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Benno Hansen

BBC News - Placing a value on Kenya's largest forest - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...science-environment-11564773

kenya deforestation

shared by Benno Hansen on 20 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Prized as a "natural water tower", the forest has also been the target for aggressive clearance and timber logging in recent decades and its size has been cut by at least 40%.
  • Research by the Kenya Forest Research Institute (KEFRI) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates the economic benefit of the forest to be more than $1.3bn per year.
  • Bordering the trees are some of Kenya's largest tea plantations - tea is one of the country's key exports and the research calculates that it benefits from the forest to the tune of $163m a year.
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  • half of the country's power is driven by water
  • The study calculates that the Mau Forest's value to the electricity sector is $131.6m.
  • This blaze of lurid colour helps to make tourism one of Kenya's biggest earners, and the study reckons this industry receives $65 million in benefits from the forest.
  • Further services provided by the forest include an estimated $89million in storing carbon, $98million in controlling soil erosion and $21million in support for fisheries.
Skeptical Debunker

Aspen's 'dandelion' habits challenge mountain evergreens - 0 views

www.physorg.com/news186085511.html

western Canada forests evergreen aspen invasion

shared by Skeptical Debunker on 23 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Skeptical Debunker on 23 Feb 10
     
    The face of high-elevation evergreen forests in Western Canada could be drastically altered as a combination of climate change, human and natural disturbances is making spruce and pine forests in the Rocky Mountains vulnerable to a slow but steady invasion of aspen trees.
Benno Hansen

North American tree deaths accelerate : Nature News - 0 views

www.nature.com/...news.2009.45.html

shared by Benno Hansen on 22 Jan 09 - Cached
  • Mortality increase correlates with climate change.
  • The mortality rates, which are of the order of 1%, have in many cases doubled in just a couple of decades.
  • This subtle trend correlates with climate change in the region, which has warmed by between 0.3 and 0.4 degrees Celsius every decade since the 1970s.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The team ruled out a number of competing explanations for the trend.
  • The actual mechanism, he speculates, could vary between different forests.
    • Benno Hansen
      Benno Hansen on 22 Jan 09
       
      Generalized mechanism: individual trees effectively "teleported" to foreign ecosystem.
  • "If you attempted to go out and mess around with the forests, you'd probably end up accelerating [mortality rates],"
firozcosmolance

Places in the World that Will Take You Closer to the Wildlife - Gossip Ki Galliyan - 0 views

gossipkigalliyan.com/ake-you-closer-to-the-wildlife

Wildlife

shared by firozcosmolance on 07 May 19 - No Cached
  • firozcosmolance on 07 May 19
     
    From tracking Polar bears, Arctic fox, and ringed seal to swimming with sea lions, penguins, whales and seals in the Sea of Cortez, the world is full of incredible wildlife adventures that you need to experience at least once. If you are a sucker for animals, you won't want to miss these unforgettable wildlife vacations. The wonders of nature are spread in the forms of forests, waterfalls, flowering pastures, mountains, rivers and valleys. When wild life enters the beautiful nature, it attracts travelers from far and near. The natural spectrum of wild lands always encourages people to travel the scenic lands. In this way, tourists explore the way to enjoy life from a different angle.
Benno Hansen

Big business goes to Rio -- New Internationalist - 0 views

www.newint.org/...ility-big-business-corporation

business green economy sustainability environment

shared by Benno Hansen on 18 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Harmless-sounding phrases like ‘green economy’ and ‘sustainable development’ have become grounds for bitter dispute, as different governments and business interests attempt to redefine these terms to meet their own agenda.
  • This row of well-meaning policy sandcastles have spent the past 20 years being eaten away by a rising tide of fundamentalist free-market economics, unfettered financial speculation, and consolidated corporate power.
  • any environmental and social gains from the first Rio summit look small next to the destruction wrought by a voracious corporate sector and by governments obsessed with growth in GDP before all else.
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  • A shift to a genuinely sustainable society will require us to challenge these negative forces, rein in the excesses of corporations and markets, and build an entirely different economy based on wellbeing for the many rather than profits for the few.
  • Silvia Ribeiro from the campaign group ETC Mexico points out: ‘Collapsing financial markets in Northern countries mean that banks and other investors are now looking desperately for new areas of expansion and speculation. We can see these desires leaving their mark on the Rio+20 process. The “Green Economy” now under discussion would unleash a wave of risky but lucrative new technologies such as synthetic biology, nanotechnology and climate technofixes. This isn’t about finding the best environmental solutions: it’s about creating profitable new investments.’
  • we cannot afford to live in a world where ecosystems are protected if, and only if, there is more profit to be made by protecting them than by trashing them.
  • Large polluting industries, business lobby groups and financial institutions are welcomed in as well-meaning ‘stakeholders’ – like mafia bosses invited to a meeting on reducing gang violence.
  • The businesses with the most wealth and power are those that have flourished in an economy based on the unrestricted use of natural resources and the exploitation of many of the world’s people. Those with the most to lose from a shift to true sustainability are therefore those with the most power to block that change.
  • the Stockholm Environment Institute calculated that the economic value of the oceans could be reduced by up to $2 trillion per year if climate change is left unchecked
  • Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of IEN, said: ‘Systems such as “payment for ecological services” and using forests in carbon offset markets do nothing but make Mother Earth into the World Trade Organization of nature.’
  • According to Lucia Ortiz of Friends of the Earth Brazil: ‘Trades Unions are getting very concerned about the “green economy” agenda, because it represents a deepening of neoliberal policies, and threatens to undermine the social rights already secured by past struggles. They are working in solidarity with environmentalists, indigenous peoples, farmers and women’s rights activists, calling instead for a transition to a sustainable and just society free from the exploitation of workers and of nature.’
Benno Hansen

We Don't Know What We're Missing | Psychology Today - 2 views

www.psychologytoday.com/...we-dont-know-what-were-missing

psychology sustainability environment

shared by Benno Hansen on 26 Dec 11 - No Cached
nehasharma786 liked it
  • Across generations people construct a conception of what is environmentally normal based on the natural world encountered in childhood
  • with each ensuing generation, the amount of environmental degradation increases, but each generation tends to take that degraded condition as the non-degraded condition, as the normal experience
  • None of us living today have experienced certain forms of interaction with nature that were common even one or two hundred years ago.
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  • Today the Highlands of Scotland are one of the most deforested lands in the world. Perhaps equally disturbing, the Scots of today, according to Hand, have virtually no conception of a forest, of its ecological vastness and beauty.
  • environmental problems can be understood as equally serious across generations even while the problems worsen.
Benno Hansen

A Day to Prevent Exploitation of the Environment in War - 0 views

www.ens-newswire.com/...2008-11-06-02.asp

un congo ecowar environment war

shared by Benno Hansen on 10 Nov 08 - Cached
  • "The natural environment enjoys protection under Protocol 1 of the Geneva Conventions," Ban said. "But this protection is often violated during war and armed conflict. Water wells are polluted, crops torched, forests cut down, soils poisoned, and animals killed, all in order to gain military advantage."
  • Since the outbreak of fighting in August 1998, the conflicts have been rooted in struggles for control of natural resources such as water, timber, diamonds and other minerals as well as various political agendas.
  • "The United Nations attaches great importance to ensuring that action on the environment is part of our approach to peace," Ban stressed today. "Protecting the environment can help countries create employment opportunities, promote development and avoid a relapse into armed conflict.
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  • Ban said that the UN is studying the environmental impacts of conflicts around the world, from the Balkans to Afghanistan, from Lebanon to the Sudan.
  • Lasting peace in war-torn Darfur will depend in part on resolving the underlying competition for water and fertile land, Ban said, adding that there can be no durable peace in Afghanistan if the natural resources that sustain livelihoods and ecosystems are destroyed.
  • "We have seen how environmental damage and the collapse of institutions are threatening human health, livelihoods and security," he said. "These risks can also jeopardize fragile peace and development in post-conflict societies." "Let us renew our commitment to preventing the exploitation of the environment in times of conflict," said the secretary-general, "and to protecting the environment as a pillar of our work for peace."
Benno Hansen

British coal industry flack pushes geo-engineering "ploy" to give politicians... - 0 views

climateprogress.org/...h-a-smoke-and-mirrors-approach

geoengineering spin climate change Bjørn Lomborg

shared by Benno Hansen on 13 Aug 09 - No Cached
  • The geo-engineering option provides the needed viable reason to do nothing about AGW now….
  • “The ‘geo-engineering’ approaches considered so far appear to be afflicted with some combination of high costs, low leverage, and a high likelihood of serious side effects.“
  • they simply omit the costs of many of the potential negative aspects of producing a stratospheric cloud to block out sunlight or cloud brightening
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  • That the second author works for the American Enterprise Institute, a lobbying group that has been a leading global warming denier, is not surprising, except that now they are in favor of a solution to a problem they have claimed for years does not exist.
  • The American Meteorological Society (AMS) has just issued a policy statement on geoengineering, which urges cautious consideration, more research, and appropriate restrictions.
  • ignore the effects of ocean acidification from continued CO2 emissions
  • do not even mention several potential negative effects of SRM, including getting rid of blue skies, huge reductions in solar power from systems using direct solar radiation, or ruining terrestrial optical astronomy
  • cloud brightening would mainly cool the oceans and not affect land temperature much
  • cloud brightening over the South Atlantic would produce severe drought over the Amazon, destroying the tropical forest
  • Whose hand would be on the global thermostat? Who would trust military aircraft or a multi-national geoengineering company to have the interests of the people of the planet foremost?
  • threat to the water supply for agriculture and other human uses
  • benefits from SRM, including increased plant productivity and an enhanced CO2 sink from vegetation that grows more when subject to diffuse radiation
  • The real consensus, as expressed at the National Academy conference and in the AMS statement, is that mitigation needs to be our first and overwhelming response to global warming, and that whether geoengineering can even be considered as an emergency measure in the future should climate change become too dangerous is not now known.
Benno Hansen

Learning From Past Civilizations : TreeHugger - 0 views

www.treehugger.com/...earning-past-civilizations.php

jared diamond collapse sustainability

shared by Benno Hansen on 12 Aug 09 - Cached
  • our early twenty-first century civilization is not the first to face the prospect of environmentally induced economic decline. The question is how we will respond.
  • Today, our successes and problems flow from the extraordinary growth in the world economy over the last century.
  • While the economy is growing exponentially, the earth’s natural capacities, such as its ability to supply fresh water, forest products, and seafood, have not increased. Humanity’s collective demands first surpassed the earth’s regenerative capacity around 1980. Today, global demands on natural systems exceed their sustainable yield capacity by nearly 30 percent. We are meeting current demands by consuming the earth’s natural assets, setting the stage for decline and collapse.
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  • In our modern high-tech civilization, it is easy to forget that the economy, indeed our existence, is wholly dependent on the earth’s natural systems and resources.
  • the carbon stored in the Amazon’s trees equals roughly 15 years of human-induced carbon emissions in the atmosphere
  • we will either mobilize together to save our global civilization, or we will all be potential victims of its disintegration
Benno Hansen

Memory, The Most Important Overlooked Environmental Tool? : TreeHugger - 0 views

www.treehugger.com/...rlooked-environmental-tool.php

environmentalism sustainability environment food

shared by Benno Hansen on 11 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • what we consider normal levels of energy use, gadget use, clothing purchases, car usage, flying, et cetera etc etc in the really not so distant past were lower.
  • Just one example, air conditioning use. What once was considering a luxury is unquestioningly now called a necessity in more and more places--in the process ignoring entirely the fact that 1) air conditioning is a historically modern invention, 2) places used to be built with natural cooling in mind, 3) it simply isn't a necessity for the vast majority of people
  • How often people used to eat meat
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  • how to build communities not centered around de facto mandatory automobile ownership
  • how many fish used to swim in streams and the oceans, how many birds used to fly in the skies, how many bigger animals used to be in our forests
Benno Hansen

How the 1% Pillage the Environment | AlterNet - 1 views

www.alternet.org/..._the_1_pillage_the_environment

environmentalism sustainability climate change OWS economy

shared by Benno Hansen on 02 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • when there’s money to be made, both workers and the environment are expendable
  • If you are a CEO who skims millions of dollars off other people’s labor, it’s called a “bonus.”  If you are a flood victim who breaks into a sporting goods store to grab a lifejacket, it’s called looting.  If you lose your job and fall behind on your mortgage, you get evicted.  If you are a banker-broker who designed flawed mortgages that caused a million people to lose their homes, you get a second-home vacation-mansion near a golf course.
  • The 1% are willing to spend billions impeding democratic initiatives, which is why every so-called environmental issue is also about building a democratic culture.
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  • If you drag heavy fishnets across the ocean floor and pulverize an entire ecosystem, ending thousands of years of dynamic evolution and depriving future generations of a healthy ocean, it’s called free enterprise.  But if, like Tim DeChristopher, you disrupt an auction of public land to oil and gas companies, it’s called a crime and you get two years in jail.   
  • Tearing apart wildlife habitat to make a profit and doing the same at a workplace are just considered the price of doing business. Clearcutting a forest and clearcutting a labor force are two sides of the same coin. 
  • The desperate effort to grow the economy to solve our economic woes is what keeps Timothy Geithner at the helm of the Treasury and is what stalls the regulation of greenhouse gasses.  It’s why we are told we must sacrifice environmental quality for pipelines and why young men and women are sacrificed to protect access to oil, the lubricant for an acquisitive economic engine.
  • we have built an all-encompassing economic engine that requires unending growth.  A contraction of even a percent or two is a crisis, and yet we are embedded in ecosystems that are reaching or have reached their limits.
  • Like so much else these days, the crash, as it happens, will not be suffered in equal measure by all of us.  The one percenters will be atop the hill, while the 99% will be in the flood lands below swimming for their lives, clinging to debris, or drowning.
  • Degrading the planet’s operating systems to bolster the bottom line is foolish and reckless.  It hurts us all.  No less important, it’s unfair.  The 1% profit, while the rest of us cough and cope. After Occupy Wall Street, isn’t it time for Occupy Earth?
Benno Hansen

BBC News - Kenya's largest forest under threat - 1 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...science-environment-11556561

kenya bbc video deforestation

shared by Benno Hansen on 20 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Benno Hansen on 20 Oct 10
     
    2 min video
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