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Focus on environment
Californian redwood world's tallest tree
A redwood tree discovered in a remote California forest has turned out to be the world's tallest tree, edging out one nearby that had been the previous titleholder, a botanist said.
Humboldt State University Professor Steve Sillett said the record-setting tree, named Hyperion, is 115.5 metres tall, besting the previous record holder, the 112.9 metre-tall Stratosphere Giant.
Researchers exploring remote and rugged terrain in the Redwood National and State Parks along California's northernmost coast also discovered two other redwoods taller than the Stratosphere Giant, suggesting there had been many more massive ancient redwoods in the area, Sillett said.
Some of those taller trees may have fallen to loggers, while the remaining ones were saved by a logging ban when the Redwood National Park was expanded in 1978, Sillett said.
“What we have today is a few small remnants that suggest what these trees are capable of doing,” Sillett said.
The future of the Iraqi Marshlands
The Iraqi Marshlands are one of the world’s largest wetland ecosystems. By the time the former Iraqi regime collapsed in 2003, these Marshlands — with their rich biodiversity and unique cultural heritage — had been almost entirely destroyed.
Extensive ecological damage to this area, with the accompanying displacement of much of the indigenous population, was identified as one of the country’s major environmental and humanitarian disasters.
In 2001, the United Nations Environment Programme alerted the international community to the destruction of the Marshlands when it released satellite images showing that 90 per cent of the Marshlands had already been lost.
The project, Support for Environmental Management of the Iraqi Marshlands, managed by UNEP, is helping the Iraqi people to restore the marshlands and manage them in a sustainable manner, as well as providing safe drinking water and sanitation systems to marshlands communities lacking access to these basic necessities.
China’s largest lake may vanish in 200 years
China’s largest lake, holy to Tibetans but suffering from global warming and desertification, may vanish in two centuries even as the government pledges US$870 million to stop it shrinking, Xinhua news agency said.
Desertification had been brought about by overgrazing around Lake Qinghai, in the remote western province of Qinghai, which is at the crossroads of several bird migration routes across Asia and is about 360 km (220 miles) in circumference.
Overfishing has also reduced the catch of the unusual scaleless naked carp in the lake to just 10 per cent of what it was 40 years ago, Xinhua said.
Over the next 10 years the government has pledged 6.8 billion yuan (US$871.4 million) to address the lake's environmental problems.
Experts predict that if it continues shrinking at its present rate, the lake, which on average today is 18 metres (59 ft), could completely disappear in 200 years time.
Straw-bale construction
Straw-bale construction has slowly been catching on in the green-building set, but its positive performance in recent fire, durability, and eco-friendliness tests could take it to the next level.
The latest was an independent fire-resistance test, which proved that the material lives up to industry standards when it is covered with fire-resistant plaster in its use as a building insulator.
The test “opens the doors to every realm of construction” for straw bales, said funder Bruce King. Though there are no official stats, it is estimated that only a few thousand straw-bale buildings exist in the US, mostly single-family homes. But as the material proves itself, insurers are more and more likely to insure buildings made with it, and bankers more likely to fund construction with it, allowing schools, businesses, and other structures across the country to insulate with dried grasses instead of typical foam or that creepy, unnaturally pink fiberglass stuff.
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