Year: 2008

Boxer-Lieberman-Warner Bill in the Senate: Dirty energy in the name of climate protection

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On the surface, broad-based solutions to global warming appear to be emerging in Congress. But with even a meager scrubbing of the surface, Senators Lieberman and Warner’s “Climate Security Act” (S. 2191) – which is scheduled to be debated on the Senate floor in June – turns out to be perhaps the greatest greenwash of our generation.

Everyone who cares about the climate and a just energy future would do well to take a good, hard look at the Lieberman-Warner (L-W) bill. It could frame the climate debate in the US for a generation. Continue reading

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity

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THE ECONOMICS OF ECOSYSTEMS AND BIODIVERSITY
<http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/biodiversity/economics/index_en.htm>

At the meeting of the environment ministers of the G8 countries and
the five major newly industrialising countries that took place in
Potsdam in March 2007, the German government proposed a study on ‘The
economic significance of the global loss of biological diversity’ as
part of the so-called ‘Potsdam Initiative’ for biodiversity.

The following wording was agreed at Potsdam: ‘In a global study we
will initiate the process of analysing the global economic benefit of
biological diversity, the costs of the loss of biodiversity and the
failure to take protective measures versus the costs of effective
conservation.’

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UN Setting IPCC-like Panel for Global Biodiversity

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Biodiversity advocates have struggled to sound
alarms about the accelerating rate of species
extinction

UN set for IPCC-type panel on biodiversity

BONN, Germany (AFP) – UN members took a key step
here Thursday towards creating a paramount
scientific panel on biodiversity similar to the
Nobel-winning group that helped drive climate
change to the top of the global agenda.

“The process is on track now,” Didier Babin, the
French researcher charged in 2005 with getting
the project off the ground, told AFP.

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Heat, Not Light, May Be Real Engine Driving Biodiversity

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Question: If the following is true, should we then expect an increase
of species diversity at the high altitudes (mountain peaks) and high
latitudes ( the poles)?

Partial answer? :  In the past couple weeks, I posted info here which
indicates an increased diversity already showing up on and near
mountain peaks (high altitude).

Lance

P.S. Heat can also kill. And it can inhibit milk production in
mammals, posing a risk to survival and nurturance of young animals.

Science Daily
May 29, 2008

Heat, Not Light, May Be Real Engine Driving Biodiversity
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080527155533.htm

What causes tropical life to thrive: temperature, or sunlight? The
answer is not necessarily “both.” It turns out that the explosion of
species at the tropics has much more to do with warmth than with
light. (Credit: Copyright Michele Hogan)

ScienceDaily (May 29, 2008) – What causes tropical life to thrive:
temperature, or sunlight?

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