Top 10 Environmental News Headlines of the Week, no. 3
Top international environmental news for during the week of April 6 - 13:
Europe — World’s first commercial tidal turbine installed (EcoGeek)
“The world’s first commercial tidal turbine has been installed in its home in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough.
Though it has yet to be turned on, it will be the first commercial power-producing tidal generator when it is (sometime later this year). The turbine has two 16 meter-wide rotors and will be able to run for 18-20 hours a day. The turbine was installed off the coast in an area known for fast moving waters, and because the rotors will only spin 10-20 times in a minute, it is unlikely to disturb marine life.”
Source: EcoGeek. Hot in media: Digg EcoGeek, Digg TimesOnline.
Africa — Tree-Nation (Tree-Nation)
“Tree-Nation is an ecological project with a focused objective: To plant 8 million trees in Niger, Africa to fight desertification! Large-scale plantation of trees will increase the land’s productivity and re-generate the soil.
Tree-nation is an online community in which you can buy your own tree and become the guardian of a real and happy tree that we will plant in our park in Niger.
Our objective is two-fold. Primarily environmental, but also closely linked to the humanitarian aid that it will provide in the long term. The project will benefit local populations in terms of welfare, education and farming practices. And that’s not all.”
Source: Tree-Nation. Hot in media: Care2.
Middle East — 1,000 acres of giant solar mirrors to rise in Israel’s desert, finally (Solve Climate)
“After seven years of dead-end negotiations, Israel will soon turn 1,000 acres in the Negev Desert into giant solar thermal stations.
The $700 million enterprise will comprise two plants to supply 250 megawatts of power in total, equal to 2.5 percent of the nation’s electricity needs.
When the plants come online in 2011, the project will be one of the biggest concentrating solar power (CSP) operations in the world. It will be a lucrative deal for the chosen builder, and an international bidding frenzy over who gets the contract could be just around the corner.”
Source: Solve Climate. Hot in media: Digg.
Asia — Should recycling be mandatory? (EcoWorldly)
“Should recycling be a feel-good choice or a legal requirement? CNN and EcoWorldly compare recycling in South Korea and the United States of America. Take a look at some of the benefits that South Korea has reaped as a country through its successful recycling program.
Source: Ecoworldly, CNN. Hot in media: MindBodyGreen.
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Oceania — Man uses hedgehog as deadly weapon (Environmental Graffiti)
“A man from Wellington, New Zealand has done something that I’m certain I would never see outside of a video game: picked up a hedgehog and thrown it at another person.
William Sighalargh, apparently out of other options to express his displeasure with a 15-year old boy who was several yards away, picked up the nearby creature and heaved it, striking the victim in the leg. He has been arrested for assault with a deadly weapon - but as of yet no animal cruelty statutes have been invoked.”
Source: Environmental Graffiti. Hot in Media: Digg Environmental Graffiti, Digg BBC.
South America — Galapogos Islands go green (NECN)
“It was a tough assignment: figure out how to bring renewable energy to one of the most environmentally sensitive places on the planet. That place is the Galapagos Islands — home to a large number of rare and endangered animals. Those animals are threatened by increased tourism and a growth of island residents.
An engineer in Maine took on the challenge of saving them by bringing in wind power. Jim Tolan is back at his engineering firm in Portland, Maine, but for the last five years he’s spent much of his time working to bring wind power to the islands.”
South America — In Brazil, Violence Looms at the Forest Edge (ENN)
“In Mato Grosso, as in other parts of the Amazon, the rapid expansion of agriculture is triggering mounting tensions between locals and environmental authorities. Satellite imagery released in January showed that as much as 2,700 square miles (4,345 kilometers) of the massive Brazilian Amazon was cleared between August and December of 2007-about 60 percent more land than during the same five months in 2006. Experts attribute the rising deforestation to growth in global meat consumption, which is driving soybean and beef production, and to a lesser extent to the boom in biofuels, which is reportedly pushing cattle ranchers off conventional farmlands and deeper into the Amazon.”
North America — Canada unleashes first carbon tax in N. America (Gas 2.0)
“British Columbia will be the first in North America to institute a comprehensive carbon tax on nearly all fossil fuels. It’s a groundbreaking move that could prove the feasibility of taxing greenhouse-gas emissions.
Beginning July 1st, 2008, businesses and residents of British Columbia will be taxed $10 per metric ton of carbon emitted by fuels such as gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, propane, and home heating fuel. The tax will increase yearly by $5 per ton to $30 per ton in 2012, at which point the government will reevaluate the tax rate.”
Source: Gas 2.0. Hot in the media: Stumble Upon.
World — Earth in crisis, warns NASA’s top climate scientist (Physorg)
“Global warming has plunged the planet into a crisis and the fossil fuel industries are trying to hide the extent of the problem from the public, NASA’s top climate scientist says.
‘We’ve already reached the dangerous level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,’ James Hansen, 67, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, told AFP here.
‘But there are ways to solve the problem’ of heat-trapping greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which Hansen said has reached the ‘tipping point’ of 385 parts per million.”
Space — Space is full of crap (Gizmodo)
“The European Space Agency has just released images showing all the satellites and human-made debris now orbiting space as a result of 51 years of launching stuff since Sputnik. That’s about 6,000 satellites up there—of which only 800 remain operational—plus thousands of other objects from launches and accidents. According to their mindblowing simulations things are getting a lot worse:
About 50 percent of all trackable objects are due to in-orbit explosion events (about 200) or collision events (less than 10).”
Read all weekly top international environmental news reviews.
Plus, did you know? This week, April 7, was World Health Day! It was also intercultural & anti-racism week in North and South Ireland.
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