in Peru? need $100,000?

sorry, just saw this...keep your eyes out for the walking $100,000?

http://www.theofficemonk.com/david/?gclid=CO-KtcfLkJQCFQ4LuwodBhlXmQ

hi from the east

I gave a talk at Korea University in Seoul, S. Korea last week on the state of UK climate modelling to an audience of about 40 people. They are very interested in developing collaborations with the UK climate modelling community and using our models to develop regional climate models for Korea. I was even paid for giving the talk, as well as taken out on the town for lots of fun activities and excellent Korean food! I'm currently in Moscow (Carmel has a conference here) and will be seeing lots of you in Poland this week!

Peru: rope request

For those coming to Peru, while you are discussing logistics:

There is a rope in the wet lab - its in an orange bag, labelled "Ecosystems Lab - 200m rope". The bag actually contains a 100m rope that would be very useful. It is heavy - maybe 10kg, so it might need someone with a large luggage allowance to bring it.

Could you work out if its possible to get the rope here by the 5th August?

This would be great if possible because currently we are unable to climb the bigger trees in the lowlands.

thanks and hope all is well,
Steven

Not to be alarming or anything, but I thought to share this one just as a reminder of how cautious we have to be, as some of our people will be going to CICRA

http://www.larepublica.com.pe/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=217798&Itemid=0

http://www.andina.com.pe/Espanol/Noticia.aspx?id=NpETGk0q2mU=


Stavros

Tropical Montane Cloud forests & Google Earth

I found this link from Kings College London on the internet.

I do not think I will use the data but there is a google earth plug in that displays data on tropical forests (% lost, ET, cloud cover ect). These visualisations or the underlying data may be of use to people? Please post a reply if the data proves useful / or not.

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/geography/research/emm/geodata/cloudforests.html

Cheers

Adam

Danae in Gabon

Mbolo from Gabon!

Just to let everybody know I arrived well and have a roof, running water and yes, even internet once and a while. I'm staying at the WCS casse de passage with other scientists which is really nice, meet people, exchange ideas and get lots of tips on how to work here... 

Chris Wilks has been showing me around and set up meetings for me. Already this morning we've met with WWF forestry officers, the DG of the Union for sustainable forestry in the country and so on. It has gone surprisingly swiftly with Chris opening doors everywhere he passes and who ever he calls, so I'm really very lucky he has taken a like to out work. As it seems, a lot of hard work has gone into plots and forest inventories here and people seem fairly open to the research we want to do. For one of the companies, we already have some verbal agreement for inventory access ;). Country is really very expensive though, costs the same as Europe ;(.

Also hope to get into the forest a few days, which apparently will be feasible, so that would be nice. Dividing the work in Gabon in two (ie reconaissance trip now followed by fieldwork later) seems to have been a very good approach, people would declare me mad if I were to land here and attempt to start immediately...

Ok, that's it for now!

Smiks,

Danae

Stavros dates in Peru

Hi everybody,

just to let you all know about the dates which I will be in Peru for my data collection:

I am arriving in Lima on Monday 9th of June, and flying to Puerto Maldonado on the 14th of June. I will be staying there untill the 20th of July approximately, with occasional visits to Lima potentially if some important interview comes up. I will be flying back to the Uk on the 21st of July.

I will be living inside Puerto Maldonado for the whole time as the communities I want to work with are placed along the InterOceanica, so feel free to contact me whenever you happen to be in town so we can hang out and share our experiences. Also, whatever you may be needing from Puerto let me know so I can help out. I will checking more my gmail (stavrospapa@gmail.com)

Hope to see you there and good luck to all with the field work!

Stavros

Biofuels vs meat

Hehe, came across this article today and thought some of those carnivores in our group out there may appreciate it. Apparently, the German Environment Minister thinks meat in Europe is cheap...and soymeal for cattle feed a bigger threat then ethanol from sugar cane. Also, they mention Brazil's intention to ban biodiesel production from soy...

Otherwise, the article seems to be more conjecture than fact.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,552027,00.html