By Levi Novey •
October 16, 2008
This article is part of EcoWorldly’s week-long spotlight on Politicians You Can Believe In. To read more, subscribe to our RSS feed, or view our posts about politics.
Having initially proposed to make Chile’s offshore waters a whale sanctuary earlier this year, on Wednesday President Michelle Bachelet officially signed the whaling ban into law.
On the previous day, she helped designate a new national park and also announced that six additional protected areas will be created in Chile next year.
She’s setting an excellent example for other world leaders on the conservation front.
By Levi Novey •
July 22, 2008
According to the Associated Press, the government of Chile has chosen to build three new volcano monitoring centers. Several of the country’s 122 active volcanoes have erupted this year, the most notable event being a sustained eruption of the Chaitén Volcano that started on May 2nd.
After the initial volcanic activity began, approximately 4,500 people were evacuated from the town of Chaitén, which sits at the base of volcano. The eruption lasted through various levels of intensity through July, and several amazing, cool, and intriguing photos depict an electrical storm that occurred one evening directly above the volcano. Currently, a different eruption that commenced on July 2nd within the Llaima Volcano has other Chilean communities on alert.
By Gavin Hudson •
May 5, 2008
The following ten stories, organized by region, made international headlines from April 27 to May 4 for their impact on the environment and society. For more stories that changed the world, see our archive, here.
North American Environmental News
Canada has proven once again that it is way ahead of the rest of world with its progressive government. Ontario has banned the use and sale of lawn and garden pesticides for homeowners. Quebec instituted a similar ban on 20 some pesticide products back in 2006.
The new ban is set to take effect by spring of 2009. Home Depot has already agreed to stop selling the pesticides by the end of 2008! This is a huge victory for anti-toxic supporters all over the continent. If only someone in the United States government could take such affirmative action we could all be spared. Ontario will basically phase out some 80 different chemicals and over 300 products that contain them.
Continue reading this article at the Environmental Blog. Join the discussion about this article at Care2.
By Joshua S Hill •
March 5, 2008
Over our history eclipses have been the portent of the gods wrath, new things to come, or simply a pretty light show. But would you have expected our last lunar eclipse to have been of any help to researchers looking at climate change?
Researchers at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US, found that Earth’s atmosphere contained very little light-blocking volcanic dust. During the eclipse, Earth blocks sunlight from reaching the moon – hence why [...]
By Max Lindberg •
January 8, 2008
Forget the meteor that slammed into the earth, or massive volcanic eruptions that may have led to extinction of dinosaurs. Here’s a new theory: mosquitoes may have done the deed, or at least contributed to the wipe-out.
