Avião movido a energia solar tentará seu 1º voo internacional

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A equipe do avião experimental Impulso Solar HB-SIA vai executar o primeiro voo internacional na próxima semana. A decolagem será da Suíça com destino ao aeroporto de Bruxelas, na Bélgica, informaram os coordenadores do projeto.
O Solar Impulse entrou para a história da aeronáutica em julho de 2010, depois que realizou um voo inaugural de 24 horas sem interrupção, usando apenas os painéis solares e suas baterias.
O protótipo vai partir na data de 2 de maio se as condições meteorológicas permitirem.

A primeira viagem internacional do protótipo será no trajeto entre Suíça e Bélgica

Rinocerontes ameaçados por caça vão para santuário de helicóptero

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Há dez anos, o Ministério do Meio Ambiente e Turismo da Namíbia, juntamente com entidades assistenciais que atuam no país como a Save the Rhino, vem promovendo o transporte de cerca de 8 mil rinocerontes ameaçados para áreas de conservação.

Os transportes se dão por via terrestre, mas, se necessário, até mesmo, por helicópteros, já que os rinocerontes se encontram em regiões tribais remotas e de terrenos acidentados.

Os animais estão ameaçados devido à ação de caçadores ilegais. Os chifres dos animais são altamente cobiçados na Ásia por causa de suas supostas qualidades medicinais e afrodisíacas.

Ainda existem cinco espécies de rinocerontes no mundo - três das quais estão processo de extinção. E uma dessas três, o rinoceronte negro, tem o norte da Namíbia como seu habitat natural.

Fonte: folha.com

Reunião Sea Shepherd RJ - Dia 27 de abril de 2011.

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Fisheries and Oceans ordered to pay $80,000 in killer whale court case

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Photograph by: Dave Ellifrit, Reuters

The Federal Court of Canada ordered the federal fisheries department Tuesday to pay Ecojustice $80,000 in court costs in a case in which Ottawa last Dec. 7 was found to not be protecting critical habitat of resident killer whales as required under the Species At Risk Act.

Justice James Russell ordered the payment, in part, because the fisheries department had taken an "unjustifiably evasive and obstructive approach to these proceedings for no other purpose than to thwart the Applicants' attempts to bring important public issues before the Court which the Respondents had failed to clarify.

"This has resulted in substantial and unnecessary difficulty and expense to the Applicants, and unnecessarily lengthened and complicated the proceedings."

Ecojustice executive director Devon Page said in response that federal fisheries was "almost bizarrely obstructive in our legal case to identify and protect orca habitat and got spanked for it."

The $80,000 covers legal fees incurred by nine environmental groups, including Sierra Club, David Suzuki Foundation, and Greenpeace, who hired Ecojustice to fight their case.

lpynn@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Mayor Ed Lee Eats Shark's Fin Soup - Prefeito Ed Lee come sopa de barbatana de tubarão.

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The typically nonconfrontationalMayor Ed Lee stepped out of his mold this morning and confronted a contentious issue head on: the proposed ban on the import of shark fins across California.

And he has a damn good reason for it -- he eats shark's fin soup.

Assemblymen Paul Fong and Jared Huffman introduced AB 376, which attempts to help prevent shark finning by eliminating demand, in February of this year. AB 376 easily passed the Assembly Committee on Appropriations on April 6 and is now awaiting a vote on the assembly floor.

Chron reporter Heather Knight asked Lee whether he supported the pending legislation, to which he bluntly said no. He said he would rather educate fisherman than enact a blanket ban on shark finning.

"We don't have to be anticultural to get to an enlightened method," Lee tells her.




He then stated he wasn't "supportive of any bans at this point," which, considering this is a ban-happy city, is, in itself, a controversial position for a San Francisco politician to take.


Fonte: http://blogs.sfweekly.com/