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PLANT News:
20090329
Global
- Climate
- Earth
- Energy
- Emissions
- Politics
- Economic
- Crisis
- Floods
- Plants
- Animals
- History
-
"World
switches off to save planet in "Earth Hour"." ...
"Lights went out at tourism landmarks and homes across the globe on Saturday
for Earth Hour 2009, a global event designed to highlight the threat from
climate change." ... "Organizers said the action showed millions of people
wanted governments to work out a strong new [United Nations] U.N. deal
to fight global warming by the end of 2009, even though the global economic
crisis has raised worries about the costs." ... "The U.N. Climate Panel
says greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet and will lead to more
floods, droughts, heatwaves, rising sea levels and animal and plant extinctions."
... "World emissions have risen by about 70 percent since the 1970s." -By
Jon Boyle -Reuters
20081209
Plants
- Animals
- Food
- Water
- Soil
- Global
- Climate
- Science
- Government
- US
- Canada
"Tree's
rapid decline sounds alarm on global warming." ...
"The whitebark pine, a tree found in the high elevations of the western
U.S. [United States] and Canada, is being killed as a consequence of global
warming and should be protected as an endangered species, an environmental
group formally told the Interior Department Tuesday." ... "If the federal
government accepts the scientific arguments in a petition by the Natural
Resources Defense Council, it would be the first time a wide-ranging tree
has been added to the list. The NRDC [Natural Resources Defense Council]
also sees an endangered designation as a warning about worsening climate
change." ... "The whitebark pine has declined dramatically due to a triple
threat — a disease called the white pine blister rust; the mountain pine
beetle, which thrives in the warmer high-altitude conditions produced by
the burning of fossil fuels, and forest management practices that have
allowed other trees to crowd it out, the NRDC's petition said." ... "Warming
also will limit the range of the whitebark pine, the petition said. Many
live more than 500 years." ... "The whitebark pine stabilizes the soil
and shades the snow, providing water over longer periods for other plants.
Grizzly bears, smaller mammals and birds eat its seeds, and elk, grouse
and other mountain animals find shelter beneath it." -By
Renee
Schoof -McClatchyDC.com
Gov Reference: "Whitebark
Pine Communities"
20080507
-
Water
- Infrastructure
- Human
- Health
- Safety
- Enforcement
- Environment
- Underground
- Money
- History
- Weather
- Animals
- Plants
- "Aging
systems releasing sewage into rivers, streams." ...
"America's aging sewer systems continue to dump human waste into rivers
and streams, despite years of fines and penalties targeting publicly owned
agencies responsible for sewage overflows, a Gannett News Service analysis
shows." ... "The analysis of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data
found that since 2003, hundreds of municipal sewer authorities have been
fined for violations, including spills that make people sick, threaten
local drinking water and kill aquatic animals and plants." ... "DATABASE:
Sewer
treatment plant reports by state[.]" ... "Local governments across
the USA plan to spend billions modernizing failing wastewater systems —
some of which are more than 100 years old — over the next 10 to 20 years,
EPA, state and local sewer authority officials said." ... "Those improvement
efforts face a huge challenge mitigating problems in what the EPA estimates
to be 1.2 million miles of sewers snaking underground across the USA."
... "Waste gurgles from manholes and gushes down streams and rivers somewhere
in the USA almost every day, the EPA estimates." ... "Gannett News Service
analyzed enforcement and compliance records compiled by the EPA and state
regulators from January 2003 to February 2008." ... "The analysis found
that at least one-third of the nation's large, publicly owned sewage treatment
systems were the subject of formal enforcement actions by the EPA or state
regulators for sewage spills or other violations. Those enforcement actions
included fines as well as orders to fix problems or expand treatment capacity.
Fines totaling $35 million were assessed against 494 of the nation's 4,200
municipal facilities that treat at least 1 million gallons of sewage daily,
the analysis shows." ... "An EPA 2004 report to Congress estimated that
850 billion gallons of storm water mixed with raw sewage pour into U.S.
waters every year from older, combined sewer systems that were designed
to overflow in wet weather. These combined systems, built by cities in
the 19th and early 20th centuries, are now considered antiquated and a
threat to public health and the environment, according to the EPA and environmental
groups." ... "The EPA's 2002 Clean Water and Drinking Water Infrastructure
Gap Analysis reported the nation's municipal sewer authorities' capital
needs to meet clean water requirements from 2000 to 2019 ranged from $331
billion to $450 billion. Based on that data, the National Association of
Clean Water Agencies now puts that range at $350 billion to $500 billion
for the next 20 years, association spokeswoman Susan Bruninga said." -By
Larry Wheeler and Grant Smith with contributions by Robert Benincasa and
Dan Klepal -USATODAY
20080503
-
People
- Health
- Environment
- Trees
- Global
- Earth
- Science
- Politics
- Book
- North
Carolina - "Caring
for planet increasingly tied to faith groups." ...
"Abraham sits at the oaks. Deborah holds court under a palm tree. Moses
speaks to a bush." ... ""I would say connecting this to the Bible is important
for some people," said Dr. Matthew Sleeth, a former hospital chief of staff
who couldn't shake the faces of patients with seemingly increasing environment-related
illnesses. So he quit his job, gave away half his belongings and began
spreading the word on the urgency of people paying more attention to the
environment." ... "Pointing out the symbolism of trees in Scripture has
helped Sleeth link faith with personal responsibility. His book, "Serve
God and Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action," is in its seventh
printing. Sleeth also has a prominent role in the publication of an upcoming
"green Bible."" ... ""The change has come when people who are strong in
their faith, who might be against it," Sleeth says of the deterioration
of the Earth, "then go look at the Bible with this in mind and they see
a different story."" ... "The statewide faith and environment conference
that Sleeth will co-headline at Catawba College in Salisbury [North Carolina]
this month grew out of a meeting among Greensboro [North Carolina] houses
of worship at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. Participants tried to broaden
the conversation between the scientific and faith-based communities." ...
""When people realize that there is this direct tie between our own faith
and being good stewards of this Earth," said John Wear, founding director
of Catawba's Center for the Environment, "then it gives them a purpose
that didn't exist before."" -By Nancy McLaughlin
-News-Record.com
CenterForTheEnvironment.org
20080430
-
Agriculture
- Factory
- Companies
- Poor
- People
- Nutrition
- Health
- US
-
- World
- Biofuel
- Air
- Soil
- Water
- Environment
- Animals
- Plants
- Science
- "Shortages
Threaten Farmers’ Key Tool: Fertilizer." ... "Some
kinds of fertilizer have nearly tripled in price in the last year, keeping
farmers from buying all they need. That is one of many factors contributing
to a rise in food prices that, according to the United Nations’ World Food
Program, threatens to push tens of millions of poor people into malnutrition."
... "Rising demand for food and biofuels prompted farmers everywhere to
plant more crops." ... "Fertilizer companies are confident the shortage
will be solved eventually, noting that they plan to build scores of new
factories. But that will probably create fresh problems in the long run
as the world grows more dependent on fossil fuels to produce chemical fertilizers."
... "The demand for fertilizer has been driven by a confluence of events,
including population growth, shrinking world grain stocks and the appetite
for corn and palm oil to make biofuel. But experts say the biggest factor
has been the growing demand for food, especially meat, in the developing
world." ... "Fertilizer is plant food, a combination of nutrients added
to soil to help plants grow. The three most important are nitrogen, phosphorus
and potassium. The latter two have long been available. But nitrogen in
a form that plants can absorb is scarce, and the lack of it led to low
crop yields for centuries." ... "That limitation ended in the early 20th
century with the invention of a procedure, now primarily fueled by natural
gas, that draws chemically inert nitrogen from the air and converts it
into a usable form." ... "Environmental groups fear increased use, particularly
of nitrogen fertilizer made using fossil fuels. Because plants do not absorb
all the nitrogen, much of it leaches into streams and groundwater. That
runoff has long been recognized as a major pollution problem, and it is
growing." ... "A barometer of the pollution is the rising number of dead
zones where rivers meet the sea. In the Gulf of Mexico, for instance, nitrogen
runoff from fields in the Corn Belt washes downstream and feeds plant life
in the gulf. The algae blooms suck oxygen from the water, killing other
marine life." (1, 2)
-By Keith
Bradsher and Andrew
Martin -NYTimes
20080331
-
Food
- Agriculture
- Plant
- Land
- History
- Ethanol
- Companies
- Animal
- Consumers
- "Corn
forecast suggests rise in food prices is ahead."
... "U.S. [United States] farmers plan to cut back corn planting and boost
soybean production, a shift that could send ripples from the farm belt
to your grocery bills." ... "The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday
released its prospective plantings report. The report, which came amid
surging grain prices, bore news that affects grain farmers, livestock producers,
ethanol companies, food processors and, ultimately, consumers." ... "Corn
plantings are expected to fall 8 percent this year, to 86 million acres,
according to the Department of Agriculture. Last year farmers planted a
post-World War II record of nearly 94 million acres of corn to meet burgeoning
demand for ethanol, which is expected to soon absorb about 30 percent of
domestic corn production." ... "“Last year many soybean growers switched
from soybeans to corn as ethanol expansion strongly increased the demand
for corn,” the Department of Agriculture said." ... "This year, though,
many of the 86,000 farmers surveyed for the report said they were shifting
production back toward soybeans, which had surged in price. Soybean planting
is expected to increase 18 percent this year, to almost 75 million acres."
... "Corn is trading near its record-high price of $5.70 a bushel, more
than double the price of two years ago. Soybeans are hovering around $12
a bushel, nearly double last year’s level." (1, 2)
-By Victoria Sizemore Long
-KansasCity.com
20080208
-
Biofuels
- Plants
- Greenhouse
Gas - Global
- Climate
- Science
- Agriculture
- Land
- Environmental
- Economy
- Food
- "Biofuels
Deemed a Greenhouse Threat." ... "Almost all biofuels
used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels
if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken
into account, two studies being published Thursday have concluded." ...
"The benefits of biofuels have come under increasing attack in recent months,
as scientists took a closer look at the global environmental cost of their
production. These latest studies, published in the prestigious journal
Science, are likely to add to the controversy." ... "These studies for
the first time take a detailed, comprehensive look at the emissions effects
of the huge amount of natural land that is being converted to cropland
globally to support biofuels development." ... "The destruction of natural
ecosystems — whether rain forest in the tropics or grasslands in South
America — not only releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when they
are burned and plowed, but also deprives the planet of natural sponges
to absorb carbon emissions. Cropland also absorbs far less carbon than
the rain forests or even scrubland that it replaces." ... "Together the
two studies offer sweeping conclusions: It does not matter if it is rain
forest or scrubland that is cleared, the greenhouse gas contribution is
significant. More important, they discovered that, taken globally, the
production of almost all biofuels resulted, directly or indirectly, intentionally
or not, in new lands being cleared, either for food or fuel." (1, 2)
-By Elisabeth Rosenthal
-NYTimes
20080116
-
Brazil
- Farms
- Illegal
- Business
- History
- Land
- Plants
- Global
- Weather
- Science
- "Amazon
deforestation seen surging." ... "[Brazil's National
Institute for Space Research scientist Carlos] Nobre, whose government
agency monitors the Amazon and gathers data, said that 2,300 square miles
of [Brazil's] forest had been lost in the past four months." ... "That
compares with an estimated 3,700 square miles in the 12 months ended July
31, which Brazil officials hailed as the lowest deforestation rate since
the 1970s." ... "Brazil's government has said that policies such as more
controls on illegal logging and better certification of land ownership
were reducing the deforestation that has destroyed about a fifth of the
forest -- an area bigger than France -- since the 1970s." ... "But environmental
groups have warned that rising global commodity prices are likely to fuel
more clearing of land for farms, as occurred in 2004 when Brazil recorded
the highest deforestation rate of more than 10,400 square miles (27,000
square km )." ... "Destruction of forests produces about 20 percent of
man-made carbon dioxide emissions, making conservation of the Amazon crucial
to limiting rises in global temperatures." (1, 2)
-By Stuart Grudgings with contributions by Cynthia
Osterman -Reuters
20080108
-
Agriculture
- Plant
- Energy
- Economy
- Food
- Nebraska
- N
Dakota - S
Dakota - "Grass
Makes Better Ethanol than Corn Does: Midwestern farms
prove switchgrass could be the right crop for producing ethanol to replace
gasoline." ... "Farmers in Nebraska and the Dakotas [North and South] brought
the U.S. [United States] closer to becoming a biofuel economy, planting
huge tracts of land for the first time with switchgrass—a native North
American perennial grass (Panicum virgatum) that often grows on
the borders of cropland naturally—and proving that it can deliver more
than five times more energy than it takes to grow it." ... "Working with
the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the farmers tracked the seed
used to establish the plant, fertilizer used to boost its growth, fuel
used to farm it, overall rainfall and the amount of grass ultimately harvested
for five years on fields ranging from seven to 23 acres in size (three
to nine hectares)." ... "Once established, the fields yielded from 5.2
to 11.1 metric tons of grass bales per hectare, depending on rainfall,
says USDA plant scientist Ken Vogel. "It fluctuates with the timing of
the precipitation,'' he says. "Switchgrass needs most of its moisture in
spring and midsummer. If you get fall rains, it's not going to do that
year's crops much good."" ... "But yields from a grass that only needs
to be planted once would deliver an average of 13.1 megajoules of energy
as ethanol for every megajoule of petroleum consumed—in the form of nitrogen
fertilizers or diesel for tractors—growing them. "It's a prediction because
right now there are no biorefineries built that handle cellulosic material"
like that which switchgrass provides, Vogel notes. "We're pretty confident
the ethanol yield is pretty close." This means that switchgrass ethanol
delivers 540 percent of the energy used to produce it, compared with just
roughly 25 percent more energy returned by corn-based ethanol according
to the most optimistic studies." -By David Biello
-SciAm
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