Some rainfalls are expected across the islands, starting with Majuro in May, Kwajalein by June and northern islands by July.

In the meantime it is essential for Marshallese people to have access to clean drinking water, proper sanitation and nutritious food. UNICEF reports an increase in diarrhea and other infections among children, which may be fatal if not cured immediately. To help prevent such diseases, UNICEF has shared radio messages, which include washing hands, boiling all drinking water, continuing to exclusively breastfeed infants under six months old and not eating spoiled food.

The ‘state of disaster’ for the northern Marshall Islands was announced On Monday, May 6, 2013.

Abstract

This paper describes the potential applications of renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuel combustion as the prime energy sources in various countries, and discusses problems associated with biomass combustion in boiler power systems. Here, the term biomass includes organic matter produced as a result of photosynthesis as well as municipal, industrial and animal waste material. Brief summaries of the basic concepts involved in the combustion of biomass fuels are presented. Renewable energy sources (RES) supply 14% of the total world energy demand. RES are biomass, hydropower, geothermal, solar, wind and marine energies. The renewables are the primary, domestic and clean or inexhaustible energy resources. The percentage share of biomass was 62.1% of total renewable energy sources in 1995. Experimental results for a large variety of biomass fuels and conditions are presented. Numerical studies are also discussed. Biomass is an attractive renewable fuel in utility boilers. The compositions of biomass among fuel types are variable. Ash composition for the biomass is fundamentally different from ash composition for the coal. Especially inorganic constituents cause to critical problems of toxic emissions, fouling and slagging. Metals in ash, in combination with other fuel elements such as silica and sulfur, and facilitated by the presence of chlorine, are responsible for many undesirable reactions in combustion furnaces and power boilers. Elements including K, Na, S, Cl, P, Ca, Mg, Fe, Si are involved in reactions leading to ash fouling and slagging in biomass combustors. Chlorine in the biomass may affect operation by corrosion. Ash deposits reduce heat transfer and may also result in severe corrosion at high temperatures. Other influences of biomass composition are observed for the rates of combustion and pollutant emissions. Biomass combustion systems are non-polluting and offer significant protection of the environment. The reduction of greenhouse gases pollution is the main advantage of utilizing biomass energy.

continue reading… http://pinterest.com/alysiapower27/crown-capital-management-jakarta-indonesia/

Quote of BABA:
You cannot know Me until the moment you know yourself. Since I know Myself, I know you, in and out. 

I give my devotees whatever they ask, until they ask for what I want to give.

source:::::shirdi sai speaks …. H.Deepa

Natarajan

Photo: Archangel Ancient Tree Archive

If you’ve ever had the good fortune to walk among ancient trees like the giant sequoia of Yosemite Park (some over 2000 years old), or perhaps seen The Sisters grove in Lebanon (an olive tree grove estimated to be over 5000 years old), or even an old-growth forest, then you know that there’s something special about a grove of trees that has been on the planet for centuries, or longer.

The Archangel Ancient Tree Archive project aims to reverse the loss of the great trees before they are gone. Founded by a family-run nursery in Michigan, the project first succeeded in creating clones of some of the oldest, largest trees that were felled over a century ago in Humboldt County, California. Some of the stumps of these trees still produce large basal sprouts. The Archangel team took cuttings of these sprouts and after thousands of attempts, were able to grow cloned offspring of what they call ‘champion’ trees.

Champions, for the people at Archangel, are those trees which lived for over 2,000 years before being felled, and which may have particular genetic characteristics which would allow them to survive all manner of harsh conditions. The non-profit group hopes to plant champion trees around the world to help combat deforestation and its effects through the addition of super trees into existing forests and near facilities that can study the trees as they grow. Given that more and more research points to plants and trees communicating with one another in previously undiscovered ways, perhaps it isn’t far-fetched to think that having particularly strong trees in a given ecosystem might improve that system’s overall robustness.

Micropropagation process
Photo: Archangel Ancient Tree Archive

Thus far, the group has cloned 75 species of North American trees, and they are now expanding to include trees from other areas around the world.

In celebration of 2013 Earth Day, the group organized a global planting project in which thousands of volunteers planted 18 inch (45cm) cloned ancient redwood saplings in forests in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Ireland, and Germany.

The mission of the tree archive, according to their web site, is to “propagate the world’s most important old growth trees before they are gone; archive the genetics of ancient trees in living libraries; and reforest the Earth with the offspring of these trees to provide the myriad of beneficial ecosystem services essential for all life forms to thrive and to fight global warming.”

Whether or not champion trees have special genetic traits which make them particularly long-lived, this seems to be a remarkable and positive undertaking that honors the interdependence of ecosystems with the great trees that still live among them.

More:

Archangel Ancient Tree Archive website -

New York Times book review of The Man Who Planted Trees, a recently published book written by Jim Robbins on Archangel co-founder Dave Milarch. It is available for purchase on the Archangel website and the usual outlets.*

Co.Exist article – An Archive Of Ancient Tree DNA Will Help Us Clone The Ones We Destroy by Ben Schiller

Out of the Fog blog post – Reforesting Earth, one clone at a time by Chris Palmer

* There is another book by the same title which looks at famous tree planting advocates.

The award was presented to the team for the annual Quality of Life report which included innovative work on data visualisations and interactive maps on the Local Information System. The Research team led on the project and were supported by both the Public Health Intelligence Team and the Geographical Information System (GIS) Team and received contributions from various County Council teams and partner agencies.

The submissions had to show how they have used secondary analysis of publically available data to lead to a greater understanding of a local area, community or health issue. This could include official statistics such as census, health, economy, labour market or any other publically available datasets such as public opinion, transparency or financial data. They also had to show that this has led to evidence-based decision-making within the public sector. It was also desired that he winner showed strong partnership working and innovation in their entry.

The award recognises the work of the three Observatory teams; the Research Team, the Public Health Intelligence Team and the Geographical Information System (GIS) Team (see picture for the three teams’ members).

Congratulations to everyone involved in the project! Work is already underway on this year’s report.

Bob Carter shreds the myths

Even High School kids could follow this.  Carter is an earth sciences professor at an Australian university so the talk does include some Australian references.

The Climate Lessons blogger says:  ”This should be recommended viewing for every teacher in the world.

I also think there are seeds in this video for ideas that could be used as and when the ‘authorities’ get round to creating a decent curriculum on climate for schools.  That might have to precede publishers willing to risk new books aimed at the young, and suitable for schools, with a more realistic and optimistic view of our climate system and our impact on it.

That might include the fact that we have never been in a stronger position than we are now to cope with climate variations.  So parents might like to take the initiative and tell their children that.  There will be troubles ahead from climate, just as there have been in the past.  But we are more ready than ever before to handle them.  Our abundant supplies of affordable energy are part of that.”

Getting rid of the Climate change department and the Carbon Tax will be a huge lift for Australia’s economy, trashed by Green Labor.

Bluebells at Uppark

Unfurling Ferns

Ferns unravelled

Fronds at Uppark

Hemp Agrimony emerging at Uppark

Dr Friedrich, a Dutch geographer by training (phD at University of Bristol, 1982), has had a very diverse career, from studying cave systems to negotiating multi-million-dollar contracts for wetlands programmes in Uganda and Vietnam, for national environmental policy assistance programmes in Ethiopia and Tanzania, and for water management programmes in the Mekong River basin.

Europe was illustrated as a fragmented landscape, lacking the large areas of wilderness that all other continents have to some extent. It is a criss-cross of agricultural production systems, forest and woodland, moors, marshes, mountainous areas and beaches. However, there are very few areas where human contact has been wholly minimised over history. It is here that on a side note I want to plug my interest in environmental history. To manage our biodiversity effectively; and after all as we have a managed landscape we will have to ‘manage’ it, we should be undertaking local environmental history studies in all areas of management. Pollen analysis, dendrochronology and other techniques can be carried out to understand how habitats have changed and how we can best manage them.

Anyway, back to the lecture. Dr Friedrich explained how Europe is leading the world in terms of understanding its various landscapes and trying to build its biodiversity. However, there are still major issues. £10 billion annually is the cost of the damage from invasive species and only 11% of habitats are described by a European Commission document as being in ‘a favourable state’.

When it comes down to it, Dr Friedrich lay the blame on ‘communication’. In a time of recession nature simply isn’t that high on the list of priorities. People need to be taught about how important it is to sustain our ecosystems and maintain our biodiversity. People need to learn to love nature (for want of a better phrase). A new marketing strategy is required to sell the importance of nature to the wider public. Dr Friedrich raised the example of WWF (World Wildlife  Fund) being created in the 1960s. A similarly positive marketing framework is required to be created for the biodiversity problem today. 

Europe is doing a lot of things that are good when it comes to biodiversity management. An army of academics, NGOs, politicians, farmers, wildlife charities and volunteers are each doing there bit. However, there is little connection between all of these groups. I disliked the fact that Dr Friedrich didn’t seem to offer forth any particularly ‘new’ suggestions for how we can improve our biodiversity. Farmers especially tend to be blamed for the loss of habitat and yet, they are being out under enormous pressure for higher yields and are facing higher input costs. Many farmers go out of their way to improve habitat on their farms as a healthy ‘agro-ecosystem’ generally equates to a higher number of pollinators and hence higher yields and a ‘healthier’ and more profitable enterprise. 

Will the new biodiversity strategy in Europe (2011-2020) work? To use an age old cliché – time will tell.

Perhaps, the call to look after animals and take care of the Earth were Old Testament things that didn’t apply now. Or maybe it was for some people and not all.

I’ve always loved creation and felt it was right to look after it but what I really wanted was some solid information to back this feeling up. If people were to ask me why I felt the need to look after animals and the environment, I wanted to be able to give them some definite reasons beyond what my gut told me.

I was already doing a course at bible college at this stage and there was one subject that I wanted to do more than any other subject. I was doing a grad dip in mission studies and had to complete eight units to pass. Two of the units were prerequisites and four were core mission units I had to do for my major in mission studies. That left me with two electives to play around with. I used one to do biblical interpretation which I thought was pretty foundational to the Christian life and then I was saving up this last unit to the one subject I really wanted to do: theology of mission and care of creation.

This subject was made for me I thought because I’m all about mission and hello, I’ve always valued creation and studied environmental science before this course. This was my pet subject- creation and I was really looking forward to doing it except it was only offered every second year and the year I was going to do it, it wasn’t running.

Oh no! They didn’t have anyone to teach it and there probably weren’t enough people wanting to do it anyway. I thought that was it but then luckily I told my sister I couldn’t do it and she wondered if I could do it by reading. I didn’t know what that was but it’s when you learn the subject in your own time by reading set texts.

So I asked my course adviser if this was an option and he said it was if I enrolled in a subject called: Research project in mission studies. And this is what I did.

It was perfect. Even better than attending lectures because now I could learn about the areas of my choosing as well cover a basic care of creation rationale. Plus the assignments consisted of a project proposal worth 10% and a 6000 word essay worth 90%. I love essays so I was very happy.

It all worked out amazingly and looking back I can see God’s hand in the journey he had me on and his genius timing.

I loved how I did an environmental science course where I learnt about the environment and climate change and the condition the world was in. This meant I didn’t have to research this aspect of the care of creation content. I already knew the environment I was dealing with so now I could focus on how to look after it and why.

The two courses worked perfectly coming together for this essay with mission being all about how and why to care for the creation I’d already learnt about.

The essay changed my life and led me to start this journey of living simply.

English: Water smoothed rocks (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Like water over rocks
The change will happen
Will take hold
There is no
Victory march
No grand celebration
To behold
And while
The path’s forgotten
Yet the story can be told
And be remembered
If not precisely
Still with warmth
As we grow old

Like water over rocks
A change of view
A newer scene
A complete re-write
Of history
Of where we might have been
And yet we are
Evolving
To something in between
Where once
The darkness lingered
Now the world
Is lush and green

Like water over rocks
Injustice falters
And is lost
Not through speeches
Or great drama
But through incremental cost
And does it matter
If to win this
We must deal now with our host?
Like water over rocks
We’ll gain this
Find the world we need the most.

(c) Helen Valentina 2013, All Rights Reserved

This video from India is called Whale Sharks – Reef Life of the Andaman – Part 3.

From Wildlife Extra:

Fishermen successfully release Whale shark from net off Pakistan

WWF training proves worthwhile

May 2013: Fishermen in Sonmiani Bay, near Karachi in Pakistan, have successfully released a juvenile whale shark that had become caught in their fishing nets after a considerable struggle.

A local fishing boat snagged a 3.5 m Whale shark in their nets, but, fortunately, the captain of the vessel, Muhammad Ismail, is one of the fishermen that has been trained by WWF-Pakistan to release any endangered animals that become trapped in their net. It took more than an hour to get this struggling animal free from the net without harming it.

Fishermen used to kill whale sharks for their liver oil, which was used for smearing hulls of fishing boats. In February 2013 fishermen killed a large female Whale shark and brought its carcass into Karachi Fish Harbour which created a media storm. Whale sharks are included in CITES Appendix-II putting them under strict regulatory control.

Whale sharks off Pakistan

Whale sharks are occasionally reported from the area but the status of the population is not known. They can be seen along coastal offshore waters of Pakistan as the area is thought to be an important feeding and breeding area.

Protection is important

Mr. Rab Nawaz, Director WWF-Pakistan stressed the need for protection of this species in Pakistan because their population is seriously dwindling. There is no natural predator of this largest known fish but these are killed by entangling in fishing gear. In order to protect this fish, WWF-Pakistan is persuading the provincial wildlife departments of Sindh and Balochistan to include Whale sharks in Appendix-I of the respective wildlife acts so that these gentle giants may be given the status of a protected animal. He further pointed out that since Wildlife Acts in both Maritime Provinces are being redrafted, therefore, it is the right time for Whale sharks to be included in them as protected species.

Mr. Muhammad Moazzam Khan, Technical Advisor (Marine Fisheries) WWF-Pakistan pointed out that there used to a substantially large commercial and recreational fishery for whale sharks along the coast of Pakistan in Pre-Partition Period, however, it stopped in 1960′s. Fishermen still kill these animals for their liver and even meat (used for production of fish meal for poultry); however, WWF-Pakistan has involved all major stakeholders in creating awareness among fishermen not to kill these animals. He lauded the role of captain and crew of the vessels for their efforts in releasing the juvenile.

Just a week earlier, fishermen off the coast of Gujurat, just down the coast from Karachi, released a baby Whale shark from their nets. Read more here.

Related articles

• Huge whale shark washed up in Pakistan (wtf.videosift.com)
• Scientists looking for whale shark (wptv.com)
• Swimming with a Giant (wptv.com)
• Finding Nognog: Donsol missing 4 whale sharks (newsinfo.inquirer.net)

It may not seem like a big deal to most of us. But billions of dollars of commercially grown fruits and vegetables, a big chunk of our diet, depend on honeybee pollination.

The cause of the die-off is unknown, but it started suspiciously soon after a new generation of pesticides hit the market.

[worldnow id=8910508 width=480 height=360 type=video]

David Bradshaw’s commercial honeybee farm took its worst beating ever this spring. “What was a large thriving colony was down to 2, 3 frames, 4 frames and just a shadow of what it used to be,” he said.

Beekeepers across the country have been losing honeybees at alarming rates for seven years now. Experts blame a combination of lack of forage, parasites, viruses, and pesticides.

But a growing number of beekeepers suspect the main culprit could be a new class of pesticides called neonicotinoids, also known as “neonics.” They came on the market a decade ago and are now used everywhere, from local garden bug sprays to huge commercial farms.

Neonics work by absorbing into the body of the plant. They target the brain of small pests like aphids, killing them instantly. But honeybees survive, carrying so-called “sublethal” doses of pesticide back to the hive all summer long.

It is bad news for the honeybees, said Paul Towers with the Pesticide Action Network. His group is one of several environmental groups suing the EPA, the agency that oversees pesticide use.

“Honeybees are in peril. The Environmental Protection Agency allowed these neonics onto the market with very little review,” Towers said. The suit claims the agency gave conditional approval “with no adequate risk assessments.”

The industry denies the claim. “It’s clear that all of the studies that have been thought of have either been conducted or are now underway,” said Jay Vroom with Croplife America.

Vroom said neonics are likely the least of honeybees’ problems. “We think there is a holistic series of issues that need to be looked at, including the management of verroa mites,” he said.

UC Davis honeybee expert Eric Mussen agrees. “If you don’t just look at the gross number that says 31 percent of the bees were lost, well yes we did lose 31 percent, but it was to a combination of all the other things that aren’t going right.”

He said only a minority of the nation’s beekeepers are having continuous problems. “I imagine that if they took even a closer look at their bees they would find out that there were some things that they would be able to straighten out,” Mussen said.

Those are fighting words for Bradshaw. “You’re talking about piss poor bee keeping. It’s not piss poor beekeeping! I have been doing this all my life, I feel I am a good steward of my bees,” he said.

Bradshaw has no mite problem and said Mussen may be towing the pesticide industry line for a reason. “The major pesticide manufacturers do a lot of funding to the universities and you can’t bite the hand that feeds you,” he said.

UC Davis does get millions of dollars from the big six pesticide manufacturers. Mussen sees it as a positive, because research has led to better pesticides.

“They are basically limited to the plant to which they are applied, so it isn’t really contaminating the rest of the environment,” he said.

And if some bees are dying, Mussen said, “They are collateral damage is what I think the military would call it.”

For Bradshaw it’s a lot more than collateral. “At this current rate of losses beekeeping is virtually unsustainable,” he said.

The EPA can’t comment on the lawsuit. The agency has just approved a new class of neonics. Meanwhile, Europe has proposed a temporary ban on neonics until more research is done.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The fee will be 1 per cent of the upfront environmental bond that all miners must pay, as set by the Department of Mines’ Security Assessment Board.

The Government has said the bond would be 100 per cent of clean-up costs but there is no way for the public to tell as the amount is secret. The new levy comes into effect in October.  Mines Minister Willem Westra van Holthe said the impost would raise $6.5 million in its first year………. “We’re simply asking mining companies to chip in to a program that will be used to remediate legacy environmental problems caused by the industry.”

The event is sponsored by the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society and will take place in Munich, 19-21 June 2014.

The *deadline for proposals is July 15*, those considering submitting a proposal are encouraged to contact the organizers, John Meyer (john.meyer@humboldt.edu) or Jens Kersten  (jens.kersten@jura.uni-muenchen.de) with questions or ideas well in advance of the deadline.

Travel expenses for invited participants will be paid by the Carson
Center.

More information

While environmental challenges including climate change threaten the
very fabric of our lives, such that the present course of our societies appears literally  unsustainable, ambitious efforts to address these rarely seem to resonate with the everyday concerns and ideas most  pressing to citizens in
post-industrial societies.

This workshop will focus upon the normative implications of everyday
material practices for environmental action. In particular, the workshop
will focus upon land, transportation, and household practices. In each of these areas, human experience is inextricably  interwoven with technology, the
built environment, and the non-human world. The aim is to approach the
political challenges of environmental sustainability by examining these
everyday practices and the concerns they foster directly, rather than a
more abstract environmental discourse that suggests the need to overcome
these concerns.

Attention to this materialist basis of environmental concern has long
been central in poorer and less industrialized societies, as well as some movements for environmental  and climate justice. Yet it has
been far less prominent in analyses of environmental concern in Europe,  North America, and Oceania. Moreover, attention to practices has often been overshadowed by  both individual and structural approaches. This workshop aims to generate new insights into  the possibilities for environmental action and change by exploring these  everyday material practices, reflecting the social,
economic, and ecological ambivalences of greening everyday life. Analyzing everyday practices invites vital questions about:

* concepts of property and ownership;
*   the relevance and meaning of citizenship;
* the character and scope of public and private spheres;
* the role of new movements;
* diverse notions of governance;
* popular understandings of freedom; and
* understandings of what counts as “the environment” and ”environmentalism” in postindustrial societies.

It is anticipated that such questions will be the focal point of papers and workshop discussion. Proposals are invited from scholars in the environmental humanities and  interpretive social sciences. Papers should centrally address one or more of the three areas (land, transport, or household practices), in order to reimagine or illuminate some aspect of the conceptual framework necessary to foster more sustainable practices.

Invited participants will be required to submit their completed paper
(approximately 6000 words), in English, by 23 May 2014. These will be circulated to all participants  in advance of the workshop.

The Rachel Carson Center will cover the travel cost and accommodation
expenses for invited participants. It is expected that papers will then
be revised with the goal of publishing an edited book.

To answer this call for proposals, send a CV and a proposal of 300–400
words, including a title, to the conference conveners by 15 July 2013.
For further questions, please contact either of the event conveners:

Conveners’ Contact Details
Jens Kersten & John Meyer
LMU Munich Humboldt State University
Rachel Carson Center Rachel Carson Center
jens.kersten@jura.uni-muenchen.de
john.meyer@humboldt.edu

It’s World Turtle Day and we’re celebrating our shelled reptile friends with fun facts and photos! Tell us what you love about turtles and tortoises!

• Turtles have been on the earth for about 200 million years.
• Box turtles can live to be over a 100 years old.
• Turtles live on every continent except Antarctica.

• There are seven species of sea turtles. The Leatherback is the largest.
• The top shell is called the carapace and the bottom shell is the called the plastron.

• Turtles and tortoises are attached to their shells.
• The shells are part of their skeleton.

• The coverings on the top shell are called scutes.
• Scutes are made up of keratin, the same protein that makes up human hair and nails.

• Turtles don’t have ears.
• There are about 250 species of turtles.

• Some sea turtles can dive as deep as 3,000 feet.
• Turtles are reptiles.

• Turtles lay eggs.
• Hatchlings have a special tooth that they use to crack open their eggs.