Category: RT Newswire

USE ME! Essentially, this is a catch all for everything. This is probably the ONLY category where things that are not directly related to Rising Tide affiliates/allies should go. For example if a coal company goes out of business (and we didn’t directly cause it) it should probably only go here.

Mexico City’s New Urban Greening Program

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Mexico City plants lawns on roofs to fight warming
Thu Jun 5, 2008 10:24pm EDT

By Mica Rosenberg

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico City, one of the world’s most polluted capitals, is planting rooftop gardens on public buildings as part of a program launched on Thursday to combat global warming.

The smog-choked metropolis plans to replace gas tanks, clothes lines and asphalt on 100,000 square feet (9,300 square meters) of publicly owned roof space each year with grass and bushes that will absorb carbon dioxide.

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Rising Food Prices Could Put Brakes on Biofuels

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Rising food prices could put brakes on biofuel
PHILIP BRASHER
Published: 06.06.2008

Americans griping about the higher cost of food might want to take a look at what’s happening in places such as Kenya or Sri Lanka.

Food prices in those countries rose 25 percent during the past year, more than four times the inflation U.S. consumers saw, according to a new report by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization. In Botswana, food prices are up 18 percent.

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Biodiversity Loss = Economic Loss

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——————————————————————————
“Urgent remedial action is essential because
species loss and ecosystem degradation are
inextricably linked to human well-being,” said
Pavan Sukhdev, a banker at Deutsche Bank and the
main author of the report.

“This is crunch time,” said WWF Director General
Jim Leape. “We’re gathered here under urgent
circumstances.”
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REUTERS
May 29, 2008

U.N. experts warn of economic cost of species loss
By Madeline Chambers

BONN, Germany (Reuters) – Mankind is causing 50
billion euros ($78 billion) of damage to the
planet’s land areas every year, making it
imperative governments act to save plants and
animals, a Deutsche Bank official told a U.N.
conference.

A study, presented to delegates from 191
countries in the U.N.’s Convention on Biological
Diversity on Thursday, said recent pressure on
commodity and food prices highlighted the effects
of the loss of biodiversity to society.

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Rainwater-Harvesting Expert Brad Lancaster Says Community and Conservation are Keys to Desert Living

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Rainwater-harvesting expert Brad Lancaster says community and conservation are keys to desert living

By MARI HERRERAS email the Weekly
Sustainably Yours-Brad Lancaster

Brad Lancaster is not wild about the word “green.”

“The term ‘green’ doesn’t cut it, especially the way it is being marketed,” Lancaster says as he drives back to Tucson after teaching several weeks of rainwater-harvesting workshops in New Mexico while also promoting the two volumes of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond. “This idea that we can buy our way green is bogus. We need to be asking ourselves: What are we trying to do, and how are we trying to live?”

Lancaster answers these questions in his books; the most recent volume focuses on how to use earthworks to harvest rainwater. A third volume is due out next year. Overall, Lancaster’s books teach desert-dwellers new ways to look at conserving water, while at the same time growing food-producing gardens, using solar energy and taking advantage of gray water from the shower or washing machine.

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