0
POPSBack to the East India Company Imperialism Future A combination of giant agricultural firms from the US, Malaysia, China, Gulf oil states, Korea and others are leading the charge to gobble up farmland and forests to grow whatever gives them the highest profit and if it means destroying natural forests - so be it and damn the consequences downstream!
5
POPSThe Crisis of Global Land Use
Meeting these huge new agricultural demands will be one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. At present, it is completely unclear how (and if) we can do it. If this wasn't enough, we must also address the massive environmental impacts of our current agricultural practices, which new evidence indicates rival the impacts of climate change. Consider the following. Already, we have cleared or converted more than 35 percent of the earth's ice-free land surface for agriculture, whether for croplands, pastures or rangelands. In fact, the area used for agriculture is nearly 60 times larger than the area of all of the world's cities and suburbs. Since the last ice age, nothing has been more disruptive to the planet's ecosystems than agriculture. What will happen to our remaining ecosystems, including tropical rainforests, if we need to double or triple world agricultural production, while simultaneously coping with climate change? Yes, it is an inconvenient truth as the origi
12
POPSThe Age Of Megafires "You know, there are a lot of people who don't believe in climate change," Pelley remarks. "You won't find them on the fire line in the American West anymore," Tom Boatner says. "'Cause we've had climate change beat into us over the last ten or fifteen years. We know what we’re seeing, and we're dealing with a period of climate, in terms of temperature and humidity and drought that's different than anything people have seen in our lifetimes." They need some of our angry, know it all, bring on Armageddon clippers to set them straight.
0
POPSWe Must Save The Living Environment E. O. Wilson says we must do more than save the plants and animals. 99% of earth's organisms are tiny but extremely important in the functioning of all the larger organisms. If we don't save the minute, we lose it all.
1
POPSThe Wallaby's Revenge - Invade US Australia comes close to holding the record in mucking up its environment by importing plants and animals that nearly destroyed Australia's uniqu flora and fauna. They even had to build thousands of miles of fences to keep non-indigenous rabbits from invading new territory. Now we have a company that thinks its genetically engineered for withstanding colder zones Eucalyptus trees should be sold in US. They grow like weeds and suck up water big time - goodbye native pine trees!
17
POPSWatching Whales Watching Us
The question of sonar’s catastrophic effects on whales even reached the Supreme Court last November, in a case pitting the United States Navy against the Natural Resources Defense Council. The council, along with other environmental groups, had secured two landmark victories in the district and appellate courts of California, which ruled to heavily restrict the Navy’s use of sonar devices in its training exercises. The Supreme Court, however, in a 6-to-3 decision widely viewed as a setback for the environmental movement, overturned parts of the lower-court rulings, faulting them for, in the words of Chief Justice John Roberts’s majority opinion, failing “properly to defer to senior Navy officers’ specific, predictive judgments,” thereby jeopardizing the safety of the fleet and sacrificing the public’s interest in military preparedness by “forcing the Navy to deploy an inadequately trained antisubmarine force.” In his decision, Roberts went on to minimize, in a fairly
0
POPSParallel ecological networks in ecosystems Han Olff, David Alonso, Matty P. Berg, B. Klemens Eriksson, Michel Loreau, Theunis Piersma and Neil Rooney Phil Trans R Soc B (2009) 364, 1755-1779 A look at ecosystems (and perhaps their analogs) as something more than a simple trophic pyramid.
1
Pops
Newest Clips
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update