Related Posts
Is the biodiversity summit in Nagoya bound to fail?You may not know this, but since the 1970’s, more than 40 percent of the earth’s species (plants...
Top 10 Plants That Face Possible ExtinctionOver the years, publications, television documentaries and movies come out about the number of species that are threatened,...
UN launches International Year of Biodiversity in response to global species loss
The strains of human civilization take their toll on the natural environment in many ways – not least...
Stopping deforestation – Something we actually CAN do?
The international effort to halt the destruction of rainforests and biodiversity loss is considered to be far behind...
UN report: Third of Earth’s plant and animal species under threat of extinction
Economic growth and the quest for raw materials in developing nations are threatening to devastate global biodiversity, according...
Get your Eco Starter Kit
Create an account and start harvesting Carbon Credits! Exchange your Carbon Credits for green goodies, like the Eco-Hatchery Starter Kit!
-
Green network users
3,093 Users - Show All
Green Directory
Tip of the Day
Go grocery shopping locally to help reduce your carbon footprint
Japan: Convention on Biological Diversity to discuss the future of plants
photo by Tian Yake (Tianyake on Flickr CC)
In terms of conservation, plants do not receive as much attention as cute cuddly animals like pandas or polar bears. Let’s face it – they don’t even rank up there with giant salamanders.
But plants provide food for all living things and are essential to life on Earth. The untapped medicinal and technological resources in plant life around the world are unknown but potentially invaluable. Therefore preserving plant species and maintaining botanical biodiversity is an important, if often overlooked, issue.
One fifth of the 380,000 plant species on Earth are threatened by extinction, mostly due to human activity. This month, the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan will attempt to hash out a deal for ‘equitable sharing’ of the benefits of such resources and attempt to prevent what is being called the ‘sixth great extinction’.
From an article in the Observer:
Another study to be published formally at Nagoya will be the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) report, which will try to list many of the other “ecosystem services” which plants and the biodiversity they support provide: climate control, water recycling, soil fixing, animal habitats, genetic material for disease resistance and human health, fibre and fuel, carbon storage. But despite more than a century of the conservation movement, biodiversity is more fragile than ever. As a result all eyes are on Nagoya.
See the below video report from ITN News for more:
Tags: biodiversity, biological, convention, diversity, japan, Nagoya, plants, species
Other Greenfudge.org posts
Go Green: Volunteer for Clean Up The World Weekend! (Sept. 17-19)
In case you haven’t heard yet, this weekend is Clean Up The World Weekend! What is Clean Up The World Weekend? Simply put, it’s a weekend set aside for people to help clean up our world. More specifically, it’s a weekend for people to get together and clean up all the trash in our world. You can clean up the trash on a city block, in a park, at the beach, in a forest, in a parking lot, or anywhere else...
Obama’s ‘battle plan’ speech: Tough talk for BP, but what about climate change laws?
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama addressed the American people on national television, live from the Oval Office, in an attempt to inform and assure the nation about efforts to deal with the United States' largest environmental disaster ever. He also urged support for a move away from fossil fuels and towards a reliance on renewable energy. On the former – regarding both BP's responsibility for and government efforts to assist in the stopping and cleaning up of the massive oil spill...
Future Earth: New conservation series from MSNBC starring Jeff Corwin
'100 Heartbeats': A story you can't afford to miss "100 Heartbeats", part of MSNBC's landmark Future Earth series, starts at 8 p.m. ET Sunday. Reported by famed naturalist Jeff Corwin, it tells the story of the "Sixth Extinction" — caused by people and which can only be stopped by people. Keep checking futureearth.msnbc.com for information about the next premiere, "Waterless World," which will air on Dec. 20. –msnbc.com Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy By Graham...
HBO documentary ‘The Lazarus Effect’ highlights Sub-Saharan Africa’s AIDS crisis
On May 24th, HBO will air the documentary 'The Lazarus Effect' by director Lance Bangs. The film follows four HIV positive people in Sub-Saharan Africa in an attempt to show the effects of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) on patients with HIV and AIDS. From a review on Shockya.com: These people include Bwalya, an 11-year-old orphan; Paul Nsangu, a young man who is married and has a daughter; Concillia Muhau, who has a daughter that is virus-free; and Constance (Connie) Mudenda, an HIV Peer...
Climate Corps interns help facilitate energy-efficient measures in Fortune 500 firms
Armed with financial smarts, technological know-how and strong environmental ethics, 26 MBA student-members of the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps successfully finished their internships at various companies. Dell, eBay, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Cisco and SunGard were among those who participated in the 10-week internship program. Although these companies already have people working on energy efficiency research, the Climate Corps helped provide a financial perspective on initiatives that are being worked on. The Climate Corps shared their expertise on optimized building management systems...
Dark Mountain Festival: The aftermath of UNCIVILISATION
UNCIVILISATION – aka the Dark Mountain Festival – took place over the last weekend in May at Llangollen, a small town in northwest Wales on the edge of the Berwyn Mountains. I’ve written a couple of times about the polemical Dark Mountain Project, a post-environmentalist movement that has given up on mainstream environmentalism, activism and politics – but not life, as I’ve been assured by DM founder Paul Kingsnorth – in favor of establishing a new movement and new way...
Video report on Brazil’s contrasting environmental practices from ITN and CNN
Many of Brazil's ultra-poor survive by recycling in the cities or farming in the Amazon in underground economies that both harm and help local and global ecology. A similar dichotomy is reflected in Brazil's legitimate energy and farming markets. 'If the desecration of the rainforest is Brazil's carbon footprint, it is ethanol and hydro that ensure that 50% of the country's energy usage rates as renewable.' –John Snow, ITN ITN's John Snow reports from Brazil on the South American country's contrasting...
White House goes green as Obama leads by example
President Barack Obama is set to overhaul the White house and upgrade its management for energy use, as well as, waste management practices. Among the many changes to be made are putting computerized systems to regulate temperature and energy consumption, setting up automatic lighting sensors for lesser used areas, recycling, conscious consumerism or selective purchasing of goods such as biodegradable cleaners and materials made up of low volatile organic compounds. All of these efforts are geared towards having the White House...
Tesla’s dream of wireless electricity made real
Several American technological companies are developing methods of wireless energy transference, as was once envisioned by legendary inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla. The details the firms are using in their various methods of delivering wireless power differ from Tesla's ideas, particularly in terms of the amount of power and the distance it travels. WiTricity has demonstrated the ability to send enough energy across a room to run a flat-screen television using its approach, called “resonant magnetic coupling”. This is different...
Did You Remember to Turn Off the Lights for Earth Hour?
As I write this, Earth Hour has come and gone for the Eastern US coast. I can’t speak for others in my community, or anyone else along the eastern seaboard, but we did indeed plunge ourselves into total electrical darkness. We simply played cards by candlelight, as we did last year. How did the rest of the world fare? Well… • 125 countries joined the campaign this year—a record for Earth Hour • 4,000 cities (at least) plunged into darkness • 5,664,496 people made the pledge...
View all articles
You can also log in to post a comment.