2011年6月11日星期六

A large part of the tropical forests of the poorly managed world (AP)

By RAPHAEL g. SATTER, Associated Press Raphael g. Satter, Associated Press - Tue Jun 7, 9: 07 pm EST

LONDON - large tracts of tropical forests of the world have been formally protected from deforestation, but an international conservation group said that might not be enough to save them.

A report published Tuesday by the International Tropical Timber Organization, said that much of the land being set aside for forest was not managed sustainably - leaving vulnerable that the production of agriculture and biofuels gobble up acre after acre (hectare after hectare).

"Deforestation is going down and there is a very substantial increase and good coverage of protected areas" Duncan Poore, one of the authors of the report, said Associated Press advance of its publication.

But he said that, in the future, "Outlook could not therefore seem favourable."

It is that food because increasing and the price of fuel mean land covered in trees to the left becomes much less profitable than the land used to grow soy or wheat beans. And a global climate still occupy a distant prospect, it is not at all certain that companies rich funds invest tropical forests to offset their greenhouse gas emissions will continue to flow.

"Forces promoting the destruction of forests, such as higher food and fuel prices, could easily be those that promote the conservation of the forest," the organization said in a report.

The report itself counted 761 million hectares (1.88 billion acres) of what is called "permanent forest estate" - land set aside for forest tropical host in perpetuity.

That would make the size of the estate permanent about as much as the Australia, but the report warned that only 10 for % of the land was managed sustainably - a term meaning that wood, fruit and nut harvest are retained within healthy levels and forest borders are secure.

Speaking of the light room, the first floor of Royal Overseas League London, Poore said that the international community should focus on ensuring that the 700 any remaining hectares (1.73 trillion-SDO acres) set aside for the use of the forest were in sustainable management.

If that had happened, he said, he could live with having the rest assigned to agricultural or other uses. "If these 700 million hectares is secure, I think that we are O.K.," he said.

"It would be good if there was more," he added, before becoming thoughtful for a moment.

"It is more important to decide what you want to keep and secure it and take care of property, is to a forest which has disappeared", he said.

The Japan International Organization-based tropical Woods, founded in 1986, is composed of 33 member countries who together represent 1.42 billion hectares (3.51 billion acres) of tropical forest, or 85% of the total world.

___

Online:

http://www.ITTO.int/

(This location version corrects corrects organization.) (Adds details and quotes, and links of photos).


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2011年6月10日星期五

In Kabul, air pollution, a more deadly to war (AFP)

Kabul (AFP) - war can kill thousands of civilians a year in Afghanistan, but the suffocation of pollution of the air in the capital Kabul is more lethal, experts say that.

The signs of the silent killer - pollutants emitted by people burning trash, fuel quality and old cars - are everywhere on the chaotic streets.

Men on foot or by bicycle, usually covering their mouths with masks or scarves to prevent dust. Women shake blue burqa to their faces.

"It is not possible to stay in good health without mask," said Ahmad Wali, a pharmacist with her every day, even when working in his shop.

"People are blocked with a very big problem." It is difficult to reduce pollution quickly. We have to breathe this air. ?

Primitive hospitals and are of the city are forced to deal with increasing numbers of people with respiratory problems.

"I was sick for three years," said Malalai, an Afghan mother of nine treaties to Jamhuriat hospital, one of the largest of the city.

"When I speak, I get short of breath after two or three minutes." I have pain in the chest when I try to breathe. I can not walk or stand for a long time and I have no energy. ?

The figures are stark. About 3,000 people by die year of pollution of the air in Kabul, the National Agency for the Protection of the environment, said last year.

By comparison, the United Nations says that 2,777 civilians have been killed in the war in Afghanistan in 2010.

There are several main causes of air pollution, but underlying all them is the rapid expansion of Kabul as people fled the capital for relative stability in the middle of the fighting in many rural areas.

The city was designed for approximately one million people, but is today home to approximately five million, a figure who said of the municipality of Kabul doubled in six years.

Most of the newcomers living in houses built illegally slums and the struggles Kabul infrastructure to cope.

The town roads are usually stuck with old and poorly maintained cars imported illegally as the Canada, Germany and the United States countries, often spewing fumes that are the by-product of poor quality fuel.

Most of the roads are paved, which means that when cars can move, they throw up dust which adds to the quality of the air.

Households often depend on diesel for electricity generators, while companies such as brick factories, and public baths also use.

In the frigid winter, local people burn often all what they can get holds of, including old tires and plastic, they are struggling to keep warm.

The Ministry of health considers more tripled the number of Afghans suffering from respiratory problems six years to approximately 480,000.

Officials admit that they are difficult to get on top of the problem given the scope of the problems faced by the Afghanistan after three decades of war and 10 years after the 2001 US invasion brought down the Taliban.

Last year, they have official holidays Thursday in Kabul - in addition to the Friday - to reduce air pollution. Also adopted A resolution for the prohibition of businessmen, import of old cars.

The Office of the Mayor, insists that the move was a "very good" effect to stop pollution getting worse but could not provide figures.

"Government vehicles are not allowed to (use) vacation and prevents all vehicles to move around and is a great help to reduce pollution," said spokesman Mohammad Ishaq Samadi.

But Ghulam Mohammad Malikyar, Advisor to la National Environment Protection Agency, said: "nous still have difficulty to environmental issues and the environment a priority in national and international strategies."

"The country was at war for 30 years and there is very little control over the environment, no there was no protection of the environment to all the".

Doctors warn that unless the action is brought, Kabul is facing serious problems.

Erfanullah Shifa, a doctor at the Jamhuriat hospital, said up to 20 people per day were registering with respiratory problems.

"If air pollution increases the way it is now, people of Afghanistan will face a health catastrophe in the near future" said Shifa.


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"kill a camel" to cut the concept of pollution in Australia (AFP)

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia plans to allow carbon credits to kill wild camels as a means to combat climate change.

The suggestion is included in "carbon farming Initiative of Canberra", a consultation document by the Department of climate change and energy efficiency, seen Thursday.

Based in Adelaide Northwest carbon, a commercial company, proposed some 1.2 million of wild camels that roam the Outback, the legacy of herds introduced to help settlers in the 19th century the slaughter.

Considered a pest because of damage to vegetation, a camel produces, on average, equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide per year, making them collectively one of the major emitters of the Australia of the gas methane greenhouse.

In its plan, Northwest said it shot from a helicopter or gather and send to a slaughterhouse for human consumption or animal of company.

"We are a nation of innovators and we find innovative solutions to our challenges - it is just a classic example", Director General of the Northwest carbon Tim Moore told Australian Associated Press.

The idea was among those accepted by the Government, which seeks to "provide new economic opportunities for farmers, forest producers and landowners", be they agree on ways to reduce emissions, according to the discussion paper.

Heavily dependent on electric powered coal and mining exports, the Australia is one of the worst polluters per capita in the world and the Government looks at ways to clean up its act.

Legislation for the "agricultural carbon Initiative" is set to go before Parliament next week.


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Camels Australia could be turned to curbing methane (AP)

CANBERRA, Australia - shooters could be paid to the slaughter of camels methane belching that roam the Outback in an effort to reduce emissions of greenhouse and very large population of Australia.

The Government wants that the murder of camels wild to be officially registered as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions Australia under a law proposed a vote in Parliament next week, with shooters accumulate so-called carbon credits.

If logging is registered, industrial polluters in the world would be able to offset their carbon emissions by purchasing carbon by shooters credits.

Legislator Mark Dreyfus, said Thursday he hoped attaching carbon credits for each camel killed led to their extinction in Australian nature.


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Elite police arrived in the North of Brazil (AP)

SAO PAULO - an elite of the police happened North of the Brazil on Wednesday to help local law enforcement combat violence is anti-logging and land rights activists in the Amazon forest.

Paulo Silber, a spokesman for the Government of the State of Para, said that 60 police officers have been deployed in three cities. He provided no details.

The force has members of the federal police, military and regular police forces.

The President Dilma Rousseff ordered the unit sent in the Amazon region the recent assassination of three activists and a witness in the States of Para and Rondonia.

According to the Catholic pastoral lands of surveillance, more than 1 150 rural activists were killed in Brazil in the last 20 years. The killings are mostly carried out by armed men hired by farmers, ranchers and loggers to silence protest over illegal logging of forests.

Thursday, justice, human rights and Agrarian Development Ministers are scheduled to begin a visit to the States of Para, Amazonas and Rondonia to discuss with local authorities the means to deal with the violence.


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Something borrowed, something Super Mario (media room)

We have been invited (or lifting) theme parties before: the Party of Disco, Prom Night, 80 Dance parties. But you never were invited on the theme of marriage a Super Mario Brothers'?

(Yes, read you that correctly: A WEDDING.) Not a birthday party. Are not parts of a child. (A MARRIAGE).

A couple of Iowa is so loving the classic video game that the bride will be dressed as Princess Peach and her groom is going to be him expected the altar dressed as (wait....) Mario.? There is no escape for the feast of marriage: the mothers of the couple will wear costumes as well. (This of teal puffy bridesmaid dress begins to look warm enough, right?)


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EPA looks to Ban more toxic rodent Poisons (ContributorNetwork)

According to a press release on the site of the Government Environmental Protection Agency, EPA announced that it will be prosecuting a ban on the sale of more toxic rodent poisons for residential customers.

The EPA made the announcement Tuesday and believe that the decision was due to the danger mouse and rat poisons can be for the people, especially children, and pets and wild animals. In addition, the Federal agency seeks to include loose, including pellets poisons mouse or rat bait. These types of toxic products are particularly harmful to children because they are placed on the ground and in the corners where it can be picked up by small children or placed in their mouths. The problem with the poison of rodents and children has become a major issue and the American Association of Poison control centers received reports up to 15 000 children who use or are exposed to toxic rodent poisons every year.

Director assistant for the EPA Office of chemical safety and Pollution Prevention Steve Owens spoke of the importance of the prohibition of the most toxic rodent poisons available to residential consumers: "these changes are essential to reduce the thousands of accidental exposures of children that occur each year of the rat and mouse control products and also to protect pets." Action today will help ensure the safety of these poisons of our children and animals.

To better protect consumers, children, pets and wild animals in rodent poisons, in 2008, the EPA required manufacturers to design safer products and gave them until 4 June this year to do so.

Many companies developed protection bait products that housed the loose pellets that could pose otherwise dangerous for children. Although most companies agreed, many were not able to, and the EPA intends to pursue the Elimination of these products from the shelves. The four main companies include Liphatech, Woodstream, spectrum and Reckitt Benckiser Group.

As EPA continues a ban on the most toxic rodenticides available for residential customers, the Agency also reminded residents to designate their Pesticides: controlling rodents information page on the official website of the EPA. The page of the Web site includes information on how to prevent an infestation, to identify an infestation by rodents, the types of mouse and rat poison on the market, the telephone numbers for more information and safety tips for reducing exposure to these poisons, especially in the case of children and pets.

Rachel Bogart provides a thorough analysis of local environmental issues current and new in Chicago. As a student of the suburbs of Chicago, seeking to obtain two degrees of science, applied his knowledge and his passion for the two subjects to gather more public awareness.


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