Blogs & Ecology

The financial meltdown has proven how badly things need to change. In July the world was focused on faltering trade negotiations, managing high energy and food costs, climate change and ecosystem degradation. Today, the recent financial collapse has led to a large-scale evaporation of trust in markets.

The irony is that leading companies have long been trying to convince the financial markets to value sustainable development, the companies that pursue it, and the long-term view.

South Korea has just leased half of all the arable land in Madagascar according to the Financial Times. This has stirred quite a debate in the Malagasy blogosphere about land sovereignty and economic development. It is still unclear whether the land deal has actually been signed by both parties. Meanwhile, bloggers are arguing whether this sort of deal should be considered “neo-colonialism”.

Here is an overview of what is know so far.

Yacht Racing, Vendee Globe Competition, Vendee Globe website

By George Grattan (with support from colleagues across the pond in Earthwatch’s UK office).

I’m going to risk bad taste and begin this blog—about record-breaking yachtsmen Brian Thompson’s bid to win the Vendée Globe round-the-world solo ocean race and promote research at the same time—by invoking Melville’s Ishmael.
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The United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Poznań, Poland, 1-12 December 2008. The goal of the meeting is to move from "discussion to negotiation mode in 2009- prior to the later scheduled Copenhagen Denmark meeting", "at which the negotiations are set to conclude". (Look below for summary excerpts of announcement.)

About 500 students gathered peacefully in front of the Executive Yuan on 11/6 to protest against the current Parade and Assembly Law (集會遊行法). The government abusive use of the law has violated people's rights in protest in the past few days during the visit of Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chair Chen Yunlin.

Risk Of Acid Rain In Europe

Writing for TreeHugger does bring some unpleasant surprises. Last year I was astounded to learn that the US State of Utah gets 93% of its electricity from coal burning power plants. (See Coal Released Mercury Ruins Fishing and Duck Hunting.) How could it be any worse? Poland and surrounding central European nations, it seems, have the record for extreme coal dependency.

First-grader Kayla Arsenault, 6, left, reads a question to teacher Brenda Page-Reilly seen on the screen at right via Web cam during a live from the field Earthwatch entitled Climate Change and Caterpillar Populations at E.C. Stevens school in Wallingford Wednesday. Page-Reilly was live from a research location in Louisiana. Tech teacher Charlotte Robbins stands next to Kayla Arsenault at left.
Image credit: Dave Zajac / Record-Journal

By: George Grattan

Note: The opinions expressed here are the author's, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Earthwatch.

Image credit: Russ George - "A very deserving huggable tree" in Sri Lanka, Peradeniya Botanical garden, Kandy

What better way to celebrate a bright future than to view such a beauty?

Communities all over the world have special trees, each with a story that links to local culture. Which is your favorite?
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Last month, GV environment looked at Maps, online communities and carbon footprint calculators. Since then there have been more calculators released, and in this post we list some of these new tools for the public to calculate their CO2 emissions.

Last week marked the 60th anniversary of the World Conservation Congress. The Congress is a ten-day forum for leaders in academia, business, government, NGO’s and the UN. Led by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), this year’s event in Barcelona drew over 8,000 participants. Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General of the IUCN, declared, “The clear message coming out of this meeting is that biodiversity underpins the well-being of human societies and their economies.”

By George Grattan, Earthwatch Institute. NOTE: The opinions expressed here are the author’s, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Earthwatch.

“Honey, can we afford the environment this month?”

Okay, that’s not exactly how I phrased it. But when my wife and I sat down for one of those bill-paying/family budget review sessions that I’m sure you love as much as we do, that was the gist of my question: how much could we afford to spend on organic food and/or restocking some green cleaning supplies before the next payday?

Chipotle Mexican Grill is kicking up LEED a notch by opening a partially wind-powered restaurant in Gurnee, Illinois. The six-kilowatt wind turbine is capable of supplying up to 10% of the facility's electricity demand. The turbine, and several other green features, are being deployed as part of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Retail pilot program.

Gurnee ...

Sigur Rós is coming to Japan later this month, and his concerts are already sold out. Here in Tokyo, they will play one extra gig, that's how popular this band has become all over the world. Yet, as we all know, Iceland is a small country in big economic trouble. Sigur Rós and Björk tried to raise awareness earlier this summer, preparing for the crisis. Below the fold is a Youtube clip from their Náttúra Concert on June 28, 2008 in Reykjavik. ...

Bog Turtle, Glyptemys muhlenbergi

Earlier this week, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature reported that 25 percent of the world’s mammal species are at risk of extinction in our lifetimes due to habitat destruction and hunting. The IUCN is to be commended for its report.