Greener Earth Maps

Costa Rican gold mine suspended

2007-09-11T10:17:00.000-07:00

Bellavista gold mine, Costa Rica

“Putting an open-pit gold mine in a mountainous, tropical region prone to landslides and torrential rainfall is a disaster waiting to happen.”

Costa Rica outlawed all new open-pit mining in 2002, but the Bellavista mine was given a permit prior to the ban. It is the only operating large open-pit mine in this ecotourism-dependent country. High metals prices are driving a gold mining rush in other parts of Latin America.

Central America

Costa Rica

Northwest passage

2007-07-10T08:28:00.000-07:00

Panama Canal refits for panamax shipping

2007-02-27T15:30:00.000-08:00

Mapping clean water resources in Africa

2007-02-25T06:59:00.000-08:00

Back to main: Water sources

Samburu

East Africa

Kenya

For the people of Kenya’s semiarid Samburu region, water is a precious commodity. People and livestock compete with wildlife for water, and in the dry season water sources can easily become contaminated. To address these issues, scientists at Earthwatch’s Samburu Field Center have compiled three years of data on the region’s water and other natural resources into a comprehensive Geographic Information Systems (GIS) database.

Peruvian glacier

2007-02-16T10:44:00.000-08:00

Peruvian glacier may vanish in five years

South America

Peru

When glaciologist Lonnie Thompson returns to Peru’s Qori Kalis glacier early this summer, he expects to find that half of the ice he saw during his visit there last year has vanished.

What troubles him the most is his recent observations that suggest that the entire glacier may likely be gone within the next five years, providing possibly the clearest evidence so far of global climate change.

Antarctica study

2007-02-13T09:05:00.000-08:00

Ross Island showing the two volcanos,
"Mount Terror" and "Mount Erebus"

Ross Island

Ross Ice Shelf

Antarctica

Fresh water Tanganyika

2007-01-24T09:37:00.000-08:00

Lake Tanganyika

Rift Valley

Sub-Saharan Africa

Tanganyika is estimated to be about 10 million years old, making it one of less than 20 ancient lakes on Earth. Because of its age and location, scientists are actively researching the lake’s sedimentary geology to learn more about Africa’s climatic and environmental history

The Kárahnjúkar Project

2007-01-19T21:54:00.000-08:00

Kárahnjúkar region, Iceland

Hydro electric project in Iceland will support the world's largest aluminum smelter owned by Alcoa

Kárahnjúkar, all that glitters is not aluminum

Kárahnjúkar

Iceland

On march 5th, 2003, Iceland's Parliament approved the construction of the world's largest hydro-powered aluminum smelter project, Alcoa's Fjarðaál ("aluminum of the fjords"). Designed and built by Canadian giant Alcoa, the plant is purported to be one of the most environmentally friendly yet productive aluminum facilities in the world. It will have an annual capacity of 322,000 metric tons and is expected to cost $1.1 billion upon completion.

Hotel Rwanda

2006-12-07T04:46:00.000-08:00

Rwanda to Darfur, an unbroken discord

On April 6, 1994, the killing began, 2 weeks later - April 21 - the International Red Cross estimated tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were dead. U.N. officials refused to call it genocide.

Lake Owens - Sierra Nevada, CA

2006-12-06T11:22:00.000-08:00

http://greenermagazine.blogspot.com/2006/12/owens-river-to-flow-again-after-93.html

Owens River to flow again after 93 years

The Owens River and Lake Owens have been dry for nearly a century; that was when William Mulholland began construction of the first of 2 aqueducts designed to draw water from the high desert north of L.A. to quench the thirst of a growing desert town called Los Angeles.

Lubumbashi

2006-11-10T07:36:00.000-08:00

Open pit mine twenty kilometers outside the city of Lubumbashi

Blood Diamonds - Greener Mag

Lubumbashi lies in the southern region of the Congo known as the Kolwezi. Lubumbashi is renowned for its mineral wealth and has become a trading ground in the wars over illicit diamonds known as Blood Diamonds. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is extremely rich in natural resources. Diamonds, the country’s most valuable export, are one of those resources, one which has contributed to increased levels of funding of armed conflict in the Congo from 1998 to now.

Greener Magazine

Alyeska Pipeline

2006-08-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

Alyeska pipeline at Yukon River

BP turns off oil

BP turns off oil"

Alaska

British Petroleum daily pumps nearly 200 thousand gallons of highly corrosive crude oil through its "feeder" lines to Alyeska, the Federally controlled and inspected main pipeline south.

Here you can view the line as it crosses over the Yokon River, just 47 miles south of the Artic Circle.

Hurricane Hunters

2006-07-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Hunters

NOAA Aircraft Operations Center

MacDill AFB

Tampa, FL

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Aircraft Operations Center at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa serves as home to The Hurricane Hunters. The air group provides life saving, real time information on the formation and progress of earth's deadliest storms. However, the AOC's year round mission as NOAA's air platform for gathering vital data on weather, ocean resources and the atmosphere may be our best tool yet in the quest to understand the environment.

Island in the sky

2006-07-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

Site of the Sky Train station, Lhasa, Tibet

Greener Mag - Tibet, Islands on the sky train

Lhasa, Capitol of Tibet

Lhasa

Tibet

The Qinghai, named after Qinghai Province, originates in Xining, capitol of that region in central China, and proceeds west then south for more that 2500 miles to Lhasa, capitol of TAR (Tibet Autonomous Region) over some of the most forbidding, highest landscape on Earth. The Tibetan plateau averages an elevation of 16000 feet and has passes, like the Tangulla, which rises to 16,737 Feet.

Area over which the Sky Train is routed from Xining, China to Lhasa, Tibet

City of Xining in Quinghai province, central China - departure point for the Sky Train to Lhasa

Greener Mag - Tibet, Islands on the sky train

Xining, Capitol of Qinghai Province, China

Xining

central

China

Three Gorges Dam

2006-06-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

Asia

China

Three Gorges Dam, becomes a reality after nearly 100 years of planning. Earlier this month the cofferdams designed to temporarily hold back the rising waters of the Yangtse River were removed and China's greatest engineering feat, Three Gorges Dam, cut the heart of the dragon.

Dekle Beach

2006-06-11T06:57:00.000-07:00

Dekle Beach, Taylor County Florida

The tiny enclave known as Dekle Beach is on the eastern tip of one of Florida's last pristine coastal preserves. Located in Taylor County south of almost nothing in the corner of Florida's Big Bend region, called "Nature Coast," the natural grasslands form a barrier to storm surge and provide safe breeding ground for dozens of sea birds including the Great Cormorant, Osprey and American Bald Eagle. The sea grass beds are a vast nursery to the grouper and sea trout and they are the Gulf’s last remaining bay scallop bed.

Hagia Sophia

2006-05-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

Greener Magazine

Hagia Sophia

Istanbul

Middle east

Turkey

This building is more than just history however, it symbolizes what a people, a culture deems most important about their relationship with the natural world. When the Emperor Constantine envisioned his great hall of power and statehood he envisioned more than just a place of worship he saw the wonder of his building rising up to the heavens as both a seat of secular, administrative power and an icon for the faithful, their solemn contract with nature and God.

NASA NEEMO crew aboard Aquarius

2006-04-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

Aquarius underwater habitat

Four astronauts turned aquanauts are living 60 feet beneath the ocean on a coral reef off Florida's Key Largo. They are there as the crew of the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, NEEMO. Their task is to live and learn in an environment as remote and extreme as any found in space. What these scientists learn may one day help us cope with environmental disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

Green Lady

2006-04-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

Ellis Island - Statue of Liberty

Statue of Liberty to be powered with "green" renewable energy off sets.

Greener MagazineThe Lady in green

Ellis Island

New York

United States

Yesterday Liberty completed its conversion to 100% renewable energy. The General Services Administration, which runs U.S. government facilities, has been switching over to green power for some time. Now, the GSA, along with the Park Service, have partnered to turn the newly refurbished National Monument into a truly green lady powered entirely by alternative "green energy."

Prudhoe oil spill

2006-03-20T12:49:00.000-08:00

Oil spill

Prudhoe Bay

Alaska

In its second week, the Alaskan pipeline oil spill caused by a failure of a pencil size section in a 34" diameter oil pipeline is well on its way to being cleaned up say BP Oil authorities.

2006-03-16T04:52:00.000-08:00

North entrance to El Yunque

Caribbean National Forest

Forest Images Project

Caribbean

Puerto Rico

El Yunque, as it is known to locals, is the smallest U.S. Forestland Park, 28,000 acres, and one of the oldest, established in 1903 when President Roosevelt proclaimed it the Luquillo Forest Reserve. The beautifully verdant rain forest is actually much older, protected by virtue of having been set aside by the Spanish Crown in 1876 while Puerto Rico was still ruled from Madrid. Today the forest looks much as it did when Christopher Columbus first set foot in Puerto Rico 500 years ago.

El Yunque resident, one of dozens of colorful lizard species that inhabit the rain forest.

Lake Baikal pipline

2006-03-08T08:01:00.000-08:00

World's oldest, largest fresh-water lake

Region in south central Siberia where Russia proposes to build a trans-Siberian pipeline to the Pacific.

Lake Baikal

Siberia

Russia

Forest fire

100 miles NW of Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal

Siberia

Russia

Located in southeastern Siberia, Lake Baikal is the world's oldest lake (about 25 million years) and its deepest (5,315 ft or 1,620 m.) Baikal contains a huge volume of water, more than that held by all the American Great Lakes combined, over 20% of the world's fresh water. Nearly 400 miles in length and, at its widest point, over 50 miles across, Lake Baikal transects some of the world's most pristine natural terrain and some of the most geologically unstable. Scientists, who are monitoring the seismic shifts that steadily tear the region apart, say that Baikal is becoming an ocean. The region is growing apart at the rate of over 2cm per year. Scientists say nothing, therefore, can protect the pipeline from the frequent earthquakes that strike the area.

One acre of Rain Forest

2006-02-26T17:36:00.000-08:00

One acre of Rain Forest acquired
for the Nature Conservancy - Green Blogathon 2/25/06.
Participants: Shea Gunther and Jeff McIntire-Strasburg,
Kevin Humphrey, Jen Kibler-McCabe, Liz Hincks,
Mike Papageorge, Michael d'Estries, and Ryan Wiseman.

Macapa

Brazil

Acquired for The Nature Conservancy through the joint efforts of those participating in the Green Blogathon 2/24-5/06. Location: 9.3 Km SW Macapa, Brazil, S 0° 00’ 51.3”, W 51º 07’ 11.25”
Note: The acre depicted is symbolic of all those acres purchased by the Nature Conservancy through the generosity of others and which, are protected for posterity.

Silent saviour: The mangrove effect

2006-01-31T07:03:00.000-08:00

"A" Epicenter of the Asian Tsunami 12/26/04

The earthquake epicenter marked beneath the waters connecting Sumatra and Simeulue Island off its western edge caused a sea floor landslide which, in turn, produced the Asian Tsunami Dec 26,2004.

Asian Tsunami map

Indian Ocean

South East Asia

Sumatra

"B" Simeulue Island

On Indonesia’s Pulau Simeulue, the "mangrove effect” limited the deaths to just one hundred.

Sea

East Asia

Thailand

"C" Phi Phi Island, Thailand

Phi-Phi Island is a National Park of Thailand. By law, there are no permanent structures.

Thailand

Phi Phi Island

South East Asia

Thailand

The effect of the tsunami striking East Asia one year ago could have had much less impact - if only the mangrove forest that had been guarding the coast for years, had still been there to protect the coastlines...Recent reports from India and Indonesia demonstrate that in coastal areas with a healthy mangrove forest, the force of the tsunami was relatively slight.

return to main article

"D" Banda Aceh

A tourist destination renowned for gentle surf and brilliant sun lit seas was virtually destoyed when the Asian Tsunami decended without warning. The death toll from the event has now surpassed 150,000 in 11 countries.

South East Asia

Nagapattinam, India

Ngapattinam, situated in south India, which was one of the hardest hit areas, has had the most mangrove areas cleared for *prawn farms production.

India

Nagapattinam

East Asia

India

Green grow the diamonds

2006-01-13T08:30:00.000-08:00

Diavik Diamond Mine

Diavik construction started in 2001 with the construction of enormous dykes designed to hold back the waters of Lac deGras, one of thousands of glacial lakes that cover the NW Territories.

Mining will proceed in phases over several years with new dykes being added to protect new pits. The mining will as well include deep underground shafts further connecting the diamond deposts with surface quarries. It remains unclear weather or not the lake will be able to regain its former natural balance with the pristine environment once the mining operations have been abondoned.

Diavik Diamond Mine

NW Territories

Canada

Argyle Diamond Mine

Kimberly Region

North East

Western Australia

Abandoned Shanty Towne

A shanty towne lays abandoned within the pit of a spent mine. Mine workers lived and worked here mining the diamonds for the corporation.

Shanty towne, photograph by J. Michael Fay

Namibia,Africa

Abandoned open pit mine

Closed for several years this abondoned mine was once the primary source of employment and income for the people of this remote region in north eastern South Africa.

Abandoned mine, photograph by J. Michael Fay

South Africa

Born in the depths of the earth under tremendous heat and pressure diamonds,often considered one of earth’s rarest treasures, may by some estimates prove in fact to be one of the most common mineral crystals known to man. Increasingly diamond mining requires more resources and results in a substantially greater impact on the environment.

All that glitters

2006-01-10T12:04:00.000-08:00

Active surface gold mining

Open mines surround the small town of Elko in NE Nevada. The mining operation is owned by The Barrick Corporation click here for a short film on Barrick's world wide gold mining resources

Goldstrike Mine

Elko

Nevada

United States

The Goldstrike Mine in Elko, Nev. consumes almost 10 million gallons of water daily from “the driest state in the nation,” the New York Times notes. Thanks to Las Vegas, Nevada is also the fastest growing. Gold mining operates freer from the regulations imposed on coal and oil. Nevada’s gold mines produced 86% of the mercury waste in the U.S. in 2003. And Nevada is being “written off” by environmentalists, according to John D. Leshy, a former lawyer for the Department of Interior.

Gregory Yanick - New York
Greener Magazine Staff Writer

Read the entire story

EXTREME ENVIRONMENTAL MAKEOVER: Maize and blue and green

2005-12-15T06:06:00.000-08:00

U of M. DANA building goes green

Sunflower seed hull cabinets, bamboo floors, solar panels and composting toilets are among the green -- meaning environmentally friendly and energy-efficient -- components of the recently renovated Dana Building, home to the School of Natural Resources and Environment.

info

DANA Building at University of Michigan

Ann Arbor

Michigan

USA

Ross School of Business Green Building

Our plan is that the new building will be LEED certified. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System is a voluntary national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. Our goal is to make the best choices to achieve the highest environmentally sustainable impact within our budget. For example, green roofs on parts of the Ross campus will reduce storm water run-off and reduce heat gain.

info

Ross School of Business at University of Michigan

Ann Arbor

Michigan

USA

A. Alfred TaubmanStudent Services Center

The building will be oriented to maximize day lighting and features a bioswale designed to manage water runoff and utilize vegetation to clean water. Drought-resistant sedum planted on the 13,000 sq. ft. roof. will encourage indigenous bird life and help control water run-off. Water not absorbed by roof plantings is treated and used to offset the center’s water use for waste disposal. Water also plays a role in the 80 300-foot-deep geothermal wells to aid cooling and heating. These wells will be represented by a symbolic “garden of light,” a low voltage light array recharged by photovoltaic cells. Environmentally friendly insulation provides comfort without sacrificing indoor air quality. Chambers said the building will be rigorously evaluated to meet a level of sustainable design set by the Green Building Council of which the University is a member.

info

A. Alfred TaubmanStudent Services Center

Southfield

Michigan

USA

Marty Hair of The Detroit Free Press summarized the sustainability efforts of the University of Michigan and Lawrence Technological University in an article entitled "EXTREME ENVIRONMENTAL MAKEOVER: Maize and blue and green". The Ross School of Business is installing 3 green roofs over sections of the new $145 million building project. This is the second step the university has taken in a green initiative that began with the remodeling of the DANA Building a few years ago. Lawrence Tech has a $15 million student services center that will provide educational opportunities for students to learn more about geothermal heating, green roofs, waterless urinals, and solar power.
- via GreenRoof Resource

2005-12-08T07:07:00.000-08:00

Dry Tortugas National Park

Learn more about coral and the ocean life it supports by visiting The Dry Tortugas National Park site part of the Florida Keys.

homepage

Dry Tortugas

Loggerhead Key

Florida

USA

Stockholm's Skansen Park

2005-11-01T04:43:00.000-08:00

Skansen is an open-air museum

Skansen is the oldest open-air museum in the world. Skansen is also a zoological park specializing mainly in Scandinavian wildlife. It is located on the island of Djurgarden, a royal park near the centre of Stockholm.
Skansen is open every day of the year, except Christmas Eve.

Skansen homepage

Skansen

Stockholm

Skansa

Sweden