Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

WHILE the news coming out of forests is often dominated by deforestation and habitat loss, research published in Nature Climate Change shows that the world has actually got greener over the past decade.

Despite ongoing deforestation in South America and South East Asia, we found that the decline in these regions has been offset by recovering forests outside the tropics, and new growth in the drier savannas and shrublands of Africa and Australia.

Plants absorb around a quarter of the carbon dioxide that people release into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. With a greening globe, more plants may mean more absorption of carbon dioxide. If so, this will slow but not stop climate change.

However, questions remain over how long plants can keep pace with our increasing emissions in a warmer climate.

We studied how plants and vegetation are faring by determining the amount of carbon stored in living plant mass (or 'biomass') above the ground.

We developed a new technique to map changes in vegetation biomass using satellite measurements of changes in the radio-frequency radiation emitted from the Earths surface, a technique called passive microwave remote sensing. The radiation varies with temperature, soil moisture and the shielding of water in vegetation biomass above the ground.

We extracted this vegetation information from several satellites and merged them into one time series covering the past two decades. This allowed us to track global changes in biomass from month to month, something that was not possible before.

For the period 2003-12, we found that the total amount of vegetation above the ground has increased by about four billion tonnes of carbon.

Our global analysis shows losses of vegetation in many regions, particularly at the frontiers of deforestation in the tropics of South America and South East Asia.

As expected, the greatest declines have been in the so-called 'Arc of Deforestation' on the southeastern edge of the vast Amazon forests. In South East Asia we found the most widespread declines in the Indonesian provinces of Sumatra and Kalimantan - the Indonesian part of Borneo.

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Earth greening despite deforestation

MANILA, Philippines To conduct rescue and clearing operations in Dinapigue, Isabela, where Tropical Depression Chedeng made landfall on Sunday morning, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) sent 50 of its personnel to the area a day before the weather disturbance hit land. In a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino said that the agency sent a 50-man rescue team to Isabela and another rescue group to Aurora.

They are now conducting training seminars for the rescuers and even the police in those areas, he added, adding that the members of the rescue team wanted to share their knowledge to the locals for disaster preparation and rescue operation.

The MMDA chair also mentioned in a radio interview on Sunday that the teams were already in the affected areas a day before Chedeng made landfall.

The instruction given to them is to extend assistance to the affected areas and local government units and to conduct clearing operations after the tropical depression, Tolentino said adding that the group would also provide any needed assistance by the LGUs.

During the meeting of the Metro Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Council (MDRRMC) on Saturday, it was agreed that the LGUs in Metro Manila would mobilize rescuers in the areas affected by Chedeng.

Since it was forecast that metro will not be hit, rescue teams from Valenzuela, Marikina, Muntinlupa and Paraaque were deployed to the affected areas since they have the necessary equipment to conduct clearing operations, Tolentino said.

He added that the rescue groups also brought with them relief items from the Department of Social Welfare and Development for distribution to the residents.

The agencys rescue and rehabilitation personnel have been tasked to clean areas, which will not be reached by the local government so that power supply will be easily restored and residents can return to their normal lives.

Members of the team will also work closely with the local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (DRRMC) to speed up the clearing of affected areas and the repair of infrastructures damaged by Chedeng. SFM/AC

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MMDA sends rescuers to Isabela, Aurora for Chedeng

Before Jill and Will Geisdorf bought their home on Field Road in Sarasota, they were renting a hip little downtown cottage close to restaurants, nightlife and all the cultural amenities that two busy young professionals could want.

Then, it all changed, said Jill Geisdorf, who is an interior designer with Chic on the Cheap in Sarasota. We were going to have a baby, and almost overnight, our priorities switched to a nice big yard, a house in a family neighborhood, good school district, close to shopping all of those kinds of things.

Will started looking at real estate listings online, and we both began seriously talking budgets. It was clearly time to put down roots.

Will Geisdorf, who works for an investment research firm in Venice, found a home, in a desirable West-of-the-Trail Sarasota neighborhood. He believed they could afford it because it was a foreclosure property, and because the 2,000-square-foot house was built in 1958 and looked it.

It had the original terrazzo floors, old windows, a very old roof, nice yard (somewhat overgrown) on a third-of-an-acre lot, three bedrooms, two baths and a workable floor plan, even though the kitchen was small and closed off from the rest of the house. A bonus was that a previous owner had installed a swimming pool.

They bought the house last June, started renovating immediately while still living in their rented cottage, and moved into their new old house in October, just 11 days before Quinn Geisdorf was born. The blue and white nursery was ready.

We realize there is work in this place to keep us in home-improvement projects for years to come, said Will. But it was a great buy for the neighborhood, and Jill was pretty sure that for $75,000, we could bring the house up to what it should be to fit our needs and lifestyle.

They would end up spending closer to $100,000, which designer Jill will tell you is pretty typical when homeowners set a budget for a major renovation. Actual costs average 15 to 25 percent over the homeowners initial estimate. And some things are a downright luxurious splurge with homeowners disregarding the price tag.

Our splurge was the custom walnut kitchen cabinets and quartz counters, said Jill.

Continued here:
A home refreshed

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