This post consists of a few lines and a link to what’s happened since some of my recent posts where there has been significant action. Each item is identified and linked by the date and title of the original post.

July 2009 - Sable Antelope - One Sold for $ 385 000 and Giant Species Rediscovered in Angola.

Three more Giant Sable Antelopes, have been sighted in Angola. This brings to six the number of this rare species, which was feared to have become extinct, that have been sited in the last few weeks.

July 2009 - Mauling of Baboon by “Fighting Dogs”, Reopens the Cape Peninsular Baboon Debate

Two men were attacked by Pit Bulls in Ocean View ,the same Township in Ocean View this week, prompting a warning from welfare group TEARS.

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Leeds University has resumed field trials of genetically modified potatoes just a year after protesters tore up the previous crop.

400 potato plants are being grown to test their modified resistance to a microscopic parasitic worm called a nematode. The failure to inform the public has led to environmental groups claiming the project is ‘underhand’. However, the original three-year permission, granted by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is valid, so the crops can be replanted without having to provide further notice. The land has been protected by fencing and CCTV cameras surrounding the crop and by not telling the public the exact location of the potatoes. DEFRA also says that an independent advisory committee on releases to the environment has said that the experiment will not compromise human health or the environment. Plants on land alongside the research crop will be destroyed when the experiment has finished and the actual field will be left fallow to stop cross-pollination into subsequent crops.

Environmentalists fear contamination and cross-pollination

However, Friends of the Earth (FOE) has said that the potatoes could contaminate other plants near the research site and that farmers, gardeners and people living nearby should know about it the trials.

Food security drives experimentation

This is part of a much wider issue in which the British Government is being heavily lobbied by biotechnology companies who say that warnings of food shortages caused by population increase and climate change mean that biotechnology offers the best chance of food security for the future.

Potatoes courtesy of ColinD40 at Flickr under a creative commons licence

These is something in this bill for almost everyone. There is also something for almost everyone to hate. Alan During gives 14 things he love and 6 he hates about Waxman-Markey.

It’s no surprise that the United States Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufactures oppose this bill, but so does Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. Dow Chemical and Ford Motors support it.

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Clarity on What Jatropha Can Deliver

At the recent Africa Biofuels Conference in Midrand South Africa, Vincent Volckaert the Regional Manager for Africa of D1 Oils Plant Science presented a paper titled “Jatropha curcas: beyond the myth of the miracle crop”.

Besides making it clear that Jatropha is not a miracle plant and like any other it needs water and fertiliser to produce biomass, he noted it was particularly sensitive to pests and disease when not grown as an intercrop. Volckaert stated that D1 Oil expected to release new seed in 2010 or 2011, that would have a yield of 2 tons of oil per hectare on well managed estates at maturity.

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During the eight environmentally dismal years of the Bush administration, environmental advocates learned how to effectively use the U.S. court system to aid their cause.  We saw this with a number of lawsuits including the Supreme Court’s ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are pollutants that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

Now Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and 4 cities, including my very own hometown of Santa Monica, California, have settled a suit of almost 7 years (Friends of the Earth, Inc., et al. v. Spinelli, et al.) that will force two U.S. government run financing agencies, Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, to take into account the effects of their overseas projects on climate change.

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[Creative Commons photo by Tobias Pro User]

Pollution from motor vehicles is responsible for 72% of nitrogen oxides and 52% of reactive hydrocarbons (principal components of smog). Cars and trucks are not the only culprits - road construction causes greenhouse gas emissions both during and after the work is done. A Sightline Institute analysis (pdf) found that building 10 miles of new four-lane highway construction is the equivalent of putting 46,700 Hummers on the road, once you account for factors like materials, maintenance, congestion, and new traffic.

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A new campaign launched by Friends of the Earth calls for investing in clean options for transportation, not in building new roads.

The government’s new stimulus package is in grave danger of being hijacked by the road-building industry to redirect billions of dollars toward new roads that we simply don’t need. New Roads = New Pollution aims to mobilize grassroots activists to fight for a clean investment in our future.

“More roads mean more pollution and more dependence on oil—hurting our economy, security and climate. Investments in clean transportation alternatives, as well as road and bridge maintenance and repair, create more jobs than new road construction and help families save money on gas. Focusing an economic stimulus package on such clean investments should be a no-brainer.” - Colin Peppard, Friends of the Earth

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Friends of the Earth has planned an extensive day of protest against the Australian Prime Minister’s declaration that Australia will decrease its carbon emissions a mere 5 percent by 2020. To illustrate the problem, activists dressed in emergency gear will surround four separate government offices with sandbags today.

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Air Pollution

Aviation tax proposals have been outlined by the government. Under the new guidelines, due to come into effect in November this year, it will be the planes, not the passengers, that will be taxed.

New Government figures released showed that emissions from air travel are continuing to rise. Between 1990 and 2006, emissions from aviation fuel use more than doubled.

21 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions will be attributable to air traffic by 2050, and the Treasury report insisted the proposed tax system would, “introduce fairer duty, more in line with the environmental impact of flights, including the distance travelled”.

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