Sustainable Ecosystems and Community News - ENN

CO2 removing mechanism resumes in North Atlantic Ocean after a decade

Britain News — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:50:00 EST

London, Dec 1 : Scientists have determined that due to a dramatic loss of sea-ice in the Arctic during the summer of 2007, convective mixing in the North Atlantic Ocean, a mechanism that helps to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, has returned after a decade of near stagnation.

Amazon deforestation trend on the increase

WWF — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:37:00 EST

Brasilia, Brazil: Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon forests has flipped from a decreasing to an increasing trend, according to new annual figures released yesterday by the country's space agency INPE. Commenting on the figures, Brazilian environment minister Carlos Minc confirmed that the government will on Monday announce forest related carbon emission reduction targets, which will link halting deforestation to the national climate change campaign.

Warm winter 'major threat' to crops

China Daily — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:52:00 EST

Prolonged periods of drought resulting from China's 23rd consecutive "warm winter" will pose a serious threat to the country's crop yields, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said in a report published Tuesday. Some regions could experience droughts until the spring, the report said, adding that the warm weather might even continue until summer.

Of Speculative Bubbles, the Crisis in Finance, Corn & Ethanol

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:38:00 EST

Alternative energy and clean technology businesses and investors are rightfully concerned that the credit crisis and the utter and complete failure of a growing number of the nation's largest, most prominent banks and investment funds will severly restrict their access to private working and long-term capital. Some even expect that with oil prices falling to, even below, $50 a barrel, that the stage is set for a repeat of a pattern seen following the ending of the OPEC embargo of 1979-80 and disinflation that followed, namely interest in, and resources devoted to developing a more sified, decentralized and cleaner energy system built around renewables fading into obscurity.

Acidic seas threaten coral and mussels

http://www.independent.co.uk — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:06:00 EST

Rising carbon dioxide levels are increasing acidity in the oceans 10 times faster than scientists thought, posing a greater threat to shell-forming creatures such as coral and mussels. An eight-year project in the Pacific has found that rising marine acid levels will challenge many organisms, because their shell-making chemistry is critically dependent on a less acidic, more alkaline environment. The study monitored seawater pH levels at the north-east Pacific island of Tatoosh off Washington state in the United States.

Tibetan glaciers rapidly melting

http://www.abc.net.au — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:25:00 EST

Glaciers high in the Himalayas are dwindling faster than anyone thought, putting nearly a billion people living in South Asia in peril of losing their water supply. Throughout India, China, and Nepal, some 15,000 glaciers speckle the Tibetan Plateau. There, perched in thin, frigid air up to 7200 metres above sea level, the ice might seem secluded from the effects of global warming.

China: 100M could lose land to erosion -- survey

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:17:00 EST

As many as 100 million people in southwestern China could lose the land they depend on within 35 years if soil erosion continues at the current rate, according to a nationwide survey.