Wellington woman killed by falling tree branch in London...

Erena Louise Wilson

 

The family of Wellington woman Erena Louise Wilson, who was killed by a falling tree branch in London, have spoken of their sadness and expressed their gratitude to emergency services following the death.
Wilson, 31, an accounts manager, died instantly when she was struck by a falling tree branch in London's Kew Gardens as her friends ran for their lives, an inquest has heard.
"We are very saddened by the death of our beloved Erena Louise Wilson," the family said in a statement.
They wished to express their sincere thanks to the emergency services in England, "whom we are told did a remarkable job with their attendance to the scene and their attempts to revive Erena".
"Our thanks to the police and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and New Zealand High Commission, both in New Zealand and England, for their promptness at getting in touch with and keeping her mother informed and arranging for Victim Support Services, who were with her immediately".
"Please respect our wishes for privacy at this time, while we come to terms with our loss and as we make arrangements for Erena to be returned home".
'LOUD CRACK'
Wilson was visiting the Royal Botanical Gardens in the city's south west with two friends on Sunday (Monday, NZT) when there was a "loud crack like thunder".

The New Zealander's friends looked up and saw a 30cm thick branch from an 18m tall Lebanese cedar coming crashing down.

The pair fled to safety but when they looked back were horrified to see Wilson lying face down on the ground surrounded by branches.


As somebody said, just a sad case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/7729991/Wellington-woman-killed-by-falling-branch

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Europe

 

 

View Google's 360 degree tour of endangered reefs...

A diver operates the SVII, a camera mounted on an underwater scooter. Photo: Catlin Seaview Survey

• See the 360-degree images

Australia's Great Barrier Reef has been opened to an audience of more than one billion people worldwide as Google launches a virtual tour of one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
Users can log on to Street View on Google Maps and Google Earth and explore high-resolution, 360-degree images of the reef that are being gathered as part of the Catlin Seaview Survey, which documents the health of coral reefs around the world.

"The project is as much about the engagement as it is about the science," project director Richard Vevers told Fairfax from Monterey, California, where he officially launched the survey at the Blue Ocean Film Festival in front of an audience of scientists and filmmakers that included James Cameron.

 

The images - there are currently 15,000 and will eventually be up to 50,000 - were captured using the world's first tablet-operated underwater camera, the SVII, which incorporates three individual cameras that sit on an underwater scooter operated by a diver.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/googles-360degree-tour-of-endangered-reefs-20120926-26lb1.html#ixzz27kNEoCqR


http://www.smh.com.au/environment/googles-360degree-tour-of-endangered-reefs-20120926-26lb1.html

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Dolphin birth was captured on video...

 

 

 

Dolphin Birth Captured on video:

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/9564415/Dolphin-birth-captured-on-video.html

Footage of the birth shows the calf emerging from its mother tail first before immediately rising to the water's surface to take her first breath, then quickly swimming alongside her mother.

The birth occurred in a man-made lagoon at Dolphin Quest Hawaii, where visitors can swim with dolphins.

The dolphin calf will be monitored closely over the next 30 days as this is the most critical period for the new-born, Julie Rocho-Levine from Dolphin Quest Hawaii said.

The rate of survival for babies of first-time mother dolphins in the wild is about 50 percent, Ms Rocho-Levine said. However she added that the rate is much higher for dolphins born with access to care from humans, she added.

The baby dolphin will be named when it is one month old.

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Should there be a marine reserve in the Ross Sea?

Digital image / P.K. Stowers

Earlier this month the Government rejected a proposal from the United States for a marine reserve that would have offered greater protection for the Antarctic toothfish in the Ross Sea.

There are tight regulations on fishing - including strict quota and reporting requirements on catch and bycatch - in Antarctica, which is still treated as an exploratory fishery.

New Zealand companies take a large proportion of the annual Ross Sea toothfish catch - last year they landed 730 tonnes with an export value of $20 million.

The Herald understands the joint proposal was thwarted in Cabinet by ministers Gerry Brownlee, David Carter and Steven Joyce on the grounds it was not consistent with the Government's economic growth objectives.

Should the Ross Sea be a marine reserve? Here is the latest selection of your views below:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10836134

I would support a marine reserve to stop exploitation and overfishing in that area.  The Antarctic toothfish is one example. So-called strict quota and tight fishing regulations won't necessarily protect the Ross Sea.. Lets hope some commonsense prevails.

 

 

 

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Campaign to stop the Routeburn Tunnel to Milford Sound...

 

STOP THE ROUTEBURN TUNNEL

 

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WHAT'S THIS ALL ABOUT...

In 2006, MDL put in a proposal to the Department of Conservation asking permission to build an 11.3km long tunnel from the end of the Routeburn road through the mountains to link up with the Hollyford Road thus cutting the driving travel time to Milford Sound. The Department of Conservation asked for more information from them over the ensuing years. In late 2011 DOC said it was moving to grant concession and had opened the process to pubic submissions. Glenorchy united as a community is opposed to the tunnel and in a town meeting voted 100-0 against the tunnel. Why? Because the building of the tunnel would violate the entrance to the Routeburn track, an area beloved by people across the world for its pristine wilderness and the ease with which one can be in the natural world. Glenorchy has long been an end of road community. For the first 100 years of its existence it was only accessible by boat and in the last 50 years by an ever improving road. It is a strong community filled with hard working people who have chosen to live here because of the natural beauty of the region. It is not an easy life to live in Glenorchy but among its benefits has been the strength of the community that’s grown here and a shared vision of its future (as expressed in its community plan which is part of the Queenstown Lakes District plan). The proposed tunnel would change life at the Head of the Lake.
read more

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151031990566372.421763.10779081371&type

http://www.stopthetunnel.co.nz/  Photo revue

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Nature Ramble read an interesting piece in The Guardian, a nice piece and I want to share it with you here:.

A chit-chatter of English swallows...

Waltham Brooks, West Sussex: Some of the martins and swallows rise up the bank and, like miniature jets, fly around me at waist-height and shoot low over the marsh

Greatham Bridge at Waltham Brooks, September 2012. Photograph: Rob Yarham

Swallows and sand martins swirl over the river by Greatham Bridge in the evening sunshine. They swoop across the water, whirring and chit-chattering, feeding on the rising insects, preparing energetically for the long journey ahead. A swallow skims the water with its lower mandible to drink. Some of the martins and swallows rise up the bank and, like miniature jets, fly around me at waist-height and shoot low over the marsh. The grass glows yellow in the low sunshine but dark clouds are pushing in from the north. I walk on along the bank of Arun. It’s quiet apart from the swallows and martins and the calls of a few mallard.
Across the river, a pale common buzzard lets out a thin, high-pitched call. The alert heads of fallow deer rise up out of the tall grass, their ears twitching. They look around, wary and sniffing the air, but soon lower their heads to graze. The sun throws out its last shafts of red light, casting neon slashes across the river. The silhouette of a heron flaps its broad, slow wings in the grey sky. Mist is rising from the river, and is beginning to form on the slopes of the Downs.
A white, apparition-like barn owl moves over a distant field. It floats on its pale, butterfly-like wings, turning and fluttering. Suddenly it spins, lowers its talons and, wings raised, drops down, disappearing into the grass. The trees and shrubs have faded into black shadows and sheets of mist hang above the ground. The owl is close now, flying along the opposite side of the river, gazing intently at the ground as it hunts. It lifts up its head and looks at me, before turning to fly away. The grass is wet and dampness settles on my face and clothes. The calls of geese in flight pierce the gloom and a line of dark shapes, flapping and honking, moves over the trees before dropping into the mist. The geese splash on to the hidden water.


 

http://ecocrap.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/nature-ramble-18/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/13/chit-chatter-of-swallows-waltham-brooks-west-sussex

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NZ reportedly votes against protecting Maui and Hectors dolphins - an inane decision...

 

 

New Zealand was one of only two countries to oppose further protection measures for Maui's and Hector's dolphins at the world's largest conservation conference, it has been revealed.

The secret vote took place last week at the International Union for Conservation of Nature's conference in Korea, where government officials and environmental groups met to outline environmental policy goals for the next four years.
Some 117 countries and 460 organisations voted for New Zealand to ban gill and trawl nets in waters up to 100 metres deep.
Maui's and Hector's dolphins live only in New Zealand's coastal waters.
But New Zealand voted against the move, and in a statement told member countries the recommendation is not backed by scientific evidence.
The vote was revealed only after a Department of Conservation staff member told the congress that the Ministry for Primary Industries had instructed it to vote that way.
DoC has previously indicated that it does not approve of the ministry's dolphin protection measures.
Environmental groups and Opposition political parties say the New Zealand vote is outrageous.
Rebecca Bird, the World Wide Fund for Nature's marine spokesperson, says DoC and the ministry need to sort out their differences immediately.
"I think it's incredibly sad that the New Zealand Government perspective that's presented at a meeting like this where there is such an opportunity for New Zealand to be the conservation leader they've been known to be in the past.
"It's a lost opportunity and a real shame, and I really do feel for the people present having to carry the New Zealand Government's line on this."

This is an ongoing matter. I will update this here when further information is available. The New Zealand public supports the conservation of these and other endangered species. I cannot understand the New Zealand Government's inane decision. As said above, the Maui and Hectors dolphins live only in New Zealand coastal waters. It really tarnishs New Zealand's fine reputation in conservation matters.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/7711927/Dolphin-vote-tarnishes-NZs-reputation

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A river in NZ gets a legal voice...

The Whanganui River in New Zealand. Credit: James Shook, Wikimedia Commons

It speaks the language of riffles and babbles, not legal rights and codes, but the Whanganui River (formerly the Wanganui River), New Zealand’s third largest, has received something no other river in the country – and possibly the world – yet has: a legal voice.
In a framework agreement signed last week between the Crown and the Whanganui River iwi (the local Māori people), the river will be recognized as a person when it comes to the law, much the way a company is.
In one of New Zealand’s longest running court cases, the iwi won for the river the status of an integrated, living whole, Te Awa Tupua, with rights and interests. Two guardians, one appointed by the iwi and the other by the Crown, will protect those interests.
Coming four years after Ecuador’s new constitution granted legal rights to rivers, forests and other natural entities, the New Zealand agreement may give further impetus to the idea that nature has rights that should be legally protected, just as people do.
In most legal systems today rivers have no rights at all. In legal parlance, they lack “standing” – the ability of a party to bring a lawsuit in court based upon their stake in the outcome.
In 1972 legal scholar Christopher D. Stone argued in his famous essay, “Should Trees Have Standing?”, that rivers and trees and other “objects” of nature do have rights, and these should be protected by granting legal standing to guardians of these voiceless entities of nature, much as the rights of children are protected by legal guardians designated for this purpose.
Stone’s argument struck a chord with U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. That same year, Justice Douglas wrote a dissent in the case of Sierra Club v. Morton, in which he argued for the conferral of standing upon natural entities so that legitimate legal claims could be made for their preservation.
The river, Douglas wrote, “is the living symbol of all the life it sustains or nourishes—the fish, aquatic insects, water ouzels, otter, fisher, deer, elk, bear, and all other animals, including man, who are dependent on it or who enjoy it for its sight, its sound, or its life. The river as plaintiff speaks for the ecological unit of life that is part of it.”
As river after river runs dry and as more and more species lose their habitats and homes, the ethical implications of our water decisions beseech us to engage in this conversation.
A legal voice for rivers might sound extreme. But, really, what is more extreme than a river deprived of water?

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Note: Christopher Stone‘s essay was originally published as a law review article in 45 S. Cal. L. Rev. 450 (1972).
Sandra Postel is director of the Global Water Policy Project and lead water expert for National Geographic’s Freshwater Initiative. She is the author of several acclaimed books, including the award-winning Last Oasis, a Pew Scholar in Conservation and the Environment, and one of the “Scientific American 50.”

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/09/04/a-river-in-new-zealand-gets-a-legal-voice/

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Ozone hole reducing over NZ - CFC ban credited...

Protect our Green Planet, it's the only one we have!

 

 

 

Expand

A University of Canterbury atmospheric researcher this week revealed that New Zealand's ozone hole is shrinking for the first time in 30 years. Photo / Martin Sykes

A worldwide treaty banning aerosols 25 years ago averted a global catastrophe, New Zealand ozone layer scientists said yesterday.
Niwa scientists played a major role in creating the Montreal Protocol, signed a quarter of a century ago tomorrow and widely hailed as the world's most successful international environmental protection treaty which banned CFCs. The agency yesterday said that given New Zealand's location, world-class research scientists and instrumentation, its contribution to the treaty had been profound.
Niwa atmospheric scientist Dr Olaf Morgenstern, as well as other international scientists, has run atmospheric models for a non-intervention, no-Montreal Protocol scenarios.
It shows that at the end of the 21st century the ozone layer is nearly completely wiped out, bringing widespread skin cancer and food shortages.
"In this sense, the Montreal Protocol took effect just in time to avert a catastrophe," Dr Morgenstern said. Read more:

https://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&tab=mn

http://www.theozonehole.com/uptake.htm

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The ozone hole affecting NZ is slowly healing...

 

 

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University of Canterbury Antarctic expert Adrian McDonald, left, carries out a test in Antarctica as part of his research on how winds and circulation in the atmosphere impact ozone depletion

 

The ozone hole affecting the Antarctic and New Zealand is slowly healing.
University of Canterbury Antarctic expert Adrian McDonald said the recovery was due to a reduction of ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons substances, which had been largely banned worldwide.
McDonald said it was unclear when the ozone would return back to natural levels but it was expected to be after 2050.
Ironically however, ozone depletion may have protected Antarctica from the worst of greenhouse gas-related warming, he said.
"With the ozone recovery the future of Antarctic climate is less certain. Though the complex interactions in the atmosphere associated with climate change makes this region particularly hard to predict," McDonald said.
''The future recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole and increases in greenhouse gases are expected to have opposite effects on the winds and circulation in the southern hemisphere.
"The increasing ozone hole has until now acted to change the circulation of the southern hemisphere so that the strong winds linked to the jet streams have moved towards the pole.''
He said ozone recovery should act to move the winds back towards the equator.
The jet streams positions are one of the main things that help control the width of tropical and polar weather belts, McDonald said.

 

 Acknowledgements:    © Fairfax NZ News

http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/7645513/Ozone-hole-affecting-NZ-slowly-healing

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10th World Bamboo Congress and Bamboo Day...

 

10th World Bamboo Congress Host & Venue Announcement: KOREA 2015!

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With great excitement and with great pleasure,

the World Bamboo Organization announces the Official Hosts of the next

World Bamboo Congress:

Damyang-gun, South Korea / Summer 2015

For those present at the recent 9th WBC in Antwerp, Belgium, it may come as no surprise, although applications from several groups were received and the final decision was challenging. The South Korean delegation of Damyang-gun attending the 9th WBC came well-prepared with an introductory video and personal appeal of the County Governor, Mr. Choi Hyung-sik, inviting all to Damyang in hope of being selected as hosts for the 10th WBC; they are thrilled now with the realization that indeed we will come!
Damyang county is located in the southwest corner of South Korea, in Jeollanum-do. It enjoys a southern continental climate and temperate climate forest zone with high temperatures and precipitation in summer, providing ideal conditions for bamboo growth. The county has 1,797 hectares of bamboo forest equal to 25.5% of Korea’s total bamboo habitat. It is rural and scenic, far from the hectic city of Seoul, and very much worth the travel to get there, especially if you want to see bamboo forests!
Damyang has been home to bamboo craft for about 300 years and since 2003 promotes the development of “New Bamboo Products” as a means to boost the local economy. The “Bamboo Park” in the capital town of the county attracts approx. 1.3 million visitors annually.
Not only will the 10th World Bamboo Congress take place in Damyang. The city will host the “Damyang World Bamboo Exposition 2015″ for an entire month, from June 20th to July 19th 2015. This exposition will show ways to improve the value of bamboo on an international level under the slogan “Green future out of the bamboo forest”. The exposition will consist of a variety of exhibition halls including halls for ecology, history, science, construction and Green Development. The event will be complemented by several cultural programs and workshops and highlighted by the hosting of the 10th WBC.

Stay tuned for details, exact dates, program development and tour packages. Most importantly, SAVE THE DATES and plan to attend!

With best regards to all of you out there in the world of bamboo,

Susanne Lucas, Executive Director WBO

and

Michel Abadie, President WBO

http://www.weekendnotes.com/world-bamboo-day/

http://worldbamboo.net/

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Killer weeds spurn Roundup - Monsanto involved again...

Killer weeds spurn Roundup

Agriculture is facing a new threat in the form of weeds that have developed a resistance to the herbicide Roundup and its generic form, glyphosate. So far, the resistant weeds have not shown up in South Dakota, but are in neighboring Minnesota. One of the weeds that has quickly adapted to become resistant is pigweed, a common plant that is well known in the richer soils of South Dakota. Pigweed (right) can grow three inches a day to six feet tall and is so tough that it can damage farm equipment. Horseweed and giant ragweed are among the ten weeds which have developed a resistance to glyphosate.

The resistant strains of weeds have a gloomy portent for agriculture. Ninety percent of the soybeans grown in the U.S. are genetically modified (GM) to be resistant to Roundup, a herbicide that is applied to soil and kills all plants except the crops genetically modified to be resistant to it. Seventy percent of the corn and cotton grown in the U.S. are also such GM crops.

Roundup herbicide has had advantages for agriculture in South Dakota. It lessens the amount of work it takes to grow crops, it has changed the methods of farming to lessen erosion and toxicity problems. As an herbicide, it is much less dangerous and toxic than other chemicals and degrades without leaving much residual chemicals in the soil.

 

Read more:


http://northernbeacon.blogspot.co.nz/2010/05/killer-weeds-spurn-roundup.html

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