Nov 21, 09
Will Women's Voices be Heard in Copenhagen?
from The Worldwatch Institute, a Lead Author of the United Nations Population Fund's State of the World Population 2009 Report finds that women will be most affected by climate change but remain noticeably absent from Copenhagen agenda Washington, D.C.-Women will bear the greatest burden of a changing climate but so far have received little attention from negotiators working toward a new global climate deal, according to the 2009 edition of the United Nations Population Fund's State of...
Norway to Help Protect Guyana's Forests
For the past year, President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana has traveled the world offering to place his nation's forests under international supervision if other countries paid his citizens not to deforest the tropical landscapes. The campaign received major support last week when Norway announced a $30 million commitment on Monday for the small South American nation to implement an "avoided deforestation" plan. If the program demonstrates success, Guyana will receive an additional $250 million...
Are Livestock Responsible for 51% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions?
New report makes questionable claim Conventional wisdom has it that meat production is responsible for about 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions - a shocking enough figure as it is. But lately a much higher number has been circulating, with some claiming that meat is responsible for an astonishing 51% of worldwide emissions. Some skepticism is in order here, so I went looking for the source of the figure. It appears to be this recent report from the Worldwatch Institute. Long story...
North American Governments Agree to Protect Wilderness
The United States, Canada, and Mexico agreed this week to work together to protect wilderness areas across North America. The cooperation agreement establishes an intergovernmental committee to exchange research and approaches that address challenges such as climate change, fire control, and invasive species in land, marine, and coastal protected areas throughout the continent. "This agreement will allow for the exchange of successful experiences, monitoring, and training of human...
Aid Groups, Farmers Collaborate to Re-Green Sahel
Disastrous droughts crippled Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali in the early 1970s and more severely in the early 1980s. More than 100,000 people died. "The soil dried up. Everything dried up. All the trees died,"; said Yacouba Savadogo, a sorghum and millet farmer from the village of Gourma in Burkina Faso, at an Oxfam-hosted event in Washington, D.C. "When the soil dries up, there's no more trees and no more rain." Dry conditions and a locust outbreak hit West Africa again in 2005, and...
"Reverse Trick-or-Treaters" Deliver Fair Trade Chocolate
Dressed in masks and outfits reminiscent of the film The Matrix, a group of foreign exchange students celebrated their first Halloween in proper fashion on Saturday in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. But the classmates turned the U.S. tradition on its head. In addition to accepting candy, the students handed back their own Fair Trade-certified, organic dark chocolate. "Farmers are paid more with Fair Trade, so they don't have to live in poverty and their children can get an...
India Summit Strives for Global Access to Climate-Friendly Technologies
Anna da Costa India hosted a high-level technology summit in Delhi last week with the aim of supporting progress toward a global agreement on "climate-friendly" technologies. Among the areas of consensus outlined in the summit's final statement, several governments expressed interest in a network of technology innovation centers. "The notion that we should have global centers for climate technology innovation is an important idea that has found its place in the...
United States Under Pressure to Protect Tropical Forests
The state of Acre in western Brazil gained notoriety in 1988 when cattle ranchers murdered Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper who campaigned against the destruction of the Amazon forest. Twenty years later, roughly half the state is marked as a protected area. The government continues to integrate conservation efforts into development plans, but total deforestation rates have still risen in recent years. To avoid further forest loss, the state is looking to assistance from outside funders. "We...
Environmentalists Plan for 2012 Earth Summit
by John Mulrow As governments around the world debate their role in combating climate change, plans are forming behind the scenes for a meeting of global leaders to address environmental issues that have lost international attention in recent years. The plans envision a gathering reminiscent of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro-an event that captures the world's attention and spurs a new wave of ideas and enthusiasm for environmental governance. Coincidentally or not, the government...
European Offshore Wind Projects Confront Challenging Seas
Rødby, Denmark--As the winds blowing over Lolland Island turned a morning drizzle into a cold shower, Bjarne Haxgart told his crew that, as on many days this past August, they would stay indoors. This year we have had an awful lot of wind," said Haxgart, site manager of the Rødsand 2 offshore wind farm. "It's a big difference for the people who are out there doing the work. If it's a little windy, they would be green in the face by the time we got there. Rødsand 2, a...
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