News headlines for “Biodiversity”, page 606
BRAZIL: Climate Change Means New Crop Health Concerns
- Inter Press Service
Farming around the globe, already reeling from drought, heat waves and major storms, will have to prepare for the new challenges that global warming will bring, especially in the form of pests and disease.
BRAZIL: Oil Palm Plantations Expand on Degraded Land in Amazon
- Inter Press Service
Brazil hopes to eventually become a major producer of palm oil, thanks to the expansion of this new exotic monoculture crop in the eastern Amazon jungle, where eucalyptus plantations are also mushrooming on broad swaths of already deforested land.
Assumptions on Overfishing Challenged
- Inter Press Service
For decades, fisheries around the world have relied on practices that take for granted certain assumptions about the industry, such as protecting younger fish while exploiting older fish and using trophic levels to monitor the health of fisheries. Recently, however, some scientists have begun to question these unanimously accepted practices. Experts are beginning to think that the science behind the global fishing industry may be completely wrong.
CHINA: Scientists Push Desalination Meet Water Shortages
- Inter Press Service
While China faces grave water shortages, researchers at institutions across the country are working on new water- saving and desalination technologies that they hope can alleviate the crisis in the crucial years to come.
BIODIVERSITY: A Year for Limited Optimism
- Inter Press Service
Nearly 12 months ago, when the U.N. heralded 2010 as the ‘International Year of Biodiversity’, unrealistic goals seemed to indicate failure for the ambitious initiative. But now that the year is drawing to a close, some experts also see the year’s progress as encouraging, and a reason for optimism.
ARGENTINA: On-Board Cameras to Monitor Hake Fishing in South Atlantic
- Inter Press Service
A video monitoring system will begin operating Jan. 1 on fishing vessels in the South Atlantic in a bid to halt the collapse of the Argentine hake population in one of the world's largest fisheries supplying the white fish market.
CENTRAL AMERICA: Threats Churn in the San Juan River
- Inter Press Service
The San Juan River, centre of discord and diplomatic conflicts between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, is seeing its riverbanks fill up with economic projects that scientists and environmentalists say will irreversibly alter its course.
Q&A: 'This Time There Will Be No Noah's Ark'
- Inter Press Service
'The market is not going to resolve the environmental crisis,' says theologian and environmentalist Leonardo Boff, professor at Brazil's State University of Rio de Janeiro. The solution, he says, lies in ethics and in changing our relationship with nature.
CHINA: Researchers Race Toward Renewable Energy
- Inter Press Service
Researchers in China, the world’s leading provider of wind turbines and solar panels, are working toward making renewable energy cheaper, more efficient and a bigger part of the country’s power grid.
PERU: Sacrificing the Rainforest on the Altar of Energy
- Inter Press Service
The construction of five hydroelectric dams in Peru as part of an energy deal with Brazil will do considerable damage to the environment, such as the destruction of nearly 1.5 million hectares of jungle over the next 20 years, according to an independent study.
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