Increased demands on agriculture mean land use patterns are changing, often resulting in loss of wetlands.

Globally, agriculture accounts for about 10% of all human greenhouse emissions--mostly released through methane and oxides of nitrogen. There is a rising population with increasing demand for food, and in particular meat, meaning increased agricultural land use and more emissions from cattle. Increased demands on agriculture mean land use patterns are changing, often resulting in loss of wetlands.

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Helping Businesses Compete

Mercosur-BIOTECH. The EU supports the development of biotechnologies in mercosur countries with 6million to facilitate and promote technology transfer from the academic to the private sector; establish regional coordination; and define and implement a regional strategy for the biotech sector.
Food Traceability. The EU’s 2 million investment facilitates Chilean compliance with international food safety and traceability standards, benefiting both European and Chilean consumers and preventing possible technical barriers to trade.

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Biodiversity simply means diversity of species, ecosystems, and genes. We depend on biodiversity for food, medicines, clothing, fuel and building material, mental and spiritual welfare, and in short for our survival. Biodiversity is declining worldwide due to anthropogenic reasons like intensive farming, land abandonment, pollution, and other environmental changes, although this is useful in buffering extreme climatic events like drought, flood, and fire.  Extreme weather is becoming common due to   accumulation of greenhouse gases.  Biodiversity loss increase effects of climate change by reducing ecosystem ability to maintain carbon dioxide level. Humankind lives on earth as a part of nature. Nature is a gift that needs to be cherished. Ecosystems services are provided free of cost and needs immediate consideration to change our attitude towards ecosystems, the organisms they harbour, and the consequences of the present trends of ecosystem deterioration.

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Across the country there is wide variation in use and price for water consumption in major urban areas, with residential rates being lowest in the Great Lakes region, according to a Circle of Blue survey.

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Six million children in Ethiopia are at risk of acute malnutrition following the failure of rains, the UN children’s agency, Unicef, has warned. More than 60,000 children in two Ethiopian regions require immediate specialist feeding just to survive, Unicef says. The situation is expected to worsen in the next few months as crops fail.

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Scientists have discovered the ancient fossils of sea sponges which could push back the existence of animal life on Earth by 90 million years.

The tiny fossils measuring up to one centimetre across lived in ocean reefs off south Australia and were discovered in rocks dated at between 640 and 650million years old.

The remains, found by a team led by geologist Dr Adam Maloof, of Princeton University, are the oldest fossils left behind by the bodies of primitive early animals.

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Washington, Growing estimates of natural gas resources suggest that supplies of this least carbon-intensive fossil fuel may be abundant, while containing only half as much carbon, according to a new paper released today by the Worldwatch Institute.

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Trees and plants release more than just oxygen into the atmosphere as a result of photosynthesis: They also release a variety of gases that contribute to air pollution. In fact, the planet's vegetation accounts for about two-thirds of the pollutants known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted globally.

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