International Conservation & Development

Tony Haymet, former director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, has heard hundreds of ocean cleanup plans. Late at night, over many beers, he's come up with a few dozen of his own. None of them, he says, has seemed likely to work. That includes this spring's offerings. A Dutch engineering student, Boyan Slat, envisions a contraption with massive booms that would sweep debris into a huge funnel. Songwriter and music producer Pharrell Williams wants to fund the monumental cost of any cleanup by turning recycled ocean plastic into yarn and then clothes.

The proportion of land used to cultivate shade grown coffee, relative to the total land area of coffee cultivation, has fallen by nearly 20 percent globally since 1996, according to a new study by scientists from The University of Texas at Austin and five other institutions. The study's authors say the global shift toward a more intensive style of coffee farming is probably having a negative effect on the environment, communities and individual farmers.

Other sources of energy, like renewable and nuclear power and natural gas, will be necessary for China all the same if the country hopes to control its carbon dioxide emissions. Clean coal "needs inevitably to be part of the solution in China, but it’s not the only solution. Far from it." said Gallagher, who just published a book on energy technology in China. Different kinds of power can serve different purposes, and it's impossible to predict which technologies will develop most successfully. ...

Kelly Levin, a senior research associate at the World Resources Institute in Washington, who has researched the implications of the IPCC’s carbon budget, told Mashable that Shell’s decision, along with the other companies that signed the [Trillion Tonne Communiqué], is a positive sign.

Amy Rogers has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support Forest for a Living, which seeks to pilot the first cost-efficient solution to deforestation and farmer exploitation in the tropics.

In a phone interview with The Huffington Post, Dennis Takahashi-Kelso, the Ocean Conservancy's executive vice president, said both Exxon and BP were reminders that plans for dealing with spills are meaningless if companies can't actually execute cleanup. Takahashi-Kelso was the Alaska Commissioner of Environmental Conservation during the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and says that the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 was a "very substantial improvement." But companies still struggle with execution of the response plans when a spill does happen.

Air pollution kills around 7 million people every year, accounting for one in eight deaths worldwide, according to a report from the World Heath Organization (WHO) released March 25. Thankfully, the problem is getting more media attention.

Editor's Note: The Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation helped fund Jennifer O'Leary's early work with the Kenya Wildlife Service through a Leadership Grant. You can read more about this project in our Featured Fellow piece, "Translating Science Into Action: the Mombasa Marine Park, Kenya." From Jennifer:

General Mills has publicly committed to sourcing deforestation-free palm oil. This represents a major turnaround from just a month ago, when the company performed poorly in the Union of Concerned Scientists scorecard of palm oil sourcing commitments by 30 top companies. Sharon Smith, campaign manager with UCS's Tropical Forest & Climate Initiative, said: "Despite failing to make the grade on the scorecard, it seems General Mills is turning a new leaf.