Major palm oil companies to halt deforestation
Jakarta (UPI) Sep 21, 2014 -
Due to mounting pressure from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Rainforest Action Network (RAN), five major palm oil companies have decided to halt deforestation of high carbon stock forest while they study which sections of forest are most harmful to remove, according to mongabay.com. Corporations like Cargill had already agreed to stop sourcing palm oil produced via deforestation. ...
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Auf Wiedersehen to plastic at Berlin's no-packaging store
Berlin (AFP) Sept 22, 2014 -
Clutching their preserve jars, Tupperware boxes and cloth shopping bags, Berliners can now buy their groceries package-free in a "precycling" first for the environmentally switched-on city.
From ground Colombian coffee, to olive oil from Greece, biscuit wrappers and ready-made meal trays, the layers of packaging that consumers usually have to get through - and dispose of - are a thing of ...
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Thousands of Hong Kong students on strike for democracy
Hong Kong (AFP) Sept 22, 2014 -
Hong Kong students on Monday began a week-long boycott of classes, gathering in their thousands for what democracy activists say will be a wider campaign of civil disobedience against China's refusal to grant the city unfettered democracy.
Student activists crowded onto a campus on the northern outskirts of the city, many sheltering from the hot summer sun under umbrellas and waving their fa ...
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Scuffles as Hong Kong students escalate democracy strike
Hong Kong (AFP) Sept 23, 2014 -
Hong Kong students mobbed the city's leader Tuesday in angry scenes as they took their anti-Beijing strike to government headquarters, where hundreds protested against China's refusal to grant full democracy.
Organisers said 13,000 university students massed at a northern campus on Monday to launch a week-long boycott of classes, a strong showing that breathed new life into the democracy cam ...
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Fossil fuel divestment brightens climate summit
New York (AFP) Sept 22, 2014 -
The Rockefellers, the first family of oil, said Monday they would divest from fossil fuels in a fresh boost to the fight against climate change ahead of a UN summit.
A day after tens of thousands marched around the world urging world leaders to do more to stem climate change, private institutions, individuals and local governments with a total of more than $50 billion of assets announced in ...
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Smithsonian Scientists Discover Tropical Tree Microbiome in Panama
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 23, 2014 -
Human skin and gut microbes influence processes from digestion to disease resistance. Despite the fact that tropical forests are the most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems on the planet, more is known about belly-button bacteria than bacteria on trees in the tropics. Smithsonian scientists and colleagues working on Panama's Barro Colorado Island discovered that small leaf samples from a single t ...
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Indonesia faces challenging problems to quell ongoing forest fires
Jakarta, Indonesia (XNA) Sep 23, 2014 -
Indonesia is facing challenging problems in dealing with the annual forest fire issue as it is related to perilous attitude of people living around the forest and plantations.
A senior official said 99 percent of fires in the forest were incited by intentional torching, conducted both in rain and dry seasons.
"During February to July, the hotspots were even higher than in the previou ...
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