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Cheetah smuggling driving wild population to extinction, report says
Rising demand for luxury pets in the Gulf states taking gruesome toll as two-thirds of snatched cubs are dying en route
The rising trade in cheetahs for luxury pets in the Middle East is helping to drive critical populations of the wild cats to extinction, according to new research. The report also reveals the gruesome toll of the trade, with up to two-thirds of the cheetah cubs being smuggled across the war-torn Horn of Africa dying en route. However, the nations at both ends of the trade have now agreed that urgent action is needed.
Cheetahs, famous as the world’s fastest land animal, have lost about 90% of their population over the last century as their huge ranges in Africa and Asia have been taken over by farmland. Fewer than 10,000 remain and numbers are falling. There is an ancient tradition of using trained cheetahs as royal hunting animals in Africa but, more recently, a growing demand for status-symbol pets in the Gulf states has further reduced populations.
Continue reading...Clear differences between organic and non-organic food, study finds
Organic food has more of the antioxidant compounds linked to better health than regular food, and lower levels of toxic metals and pesticides, according to the most comprehensive scientific analysis to date.
The international team behind the work suggests that switching to organic fruit and vegetables could give the same benefits as adding one or two portions of the recommended "five a day".
Continue reading...KiWi Power: the tech-savvy energy firm with a way out of Britain's power crisis
A small iron gate squeezed between a newsagent and printing shop off Carnaby Street in central London is not the obvious location for a business that could avert a British power crunch.
Step inside the cramped, white-painted offices of KiWi Power and it looks more like a tech startup than an energy business – as exemplified by the open shirt and beaded necklace sported by co-founder Ziko Abram.
Continue reading...Dark snow: from the Arctic to the Himalayas, the phenomenon that is accelerating glacier melting
When American geologist Ulyana Horodyskyj set up a mini weather station at 5,800m on Mount Himlung, on the Nepal-Tibet border, she looked east towards Everest and was shocked. The world's highest glacier, Khumbu, was turning visibly darker as particles of fine dust, blown by fierce winds, settled on the bright, fresh snow. "One-week-old snow was turning black and brown before my eyes," she said.
The problem was even worse on the nearby Ngozumpa glacier, which snakes down from Cho Oyu – the world's sixth highest mountain. There, Horodyskyj found that so much dust had been blown on to the surface that the ability of the ice to reflect sunlight, a process known as albedo, dropped 20% in a single month. The dust that was darkening the brilliant whiteness of the snow was heating up in the strong sun and melting the snow and ice, she said.
Continue reading...The long shadow of Chernobyl
A new book from National Geographic photographer Gerd Ludwig documents the worst nuclear disaster in history with sobering but stunning images. Ludwig visited Chernobyl nine times in 20 years to tell the stories of the lives of the victims, the exclusion zone and the abandoned city of
Pripyat. The book also contains an essay from former president Mikhail Gorbachev on how the accident changed the course of the world's history by accelerating the collapse of the Soviet Union
Victor Gaydack is now in his 70s and lives in a Kiev suburb. In April 1986 he was a major in the Russian army, on duty when reactor four at Chernobyl exploded. He was one of tens of thousands of fit, young “liquidators” sent in from all over the Soviet Union to try to make safe the stricken reactor. Since the accident, Gaydack has suffered two heart attacks, and developed severe stomach cancer.
Continue reading...SENG SA News and Events - July 2014
Product List 2014-2015
Kangaroo tail a 'third leg' that gives speed, not just balance, says study
Scientists have discovered a kangaroo's tail propels it forward with as much force as its front and hind legs combined
The role of kangaroos’ unusually large, muscular tails appears to have been definitely answered, with scientists discovering the tail propels kangaroos forward with as much force as its front and hind legs combined.
Researchers measured the force the tail exerts on the ground and found it is critical in getting kangaroos moving at slow speeds, to a greater degree than even its legs.
Continue reading...Stuart Pope - Urban Design Strategy
In his presentation, Stuart will discuss urban sustainability design principles the Adelaide City Council is looking to incorporate into their Urban Design Strategy.
Stuart works within the Design Strategy Team at Adelaide City Councils City Design and Transport Program where they are currently updating councils urban design strategy with a focus on improving the quality of the public realm and incorporating sustainability principles. He has qualifications in Landscape Architecture and Industrial Design.
Cast: AdelaideSBN
Ehsan Sharifi
Ehsan Sharifi graduated with a Master of Architecture (2002) and Master of Sustainable Design (2011), focusing on pedestrian friendly urban design. His research interests cover quality, livability and the sustainability of public space. Previously he worked as a Lecturer at Shiraz University, focusing on the history and theory of urban design and rehabilitation of existing urban precincts. Ehsan was the recipient of UniSA’s President Scholarship and School of Art, Architecture and Design Scholarship in 2012, and a National AAD Travel Grant in 2013 for his PhD at the sd+b Centre. Ehsan is currently an UHI researcher at Zero Waste Centre for Sustainable Design and Behaviour (sd+b) and workshop supervisor of Sustainable Urban Design at the School of Natural and Built Environment at UniSA, Adelaide.
Cast: AdelaideSBN
World's first fully recyclable paper cup to hit UK high streets
The world's first fully recyclable paper cup will soon make its debut on the UK high street, in a packaging breakthrough that could eventually divert millions of cups away from landfill.
More than 2.5bn cups are thrown away in the UK every year – enough to go round the world five and a half times. But few are recycled and nearly all end up in landfill, creating 25,000 tonnes of waste – enough to fill London's Royal Albert Hall.
Continue reading...Extension to comment period on an ecological community listing
Commonsense prevails as BBC upholds Today programme climate complaint | Bob Ward
BBC's Editorial Complaints Unit concludes interview with Lord Lawson and Professor Sir Brian Hoskins on climate change and floods broke guidelines on due accuracy
Hugh Muir reports on the leaked decision by the BBC to uphold a complaint about an interview on climate change with Lord Lawson on the Today programme on 13 February.
Justin Webb interviewed both Lawson and Prof Sir Brian Hoskins, chair of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, about the link between climate change and the winter floods this winter.
Continue reading...Invitation to comment on three ecological community listing assessments
Reintroduction of Carbon Tax Repeal Bills
Reintroduction of Carbon Tax Repeal Bills
Helping the iconic Hattah Lakes
Greenpeace losses: leaked documents reveal extent of financial disarray
The handling of Greenpeace International’s £58m budget has been in disarray for years, with its financial team beset by personnel problems and a lack of rigorous processes, leading to errors, substandard work and a souring of relationships between its Amsterdam headquarters and offices around the world, documents leaked to the Guardian show.
Coming after it emerged that a staffer had lost £3m on the foreign exchange market by betting mistakenly on a weak euro, the documents show that the group’s financial department has faced a series of problems, and that its board is troubled by the lack of controls and lapses that allowed one person to lose so much money.
Continue reading...The open source revolution is coming and it will conquer the 1% - ex CIA spy | Nafeez Ahmed
Robert David Steele, former Marine, CIA case officer, and US co-founder of the US Marine Corps intelligence activity, is a man on a mission. But it's a mission that frightens the US intelligence establishment to its core.
With 18 years experience working across the US intelligence community, followed by 20 more years in commercial intelligence and training, Steele's exemplary career has spanned almost all areas of both the clandestine world.
Steele started off as a Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer. After four years on active duty, he joined the CIA for about a decade before co-founding the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity, where he was deputy director. Widely recognised as the leader of the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) paradigm, Steele went on to write the handbooks on OSINT for NATO, the US Defense Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Special Operations Forces. In passing, he personally trained 7,500 officers from over 66 countries.
Continue reading...Indian officials order Coca-Cola plant to close for using too much water
Mehdiganj plant at centre of protests accused of extracting too much groundwater and releasing pollutants above limits
Authorities in northern India have ordered the closure of a Coca-Cola bottling plant at the centre of protests that it is extracting too much groundwater, an official said Wednesday.
An anti-pollution official said the Mehdiganj plant in Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh had breached the conditions of its operating licence, prompting the order closure earler this month.
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