In five years time scientists hope to develope artificial meat, that both could help the environment and lessen animal suffering.

From The Times:

”http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/article6936352.ece

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SCIENTISTS have grown meat in the laboratory for the first time. Experts in Holland used cells from a live pig to replicate growth in a petri dish.

The advent of so-called “in-vitro” or cultured meat could reduce the billions of tons of greenhouse gases emitted each year by farm animals — if people are willing to eat it.

So far the scientists have not tasted it, but they believe the breakthrough could lead to sausages and other processed products being made from laboratory meat in as little as five years’ time.

They initially extracted cells from the muscle of a live pig. Called myoblasts, these cells are programmed to grow into muscle and repair damage in animals.”

The top ten Homes for Wildlife activities are:

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/wildlife-tree.html

• Provide seed mixes, particularly sunflower hearts and millet-seeds for house sparrows and starlings
• Provide plants/shrubs of different sizes, shapes and ages
• Grow a range of plants
• Provide flowering plants as a source of nectar for butterflies and moths
• Grow plants attractive to insects in tubs and planters
• Retain dead flower stems and heads over winter 
• Maintain any beds with a good layer of ground cover, shrubs and herbaceous plants for song thrushes and blackbirds
• Provide a nestbox or build your own for small birds
• Provide dense, thorny bushes for cover for song thrushes and blackbirds
• Prune trees, shrubs and climbers during January or early February

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The Farmers’ Association says more Brazilian rainforests will be cleared because of the decision to force the state’s petrol retailers to sell 10 per cent ethanol fuel.

The Association’s Richard Clark says farmers will not have time to meet the demand and Australia’s ethanol industry will be forced to import grain.

”This is potentially a classic example of exporting the carbon pollution from Australia to somewhere else by getting less efficient production systems to produce the ethanol for us,” he said.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/06/2459958.htm

”WASHINGTON — Humanity would need five Earths to produce the resources needed if everyone lived as profligately as Americans, according to a report issued Tuesday.
    
As it is, humanity each year uses resources equivalent to nearly one-and-a-half Earths to meet its needs, said the report by Global Footprint Network, an international think tank.
   
“We are demanding nature’s services — using resources and creating CO2 emissions — at a rate 44 percent faster than what nature can regenerate and reabsorb,” the document said.
   
“That means it takes the Earth just under 18 months to produce the ecological services humanity needs in one year,” it said.
   
And if humankind continues to use natural resources and produce waste at the current rate, “we will require the resources of two planets to meet our demands by the early 2030s,” a gluttonous level of ecological spending that may cause major ecosystem collapse, the report said.”

http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php?issue=2009-11-25&sec=12&aid=107972