If you are an artist and you are looking for Coachella VIP tickets and an opportunity to show your artwork to the world this is your chance!

TRASHed Coachella is searching the globe for the greatest artists in modern time to assist with redesigning recycling bins for Coachella

 2011. Since 2004, Coachella has hosted this interactive recycling bin art walk to help keep the festival grounds spotless and looking good.

Source and more info: http://coachella.com/event/sustain#Rec 

 Another great news is that the Recycling empty bottles initiative is back! and if you are attending Coachella Festival you just need to collect ten empty bottles and you will receive 1 bottle of water :D With this initiative you help to clean the place and recycle and also you are saving a lot of money because water is priceless in the middle of the desert :D

(Source: coachella.com)

Amazon drought, worst in 47 years

The Amazon’s 18-meter level on September was the lowest since 1963, disrupting transportation of food, fuel and medicines in northern Brazil. Growers in Brazil’s Southeast expect the drought will lessen output of the nation’s key commodities. Brazil is the world’s biggest producer of coffee, sugar and oranges. The prices of this products are increasing around the globe

The Amazon river and its basin functioning at half their normal capacity, when compared to the 2005 drought, it’s threatening rainforests, livelihoods, and entire populations as the maneuvering of supplies to river towns becomes extremely difficult.

There is enough water available to meet human need, but…

Although less than one per cent of water on the Earth is currently accessible for direct human use, there is enough water available to meet human and environmental needs. The challenge is to secure enough water of good quality in a way that doesn’t destroy the very ecosystems, rivers, lakes and aquifers, from which we take our water supplies.

We all live at the water’s edge, whether we are at the end of a pipe or at the bank of a river. We need water for our basic survival, for cultivating crops, for generating energy and for producing the goods that we use every day. However, the use of freshwater ecosystem service is now well beyond levels that can be sustained even at current demands and forecasts consistently suggest that demand for water will continue to rise in most parts of the world.

River fragmentation

Increased demand for water and hydroelectricity

Bye bye stromatolites, it was awesome having you here for the last 3.5 billion years

Chilean authorities recently approved a new mining project, Pampa Hermosa property of SQM. Pampa Hermosa project is going to extract iodine, sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate near the Pampa del Tamarugal, an oasis of life in the middle of the Atacama Desert.

Even though the project is located just 50 km from the coast, instead of utilizing treated seawater, they are going to extract water form the aquifers Salar de Llamara (Llamara salt flat) and Quebrada Amarga, the last one gives water to the Loa River, the most important in the region.

The Llamara salt flat is one of the last places on earth where stromatolites are still alive, and the only one where the government doesn’t protect them.

Argentina protects its glaciers

Environmental organizations and people in general in Argentina are celebrating the approval of a new law which restricts the extraction of minerals, oil and gas near glaciers, in order to protect these enormous freshwater reserves.

By a vote of 35 against 33 and 1 abstention, the Senate approved the bill to preserve glaciers and their surrounding areas last week. The President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner vetoed a similar but lees restrictive law in 2008, lawmakers close to her are assuring the public that this is not going to happen this time.

Solar cell production climbs to another record in 2009

Solar photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturers produced a record 10,700 megawatts of PV cells globally in 2009—an impressive 51-percent increase from the year before. While growth in 2009 slowed from the remarkable 89-percent expansion in 2008, it continued the rapid rise of an industry that first reached 1,000 megawatts of production in 2004. By the end of 2009, nearly 23,000 megawatts of PV had been installed worldwide, enough to power 4.6 million U.S. homes. Solar PV, the world’s fastest-growing power technology, now generates electricity in more than 100 countries.

Scientists say ozone layer depletion has stopped

The protective ozone layer in the earth’s upper atmosphere has stopped thinning and should largely be restored by mid-century thanks to a ban on harmful chemicals, the chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) which were used in refrigerators, aerosol sprays, and some packing foams.

Ozone provides a natural protective filter against harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun, which can cause sunburn, cataracts, and skin cancer as well as damage vegetation.

First observations of a seasonal ozone hole appearing over the Antarctic occurred in the 1970s and the alarm was raised in the 1980s after it was found to be worsening under the onslaught of CFCs, prompting 196 countries to join the Montreal Protocol. “The Montreal Protocol signed in 1987 to control ozone-depleting substances is working, it has protected us from further ozone depletion over the past decades,” said Len Barrie, head of research for the World Meteorological Organization. “Global ozone, including ozone in the polar region, is no longer decreasing but not yet increasing”.

Dams in Amazonia, an interactive map

Containing 60% of the world’s remaining tropical rainforests, the Amazon is an area of immense biodiversity. Known as the “lungs of the planet” the Amazon rainforest plays a critical role in regulating the climate not only of South America, but parts of North America as well. The region is inhabited by nearly 30 million people, including thousands of indigenous tribes and river bank communities whose lives depend directly on the waters of the Amazon River and its tributaries.