Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Monday, 14 April 2008
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania - Encyclopedia of Earth
Ngorongoro Conservation Area (2°30'-3°30'S, 34°50'-35°55'E) is a World Heritage Site located 180 kilometers (km) west of Arusha in the far north of Tanzania, adjoining the south-eastern edge of Serengeti National Park. An immense concentration of wild animals live in the huge and perfect crater of Ngorongoro. It is home to a small relict population of black rhinoceros and some 25,000 other large animals, largely ungulates, alongside the highest density of mammalian predators in Africa. Nearby are lake-filled Empakaai crater and the active volcano of Oldonyo Lenga. Excavations carried out in the Olduvai Gorge to the west, resulted in discoveries which have made the area one of the most important in the world for research on the evolution of the human species.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania - Encyclopedia of Earth
Vertical farming - Encyclopedia of Earth
What is proposed here that differs radically from what now exists is to scale up the concept of indoor farming, in which a wide variety of produce is harvested in quantity enough to sustain even the largest of cities without significantly relying on resources beyond the city limits. Cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and other large farm animals seem to fall well outside the paradigm of urban farming. However, raising a wide variety of fowl and pigs are well within the capabilities of indoor farming. It has been estimated that it will require approximately 300 square feet of intensively farmed indoor space to produce enough food to support a single individual living in an extraterrestrial environment (e.g., on a space station or a colony on the moon or Mars). Working within the framework of these calculations, one vertical farm with an architectural footprint of one square city block and rising up to 30 stories (approximately 3 million square feet) could provide enough nutrition (2,000 calories/day/person) to comfortably accommodate the needs of 50,000 people employing technologies currently available. Constructing the ideal vertical farm with a far greater yield per square foot will require additional research in many areas – hydrobiology, engineering, industrial microbiology, plant and animal genetics, architecture and design, public health, waste management, physics, and urban planning, to name but a few. The vertical farm is a theoretical construct whose time has arrived, for to fail to produce them in quantity for the world at-large in the near future will surely exacerbate the race for the limited amount of remaining natural resources of an already stressed out planet, creating an intolerable social climate
Vertical farming - Encyclopedia of Earth
The other global crisis: rush to biofuels is driving up price of food - World Politics, World - The Independent
The world's most powerful finance ministers and central bankers are meeting in Washington tomorrow; but as they preoccupy themselves with the global credit crunch, another crisis, far more grave, is facing the world's poorest people.
The other global crisis: rush to biofuels is driving up price of food - World Politics, World - The Independent
Global rice supply: Video snapshots
From Ghana in west Africa to the west coast of the US, BBC correspondents around the world examine the impact of steep rises in the price of rice.
BBC NEWS | Business | Global rice supply: Video snapshots
Focus: Hunger. Strikes. Riots. The food crisis bites
Four key factors behind the spreading fear of starvation across the globe
Growing consumption
Six months ago Zhou Jian closed down his car parts business and launched himself as a pork butcher. Since then the 26-year-old businessman's Shanghai shop has been crowded out - despite a 58 per cent rise in the price of pork in the past year - and his income has trebled.As China's emerging middle classes become richer, their consumption of meat has increased by more than 150 per cent per head since 1980. In those days, meat was scarce, rationed at around 1kg per person per month and used sparingly in rice and noodle dishes, stir fried to preserve cooking oil. Today, the average Chinese consumer eats more than 50kg of meat a year. To feed the millions of pigs on its farms, China is now importing grain on a huge scale, pushing up its prices worldwide.
Palm oil crisis
The oil palm tree is the most highly efficient producer of vegetable oil, with one acre yielding as much oil as eight acres of soybeans. Unfortunately, it takes eight years to grow to maturity and demand has outstripped supply. Vegetable oils provide an important source of calories in the developing world, and their shortage has contributed to the food crisis. A drought in Indonesia and flooding in Malaysia has also hit the crop. While farmers and plantation companies hurriedly clear land to replant, it will take time before their efforts bear fruit. Palm oil prices jumped nearly 70 per cent last year, hitting the poorest families. When a store in Chongqing in China announced a cooking-oil promotion in November, a stampede left three dead and 31 injured.
Biofuel demand
The rising demand for ethanol, a biofuel that is mixed with petrol to bring down prices at the pump, has transformed the landscape of Iowa. Today this heartland of the Midwest is America's cornbelt, with the corn crop stretching as far as the eye can see. Iowa produces almost half of the entire output of ethanol in the US, with 21 ethanol-producing plants as farmers tear down fences, dig out old soya bean crops, buy up land and plant yet more corn. It has been likened to a new gold rush. But none of it is for food. And as the demand for ethanol increases, yet more farmers will pile in for the great scramble to plant corn - instead of grain. The effect will be to further worsen world grain shortages.
Global warming
The massive grain storage complex outside Tottenham, New South Wales, today lies virtually empty. Normally, it would be half-full. As the second largest exporter of grain after the US, Australia usually expects to harvest around 25 million tonnes a year. But, because of a five-year drought, thought to have been caused by climate change, it managed just 9.8 million tonnes in 2006.Farmers such as George Grieg, who has farmed here for 50 years, have rarely known it to be so bad. Many have not even recovered the cost of planting and caring for their crops, and are being forced into debt. With global wheat prices at an all-time high, all they can do is cling on in the hope of a bumper crop next time - if they are lucky.
Food in figures
93,000,000 Acres of corn planted by US farmers last year, up 19 per cent on 2006.
76% Amount of US corn used for animal feed.
8kg Amount of grain it takes to produce 1kg of beef.
20% Portion of US corn used to produce five billion gallons of ethanol in 2006-07.
50kg Quantity of meat consumed annually by the average Chinese person, up from 20kg in 1985.
10% Anticipated share of biofuels used for transport in the EU by 2020.
$500m The UN World Food Programme's shortfall this year, in attempting to feed 89 million needy people.
9.2bn The world's predicted population by 2050. It's 6.6bn now.
130% The rise in the cost of wheat in 12 months.
16 times The overall food consumption of the world's richest 20 per cent compared with that of the poorest 20 per cent.
58% Jump in the price of pork in China in the past year.
$900 The cost of one tonne of Thai premier rice, up 30 per cent in a month.
Focus: Hunger. Strikes. Riots. The food crisis bites | Environment | The Observer
Thursday, 10 April 2008
Food price rises threaten global security
Rising food prices could spark worldwide unrest and threaten political stability, the UN's top humanitarian official warned yesterday after two days of rioting in Egypt over the doubling of prices of basic foods in a year and protests in other parts of the world.
As well as this week's violence in Egypt, the rising cost and scarcity of food has been blamed for:
· Riots in Haiti last week that killed four people
· Violent protests in Ivory Coast
· Price riots in Cameroon in February that left 40 people dead
· Heated demonstrations in Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal
· Protests in Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bolivia and Indonesia
UN staff in Jordan also went on strike for a day this week to demand a pay rise in the face of a 50% hike in prices, while Asian countries such as Cambodia, China, Vietnam, India and Pakistan have curbed rice exports to ensure supplies for their own residents.
Food price rises threaten global security - UN | Environment | The Guardian
Monday, 7 April 2008
Friday, 4 April 2008
'Eco-towns' shortlist is revealed
The 15 locations shortlisted for the first new towns in England in 40 years have been revealed by the government.Bordon, Coltishall, Curborough, Elsenham plus Ford in West Sussex have made the list, as well as Hanley Grange, Imerys, Leeds and Manby. Marston Vale and New Marston in Bedfordshire, Middle Quinton, Pennbury, Rossington, Rushcliffe and Weston Otmoor make up the 15.
The 10 sites for the "eco-towns" will be finalised in the next six months.
BBC NEWS | Politics | 'Eco-towns' shortlist is revealed
Thursday, 27 March 2008
What if all the Poles went home?
Builders. Nannies. Engineers. Fruit pickers. Hard working Poles have been earning pounds and providing extra labour since 2004. What if they all decide to leave?
BBC NEWS | Magazine | What if all the Poles went home?
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
The Mega-Cities Project - Innovations for Urban Life
The Mega-Cities Project - Innovations for Urban Life
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Water and women in the Developing world
In 1992 the International Conference on Water and the Environment held in Dublin, Ireland, produced four key principles to guide policies for water and sustainable development. Known as the Dublin Principles, they represent the current international consensus on ‘best practices’ in the water sector:
EarthPortal » Environment In Focus
Sunday, 23 March 2008
Rat infestation hits Bangladesh
An infestation of rats is creating severe food shortages in the impoverished Chittagong Hill Tracts region of Bangladesh, close to the borders of India and Burma.
BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | Rat infestation hits Bangladesh
How the myth of food miles hurts the planet
Ethical shopping just got more complicated. The idea that only local produce is good is under attack. There is growing evidence to suggest that some air-freighted food is greener than food produced in the UK.
How the myth of food miles hurts the planet | Environment | The Observer
Saturday, 22 March 2008
A Graphic Look at the State of the World - Earth Web Site
- Global Ecology
Climate change, pollution, and deforestation are creating never before seen changes in Earth's living systems -- including a species extinction rate that is the highest in the planet's history. Learn about these changes, what's causing them, and what's likely to happen in the future. - Energy Supply
Modern civilization is dependent upon cheap and reliable fossil fuel energy. Learn where energy resources are located around the world, who uses them, how long they are likely to last, and which regions consume the most energy (and emit the most C02) per person. - Fresh Water
Only 2.5% of the world's water is fresh, and around 70% of fresh water is frozen in ice and permafrost. Find out what's happening to the remaining 0.75% of the world's water on which terrestrial life depends. - Development and Debt
How onerous are the debt burdens of poorer countries? Is loan based development effective? Are multilateral financial institutions (IMF and World Bank) helping or hindering sustainable development? Are poor countries catching up to rich ones? A brief series of graphs helps answer these questions. - Weapons
Charts and text on weapons spending, military manpower, nuclear arsenals, Depleted Uranium, and national arms exports (which countries produce most of the world's weapons).
- Human Conditions
Clear, factual information on the state of the world's people -- population, health, poverty, access to water and food, life expectancy, and the condition of cultural diversity worldwide. - Fishing and Aquaculture
Learn where the world's fish stocks are concentrated, which regions consume the most wild and farmed fish, how fish is used, what countries claim as Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), and how heavily the world's fish stocks are being exploited. - Food and Soil
Farming techniques have changed dramatically in the past 100 years as increasing population and consumption put pressure on the world's food supply. Learn how these changes have effected the planet's soil, how food is supply is related to fossil fuels, and more. - Toxic Pollution
Learn about the history of toxic chemicals (including PCBs, DDT, Dioxin, PBDE, Lead, and Mercury), contamination levels, safety testing, and correlations between lead contamination levels and income in the United States. - Wealth
Over the past decades, wealth has become more concentrated worldwide, and the gap between rich and poor has widened. This page illustrates the distribution of wealth within countries, between countries, and between countries and large corporations.
A Graphic Look at the State of the World - Earth Web Site
Sunday, 16 March 2008
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