Mexico Funds Will Protect Butterflies

President Felipe Calderon unveiled a sweeping plan Sunday to curb logging and protect millions of monarch butterflies that migrate to the mountains of central Mexico each winter, covering trees and bushes and attracting visitors from around the world.

The plan will put $4.6 million toward additional equipment and advertising for the existing Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, covering a 124,000-acre swathe of trees and mountains that for thousands of years has served as the winter nesting ground to millions of orange- and black-winged monarch butterflies.

Plastic carrier bags should be restricted for clean environment

BEIJING, Nov. 19 -- We find the trail of plastic "flags" lining our main railroads embarrassing. We hate to see plastic bags flying in our face on windy days, or those permanently stuck on tree branches.

Disposable plastic carrier bags we take home from shopping trips are a main source of such "white pollution". An obvious solution to it, therefore, is to reduce our use of such environmentally harmful packaging. This is both reasonable and simple.

Climate Panel Debates Warming Document

VALENCIA, Spain (AP) — A U.N. climate change conference argued over words and phrases Wednesday in drafting a scientific report that will guide governments for years to come on their global warming policies.

One dispute involving the U.S. delegation centered on whether human activity could lead to "abrupt or irreversible" effects on the Earth's climate, said participants in the meeting.

China needs to double ecology protection efforts in Three Gorges Reservoir area

Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan has urged the governments of Chongqing Municipality and Hubei Province to double efforts in treating geological disasters and protecting the ecology in the Three Gorges Reservoir area.

He was speaking during a field survey on the construction, operation and management of the world's largest water conservancy project launched in 1993 involving a budget investment of 180 billion yuan (22.5 billion U.S. dollars).

Claiming the project had brought benefits in flood prevention, power generation and shipping, Zeng said all enterprises participating in the project should beware of production accidents, improve production safety and produce local ecology.

Global warming hurts

There is now “visible and unequivocal” evidence of the impacts of climate change, and consensus that human activities have been decisive in this change: global average temperatures have risen by about 0.7°C since 1906.

A best estimate for this century’s rise is expected to be between a further 1.8°C and 2°C. Some scientists believe a 2°C increase in the global mean temperature above pre-industrial levels is a threshold beyond which the threat of major and irreversible damage becomes more plausible.

New eco-friendly cemetery opens

The first environmentally-friendly woodland burial site has been consecrated in the Forth Valley.

The new £40,000 cemetery in Killearn, in rural Stirling, will have 700 lairs and will not feature headstones.

Only coffins made of biodegradable material like cardboard and wicker will be used for burials.