A major palm oil company has paid indigenous residents of Indonesian Papua $0.65 per hectare for forested land that will be worth $5,000 a hectare once cultivated, according to a report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). The EIA said that Moi indigenous landowners agreed to the land sale — at a price 7,000 times less than the land will eventually be worth. The clearing of Indonesia’s rain forest for palm oil plantations is having profound effects — threatening endangered species, upending the lives of indigenous people, and releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Tom Knudson writes. The planet’s seagrass meadows store more than twice as much carbon per square kilometer as forests, demonstrating that coastal vegetation can play an important role in mitigating climate change, a new study says. Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, a team of scientists calculated that coastal seagrass beds can store up to 83,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer, compared with 30,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer in typical forests... 
Good example of recent "technological" hazard event. The Prestige oil spill was an oil spill off the coast of Galicia caused by the sinking of an oil tanker in 2002. The spill polluted thousands of kilometers of coastline and more than one thousand beaches on the Spanish, French and Portuguese coast, as well as causing great harm to the local fishing industry. The spill is the largest environmental disaster of both Spain's history and Portugal's history. 
I really like this article because it seems almost more personal. Obviously the global effects of shipping food, such as pollution, are all many can talk about when arguing to eat locally. However I find that most people are out of sight out of mind kind of people and won't necessarily consider these risks important because they are not immediately affected. This article however makes some of the more personal, individual arguments for eating locally such as knowing what your local foods look like or how your surroundings look. Via Steph Dion, Seth Dixon, Ph.D. The 2012 hurricane season is underway. The “official” hurricane season is from 15 May to 30 November each year for Pacific coast storms, and from 1 June to 30 November for Atlantic storms, though most hurricane activity is concentrated in the months from July to September. Hurricanes are also known as typhoons or tropical cyclones... Despite this being an obvious question, there is no simple or generally accepted answer! According to Mexico’s tax authorities (SHCP), the nation’s financial system “gained” at least 10 billion dollars last year from unrecorded, presumably illicit, activities such as drug trafficking. North of the border, the US State Department believes that money laundering in Mexico accounts for between 8 billion and 25 billion dollars a year, while figures as high as 29 billion dollars have been offered in the US Congress. A recent report from researchers at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM) confirms that the height of the water table below Mexico City is dropping by about one meter a year, as more water is pumped out of the aquifer than the natural replenishment rate from rainfall. About 60% of Mexico City’s drinking water comes from wells, with the remainder piped into the city, mainly via the Cutzamala system. The researchers say that up to 65% more water is taken from some parts of the Mexico City aquifer than the amount replaced each year by natural recharge. There are many pollutants that are being produced and discarded on a daily basis. However, are these pollutants being properly disposed of?
Via Seth Dixon, Ph.D. 
"Back in August, Google announced that it was teaming up with nonprofit Foundation for a Sustainable Amazon to map a small section of the massive Rio Negro river (tributary of the Amazon) near Manaus." Virtual field trip, here we come! Via Mr. Biornstad, Lindsay Coogan, Seth Dixon, Ph.D. 
Food riots are breaking out abroad but Americans toss a lot of their food in the garbage.
What do you consider "garbage" when it comes to food? Take a look at what the average American family wastes each month, and think about where that food could have gone. Via Dale Fraza, Seth Dixon, Ph.D. Greenpeace video, ideal for starting discussion related to food security, farming technology, etc. "Genetic engineering is a threat to food security, especially in a changing climate. The introduction of genetically manipulated organisms by choice or by accident grossly undermines sustainable agriculture..." 
If you were to take all of the water on Earth — all of the fresh water, sea water, ground water, water vapor and water inside our bodies — take all of it and somehow collect it into a single,... Japan will shut down its last working nuclear power station this weekend, culminating — at least for now — a national shift away from nuclear energy in the aftermath of last year’s Fukushima disaster. The shutdown of the No. 3 Tomari reactor in Hokkaido will leave the country without nuclear power for the first time since 1970. |
A new study suggests that rivers may be funneling far more toxic mercury into the Arctic Ocean than previously believed, a finding that may portend even greater mercury concentrations in the future as the effects of climate change accelerate the region’s hydrological cycle. Despite the Arctic's remoteness, scientists have long known that mercury levels in Arctic mammals are among the highest on the planet, a factor largely attributed to mercury being deposited in the Arctic Ocean from the air. But according to Harvard scientists, circumpolar rivers — particularly three great Siberian rivers, the Lena, Ob, and Yenisei — may be contributing twice as much mercury as the atmosphere. 
Although there is an urban legend that the world will end this year based on a misinterpretation of the Mayan calendar, some researchers think a 40-year-old computer program that predicts a collapse of socioeconomic order and massive drop in human... Via Cathryn Wellner 
The government of Laos has taken the unique step of stating its ambition to graduate from the UN list of Least Developed Countries (LDC) by 2020. Via Paola Rattu This satire provide a critique of the political, economic and environmental actions of Shell oil in the Niger Delta region. The biting commentary highlights the obvious lies that have been told by Shell over the years while their company has been ravaging the Niger Delta. Via John Peterson, Seth Dixon, Ph.D. 
Much recent attention in the USA and Mexico has focused on the allegations of bribery related to Wal-Mart de México. This article looks at the diffusion of Wal-Mart stores across Mexico. Recent news reports allege that this aggressive growth may have been facilitated by payments of bribes to expedite construction permits. As of March 2012, Walmex was operating no fewer than 2,106 retail units throughout Mexico. They include 127 Sam’s Clubs, 213 Walmart Supercenters, 94 Suburbias, 385 Bodega Aurreras, 88 Superamas, 358 VIPS and El Portón restaurants, and over 840 Bodega Aurrera Expresses and other small outlets. 
Mexico’s 3P (proven, probable and possible) reserves remained unchanged last year (2011) as new discoveries, mainly in the Chicontepec field, offset oil extraction. The Chicontepec field alone holds about 17,000 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), almost 40% of Mexico’s total 3P reserves of more than 43 million BOE (see graph). Mexico’s total 3P reserves are sufficient for about 32 years at current rates of extraction. 
One of the more beautiful, unusual and useful map projections ever devised was created by cartographer Bernard Cahill. 
"In 1979, the National Population and Family Planning Commission in China enacted an ambitious program that called for strict population control. Families in various urban districts are urged to have only one child—preferably a son—in order to solve the problems related to overpopulation. What has happened since then and what are its implications for the future of China?" This is an excellent infographic for understanding population dynamics in the world's most populous country. Via Seth Dixon, Ph.D.
With melting sea ice opening up previously inaccessible parts of the Arctic Ocean, the fishing industry sees a potential bonanza. But some scientists and government officials have begun calling for a moratorium on fishing in the region until the true state of the Arctic fishery is assessed. 
A $1 billion (£620 million) 'ghost town' is to be built in the United States in the name of scientific research. 
Richard Kozul-Wright: Inclusive growth in the global south will depend on creating strong domestic demand and providing a favourable investment climate... All developing regions have enjoyed faster growth since 2002, with particular attention focused on the performance of larger countries. A string of acronyms, most notably Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), has animated the idea of a "great convergence" as incomes in the global south are projected to rapidly catch those in the slow-growing north. Whether austerity will help the north get back on its feet is debatable, but for the south "business as usual" is the wrong advice... A new U.S. study says that Greenland’s glaciers are sliding into the sea more slowly than previously estimated, a finding that may indicate future sea level rise will not be as high as some projected worst-case scenarios. Using satellite data to track changes to 200 outlet glaciers from 2000 to 2011, a team of scientists calculated that Greenland’s glaciers accelerated by an average of 30 percent during the decade — a significant amount but not as rapidly as feared. |
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