Stuart Green, director of Philippines Program for Rare, discusses what Marine Protected Areas and No-Take Zones, a subset of MPAs, are and how they can help save the world’s fisheries.

Green says that most marine conservation efforts have failed, but that NTZs show real promise. In a previous video, Green discussed how Marine Protected Areas can help preserve the world’s fisheries and the Coral Triangle.

This photo of the San Rafael Falls in Ecuador comes courtesy of Flickr user visionshare.

Ecuador’s tallest waterfall to be destroyed by Chinese dam

• “The 1,500 megawatt Coca-Codo Sinclair Hydroelectric Project will divert water flow away from the 480-foot San Rafael Falls, leaving it “high and dry.” Worse, the project, which is scheduled for completion in 2016, will be pressure on Sumaco Biosphere Reserve, an area so renowned for its biodiversity that “even the oil companies spared this area during prospection and development of pipeline corridors in the Ecuadorian Amazon,” according to Save America’s Forests, which says the falls have become the principal attraction of Sumaco.”

Six Times More Insect Species in Tropical Mountains Than Predicted

• “This shows that what we know of insect diversity still lacks knowledge on tropical mountain diversity. I have worked with one type of herbivore insects, moths. Now we need to test if this pattern also occurs in other types of herbivore.”

80% of New Farmland in Tropics Carved From Forests Between 1980-2000 – Land the Size of Alaska Cleared

• “Ever million million acres of forest that is cut releases the same amount of carbon into the atmosphere as 40 million cars do in a year.”

Captain Planet Turns 20, and Get His Own Holiday (and he is still awesome)

• “If you’re like me, when you think of Captain Planet, you’re hit with a wave of nostalgia for your 1990s childhood. But even if you’re a bit older (or younger), I’ll bet you’re excited to hear that the world’s first and only eco-superhero is turning 20 years old this month, and is getting a party to celebrate. The Captain Planet Foundation, an organization dedicated to educating youth about the environment, has declared September 15, 2010 “National Captain Planet Day.” To mark the occasion, a group of adult “Planeteers” have created the website Captain Planet @ 20.”

Are Energy Star ratings too lax?

• Consumer Report said the ratings program needed to raise the bar on qualifying products and develop better testing standards.
• “Potential cost savings abound, Consumer Reports found: $200 a year just by programming the thermostat, $400 by fixing leaky ducts, $75 by avoiding pre-rinsing dishes before they go in the washer.”

“Fisheries management around the world has failed. We now have the capacity to be able to catch the last fish, the last whale, the last dolphin, the last shell.”

If the above embedded video does not display, click here to view it.

Stuart Green, director of the Philippines Program for Rare, discusses how Marine Protected Areas, and No-Take Zones specifically, can help protect the world’s fisheries and the Coral Triangle.

Green says that most marine conservation efforts have failed, but that NTZs show real promise.

Instead of asking how much cap-and-trade costs, why not ask how much it saves? (via @nature_org)

• “Arguing over the minimal costs of cap-and-trade, however, keeps us focused on the impact to 1 percent of the economy, while ignoring the mounting costs to the entire economy of continuing to do nothing. “

American Samoa, unlike California, bans plastic bags (just say no)

• California, unfortunately, just rejected a similar proposal.

New Oil Rig Explosion in Gulf of Mexico

• The platform is still burning and the Coast Guard has reported an oil sheen has appeared.

Tigers in the wild numbering fewer than 3,000: WWF has launched a new roar of support

• “The Tiger Roar Campaign, available at www.panda.org/roar, is an online application where the public can add their own roars in many different ways, whether solo or in a group of friends, family, or with their colleagues. “
• “Users can upload pictures of themselves getting all “roary,” shoot video of their roars, and upload them to YouTube or Vimeo, and then link them in. For a simpler approach, users can even text message their roars.”

Late 1980s total world catch topped at around eighty-five million tons. This milestone- ‘peak fish’

• “Cod, once so plentiful off the coast of Newfoundland that they could be scooped up in baskets, are now scarce. The same goes for halibut, haddock, swordfish, marlin, and skate; it’s been calculated that stocks of large predatory fish have declined by ninety per cent in the past half century.”
• “Somewhere in the range of a hundred million salmon larvae used to hatch in the Connecticut River each year. Now the number’s a lot easier to pin down: it’s zero.”
• “Huge swaths of the sea (need to) be set aside as so-called ‘marine protected areas,’ or M.P.A.s, where most commercial activity would be prohibited.”

A banner was hung for a screening in the small village of Lemonal of a short video produced by Belize Audubon about the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary.

Belize Audubon Society’s Rare Pride campaign protected the wetlands of the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary by inspiring local farmers to implement sustainable methods of farming in order to reduce destructive livestock grazing.

Photo courtesy of Jason Houston, www.jasonhouston.com.

This picture of a tiger cub comes courtesy of Flickr user Picture Taker 2.

No, a tiger cub does not count as an appropriate carry-on item

• “A Thai woman has been detained by airport authorities in Bangkok after they found a drugged tiger cub stashed in her luggage alongside a stuffed toy. According to wildlife trade monitoring group Traffic, the tiger cub was found in an overweight suitcase en route to Iran, another sign that Illegal tiger trade is growing despite dwindling numbers for the endangered species. The woman carrying the suitcase was fined $1200 and The 3 month old cub was sent on to a wildlife conservation centre in Bangkok.”

Russia provinces agree to first transboundary protected area to conserve Amur tigers

• “Destruction and fragmentation of habitat, poaching and lack of prey have reduced the number of wild Amur tigers.”

Amazon deforestation down 16 percent over past year, new data shows

• “According to preliminary data from Brazilian NGO Imazon and Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is down 16% over the past twelve months, with 1,488 square kilometers (574 square miles) of forest cleared. All that tree felling resulted in 95.6 million metric tons of CO2 released into the atmosphere, Mongabay reports, an amount equivalent to the annual emissions of Greece.”
• “To put those stats in perspective, even though deforestation is declining an area of forest about 1.2 times the city of Los Angeles or New York is still be entirely cleared annually, not to mention that forest degradation (land not fully cleared but still seriously disturbed) over the same period was similar in 2009-2010 as it was in the previous year.”

Men waste $3000 driving lost (so if your lost, ask for directions, the environment will thank you)

• “New study finds that the average male driver drives 276 miles lost every year. That’s a big carbon footprint for time badly spent!”

Help safeguard the Great Lakes … before it’s too late (from a ravenous invasive species)

If the above embedded video doesn’t display, click here.

School children drew pictures of wildlife during a school visit by Pride campaign manager Eddy Santoso. The purpose of the visit was to promote conservation in the Lamandau River Wildlife Reserve in Borneo, Indonesia.

Yayorin’s Rare Pride campaign protected the forest habitat of the Bornean Orangutan by motivating farmers to adopt agroforestry systems in order to reduce deforestation due to agricultural practices.

Photo courtesy of Jason Houstom, www.jasonhouston.com.

This aerial survey photograph from 2008 is of the fly-ash sludge spill in Kingston, Tennessee. The photo is courtesy of Flickr user SkyTruth.

39 More Toxic Coal Ash Sites Found to Contaminate US Water Supply With Arsenic & Heavy Metals

• “A site at Hatfield’s Ferry, PA had contamination of arsenic 341 times higher than the federal standard.”

World’s Largest Solar Plant Nears Approval in California Desert

• New solar power plant could power 800,000 homes.
• “The facility will replace fossil fuel-powered generating plants that would have pumped two million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.”

El Niños Are Growing Stronger, NASA/NOAA Study Finds

• “These results suggest climate change may already be affecting El Niño by shifting the center of action from the eastern to the central Pacific,”
• “A relatively new type of El Niño, which has its warmest waters in the central-equatorial Pacific Ocean, rather than in the eastern-equatorial Pacific, is becoming more common and progressively stronger, according to a new study by NASA and NOAA. The research may improve our understanding of the relationship between El Niños and climate change, and has potentially significant implications for long-term weather forecasting.”

E-waste recycling a ‘health and environmental hazard’

• “Scientists are concerned that recycling of electronic waste from computers, cell phones and other goods might be creating significant health and environmental hazards.”

“The ice of Antarctica is a calendar of climate change.”

Science columnist Lee Hotz describes a remarkable project at WAIS Divide, Antarctica, where a hardy team are drilling into ten-thousand-year-old ice to extract vital data on our changing climate.

If the above embedded video does not show up, click here.

This photo of coffee beans comes courtesy of Flickr user JcOlivera.com.

Armageddon is here: Spurred by Warming Climate, Beetles Threaten Coffee Crops

• “Coffee production has long been vulnerable to drought or excess rains. But recently, a tiny insect that thrives in warmer temperatures — the coffee berry borer — has been spreading steadily, devastating coffee plants in Africa, Latin America, and around the world.”
• “The Arabica coffee grown in Ethiopia and Latin America is an especially climate-sensitive crop. It requires just the right amount of rain and an average annual temperature between 64 degrees Fahrenheit and 70 degrees Fahrenheit to prosper.”

KPMG review finds IPCC chief Pachauri innocent of financial misdealings or conflict of interest, UK Telegraph apologizes for smearing him

• Climate scientists continue to be exonerated from the false attacks from climate deniers.

Smallest frog Asia discovered in Borneo

• “Male adults of the new species, named Microhyla nepenthicola, grow to approximately one centimetre in length.”

Security firms adopt military tactics to fight rhino poachers

• “Continued rhino poaching in South Africa is causing some security firms to adopt military tactics in their battle against the poachers.”
• “The rhino has no predator in the African bush besides man, but for centuries these majestic creatures have fallen prey to man’s greed. They are killed as trophies, as well as for the mythical properties of their horn, which is highly valued in the Far East as a staple of traditional Chinese medicine.”

This LOLCat needs to get to Hogwarts ASAP!

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