News

RFQ - PBX System

Andre Dixon — Wed, 15 May 2013 07:55:00 -0400

Interested parties should click here to download the RFQ document.

The Green in Green Grotto

Pietra Brown — Wed, 01 May 2013 11:43:30 -0400

DISCOVERY BAY, St Ann — It's not its name nor its location in the lush surroundings of the garden parish that makes the Green Grotto Caves "green". The denotation refers to the attraction's environmental practices, which have seen it receiving the highest level of certification worldwide.

Last Friday, the attraction was presented with its Earthcheck Platinum plaque for maintaining and improving its green standards over the last 10 years.

Additional resources required for the Caribbean for climate stabilisation

Pietra Brown — Wed, 01 May 2013 11:03:24 -0400

WASHINGTON, USA -- A new book to be released this week estimates net additional costs of reducing emissions related to land use, energy and transport – the three main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

A ninety seven percent decarbonization of the power sector by 2050 would require $66 billion in net annual investments. Furthermore, reducing agricultural emissions by fifty percent by 2050 would have an estimated annual cost of $10 billion whereas a widespread electrification of the transport sector during the same timeframe is projected to involve an additional expenditure of $30 billion per year.

Bending the emissions curve to achieve climate stabilization goals by 2050 and prevent further damage and losses associated with climate change represents significant mitigation efforts affecting both land use and energy.

These efforts imply considerable changes in the structure of the region’s economies and patterns of natural resource use, a new book “The Climate and Development Challenge for Latin America and the Caribbean: Options for climate-resilient, low carbon development ” published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) reports.

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Reduce,reuse,recycle

Pietra Brown — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:09:10 -0400

ROBERT Pickersgill, minister of water, land, environment and climate change, has reiterated that parents and educators need to teach the younger generation the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling.

According to the minister, who was speaking at the 2013 Hope Zoo Earth Day & Fun Day in Kingston yesterday, Jamaica is at a crossroads where our children need to be fully educated on the benefits, advantages and disadvantages of preserving our environment.

"I want to make sure that we always have clean air, clean water and clean land, but we all have to work together to make that happen. Protecting our environment is about protecting where we live and being careful about how we live," Minister Pickersgill said during a rap and story session with over 300 students, parents and educators.

"To reduce the amount of garbage we make, we need to reduce, reuse and recycle. Reducing means cutting down the amount of garbage that we make; reusing means using something again before putting it in the garbage and recycling means taking things that we have finished using and make them into brand new things," he further stated.

Pickersgill also shared useful tips and explained to students that at least 20 years from now they would be the beneficiaries of the positive environmental acts they do today.

Ecover to turn sea plastic into bottles in pioneering recycling scheme

Pietra Brown — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:24:25 -0400

Ecover, the green cleaning brand, said on Thursday it will use plastic waste retrieved from the sea to create an entirely new type of sustainable and recyclable plastic bottle.

The Belgian company is working with plastic manufacturer Logoplaste to combine plastic trawled from the sea with a plastic made from sugar cane ('Plant-astic') and recycled plastic, in what it is calling a world-first for packaging. Products made from the packaging will go on sale next year.

But the company was unable to give details of how much plastic would be retrieved or what percentage of "sea plastic" would be used in the packaging.

Ecover chief executive, Philip Malmberg, said: "We won't have a definitive figure on the amount we will retrieve we are just hoping to get as much as is possible and give fishermen an incentive to join the initiative and help clean the seas. We want to get the sea waste in as much of our packaging as possible – it will always depend on the amount and quality of the plastic they have managed to fish."

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Trip advisor Green Leaders Program Highlights Eco-Friendly Hotels

Pietra Brown — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:35:20 -0400

NEWTON, Mass April 22, 2013 - TripAdvisor^®, the world's largest travel site, today announced the launch of its new TripAdvisor GreenLeaders - program, helping its community of more than 200 million travelers plan greener trips by highlighting U.S. accommodations engaging in environmentally-friendly practices. Developed in partnership with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR^® program, the U.S. Green Building Council, and the United Nations Environment Programme, qualifying hotels and B&Bs will be awarded TripAdvisor GreenLeaders status based on the green practices the property has in place.

How TripAdvisor GreenLeaders Works

The TripAdvisor GreenLeaders program considers a property's holistic approach to green practices and ranks them based on four levels of participation - Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum - which will be shown prominently on the property's listing on the TripAdvisor site. The more green practices a hotel has in place, the higher its TripAdvisor GreenLeaders level.

A comprehensive list of eco-friendly practices are evaluated, from linen and towel re-use, recycling and composting through to solar panels, electric car charging stations and green roofing. Accommodations that do not meet the requirements for TripAdvisor GreenLeaders, but do have the seven minimum green practices in place, will be awarded TripAdvisor GreenPartner status.

Travelers will be able to tailor their search on TripAdvisor for hotels participating in the TripAdvisor GreenLeaders program, and view a detailed list of environmentally-friendly practices that they can expect at each location. TripAdvisor's community of travelers will also be invited to comment on a hotel's green credentials following a stay at a participating property, and in the future their feedback will be displayed on the site.

Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson and Director of Communications, said, " The around $1 trillion a year global tourism industry can be a key catalyst in the transformation towards a green economy in developed and developing countries alike".

"Studies conducted by UNEP show that more than a third of travelers favour environmentally-friendly tourism. At the same time, global spending on sustainable tourism is estimated to increase at a higher rate than the industry average growth. By giving travelers better information on the availability and quality of eco-friendly accommodation the Greenleaders programme is meeting a growing demand for greener tourism and doing its bit towards a more sustainable century," he added.

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Puerto Rico creates an ecological corridor to protect leatherback turtles

Pietra Brown — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:25:40 -0400

After years of dithering

Leatherback turtles, which are rated "critically endangered

" on the IUCN's Red List, are finally getting a break (at least, let's hope this helps). After a 15-year fight between developers and conservationists, Puerto Rico's government has finally decided to side with the greens and create a protected zone on the island's coast to protect leatherbacks. Named the Northeast Ecological Corridor, the protected area is about 14 square kilometers (5.4 sq miles).

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Is the next mining boom on the ocean floor?

Pietra Brown — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:16:16 -0400

Defence behemoth Lockheed Martin’s recent announcement of a venture into deep sea mining (DSM) reflects growing interest in exploiting virgin mining territory.

In what is being described by some as a “deep sea mining bonanza”, the British arm of the US defence firm hopes to exploit rare earth minerals from the seabeds between Mexico and Hawaii. The announcement comes as the world’s first DSM project in PNG is mired in legal and financial strife and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is finalising a three-volume series detailing the potential social and environmental impacts of this new mining frontier.

Lockheed Martin’s exploration of a 58,000 square kilometre area of seabed, under the auspices of its wholly owned subsidiary, UK Seabed Resources, will adapt aerospace and underwater technologies to extract the resources from approximately four kilometres beneath the ocean’s surface. In a true story more plausible as a Tom Clancy novel, the area was identified as “mineral rich” during the depths of the Cold War, when Lockheed Martin used a ship owned by reclusive American tycoon Howard Hughes to search for a sunken, nuclear missile-laden, Soviet submarine. The lost sub search was carried out under the guise that Lockheed Martin was collecting polymetallic nodules — basically, rocks comprised of manganese and iron — from the ocean floor.

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11,000 baby turtles hatched in artificial nursery

Pietra Brown — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:30:51 -0400

OVER 11,000 turtles have been born in two artificial nurseries belonging to an an environmental group in Panama’s , Tonosí district.

The environmental group Cambutal Tortu-Agro campaigns for the conservation of about five species of the turtles.

In some areas of Panama turtle eggs are raided annually and sold.

According to the group's report, hatchling green turtle species and lora were born in two nurserieson artificial beaches located on the Cuchilla and Cambutal beaches in the Tonosí

district, where the reproduction of both species is protected.

The project for the conservation of marine turtles has received $25,000 in UN funds. It is organized by Cambutal Tortu-Agro, the Aquatic Resources Authority of Panama (ARAP) and the National Environmental Authority (ANAM)

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New diseases,Toxins Harming Marine Life

Pietra Brown — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:05:03 -0400

Christine Dell'Amore

National Geographic News

Published April 12, 2013

Part of our weekly "In Focus" series—stepping back, looking closer.

The dead sea otters arrived at Melissa Miller's Santa Cruz, California, lab with bright-yellow eyes and gums, their livers destroyed.

One by one, Miller, a marine-wildlife veterinarian, eliminated the potential causes of death until "the last thing I was left with seemed so implausible that I thought I was going crazy."

The otters had been poisoned by a "nasty toxin" called microcystin, which is produced by cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. Such toxins can appear when human sewage and fertilizers run into lakes and rivers, adding nutrients that spur the growth of algae "superblooms," Miller said.

But sea otters stick to the ocean, never entering the polluted lakes and rivers where these blooms occur.

"I said, OK, we have to figure out how the otters are getting into this," said Miller, of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the University of California, Davis.

Miller's sleuthing led her to California's Pinto Lake (map), a water body about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from the ocean and so prone to superblooms that Miller said "it'll blow your mind—it looks like fluorescent green paint."

Sure enough, she found that Pinto Lake eventually drains into the Pacific Ocean—close to where the dead otters were found in 2007.

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Human shadow cast over the Caribbean slows coral growth

Pietra Brown — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:22:55 -0400

PANAMA CITY, Panama -- Striking Caribbean sunsets occur when particles in the air scatter incoming sunlight. But a particulate shadow over the sea may have effects underwater. A research team, including staff scientist Héctor Guzmán from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, linked airborne particles caused by volcanic activity and air pollution to episodes of slow coral-reef growth.

Like tree rings, long-lived coral skeletons preserve a record of coral growth. Previously, scientists linked coral-growth patterns in the Caribbean to a phenomenon called the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation -- fluctuations in sea-surface temperatures and incoming sunlight.

In order to better predict the effects of climate change and human disturbance on reefs, Lester Kwiatkowski, University of Exeter, and researchers from the University of Queensland, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization and STRI analyzed coral-growth records from Belize and Panama spanning the period from 1880 to 2000. An Earth-system model simulation told them how well sea-surface temperature, short-wave radiation and aragonite-saturation state, a measure of ocean acidification, predicted changes in coral growth.

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Region's fisheries sector to gain from information and knowledge sharing

Pietra Brown — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:52:53 -0400

KINGSTOWN, St Vincent -- Under a Euro 30 million project funded by the European Union (EU) for projects to improve sustainable and equitable management of fisheries and aquaculture in Africa Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states, fisheries officials from CARIFORUM states are receiving training in the use of modern, cutting-edge, information and communication technology tools in their daily activities.

“The enhanced use of these modern communication and information sharing tools, such as video-conferencing, social networking, tools for online collaborative document preparation and editing, can result in significant cost savings, increased productivity and outputs, as well as boost the earnings and income of fishers, and improve competitiveness and profitability within the fisheries and aquaculture sector,” said Milton Haughton, executive director, of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) Secretariat, at the launch of a three-day regional training on information and knowledge sharing on sustainable fisheries management in the Caribbean.

Haughton described the regional training workshop, which opened on Monday and runs through to Wednesday, as “another significant milestone in our journey to transform the fisheries and aquaculture sector, and enhance its contribution to national economic development.”

He said that organizers are providing practical training which they hope will improve capacities and lead to greater integration of information and communication technology tools in all areas of the work of fisheries departments and other fisheries organisations in the region.

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Jamaicans celebrate Earth Day

Pietra Brown — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:32:05 -0400

Earth Day was observed around the world on Monday, April 22. Here are scenes of some of the ways Jamaicans celebrated.

Regional countries agree to biosphere reserves

Pietra Brown — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:50:00 -0400

ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC) - Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries are among several nations committed to a ministerial declaration and a three-year action plan that aims, among other things, to create at least one biosphere reserve in each Caribbean small island developing state.

Biosphere reserves, as described by UNESCO, are terrestrial and coastal areas that promote sustainable development and act as learning sites where new and optimal practices to manage nature and human activities are tested and demonstrated. They consist of protected zones which are restricted to human interference; a buffer zone where limited human activity is permitted, and a transition zone where greater activity is allowed. They have three main aims: conservation, economic development, and research and education.

Alarm over vanishing frogs in the Caribbean

Pietra Brown — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:32:19 -0400

PATILLAS, Puerto Rico (AP) — A curtain of sound envelops the two researchers as they make their way along the side of a mountain in darkness, occasionally hacking their way with a machete to reach the mouth of a small cave.

Peeps, tweets and staccato whistles fill the air, a pulsing undercurrent in the tropical night. To the untrained ear, it's just a mishmash of noise. To experts tracking a decline in amphibians with growing alarm, it's like a symphony in which some of the players haven't been showing up.

In parts of Puerto Rico, for example, there are places where researchers used to hear four species at once and they are now hearing one or two, a subtle but important change.

"You are not hearing what you were before," said Alberto Lopez, part of a husband-and-wife team of biologists trying to gauge the health of frogs on the island.

Scientists report that many types of amphibians, especially frogs, are in a steep global decline likely caused by a mix of habitat loss, climate change, pollution and a virulent fungus. The downward spiral is striking particularly hard in the Caribbean, where a majority of species are now losing a fragile hold in the ecosystem.

Without new conservation measures, there could be a massive die-off of Caribbean frogs within 15 years, warned Adrell Nunez, an amphibian expert with the Santo Domingo Zoo in the Dominican Republic. "There are species that we literally know nothing about" that could be lost, he said.