The winning projects of a global competition for innovative carbon-free and resilient urban projects were announced in Oslo and sent to us by C40 CITIES. Have a look.
Iceland is home to some of the most spectacular fjords and natural energy resources in the world. The country has been a leader in renewable energy for decades. Landsvirkjun is entrusted in exploiting these natural resources in a sustainable, responsible, and efficient way and is now offering that energy to Etix for its data centers.
At the United Nations’ upcoming COP 19 event in Warsaw, the REN Alliance is scheduled to “introduce the theme of a 100% renewable energy future, and introduce case studies on how to attain this vision.” The side event is supposed to touch on technical integration of renewable energy resources, policies, financing, and more. Speakers will include
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” said George Santayana, and scientists who have been studying the past environments and archaeological remains of Greenland and Iceland believe the same thing. Scientists including Professor Andrew Dugmore of the University of Edinburgh have studied how well the Norse responded to changes in the
President Obama in a report to Congress on Thursday announced his intention to follow the suggestions of then Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke to discourage Iceland from its whaling policy.
On July 20, 2011, U.S. Dept. of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke formally declared the nation of Iceland to be in defiance of the International Whaling Commission’s global ban on commercial whaling. The declaration was met with over-whelming approval by numerous NGOs and conservation groups the world over. As a result of the commerce secretary’s declaration, President Obama now has 60 days to decide whether to impose economic penalties and/or trade sanctions against Iceland. Such sanctions are authorized under legislation known as the ‘Pelly Amendment’.
This Animal Aid is one I’ve covered a couple times and have been following closely. It is a campaign to get CCTV cameras in all UK slaughterhouses, to try to help prevent completely insane animal cruelty that has been documented by undercover investigations and fly-on-the-wall cameras.
Below, are images from the eruption and of the ash plume that ended up disrupting air travel in Iceland, followed shortly by Greenland, Scotland, Norway, Svalbard and a small part of Denmark, Northern Ireland, northern England and Northern Germany.
Hello Planetsavers! I thought I’d start doing a monthly wrap-up of our top 20 posts for people to have a glance at. Many of the top stories this month, as you’ll notice, were clearly tied into major world news events. Google is the main traffic driver for the large majority of sites on the Internet and ours isn’t an exception. Covering environmental news consistently, this often results in the biggest news stories rising to the top.
The Grimsvotn volcano continues to erupt at the same levels as it has since Saturday, the eruption is reportedly “much bigger and more intensive” than Eyjafjallajökull eruption last year and 10 times bigger than Grimvotn’s eruption in 2004. However, it is not expected to have nearly the same effect as the Eyjafjallajökull eruption (and the 2004 Gromsvotn eruption had little effect). Why?
I covered the eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland last night as the news broke and just wrote an update on the status of the eruption and a local flight ban that has been instituted. BUT, I know what you all really want — VIDEOS.
Iceland’s most active volcano, the Grimsvotn volcano, has erupted, MSNBC reports. 18,000-foot high white plumes have shot into the air, according to scientists. 50 or so small earthquakes (the largest of which was 3.7 on the Richter Scale) followed.
Iceland is aptly named in this image, taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite on March 9.
Energy from the Earth’s core as a clean energy alternative? Maybe. Scientists at the University of California-Davis are working on developing such an option after they discovered a rich seam of the molten rock relatively close to the earth’s surface in Iceland. The scientists now believe that this bit of magma could be a new source
A new research paper published in the latest issue of the journal Nature shows that in the months preceding the eruptions of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull, it had been restless as a result of magma flowing beneath the volcano. “Several months of unrest preceded the eruptions, with magma moving around downstairs in the plumbing and
Killing off some of the most amazing creatures in the history of the planet, whales, is one of those things we are doing right now that make you really question the intelligence of humans. How can we do such a thing? Calling on humans to be more sensitive creatures but also to realize and protect
Geophysicists who have been monitoring the Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland have announced that floodwaters are receding and tremors are decreasing. This after fears just a few days ago that the country’s most active volcano could erupt soon. The lake and surrounding glacier had begun melting, with water levels having tripled according to Gunnar Sigurdsson of
An international team of researchers will visit the region of the North Atlantic Ocean affected by ash from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in an effort to determine the impact the volcano had on the ocean biology. Aboard the UK’s Royal Research Ship Discovery, the team will make their second cruise to study the region, the
Updates on the International Whaling Committee decision about legalizing whaling of endangered species. Some organizations see the decision as a (temporary) win, some see it as a big failure. We wrote a few articles leading up to a major International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting that was supposed to involve a vote on whether or not
Scientists are surprised at the speed with which Greenland’s ice is melting and the corresponding surge of the land mass beneath. [social_buttons]Findings published in an upcoming edition of Nature Geoscience show that the rapidly melting ice in Greenland is causing the land mass beneath to rise as the weight is lifted off the rock. According
A controversial new proposal would allow nations (i.e. Japan, Norway and Iceland) to kill endangered whales. Quotas will be based on politics, not science. In 1986, commercial whaling was officially banned by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), an entity established to protect dramatically declining whale stocks. Despite this ban, certain nations, most notably Japan, Norway
Apart from the major disruption in flight traffic and the economy, the Icelandic volcano eruption promises in the short-term to disrupt upper atmospheric circulation patterns and temperatures, with an additional impact due to sulfuric acid “nucleation” and subsequent acid rain. But the medium to long-term impacts of continuous, or increasing, volcanic eruptions is a matter of on-going scientific debate.
Greenpeace activists blocked a shipment of endangered fin whale meat going from Iceland to Japan via Rotterdam in Holland and sent a request to the Dutch government as well. [social_buttons] On Friday morning, Greenpeace activists sacrificed their Easter holidays in order to help stop the killing and trade of endangered fin whales. Fewer than 50,000
Two British supermarket chains will ensure that none of the seafood products they carry will be supplied by companies that support or engage in whaling or the hunting of other sea mammals. [social_buttons] Waitrose, one of the two stores, has already written to the Icelandic government asking them to reverse their decision to allow an
Contrary to previous reports, Iceland’s new government announced that they will keep the controversial increased whaling quota that the outgoing Fisheries Minister enacted last month, just one day before leaving office. [social_buttons] Steingrimur J Sigfusson, Iceland’s new Fisheries Minister, said that the country will keep the whaling quota, but added that whalers should not expect
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is calling for a complete economic boycott of Icelandic products after the country’s announcement extending their illegal commercial whaling campaign into the next five years. [social_buttons] Last year, Iceland killed nine endangered Fin whales. A few months back they began exporting the meat from the endangered whales to Japan, which
