Power companies becoming climate sensitive

That’s the verdict that the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers report ‘Energy and Efficiency: Utilities Global Survey 2007’ reveals. The survey that included 114 power companies in 44 countries found that 48% and 45% of the companies are giving wind and nuclear fuel options top priority.

The survey also revealed that 81% of American companies, 43% of European companies and 41% to 62% of the companies world-wide expect technology to help improve energy efficiency

You can download the full report here at www.ukmediacentre.pwc.com/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=2356&NewsAreaID=2

World Bank plans 250 million dollar fund to grow back rainforests

The World Bank hopes to grow back the forests fast by seeding funds in countries with high rain forest cover. The funds will be disbursed to each country based on how effectively it manages to cut carbon emissions. The bank will raise funds from private investors and donors.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/The_United_States/World_Bank_plans_fund_to_fight_deforestation/rssarticleshow/2116504.cms


Rains are failing in Australia and rainfall is down by 70%

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19426084.400&feedId=opinion_rss20


Tibet plans to ban mining of gold, arsenic, mercury and peat to save environment


source : http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12950

24 New species found in Suriname Rainforest

Conservation International along with BHP-Billiton Maatschappij Suriname (BMS) and Suriname Aluminium Company LLC (Suralco), carried out a RAP (Rapid Assessment Program) expedition in the rainforests of Suriname.

The study led by Leeanne Alonso, CI vice president and head of the RAP program was carried out from 2005 to mid 2006.

Some of the interesting species discovered include a purple toad with fluorescent markings and a rare armored catfish - Harttiella crassicauda, thought to be extinct

You can check out the full story here at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070604123843.htm

WHO says 13 million lives can be saved by cleaner environment

A recently released WHO report shows that 13 million people or 10% of deaths in 23 of the 192 countries studied happen because of unsafe drinking water and indoor air pollution caused by the burning of wood, cow dung and coal.

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,date:2007-06-14~menuPK:34461~pagePK:34392~
piPK:64256810~theSitePK:4607,00.html

“ Arctic Tale” to be released on July 25th

Arctic Tale, a new film produced by National Geographic Films makes a dramatic attempt to sensitize the public to global warming. The film does this by portraying the life as experienced by a young male polar bear named Nanu and a female walrus cub named Seela. The suffering that Nanu and Seela undergo will hopefully make the general public more sensitive to the dangerous consequences of climate change.

The film is distributed by Paramount Vantage and premiered at the Silverdocs documentary film festival on June 18th. Directed by Adam Ravetch and his wife, Sarah Robertson, the film's team of script writers include Linda Woolverton and Al Gore’s daughter Kristin.

source : http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12972

America’s common birds are vanishing…

The Audobon Society has reported a significant drop in the population of 20 of America’s common bird species. Analysis of bird population data shows that the numbers of Northern bobwhite and Evening Grosbeak have fallen by 82% and 78% respectively.

The figures are equally depressing for many of the other common bird species too!
You can read the full report here at http://www.audubon.org/bird/stateofthebirds/CBID/

Wildlife paradise discovered in Southern Sudan

It’s tough to believe that war wrecked, poverty stricken Sudan has an abundance of wildlife but an exciting discovery made by Dr Michael Fay and his team show that southern Sudan is home to a treasure house of wildlife.

An aerial survey of Southern Sudan shows:
8,000 elephants
800,000 kob
250,000 Mongalla gazelle
160,000 tiang
13,000 reedbuck
8,900 buffalo
2,800 ostriches
4,000 Nile lechwe (the only place in the world where you can see them are in the Sudd swamps)

Plus lions, leopards, elands, Grant’s gazelles, roan antelopes, lesser kudu, hartebeest, giraffes, crocodiles, hippos, and beisa oryx were all seen.

The survey was carried out by
Dr Michael Fay, scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.
Dr. Paul Elkan, director of the WCS Southern Sudan Country Program, and
Malik Marjan, a Southern Sudanese Ph.D. candidate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst

Says Dr Michael Fay, "We estimated more than 800,000 kob in Southern Sudan. If you were a gold miner and hit a vein of gold, like we found in kob, you would have found El Dorado. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that this kind of abundance in nature existed in a region after 25 years of civil war, virtually unknown to the world at large."

The team started flying on Jan 17, 2007 and in just 150 hours of survey time were able to cover 58,000 square miles (150,000 square km).

Areas surveyed were: Boma National Park, Jonglei region and Southern National Park.

The project was undertaken by The Ministry of Environment, Wildlife Conservation, and Tourism, Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS).

Additional funds were given by USAID/Sudan and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

For this discovery and for exploring the wilderness of Africa, Dr Michael Fay gets the 2007 Lindbergh Award.

The explorations included:

A 15 month, 2000 mile expedition, called Megatransect where Dr Fay traveled from the rainforests of Congo to the sea shores of Gabon. He documented all the large animals, plants and signs of human impact that he saw on the way.

A 600 000 mile expedition called MegaFlyover where he flew across Africa’s wild habitats. That’s when he discovered the wildlife treasure house.

source: http://www.wcs.org/353624/wcs_megascientist

India sets up weather station at glacier in Himachal Pradesh

The Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) has set up a weather station at the Chhota Shigri glacier in Himachal Pradesh to monitor climate change. The weather station’s Integrated Sensor Suite (ISS), has a warning and recording system to track changes in weather.

source : http://www.indiaenews.com/sports/20070616/56363.htm


Two Sloth bear cubs rescued

The UP Forest department, Delhi based NGO – Wildlife S.O.S. and One Voice Association – France worked together to resuce two endangered bear cubs from smugglers in Baliya district of Uttar Pradesh.

Members of the raiding team included :

• SDO Rasda Range - Mr. Kewal Prasad
  Range officer- Baliya - Mr. Gokul Prasad
  Dy Ranger - Arun Kumar Rai
  Conservator of Forests - Mr. C P Goyal, IFS
  Deputy Conservator of Forests - Dr. R.K.Singh, IFS.
  Plus forest guards who worked under their guidance
  

source : http://www.iar.org.uk/news/2007/jun07-2.shtml

Word Bank lends US$63 million for livelihood project in Bihar

The World Bank has cleared US$63 million to help improve the livelihoods of 2.9 million people living in 590,000 households. Called Jeevika, the rural livelihoods project will be implemented in the districts of Nalanda, Gaya, Muzzafarpur, Madhubani, Khagaria, and Purnea. The project is specifically targeted at helping the women.

Talking about the project, Parmesh Shah, World BankLead Rural Development Specialist and project team leader says, “These communities will be provided skills and tools to develop social accountability mechanisms to enable transparency and good governance within the institutions of the poor. This will also help in building effective service delivery partnerships with local governments.”

You can read more about this project here at : http://www.worldbank.org.in/external/projects/main?pagePK=64283627&piPK=73230&theSitePK=295584&menuPK=295617&Projectid=P090764