Friday, April 18, 2008

ENN: Turtles: Canaries of Climate Change , World Facing Food Challanges, Green Fast Food? and Much More


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Friday, April 18, 2008
News of Note

At first blush many may ask "who'd want to eat a green hamburger?", but the truth is there's a growing market for green burgers, as well as fries, milkshakes, fajitas, pizza — all manor of fast food is, in fact, turning green.

Top Stories

A fast-unfolding food shortage is engulfing the entire world, driving food prices to record highs. Over the past half-century grain prices have spiked from time to time because of weather-related events, such as the 1972 Soviet crop failure that led to a doubling of world wheat, rice, and corn prices. The situation today is entirely different, however. The current doubling of grain prices is trend-driven, the cumulative effect of some trends that are accelerating growth in demand and other trends that are slowing the growth in supply.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Scientists studying the icy depths of the sea around Antarctica have detected changes in salinity that could have profound effects on the world's climate and ocean currents. The scientists returned to the southern Australian city of Hobart on Thursday after a one-month voyage studying the Southern Ocean to see how it is changing and what those changes might mean for global climate patterns.

The Borneo pygmy elephant may not be native to Borneo after all. Instead, the population could be the last survivors of the Javan elephant race – accidentally saved from extinction by the Sultan of Sulu centuries ago, a new publication suggests. The origins of the pygmy elephants, found in a range extending from the north-east of the island into the Heart of Borneo, have long been shrouded in mystery. Their looks and behaviour differ from other Asian elephants and scientists have questioned why they never dispersed to other parts of the island.

Just as canaries help miners monitor underground gases, marine turtles are emerging as excellent indicators of the effects of climate change. "Turtles are a really good way to study climate change because they depend on healthy beaches as well as mangroves, sea grass beds, coral reefs and deep ocean ecosystems to live", said Dr. Lucy Hawkes, coordinator of an initiative to develop adaptation strategies for climate change impacts to turtles.

ENN Spotlight

Counties in the main U.S. petrochemical and driving hubs top the country's output of the planet-warming gas carbon dioxide, emitting about three times more CO2 than the top county in New York does, researchers said on Thursday. Harris County in Texas emitted more than 18.6 million tons of CO2 in 2002, the latest year for which data was available, according to Vulcan, a three-year project funded by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy. The county is home to oil and natural gas plants and Houston, which has about 2 million people.

More Top Stories

Accellion, Inc today introduced a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly alternative to conventional shipping. The Accellion Green Digital Logistics Solution enables corporations to eliminate the traditional costs, time delays, security issues, and environmental concerns associated with physical delivery. Accellion Green provides corporate users with digital delivery at digital speeds, reduced costs and reduced CO2 emissions. "If you can make it digital, you can ship it via Accellion Green," said Yorgen Edholm, president and CEO of Accellion.

As the European Union works toward meeting its obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, switching from dirty, carbon-intensive coal to cleaner-burning natural gas has become a popular measure. At first glance, this makes perfect sense: Coal, particularly the kind still left in places like Germany, is highly polluting. Although widespread adoption of renewable energy is the ideal solution, wind, solar, and geothermal still have a ways to go before meeting European needs.

Sixty countries backed by the World Bank and most UN bodies yesterday called for radical changes in world farming to avert increasing regional food shortages, escalating prices and growing environmental problems. But in a move that has led to the US, UK, Australia and Canada not yet endorsing the report, the authors said GM technology was not a quick fix to feed the world's poor and argued that growing biofuel crops for automobiles threatened to increase worldwide malnutrition.

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Member Press Releases
By: Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council
The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council on April 14, 2008, in Honolulu upheld its vote made last month to close federal waters around American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands (CNMI) to purse seine fishing. By: The San Diego Zoo
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a pair of nene (Hawaiian goose) will be featured on the 2008-2009 Federal Junior Duck Stamp. The design for the new stamp, painted by 18-year-old Seokkyun Hong of Dallas, Texas, was chosen by a panel of judges Thursday at the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Design Contest held at the San Diego Zoo. By: Water Environment Research Foundation
It's been a problem since the first indoor toilets were installed – what do you do with the sewage? At the beginning, citizens had to step over rivers of waste flowing in the streets and over the land; then governments organized sanitary systems to pipe the sewage to rivers and oceans. By: The San Diego Zoo
Kilauea Volcano on the island of Hawai'i continues to cause seismic tremors, lava flow and toxic gas emissions. Despite this threat, a few miles down the slope from the crater, animal care staff at the San Diego Zoo's Keauhou Bird Conservation Center continue their efforts to save endangered species. By: The Trust for Public Land
The Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national nonprofit land conservation organization, said today that it will acquire for preservation the boyhood home of Alexander Hamilton on the island of St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. By: Center for Biological Diversity
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wednesday proposed a dramatic reduction in habitat designated as critical for the survival of the charismatic and declining San Bernardino kangaroo rat. The proposal would designate a total of only 10,658 acres of habitat, a 68-percent reduction from the current designation of 33,295 acres. By: International Fund for Animal Welfare
Today, marine mammal experts, representatives from federal and state agencies, and members of the Northeast Regional Stranding network are meeting for the annual event which this year is hosted by CCSN (Cape Cod Stranding Network) a project of IFAW (the International Fund for Animal Welfare), and the Mystic Aquarium. By: Healthy Child Healthy World
"Healthy Child Healthy World helps mothers and fathers connect the dots, to understand cause and effect. It tries to emphasize the healthful solutions, the positive, easy-to-follow steps you can take for your family, your home, yourself." -from the foreword by Meryl Streep

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