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Posts Tagged ‘conservation’

Nicole Hughes August 8, 2008 | 10:47 am EST
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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

35 Million Tons of Toxic Stew by Wendy Cohen

“Waterboard Thrill Ride” Opens At Coney Island by Blair Golson

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Nicole Hughes:

Green Summer Music Tours Not To Be Missed

Eat Your Veggies: Quit Composting in the Fridge

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Andy Kondrat:

Almost Half of Earth’s Primates In Danger of Extinction

Beijing’s Pollution Not Gone, Just Moved Outside of Town

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Jon Popham:

GOP: Drill More Oil Or We’ll Shut Down the Government

Global Warming’s “Sausage Fest” Effect

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Gina Telaroli:

Olympic Flag Bearer for the US: A Champion of  Darfur

Time to Act: Sexual Assault and Women in the Military

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I think we were all relatively sure that primate populations around the globe were somewhat in trouble, but a couple days ago a team of experts stated that almost half of all primate species are in danger or extinction, many of them literally being hunted out of existence.

The study, issued by Conservation International, the IUCN wildlife network, and the International Primatological Society (apparently “primatological” is a word now), has found that 90% of species in Vietnam and Cambodia are in serious danger of extinction, where the problem is the worst. From the article on msnbc.com:

‘We’ve raised concerns for years about primates being in peril, but now we have solid data to show the situation is far more severe than we imagined,’ Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and chairman of the primate specialist group at the IUCN wildlife network, said in a statement announcing the findings.

‘Tropical forest destruction has always been the main cause, but now it appears that hunting is just as serious a threat in some areas, even where the habitat is still quite intact,’ he added. ‘In many places, primates are quite literally being eaten to extinction.’

You can takepart to learn more about primates and their endangeredness from Conservation International.

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Jon Popham August 6, 2008 | 3:21 pm EST
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It’s time to set the record straight: Properly Inflated Tires Save Gas. There’s been a large amount of petty political posturing over this embarrassingly simple fuel efficiency technique recently, with John McCain’s Presidential campaign attempting to mock Barack Obama for including it in his energy plan.

So now that we’ve heard the spin, what are the facts?  Properly inflated tires across this country when coupled with regular service and tune ups could save between 3% and 4% of all the gasoline consumed in the United States per year.  When compared to the recent Republican gimmick policy initiative demanding more drilling off of U.S. coastlines which will net, at most, 200,000 barrels of oil per day, which is at most 1% of US gasoline demand, five to ten years from now, it’s pretty clear which solution makes more sense.

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The new trailer for City of Ember is out and since I know how much everyone here at TakePart likes Dystopian Cinema I thought I’d go ahead post it:

The film stars Bill Murray and everyone’s favorite actor/activist Tim Robbins:

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Is it the world, or an apple?We over at the blog section here have mentioned before our appreciation of flickr, the photo-hosting site.  Now, at it again for a good cause, flickr has teamed up with World Environment day (happening June 5, in case you hadn’t marked your calendar), and is asking you (yes, YOU) to upload your pictures that have to do with the event.  From the flickr website:

World Environment Day is June 5 and we invite you to share photos that celebrate environmental awareness. This year’s World Environment Day focuses on climate change and low carbon economies and the host for this year’s UN event is Wellington, New Zealand.

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UK Residents waste $20 Billion worth of food every year, The Guardian reports. A new British Government study on waste has found that Britons are simply throwing away $20 Billion worth of food that could have been eaten. If you’ve sampled certain British cuisine, this might not come as much of a surprise, but the negative effect this enormous amount of waste has on the environment is no joke.

Approximately $12 Billion of the total comes from food that is bought but never touched. Britons simply toss out 13 million unopened yogurt containers, 5,500 untouched chickens and 440,000 un-nuked TV Dinners each year. The rest of the $20 Billion comes from excess food which is prepared to eat but never consumed because the amount was misjudged and the extra is never eaten as leftovers.

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The Brooklyn Flea is reviving an endangered species in New York City: the affordable flea market with worthwhile merchandise. In keeping with the regional residential real estate market, the decent, affordable flea market has been priced straight off the Isle of Manhattan and has found a new home in Brooklyn.

Organized by the good folks at the Brownstoner blog, the Brooklyn Flea turns the schoolyard of Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene, Brooklyn into an outdoor bazaar filled with both new and previously owned clothing, furniture, arts, crafts, knick-knacks, books and other media. Plus there’s plenty of food concessions for when your stomach starts growling after a morning filled with hardcore shopping.

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As I mentioned yesterday, thegoodhuman.com is a great site to pick up some tips on how to help your wallet and the environment at the same time. I got so excited about the site that I decided to go straight to the source and speak with David, the founder and curator of sorts of thegoodhuman.com. The interview, after the jump.

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Jon Popham April 30, 2008 | 10:00 am EST
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Cindy Crawford has had an Eco-Awakening. The supermodel will now be writing a Green Beat blog about the environment on Vanity Fair’s VF Daily website. The former host of MTV’s “House of Style” admits she’s “no Al Gore” but rather hopes to be viewed as your typical working mother with children, concerned about their wellbeing and the future of the world they will inhabit.

Indeed, Crawford tells her “eco-awakening” started as a direct result of her children who attend a very environmentally aware school and made a habit of giving their mother guilt trips over unsound environmental practices around the home. She started by making little changes, one step at a time, like unplugging electrical items like toasters, television sets and cell phone chargers when not in use. Then she made the switch to recycled paper products (sans toilet paper) for her home paper needs–and now she’s considering buying the recycled T.P. after all. Lastly she looked into water filtration systems for the home in order to switch from wasteful plastic bottled water to tap. She started using a PUR filtration system at home and is now working with the company to design a reusable aluminum bottle for a program called “Thirsty for Change”.

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Yes, there’s gloating galore in our Mac-happy household over the news that “even the briefest exposure to the Apple logo may make you behave more creatively,” according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. No wonder we are just bursting with ideas that our cramped Manhattan apartment can barely contain; we’ve got more Macs per capita than you’ll find anywhere outside of an Apple store. My Mac consultant husband Matt would put one in the bathroom if I let him, which I won’t, because that’s my one tech-free haven in our hyper-wired world.

The study, conducted by researchers at Duke University and the University of Waterloo, Canada, found that even a split-second glimpse of the iconic Apple logo is enough to inspire folks to “think different” :

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