http://www.waterconserve.org/ "Water Conserve" is a Water Conservation Portal and Internet Search Tool that provides access to reviewed water conservation news and information Water Conserve a project of Ecological Internet, Inc. info@ecologicalinternet.org (Dr. Glen Barry) http://www.waterconserve.org/img/eilogo85.gif http://www.waterconserve.org/ Inter Press Service: As a wife of a rice farmer and mother of two children aged nine and two, Sanjeevani Bandara's days are packed with chores. Yet while she used to be able to keep up with all she has to do in a day, this Sri Lankan mother now finds herself struggling to accomplish even the most basic tasks. Blame it on the weather, which has been causing water shortages that force Bandara to spend more and more time fetching water for her family, farther away from home. While the volume of annual ... http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50599 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154230 09 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST water women | South Asia | Sri Lanka info@ecologicalinternet.org (Inter Press Service: Feizal Samath) Inter Press Service: Fourteen-year-old Isaac Wadyegere of Bundesi village in Bududa district woke up to a rainy and chilly Monday morning and went to school as usual. But Mar. 1 was not a usual day in eastern Uganda. When he heard the sound of rocks and soil tumbling down Mountain Elgon on a path to destroy part of his school, Wadyegere, along with other pupils, fled home. But instead of finding the refuge he hoped for, disaster awaited Wadyegere. His house and family were ... http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50612 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154552 09 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST deforestation landslides | Africa | Uganda info@ecologicalinternet.org (Inter Press Service: Joshua Kyalimpa) Independent (UK): The star of the BBC's Gardeners' World has been drafted in by the Government as they try to persuade the public to stop using peat compost. Ministers hope that Diarmuid Gavin will help them convince gardeners to stop using peat, which is present in almost half of all compost sold by garden centres. Yesterday the Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced a new target to phase out the use of peat compost in amateur gardens by 2020 but shied away from imposing a ban, provoking ... http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/gardeners-urged-to-stop-using-peatbased-compost-1918355.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154268 09 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST garden peat | Europe | United Kingdom info@ecologicalinternet.org (Independent (UK): Martin Hickman) Telegraph: Despite hope that nature was fighting back, it appeared that the global wipeout of species was accelerating, they said. Speaking ahead of two next week on the state of British and European wildlife, Simon Stuart, from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, admitted that the rate of extinction had not slowed. Previously research has shown that world was currently in the midst of a "sixth great extinction" of species, which was being driven by natural habitat ... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7397420/Worlds-nature-becoming-extinct-at-fastest-rate-on-record-conservationists-warn.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154400 08 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST extinction evolution | Worldwide/General | info@ecologicalinternet.org (Telegraph: Andrew Hough) Mongabay: Facing habitat loss, pollution, climate change, and the devastating chytrid fungus, there has been little positive news about amphibians recently. However, a story out of Australia brings a much needed respite from bad news. In 2008 Luke Pearce, a fisheries conservation officer, stumbled on a frog that had been thought to be extinct for over thirty years. Not recorded since the 1970s, Pearce rediscovered the yellow-spotted bell frog (Litoria castanea) on rural Australian farmland in ... http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0307-hance_yellowspotted.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154194 08 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST frog highly endangered | Pacific/Oceania | Australia info@ecologicalinternet.org (Mongabay: Jeremy Hance) New Nation: Dr. Mohammad Ibrahim, an eminent scientist of Bangladesh and nature lover notes that about 40 per cent of about 44 thousand species of the world are at stake due to climatic and other disasters. Human-induced climate change tends to reduce the genetic diversity of individual species. Again, successful adaptation to climate change may depend to a greater extent on the ability of species to disperse to new areas but this ability is also increasingly impeded by human-induced landscape change. ... http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2010/03/08/news0556.htm http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154182 08 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST climate change biodiversity global | Worldwide/General | info@ecologicalinternet.org (New Nation: Muhammad Selim Hossain) Business Green: The Environment Agency will later today release a new map designed to show areas in England and Wales where viable hydropower resources are going untapped. The hydropower opportunities and environmental sensitivities map forms part of a major new report from the agency, which found close to 26,000 locations where a hydropower turbine could generate renewable electricity. The agency said that taken as a whole, these unused sites could generate about three per cent of the UK's ... http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2259042/environment-agency-debuts-map http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154192 08 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST hyrdopower mapping | Europe | United Kingdom info@ecologicalinternet.org (Business Green: none given) Guardian: We turned off the main road to Awassa, talked our way past security guards and drove a mile across empty land before we found what will soon be Ethiopia's largest greenhouse. Nestling below an escarpment of the Rift Valley, the development is far from finished, but the plastic and steel structure already stretches over 20 hectares – the size of 20 football pitches. The farm manager shows us millions of tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables being grown in 500m rows in computer ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/07/food-water-africa-land-grab http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154166 07 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST Africa land grab | Africa | info@ecologicalinternet.org (Guardian: John Vidal) Pasadena Star-News: Over the past decade, Australia has seen its temperatures rise, its reservoirs plummet, and its crops dry up - the result of the country's worst drought in 100 years. The experience rings familiar to California water managers. In response to its crisis, Australia has made a $50 billion government investment in water infrastructure, cut water allocations to farmers by 70 percent, and slashed household water use to a quarter of what is used in Californian homes. And it seems to ... http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_14526188 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154138 07 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST water management Australia California | Worldwide/General | info@ecologicalinternet.org (Pasadena Star-News: Rebecca Kimitch) Asian News International: Scientists have stressed that conserving and restoring the moorlands is important because they are some of the rarest habitats in the world, home to extremely rare animals and plants, and can also slow down climate change. Seventy-five per cent of the world's heather moorlands are in the UK. However, pollution, overgrazing and wild fires have damaged large areas. Several organisations in the Peak District National Park in England are trying to restore and conserve the moorland ... http://news.oneindia.in/2010/03/07/conservingand-restoring-moorlands-can-slow-down-climatecha.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154152 07 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST wetland conservation restoration | South Asia | India info@ecologicalinternet.org (Asian News International: none given) Inter Press Service: As they slept soundly on the night of Feb. 28, a family of four was killed when their house collapsed over their heads in Malawi's southern district of Chikhwawa. Christopher Ganizani, 27, his wife Grace, 29, and their children Rymon, six, and Christian, who was only nine months old, were buried alive under the rubble of their house, according to Chikhwawa police spokesman Sunday Ngulube. "The house, made of unbaked mud bricks, buckled under the intensity of the heavy rains ... http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=50572 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154131 07 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST climate farming changing methods | Africa | Malawi info@ecologicalinternet.org (Inter Press Service: Claire Ngozo) New Nation: Supporting efforts of Bangladesh in the international area, experts and scientists have said that adequate national, regional and global steps are a must for reducing the adverse impacts of ongoing climate changes (CC). If the adverse impacts of CC could not be contained, agriculture, bio-diversity, ecology, environment, climatic paterns, human health and existence of the civilizations and habitations elsewhere would be under real threats, they said. Terming the task as the ... http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2010/03/07/news0412.htm http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154129 07 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST climate regional impacts South Asia | South Asia | info@ecologicalinternet.org (New Nation: none given) Toledo Blade: Three months after halting construction of a mammoth $3.3 billion coal-fired power plant it had proposed for southern Ohio's Meigs County, American Municipal Power Inc. is following through with a $2 billion investment in five hydroelectric projects at existing dams along the Ohio River. Seventy-nine of AMP's 126 member communities have committed themselves financially. Nearly a third of those investors are small and mid-sized communities in northwest Ohio and southeast ... http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100307/NEWS16/100309781/-1/RSS10 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154177 07 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST hydroelectric co-op | North America | United States info@ecologicalinternet.org (Toledo Blade: Tom Henry) Financial Express Bangladesh: Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for all -- with this very theme, the women of the world will be observing International Women's Day 2010. The major concern of the present world is climate change and environmental degradation. In fact, involving women in protecting the environment would help societies develop the sense of responsibility needed to maintain a good balance between humans and the earth's resources. Environmental degradation, however, is a result of the ... http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=94193 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154121 07 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST climate gender | South Asia | Bangladesh info@ecologicalinternet.org (Financial Express Bangladesh: Rezina Sultana) Sydney Morning Herald: WARMER oceans, balmy evenings and high humidity have led to what meteorologists have described as ''remarkably tropical'' conditions. A two-degree increase in the water temperature off the Sydney coast has been attributed to a stronger east-coast current coming from the Tasman Sea. ''The front that is associated with this current is biologically active, which can be seen from the change in the ocean colour, meaning the chlorophyll concentration is much higher this month,'' Dr ... http://www.smh.com.au/environment/but-were-warming-to-current-idea-20100306-ppnh.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154106 07 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST ocean warming weather | Pacific/Oceania | Australia info@ecologicalinternet.org (Sydney Morning Herald: Sarah Whyte) Christian Science Monitor: Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley agrees that the Asian carp present an ecological and economic threat to the Great Lakes. But he disagrees with neighboring states that Illinois should lock down a historic canal that allows the fish to get to Lake Michigan. In a letter published in the Washington Post this week, Mayor Daley argued that the invasive species – which experts say will destroy the lake ecosystem – is a "national problem that requires national solutions" and therefore Illinois ... http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100306/ts_csm/285588 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154181 06 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST Great Lakes Asian carp | North America | United States info@ecologicalinternet.org (Christian Science Monitor: Mark Guarino) Associated Press: More than a year after a Tennessee coal ash spill created one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind in United States history, the problem is seeping into several other states. Enlarge This Image <h6 class="credit">Wade Payne/Associated Press Sediment can be seen in the Emory River in Tennessee as machines pump it into holding ponds. Enlarge This Image <h6 class="credit">Wade Payne/Associated Press Coal ash sediment being loaded into plastic-lined rail ... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/us/07coalash.html?partner=rss&emc=rss http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154158 06 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST coal ash spill | North America | United States info@ecologicalinternet.org (Associated Press: none given) Telegraph: The Environment Agency will reveal that the water wheels have the potential to generate enough electricity to power 850,000 homes -- more than three per cent of the UK's residential electricity demand. A study commissioned by the Government body has concluded that there is vast untapped potential across the England and Wales for generating energy from rivers. Waterways in Wales, the upper reaches of the Thames, the Humber, the Aire, Severn and the Mersey have been identified as ... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/hydro_electricenergy/7384533/British-rivers-could-power-850000-homes.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154141 06 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST hydroelectric controversial | Europe | United Kingdom info@ecologicalinternet.org (Telegraph: Richard Gray) Tribune: THE availability of fresh drinking water in the Bahamas could be jeopardised by climate change and hurricanes, warned State Environment Minister Phenton Neymour, who said this country urgently needs proper water networks and management policies. Anticipated sea level rise from climate change, hurricane motivated storm surges -- and even heavy rain -- can all contaminate precious water well-fields with brackish, salty water, cautioned Mr Neymour, leading to severe water shortages and ... http://www.tribune242.com/sports/03062010_tt-waterthreats_news_pg1 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154145 06 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST drinking water threat | South/Central America/Caribbean | Bahamas info@ecologicalinternet.org (Tribune: Taneka Thompson) Inter Press Service: Caribbean countries are considering options like desalination plants and cloud seeding to confront a drought that threatens the regional economy and which experts warned about years ago. In St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago, the authorities are warning of prosecution, including jail time, if consumers violate measures introduced to curb the use of water other than for drinking, cooking and bathing. In a paper presented in a 2007 conference in Barbados, entitled "Coping with ... http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50544 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153883 05 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST water Caribbean | South/Central America/Caribbean | info@ecologicalinternet.org (Inter Press Service: Peter Richards) United Press International: Evidence of manmade global warming is stronger than the besieged U.N. climate panel claimed, with rainfall changes altering the Earth, British scientists said. "The fingerprint of human influence has been detected in many different aspects of observed climate changes," Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring at the Hadley Center for Climate Research run by Britain's meteorological office, said in remarks quoted by the Financial Times. "Natural variability, from the sun, volcanic ... http://www.globe-democrat.com/news/2010/mar/05/warming-data-said-stronger-than-ipcc-claim/ http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154096 05 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST warming data strong | Worldwide/General | info@ecologicalinternet.org (United Press International: none given) National Geographic: "Eagle!" The shout goes up as a great shadow sweeps over our boat. The white-tailed eagle makes its descent to one of the 24,000 islands that make up Sweden's pine-covered, rocky Stockholm Archipelago. The tourists on board for this nature tour in August 2009 mostly miss the photo opp. But local wildlife expert Peter Westman, of the conservation group WWF Sweden, assures the group that there will be others. Numbers of this once-threatened predator have soared from 1,000 to more ... http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/02/100305-baltic-sea-algae-dead-zones-water/ http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154063 05 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST dead zone suffocating | Europe | info@ecologicalinternet.org (National Geographic: James Owen) Reuters: Ottawa's plan to shift responsibility of environmental assessments to Canada's main energy regulator fails to address fundamental problems surrounding major oil and gas projects, a green think tank said on Friday. But the oil industry, which had complained that the regulatory process for such developments as oil sands projects and pipelines was overly cumbersome and expensive, welcomed the streamlining initiative. Canada's federal budget, delivered on Thursday, contained a ... http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6244M820100305?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154060 05 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST energy projects environmental review | North America | Canada info@ecologicalinternet.org (Reuters: none given) Associated Press: Workers have begun tapping into underground water reserves to help the nearly 6 million people who have been affected by the worst drought to hit China's southern province of Yunnan in 60 years, a local official said Wednesday. Severe water shortages for crops and livestock prompted the local government to send dozens of teams out Wednesday to six major drought-hit regions around Yunnan to pump water from underground sources, said a director at the Yunnan Land Resources Bureau, who ... http://asia.news.yahoo.com/ap/20100303/tap-as-china-drought-bb10fb8.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153955 05 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST drought serious | East/South-East Asia | China info@ecologicalinternet.org (Associated Press: none given) Discovery News: Slowly but surely, a picture of climate change at the regional scale -- where it really matters -- is beginning to take shape. Apart from the obvious warming at the high polar latitudes, which already is affecting Arctic sea ice, the rate of Greenland ice cap melting, and Antarctic ice shelves, new details are beginning to emerge about the impact of global warming in the Tropics -- the boiler-room of Earth's climate and weather. This is the home of El Niņo, and the generator of ... http://news.discovery.com/earth/regional-rainfall-in-a-warming-world.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154087 05 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST climate rain regional | Worldwide/General | info@ecologicalinternet.org (Discovery News: John D. Cox) Guardian: Darkness rarely lasted long in the skies over Lake Maracaibo. An hour after dusk the show would begin: a lightning bolt, then another, and another, until the whole horizon flashed white. Electrical storms, product of a unique meteorological phenomenon, have lit up nights in this corner of Venezuela for thousands of years. Francis Drake abandoned a sneak attack on the city of Maracaibo in 1595 when lightning betrayed his ships to the Spanish garrison. But now the lightning has ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/05/venezuela-lightning-el-nino http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153900 05 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST climate drought lightning | South/Central America/Caribbean | Venezuela info@ecologicalinternet.org (Guardian: Rory Carroll) Reuters: Biodiesel and other "green" fuels that Europeans put in their cars can have unintended consequences for tropical forests and wetlands, European Union reports show -- the first evidence of EU misgivings. The EU aims for its 500 million citizens to get about a tenth of their road fuels from renewable sources such as biofuels by 2020, but some EU officials want the target reduced in a review in four years time. Modelling exercises are starting to show unwanted impacts spreading ... http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE6211EK.htm http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154016 04 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST biofuel environmental damage | Europe | info@ecologicalinternet.org (Reuters: Pete Harrison) Scientific American: Dear EarthTalk: A fisherman friend of mine told me that trout populations in the interior West of the U.S. are already shrinking due to global warming. Is this true? And what is the long term prognosis for the trout? --Jon Klein, Portsmouth, N.H. Most scientists agree that the effects of global warming are starting to show up all around the world in many forms. Throughout America's Rocky Mountain West, rivers and streams are getting hotter and drier, presenting new challenges ... http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=earth-talk-fish-fry http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=154534 04 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST climate fish trout | North America | United States info@ecologicalinternet.org (Scientific American: none given) Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Department of Water says a report on Western Australia's future water supply presents significant challenges. The CSIRO report found water levels in south western WA will fall by an average of 25 per cent by 2030 but it is predicting they could possibly fall by half. The report blames climate change since the mid 1970s for a big drop in rainfall and surface and groundwater yields. It says as a result, once abundant wetlands and perennial streams have, in the worst ... http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/04/2836122.htm http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153805 04 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST climate drought big dry | Pacific/Oceania | Australia info@ecologicalinternet.org (Australian Broadcasting Corporation: none given) Reuters: The world has become far too hot for the aptly named Exit Glacier in Alaska. Like many low-altitude glaciers, it's steadily melting, shrinking two miles over the past 200 years as it tries to strike a new balance with rising temperatures. At the Kenai Fjords National Park south of Anchorage, managers have learned to follow the Exit and other glaciers, moving signs and paths to accommodate the ephemeral rivers of blue and white ice as they retreat up deeply carved ... http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62302A20100304 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153851 04 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST climate glaciers track | North America | United States info@ecologicalinternet.org (Reuters: David Fogarty and Yereth Rosen) Daily Mirror: Global warming has triggered the sixth mass extinction of life on earth and this time human life is being threatened along with that of animals and plants due to man-made causes, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Patali Champika Ranawaka said, addressing the Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industries on Monday. Delivering his presentation on global warming, the Minister explained that there had been five major extinctions in the history of life on earth, with the last one dating ... http://www.dailymirror.lk/print/index.php/business/127-local/5011.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153698 03 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST extinction sixth | South Asia | Sri Lanka info@ecologicalinternet.org (Daily Mirror: Cheranka Mendis) Mongabay: New images released by NASA reveal the conversion of mountains and forests in southern West Virginia to a giant surface mine. The time-lapse shots from 1984 to 2009 show the process of mountaintop removal in Boone County, West Virginia. The images show forests being stripped, valleys filled, and giant craters excavated in the process of mining thin seams of coal at Hobet mine. "These natural-color (photo-like) images document the growth of the Hobet mine as it moves from ridge ... http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0302-coal-nasa.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153666 02 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST coal mining mountaintop | North America | United States info@ecologicalinternet.org (Mongabay: Rhett Butler) Mongabay: Western Australia endured its hottest summer on record, according to the state weather bureau. At 29.6°C, temperatures were 0.2°C warmer than the previous record, set in 1997-1998. Western Australia has been keeping state-wide temperature data since 1950. Perth, the state's capital, had its driest summer since record-keeping began in 1897. Only 0.2 millimeters of rain fell in between December and the end of February. Perth's average maximum summer temperature was 31.8°C, 1.5°C ... http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0302-australia.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153642 02 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST climate record hottest driest | Pacific/Oceania | Australia info@ecologicalinternet.org (Mongabay: Rhett Butler) ClimateWire: South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) talked about tires on a recent Saturday. An Indiana congressman heard about engines days later. And in Wisconsin, the discussion centers on monster shovels that trundle through pit mines on tank treads. These aren't masculine chats about molded metal and mechanics. The unpublicized conversations are about oil. A specific sludge of lampooned and coveted crude: Canada's gooey bitumen from the Albertan "oil patch." The forested province is ... http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/03/01/01climatewire-alberta-works-quietly-to-improve-image-of-oi-75823.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153594 02 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST oil sands image | North America | Canada info@ecologicalinternet.org (ClimateWire: none given) Associated Press: For at least 120 years, city officials have been promising to do something about the oily, smelly mess that is the Gowanus Canal. Now, federal authorities will see if they can do a better job of cleaning up one of the city's most polluted waterways. The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday named the Brooklyn canal as a Superfund site, a distinction that allows the government to go after polluters and force them to pay for its restoration. The EPA has said the cleanup ... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100303/ap_on_re_us/us_brooklyn_canal_superfund http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153639 02 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST polluted waterway superfund | North America | United States info@ecologicalinternet.org (Associated Press: David B. Caruso) Mongabay: Mass extinction, ocean acidification, deforestation, pollution, desertification, and climate change: the environmental issues facing the world are numerous and increasingly global in nature. To respond more effectively, the United Nations is considering forming a World Environmental Organization or WEO, similar to the World Trade Organization. The idea was first seriously considered at Copenhagen in December, but has taken a step forward at an annual meeting of the United Nation ... http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0302-hance_weo.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153619 02 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST global environment organization | Worldwide/General | info@ecologicalinternet.org (Mongabay: Jeremy Hance) InDepthNews: "Enhancing soils anywhere enhances life everywhere," says UN's top official Luc Gnacadja, who is tasked with combating land degradation and drought – not only in Africa, the most vulnerable continent, but all along the drylands belt running from Latin America through Sahel and Asia. Gnacadja is executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which along with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity ... http://www.indepthnews.net/news/news.php?key1=2010-03-01%2002:38:53&key2=1 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153533 02 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST climate change drylands | Worldwide/General | info@ecologicalinternet.org (InDepthNews: none given) Agence France-Presse: Western Australia has sweated through its hottest ever summer, recording average temperatures just shy of 30 degrees Celsius, officials said on Monday. Weather officials said the giant, dusty state roasted at an average of about 29,6 Celsius during the southern hemisphere summer, 0,2 degrees over the previous high in 1997-1998. The state capital Perth also endured its driest summer since records began in 1897, with just 0,2 millimetres of rain falling in December, January and ... http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=143&art_id=nw20100301095130980C303860 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153591 01 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST climate records hottest summer | Pacific/Oceania | Australia info@ecologicalinternet.org (Agence France-Presse: none given) National Geographic: The so-called pregnant man has company: One of the most common weed killers in the United States can make male frogs lay eggs, a new study says. Atrazine, widely used to kill pests on U.S. croplands, is an endocrine disruptor--a substance that interferes with animals' reproductive systems. Previous research has shown that atrazine can give male amphibians female characteristics: For instance, male frogs exposed to atrazine have lower testosterone levels, produce less sperm, and ... http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/02/100301-atrazine-frogs-female-chemical/ http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153552 01 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST atrazine frogs change sex | Worldwide/General | info@ecologicalinternet.org (National Geographic: Rachel Kaufman) ScienceDaily: Nitrogen is vital for all plant life, but increasingly the planet is paying a heavy price for the escalating use of nitrogen fertilizer. Excess nitrogen from fertilizer runoff into rivers and lakes causes algal blooms that create oxygen-depleted dead zones, such as the 6,000 to 7,000 square mile zone in the Gulf of Mexico, and nitrogen in the form of nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas. But new findings by Stanford researchers that reveal the inner workings of ... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100301091552.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153459 01 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST land fertilizer legumes nitrogen | Worldwide/General | info@ecologicalinternet.org (ScienceDaily: none given) Mongabay: Guyana has banned gold dredging in the Rewa Head region after an expedition turned up unspoiled wilderness and mind-boggling biodiversity. The researchers, in just six weeks, stumbled on the world's largest snake (anaconda), spider (the aptly named goliath bird-eating spider), armadillo (the giant armadillo), anteater (the giant anteater), and otter (the giant otter), leading them to dub the area 'the Land of the Giants'. "During our brief survey we had encounters with wildlife that ... http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0228-hance_giants.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153436 01 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST rainforest gold mining ban | South/Central America/Caribbean | Guyana info@ecologicalinternet.org (Mongabay: Jeremy Hance) Science NOW: The golden toad was last seen in 1989 in the Costa Rican cloud forest of Monteverde--and 5 years later, its disappearance was the first extinction to be blamed on humanmade global warming. New evidence, however, suggests that humans may not have been at fault after all. Here's the current line on what drove the golden toad extinct. As humans pumped carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, Costa Rican rainforests became hotter and dryer in the mid-1980s. These ... http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/03/global-warming-didnt-kill-the-go.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153587 01 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST global warming wildlife golden toad | South/Central America/Caribbean | Costa Rica info@ecologicalinternet.org (Science NOW: Andrew Curry) ScienceDaily: Scientists broadly agree that global warming may threaten the survival of many plant and animal species; but global warming did not kill the Monteverde golden toad, an often cited example of climate-triggered extinction, says a new study. The toad vanished from Costa Rica's Pacific coastal-mountain cloud forest in the late 1980s, the apparent victim of a pathogen outbreak that has wiped out dozens of other amphibians in the Americas. Many researchers have linked outbreaks of the ... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100301151925.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153546 01 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST global warming wildlife | South/Central America/Caribbean | Costa Rica info@ecologicalinternet.org (ScienceDaily: none given) Mongabay: One of the world's most popular pesticides, atrazine, chemically castrates male frogs and in some instances changes them into completely functionally females, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors conclude that atrazine likely plays a large, but unsuspected role in the current global amphibian crisis. To study how atrazine impacts frogs, researchers studied the long-term effects of the pesticide on an all-male group forty of ... http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0301-hance_atrazine.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153493 01 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST pesticide frogs atrazine | Worldwide/General | info@ecologicalinternet.org (Mongabay: Jeremy Hance) Press Association: The Thames Barrier was closed for the third time in two days today to protect London from a combination of high tides and swollen rivers following heavy rainfall over the weekend. But the Environment Agency said the risk of flooding across England and Wales was easing, and the number of flood warnings and watches in place is expected to decrease. The flooding risk rose after days of heavy rain swelled rivers and saturated the ground. A storm which left at least 51 people ... http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/thames-barrier-closed-again-to-protect-capital-1914071.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153460 01 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST climate sea rise Thames Barrier | Europe | United Kingdom info@ecologicalinternet.org (Press Association: Emily Beament) Business Green: British companies involved in the controversial extraction of oil from Canadian tar sands in Alberta are preparing themselves for a backlash from shareholders and environmentalists hell bent on highlighting their opposition to the plans. According to reports in The Observer yesterday, an increasingly vocal group of shareholders and environmentalists are planning to turn the forthcoming BP, Shell and Royal Bank of Scotland annual meetings into a referendum on these controversial ... http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2258694/oil-firms-braced-anti-tar-sand http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153453 01 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST tar sands campaign | Worldwide/General | info@ecologicalinternet.org (Business Green: Rachel Fielding) Inter Press Service: Edgar Borras sifts through his remaining possessions in a demolished shanty beside a Manila waterway, preparing to bring them to his wife and 12-year-old son who now live in a remote relocation site in a province outside the Philippine capital. "They want to come back here. They don't like it there. It's too far," Borras said in an interview, referring to the site in Calauan in Laguna province, some 74 km away. Before a November 2009 government order to move flood-prone ... http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50492 http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153409 01 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST green policy urban poor | East/South-East Asia | Philippines info@ecologicalinternet.org (Inter Press Service: Kara Santos) Business Green: A global environmental watchdog modelled on the powerful World Trade Organisation (WTO) could be formed as part of any international climate change treaty, according to environment ministers meeting in Bali last week who agreed to form a new working group to investigate proposed reforms to environmental governance procedures. Speaking to reporters at the close of the meeting, Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), signalled there was growing support ... http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2258653/un-proposes-wto-style http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153400 01 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST environment international watchdog | Worldwide/General | info@ecologicalinternet.org (Business Green: none given) New Scientist: The calving of a massive iceberg off east Antarctica last week has prompted fears that the event could alter the salinity of the surrounding ocean, with damaging effects on marine life and global ocean currents. The 860-billion-tonne berg, with a surface area of about 2500 square kilometres, had formed 50 per cent of a 100-kilometre tongue poking out of the Mertz glacier. Major fractures had been developing for years, so the break was anticipated, say Rob Massom and Neal Young ... http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18595-massive-antarctic-iceberg-threatens-ocean-circulation.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153706 01 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST ocean circulation iceberg | Arctic/Antarctic | info@ecologicalinternet.org (New Scientist: Wendy Zukerman) Mongabay: Next time you're in the supermarket looking to buy a nice bottle of wine: think cork. Although it's not widely known, the cork industry is helping to sustain one of the world's most biodiverse forests, including a number of endangered species such as the Iberian lynx and the Barbary deer. Spreading across 6.6 million acres in southern Europe (France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy) and northern Africa (Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia) oak cork trees Quercus suber are actually preserved and ... http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0228-hance_cork.html http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=153439 01 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST tree cord | Europe | info@ecologicalinternet.org (Mongabay: Jeremy Hance)