Minnesota Department of Natural Resources voices concern over declining moose population; Michigan’s Isle Royale declining population linked to increasingly hotter summer temperatures
As recently as 2003, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported that, “Wildlife managers have concerns over both of Minnesota’s moose populations” in the northwest and northeast portions of the state. Read More…
Climate change and rising food prices are some of the factors leading to the rise in global displacement to 11.4 million refugees worldwide-up from 9.9 million last year, according to a recent report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The International Federation of Red Cross says climate change disasters are currently a bigger cause of population displacement than war and persecution.
The global impact of the environment on human livelihoods is creating a new kind of casualty - the environmental refugee. Rising sea levels, increasing desertification, weather-induced flooding, and more frequent natural disasters have and will increasingly become a major cause of population displacement in several parts of the world.
2009 is expected to be one of the top-five warmest years on record, despite continued cooling of huge areas of the tropical Pacific Ocean, a phenomenon known as La Niña, according to British climate scientists from the UK-based Met Office.
According to scientists at the Met Office and the University of East Anglia the global temperature is forecast to be more than 0.4 °C (about 1 °F) above the long-term average. This would make 2009 warmer than 2008 and the warmest since 2005.
During La Niña, cold waters rise to the surface to cool the ocean and land surface temperatures. The 2009 forecast includes an updated decade period forecast using a climate model that indicates a rapid return of global temperature to the long-term warming trend, with an increasing probability of record temperatures after 2009.
Increasing production of advanced biofuels to meet or exceed the goals of the United States’ Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) can significantly reduce its reliance on petroleum, says the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). These comments were made by Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO’s Industrial and Environmental Section in reference to yesterday’s (December 25) release by the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) 2009 Energy Outlook.
New technologies will permit rapid decarbonization of the world energy economy in the next two decades, according to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute. These new energy sources will make it possible to retire hundreds of coal-fired power plants that now provide 40 percent of the world’s power by 2030, eliminating up to one-third of global carbon dioxide emissions while creating millions of new jobs.
“We no longer need to say ‘in the future’ when talking about a low-carbon energy system,” says Christopher Flavin, President of Worldwatch and author of the report, Low-Carbon Energy: A Roadmap. “These technologies-unlike carbon-capture facilities-are being deployed now and are poised to make the most carbon-intensive fossil fuels obsolete.”
Green had a great run. But it’s dead. I look at the news, and I can just feel the conflicting currents.
Everything was gung ho for a while in the green movement. It had a great run from 2005 until 2008, and then it died. That’s right: the green movement died. It’s dead. Completely and utterly a carcass. It’s gone. Say bye bye.
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