She won!!!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Polar bear
In December 2006 the US Fish and Wildlife Service officially listed the polar bear as a 'threatened' species, due to the meltdown of its sea-ice habitat caused by global warming. Unfortunately it took a lawsuit by Greenpeace and the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) to force the US administration to put the polar bear on the list and even now its listing is a proposal so could take another year to be made official.
But the implications of the listing go far beyond just the polar bear. Listing under the Endangered Species Act will provide broad protection to polar bears, including a requirement that US federal agencies ensure that any action carried out, authorised, or funded by the US government will not jeopardise the continued existence of polar bears, or adversely modify their critical habitat.
"The United States has failed to lead the world in tackling global warming. With under five percent of the world's people, we generate more than 20 percent of the global warming pollution," said Kert Davies, Greenpeace research director. "We must start cutting greenhouse gas emissions or the Polar Bear will be pushed to the brink of extinction within our lifetime."
While the policy news for the polar bear was good, news from the Arctic was distinctly bad. What used to be the Ayles Ice Shelf has broken off from Ellesmere Island, Canada. The shelf was the size of Manhattan.
Polar bears live only in the Arctic and are totally dependent on the sea ice. A growing body of evidence shows that the Arctic ice is vanishing much faster than previously expected. The thick multiyear ice has been shrinking eight to 10 percent per decade, with some climate models predicting that the Arctic could be ice-free in summer as early as 2040. In some polar regions, the sea ice season has shortened as much as three weeks, and scientists have discovered that the polar ice caps are melting at an alarming rate - losing an area the size of Colorado - more than a million square miles - in just the last year.
The polar bear and the melting of the Arctic are probably the most charismatic and dramatic indicators of our changing climate. It's going to take a lot more than the Endangered Species Act to save the polar bear and stop dangerous global warming.
While the talk about taking action to tackle global warming increased in 2006, there was still too much talk and too little action from world leaders.
Carbon dioxide emissions, the biggest cause of global warming, are now rising at more than 2 percent a year. The longer measures to reduce carbon emissions are postponed the more drastic those measures will need to be.
As surely as carbon emissions are rising so are global temperatures. It has already been predicted by the UK Met Office that 2007 is likely to be one of the warmest years on record. This is partly due to El Nino and also due to increasing carbon emissions.
What's needed in 2007 is action -- from governments, corporations, but from all of us as well -- to cut carbon emissions and slow rising temperatures.
Next time you leave a light burning unnecessarily, think about the polar bears. The next time you buy a product, look at its energy efficiency and think about the polar bears. And next time a politician isn't crystal clear that the planet has a problem that needs fixing, vote with your paw.
But the implications of the listing go far beyond just the polar bear. Listing under the Endangered Species Act will provide broad protection to polar bears, including a requirement that US federal agencies ensure that any action carried out, authorised, or funded by the US government will not jeopardise the continued existence of polar bears, or adversely modify their critical habitat.
"The United States has failed to lead the world in tackling global warming. With under five percent of the world's people, we generate more than 20 percent of the global warming pollution," said Kert Davies, Greenpeace research director. "We must start cutting greenhouse gas emissions or the Polar Bear will be pushed to the brink of extinction within our lifetime."
While the policy news for the polar bear was good, news from the Arctic was distinctly bad. What used to be the Ayles Ice Shelf has broken off from Ellesmere Island, Canada. The shelf was the size of Manhattan.
Polar bears live only in the Arctic and are totally dependent on the sea ice. A growing body of evidence shows that the Arctic ice is vanishing much faster than previously expected. The thick multiyear ice has been shrinking eight to 10 percent per decade, with some climate models predicting that the Arctic could be ice-free in summer as early as 2040. In some polar regions, the sea ice season has shortened as much as three weeks, and scientists have discovered that the polar ice caps are melting at an alarming rate - losing an area the size of Colorado - more than a million square miles - in just the last year.
The polar bear and the melting of the Arctic are probably the most charismatic and dramatic indicators of our changing climate. It's going to take a lot more than the Endangered Species Act to save the polar bear and stop dangerous global warming.
While the talk about taking action to tackle global warming increased in 2006, there was still too much talk and too little action from world leaders.
Carbon up, temperature up
Carbon dioxide emissions, the biggest cause of global warming, are now rising at more than 2 percent a year. The longer measures to reduce carbon emissions are postponed the more drastic those measures will need to be.
As surely as carbon emissions are rising so are global temperatures. It has already been predicted by the UK Met Office that 2007 is likely to be one of the warmest years on record. This is partly due to El Nino and also due to increasing carbon emissions.
What's needed in 2007 is action -- from governments, corporations, but from all of us as well -- to cut carbon emissions and slow rising temperatures.
Next time you leave a light burning unnecessarily, think about the polar bears. The next time you buy a product, look at its energy efficiency and think about the polar bears. And next time a politician isn't crystal clear that the planet has a problem that needs fixing, vote with your paw.
Take Action
Resource : Greenpeace
Sunday, January 13, 2008
HELP END WHALING!
Activists will drive inflatable boats between the whaler's harpoons and the whales while using high-powered water pumps to create a curtain of icy water, obscuring the harpooner's view.We will do nothing to harm or endanger the Japanese vessels or crew. We will, however, use all peaceful means at our disposal to stop the killing of any more whales.
Sanctuary?
The area in which the Japanese fleet are hunting has been designated as the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, designed to help whale populations recover after the devastating commercial whaling of the last century. Many countries were responsible for this collapse in whale populations. Most have since realised the tragic consequences of their actions and now accept, support and promote whale conservation and a complete end to commercial whaling.
Modern scientific research does not require whales to die. In addition to confronting the whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean, we are proving that nobody needs to fire exploding harpoons into whales and kill them for science. Our Great Whale Trail research programme, in collaboration with scientists from the Cook Islands Whale Research, Opération Cétacés (New Caledonia) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare, includes satellite tracking, skin biopsy, and photo identification of whales. The programme has already yielded a vast amount of valuable information. But not a single harpoon needed to be fired.
Scientific whaling is an expensive hoax -- with most of the results being stockpiled in commercial freezers or ending up in dog food.
Japan's research whaling benefits only a very few Japanese bureaucrats, and has cost Japanese taxpayers billions of yen in subsidies. It produces research nobody needs, and whale meat very few want. It deserves to be exposed in Japanese society as a scandalous waste of money.
When the whaling fleet left its home port of Shimonoseki in November, the government of Japan confirmed the sole purpose behind its so-called science programme is to bring about a return to commercial whaling.
“The Japanese people clearly do not support the whaling that is being carried out in their name, and with their tax money”, said Junichi Sato, whales project leader for Greenpeace Japan. “It is time for Prime Minister Fukuda to put an end to Japan’s whaling scandal, and to recall the fleet home to Japan.”
Humpbacks safe -- for now
On December 22nd, the Japanese government backed down in the face of pressure from Greenpeace supporters, whale advocates, and conservation-minded governments, announcing that they would not hunt humpbacks this season.
Rather than reducing the number of whales being killed in the Southern Ocean it looks like the Government of Japan is going to kill a lot more. Plans are emerging for the construction of a new factory ship that will be even bigger than the Nisshin Maru and be able to go on killing thousands of whales over the decades to come. While our activists will be between the harpoons and the whales in the Southern Ocean in order to save hundreds of whales from being killed now, we are urging people to stop even more being killed in the future by writing to the Japanese Prime Minister. Over 12,000 letters have already been sent. We all need to act NOW to stop the hunt forever and make sure that not a single harpoon will be fired again in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
For the latest, up-to-the-minute news, check out the Great Whale Trail expedition blog and the live Esperanza Webcams.
Take Action: Stop the new whaling ship
Help raise money to save whales
Resource : Greenpeace
Well...
If u're my friends i sincerely hope u can get involved in it...
how?
just log on :
www.greenpeace.org/international/
or
sign up:
"Use your website and blog for good, not evil"
c'mon guys...
u can do it...
Choymeng
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