Wastewater To Feed The World? As available land area shrinks and human population soars, the demands on available land and water are generating a significant new interest in urban farming. But in many areas of the world, urban farming relies on using a resource which is both a blessing and ... keep reading
Written by Bruce Bisset last month, about Agriculture & Food, Organic, Pollution, Population, Water
Global warming, over-fishing, invasive species, habitat destruction, acidification and agricultural runoff are creating oceans crammed with algae and jellyfish - a process one prominent scientist has dubbed "the rise of slime". And when algae blooms die, their decay starves the seas of oxygen, creating "dead zones" devoid of marine life. Dead ... keep reading
Written by Bruce Bisset in October 2008, about Agriculture & Food, Environment & Wildlife, Environmental Disasters, Food, Industry, Politics, Water
Though beset by challenge and turmoil amongst its political allies, New Zealand's centre-left Labour Government has finally passed its ground-breaking emissions trading scheme (ETS) into law - though with a general election only a few weeks away and the right-wing National party odds-on to take power, how long the scheme ... keep reading
Written by Bruce Bisset in October 2008, about Carbon Trading, Climate Change, Politics
International aid agency Oxfam says rich countries' excessive greenhouse gas emissions are violating the rights of millions of the world's poorest people to life, security, food, health, and shelter, and is calling for rich countries to start basing their climate change policies on existing human rights principles. In submitting ... keep reading
Written by Bruce Bisset in September 2008, about Children and Families, Climate Change, Consumerism, Economics, Environmental Disasters, Finance, Politics
As Arctic sea-ice melts, the wildlife that inhabits that frozen landscape has little option but to move, either floating with the currents on icy chunks or swimming in search of refuge. But refuge is becoming increasingly hard to find. Polar bears spend most of their lives on sea-ice, using it ... keep reading
Written by Bruce Bisset in September 2008, about Climate Change, Environment & Wildlife, Environmental Disasters
Environmentalists may be aghast at the looming prospect of oil rigs dotting the sea about the North Pole, but well before any companies can begin drilling, nations need to sort out who can legitimately claim what. A team of British scientists from Durham University have started the ball rolling by ... keep reading
Written by Bruce Bisset in August 2008, about Coal & Oil, Economics, Environment & Wildlife, Environmental Disasters, Politics
If you want to fight global warming, don't buy a flat-screen TV. The nitrogen triflouride used in their production could have a greater impact on climate change than coal-fired power stations. That's the message from Michael Prather, director of the environment institute at the University of California, Irvine ... keep reading
Written by Bruce Bisset in August 2008, about Consumerism, Emissions, Industry (3 comments)
A research scientist at New Zealand's Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, or GNS Science as its known, has come up with a way to find out if vegetables are truly organic or not - by isotope testing base elements such as nitrogen and carbon. Karyne Rogers says the test ... keep reading
Written by Bruce Bisset in July 2008, about Agriculture & Food, Consumerism
While food supplies are in crisis as nations experiment with switching from edible crops to biofuels in order to limit fossil fuel use and its harmful effects, it may come as a surprise to many to learn that the meat and rice in our traditional diets are almost as much ... keep reading
Written by Bruce Bisset in July 2008, about Agriculture & Food, Carbon Sequestration, Clean Technologies, Climate Change, Consumerism, Environment & Wildlife, Industry
As a Kiwi, I suppose I should be proud that "100% Pure New Zealand" gets to "host" World Environment Day this year. Frankly, with politics consistently getting in the way of sustainability, I'm not. However at least it's given the government an excuse to throw some money around ... keep reading
Written by Bruce Bisset in June 2008, about Philosophy & Religion
Emissions trading schemes (ETS) are becoming the vehicle-of-choice for Governments to address their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, but to date no such scheme has included all the factors which should properly make up a holistic carbon-assessment (and subsequent trading) regime. And, where attempts are being made to do so ... keep reading
Written by Bruce Bisset in June 2008, about Carbon Trading, Industry, Politics, Weather
A common put-down from sceptics of global warming is, "What's a few degrees? Just normal variance." Yeah, right. As if man-made effects were simply some other kind of "natural" cycle, instead of a corruption of natural cycles. What they don't seem to appreciate is that a global average ... keep reading
Written by Bruce Bisset in June 2008, about Climate Change
Even as the so-called "Green Revolution" was becoming widely perceived as a failed experiment, one man was already hard at work trying to reverse the reliance on chemicals and monocultured crops in the country perhaps hit hardest by this imported regime: India. New Zealander Peter Proctor's life work has ... keep reading
Written by Bruce Bisset in May 2008, about Agriculture & Food
