International Year of Biodiversity declared by UN

This year we have a unique opportunity to share our knowledge of Earth’s biological diversity and encourage contributions to its conservation. The United Nations has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity. Scientists and conservation practitioners from around the world have been working with their local and national governments to educate the public on species, ecosystems, and ecological processes. Our goal is to ensure significant advances in conservation policy that protect resources fundamental to human well-being are met in 2010.

To celebrate this year, Conservation Biology has created 3 FREE Virtual Issues. Read them here:

 

Compliments of Wiley – Blackwell publishers

 

 

Connectivity and Corridors
Articles address phenomena and actions that affect movement of genes, organisms (including humans), and ecological processes. Articles also emphasize the influence of social and economic context on maintenance of connectivity.
 

 

Climate Change
Articles highlight research in all conservation sciences – social, biological, and physical – that may reduce uncertainty about the potential effects of alternative management and investment decisions on diverse conservation targets.
 

 

Conservation Social Science
Articles emphasize the necessity to change human behavior in order to achieve the vast majority of conservation objectives. Diverse societal structures and processes are relevant to conservation of Earth’s biological diversity.

 

Ecological Society of America — experts database

"Ecological Society of America offers search facility in database of experts – 05 Apr 2010

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) has unveiled its updated resource for policymakers and members of the media. The Rapid Response Team (RRT) database, an ESA resource for several years, has now been made fully searchable. Users can find ecological scientists who specialise in a variety of fields, including climate change, invasive species, urban ecology, conservation and biofuels, or can locate an RRT member by name, affiliation or keyword.

Members of the RRT seek to provide on-call ecological expertise in a variety of ways, such as serving as panelists in briefings for congressional staff; providing expert testimony to Congress; analysing the likely ecological consequences of proposed changes to environmental regulations; and providing scientific feedback for news stories.

ESA claims to be the world’s largest professional organisation of ecologists, representing 10,000 scientists in the US and around the globe. Since its founding in 1915, ESA has sought to promote the responsible application of ecological principles to the solution of environmental problems through its reports, journals, research and expert testimony to Congress. The Society publishes four journals and convenes an annual scientific conference."

Click here

Source: Knowledgespeak Newsletter 4/5/10

Google Earth News

Among the updates to Google Earth are the following:

New and updated imagery from Mars

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

3D building facades for 5 cities in CA, and now Philadelphia, Portland, Austin &  Chicago

From the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) is Climate Change Tours

Source: The Sightseer Newsletter | December 2009

Google Earth Sightseer Newsletter [googlearth@google.com]

 

“Climate engineering gets a green light”

The American Meteorological Society "is about to endorse research into geoengineering as part of a three-pronged approach to coping withclimate change, alongside national policies to reduce emissions.

New Scientist has seen the final draft of the American Meteorological Society‘s carefully worded position paper on geoengineering. The AMS is the first major scientific body to officially endorse research into geoengineering."

 So begins the article in this week’s New Scientist

 Source:  New Scientist [newsletter@email.newscientist.com]  22 July, 2009 

For similar stories, visit the Climate Change Topic Guide

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journal of Flood Risk Management — new journal

"Wiley-Blackwell launches Journal of Flood Risk Management06 May 2008

Wiley-Blackwell, the STM and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., US, has announced the launch of the Journal of Flood Risk Management. One of Europe’s leading experts in flooding and wastewater management, David Balmforth, Technical Director of MWH, will serve as Editor-in-Chief.

Published in partnership with the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), the journal seeks to provide an international forum for exploring the interactions between the diverse fields that comprise the management of flood risk worldwide. The first issue will publish in May 2008.

A quarterly publication, the Journal of Flood Risk Management will comprise peer-reviewed original papers, review articles, and editorials covering such areas as hydrology, coastal, storm and surge, climate change, modeling, infrastructure management, flood event management and disaster recovery, flood forecasting/warning, land use management/spatial planning, policy and legislation, uncertainty analysis and risk and health and social aspects of flooding. All articles will be free of charge for the first year of publication."
 

Source: Knowledgespeak Newsletter, May 6, 2008