Ecology — GuardiansPress

Plant A Tree In The Fall For Shade In Years To Come

July 8, 2011 by admin ·

The hot summer weather may have home owners thinking about trees, but experts say now’s not the best time to plant them.

If you can, wait until fall because fall trees do better, said Brian Jervis, horticulture extension educator with Tulsa Master Gardeners.

A 3- to 6-inch layer of mulch and daily water are important to helping keep any plant healthy in this heat, he said.

Jervis recommends home owners plant trees in September, October or November.

If home owners or landscapers must plant trees now, Jervis said, keeping the root ball intact is critical. Trees can’t pull up the necessary moisture if the root ball is broken. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ecology, Environment, Nature ·

Biodiversity: It’s The Ecology, Stupid

May 11, 2011 by admin ·

At every level, human civilisation is underwritten by the planet’s countless and still mostly unidentified wild things

The water we drink falls as rain, usually on higher ground, often designated as a catchment area. The terrain would ideally be covered in vegetation, because otherwise the runoff would be muddy, the reservoirs would silt up and the valleys would flood. But plants depend on billions of insects to pollinate them. Insects also devour foliage, so forests depend on birds by day and bats by night to keep insect populations under control. To prevent a population crash, there must also be raptors to keep the insectivores in order – and the taps running. At every level, human civilisation is underwritten by the planet’s countless and still mostly unidentified wild things – the jargon word is biodiversity – that pollinate our crops, cleanse, conserve and recycle our water, maintain oxygen levels, and deliver all the things on which human comfort, health, and security depend. Economists and conservationists have tried to put a value on the services of nature: if we had to buy what biodiversity provides for nothing, how much cash would we need? The answer runs into trillions, but the question is nonsensical. Without healthy ecosystems, there would be no cotton and linen to make banknotes and no bread or clean water for sale. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate Change, Ecology, Nature ·

Fear Biggest Danger For Thousands

March 17, 2011 by admin ·

AFTER past nuclear accidents, fear has proved to be as big a killer as radiation – especially for those whose exposure was mild.

After the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, 1250 of the workers called in to deal with it later killed themselves out of fear of the consequences for themselves or their children.

An extensive study of the health aftermath of the disaster was carried out in 2005 by the Chernobyl Forum, made up of scientists from Europe, the UN, the World Health Organisation and the Food and Agricultural Organisation, the International Labor Organisation and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The forum’s task was to study all available epidemiological data to measure the levels of death, disease and economic damage caused by Chernobyl. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ecology, Nuclear Facility, Research & Study ·

Farmers To Get Rice-Growing Advice Via Text Messages

July 10, 2010 by admin ·

Farmers in the “texting capital” of the world—the Philippines—will soon have nutrient management advice tailored specifically to their rice crops delivered to their mobile phones.

Dr. Roland Buresh, part of the International Rice Research (IRRI) team that has joined the Philippine Department of Agriculture to establish the system, says that after responding to a series of simple questions about their rice paddy, farmers would receive an automated text reply recommending what amounts, sources, and timings of fertilizer are needed for profitable rice production in their paddy.

In Rice Today July–September 2010, Buresh explains the technology and what they hope to achieve.

In Cambodia, farmers are further advancing technology adoption of mechanical harvesters and dryers, better storage techniques, among other postharvest technologies. In this issue, we hear how the technologies are spreading and being embraced by Cambodian rice farmers to reduce labor, save money and time, and improve the quantity and quality of grain available at the end of the day. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Crop Protection, Ecology, Technologies ·

Forest Plan Gets The Ax At UN Climate Talks

December 20, 2009 by admin ·

A plan to protect the world’s biologically rich tropical forests by paying poor nations to protect them was shelved Saturday after world leaders failed to agree on a binding deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Burning trees to clear land for plantations or cattle ranches and logging forests for wood is blamed for about 20 percent of the world’s emissions. That’s as much carbon dioxide as all the world’s cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships combined.

About 32 million acres (13 million hectares) of forests are cut down each year , an area about the size of England or New York State , and the emissions generated are comparable to those of China and the United States, according to the Eliasch Review.

Deforestation for logging, cattle grazing and crops has made Indonesia and Brazil the world’s third- and fourth-biggest carbon emitters, after China and the United States.

All that made the failure of the forest project even more stinging.

“No treaty means that forest destruction will continue unabated, forest-dependent peoples’ rights will not be protected and endangered species will continue down the path to extinction,” said Stephen Leonard of the Australian Orangutan Project.

“REDD gets punted along for another year,” said Kevin Conrad, executive director of the Coalition of Rainforest Nations, which includes many of the 40 tropical countries that would take part in the program.

“It’s depressing,” he said. “It means I’ve got to spend another year … coming to meetings and talking about the same things.”

But others said even without the legal framework, the forest program known as REDD , for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation , did benefit from the talks. World leaders at the U.N. talks in Copenhagen did agree to spend $30 billion over the next three years and $100 billion by 2020 to help poor nations , and some of that money could go toward the forest program.

“The failure to conclude a comprehensive agreement on forests is disappointing,” said Michael Levi, senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations. “But if developed countries can deliver the $100 billion per year aimed for in the broader Copenhagen Accord, there is little doubt that a large part of that will go to help preserve forests.”

REDD would be financed either by wealthy nations or by a carbon-trading mechanism , a system in which each country would have an emissions ceiling, allowing those who undershoot it to sell their emissions credits to over-polluters.

Reducing tropical deforestation is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to reduce emissions, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Two years ago, Norway announced it would commitment $500 million annually to reduce deforestation at a climate summit in Bali.

“Now the United States has shown that it is willing to play in the same league,” said Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists. By Michael Casey, Philadelphia Daily News.

Filed Under: Climate Change, Ecology, Environment ·

Turkmen-China Gas Pipeline Nearly Operational; China’s President To Attend Inauguration

December 10, 2009 by admin ·

A natural gas pipeline linking Turkmenistan and China is nearly operational and President Hu Jintao will attend an inauguration ceremony during a visit to the central Asian nation this weekend, a senior Chinese diplomat said Thursday.

The 1,833-kilometer (1,139-mile) Turkmenistan-China pipeline cuts through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan into China’s far western Xinjiang region.

It will eventually be able to bring 30 billion cubic meters of gas annually from gas-rich Turkmenistan, undercutting Russia’s near-lock on gas supplies in that former Soviet region.

State leaders from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will also take part in the ceremony marking the completion of one of two pipelines making up the project, said Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya at a briefing in Beijing. The other line is expected to be finished in 2011.

“An important part of our economic and trade cooperation with Central Asia includes projects in the energy field,” said Zhang Xiyun, head of the foreign ministry’s department for European-Central Asian affairs.

“Our completed projects have begun yielding positive results and there will be continued cooperation between the two sides in the energy field and there is still more room for further growth,” Zhang told reporters, without giving specifics. Hu will visit Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan from Saturday to Monday, Wang said. Star Tribune

Filed Under: Ecology, Energy, Environment ·

Legislative Support For Lakes Urged

November 3, 2009 by admin ·

Senior legislator Chen Zhili yesterday called for greater legislative powers to stop pollution in lakes and to prevent lakes from disappearing.

Chen, vice-chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, made the comment in an address to the 13th World Lake Conference that opened yesterday in Wuhan, known as “the City of 100 Lakes”.

Chen called for the establishment of lake protection laws and strict supervision of industrial, agricultural and household waste.

Facilities such as highly-contaminating paper mills and chemical plants should get special attention, she said.

Lakes, a key part of the ecological balance, remain fragile in the face of rapid industrialization and increasing human activity.

The serious contamination and reduction of lakes in turn threatens people’s living environment, she said.

China has more than 24,800 natural lakes. However, an average of 20 lakes disappear every year, and about 88 percent of the lakes suffer from poor water quality, she said.

Hubei province, once known as “a province with 1,000 lakes,” has less than 2,500 sq km of lakes left, about 34 percent of the figure in the 1950s.

Chen said efforts must be made to further restructure economic development and to eradicate outdated production methods that consume enormous natural resources and produce massive waste, a main challenge to the fresh water ecological system, she said.

Zhou Shengxian, China’s Environmental Protection Minister, said environmental problems prompted China to pursue the ecological rehabilitation of rivers and lakes.

A number of key lakes across China have suffered outbreaks of blue algae over the past decade, forcing local authorities to launch emergency treatment campaigns.

The government of Jiangsu province realized in 2007, after an outbreak of algae in Taihu Lake, that stopping waste discharges in the lake was more effective than just cleaning the water.

Two major outbreaks of algae in Erhai Lake in Yunnan province between 1996 and 2003 triggered problems in the drinking water supply. Six pollution control projects on waste treatment, soil erosion, water system restoration and public education had improved water quality in the lake.

Japan’s experience since the 1970s in protecting Biwa Lake from degradation, which involved waste discharge limits, higher standards in discharge and environmental assessment standards, and strict requirements for the treatment of household sewage, also inspired China in its pollution control campaign.

“Lake contamination exists everywhere in the world. Water stays in a lake much longer than in a river, so it can take 100 years to tackle a polluted lake. Cleaning up a lake needs many preferential policies from the government and costs a lot,” Masahisa Nakamura, scientific committee chairman of the International Lake Environment Committee, said at the conference.

At least 1,500 delegates from about 45 countries are attending the conference, which runs until Thursday. By Zhou Lihua, China Daily

Filed Under: Ecology, Environment ·