Six Greenpeace members from Austria, Finland, Hungary and Poland scaled Poland's environment ministry building in Warsaw on Wednesday with a giant banner saying "I love the forest." The stunt highlighted excessive logging and destruction of rare birds' habitat in the country's Bialowieza forest.
Russian forestry officials on Wednesday told the Interfax news agency there are 28 fires covering an area of 269 hectares in the Bryansk region, which was heavily polluted in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, raising afresh fears that radioactive dust could be swirled up into the wind.
AFP - Fires covering hundreds of hectares were recorded in Russia's Bryansk region on August 6, an area hit by contamination from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the state forest watchdog said Wednesday. "According to data from August 6, in the Bryansk region alone 28 fires covering an area of 269 hectares were recorded on these radioactive lands," on official from Roslesozaschita told the Interfax news agency. "There are maps of the (nuclear) contamination, there are maps of the fires. Anyone can put the two together. Why deny this information?" added the official.
In the early morning of 23 January 2009, the most powerful hurricane-force storm to hit France in a decade came howling in from the Bay of Biscay.With wind speeds of up to 125mph, cyclone Klaus struck land at the point of the estuary of the river Gironde, near Bordeaux, then charged south-east to Spain and across the Mediterranean to Italy. It left 26 people dead, flattened forests and power lines and caused massive destruction of buildings and roads.But it also left behind an extraordinary creation at the very point where its devastation began, causing the townsfolk of Royan, a fishing port situated at the mouth of the Gironde, to rub their eyes in disbelief.
In the early morning of 23 January 2009, the most powerful hurricane-force storm to hit France in a decade came howling in from the Bay of Biscay.
With wind speeds of up to 125mph, cyclone Klaus struck land at the point of the estuary of the river Gironde, near Bordeaux, then charged south-east to Spain and across the Mediterranean to Italy. It left 26 people dead, flattened forests and power lines and caused massive destruction of buildings and roads.
But it also left behind an extraordinary creation at the very point where its devastation began, causing the townsfolk of Royan, a fishing port situated at the mouth of the Gironde, to rub their eyes in disbelief.
The beets Surendra Pradhan and Helvi Heinonen-Tanski grew were perfectly lovely: round and hefty; with their skin a rich burgundy; their flavor sweet and faintly earthy, like the dirt from which they came. Unless someone told you, you'd never know the beets were fertilized with human urine. Pradhan and Heinonen-Tanski, environmental scientists at the University of Kuopio in Finland, grew the beets as an experiment in sustainable fertilization. They nourished the root vegetables with a combination of urine and wood ash, which they found worked as well as traditional mineral fertilizer. "It is totally possible to use human urine as a fertilizer instead of industrial fertilizer," says Heinonen-Tanski, whose research group has also used urine to cultivate cucumbers, cabbage and tomatoes. Recycling urine as fertilizer could not only make agriculture and wastewater treatment more sustainable in industrialized countries, the researchers say, but also bolster food production and improve sanitation in developing countries.
Pradhan and Heinonen-Tanski, environmental scientists at the University of Kuopio in Finland, grew the beets as an experiment in sustainable fertilization. They nourished the root vegetables with a combination of urine and wood ash, which they found worked as well as traditional mineral fertilizer.
"It is totally possible to use human urine as a fertilizer instead of industrial fertilizer," says Heinonen-Tanski, whose research group has also used urine to cultivate cucumbers, cabbage and tomatoes. Recycling urine as fertilizer could not only make agriculture and wastewater treatment more sustainable in industrialized countries, the researchers say, but also bolster food production and improve sanitation in developing countries.
Hat tip naked capitalism "Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char
And peeing on the lemon tree is such a part of the Aussie vernacular that they wrote songs about it.
I'm working my way through Fukuoka atm, quite interesting: http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/01aglibwelcome.html
Cameroon's environment minister on Wednesday accused a Dutch ship of dumping toxic waste off the Cameroonian coast. Environmentalists say western firms treat Africa as a "dustbin" for their dangerous waste. A statement by Environment Minister Pierre Hélé said the government had information that a ship called the NV Nashville was dumping waste off the coast of west Africa, but provided no details of its location or movement. The minister called on his counterparts in neighbouring countries to be on the lookout for any suspicious vessels. "Our friends in the west are very dangerous people," ministry official Benoît Bitjocka told AFP news agency.
A statement by Environment Minister Pierre Hélé said the government had information that a ship called the NV Nashville was dumping waste off the coast of west Africa, but provided no details of its location or movement.
The minister called on his counterparts in neighbouring countries to be on the lookout for any suspicious vessels.
"Our friends in the west are very dangerous people," ministry official Benoît Bitjocka told AFP news agency.
Anew peer-reviewed studyin the journalSciencehas concluded that world coal production will peak next year. The study finds that on a business-as-usual scenario of exploitation (i.e. without efforts to curb fossil fuel emissions), coal production from existing reserves "is predicted to occur close to the year 2011". After this year, the study warns, "production rates of coal" decline to 1990 levels by the year 2037, reaching "50% of the peak value in the year 2047." It's "unlikely" that any future discoveries of coal reserves will ameliorate this decline.The Science projections are a major blow to advocates of 'clean coal' technology as a viable solution to cutting CO2 emissions, simply because there is not enough to come anywhere near meeting world energy demand.
British energy giant BP said Wednesday it will begin deep-water exploration drilling off the Libyan coast some time before the end of this year. In late July, the company had said it would start drilling off the Libyan coast in a few weeks amid controversy over its 2007 deal with Tripoli and the oil firm's role in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. "We are working on the last details and we are talking now about the second half of the year," a BP spokesman said. The 2007 accord allows BP to drill five wells in the Gulf of Sirte at depths of around 1,700 metres (5,500 feet), slightly deeper than the ruptured Gulf of Mexico well which BP has only just managed to seal.
In late July, the company had said it would start drilling off the Libyan coast in a few weeks amid controversy over its 2007 deal with Tripoli and the oil firm's role in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
"We are working on the last details and we are talking now about the second half of the year," a BP spokesman said.
The 2007 accord allows BP to drill five wells in the Gulf of Sirte at depths of around 1,700 metres (5,500 feet), slightly deeper than the ruptured Gulf of Mexico well which BP has only just managed to seal.
French oil giant Total said on Wednesday it will begin work on four deep-water fields off Angola even as the IEA warned that uncertainty after the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico spill could put such projects at risk. Total said it will begin work on the Cravo, Liro, Orquidea and Violetta fields about 140 kilometres (90 miles) from the Angolan capital Luanda in water depths of between 1,000 and 1,400 metres (3,250 and 4,550 feet). The fields contain about 500 million barrels of oil, with production slated for 2014, Total said. They are grouped in an offshore bloc being developed by Total along with Norway's Statoil, Esso and British energy giant BP, which has just managed to seal the gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico after spending about six billion dollars to contain the worst US environmental disaster.
Total said it will begin work on the Cravo, Liro, Orquidea and Violetta fields about 140 kilometres (90 miles) from the Angolan capital Luanda in water depths of between 1,000 and 1,400 metres (3,250 and 4,550 feet).
The fields contain about 500 million barrels of oil, with production slated for 2014, Total said.
They are grouped in an offshore bloc being developed by Total along with Norway's Statoil, Esso and British energy giant BP, which has just managed to seal the gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico after spending about six billion dollars to contain the worst US environmental disaster.
The use of solar energy is still negligible, but the aim is for alternative power sources to expand significantly over the next decade. "The final price of equipment and materials will drop 20 percent, not just 13 percent," Rodrigo Salazar, general manager of Energy Solutions, a company that sells solar heaters, told IPS. This additional cut in costs will come from the elimination of the import tax on renewable energy equipment purchased by the sector's companies. Salazar believes the initiative will boost alternative energy equipment sales, which have been stagnant since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008. In the government's plans there is also room for another alternative source: bio-digesters. These are small plants that generate gas from cattle manure fermentation, and in addition to eliminating animal waste and generating energy, they produce bio-manure for use on crops. Rural and low-income communities have benefited the most from certain pilot programmes that have been underway for a number of years. An estimated 1,400 bio-digesters have been installed in Costa Rica. Their low cost and the fact that they are easy to install and maintain make them an attractive alternative. The village of Santa Fe, in Guatuso district, near the Nicaraguan border, has 10 bio-digesters, which were built four years ago at a cost of about 200 dollars each. With that investment, users save 15 dollars a month in gas for cooking and heating water. "It's innovative and environmentally-friendly," because it curbs pollution, deforestation, and "gets rid of animal dung," Xinia Montero, head of the Santa Fe Women's Group, told IPS. And it can also be considered a tourist attraction, as people "come from different countries to see how they work," Montero said.
