By Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com
New satellite data shows that human actions are wiping out mangrove forests even faster than previous bleak estimates. Conducted by the US Geological Survey and NASA, the researchers found that mangroves comprise 12.3 percent less area than previously estimated. In total, satellites reveal that mangrove forests cover approximately 53,290 square miles (137,760 square kilometers).
mongabay.com
Norway has agreed to transfer an initial $30 million to Indonesia under its $1 billion REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) partnership with the Southeast Asian country.
Date: Thursday, August 26, 2010
Please join us for this one hour webinar to learn about the wide array of tools ENVI offers for remote sensing applications of vegetation. Many applications today rely on the knowledge of vegetation health in a given region and over a span of time. By using ENVI with multispectral and hyperspectral data sets, much information can be determined about the state of vegetation over a given site. In this webinar, you will learn about the following topics:
No previous experience with ENVI or image analysis is required for this webinar. Preregistration is required.
Associated Press
Coral that survived the 2004 tsunami is now dying at one of the fastest rates ever recorded because of a dramatic rise in water temperatures off northwestern Indonesia, conservationists said, warning Wednesday that the threat extends to other reefs across Asia.
Global Basemaps for the GIS Community
Thursday, August 19, 2010
2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. (EDT)
Great basemaps are the foundation for any great GIS project, but gaining access to detailed basemaps for your particular area of interest is often time consuming and challenging. Join Bern Szukalski, senior product manager and technical evangelist, and Twyla McDermott, corporate technology planner for the City of Charlotte, North Carolina, to learn how Esri is collaborating with organizations around the world to build cartographically uniform and highly detailed global basemaps that GIS users can freely access for their projects.
Click here to register for this free seminar to learn more about
Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com
Orangutan encounter rates have fallen six-fold in Borneo over the past 150 years, report researchers writing in the journal PLoS One.
Erik Meijaard, an ecologist with People and Nature Consulting International, and colleagues compared present-day encounter rates with collection rates from naturalists working in the mid-19th Century.
Stephen Leahy, Inter Press Service
VIENNA, Aug 11 (IPS) - A wind turbine on an acre of northern Iowa farmland could generate 300,000 dollars worth of greenhouse-gas-free electricity a year. Instead, the U.S. government pays out billions of dollars to subsidise grain for ethanol fuel that has little if any impact on global warming, according to Lester Brown.
Data from INPE, Brazil's Space Agency, show a 49 percent decline in the August 2009-June 2010 window, relative to the year earlier period. INPE says forest clearing fell from 1,875 square kilometers to around 1125 sq km, but cautioned that the figures are still far from finalized.
A giant sheet of ice measuring 260 sq km (100 sq miles) has broken off a glacier in Greenland, according to researchers at a US university.
BBC News - Science & Environment
PORT VILA (AFP) – The smallest Pacific island nations, some of which fear being swamped by rising sea levels due to climate change, said Tuesday they had seen little of the global funding promised to combat the problem.
By Madeleine Coorey