Top scientists join calls to save threatened red gum forests

Sydney Morning Herald reports

MORE than 50 leading scientists from around Australia have written to the Premier, Nathan Rees, asking him to protect the iconic Riverina red gum forests by creating huge national parks in south-western NSW and increasing the flow of water to them from the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers

The letter, signed by 57 scientists, warns that the red gum forests and their wetlands are in poor health. It says the Government needs to ”act swiftly to hasten the much-needed repair and protection of these precious river red gum wetland forests by protecting them in new parks and reserves”.

Read the full article at the SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald – Top scientists join calls to save threatened red gum forests

Suburbs stop growing due to housing bust

USAToday reports

The recession and housing collapse have halted four decades of double-digit growth for nearly half of the nation’s biggest rapidly expanding suburbs.

Twenty-four of the 53 cities of 100,000 or more that grew by at least 10% every decade since 1970 lost population in the last two years.

SOURCE: USA Today – Housing bust halts growing suburbs


Ecological Agriculture: can it feed the world?

The latest edition of the Monthly Review (November 2009, Volume 61, Number 6) includes a paper from Jules Pretty is professor of environment and society at the University of Essex, UK. titled Can Ecological Agriculture Feed Nine Billion People?

Below is an extract from the paper

Something is wrong with our agricultural and food systems.Despite great progress in increasing productivity in the last century, hundreds of millions of people remain hungry and malnourished. Further hundreds of millions eat too much, or consume the wrong sorts of food, and it is making them ill. The health of the environment suffers too, as degradation of soil and water seems to accompany many of the agricultural systems we have developed in recent years. Can nothing be done, or is it time for the expansion of an agriculture founded more on ecological principles and in harmony with people, their societies, and cultures?

Read the full paper at the [SOURCE: MonthlyReview - Can Ecological Agriculture Feed Nine Billion People?]

Architecture organisations join in “Call for Action” in Copenhagen

Emirates Business 24/7

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has joined the Australian Institute of Architects, Architecture Canada and the Commonwealth Association of Architects (37 countries) to deliver a 15-point ‘Call for Action’ at next month’s United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen (COP15, December 7-18). They aim to lobby world leaders to deliver an effective international response to climate change.

SOURCE: Emirates Business 24/7 – Riba to play up role of architects in Copenhagen

What can you do? Push your landscape professional organisation to make a press release or submission
before or during the COP15 – Copenhagen.

Send 150 character greetings to world leaders through the official UN website that will be shown at COP15 venue

Submit a video to Raise Your Voice on YouTube

For the Australian Institute of Architects Press Release about COP15

Continue reading Architecture organisations join in “Call for Action” in Copenhagen

College students are flocking to sustainability degrees, careers – USATODAY.com


Image SOURCE: Flickr – davidsilver

USATODAY.com reports

Students interested in pursuing a job in sustainability now can choose from a variety of “green” degree programs.

With an increased interest in the environment and growth in the “green collar” job sector, colleges and universities are beginning to incorporate sustainability into their programs………

Read the full article at the SOURCE: USATODAY.com – College students are flocking to sustainability degrees, careers

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