Encyclopedia of Life to list out all living creatures

It's an honor to Carl Linnaeus. If he were alive today, he would be 300 years old and he would be so thrilled to read this news.

Today, senior biologists, environmentalists, taxonomists, engineers and fund managers from the MacArthur Foundation, Field Museum, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Smithsonian and Biodiversity Heritage Library will hold a press conference to announce the launch of a very ambitious project.

They are going to create an Encyclopedia of Life that will list out all of earth's creations. This ambitious ten year old project is being funded by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Other universities collaborating on this project include Missouri Botanical Garden and the Biodiversity Heritage Library which includes Natural History Museum, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Royal Botanic Garden in Kew, England.

Now, here's a question. Why are there no collaborators from Australia, Asia and Africa on this project?

Source: http://www.eol.org/media_advisory.html

image source: IMSI Clip Arts

Canon Europe celebrates 50 years with website to teach kids about climate change

Canon Europe's 50th birthday celebrations included the launch of a new web site called ' Save the Polar Bear'. The site uses two animated polar bears called Auro and Borea to help children learn about climate change and what they can do to minimize the harmful effects.

The children’s microsite will be available in several European languages and will target 7- 11 year old children staying in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and the UK.

You can check out more details about this news at
http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=101100
newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=101100
newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=101100

Hey, Canon Europe, India is listening and waiting for Canon Europe's goodwill gesture to hop over and come flying to flag off the climate awareness campain for kids in India.

image source: IMSI Clip Arts

Two Indians get prestigious US EPA Award

Atul Bagai and Dr Sachidananda Satpathy have received the US EPA Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award. Atul Bagai, Regional Network Coordinator for South Asia for UNEP's Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE) Ozone Action Programme has been instrumental in helping India implement the ODS (ozone depleting substances) phase-out action plan. Mr. Bagai is currently organizing for ODS phase-out activities in 38 countries via the Compliance Assistance Programme (CAP).

Dr Sachidananda Satpathy has been instrumental in helping India score an 85% reduction in CTC consumption and also implement a licensing system to control the ODS trade in India. Dr. Sachidananda Satapathy works with India's Ministry of Environment and Forests' Ozone Cell.

The awards were given on May 1st 2007 in Washington.

Sources: http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=504&ArticleID=5567&l=en
http://www.epa.gov/Ozone/awards/winners_2007.html

image source: IMSI Clip Arts

Film footprints endangered tiger's vanishing habitats

Delhi based wildlife film production house called EarthCare Productions released a film on the tiger on May 3rd 2007 at the India International Centre Auditorium.

Called Tiger: The Death Chronicles, the film attempts to bring together different voices of support for tigers and their fast disappearing forest homes. The film has been produced and directed by Krishendu Bose, director of EarthCare Productions and managing trustee of Earthcare Outreach Trust.

If you would like to watch the film, you can get in touch with Earthcare Films at B-91, Defense Colony, New Delhi - 110 024, IndiaYou can call at 91-11-24334171, 24332005 or email the studio at earthcare1@vsnl.com.

For more information about EarthCare Films you can visit their website at http://www.earthcarefilms.com

image source: IMSI Clip Arts

Workshops at ICIMOD

9-11 May 2007: Workshop on Sharing Knowledge and Bridging Gaps in Disaster Preparedness Kathmandu, Nepal

Contact person: Dr. Mats Eriksson

May 21-25 2007: Regional Workshop on Diversification of Knowledge Sharing Methods
Kathmandu, Nepal

Contact person: Dr Beatrice Murray at bmurray@icimod.org

You can check out the ICIMOD calendar online: http://www.icimod.org/webcalendar/month.php

source: ICIMOD enewsletter

Narendra Babu Ecological Research Initiative Grant

The Narendra Babu Ecological Research Initiative Grant (NBERIG) is a small grant designed to encourage young wildlife biologists and conservationists by supporting field-based projects that have a clear scientific or conservation agenda. We aim to support research studies that will add to the current scientific knowledge of species or habitats as well as projects that will offer and execute conservation solutions based on existing scientific knowledge. The grant is administered by the Ecology, Behaviour and Conservation Group of the National Institute of Advanced Studies.

Important dates : 15th July 2007 is the last date for the receipt of completed proposals. The results will be announced by the last week of August. Funds will be made available to the successful grantee by the first week of September.

Scope of the grant
The grant will support scientific wildlife research as well as research based wildlife conservation and outreach activities in India.
The grant money for research will not exceed Rs.50,000 per year and will give a preference to proposals on wild dogs.
The grant will provide funding to students and to researchers for short term projects or for small independent components of larger projects.

What is eligible for support ?
The NBERIG will support:

• Pure academic research
• Conservation based research
• Field based research
• Conservation based outreach activities

The NBERIG will not support:

• Travel to conferences, seminars or scientific meetings
• Only purchase of equipment
• International travel
• Purchase of laptop, computer, vehicle or other expensive equipment
• · Tuition fees.
• · Salary for PI (though a modest per diem and salary for field assistants are acceptable)

Who is eligible to apply?
Persons of Indian nationality wishing to conduct scientific research or conservation based research and activities in the field of ecology and wildlife biology in India may apply for this grant.

All above conditions not withstanding if you think your research should be supported, do write to us for clarifications.

Please address all questions to: nberig@gmail.com. You can get more information about this grant at http://www.nias.iisc.ernet.in/

Source: email communication from Bharath Sundaram [bharath@atree.org]

Celebrate International Biodiversity Day

International Day for Biological Diversity - May 22nd is just a fortnight away.

Here's a useful resource link for you to check out - http://www.biodiv.org/programmes/outreach/awareness/biodiv-day-2007.shtml

Don't forget to download the ebooklet, poster and video!

Livestock not on UNEP Report on Environment

• Here's one quick summary of the UN Panel's Report on the Environment. Check it out at
  http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/04/news/climateside.2-45561.php
  
  Eight key areas have been identified:
  1. Energy supply sector
  2. Transport
  3. Buildings
  4. Transport
  5. Industry
  6. Agriculture
  7. Forests
  8. Waste
  
  Here's a big question - Why is there no separate discussion on key strategies and ways to counter the impact of the livestock industry's contribution to global warming?
  
  Key facts about the contribution from the livestock industry (the factory farming of animals for food) to global warming:

• The FAO has admitted that the livestock industry contributes more to global warming than the transport industry, as much as 18%.

• The FAO Report states that, " The livestock industry accounts for respectively 37 % of all human-induced methane, which is largely produced by the digestive system of ruminants, and 64 % of ammonia, which contributes significantly to acid rain.

• Livestock now use 30 % of the earth’s entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 % of the global arable land used to produce feed for livestock".

• In Latin America as much as 70 % of forests have been converted into grazing land.

• Further, the FAO Report states that, " The livestock business is among the most damaging sectors to the earth’s increasingly scarce water resources, contributing among other things to water pollution, euthropication and the degeneration of coral reefs".

• The press release on the FAO's website while referring to the livestock industry clearly mentions that, "The major polluting agents are animal wastes, antibiotics and hormones, chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers and the pesticides used to spray feed crops. Widespread overgrazing disturbs water cycles, reducing replenishment of above and below ground water resources. Significant amounts of water are withdrawn for the production of feed".

• The FAO Report also points out that 15 out of 24 important ecosystem services are getting depleted due to livestock.
  
  Sources:
  http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/04/news/climateside.2-45561.php
  http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html

Do you agree on this?
No animal factory farms = more forest land + more agricultural land + more water & cleaner water + 18% less global warming

An interesting essay: Read it right now!

Here's an interesting essay that Dr Priyandarsanan Dharma Rajan recommends EcoWatch readers read right away.

Here's a quotation from the essay

".... Some quixotic writers have toyed with the idea of last-ditch measures. They say, “Let’s conserve the millions of surviving species and races by deep-freezing fertilized eggs or tissue samples for later resurrection.”

Or,

“Let’s record the genetic codes of all the species and try to re-create organisms from them later.”

Follow this link to read the full essay http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/21/675/

The essay is written by Dr E.O. Wilson, world-renowned biologist and Harvard University Professor and adapted from his new book titled, “The Creation".

Dr Wilson has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his books titled, “On Human Nature” and “The Ants.”

If you wish to discuss about this stimulating essay, then please get in touch with Dr Priyan at mailto:priyan@atree.org