tingilinde

build well or don't build at all

We can't afford damaging infrastructure projects  (via Nature)

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Esteemed Brazilian scientist Eneas Salati once said that the best thing that could be done for the Amazon was to blow up all the roads. By 2050, Earth could accumulate another 25 million kilometres of paved roads, according to the International Energy Agency — enough to encircle the planet more than 600 times. When a new road penetrates intact forest, it can facilitate illegal deforestation, poaching, fires and land investors bent on encouraging a building boom — factors that are rarely considered in cost–benefit analyses of planned infrastructure projects.

Around nine-tenths of new infrastructure is slated for developing nations, which contain nearly all of the world’s tropical and subtropical forests — biologically, the richest real estate on the planet. Yet many ‘greening’ measures, such as adding rope-bridges or underpasses to help species cross roads, bring relatively trivial benefits, akin to treating cancer with a Band-Aid.

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a reprieve for endangered wolves

Good news for endangered wolves... the Trump Administrations Fish and Wildlife Service can't allow endangered wolves to be shot.

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The critically endangered American red wolf might have been saved from extinction.

In a scathing court decision Monday, a federal judge in North Carolina ripped the Interior Department’s management of the last red wolf population in the wild, saying that an agency sworn to uphold a congressional mandate to preserve the animals violated it over and over, and even gave private landowners the right to shoot them.

Chief Judge Terrence W. Boyle reminded the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which gave the authorization, of its own statement in 1999. “Wildlife are not the property of landowners but belong to the public and are managed by state and federal governments for the public good,” he wrote.

Boyle ruled that a temporary injunction issued against Fish and Wildlife’s shoot-to-kill authorization in 2016 during the Obama administration is permanent. The agency must prove that a wolf is a threat to humans or livestock before it can make a decision to take its life.

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a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

 

 

on the damage dams do

An interview with Ted Scudder of Caltech

He's a social anthropologist, but his path gave him other interests.

 

food security

Relevant maps.

 

 

greenland from the air

Aerial images of one of global warming's ground zero locations.

a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

that explains it!

Jesus and Mo on human activity and global warming

a tip of the hat to Bjarne.

 

children and air pollution

A serious problem worldwide ... particularly in the developing world

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Newborns and young children are also more susceptible to household air pollution in homes that regularly use polluting fuels and technologies for cooking, heating and lighting

“Air Pollution is stunting our children’s brains, affecting their health in more ways than we suspected. But there are many straight-forward ways to reduce emissions of dangerous pollutants ,” says Dr Maria Neira, Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health at WHO.

“WHO is supporting implementation of health-wise policy measures like accelerating the switch to clean cooking and heating fuels and technologies, promoting the use of cleaner transport, energy-efficient housing and urban planning. We are preparing the ground for low emission power generation, cleaner, safer industrial technologies and better municipal waste management, ” she added.

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Reducing this sort of pollution is something the Trump administration is fighting tooth and nail... in the US as well as slashing US involvement around the world.

 

 

beyond bizarre

Republicans scream a Democrat is beholding to "dirty coal money" and is blocking action on climate change. 

sorting out the costs of travel

We mostly aren't paying for the impact of our carbon emissions and travel time often involves multi part travel.  Here's a look showing how aviation isn't always the best choice (Europe centric).  You can build a variety of models depending...  but interesting.

climate change in your county

Cornell has a tool showing trends using data from 1950 to 2013 and climate models to project the future for counties in the Northeastern US.

a tip of the hat to Sukie