Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions are the main driving force of climate change, and all economic sectors need to internalize their costs. Food systems (including land use, production, refrigeration, food processing) account for a quarter of global GHG emissions. Agricultural exports in Asia-Pacific account for 18% of total exports, twice as …
70 years ago, a species called the yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) turned up at the Christmas Islands off Australia, perhaps stuck to a piece of timber. For a long time, it remained dormant. Then in the mid 1990s, its population began to explode. Yellow crazy ants began to form …
What are the various methods of managing invasive weeds? The government generally comes to know about invasive weeds 10-15 years after they are introduced. By then, they are already spread over wide areas and their extinction becomes impossible. The only thing that can make a difference is the people's awareness. …
How easy is it to predict the potential of a plant to become invasive in a new habitat? When an alien species, be it a pest or a weed gets into another habitat, there is generally a time lag before it becomes invasive. Its introduction, as such is sudden and …
What are the modes of successful invasiveness? There have been some studies on recruitment of pollinators by lantana. When lantana invades as an invasive species into a native ecosystemit proliferates and increases its density and biomass. Consequently, there is a chance that it usurps the native pollinators from the native …
function alien2() { var popurl="image/20040229/30-illus.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=475,height=450,scrollbars=yes") } "A successful invasion is a rare event,' says Suresh Babu, a researcher at the School of Environmental Studies, University of Delhi. An accepted thumbrule is that only one in 10 introduced species become naturalised, and only one in 10 among the latter actually …
Last year, a cricketing row broke out between New Zealand and India, when a member of the Indian team was fined for carrying soiled shoes. For India, it was cricketing pride at stake. But New Zealand customs authorities were merely following quarantine regulations. The shoes could have carried a possible …
One of New Zealand's biggest food companies, Goodman Fielder, has decided to exclude all genetically modified (gm) ingredients, including animal feed, from its products. New Zealand Greenpeace campaigner Steve Abel says the company's new policy is a victory for the New Zealand consumer. As the single biggest user and distributor …
The New Zealand government has dropped the contentious proposal to charge a levy from farmers for methane emitted by their livestock. The plan had been opposed fiercely by the farming community (see: 'Smells like trouble', Down To Earth, August 15, 2003). In New Zealand, methane emissions from ruminants are responsible …
The Antarctic ozone hole is bigger than it has ever been at this time of the year, threatening populated regions of South America and New Zealand with harmful levels of ultraviolet radiation. Last year's hole was smaller than those recorded over the previous decade, leading to hopes that the protective …
The environmental industry is quite nebulously defined. Less a sector than an agglomeration of many kinds of goods, services and technologies, this us $550 billion industry is nevertheless on a growth roll. Especially in the developing world, where environmental regulation is becoming more stringent, and whose exports must match up …
The New Zealand government proposes to promote the development of two wind farms by providing them Kyoto Protocol climate change credits for the energy produced. While one is a 36-mega watt (mw) extension of TrustPower's Tararua wind farm, the other is a 40-80 mw project of state-owned Meridian Energy. Power …
ANTI-MCDONALD'S DAY . October 16, 2002 October 16, 2002 is UN World Food Day. It is also the 18th annual worldwide Anti-McDonald's Day. A day of protest against the promotion of junk food, the unethical targeting of children, exploitation of workers, animal cruelty, environment damage and the global domination of …
This user guide is intended to help manufacturers and other users identify, interpret and apply information relevant to flavourings and flavour enhancers contained in the new Code. The guide explains: how the new Code differs from previous regulations with regard to flavourings and flavour enhancers; and where and how flavourings …
new Zealand's four unique frog species are under threat. A notorious toxic fungus called chytrid, blamed for decimating amphibian populations around the world has been found in the country. The four native frog species are living fossil frogs, believed to be more than 200 million years old, morphologically older than …
the lawn waste recycling industry in the us is alarmed after traces of Clopyralid, a herbicide harmful to garden vegetables, was found in compost made from recycled grass, straw and manure in California, Washington and Pennsylvania as well as New Zealand. The industry is demanding the elimination of the herbicide …
LIKE A FISH out of water, she chokes and gasps. Writhes. She struggles to snatch a lungful of air, while watching television she suddenly hits a vacuum. She is asthmatic. She is just about anybody. One of the 150 million that are reminded the hard way that life in today's …
WITH increasing patients and many of them in industrialised nations the market for asthma drugs is growing rapidly. It is the eighth largest selling drug market and possibly the most profitable venture for pharmaceutical companies, at par with profits made from cancer and heart diseases related drugs. In the absence …
banning logging is an important tool for halting the degradation of forests, but it seldom corrects the underlying causes of deforestation. This intriguing fact was recently stated in a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (fao). Moreover, the report claims that ban on logging harms forests and local communities …
new zealand's carbon dioxide emissions grew by two per cent between 1999 and 2000, indicates the latest annual report on the country's energy sector. "This data represents the size of the challenge faced by the country in meeting its climate change commitments,' said Pete Hodgson, the country's energy minister. New …
