Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Hope everyone celebrated Earth Day today!

"Earth Day is the first completely international and universal holiday that the world has ever known, Every other holiday was tied to one place, or some political or special event. This day is tied to Earth itself, and to the place of Earth in the whole solar system."

Anthropologist Margaret Mead, 1977

Earth Pictures, Images and Photos

G8 looks to greener White House to lead on global warming

SYRACUSE, Italy (AFP) – The environment ministers of rich and emerging nations were looking Wednesday to Washington for new leadership at talks in Sicily on combatting global warming.

"We are all encouraged by the new position of the United States," Italian host Stefania Prestigiacamo said as the three-day meeting kicked off. "It is an important signal on the issues of the environment and technology."

The start of the talks coincided with Earth Day, an occasion US President Barack Obama used to launch a push for historic climate change legislation in the United States.

"The American people are ready to be part of a mission," Obama said in a speech in the Midwestern state of Iowa.

The United States is jockeying with China for the dubious distinction of the world's number one carbon polluter.

Green and humanitarian groups at the Sicily talks were also hopeful over the new US administration's green overtures after Obama's predecessor George W. Bush rejected the Kyoto Treaty on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"The involvement of the United States gives some new opportunities for agreement," said Kim Carstensen, director of Worldwide Fund for Nature's Global Climate Initiative. "The United States is willing to engage," he told AFP.

Carstensen warned however: "It's not a done deal that a progressive American stance will just be accepted. There will be a lot of political fighting inside the United States."

The three-day meeting at Syracuse's medieval Castello Maniace brings together countries responsible for more than 40 percent of the world's carbon gas emissions.

The administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, was expected in Syracuse on Thursday on her first international trip in the job.

Last week, in a landmark turnaround that could impact US climate change regulation, Jackson's EPA deemed carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases a health risk.

The move marks a significant shift on climate change from the Bush administration, which failed to heed EPA warnings on the possibly devastating consequences of inaction.

The British charity Oxfam said Wednesday that if the G8 failed to take the lead in the fight against global warming it would endanger hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

"We have reached a crossroads, and rich countries get to choose the route we all take," said Antonio Hill, a senior policy advisor for Oxfam.

"One route leads us out of today's economic and climate crises and towards a low carbon future; the other spells disaster for hundreds of millions of people across the globe," he said.

"We need governments to raise their game," said Oxfam International Executive Director Jeremy Hobbs, calling on wealthy countries to provide at least 50 billion dollars (38.5 billion euros) a year to help poor countries adapt to unavoidable climate change.

The G8 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

The G8 is one of several forums on the way to a UN meeting in Copenhagen in December aimed at sealing an international pact for curbing greenhouse gases beyond 2012, when Kyoto expires.

The United Nations' top climate change official, Yvo de Boer, said: "Between today and Copenhagen we have to make concrete progress, and at a high level."

The G8 ministers have been joined by their counterparts from China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, South Africa, South Korea and Egypt.

The Czech Republic -- current holder of the rotating European Union presidency -- plus the European Commission and Denmark as host of the upcoming Copenhagen conference are also attending the talks.

The Bush administration maintained that Kyoto would be too costly for American businesses to implement and demanded that developing countries should do more.

The UN goal is either to halve emissions compared with a benchmark year, or to peg temperature increases below 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial times.

Source: AFP

President Obama talks about the development of clean energy on Earth Day

Obama pushes for more 'green' jobs

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Photo of the Day: President Obama and Clinton plant a tree



President Barack Obama watches as former President Bill Clinton plants a tree at Kenilworth Aquatic Garden in Washington as part of a national service project.
AP Photo.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Manatees die at alarming rate


Manatee deaths in South Florida baffling
By DAVID FLESHLER

Sun-Sentinel

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Six manatees were killed by watercraft in Palm Beach County in 2008, a figure that ties the county record and mystifies conservation officials who had put more police on the water to protect the endangered mammals.

The county's total falls well below the death toll elsewhere, such as that in state leader Lee County, which had 14 deaths. But it follows two years in which no manatees were killed in Palm Beach County and is only the third time the number has been that high.

...

No one knows how many manatees live in Florida, but aerial surveys generally count about 3,000.

Enormous resources have been devoted to protecting them, as scientists research red tide, police patrol for speeding boats and government agencies protect coastal habitats. Tripp said the 30-year protection effort preserves many of the environmental assets that originally drew people to Florida.

"When you protect manatees, you protect seagrass flats," Tripp said. "When you protect manatees, you protect water quality. When you protect manatees, you protect springs. When you protect manatees, you protect all of coastal Florida."


Read the rest of the story here.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Photo of the Day: Andean condor


Above, veterinarians check over a five-month-old, female Andean condor named Sierra at the Denver Zoo to prepare the bird to be transferred to the White Oak Conservation Center in Yulee, Fla. The condor will be eventually released into the Colombian Andes in late 2009 or early 2010.(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Monday, January 5, 2009

Jaguar cub named


Results are in: Maya is the chosen name for the Palm Beach Zoo's 2-month old female jaguar cub.
The name was selected through a naming contest organized by the zoo and The Palm Beach Post.
According to The Post's Cubcam page, readers cast a total of 2,459 votes. Out of the five names, Maya received 1,219.
The word "Maya" is of Sanskrit origin and means "illusion."
Learn more.