The company says investments in forestry projects of approximately $15. 5 million during 2009 and 2010 will help provide offset credits toward its greenhouse gas emissions reduction mission during its fiscal year 2012.
BP scraps cellulosic ethanol plant plans Turning pine trees into jet fuel Wood chip-to-sugar maker scales up to replace oil and food crops
In forests there s a lot of fungi that are breaking down the compounds. So the mycelium from mushrooms you use that as a glue to hold together these agricultural byproducts?
and in tanks in the remote hills of the Panama rain forest. There is little chance they will escape into the wild,
Forest biofuel increases emissions, study saysthe biofuel industry has been seeing the forest for its cellulose,
In the Pacific Northwest, forest biofuel has been touted as a potential job creator, a means for achieving renewable energy targets,
this biomass even if just the woody scraps on the forest floor is the wrong way to go.
the researchers find that producing biofuel from forests would release 14 percent more greenhouse emissions than proceeding with current management practices.
because the forest re-grows and there's also the chance of protecting forests from carbon emissions due to wildfire.
However, our research showed that the emissions from these activities proved to be more than the savings.
Clearing forests of their underbrush, dead trees, logging remnants and fallen branches might also affect soil health, biodiversity and wildlife habitat.
The study, conducted over four years, covers 80 forest types within 19 different eco-regions,
such as coastal rainforests and the semiarid woodlands to the east. About 98 percent of forests in the study region of Washington
Oregon and California are considered carbon sinks. This means they hold more carbon than they naturally release into the atmosphere.
An OSU forestry professor tells the Seattle Post Intelligencer that in the long run, however, the biomass could still be better than burning fossil fuels.
when a forest faces the double whammy of standing in a high fire-risk zone and being weakened by drought or insect infestations,
would limit the forest s future growth and carbon-holding potential. Such forests would also be more likely to burn
and thus, release their carbon on their own. Just last month, the USDA granted a total of $80 million to University of Washington and Washington state University for next-gen biofuel research.
The projects will investigate the use of poplar plantations as a fast-growing feedstock as well as leftovers from forest thinning and construction sites.
if planters of feedstocks like palm, jatropha and camelina eradicate forests and grasslands, thus releasing the CO2 stored in those natural sinks.
it looked like it was in the middle of a jungle, and that it was magical and also a mess.
The U k's Forestry Commission is also on the case of the conifers. Not so merry berries.
detailed maps showing changes in forests over time. The platform, unveiled at the  International Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, could be used as a tool for nations to comply with the United nations-proposed REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) program
which would  require members to monitor the state of their forests and land use. Based largely on data from  the UK's Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change report,
the REDD program plans to offer money in exchange for the prevention of the destruction of forests deemed significant to curbing global climate change.
The concept: make the trees worth more as they are than cut down. Â According to the Stern report, keeping forests intact is one of the most cost-effective ways to cut carbon emissions.
We hope this technology will help stop the destruction of the world's rapidly-disappearing forests,
612,994 was granted to barcode inventors Norman J. Woodland of Ventnor, N. J. and Bernard Silver of Philadelphia on Oct 7, 1952.
And what of Woodland and Silver? Norman Joseph Woodland, according to Wikipedia, celebrated his 88th birthday on Sept. 6 Â
and got his idea in 1951 while daydreaming at the beach about morse code. As a mechanical engineer, he spent much of career with IBM
Norman J. Woodland Silver who died young in 1964 does not have his own Wikipedia page,
but was the one who first told Woodland that supermarkets were interested in machines that could automatically identify products at the checkout counter.
Both Silver (electrical) and Woodland earned engineering degrees from Drexel. Interestingly a search of barcodes at Drexel's site yields zero results,
but there's plenty about Woodland and a little on Silver. Follow me on Twitter
Google's new super headquarters open in London's Covent Gardengoogle s new super headquarters in London by designers PENSON may be home to some Union jack flag themes,
Timber flood boards make it smell fresh. The Allotments (for staffers to grow food) on the 9th floor of the building are made of little timber tubs.
Employees have to put their name on a waiting list to get their own, and if a lucky allotment-tender doesn't take proper care of their space,
Subsidies to irrigate forests are being eliminated, and concrete is gradually replacing plants and grass. Water-saving devices are required now in all new buildings
David Nowak, head of the U s. Forest Service's (USFS) Northeastern research unit, hopes to provide an answer.
so forestry operations or large farms, for instance. How much can biochar improve crop yields? There has been quite a bit of study on this.
Hydrogen fuel made from a tiny forest of nanotreeselectrical engineers at the University of California-San diego have built a forest of nanowire trees that use solar energy to turn water into  hydrogen  fuel.
From here, the nanotree forest is placed in another solution and exposed to sunlight. The vertical silicon structure absorbs the most of the light
India's poor most vulnerable to rapid biodiversity losshyderabad Â--Â India's poorest fishing, forest and farming communities will be worst hit by rapid losses of nature as well as efforts to conserve it.
and mining or being displaced by government policies to protect forests and coasts. This trend will play out across the globe.
Tribal villagers from the Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh state in central India are fighting against the expansion of coal mines near their forests.
Radha Kali, 42, said that for generations her community has survived on forest products like  tendu  leaves that are used for making  beedis  and  mahuwa  flowers with medicinal properties.
We won't give up our jungle, she said. Everything will be destroyed. Tribal villagers said that jobs in coal mines are temporary
but forests are an eternal source of livelihood. Will they (mining company) guarantee jobs for generations to come,
a 60-year-old forest dweller. Negotiators from over 170 countries attended the two-week U n. meeting on biodiversity held every two years.
From April 2007 to March 2012,8, 734 development projects were granted forest clearance and close to half-a million acres of forest land was diverted for this purpose,
according to the latest figures of the Delhi-based  Centre of Science and Environment (CSE.
CSE also finds that this diversion is about 25%of all forest land diverted for development projects since 1981.
In his speech, Prime minister Singh mentioned that the  Forest Rights Act had been enacted to protect the rights of forest dwellers.
But in several instances legal safeguards of taking forest dwellers consent before acquiring their land are complied not properly with.
CSE's latest data also finds that 119 coal mining projects were given forest clearance during this period
diverting over 86,000 acres of forest land--the highest number cleared in any five year plan since 1981.
The industry side argues that such a board will boost investments by cutting out layers of bureaucratic red tape that slows down setting up of mega-projects that create jobs in rural hinterlands.
revealing which forests store the most carbonclick to enlarge Forest trees are renowned for their ability to store large amounts of carbon dioxide in their trunk and roots.
It's been estimated that the loss of forests contribute 15 to 20 percent of global carbon emissions,
and distribution of carbon stored in Earth's tropical forests. The accuracy of the map's information will allow nations to better manage greenhouse gases.
and Degradation program or REDD+can use the measurements to establish a monetary value for the carbon sequestered in forests.
This means incentives can be offered for countries to preserve their forests and invest in low-carbon development projects.
Prior estimates estimates were derived from a rudimentary process where researchers would manually measure the size of forest trees
This is because the structure of forests varies greatly, and the number of ground sites is limited very.
The data was rendered then into a visual representation that shows distribution of carbon stored in forests across more than 75 tropical countries.
The most obvious fact you'll notice is that the majority of carbon is stored in the extensive forests of Latin america.
The region holds half of all the carbon found within the world's tropical forests. Brazil's carbon stock alone, at 61 billion tons,
forests in the 75 tropical countries studied contained 247 billion tons of carbon, which is nearly 25 times the amount of carbon is released annually to the atmosphere from combined fossil fuel burning and land use changes.
topography and the history of human or natural disturbance of the forests, said Sassan Saatchi of NASA's Jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena,
and longevity of forests and how they contribute to the global carbon cycle and overall functioning of the Earth system.
ŠJungle Jack  and his animals are regular guests on The Late Show with David Letterman, Good morning America, Larry king Live, The Ellen Degeneres Show and The Maury Povich Show.
and take them into the woods? Â About half raise their hands. You can live in New york city
when forests and wetlands are destroyed to clear land to grow biofuel crops. And with ILUC added to the mix, it looks like some top biofuel crops are worse for the environment, in terms of carbon emissions, than crude oil.
The report focuses on the temperate broadleaf forest biome which is found on six continents,
According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Trust for America's Health, 27 percent of Georgia adults and a whopping 37 percent of its kids are obese,
Ardi lived 4. 4 million years ago in the woodlands of East Africa. She spent most of her time in the trees.
and tools and training systems so that we can train people that live out in the jungle areas,
But on land once under dense forest cover, then turned over to slash -and-burn agriculture and ranching,
the burning of household biofuels such as wood and manure. The third: agriculture, in the form of raising livestock, particularly methane-producing cattle.
and biomass burning--tropical forest fires, deforestation, prairie fires and so forth--emits smoke that blocks solar radiation. That's not to say smoke
the Green Index cooked up by outdoor apparel maker Timberland is pretty thorough. And established,
Timberland publishes its methodology on its Web site so that people can learn about and adapt the framework for their own uses.)
which right now is found on approximately 14 percent of Timberland's footwear. Apparently, that rating system will be used with ALL OF the company's products (that's 100 percent) by the end of 2012,
But Timberland doesn't think it should walk alone in eco-label land so it is working with the Outdoor Industry Association to create an industry-standard way of product footprinting.
In a press release talking about the plan, Timberland's senior manager of environmental stewardship, Betsy Blaisdell, says:
Individual efforts, like Timberland's Green Index, are good options for now, but to truly empower consumers,
From a corporate standpoint, Timberland has four major goals related to its corporate social responsibility program.
Second, Timberland is focusing on creating products that are recyclable. For example, at least two of its collections use
woods and prairie supporting 20 five-student workstations, kind of like a lab setup. Kids penned up in HGA's zoo school Other schools are based on museum planning,
as seen at schools like the Forest Park Elementary school in  Middletown, R i, . or the Duke School in Durham, N c. Another driver is the green building movement.
It's extremely difficult to replicate objects made in the 17th century using modern timber. They need to fell old growth trees of a certain dimension
and take the moisture out the traditional way, instead of drying the wood in a commercial kiln.
They must find carvers and joiners with the same skill level as imperial craftsmen. Then, they need to replicate the wear that comes with people sitting down with different amounts of force over a long period of time and the effects of exposure to light over several hundred years.
Photos from space show shocking income inequalitywhile pondering the striking correlation between wealth and forest cover,
The U s. Forest Service's urban and community forestry program has a laughable $900, 000 in the bank to disperse in grants.
The study s authors tallied total forest cover for 210 cities over 100,000 people in the contiguous United states using the U s. Department of agriculture s natural resource inventory and satellite imagery.
demand for forest cover increased by 1. 76 percent. But when income dropped by the same amount,
or so people who are still burning wood or dung. Not only are these people creating emissions of greenhouse gasses
Going from wood to coal took 200 years. And we still are not completely there!
there are still parts of the world where wood is the primary fuel source. We need to get started on our transition from fossil fuel burning
said Dr. James Marks, senior vice president and director of the Health Group at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. â Å Since the late 1970s,
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found the national childhood obesity rate has remained steady in recent years
of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said the encouraging signs should be greeted with cautious optimism. â Å We have to think of these as green shoots,
â Â said there is an â Å invisible forest health crisis â Â today the loss of forest and agricultural lands to growth and development.
what we term family forests folks who have a plot of land, from 10 acres up to what Rose Lane and
It taking a very long-term view of the land--sustainable forest management. Everything has a life cycle,
We all love using the wonderful forest products, but we have to manage that, keeping in mind what within the forest the songbirds, the wildlife.
Every forest is different So what involved in managing? It seasonal. In the south, you plant in the cold months,
from December through February, putting seedlings in the ground. This time of year I â â¢m just wrapping up prescribed burns.
and to discourage certain woody growths that are competing with the forest and not very helpful to wildlife.
Every person or entity engaged in forests will have different view. Let say we plant a forest today.
You put some Southern yellow pine in the ground, which is on a 60 to 70-year rotation.
and thin out the forest. It like weeding a garden. Then in another seven to 10 years you do a second thinning.
what we get from our forests, and people don really think about it. Sure, we get lumber materials to make schools, churches, homes, books,
and forests and nature sounds very peaceful and serene--and not very compatible with touring with the Rolling stones,
and can walk in the woods and hear the wind in the pines instead of honking horns, it a wonderful balance.
but sometimes riding through the woods you get ideas for a melody. I â Ëoem not so much of a lyricist.
But I do get ideas from certain sounds in the forests. And I am writing a new book now on sustainable growth,
the Sahara Forest Project proposes. The project combines existing technologies--such as the evaporation of saltwater to create fresh water
Sahara Forest Project
Salvaging biofuel from the West's pine beetle devastationmountain pine beetles have been ravaging western forests.
With poisoned sap, infected trees are left dry, red-needled, and dead. Many scientists suggest global warming could be exacerbating the infestations,
The company has found a way to produce biofuel from the dead wood that pine beetles have left in their wake.
The process must first pre-treat the wood's toxic sap, which can be harmful to the bacteria used in the fermentation process.
and forest products from healthy trees to make their biobutanol. Image: Stuffeyesee/Flickrvia: Green Car Congress
I know that sustainable forestry and related best practices that paper companies are using to minimize their impact are topics about
The latter item, of course, is the big one for Sappi Fine Paper Â. Miller said that to eliminate any arguments over any particular sustainable forestry certification,
That means that it will certified against the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) standards, Miller said.
We choose not to take a position. We let the customer decide, she said. Sappi Fine Paper   figures that only about 10 percent of the world's forests are certified.
In North america, that translates into about 485 million acres. Approximately 60 percent of Sappi Fine Paper  fiber is certified,
Michael Lefsky, has combined data from three NASA satellites to produce a global map of the height of the world's forests.
Knowing how tall the forests are will help scientists figure out how much carbon the trees can capture
Lidar can capture vertical slices of forest canopy height by shooting pulses of light at the ground
and observing how much longer it takes for light to bounce back from the surface than from the top of the forest canopy.
Since lidar can penetrate the top layer of forest canopy, it provides a detailed snapshot of the vertical structure of a forest.
The data Lefsky used for his map comes from more than 250 million laser pulses from ICESAT,
The new results show that temperate conifer forests--which are extremely moist and contain massive trees such as Douglas fir, western hemlock, redwoods,
In contrast, boreal forests dominated by spruce, fir, pine, and larch had canopies typically less than 66 feet.
Relatively undisturbed areas in tropical rain forests were about 82 feet tall, roughly the same height as the oak, beeches,
and birches of temperate broadleaf forests common in Europe and much of the United states. One puzzle Lefsky hopes to solve,
A senior scientist at the Jet propulsion Lab, meanwhile--Sassan Saatchi--is relying on Lefsky's data to create forest biomass maps.
the Beacon Food Forest will be the largest public food forest in the United states, according to the Seattle news website Crosscut.
and kid space full of thornless mini edibles adjacent to community gardening plots, native plant areas, a big timber-frame gazebo and gathering space with people barbecuing,
In a food forest, everything from the tree canopy to the roots is edible or useful in some way.
Nation's largest public Food Forest takes root on Beacon hill Crosscut Photo: Beacon Food Forest
Self-sculpting sand assembles itself into shapessandboxes will never be the same again. Picture this:
and Gilpin have developed, according to Robert Wood, an associate professor of electrical engineering at Harvard university. â Å Take the core functionalities of their pebbles, â Â Wood,
who directs Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory, told MIT News Office. â Å They have the ability to latch onto their neighbors;
 Researchers with the U s. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest and Southern Research Stations found that certain types of city trees may help lower property and violent crime rates.
Yes, according to research forester  Geoffrey Donovan. Working with colleague Jeffrey Prestemon, Donovan found that big, leafy,
Singapore to unveil world's first'mechanical forest'On June 29th, officials in Singapore will open to the public the world Â's first mechanical forest.
Located in in the Bay South garden, the one-of-a-kind park showcases a total of 18 man-made supertrees, massive structures towering as a high as 50 meters over the ocean bay.
The notion of an artificial forest feels like a sad commentary on how far removed from nature our societies have become.
For instance, there Â's a conservatory complex that houses a temperature-controlled flower dome and a replicated cloud forest.
They say thefts have been reported at bee farms across a wide area-from the New Forest in Hampshire to Whitby in North yorkshire.
since a company developing forest sensors that exploit this new power source. The UW team sought to further academic research in the field of tree power by building circuits to run off that energy.
"The institutions that are regulating the forests and natural resources were very strong, and in such areas, the roads were not affecting deforestation as we would expect."
conserve their water and forests, and establish local gardens, markets, businesses, and community-based food systems.
The policy effective immediately continues Disney commitment to responsible forest practices and conservation, and will be implemented in two phases.
and fiber sourced from Forest Stewardship Council-certified forestry operations Disney will work with non-governmental organizations to identify
and prioritize regions with poor forest management and high rates of deforestation. The Company will report its implementation progress on an annual basis. oethe paper policy is an example of how Disney conducts business in an environmentally and socially responsible way,
Disney will continue to solicit ongoing feedback as the policy is implemented. oewe commend Disney for adding its significant voice to the growing chorus of companies demonstrating that there no need to sacrifice endangered forests
The new policy continues Disney legacy of supporting forest and nature conservation. Over the last two decades, the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund has invested in conservation programs in 112 countries,
and work with villages to effectively manage critical forest habitats. Since 2009, Disney has invested also more than $27 million in forest carbon projects in the United states, Peru, Brazil, Democratic Republic of congo,
and China. oethe world forests are facing multiple pressures. Disney actions to better understand its paper usage
and supply chain send a positive signal that the company recognizes the seriousness of this issue said Ruth Nogueron, associate,
World Resources Institute. oethis is a welcome step that reflects Disney commitment to support responsible forest management
Produced by the nonprofit Forest Trends, the report is the second instalment of an inventory of initiatives around the world that are paying individuals
including wetlands, streams and forests that can capture, filter and store freshwater. Protecting watershed services Countries are seeking to protect watershed services-the benefits,
Forest Trends discovered watershed investment programmes in 29 countries, but a staggering 91 percent of the payments in 2011 took place in China.
said Nathaniel Carroll, one of the authors of the Forest Trends report, in an email to IRIN. oebut part of what we hope this report
Clearing tropical forests for grazing or palm-oil production releases large quantities of stored carbon into the atmosphere.
This upside-down perspective has led Germany (via subsidies) to spend more than $350 per ton CO2 avoided by mass harvesting of forests around the globe.
In its various forms, from sticks to pellets to sawdust, wood (or to use its fashionable name, biomass) accounts for about half of Europe renewable-energy consumption.
The process of making pellets out of wood involves grinding it up, turning it into a dough
200kg of CO2 for the amount of wood needed to provide 1mwh of electricity. This decreases the amount of carbon saved by switching to wood,
thus increasing the price of the savings. Given the subsidy of £45 per MWH, says Mr Vetter, it costs £225 to save one tonne of CO2 by switching from gas to wood.
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