2008 – Page 180 – Rising Tide North America

Would “Carbon Market” Save Forests?

By postMigrator April 12, 2008 April 12, 2008 Uncategorized

——————————————
“Š we all thought that carbon markets would win,
but after Bali there are more and more voices
saying, ‘maybe the market doesn’t work that well
here’,”Š

“But perhaps the biggest fear among sceptics is
that an endless stream of deforestation credits
will simply allow companies in the developed
world to pay a little extra and pass costs on to
consumers without otherwise changing their
policies.”
—————————————-

NATURE
Vol 452
6 March 2008

NEWS

Scientists and policy-makers will meet in Bonn
this June to discuss one of the most pressing
concerns to come out of December’s United Nations
climate meeting – how to manage the world’s
tropical forests. Jeff Tollefson examines some of
the proposals.

Save the trees

Rainforest nations walked away from the United
Nations (UN) climate meeting in Indonesia last
December with pretty much all they had hoped for:
a place at the negotiating table and an
acknowledgement that deforestation belongs in a
future global-warming treaty. The landmark
decision in Bali was accompanied by an outpouring
of concern – and in some cases money – from the
international community.

World Bank “Playing Both Sides of Climate Crisis”

By postMigrator April 12, 2008 April 12, 2008 RT Newswire

Published on Friday, April 11, 2008 by Inter Press Service
World Bank “Playing Both Sides of Climate Crisis”
By Haider Rizvi

NEW YORK – A new study released by an independent policy think tank casts further doubts on the World Bank’s ability to stay neutral in the global politics of climate change.

“It is making money off of causing the climate crisis and then turning around and claiming to solve it,” charged Janet Redman, the study’s lead author and a researcher at the Institute for Policy Studies.

In releasing the 79-page report Thursday, Redman described the World Bank’s role in the so-called carbon markets as “dangerously counterproductive” to international efforts to tackle climate change.

Carbon markets refer to commercial aspects of environmental responsibility, in which energy companies can either agree to cut carbon emissions or buy the right to keep polluting.

The Miracle in Madagascar-A Blueprint for Saving Species

By postMigrator April 12, 2008 April 12, 2008 Uncategorized

Published on Friday, April 11, 2008 by The Independent/UK
The Miracle in Madagascar – a Blueprint for Saving Species
By Steve Connor

A study aimed at preventing the continued destruction of wildlife in Madagascar is being heralded as a scientific triumph that could act as a blueprint to save many other species from mass extinction.

Scientists believe they now have a viable road map that could be used anywhere in the world to protect the many thousands of animals and plants living precariously in biodiversity “hotspots”, which are increasingly threatened by human activities. The findings are being seen as vindication for a radical new approach to saving endangered species by treating wildlife as a complex web of interacting animals and plants, rather than the old idea of saving one species at a time.

Madagascar was chosen for the experiment because it has one of the richest varieties of wildlife in the world, with a high proportion of endemic species living nowhere else. It has also experienced massive destruction of its forests, with barely 10 per cent of its original habitat surviving.

Scientists: Warmer Seas, Over-Fishing Spell Disaster for Oceans

By postMigrator April 12, 2008 April 12, 2008 RT Newswire

Published on Friday, April 11, 2008 by Agence France Presse
Scientists: Warmer Seas, Over-Fishing Spell Disaster for Oceans

HANOI – The future food security of millions of people is at risk because over-fishing, climate change and pollution are inflicting massive damage on the world’s oceans, marine scientists warned this week.

The two-thirds of the planet covered by seas provide one fifth of the world’s protein — but 75 percent of fish stocks are now fully exploited or depleted, a Hanoi conference that ended Friday was told.

Warming seas are bleaching corals, feeding algal blooms and changing ocean currents that impact the weather, and rising sea levels could in future threaten coastal areas from Bangladesh to New York, experts said.

“People think the ocean is a place apart,” said Peter Neill, head of the World Ocean Observatory. “In fact it’s the thing that connects us — through trade, transportation, natural systems, weather patterns and everything we depend on for survival.”