photo

(quote)  read more »

(quote)

Jan. 22, 2012 - Solar storm sparks dazzling northern lights
NASA observed a flare Sunday night at 11 p.m. EST Jan. 22, 2012, shows a solar flare erupting on the Sun's northeastern hemisphere, the strongest solar storm in more than six years, bombarding Earth with radiation with more to come. The biggest concern from the speedy eruption is the radiation, which arrived on Earth an hour later and will likely continue through Wednesday. It's mostly an issue for astronauts' health and satellite disruptions. It can cause communication problems for airplanes that go over the poles. Scientists have been expecting solar eruptions to become more intense as the sun enters a more active phase of its 11-year cycle, with an expected peak in 2013.  read more »

What's wrong with us? Who are we to stand by and watch the brutal clubbing of flawless and faultless beauty - seals: creatures of Nature, children of Snow? From StopTheSealHunt: "Sadly, in Canada close to 300,000 poor, defenseless baby seal pups (most between 2 weeks and 3 months of age) are brutally murdered every year in the annual, government-sanctioned commercial seal hunt - all for the sake of fashion, vanity, politics, money and greed. Many are even skinned alive while conscious. (What kind of heartless human being could even think of doing such a thing!?)"

(quote)

Meet the incredible smiling seal!  read more »

*Update Nov. 6, 2011 - "Brazil's Senate passed a landmark reform of the country's land law on Dec. 6, 2011... could spark a new wave of deforestation in the Amazon region"

(quote)

These are among the most beautiful photographs ever taken - and the ugliest: aerial images show the damage caused by industrial pollution, but they also capture the striking vivid colours created by toxic waste. "Red mud" bauxite waste from aluminium production containing significant amounts of heavy metal contamination, in Darrow, Louisiana.  read more »

(quote)

Palestinian children stand to form Pablo Picasso's Dove of Peace as part of a project by British aerial artist John Quigley and the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), at the foot of the Mount of Temptation in the West Bank city of Jericho November 25, 2011. It took some 1000 children from United Nations schools to create the project produced as part of the "Peace on Earth" project, a global musical prayer for peace which will be broadcast globally from Bethlehem's Manger Square on Christmas day, a U.N. press release said.

Palestinian pupils at UN schools form group image as dove of peace
25 November 2011 - Hundreds of children from United Nations-run schools in the Jericho area of the occupied Palestinian territory today created a massive aerial image jointly with the renowned artist John Quigley to send out a peace message to the world.  read more »

Robin Williams with dolphins in the wild

The historical origins of ‘whales as people’. In 1850, an anonymous letter, now known to have been penned by a Nantucket whaling captain, written in the voice of a polar whale pleading for it’s species survival, was published in the Honolulu Friend, stating:
I write in behalf of my butchered and dying species. I appeal to the friends of the whole race of whales. Must we all be murdered? Must our race become extinct? Will no friends and allies arise and revenge our wrongs?"

(quote)

Wildlife photographer Dafna Ben Nun braved temperatures of minus 2 degrees to photograph the beautiful creatures in the White Sea, north-west Russia. The white beluga whales - which weigh around 3,000 lbs and measure up to 12 foot long - can be seen amazingly blowing water jets from their mouths.  read more »

(quote)

This powerful image of two vulnerable children living on what seems like the very edge of survival has won Chan Kwok Hung from Hong Kong the title of Environmental Photographer of the Year 2011.

The photographer says: "The photo was taken in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal and is of two children who lived nearby to the junkyard with their grandmother. Every day they searched the junkyard for something useful that they can resell for money so they can buy food. If they don't find anything their grandmother blamed them seriously. Unfortunately, they had found nothing for a few days, the little boy felt very hungry. I gave them some money and a biscuit after taking this photo. But who knows who will help them afterwards."

(unquote)

Photo Gallery: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2011 award winners

Photos courtesy Chan Kwok Hung / EPOTY.ORG / Barcroft Media

(quote)
Temple of Water  read more »