The bear necessities of climate change politics

'They cling precariously to the top of what is left of the ice floe, their fragile grip the perfect symbol of the tragedy of global warming. Captured on film by Canadian environmentalists, the pair of polar bears look stranded on chunks of broken ice….'

That is how an article in Australia's Daily Telegraph, entitled 'A planet on the edge', chose to open a discussion of the latest climate report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (1).
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kevin:Most eloquently put. summarises most of my personal feelings..

High on Speciation: latitudes and species diversity

It seems like a no-brainer: To find out where most new species arise, see where most of them live. Take the tropics, home of more than half the known organisms on the planet. For nearly a century, researchers have assumed that new species are constantly popping up here, while speciation is far more stagnant at Earth's relatively deserted poles. But a new study claims the opposite: Species evolve much more readily at higher latitudes. It's just that the new arrivals die off so fast that most of them never get counted.
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Malaysia pins hopes on herbal Viagra for biotech push

By Clarence Fernandez

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's answer to Viagra is a traditional herb the country has picked to spearhead its push into biotechnology, but now it faces the challenge of convincing the world the remedy is both potent and safe.

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Tonkat ali!

Mother nature still a rich source of new drugs

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - At least 70 percent of all new drugs introduced in the United States in the past 25 years come from nature despite the use of sophisticated techniques to design products in the lab, researchers reported on Monday.

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I am abit divided on this issue. The promise of undiscovered riches from our natural habitats hasn't stopped massive habitat destruction. Perhaps there is still no consumer pressure to get the companies to fork out more money to preservation.

New Species Declared: Clouded Leopard On Borneo And Sumatra

New Species Declared: Clouded Leopard On Borneo And Sumatra
Island leopard revealed as unique species

Britain introduces sweeping climate-change bill

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070312/full/070312-3.html

Live reef fish trade decimating fish populations

"The live reef fish trade in northern Borneo has a severe impact on coral reef fish populations, according to the results of a new study.
Scientists from Cambridge University provided evidence to suggest that the live reef fish trade (LRFT) causes exponential declines in both the total catch and relative abundance of several coral reef fish species...."
sigh another study that points out that our seas are not the cornucopia (Latin Cornu Copiae), literally Horn of Plenty that everyone assumes it is
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Australia plans thousands of miles of wildlife corridor

Australia plans thousands of miles of wildlife corridor to allow plants and animals to move into new habitats as the continent's climate changes
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How the Wood Moves

"At first glance, an obvious difference between animals and plants is movement: Elephants move, trees don't. This is in part why Tolkien's ents (1), Wyndham's triffids ( 2), and the march of Birnam Wood in Shakespeare's Macbeth ( 3) elicit such a strong response. But in fact plants do move, although only...."
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Losing Their Buzz

"...But people from all demographic groups across the country are facing a much more frightening real-life situation: the disappearance of millions of bees. This winter, in more than 20 states, beekeepers have noticed that their honeybees have mysteriously vanished, leaving behind no clues as to their whereabouts. There are no tell-tale dead bodies either inside colonies or out in front of hives, where bees typically deposit corpses of dead nestmates...."
link @ NYTimes

WWF launches marine protection campaign in the Southern Ocean

Southern Ocean, Antarctica – With the official launch of the International Polar Year today, WWF is looking to stop unsustainable fishing, marine pollution and climate change in the Southern Ocean.

In particular, the global conservation organization wants to create a network of marine protected areas in the southern waters by 2012, including the Ross Sea near Antarctica.
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Scheme aims to stamp out sale of endangered species products in Singapore

"By end March, the public will be able to tell if a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) shop is selling endangered species products.
Under a new voluntary labelling scheme launched on Thursday, shops committed to not selling such products will place the red-coloured label (picture) at their entrance.
Organised by the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) and the Singapore TCM Organisations Committee (STOC), the "Acres and STOC Endangered Species-Friendly TCM Label" will cover three endangered species, namely bears, rhinoceroses and tigers..."
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Raining on theories of Amazonian rainforest populations

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2007-02-25-amazonia_x.htm