Wednesday, May 28, 2003

WWF-Canada releases new report: The Nature Audit   Source of News Article: http://www.wwfcanada.org/en/news_room/default.asp Note that the actual nature report can be downloaded from: http://www.wwfcanada.org/AboutWWF/WhatWeDo/TheNatureAudit/TheNatureAudit.asp?page=0.1 "WWF-Canada releases new report: The Nature Audit sets conservation priorities for the 21st century Toronto: May 26, 2003 World Wildlife Fund Canada (WWF-Canada) is today releasing a groundbreaking report that audits the state of Canada’s efforts to conserve biodiversity. In doing so, the organization has identified an urgent and growing nation-wide need to protect, manage and restore the nation’s natural capital. “The Nature Audit reveals that many Canadian species and habitats are declining,” says WWF-Canada President Monte Hummel. “To use a financial analogy, we’re not protecting our savings, we’re not spending wisely enough, and we’re badly overspent in some parts of the country. That is having a real and measurable impact on nature’s bottom line.” The Nature Audit is an innovative approach for the conservation community. No organisation – or government – has ever produced such a comprehensive estimate of the cumulative impact our activities are having on both wildlife species and their habitats. The Nature Audit graphically illustrates the extent of this human footprint and presents a regional look at how it is impacting the state of Canadian biodiversity. It also tells some positive stories of leadership being shown by governments, business, First Nations and conservation groups to soften our impact on nature – approaches that must become more widely adopted for Canada to meet its international obligations. Kevin Kavanagh, Director of Biodiversity Conservation Reporting, led a team of scientists to conduct The Nature Audit. “By undertaking the audit,” he says, “WWF-Canada has assumed the role of an independent watchdog to measure how well Canada is fulfilling its commitments to conserve biodiversity and to protect its natural capital. As a result of this report, we are now in a better position to identify where resources must be more efficiently directed to address existing and growing areas of conservation concern. These include everything from newly arriving invasive species, such as West Nile virus, emerald ash borer and European green crab, to additional losses of economically vital natural resources, such as fisheries. Kavanagh and his team used a ‘state-pressure-response’ model in The Nature Audit to: 1) Measure the long-term changes in the abundance and distribution of 1,400 species (from whales to butterflies to orchids) and numerous habitats (from forests to grasslands to tundra) across Canada by comparing their current and historic states; 2) Estimate the human footprint or pressure that Canadians are exerting on nature (e.g., impacts attributable to pollution, urbanization, forestry, fisheries, aquaculture and other industrial activities), including the critically important cumulative impacts these measures are having on nature; and, 3) Audit what government, industry and others are doing to meet regional conservation needs in Canada – from protecting nature in advance of development, to restoring degraded habitats and preventing the arrival of invasive species, which can create significant economic and health costs. The Nature Audit concludes with priority conservation actions for the 21st century. Among the ‘bottom-line’ messages in the report: the need to take advantage of remaining ‘conservation-first’ opportunities in Canada’s North, a significant increase in attention to marine conservation issues, and the urgent need for a national plan to prevent invasive species from entering Canada. The Nature Audit will be released every two years. In the interim, WWF-Canada will work with governments, industry, First Nations, conservation partners and others to lighten our footprint on nature. Failing to do so will diminish the natural capital needed by future generations of Canadians." 10:27:48 PM

	Tuesday, May 20, 2003

High Tech Meets Bushman I posted a fascinating story with links about how a researcher in southern Africa has managed to equip Bushman with high technology that may revolutionize biodiversity monitoring. And at the same time invented a new category of software called "Greenware", and set up a global not-for-profit conservation organization in the process. If this appeals to you, check out the story on this topic at: http://blogs.salon.com/0001455/stories/2003/05/20/cybertracker.html 10:00:59 PM

	Wednesday, May 14, 2003

Fishing Has Decimated Major Species, Study Says. Industrial fishing practices have decimated every one of the world's biggest and most economically important species of fish, according to a new and detailed global analysis that challenges ... [news.google.com / Scitech] 9:03:26 PM

	Monday, May 12, 2003

Bless Good Design re RadioUserland As I desribed in a previous post, my poor computer suffered from one too many MS security updates. The last one resulted in an unbootable doorstop for a computer. So after a couple of weeks on downtime, I added a second hard drive, installed the operating system again on it, then made the old drive a slave. All with the hope that I could simply copy the RadioUserland program directory from the old drive, to the new one. Well, so far it seems to be working perfectly , with no orphaned links, etc so this will be my second post via the rescued Userland app and database. Whew!!!! So far so good, re copying to the new drive, and loading the app. Good job Radio Userland!!!!!!!! 5:24:59 PM

I'm Back after suffering from a MS security update that wrecked havoc with my computer, making it a glorified doorstop. Than one conference to prepare for and then a training workshop. I have finally, after installing a second hard drive, been able to resurrect my computer and my blog. I hope, here goes with my first post in 2 wks or more.   5:16:34 PM

	Monday, April 21, 2003

Talk on technoutopianism from the WELL to the Long Boom. On April 11, Fred Turner gave a talk to a Stanford seminar on People, Computers and Design on the rise of techno-utopianism as represented by Wired and the Whole Earth projects. Brian sez: He starts the talk deconstructing the infamous LONG BOOM cover of WIRED. He traces the WIRED "techno-utopianism" back to the WELL community and all the way back to the original Whole Earth Catalogs. Link Discuss (via Brianstorms) [Boing Boing Blog] 9:57:12 AM

From David Fletcher's blog: Another very interesting eGov application is the Utah Conservation Data Center Interactive Map.  This service, which is hosted on the AGRC ArcMIS server. lets you explore data such as threatened species habitats. 9:50:40 AM

	Thursday, April 17, 2003

Canadian polluters worse than in U.S., report says [The Globe And Mail: National] 6:30:26 PM

After a Long Climb, Cyberchat on Everest. Members of an Everest climbing expedition must pay $2,500 to use four laptops and an Internet connection during their stay at base camp. By Nancy Gohring. [New York Times: Technology] 7:02:09 AM

	Tuesday, April 08, 2003

Apes close to extinction. ABC Online - Chimpanzee and gorilla numbers in their last African stronghold have crashed over the past 20 years due to commercial hunting for 'bushmeat' and an epidemic of Ebola fever, a disturbing new report has found. Ebola Spurs Fears of Looming Ape Extinction National Geographic Gorillas and chimpanzees 'in danger of extinction' Straits Times The Statesman - Nature.com - Scientific American - New Scientist - and 132 related » [Google Technology News] 7:27:31 AM

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