves on a midnight high tide.

"Some, even though they are refloated, do wash up dead later on because they've been through such an ordeal so they are considerably weakened by it," Grant said.

Whale strandings are not uncommon in the area and Grant said there were various theories as to why the animals beached themselves.

"It's something that has occurred reasonably often in Golden Bay with pilot whales, and just even the shape of the bay could mean they kind of get a bit caught with the spit coming round, so it could just be navigational error."

Pilot whales up to six metres (20 feet) long are the most common species of whale seen in New Zealand waters.

Last month 24 died after stranding near Cape Reinga in the far north of the country.

In December 2009, more than 120 whales died in two separate beachings at Farewell Spit and Colville Bay in the North Island.

Source: AFP Global Edition
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Re: Earth, Environment & Endangered Species 01 (May 08 - Feb 11)

Postby winston » Sat Feb 05, 2011 4:01 pm

Do you feel guilty when you drink that shark fin's soup ?

That predatory hunger for shark's fin

Imports of delicacy nearly doubled since 2003 despite campaigns
By Lester Kok & Grace Chua

EVERY Chinese New Year, campaigns by conservation groups ask diners to stop eating shark's fin.

But recent figures show that Singapore's imports of the delicacy have nearly doubled since 2003. The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), which supplied the numbers, said nearly 2,500 tonnes were imported last year, up from 1,300 tonnes eight years ago.

The figures include dried, salted and canned fins, and refer to those meant for both domestic consumption and export.

And last week, conservation group Traffic delivered more alarming news: a report that a decade-long United Nations shark conservation scheme has failed.

Shark's fin importers here say that demand is rebounding, after a small dip due to 2009's economic crisis.

The price of shark's fin goes up 10 to 15 per cent a year, but demand is rising even quicker thanks to growing affluence in East Asia.

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNew ... 31541.html
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Re: Earth, Environment & Endangered Species 01 (May 08 - Feb 11)

Postby behappyalways » Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:55 am

Audio slideshow: Sea nomads

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12354346
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