Not strictly rainforest related, I agree. But very much a global issue for us all.

Styrofoam is apparently a $20 billion dollar business in the US (according to TechCrunch writer Erick Schonfeld) but regardless, we end up with masses of it. Land filling it is a nightmare and it probably makes up a disproportional volume of the Pacific Garbage Patch.

What if we could find a green solution to the problem? Well this TED video, presented by Eben Bayer might be the answer.

…but it hasnt retreated as far as 2007.

So what can we make of this news, given that the BBC story states:

Researchers say projections of summer ice disappearing entirely within the next few years increasingly look wrong

Walt Meier, a researcher at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado, where the data is collated, said ice had melted unusually fast.

“It was a short melt season – the period from the maximum to the minimum was shorter than we’ve had – but the ice was so thin that even so it melted away quickly,” he told BBC News.

Check out the rest of the story for the details.

Whilst not strictly a rainforest story, I wanted to blog about the extinction of the Alaotra Grebe. We have lost a species for ever. Shameful.

Why not read Ade Long (BirdLife International Head of Communications) blog post and the associated comments. This is why we must not allow our habitats to be destroyed be it rainforest or any other habitat that species rely on to survive.

http://www.birdlife.org/community/2010/05/alaotra-grebe-extinction-do-you-care/ is Ades story.

Find out more about Preventing Extinctions at BirdLife Internationals website here

In anticipation of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day,
Rainforest Relief and New York Climate Action Group released a
46-second video to call attention to the New York City’s on-going use
of rainforest wood for public infrastructure. The video features nine
individuals, each holding a sign and standing at a site in the City
where rainforest wood has been used. With quick zooms and cuts, the
video joins the signs together to form the sentence, “You Are Looking
At Dead Rainforests.”

OK, so the title is dramatic, but the talk is incredibly interesting. As always, we’re not here to tell you either way that Co2 increases globally are the cause of the global increase in temperatures, but this talk by James Balog illustrates the phenomenal changes that are occurring on the glaciers of the world.

From my point of view, whether you think this is caused by global warming caused by mans Co2 emissions or not, something is changing and saving the lungs of the planet and the thousands of species that reside in them isnt going to harm the situation! That’s my story!

Watch James’s inspiration talk, another from the non profit organisation, TED and be inspired to make a difference to the world around us.

Make sure you check out James’ website Extreme Ice Survey to find out more about this important and fascinating subject.

This project will focus on tropical deciduous forests in Southwestern Ecuador. Tropical deciduous forests are special and unique ecosystems that are home to many different kinds of plants and animals.  The name of this type of forest means it is located in the tropics near the equator and that the trees lose their leaves during dry times of the year. Many of the species that live in these forests are endemic meaning they can’t be found anywhere else in the world!

The Cazaderos-Progreso area in southwestern Ecuador is a region of tropical deciduous forest that is 10,000 hectares. This is equal to about 136,000 football fields! Even though this area seems HUGE, it is a small fraction of what once was there. The entire tropical deciduous forest still standing in Ecuador is only about 1% of how big it used to be and this area is just one section. Imagine how much forest there used to be, and how much has already been cut down! The government in Ecuador has plans to build roads that threaten the last remaining tropical deciduous forests of Ecuador. Because of these plans, it is important to protect these beautiful, extraordinary and highly threatened forests from disappearing forever. Nature & Culture International needs your help to raise money to purchase this land and to design a project with local kids like you and families like yours to make sure this land remains protected forever.

The tropical deciduous forest is home to many large species of animal including the Sechura Fox and the Tumbesian Crocodile. The Sechura Fox is a nocturnal animal that sleeps during the day and hunts at night. They weigh about 4-5 kilograms and eat seed pods, beetles and rodents. The Tumbesian Crocodile, the same species as the American Crocodile, also lives here. The average adult crocodile is 4 meters long and weighs 382 kg ! The crocodiles mostly eat birds, fish, mammals, snails, frogs, but also eat many other animals.

The plants and animals in this forest depend on us to raise money. Lets help protect them!

If you’d like to run a project to help raise money then please get in touch. We can document your progress, put on blog posts with pictures from your project to inspire others to do the same. We’d love to have you help!

At age 14, in poverty and famine, a Malawian boy built a windmill to power his family’s home. Now at 22, William Kamkwamba, who speaks at TED, here, for the second time, shares in his own words the moving tale of invention that changed his life.

This TED talk had a serious impact on me. Certainly one of the most thought provoking pieces of media I have watched. It has really made me think about what I do and how I do it. William is inspiring, he is a beacon for us all. A lesson that by educating ourselves and being determined we can make things happen, make really change happen. I am sure there are millions of stories out there similar, this is the one I came across and I am glad I did.

Simply incredible. There hasn’t been a day since watching this, where I haven’t thought about what William had to over come to get to his goal. It puts our lives into true perspective. I just wish I hadn’t been watching it on a packed commuter train and at the end said out loud, ‘Amazing’. I then told the poor guy next to me about TED.

I hope it has the same effect on you as it had on me. Check out Williams blog

Think what you will about the reasons for global climate change and the science that under pins it, but this TED talk by Lewis Pugh, about his fantastic achievement to swim a kilometer of arctic sea water once covered by ice, is inspirational.

It shows what determined people can and will do to highlight a cause they truly believe in. If we believe in something enough, we can all make a difference.

Here is a little summary of what TED is, incase you haven’t heard about it:

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year’s TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.

Take a look at the talk by Lewis and I challenge you to not want to find out more about climate change. Be inspired!

I’m not suggesting we all swim across icy waters by any means, but there are other, smaller things we can all do to make a difference to the planet on which we live.

Be sure to check out Lewis’s website, The Polar Defence Project

We having been hearing about the effects of climate change and global warming in the media for some time and yet the destruction of the world’s rainforests which is continuing at an alarming rate is still not as widely talked about perhaps because it is not the subject of as much political attention and debate.

Conservation biologists have made the headlines recently with the news that previously undiscovered species, including a giant rat, have been found in a dense area of rainforest in Indonesia.

It is thought that half of the world’s wildlife live in the tropical rainforests and as deforestation continues, species are being eradicated before they have even been discovered.

Deforestation is cause for concern not just because of the loss of animals, birds, insects and plants. The sustainability of crops depends on the rainfall from moisture pumped into the atmosphere by rainforests.  In addition, a huge amount of carbon that is emitted by human activities (approximately 15%) is stored in the trees and the soil in the rainforest areas. The importance of preserving the rainforests that remain must be understood by us all.  We should unite in common agreement that this holds the key to saving the planet from the damage that humans have done and are continuing to do.

It is extraordinary that the rate of rainforest destruction is estimated at six million hectares every year which is why urgent action is required to stop this.

This will be high on the agenda at the forthcoming Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen later this year.  One of the aims is to reach a deal to financially reward and incentivise the developing countries for the carbon held in their rainforest.  This could take some time to implement so it has been proposed and supported by the Prince’s Rainforests Project among others for emergency action to be taken to provide funds of up to £25 billion between 2010 and 2015 to reduce deforestation by a quarter.  This would be paid to those countries proportionally depending on how much rainforest they save.

We will be following the summit in Copenhagen closely to see what progress is made in providing the developing countries with the incentive they require to save our precious rainforests.  There are large sums of money required to make this deal acceptable to those nations but if an agreement cannot be reached and we don’t take the necessary action now then a far greater price will be paid by mankind in the end.

Find out more at The Guardian website

Scientists are looking to nature for answers to the generation of alternative energy, such as solar power. Photosynthesis is the creation of energy from sunlight, the biggest most powerful form of solar power known to man!

Here is an interesting article in the Guardian Online looking at how scientists can learn from the environment to save the environment into the future and reduce harmful gases which some believe contribute to the causes of global warming and the green house effect.

The untapped potential for using the sun’s rays is huge. All human activity for a whole year could be powered by the energy contained in the sunlight hitting the Earth in just one hour. Harnessing even a small amount of this to make electricity or useful fuels could satisfy the world’s increasing need for energy, predicted to double by 2050, without further endangering the climate.