Environment
Obama steers clear of climate change talk in speech
Submitted by Earth News on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 19:46
ShareThisHill: President Obama’s State of the Union address outlines a series of energy proposals aimed at promoting renewable energy, but steers clear of a broad call to tackle climate change.
Obama speech makes only one direct reference to climate change.
UN conference returns to Rio with new emphasis
Submitted by Earth News on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 19:01
ShareThisAssociated Press: Representatives from around the world will be returning to Rio de Janeiro this June -- 20 years after the U.N. Earth Summit -- but this time the focus will be on sustainable development, not climate change, a Brazilian diplomat said Tuesday.
Suriname team find 46 new species
Submitted by Earth News on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 18:52
ShareThisBBC: An expedition to a tiny South American country has revealed more than 40 species that scientists believe to be new to science.
The expedition to the pristine tropical forests of Suriname was led by the charity Conservation International.
The collaboration between scientists, indigenous people and students recorded 1,300 species in total.
In Brazil, Fears of a Slide Back for Amazon Protection
Submitted by Earth News on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 18:02
ShareThisNew York Times: Brazil has made great strides in recent years in slowing Amazon deforestation and showing the world it was serious about protecting the mammoth rain forest.
Double agricultural research to help world's poorest: Bill Gates
Submitted by Earth News on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 17:36
ShareThisReuters: The world needs at least to double its spending on agricultural research if it is to produce reliable crops and improve the lives of the one billion people who battle starvation every day, Bill Gates said in an interview on Tuesday.
"Revolutionary" biofuels company raises $55.8m in funding round
Submitted by Earth News on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 17:05
ShareThisBusiness Green: A New Zealand company supplying biofuels to Virgin has raised US$55.8m in a funding round intended to accelerate the development of next-generation integrated biorefineries.
Photos: 46 new species found in little-explored Amazonian nation
Submitted by Earth News on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 17:02
ShareThisMongabay: South America's tiniest independent nation still hides a number of big surprises: a three week survey to the sourthern rainforests of Suriname found 46 potentially new species and recorded nearly 1,300 species in all.
Rainforest book honored
Submitted by Earth News on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 16:15
ShareThisAshland Daily Tidings: A scholastic book edited by forest ecologist Dominick DellaSala of Talent is included in the annual academic excellence list by Choice magazine, one of the nation's premier review journals for scholarly publications.
Not All Wetlands Are Created Equal
Submitted by Earth News on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 15:05
ShareThisNew York Times: To many, it’s a familiar scenario: a strip mall suddenly pops up in what was once a desolate quagmire or boggy boondock.
But people are coming to realize that these seemingly wasted plots where land meets water provide a valuable ecological service.
Arsenic cancer risk still high decades later in Chile region
Submitted by Earth News on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 11:40
ShareThisReuters: People exposed to very high levels of arsenic in Chilean drinking water back in the 1950s and 60s are still showing a higher-than-normal risk of bladder cancer -- years after the arsenic problem was brought under control, a new study shows.
The findings are not surprising, researchers say, since the cancer would take decades to emerge.
