New research out of the UK shows definitively that reducing greenhouse gases can save millions of lives around the world. The research makes use of case studies to demonstrate the co-benefits of tackling climate change in four sectors: electricity generation, household energy use, transportation, and food and agriculture.

The studies were commissioned by the NIEHS, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in part to help inform discussions next month at the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen.
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Google Inc. is joining forces with space agencies around the world and the conservation organization Group on Earth Observations (GEO) to monitor deforestation rates using satellite imagery. Among the space agencies working on the program are NASA, the ESA, and the national space agencies of Japan, Germany, Italy, India, and Brazil.

The GEO is a global partnership of 80 governments and more than 50 organizations. Internet company Google currently collects satellite images for use in its Google Earth application, and will be providing satellite images to the project.

Annual monitoring via satellite images will help identify changes in areas of forest more accurately than ever before. The data will be important in helping support programs in which governments, environmental groups, and investors pay to protect certain forests.

“Investors will want some sort of guarantee that…forests will remain there and remain in good condition.” – José Achache, director of GEO

Reuters reports that seven countries would act as pilot programs including Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Guyana, Indonesia, Mexico, and Tanzania. All of these locations have had satellite images taken in the last few months. The U.S. has satellite images from Landsat going all the way back to 1972 to use for comparisons.

Source: GEO

Image Credit: Si1very on Flickr

Originally Published: October 22, 2009 http://planetsave.com/2009/10/22/google-to-fight-deforestation-from-space/

If you could declare a home town of evolution it would be the Galapagos Islands. Back in 1835 a sea sick young naturalist, Charles Darwin, landed on the Galapagos to conduct a little research. That research was the genesis of Darwin’s seminal work “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.” Darwin was inspired by the grand variety of animals filling specific niches on the islands.

Now tourism is threatening to wipe out the animals which inspired one of the most important works in all of science. This time, for once, humans are not the main bad guy in this story. Although, as often the case, humans are involved unwittingly. When humans visit the island, they don’t realize they are bringing along a stowaway. Mosquitoes. The oft-maligned disease ridden scourge of the world.

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Most of this site’s traffic is coming from the United States. which is what I expected seeing as I live in the US, and write for a US based company. However, I was really surprised to see how many international visitors I got. I have quite a few views from the UK and Belgium! Hi I like your waffles, and bangers and mash. Still no one from Africa, Asia, or South America. I’ll just assume it’s a language barrier.

So in closing… Welcome all my international followers. I shall try to be much more cultured from now on.