EU votes to criminalise pollution at sea

EurActiv, May 6, 2009

The European Parliament yesterday (5 May) adopted a new directive that forces EU countries to introduce criminal penalties for maritime pollution, whether caused deliberately or by negligence. At their plenary session in Strasbourg, MEPs adopted the new directive by 588 votes in favour and 42 against, amid three abstentions.
The directive introduces compulsory criminal sanctions for serious cases of maritime pollution, and also forces member states to impose stringent penalties for minor cases if they are repeated, deliberately caused or the result of serious negligence. Read more...

Wind Power Increase in 2008 Exceeds 10-year Average Growth Rate

WorldWatch Institute, May 7, 2009

Global wind capacity increased an estimated 27,051 megawatts in 2008, ending the year at 120,798 megawatts. With cumulative installations up almost 29 percent, the growth rate exceeded the annual average of the past decade. Wind power accounted for 42 percent of new capacity additions in the United States (second only to natural gas for the fourth year running) and for 36 percent of new installations in Europe. The wind now generates more than 1.5 percent of the world's electricity, up from 0.1 percent in 1997. Around the world, 80 countries are now using wind power on a commercial basis. Read more...

Australia delays emissions scheme

BBC News, May 4, 2009

The Australian government says it will push back a planned carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) by a year. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the delay was necessary because of the poor economic climate.
Australia has the highest per capita emissions in the developed world and coal is its biggest export. Read more...

Grey Wolf Taken Off Endangered List

ENN, May 5, 2009

The grey wolf was Monday taken off the U.S. list of endangered species, making a comeback 35 years after it virtually disappeared and can now be hunted in most states, officials said.
"We have recovered a wolf population," said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, based in Montana.
"The populations are viable, they are in great shape, they have extreme genetic diversity and so the endangered species act did its job to bring wolves back." Read more...

EU seal ban raises trade tensions with Canada

EurActiv, May 6, 2009

The European Union and Canada clashed on Tuesday after EU lawmakers voted to ban imports of seal products into the 27-nation bloc, prompting Ottawa to threaten action in the world's top trade court.
"If the ban adopted by the European Parliament fails to exempt humane and sustainable sealing, Canada pledged to launch a challenge at the World Trade Organisation, the global trade watchdog. If the EU imposes a trade ban on seal products it must contain an exemption for any country, like Canada, that has strict guidelines in place for humane and sustainable sealing practices," Canada's Trade Minister Stockwell Day said. Read more...

Have a look at Canada's 'humane...sealing practices'...

Καθαρότερα καύσιμα στην Καλιφόρνια

ΕΡΤ, 24 Απριλίου 2009

Ένα ιστορικό νόμο για την περικοπή των εκπομπών διοξειδίου του άνθρακα από τα καύσιμα των αυτοκινήτων με παράλληλη ώθηση της αγοράς προς τα καθαρότερά εναλλακτικά καύσιμα, υιοθέτησε η Καλιφόρνια. Στον πυρήνα της ρύθμισης είναι οι νέες προδιαγραφές που απαιτούν από τα διυλιστήρια, τους παραγωγούς και τους εισαγωγείς των καυσίμων κίνησης να μειώσουν την περιεκτικότητα του άνθρακα κατά 10% έως το 2020 και περισσότερο αργότερα. Διαβάστε περισσότερα...

Pet Trade Introduces Diseases, Costs

Discovery Channel, April 30, 2009

by Emily Sohn

April 30, 2009 -- Invasive species are putting major strains on our environment, our pocketbooks and our health, new studies suggest, and our nation's demand for exotic pets may be to blame.
Between 2000 and 2006, the United States imported nearly 1.5 billion live animals from 190 countries, mostly for sale as pets, according to a paper published today in the journal Science. Eighty percent of those animals came from wild populations. And nearly 70 percent of them came from Southeast Asia, a known hotspot for emerging diseases that, like the swine flu, can jump from animals to people. Read more...

U.S. Wind Power Industry Installs More Than 2,800 MW in Q1 2009

ENN, April 30, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The wind energy industry in the United States installed 2,836 megawatts of new generating capacity through the end of March, bringing total installed generating capacity in the country to 28,206 MW, the American Wind Energy Association announced. Read more...

Central Asia fails in water talks

BBC News, April 28, 2009

The leaders of the five Central Asian states have failed to agree on the best way to share their water. They signed a compromise statement that did not mention water sharing, concentrating instead on the decline in the level of the Aral Sea. Correspondents say that a deal on water usage is key to regional stability. Read more...

Plastic Bag Makers Aim for 40 Percent Recycled Content in 2015

ENN, April 27, 2009

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Plastic bag manufacturers working with the American Chemistry Council have set a goal to increase the recycled content of plastic bags to 40 percent by 2015.
The Full Circle Recycling Initiative, developed by the Progressive Bag Affiliates of the American Chemistry Council, would require a $50 million investment from industry members to increase the collection of bags and update manufacturing processes. Read more...

Eco-Islam: Malaysia's Imams to preach against poaching

ENN, April 14, 2009

Malaysia's Muslim preachers have been enlisted in the fight for wildlife conservation, using passages from the Koran to raise awareness and help protect some of the world's most endangered species.
After a successful campaign last year, when more than 400 mosques in the state of Terengganu held sermons focusing on turtle conservation issues, WWF decided to extend the project to support efforts to tackle poaching. Read more...

Is Local Food Better?

by Sarah DeWeerdt

WolldWatch Institute, May/June issue, 2009

In 1993, a Swedish researcher calculated that the ingredients of a typical Swedish breakfast-apple, bread, butter, cheese, coffee, cream, orange juice, sugar-traveled a distance equal to the circumference of the Earth before reaching the Scandinavian table. In 2005, a researcher in Iowa found that the milk, sugar, and strawberries that go into a carton of strawberry yogurt collectively journeyed 2,211 miles (3,558 kilometers) just to get to the processing plant. As the local-food movement has come of age, this concept of "food miles" (or "-kilometers")-roughly, the distance food travels from farm to plate-has come to dominate the discussion, particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom, and parts of Western Europe. Read more...

Plastic Found in One-Third of Leatherback Turtles

Discovery Channel, 09 April, 2009

A new study looked at necropsy reports of more than 400 leatherbacks that have died since 1885 and found plastic in the digestive systems of more than a third of the animals. Besides plastic bags, the turtles had swallowed fishing lines, balloon fragments, spoons, candy wrappers and more. Plastic was probably not the cause of death in most cases. Read more...

UN's State Of The World's Forests Reveals Deforestation Is Speeding Up

ENN, April 07, 2009

Despite the alarming conclusions of the UN's latest State of the World's Forests, the mainstream media has devoted surprisingly little attention to the report. Snowed under by other news developments as it may have been, global deforestation is by no means insignificant. It's taking place at shocking rates, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)'s bi-annual report reveals. Read more...

Sports Arenas Go Green

Environmental Leader, April 08, 2009

Office and government buildings aren’t the only structures going green; two sports arenas — the Philips Arena and the American Airlines Arena — have met the requirements of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.
Philips Arena, home to the Atlanta Thrashers, is the first NBA or NHL arena to achieve LEED certification for an existing facility, reported NHL.com. The facility meets LEED for Existing Building: Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EB: O&M) certification. Read more...

A first glimpse at 2008 emissions trading data

EEA, April 03, 2009

The European Environment Agency (EEA) is launching a revamped version of its EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) data viewer, allowing users to retrieve easily the latest greenhouse gas emissions covered by the EU ETS up to 2008. Data available as of 1st April 2009 covers more than 80 % of the emissions encompassed within the EU ETS. Read more...

Shampoo in the water supply triggers growth of deadly drug-resistant bugs

ENN, March 29, 2009

The warning has been made by Birmingham and Warwick university scientists, who say disinfectants and other products washed into sewers and rivers are triggering the growth of drug-resistant microbes. Soil samples from many areas have been found to contain high levels of bacteria with antibiotic-resistant genes, the scientists have discovered - raising fears that these may have already been picked up by humans. Read more...

EU pesticide ban 'will harm malaria control'

ENN, March 26, 2009

Hopes of overturning a European Union (EU) pesticides ban that scientists believe could hamper malaria control in developing countries have been dashed.
The United Kingdom said last week that it had failed to get support from other EU countries for an assessment of the impact of removing a range of pesticides from use.
More than 160 leading public health scientists signed a petition against the ban before the European Parliament voted in favour of restrictions on the pesticides in January, by 557 votes to 61.

Should the 27 governments of the EU states ratify the decision at an agriculture ministers' meeting expected to take place in May or June this year, the ban would come into effect from 2014. Read more...

Nearly a third of U.S. bird species in trouble

ENN, March 20, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly one-third of all U.S. bird species are endangered, threatened or in significant decline, with birds in Hawaii facing a "borderline ecological disaster," scientists reported on Thursday.
The State of the Birds report, issued by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar along with conservation groups and university ornithologists, also noted some successes, including the recovery of the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon and other species after the banning of the chemical DDT. Read more...

Παγίδα για τα άγρια ζώα η Εγνατία

ΤΑ ΝΕΑ, 24 Μαρτίου 2009

Παγίδα θανάτου για τα άγρια ζώα αποδεικνύεται η Εγνατία. Μετά τις αρκούδες που πέφτουν θύματα τροχαίων, ένας λύκος χτυπήθηκε επίσης από διερχόμενο αυτοκίνητο στην περιοχή Γρεβενών. Ένας αρσενικός λύκος παρασύρθηκε στην Εγνατία αφού είχε μπει στον αυτοκινητόδρομο υπερπηδώντας τον προστατευτικό φράχτη, ο οποίος σύμφωνα με τις περιβαλλοντικές οργανώσεις δεν έχει το κατάλληλο ύψος και ταυτόχρονα δεν είναι καλά στερεωμένος, με αποτέλεσμα τα άγρια ζώα να τον διαπερνούν και ο πληθυσμός τους να αποδεκατίζεται. Διαβάστε περισσότερα...