Some stories on the environment that caught my attention today.
Smarter Housing Development with Eco-Towns
Shelter England, a housing and homeless charity, is one of the leaders of a coalition of organizations in the creation of a number of eco-towns spread around England. These eco-towns aim at affordable housing with a zero carbon impact as a whole. I hope that this is an idea that will spread to other places.
Where has the Sea Life Gone?
A video comparing the ocean life seen on two trips across the Pacific, from California to Hawaii, titled Empty Oceans.
The first trip took place in 1958, and the second in 2008.
Loss of Biodiversity Illustrated in New Stamps
The Australia Post is working to raise awareness of the loss of biodiversity in Australia with a new series of stamps, which were issued today.
One of the MegaFauna stamps shows a Kangaroo weighing 200 kilograms (Procoptodon goliah). Another features the Tasmanian Tiger. Four other ancient animals fill out the set. The artist, Peter Trusler, has created other stamps for the Australia post, including a series on birds of prey to support conservation, and dinosaurs.
If you’re interested in the health of the Earth, and the many species that live here, a new report, proposed by the German government at a meeting of environment ministers of the G8 countries and the five major newly industrialising countries that took place in Potsdam in March 2007 is worth spending some significant time reading through.
The purpose of the study was to:
….evaluate the costs of the loss of biodiversity and the associated decline in ecosystem services worldwide, and compare them with the costs of effective conservation and sustainable use. It is intended that it will sharpen awareness of the value of biodiversity and ecosystem services and facilitate the development of cost-effective policy responses, notably by preparing a ‘valuation toolkit’.
The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity page on the European Commission’s environmental pages provides more details into the study. I’m part of the way through it, and it may take a while to digest, but it provides a number of insights into the impact of the loss of many species of animals and vegetables around the world.
As the writers of the report tell us at one point:
