UN calls for immediate action to save life on Earth

By Kyoko Hasegawa

Agence France-Presse First Posted 07:22:00 10/19/2010

TOKYO—The world must act immediately to stop the rapid loss of animal and plant species that allow humans to exist, the United Nations warned on Monday at the start of a major summit on biodiversity.

EXTRACT:

At the start of the decade, UN members pledged under the Millennium Development Goals to achieve “a significant reduction” in the rate of wildlife loss by 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity.

Instead, habitat destruction has continued unabated, and some experts now warn that the planet faces its sixth mass extinction phase – the latest since dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago.

EXTRACT:

The Earth's 6.8 billion humans are effectively living 50 percent beyond the planet's biocapacity in 2007, according to a new assessment by WWF that said by 2030 humans will effectively need the capacity of two Earths.

2010/10/122010/10/12

Journal: Hungarian/European Ecological Disaster

03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, Earth Intelligence

HUNGARY-SLUDGE-SATELLITE-PHOTO — Full Story Online

UPDATE: 12 Oct 10

Hungary Sludge Flood PHOTOS: First Satellite Images

There have been plenty of photos from ground level, but NASA today released the first satellite images of the Hungary toxic sludge flood.

NASA describes the photos as follows:

On October 9, 2010, the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite captured this natural-color image of the area. The top image shows a close-up of the alumina plant and closest villages. The bottom image shows the wider region.

The incident has been called “an ecological disaster” and it has forced Hungary to declare a state of emergency.

toxic sludge 10 oct — 10 Oct 2010 Update

UPDATE 10 Oct 10:

Toxic Sludge Could Spill Again, Hungary Government Warns

Engineers feared a second wave could be even more toxic than the first because the sludge remaining in the reservoir was more concentrated.

UPDATE 7 Oct 10:

Danube Hit By Hungary Sludge: Red Toxic Mud Reaches Famous River

UPDATE 6 Oct 10:

Hungarians battle to hold back toxic sludge spill from Danube

Greenpeace describes incident as ‘one of the top three environmental disasters in Europe in the last 20 or 30 years'

UPDATE 6 Oct 10:

Photos from TIME Magazine

Hungary toxic sludge spill an ‘ecological catastrophe' says government

Hungary declares a state of emergency as 1m cubic metres of sludge leaks from an alumina factory killing four and injuring 120

Local environmentalists said the plant, which had been privatised several years ago, should have been modernised but that the company put profits first.

Robert Fidrich, of Friends of the Earth in Hungary, said: “Now we, the public, will have to pay the real bill. You can forget about cleaning up those villages … nobody will be able to live there for 10 years or more. It has affected the lives of hundreds of people.”

2010/09/232010/09/23

Reference: Clinton Global Initiative Webcast Archives

01 Agriculture, 01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 04 Education, 05 Energy, 07 Health, Civil Society, Commerce, Government, International Aid, Movies, Non-Governmental, Policy, Technologies

2010-side-webcast-Archives — Permanent Archives

Enhancing Access to Modern Technology

Clean Technology and Smart Energy: Deploying the Green Economy

Democracy and Voice: Technology For Citizen Empowerment and Human Rights

Mobile Revolution: Transforming Access, Markets, and Development

2010/09/212010/09/21

Journal: UN–A Study in Contradictions

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Environmental Degradation, Government, Non-Governmental

UN Summit Aims to Reduce Poverty, Hunger and Disease

U.N. members resolved a decade ago to reduce extreme poverty, ensure every child finishes primary school and stop the HIV/AIDS pandemic. They also vowed to reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and reduce the number of people worldwide who do not have access to clean water and basic sanitation.

But a U.N. report earlier this year said several of the Millennium Development Goals are lagging and could fail without additional efforts.

Phi Beta Iota: The UN is an Industrial-Era government-centric organization, and is not making–or even recognizing the need to make–any adjustment to the Information-Era. In the absence of public intelligence that enables all publics to see the fraud, waste, and abuse in their respective government's spending, and the relative return on investment of spending to achieve the Millenium Goals, the UN is severely handicapped and unlikely to be successful, especially in the midst of a global economic depression.

2010/08/222010/08/22

Bangladesh Farmers + ICT, Increasing Awareness to Increase Income, Model for Other Countries

01 Agriculture, 01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 04 Education, 08 Wild Cards, Civil Society, Commerce, Technologies

eKrishok

Farmers wise up online

by Nahid Akhter (Aug 20, 2010)

(clipped from full article) Bangladeshi farmers have to go through numerous hardships. Natural calamities cannot be avoided. However, if the farmer knew when to expect one and thereby take appropriate preventive measures, maybe some of his crops could be saved. Besides natural calamities, he is always running the risk of crop infestations and rainfall that is either too low or too high, thereby producing poor yields. Due to poor education, many farmers may be following the practices of his fore-fathers blindly, without looking for better agricultural methods or practices.

Without proper information, a farmer whose crops have been infested by pests, for example, would think that this is the end and that his crops are only destined to die. This would mean a bad income that year, and no food for his family.

So what if this farmer was armed with easy access to the correct information at the correct time? This could lighten his load by ridding him of numerous uncertainties during his agricultural process and thereby raise his family's living standards. A better living standard for the farmers would mean a more developed Bangladesh.

BIID , with support from UNDP, has teamed up with Grameenphone by setting up Community Information Centres all over the country. In the pilot phase, 10 Centres had been opened in various locations, but the aim is to scale this up to more than 1000 locations in the country.

Continue reading “Bangladesh Farmers + ICT, Increasing Awareness to Increase Income, Model for Other Countries”

2010/08/222010/08/23

Video: Japanese Machine Making Fuel from Plastic, “Trash into Treasure”

03 Environmental Degradation, 05 Energy, 08 Wild Cards, Technologies, Waste (materials, food, etc)

The Japanese company Blest has developed one of the smallest and safest PLASTIC-to-OIL conversion machines out on the market today. It's founder and CEO, Akinori Ito is passionate about using this machine to change the way people around the world think about their plastic trash. From solving our landfill and garbage disposal issues to reducing our oil dependancy on the Middle East, his machine may one day be in every household across Japan.
While holding up a bag of trash, he states, “It's a waste to throw away, isn't it? This is a treasure.”

Comment: a comment from a YouTube viewer asking the energy-use of this machine is highly relevant, especially for poorer regions and it would have been better to have included much more info in the video. However, it's interesting to think that those in the trash recycling business may have received a new economic prospect.

Thanks to “Hacker News”

2010/08/202011/01/03

Infographic: The Effects of Coal on Water in the US

03 Environmental Degradation, 05 Energy, 12 Water, info-graphics/data-visualization, True Cost, True Cost

August 16, 2010

The contest between coal-fired energy production and water demand is a mismatch. Mining and burning coal accounts for half of all water withdrawals in the United States, which is the same amount of water that pours over Niagara Falls in five months. Burning coal in power plants also is the source of more climate-changing carbon emissions than any other industrial sector. Here’s a look at the economically essential and ecologically damaging accord between coal and water.

Category: 03 Environmental Degradation

Journal: Humans Living 50% Beyond Earth Capacity