Best of our wild blogs: 8 Oct 08

Orange-bellied Leafbird and bottle-brush trees
from Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Atlantis Dubai will not release captured whale shark
on the deeper blue website

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New Google tool reveals marine protected areas

Daniel Woolls, Associated Press 7 Oct 08

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Conservationists working with Google Inc. have unveiled a tool that lets people view protected marine areas with the click of a mouse — a bid to harness the Internet's top search engine to raise awareness of endangered ocean habitats.

The feature on Google Earth displays icons indicating sensitive areas of the world's oceans, from the waters off the Galapagos Islands to the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.

A click on them brings up photos and/or video of the sites and marine life there, as well as text explaining the sites, how they are managed and local maritime lore.

Google Earth project manager Steve Miller said the tool presented Tuesday, which Google Earth calls a layer, is the culmination of a yearlong project to let conservationists bring hard science to the general public in an entertaining way.

"We sat down and said 'let's open this up, let people around the world who might be passionate about their (marine protected area), who might be passionate about the water in their backyard, let them contribute to this,'" Miller said.

The new feature was presented at a congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a grouping of more than 1,000 government and nongovernment organizations and almost 11,000 volunteer scientists in more than 160 countries.

Google Earth is the platform for the new tool and helped develop it with the IUCN and the World Commission on Protected Areas.

Around 4,500 spots scattered around the world's oceans have been designated as marine protected areas, which means activities such as commercial or recreational fishing are restricted or outright banned to protect dwindling stocks of fish and other marine species.

Not all of them are featured on the Google tool, but its creators say it is nonetheless a groundbreaking way to get people all over the world interested in the environment.

At the same presentation, National Geographic unveiled another novelty: a live, continuous underwater video feed of a coral reef, off Belize in Central America, WildCam Belize Reef.

National Geographic has been attaching cameras to land animals like lions and sea creatures like turtles for years and sharing the footage, but this project is believed to be the first such experiment that provides a live, nonstop feed, said Torre Stockard of National Geographic's remote imaging department.

Laffoley said he was viewing it the other day during the testing phase, sipping his first cup of morning coffee as dawn broke in Belize, when suddenly a shark swam by on his computer screen.

"It is going to be addictive for a lot of people to have this kind of connectivity," he said.

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Atlantis Dubai: Free Sammy the Whale Shark

Emmanuelle Landais, Gulf News 7 Oct 08;

Dubai: Atlantis hotel is being urged to release a captured whale shark by environmentalists as the fish has been put in an aquarium in the resort without proper international permission.

Ebrahim Al Zu'bi, advisor to the Emirates Diving Association, said he believed the shark would be tagged and released.

Local media reports said that hotel manager Alan Leibman claimed that there are no such plans and the whale shark will stay in the hotel.

"I was told it would be released so I will be very disappointed if it isn't, I hope that they will rethink their decision," said Al Zu'bi, previously involved in whale shark tagging programmes in the Indian Ocean.

The juvenile whale shark placed in Atlantis hotel aquarium on Palm Jumeirah is there illegally, according to international standards, as the hotel resort has not applied for the appropriate permit to keep the wild-caught fish, Gulf News has learnt.

Not endangered

When an animal such as a whale shark is either beached or rescued and removed from the ocean, the concerned authorities need to be made aware so a permit can be issued.

According to an animal non-governmental organisation linked to the Convention for International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) authority at the Ministry of Environment and Water, no such permit has been issued.

"As far as we know there is no permit issued from the CITES office in Dubai," said the CITES-linked source.

"This hotel for example, has the right to rescue an animal but they need a permit to keep it and they have to inform the authorities. The whole country knows there is a whale shark at this hotel but we have not been officially made aware of it."

Whale sharks are listed on appendix two of CITES which means they are not an endangered species but permission is needed to remove them from the ocean. No comment was available from Atlantis at any time.

Gulf News reported last month that the Atlantis resort, which already has permits to house around twenty wild-caught dolphins, received the whale shark after fishermen found it struggling in shallow waters and brought it to the hotel to recover.

The hotel said in a statement at the time that due to the high sea temperature and salinity of the water where the whale shark was found, the decision was made to transport the whale shark to Atlantis for medical care and observation.

According to the resort, the animal is being monitored 24 hours a day to gather data on swim patterns, feeding and behaviours.

This hotel for example, has the right to rescue an animal but they need a permit to keep it and they have to inform the authorities."

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Tuas Power fires up green drive for new buildings

Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 8 Oct 08;

TUAS Power has embarked on a green initiative that aims to help new building owners achieve higher environmental standards.

The service, called 'Green Consultancy', was launched yesterday on the first anniversary of the firm's Green Programme, which provides subsidies to encourage clients to hold energy audits.

Tuas Power chief executive Lim Kong Puay said the Green Programme targets owners of existing buildings while the new service is directed at new owners.

It will identify and recommend improvements in buildings, guaranteeing them at least a Green Mark Gold rating. The Green Mark is Singapore's green building rating system. All new buildings are required by law to achieve a basic Green Mark certification. A Gold rating takes the standard up a notch.

Tuas Power will foot up to 80 per cent of the consultancy costs - which can go up to hundreds of thousands of dollars - in the form of rebates in electricity bills. The new scheme, although just launched, has already been tried and tested by its first customer: Japanese insurance group Tokio Marine.

With help from Tuas Power's green-consultancy arm, the redevelopment of Tokio Marine's 18-storey headquarters on McCallum Street in the Central Business District has been awarded a Gold-plus rating from the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).

Tokio Marine's chief executive Hiroshi Saito said the firm expects energy savings of 830,000 kwh and 5,400 cu m of water a year for its 150,000-sq ft premises - an annual bottom-line boost of $170,000.

It will also enjoy energy monitoring and management services from Tuas Power's appointed energy services company, G-Energy Global, to ensure the building's performance is up to scratch.

BCA chief executive John Keung said that Tuas Power's initiative was a move in the 'right direction' as buildings consume huge quantities of energy.

'It's very useful to have a comprehensive design team on board early to take an integrated approach to green building design,' said Mr Keung.

Tuas Power is the only utilities provider to provide such green initiatives so far, said Mr Lim. And it is not new to environment-friendly ventures either.

The company is part of two joint ventures involved in waste recycling and developing tri-generation systems - producing electricity, steam and cooling water - for petrochemical and pharmaceutical firms.

It said last month that it will build Singapore's first clean coal and biomass co-generation plant on Jurong Island for $2 billion.

The firm was acquired earlier this year by China Huaneng, China's largest coal-fuelled power producer.

Mr Lim stressed that although coal has a higher carbon content than other fuel types, the plant compensates by being highly efficient, reducing carbon emissions. In terms of emissions, it is still lower than oil-fired plants, he said.

'I ensure you that Tuas Power embarks on projects in an environmentally responsible manner, that balances the cost competitiveness and security of supply,' Mr Lim said.

Tuas Power's green initiatives stem from an 'integrated approach' philosophy of meeting clients' energy needs beyond being an 'electricity provider', said Mr Lim.

'We want to occupy this energy efficiency space in the energy industry. That way, we will keep relevant.'

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Temasek goes ahead with sale of PowerSeraya

Strong interest from potential bidders; pre-arranged finance package expected
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 8 Oct 08;

DESPITE the latest shake- up in global financial markets, Temasek Holdings yesterday said it was launching the sale of PowerSeraya following strong interest from potential bidders.

The generating company (genco) is the last of the three big power assets Temasek is divesting, as part of Singapore's move to liberalise the electricity and gas sectors.

Sources said the Singapore investment company is obviously trying to capitalise on the strong investor momentum, as evidenced by its two earlier, successful sales of Tuas Power in March and Senoko Power just last month.

Amid keen competition from both overseas and local bidders, the 2,670 megawatt Tuas Power finally went to China Huaneng Group for $4.235 billion, while the 3,300 MW Senoko was sold to Lion Power, a Japanese/French consortium, for about $4 billion.

'The first two sales have proven that even in such testing financial circumstances, there are a number of keen buyers seeking good quality power assets here,' one industry observer noted.

Besides, Temasek is said to be again offering 'staple financing', or a pre-arranged financing package, if needed, for the 3,100 MW PowerSeraya sale. This will ensure more timely bids by bidders who otherwise might have to scramble for financing amid the credit crunch.

Announcing the sale, Gwendel Tung, Temasek's director of investment, said: 'PowerSeraya is a quality asset. The quality is reflected by its strong cashflow, its strategic location in Singapore and able management.'

'This, in turn, has attracted strong indications of interest from a number of potential bidders. As with the sale of the other two gencos, the sale of PowerSeraya will be subject to acceptable price and commercial terms,' she added.

Foreign bidders who had bid unsuccessfully for the earlier two Singapore gencos are likely to try again for PowerSeraya. They reportedly include groups like India's Tata Power and GMR Infrastructure, Bahrain investment bank Arcapita and Hong Kong's CLP Holdings.

A number of local corporations, including Semb- corp and Keppel Corp as well as CitySpring Infrastructure, are also said to be eyeing the genco.

PowerSeraya, as its managing director Neil McGregor told BT in an interview last month, has exciting plans to grow from just a plain-vanilla genco (with power generation currently accounting for 80 per cent of its net profits) to a fully integrated energy company.

Last month, it reported sterling FY07/08 financials, including a 30 per cent jump in net profit to $218 million on the back of a 6 per cent rise in revenue to $2.8 billion, compared with FY06/07. This gave it a return on equity of 19 per cent.

Under its diversification plans, Mr McGregor said that in five years' time, oil trading, including natural gas and marine bunkers, plus the sale of utilities like steam and water to petrochemical plants on Jurong Island, is expected to account for half the genco's net profit.

PowerSeraya earlier this year opened a 10,000 cu m reverse osmosis desalination plant - giving itself sufficiency in its own water and steam needs, and also enabling it to sell steam to investors on Jurong Island. It is also building an $800 million, 1,550 MW cogeneration plant which when ready in 2010 will allow it to sell even more utilities there.

Last local power company for sale
Temasek seeks buyers for PowerSeraya, in bid to liberalise industry
Robin Chan, Straits Times 8 Oct 08;

THE battle to buy the third and final of the electricity generation companies (gencos) being sold by Temasek Holdings is now under way.

The Singapore investment company announced yesterday that it has begun the sale process for PowerSeraya. The other two gencos were sold earlier this year.

Interest in PowerSeraya is set to be strong as this will be bidders' last chance to get their hands on one of the three largest gencos in Singapore. Together, the three account for over 80 per cent of Singapore's electricity generating capacity.

Industry observers will also be watching to see if local players Sembcorp Industries and Keppel Corporation will be able to keep PowerSeraya in domestic hands.

Temasek is selling off the three gencos to liberalise the power generation industry and has targeted mid next year to complete all divestments. Private ownership can be expected to trigger off stronger competition among the trio.

Ms Gwendel Tung, director of investments at Temasek, said that PowerSeraya 'has attracted strong indications of interest from potential bidders'.

PowerSeraya has a capacity of 3,100MW, rising to 3,900MW by 2010 after the completion of its 800MW natural gas-fired plant, which would make it the largest genco by capacity based on current figures. It currently accounts for about 28 per cent of Singapore's electricity generation. For the year ending March 31, it had revenues of $2.8 billion and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $355 million.

Tuas Power, the newest but smallest of Temasek's power companies with a 2,670MW capacity, was sold off in March this year to China Huaneng Group for $4.2 billion. The Chinese power group was considered by analysts to have overpaid for the genco.

Japanese-French consortium Lion Power won the bid for Senoko Power, the largest genco of the three, just last month. It paid $3.65 billion and took on $323 million of net debt in a deal for the 3,300MW capacity genco.

Given the current financial crisis, an analyst said Temasek may take a small discount on the deal compared to its previous divestments. However, because gencos are not losing money, and are assets with a steady cashflow, banks would not have a problem financing a purchase.

A source said that the timeframe of the deal is likely to follow that of the Senoko divestment. So a decision can be expected within the next two months.

The Senoko deal was believed to have attracted some half a dozen bidders. Some of the remaining interested players include India's Tata Power and GMR Group, Hong Kong's CLP and Hong Kong Electric and the Bahrain investment bank Arcapita, sources have said.

Whether they outbid the local players will be something to watch for. PowerSeraya's strategic location and cogeneration capabilities offer attractive synergies. Both Sembcorp and Keppel have small cogeneration plants of less than 800MW capacity each.

Spokesmen for both confirmed their respective firm's interest in the remaining power company, but emphasised any deal would have to make sense commercially.

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Island Power seen appealing EMA's pipeline access decision

Business Times 8 Oct 08;

ISLAND Power is understood to be appealing the Energy Market Authority's recent decision on its application for access to the Singapore portion of an existing Sumatra-Singapore pipeline to bring in its own Indonesian gas. The gas is meant to fuel its long-stalled, $1 billion Jurong Island power plant project.

But Island is in a Catch-22 situation, sources said.

Indonesia will not sell it natural gas without Island first having pipeline access, which was why oil and gas regulator BPMigas cancelled Island's earlier gas supply deal last October - while EMA now says that Island cannot have pipeline access unless it has a gas deal in hand.

Responding to EMA's decision last week, an Island Power spokesman told BT yesterday: 'Island is evaluating EMA's latest correspondence and is also actively reviewing various options for taking the company forward.'

'We still believe the Island Power project has merit and is important to Singapore's energy future,' he added, underlining Island's commitment to press on with its long-delayed project.

There are two main conditions which EMA set out in its recent decision, before it can issue directions under Section 38(4) of the Gas Act for Island to gain pipeline access.

The first is that Island needs to secure a new gas supply agreement (GSA) after BPMigas cancelled Island's earlier GSA to buy 110 million standard cubic feet of gas daily from a ConocoPhillips gas field in Sumatra. The reason cited was Island's inability to gain pipeline access.

Secondly, it has to reach an allocation agreement with the incumbent players - importer Gas Supply Pte Ltd and pipeline owner and operator PowerGas - on how gas delivered through the Singapore portion of the pipeline is to be measured and allocated.

But this second condition clearly remains a bugbear as Island, which has been trying to gain access to the pipeline since 2002, was first blocked by legal tangles, and subsequently by commercial issues involving the incumbents.

Another consideration is the recent change in ownership of Intergen, Island's parent company.

India's GMR Infrastructure in June signed a purchase agreement to buy 50 per cent of Intergen from AIG Highstar Capital II, with the transaction expected to be closed anytime soon.

GMR, which was among the bidders for Singapore's two earlier gencos being divested by Temasek Holdings, is expected to also bid for PowerSeraya, the sale of which was just launched yesterday.

Asked how it will impact the Island Power project should GMR succeed in its bid for PowerSeraya, a spokesman told BT that 'as the sales process (involving Intergen's 50 per cent stake) has not yet concluded, it would be inappropriate to discuss GMR's plans with regard to Intergen'.

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Nature inspires new products in "biomimic" study

Alister Doyle, Reuters 7 Oct 08;

BARCELONA (Reuters) - The Alpine edelweiss flower may hold clues to making better sun creams, while oyster shells could give hints about storing greenhouse gases in an emerging industrial revolution that mimics nature.

"A more fascinating horizon is opening up for the green economy," Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program, said on Tuesday in giving findings of a UNEP "biomimicry" project identifying 100 new ideas from nature.

The survey shows companies are already borrowing from the natural world for products ranging from wind turbine blades that keep turning in low winds, based on the flippers of a humpback whale, to dirt-resistant surfaces inspired by the lotus plant.

"Life in 3.8 billion years has created an enormous number of blueprints, designs, chemical recipes and technologies," said Janine Benyus of the Biomimicry Guild, which wrote the report.

"Conserving habitats is a wellspring for the next industrial revolution," she said.

The white edelweiss flower, for instance, has woolly hairs that protect the plant's cells from harmful ultraviolet wavelengths, which are powerful in the high Alps. The hairs also shield against wind and cold.

Copying the chemicals in the hairs could help design better sun creams. And the plant could also help design ways to protect packaging or plastics from ultraviolet degradation.

The way pearl oysters convert carbon dioxide into a calcium carbonate shell could be imitated to help slow global warming. Carbon dioxide occurs naturally but levels are rising sharply because of human emissions of the greenhouse gas.

Canadian group CO2 Solution has won patents, based on the mollusks' ability to build shells, to help produce cement. Cement is traditionally based on limestone, formed from the bodies of fossil marine creatures.

OCEANS, JUNGLES

Turnover from new 'biomimicry' products could in future be worth billions of dollars. The findings, issued during an October 5-14 International Union for Conservation of Nature congress in Barcelona, add to examples given in an initial report in May.

"Industry is now going to be looking to the oceans and jungles of the world for ideas," Benyus told a news conference with Steiner.

Benyus said firms including General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Boeing, General Mills and Nike were among those that "have been asking for biologists."

In the survey, she said that researchers had identified dozens of ways in which organisms gathered water, energy or created glues more efficiently than humans.

Steiner said that the global financial crisis might have a silver lining for such green projects. "In terms of financial crisis, that's when you see innovation emerge," he said.

People have been imitating nature for thousands of years for products -- birds, for instance, inspired planes. But the experts said there were many under-exploited examples.

Benyus said the lotus plant's ability to repel water with a finely pitted surface on its leaves was now imitated in roof tiles in 300,000 buildings in Europe. Erlus AG was a main maker.

Among examples from recent decades, Steiner noted that Velcro, widely used as a fastener for clothing, was created by a scientist in Switzerland annoyed by the way plant burrs stuck to his dog's fur.

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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Climate focus 'good news for species'

Russell Mittermeier, BBC Green Room 7 Oct 08;

Climate change could actually benefit some of the world's most endangered species, says Conservation International president Russell Mittermeier. In this week's Green Room, he explains that conservationists should capitalise on the worldwide attention being given to global warming.

Climate change could be the best thing that ever happened to the amazing array of animal and plant species that make up the Earth's biodiversity.

Don't get me wrong; climate change is the most serious environmental threat we have ever encountered, and it is already taking a terrible toll on species, as well as people, all over the world.

The silver lining is that climate change has triggered a universal wake-up call that we all hear, and are beginning to heed.

Never before have so many sectors of society been equally concerned and motivated to combat an environmental threat.

Of course, some die-hard pessimists say it's too late, that the climate change train has left the station and there is nothing we can do but get ready for catastrophic consequences.

Nothing could be more wrong. Just ask the thousands of participants at the World Conservation Congress (WCC) now taking place in Barcelona, Spain.



Representatives from governments, indigenous peoples, industry and environmental groups are meeting to present innovations and create partnerships.

Climate change and protecting species are focal points, and pessimism is not on the agenda. Instead, smart constructive ideas for solutions are being shared.

We estimate the Earth harbours a minimum of six million living species, from microscopic bacteria to magnificent great apes.

The major news announced at the WCC on Monday was that the latest assessment of the world's mammals shows more than 20% to be threatened with extinction.

That includes 188 mammals, such as the Iberian Lynx, in the highest threat category of Critically Endangered.

This assessment is part of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which now includes 44,838 species, of which 16,928 (38%) are threatened with extinction.

Self preservation society

Why should people care about the fate of these plants and animals?

In the most simple terms, we should care because the quality of our lives ultimately depends on them.

Without species diversity, we wouldn't have the healthy ecosystems that supply our food, cleanse our air and water, provide sources of life-saving medicines and help stabilise our climate.

We would also miss out on a free and ubiquitous source of miraculous beauty and endless possibilities.

We continue to discover new species every day. Just since 1994, we've discovered 54 new lemur species on the Indian Ocean island nation of Madagascar.

The thrill of documenting a new primate is tempered, however, with the knowledge that many species will become extinct before they are even discovered.

On a global scale, we're losing species 1,000 times faster than what scientists consider normal.

It is an insidious, silent epidemic that could wreck our planet's ability to heal itself.

While the Red List does make headlines, somehow the irreplaceable loss of species does not stay in the minds of the general public, and it has certainly never prompted major financial investments.

This has always puzzled me. As a colleague of mine puts it: "Imagine what would happen to us if rainfall was a thousand times more than normal? What if snowfall were a thousand times more than normal? What if rates of disease transmission for malaria or HIV/AIDS were a thousand times higher than they are now? That is what is happening to plant and animal biodiversity today."

Just as climate change threatens us with rising sea levels, droughts, floods and more category five hurricanes, it is also one of the greatest threats to species.

We could lose more than 30% of the Earth's plants and animals this century due to shifts in the Earth's climate.

So where is the silver lining?

The good news is that the unprecedented spotlight on climate change is also shedding light on how tropical forests balance our Earth's climate.

At least and possibly much more than 20% of the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change come from forest destruction - that's more than from all the world's cars, trucks, airplanes and trains combined.

At the same time, forests are effectively our life support system, absorbing carbon dioxide and emitting oxygen.

Those same tropical forests are also home to the world's greatest preponderance of species diversity.

Remove the forests and you will also exterminate countless species. By the same token, the species are essential to healthy forests for many reasons, including pollination and seed dispersal.

There is still time to protect these forests while also providing economic opportunities to developing countries and local people.

One of the key issues at the WCC in Barcelona is how conserving standing tropical forests to fight climate change must be included in a new United Nations agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, the current climate change treaty that expires in 2012.

If we ensure that nations will be compensated for forest conservation that reduces emissions, we will also contribute to redressing some of the huge economic imbalances that exist in the world, since many tropical forest countries are among the more economically stressed.

A message Barcelona can send to the rest of the world is that it is not too late to protect species as well as combat climate change.

On both counts, the welfare of humanity is at stake.

Russell A. Mittermeier is president of Conservation International and chairman of global conservation group IUCN's Species Survival Commission's Primate Specialist Group

The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website

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"Deadly Dozen" Diseases Could Stem From Global Warming

Christine Dell'Amore, National Geographic News 7 Oct 08;

A spike in deadly infectious diseases in wildlife and people may be the "most immediate consequence" of global warming, according to a new report released today.

Dubbed the "deadly dozen," sicknesses such as Lyme disease, yellow fever, plague, and avian influenza, or bird flu, may skyrocket as global shifts in temperature and precipitation transform ecosystems.

Babesia, cholera, ebola, intestinal and external parasites, red tides, Rift Valley fever, sleeping sickness and tuberculosis round out the list.

An "early warning system" based on an international wildlife-monitoring network may be the only effective defense, said William Karesh, a report co-author and vice president of Global Health Programs at the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

Observing wildlife could yield crucial signals of potential outbreaks.

"Without the presence of wildlife, we would be clueless about what's going on in the environment," Karesh told a briefing at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.

"Why wait until people are sick and dying?"

Out of Sync

Of 14,000 known infectious organisms, 600 are shared between animals and humans.

The deadly dozen were chosen by the conservation society's health experts as some of the most ominous health threats.

"The reason we want to draw attention to [microbes] is they're difficult to see, they have devastating effects, and we also don't think about them until it's too late," Karesh said.

Since microbes and wildlife have evolved together over time, animal species have developed adaptations to cope with the organisms. So disease spikes usually point to something "out of sync with nature," Karesh said.

Climate change has already thrown ecosystems off balance, experts say.

For example, bird flu—which can "jump" to humans, as it did to cause the Spanish flu of 1918—may be worsened by drought. Wild birds that carry the disease have been seen drinking alongside domesticated birds at scarce water sources.

Such behavior has created a "loss of natural boundaries [that] natural hosts have evolved," said Kristine Smith, assistant director of Global Health Programs for the society.

And as certain regions warm, disease-carrying parasites such as ticks and mosquitoes will expand into new territories that are unprepared for the parasites' arrival, the authors added.

Jeff McNeely, IUCN's chief scientist, said that the "ecology of climate change is receiving inadequate attention.

"To me, the most important part of climate change is that it's changing the distribution of ecosystems, and diseases tend to be specific to ecosystems," he added.

Warning Systems

On-the-ground monitoring has already been shown to work, said the Wildlife Conservation Society's Karesh.

In Brazil forest communities that spot primates sick with yellow fever report back to their health agencies, which in turn start vaccinating for the mosquito-borne illness.

In the Republic of the Congo a group of local hunters has been trained to pinpoint symptoms of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in animals. The strategy has led to three years without a single human case in that region, said Karesh.

The Global Avian Influenza Network for Surveillance also draws on indigenous knowledge through a system of people in 34 countries, who monitor wild bird populations for signs of sickness.

Of course, other unnatural forces are contributing to the spread of disease, experts added.

For instance, the illegal wildlife trade, especially robust in Asia, is bringing people and animals into closer quarters, said the Wildlife Conservation Society's Smith.

The 2002 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was traced to civets. The cat-size mammal, prized for its meat, had ended up in wildlife markets in China, she said.

Wildlife, already struggling, faces fresh threat in disease
Marlowe Hood Yahoo News 7 Oct 08;

From tiny tree frogs to gorillas, wild animals already facing extinction due to habitat loss, pollution and hunting must now cope with the added threat of virulent disease, conservation scientists said Tuesday.

Many pathogens are being spread among wildlife by global warming, and some could have dire consequences for humans as well, the researchers told participants at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.

"Climate change conjures up images of rising sea levels and stranded polar bears," said Steven Sanderson, president of New York-based Conservation Society.

"But perhaps the greatest threat will come from emerging infectious diseases as a result of changing temperatures and rainfall levels."

Outbreaks, for example, of Ebola and its close cousin the Marburg virus -- lethal to gorillas, chimpanzee and humans -- have been closely linked to unusual patterns in rainfall and dry seasons.

There is no known cure for either disease, which cause painful internal hemorrhaging and high fevers.

Increasingly frequent algae blooms known as "red tides", triggered by higher sea surface temperatures, create toxins that have killed massive numbers of fish, caused sea mammal to flounder, and increased mortality among penguins and sea birds.

They can also provoke serious illness and death in humans that consume contaminated shellfish.

Some diseases spread further afield by shifting climate patterns do not harm the animals that host them but are dangerous to people, including lyme disease, transmitted by ticks bloated with deer blood, or mosquito-borne sicknesses such as malaria and yellow fever.

Other bacteria and viruses, however, affect only animals -- at least for now.

"We are seeing novel, emerging threats in the form of disease coming out of nowhere and having devastating impacts on animal populations," said Michael Hoffman, a scientist at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and co-author of a comprehensive study of the survival status of mammals, published this week in the journal Science.

The survey found that one in four mammals are threatened with extinction, and half are in decline.

"Disease has always had a role to play in affecting populations, but now we are seeing diseases that are highly pathogenic," he told AFP.

Amphibians, in particular, have suffered more species loss more than any other animal group, due to a fungus called chytridiomycosis.

The disease has already wiped out hundreds of frog, toad and salamander species, and is spreading across the globe, in part due to climate change but also through the international trade -- much of it illegal -- in wildlife.

Scientists are scrambling to find a cure that will work in the wild even as more species disappear.

The Tasmanian devil, a carnivorous marsupial found only on the Australian island for which it is named, has declined by 60 percent in only 10 years, ravaged by a terrible face cancer that spreads through contact.

Listed as "endangered" on the IUCN's "Red List" -- an inventory of the survival status of more than 44,000 animals and plants -- its prospects as a species "are extremely bleak," said Simon Stuart, in charge of biodiversity assessment for the IUCN.

Monitoring the health status of wildlife can serve as an "early warning system" for humans, said William Karesh, director of global health programs at the Conservation Society.

"Any disturbance in the environment shows up in wildlife because they don't adapt very quickly or easily," he said.

Disease warning on climate change
Richard Black, BBC News website 7 Oct 08;

Climate change may hasten the spread of diseases that can move from wild animals to humans, warns the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in a report.

The Deadly Dozen highlights 12 zoonoses - animal-borne diseases - that may spread as the climate warms.

The US-based organisation advocates establishing a global early warning network making use of Western and indigenous people's knowledge.

The report was launched here at the World Conservation Congress.

"We've seen Lyme disease work its way up from the US into Canada, and West Nile fever as well," said William Karesh, director of WCS's global health programmes.

"Basically what you have now are fewer frozen nights in this region, and that allows the ticks and mosquitoes that carry these diseases to survive further north."

In its landmark assessment of climate impacts, released last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted that elevated temperatures would change the distribution of animals that carry diseases affecting humans, and that improved disease surveillance was a "climate adaptation" measure that some countries were already taking.

Long-term gains

Among the other zoonoses likely to be affected by climatic shifts are avian influenza, Rift Valley fever, and Ebola, the WCS report says.

Prevalence of Vibrio cholerae , the bacterium that causes cholera, rises with water temperature, and can be incubated in shellfish.

Some shifts might not be triggered by rising temperatures. Water scarcity, for example, could induce more sharing of drinking pools by wild and domesticated animals, making the emergence of new viral strains more likely.

WCS acknowledges that climatic shifts could also lessen the prospects for some zoonotic diseases.

Without observations, it suggests, we cannot really know; and wild animals can act as early indicators of disease.

"The health of wild animals is closely linked to the ecosystems in which they live, and even minor disturbances can have far-reaching consequences on what diseases they might encounter and transmit as climate changes," said the organisation's chief executive Steven Sanderson.

"Monitoring wildlife health will help us predict where trouble spots will occur and plan how to prepare."

For some time, it has been urging the strengthening of monitoring systems at a national and global level so that early signs of outbreak are detected and dealt with.

It operates the Global Avian Influenza Network for Surveillance (Gains) project, which is funded by US government agencies.

But, said Dr Karesh, indigenous knowledge and skills should also be brought into play.

In northern Republic of Congo, he said, hunters used to bring dead animals they found in the forest back to the villages, which in the case of animals that had died from Ebola would immediately produce a human outbreak.

"Now the local people look out for these animals, they don't bring them back but report what they have found.

"So they are doing disease surveillance, and there hasn't been an outbreak of Ebola in this region for several years."

Climate change seen aiding spread of deadly diseases
Yahoo News 7 Oct 08;

A "deadly dozen" diseases ranging from avian flu to yellow fever are likely to spread more because of climate change, the Wildlife Conservation Society said on Tuesday.

The society, based in the Bronx Zoo in the United States and which works in 60 nations, urged better monitoring of wildlife health to help give an early warning of how pathogens might spread with global warming.

It listed the "deadly dozen" as avian flu, tick-borne babesia, cholera, ebola, parasites, plague, lyme disease, red tides of algal blooms, Rift Valley fever, sleeping sickness, tuberculosis and yellow fever.

"Even minor disturbances can have far reaching consequences on what diseases (wild animals) might encounter and transmit as climate changes," said Steven Sanderson, head of the society.

"The term 'climate change' conjures images of melting ice caps and rising sea levels that threaten coastal cities and nations, but just as important is how increasing temperatures and fluctuating precipitation levels will change the distribution of dangerous pathogens," he said.

"Monitoring wildlife health will help us predict where those trouble spots will occur and plan how to prepare," he said in a statement.

The U.N. Climate Panel says that greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from human use of fossil fuels, are raising temperatures and will disrupt rainfall patterns and have impacts ranging from heatwaves to melting glaciers.

"For thousands of years people have known of a relationship between health and climate," William Karesh of the society told a news conference in Barcelona to launch the report at an International Union for Conservation of Nature congress.

Among phrases, people said they were "under the weather" when ill, he noted.

He said that the report was not an exhaustive list but an illustration of the range of infectious diseases that may threaten humans and animals.

(Editing by Giles Elgood)

Climate change will allow tropical disease to spread to Europe
Paul Eccleston, The Telegraph 7 Oct 08;

Climate change will allow wildlife diseases to spread more easily, a new report warns.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) lists the "deadly dozen" diseases which could threaten human health and global economies.

The study shows the impact climate change could have on the health of wild animals and how it can cascade onto human populations.

Avian flu, TB and Ebola are just some of the broad range of infectious diseases that threaten both humans and animals.

Pathogens that originate in or move through wildlife populations can also inflict massive economic damage. Since the mid 1990s avian inluenza is estimated to have caused $100bn in losses to the global economy.

The report, The Deadly Dozen: Wildlife Diseases in the Age of Climate Change, says better monitoring of wildlife is needed to detect how diseases are moving so health professionals can restrict their impact.

Dr Steven E Sanderson, president and CEO of the WCS, said: "The term 'climate change' conjures images of melting ice caps and rising sea levels that threaten coastal cities and nations, but just as important is how increasing temperatures and fluctuating precipitation levels will change the distribution of dangerous pathogens.

"The health of wild animals is tightly linked to the ecosystems in which they live and influenced by the environment surrounding them, and even minor disturbances can have far reaching consequences on what diseases they might encounter and transmit as climate changes.

"Monitoring wildlife health will help us predict where those trouble spots will occur and plan how to prepare."

WCS leads an international consortium that helps to monitor the movements of avian influenza through wild bird populations around the world.

The Global Avian Influenza Network for Surveillance (GAINS) was created in 2006 and now involves dozens of private and public partners that monitor global wild bird populations for avian flu.

Congresswoman Rosa L DeLauro, who supports GAINS, said: "Emerging infectious diseases are a major threat to the health and economic stability of the world.

"What we've learned from WCS and the GAINS program is that monitoring wildlife populations for potential health threats is essential in our preparedness and prevention strategy and expanding monitoring beyond bird flu to other deadly diseases must be our immediate next step."

The disease list includes some of the pathogens that may spread as a result of climate change:

•Avian influenza: Like human influenza, avian influenza viruses occur naturally in wild birds, though often with no dire consequences. The virus is shed by infected birds via secretions and faeces. Poultry may contract the virus from other domestic birds or wild birds. A highly pathogenic strain of the disease-H5N1-is currently a major concern for the world's governments and health organisations.

•Babesiosis: Babesia species are examples of tick-borne diseases that affect domestic animals and wildlife, and Babesiosis is an emerging disease in humans. In some instances, Babesia may not always cause severe problems by themselves but when infections are severe due to large numbers of ticks, the host becomes more susceptible to other infectious diseases.

•Cholera: Cholera is a water-borne diarrhoeal disease affecting humans mainly in the developing world. It is caused by a bacterium, Vibrio cholerae, which survives in small organisms in contaminated water sources and may also be present in raw shellfish such as oysters. Once contracted, cholera quickly becomes deadly.

•Ebola: Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus and its closely related cousin - the Marburg fever virus - easily kill humans, gorillas, and chimpanzees, and there is currently no known cure. As climate change disrupts and exaggerates seasonal patterns, we may expect to see outbreaks of these deadly diseases occurring in new locations and with more frequency.

•Intestinal and external parasites: Parasites are widespread throughout terrestrial and aquatic environments. As temperatures and precipitation levels shift, survival of parasites in the environment will increase in many places, infecting an increasing number of humans and animals.

•Lyme disease: This disease is caused by a bacterium and is transmitted to humans through tick bites. Tick distributions will shift as a result of climate change, bringing Lyme disease into new regions to infect more animals and people.

•Plague: Plague, Yersinia pestis - one of the oldest infectious diseases known - still causes significant death rates in wildlife, domestic animals, and humans in certain locations. Plague is spread by rodents and their fleas and alterations in temperatures and rainfall are expected to change the distribution of rodent populations.

•"Red tides": Harmful algal blooms off global coasts create toxins that are deadly to both humans and wildlife. These occurrences - commonly called "red tides"- cause mass fish deaths, marine mammal strandings, penguin and seabird mortality, and human illness and death from brevetoxins, domoic acid, and saxitoxins (the cause of "paralytic shellfish poisoning").

•Rift Valley Fever: Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an emerging zoonotic disease of significant public health, food security, and overall economic importance, particularly in Africa and the Middle East. In infected livestock such as cattle, sheep, goats and camels, abortions and high death rates are common. In people (who can get the virus from butchering infected animals), the disease can be fatal.

•Sleeping sickness: Also known as trypanosomiasis, this disease affects people and animals. It is caused by the protozoan, Trypanosoma brucei, and transmitted by the tsetse fly. The disease is endemic in certain regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, affecting 36 countries, with estimates of 300,000 new cases every year and more than 40,000 human deaths each year in eastern Africa. Effects of climate change on tsetse fly distributions could play a role in the distribution of the disease.

•Tuberculosis: As humans have moved cattle around the world, bovine tuberculosis has also spread. It now has a global distribution and is especially problematic in Africa, where it was introduced by European livestock in the 1800s. Climate change impacts on water availability due to drought are likely to increase the contact of wildlife and livestock at limited water sources, resulting in increased transmission of the disease between livestock and wildlife and livestock and humans.

•Yellow fever: Found in the tropical regions of Africa and parts of Central and South America, this virus is carried by mosquitoes, which will spread into new areas as changes in temperatures and precipitation levels permit. One type of the virus-jungle yellow fever-can be spread from primates to humans and vice-versa via mosquitoes that feed on both hosts.

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Italy's illegal fishing threatens tuna species: WWF

Reuters 7 Oct 08;

ROME (Reuters) - Italy overshot its quota of bluefin tuna last year by five times, showing that rules meant to save the giant fish from extinction were failing, the conservationist group WWF said on Tuesday in a report.

WWF said Italy was 700 tonnes over quota and has a fishing fleet capable of landing twice what it is legally allowed.

"Italy's illegal activity in the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery is not just a threat to this magnificent species, but also jeopardizes the future of those trying to fish this resource in a sustainable and legal way," said Michele Candotti of WWF, formerly the World Wildlife Fund.

Italy has launched legal proceedings against the European Commission for curtailing the hunting season and says it did not reach its tuna quota this year due to the European ban which also applies to Cyprus, France, Greece, Malta and Spain.

The EC said in June that some Italian tuna fishing vessels exceeded their quota by between 100 and 240 percent this year.

Bluefin tuna are known for their huge size, power and speed, with maximum weights recorded in excess of 600 kg (1,300 lb). Since last year, market prices for the delicacy have tripled: in Japan a single fish can cost up to $100,000.

WWF analyzed trade data and used aerial surveys to monitor Italian fishing activities. It says spotter planes were regularly used to help fish the tuna -- a practice which has been outlawed, and that many Italian tuna catches were not recorded.

WWF said it would present its findings to the Commission and to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), which sets quotas and is due to meet next in November to review conservation measures.

WWF is calling for a moratorium on bluefin tuna hunting to allow stocks to recover from what it says are levels that endanger the species' survival.

It is also asking consumers, retailers and restaurants to boycott the fish which is a prized delicacy, especially in sushi and sashimi dishes where cuts are often known as toro or maguro.

(Reporting by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Italy's bluefin tuna fishing 'out of control': WWF
Yahoo News 7 Oct 07;

Italy's fishing of bluefin tuna is "totally out of control," the Worldwide Fund for Nature charged Tuesday, calling for a three-year moratorium on fishing for the species in the Mediterranean.

In a statement, the Italian section of the WWF denounced "widespread and repeated lawlessness over the course of years" in fishing for the lucrative species, which is highly prized in Japan.

WWF blamed Italy's overfishing on a "lack of control, clandestine fishing boats, unregistered transfers of live tuna to foreign fish farms (and) a presence of organised crime" among other factors.

In conclusions addressed to the European Commission and the Italian agriculture and fisheries ministry, WWF recalled the EU decision to halt industrial fishing of bluefin tuna in mid-June, two weeks early, because quotas for 2008 were already reached.

But Italy has exceeded the allowed catch for 2008 by "at least 700 tonnes," WWF said.

Both Italy and France opposed the decision, questioning the European Commission's figures and asserting that their fishing industries had not reached even half their quotas.

Large quantities of fish including bluefin tuna "are not registered at ports when they arrive," WWF said, adding that fish "are also sold illegally on markets infiltrated by the mafia."

The environmental group said fishermen also make illegal use of aircraft to spot schools of bluefin.

It said 283 Italian boats are plying the waters for bluefin, nearly 100 more than the authorised number.

Calling for the moratorium, WWF said 2007 was already a "dire" year for bluefin, with quotas exceeded by 40 percent.

An independent panel said last month that the management of bluefin tuna fishing in the Mediterranean was "an international disgrace."

After reviewing the performance of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), it recommended an immediate suspension of all fishing for East Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna.

Today more than 50,000 tonnes of bluefin tuna are caught every year in the Mediterranean. To prevent stocks from collapsing, that figure should be limited to 15,000 tonnes in the short term, according to ICCAT.

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Thirteen per cent of the world's land surface is now a protected area

Louise Gray, The Telegraph 7 Oct 08;

More than a tenth of the world is now protected for future generations, according to a scientists.

The massive landscape, which is equivalent to the US, EU and Indonesia combined or the total of the world's croplands, marks a significant step forward for the conservation community.

However the figure also highlights the importance of protecting the world's oceans of which less than 0.5 per cent are currently protected.

Mark Spalding, senior marine scientist with The Nature Conservancy, summarised information to date on the world's protected areas in a new book.

He said: "Protecting nature's special places is something that lies close to the hearts of millions of people the world over. Their benefits are immense, for biodiversity and for people. Amidst the doom and gloom of the many very real problems facing the planet, it's great to step back and see what we've achieved."

The book, The World's Protected Areas, examines the relationship between people and protected areas, investigates threats and opportunities, cites the history of protected areas, provides expert conservation advice and celebrates the success of protected areas around the world.

Protected areas have been established in every country and territory on Earth as a means to protect nature as well as the species and livelihoods that rely on a particular ecosystem.

Originally the world conservation movement hoped to have 10 per cent of the world's surface under protection but it is now 13 per cent.

However Dr Spalding said there are areas and ecosystems still at risk. Of particular concern are freshwater systems.

Other ecosystems singled out for concern include tropical dry forests, temperate grasslands, cold deserts and semi-deserts, and Mediterranean systems. He also pointed out that protected areas are at continued risk from climate change, mismanagement and invasive species.

He added: "Bringing protected areas up to scale in all of the world's oceans is a top priority.

"It's not just a case of protecting beautiful places or vulnerable species, marine protected areas can be a lifeline to fishers, will help establish food security and support the replenishment of dwindling and poorly managed fish-stocks."

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World needs to rethink biofuels: U.N. food agency

Robin Pomeroy and Svetlana Kovalyova, Reuters 7 Oct 08;

ROME/MILAN (Reuters) - The Western world needs to rethink its rush to biofuels, which has done more harm pushing up food prices than it has good by reducing greenhouse gases, a United Nations report said on Tuesday.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said policies encouraging biofuel production and use in Europe and the United States was likely to maintain pressure on food prices but have little impact on weaning car users away from oil.

"The report finds that while biofuels will offset only a modest share of fossil energy use over the next decade they will have much bigger impacts on agriculture and food security," it said in its annual State of Food and Agriculture report.

Growing demand for biofuels will boost prices of agricultural commodities in the next 10 years, the report said.

For instance, if demand for biofuel agricultural feedstock rose 30 percent by 2010 from 2007, it would drive sugar prices up by 26 percent, maize prices by 11 percent and vegetable oil prices by 6 percent, FAO said.

With global stocks low and crops strongly dependent on weather, food prices would remain volatile, it said.

Anti-hunger campaigners have blamed biofuels, which convert crops such as maize, sugar, oil seeds and palm oil into liquid fuel for use in cars, for pushing up global food prices, contributing to soaring food bills in the last two years.

The global food import bill is expected to jump 26 percent to $1,035 billion in 2008, powered by price rises in rice, wheat and vegetable oils, FAO said.

Looking ahead to 2010, FAO forecast a 7 percent rise in the world output of main agricultural crops -- wheat, rice, coarse grains, rapeseed, soybean, sunflower seed, palm oil and sugar -- compared to 2007.

URGENT

The food versus fuel debate was stoked last year when then U.N. envoy on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, said using arable land to make fuel was a "crime against humanity."

The FAO report uses far less dramatic language and does not quantify biofuels' contribution to commodity price spikes which were also due to poor harvests and demand for a richer diet in places like China and India.

But it does say the rise in biofuels has put more people at risk of hunger and requiring food aid and other assistance.

It also pours doubt on the claim that biofuels reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Crops soak up CO2 -- the main greenhouse gas blamed for climate change -- when they grow, but fuel used in their cultivation and processing reduces that efficiency and if trees are cleared to plant them, any gains can be lost.

"In many cases, increased emissions from land-use change are likely to offset or even exceed the greenhouse gas savings obtained by replacing fossil fuels with biofuels, and impacts on water, soil and biodiversity are also a concern," FAO said.

With the exception of sugar cane ethanol production in Brazil, biofuel production only thrives when subsidized.

"There is an urgent need to review current policies supporting, subsidizing and mandating biofuel production and use," the report said, recommending more funding be directed to "second generation" biofuels which will come from non-food plant matter such as straw or algae.

Transportation accounts for 29 percent of the world's total energy consumption and only 0.9 percent of that comes from biofuels, a proportion that the International Energy Agency says could rise to 2.3 percent by 2015 and 3.2 percent by 2030.

Biofuels' rise could provide an opportunity for farmers in developing countries to develop the new cash crops, the report said, but that would only happen if subsidy regimes were changed to favor poorer countries rather than richer ones.

(Editing by Christopher Johnson)

Biofuel boom threatens food security, UN agency warns
Gina Doggett Yahoo News 7 Oct 08;

The UN food agency cast doubt Tuesday on the potential of biofuels to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions while warning that their development threatens food security.

"The expanded use and production of biofuels will not necessarily contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions as was previously assumed," Food and Agriculture Organisation Director General Jacques Diouf told a news conference.

The FAO also warned that massive subsidies in wealthy countries limit opportunities elsewhere to profit from the boom in biofuels.

"Trade policies vis-a-vis biofuels discriminate against developing-country producers of biofuel feedstocks and impede the emergence of biofuel processing and exporting sectors in developing countries," the FAO's annual flagship report said.

Diouf, unveiling the report, urged a review of policies on subsidies, tax incentives, tariffs and mandated blending of biofuels with fossil fuels.

The FAO also predicts that food prices will continue to rise as demand grows for biofuels despite their limited importance in terms of global energy supply.

"The risks for food security concerns loom large," Diouf said.

"While some of the other factors may subside, growing demand for agricultural products for the production of biofuels will continue to put upward pressure on food prices for a considerable time to come," he added.

Biofuel production using agricultural commodities more than tripled from 2000 to 2007, and now covers nearly two percent of the world's consumption of transport fuels.

The report, titled "Biofuels: Prospects, Risks and Opportunities," finds that while biofuels will offset only a modest share of fossil energy use over the next decade, they will have much bigger impacts on agriculture and food security.

"We hope that, in general, countries that are pushing for rapid expansion of biofuels will reconsider the pace of that expansion," said FAO expert Keith Weibe.

Diouf also voiced concern that the financial crisis sweeping the world will divert attention as well as "capacity, willingness (and) priority that governments will be giving to the issue of food security."

Brazil's sugarcane-based ethanol is the only biofuel that can compete with fossil fuels, the report said, noting that its production costs are the lowest.

"Even taking into account recent rises in oil prices, among the major producers only Brazilian sugarcane ethanol currently appears to be competitive with fossil fuel counterparts without subsidies."

Wiebe told the news conference: "Our analysis shows that if support measures (subsidies) were reduced or eliminated, global levels would fall but Brazil's would increase."

The FAO report also discussed the environmental impact of changes in land use.

"Possible negative environmental effects -- on land and water resources, as well as on biodiversity -- occur largely because of changes in land use," it said. Biofuel production "strongly enhances the risk of large-scale land-use change and the associated environmental threats," it said.

"The challenge is to reduce or manage the risks while sharing the benefits more widely," Diouf said. "The outcome depends on the specific context of the country and the policies adopted."

The FAO chief wrote in the report: "The emergence of biofuels as a new and significant source of demand for some agricultural commodities -- including maize, sugar, oilseeds and palm oil -- contributes to higher prices for agricultural commodities in general, and for the resources used to produce them.

"For the majority of poor households who consume more food than they produce, higher prices can pose a serious threat to food security -- especially in the short term," he said.

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Evidence of warming growing: Pachauri

Alister Doyle, Reuters 7 Oct 08;

BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Evidence is mounting day by day that mankind is to blame for climate change, and the financial crisis is a temporary setback in the hunt for solutions, the head of the U.N. Climate Panel said on Tuesday.

Rajendra Pachauri, whose panel shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. vice president Al Gore, said the downturn could dominate for 2-3 months before politicians return to focus on fixing long-term problems like global warming.

"The evidence ... is getting stronger by the day. We have much more evidence available of what the human role is in climate change," he told Reuters by phone from India. "One has every reason to take action on what's already been said."

Pachauri's panel, which draws on the work of 2,500 scientists, said last year that it was at least 90 percent sure that mankind was to blame for warming and forecast more droughts, heatwaves, floods and rising sea levels.

He said at the moment everything seemed to be "on the back burner" because of worries about the financial system. "I'm absolutely sure that climate change will be the last thing people will think about at this point in time."

"But it's not going to go away," he said. "Sooner or later, they will come back to it." Arctic sea ice, for instance, shrank to its smallest ever recorded area in September 2007, and came close to breaking the record last month.

SOUL SEARCHING

He dismissed some skeptics' view that global warming has stopped because the warmest year since records began in the mid-19th century was 1998. That year was warmed by a strong El Nino weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean.

"Eleven of the last 12 years have been the warmest ever recorded. The trend is very clear," he said.

He predicted that the financial crunch would bring "soul searching about how society might act to reduce dependence on fossil fuels" and shift to renewable energies such as wind, solar or hydropower.

More than 190 governments have agreed to work out a new U.N. climate treaty by the end of 2009 to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which binds 37 industrialized nations to make cuts in emissions of an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Pachauri said he hoped that the world could agree strong action by the end of 2009.

He said that the next U.S. president, whether Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain, would do more to fight climate change. And he expressed optimism that McCain could fight off skepticism by some Republicans.

He played down the role of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska who says natural shifts may explain climate change alongside human influences.

"I wouldn't really worry too much about her," he said, predicting she would have little influence on the issue.

"My feeling is that, in 2-3 months from now, or soon after the new president takes office (in January), he is going to have to look to permanent solutions ... and climate change is going to be an important part of this."

He said the next president "really has a tough job on his hands."

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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Economic woes may give planet a breather

Michele Kambas, Reuters 7 Oct 08;

NICOSIA (Reuters) - A slowdown in the world economy may give the planet a breather from the excessively high carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions responsible for climate change, a Nobel Prize winning scientist said on Tuesday.

Atmospheric scientist Paul J Crutzen, who has in the past floated the possibility of blitzing the stratosphere with sulfur particles to cool the earth, said clouds gathering over the world economy could ease the earth's environmental burden.

Slower economic growth worldwide could help slow growth of carbon dioxide emissions and trigger more careful use of energy resources, though the global economic turmoil may also divert focus from efforts to counter climate change, said Crutzen, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the depletion of the ozone layer.

"It's a cruel thing to say ... but if we are looking at a slowdown in the economy, there will be less fossil fuels burning, so for the climate it could be an advantage," Crutzen told Reuters in an interview.

"We could have a much slower increase of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere ... people will start saving (on energy use) ... but things may get worse if there is less money available for research and that would be serious."

CO2 emissions, released by the burning of fossil fuels in power stations, factories, homes and vehicles, are growing at almost 3.0 percent a year.

The U.N. Panel on Climate Change estimates that world temperatures may rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius (3.2-7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) this century. The Group of Eight industrial nations agreed in July to a goal of halving world emissions by 2050.

Crutzen was in Cyprus for a lecture organized by the Cyprus Institute, a research foundation.

He caused a stir with the publication of a paper in 2006 suggesting that injecting the common pollutant sulfur into the stratosphere some 10 miles above the earth could snuff out the greenhouse effect.

He believes that dispersing 1 million tons of sulfur into the stratosphere each year, either on balloons or in rockets, would deflect sunlight and cool the planet.

Scientists observed that world temperatures dropped by 0.5 degrees centigrade on average when Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in 1991, spewing sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, and Crutzen said the idea originated with a Russian scientist about 30 years ago.

"I am not saying we should do it, but it is one of the options if we continue under present conditions. We should study it," he said. "If you look beyond a decade, two decades, and nothing has been done (to counter warming) then we will have a very serious problem on our hands."

Sulfur is a component of acid rain, which has harmful effects on plants and fish.

"Acid rain is caused by sulfur dioxide emissions from the ground, from the chimneys, and it's 50 million tons per year. The experiment in the stratosphere would be one million tons of sulfur per year. It's negligible," he said.

It would be an extreme endeavor, but for extreme circumstances, he said.

In a 2007 report, the U.N. climate change panel said such geo-engineering options were largely speculative and unproven, with the risk of unknown side effects. Reliable cost estimates had not been published, it said.

"The price is not a major factor... it's peanuts," said Crutzen. "The cost has been estimated by some at 10, 20 million U.S. dollars a year."

(Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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Global financial crisis may help Amazon rainforest

Raymond Colitt, Reuters 7 Oct 08;

BRASILIA (Reuters) - A global economic slowdown could help reduce destruction of the Amazon rainforest due to lower commodity prices and Brazil should set targets to limit deforestation, the country's environment minister said on Tuesday.

Carlos Minc, 57, also said at the Reuters Global Environment Summit in Brasilia that suspicions about foreign nongovernmental groups, or NGOs, operating in the Amazon were exaggerated.

Some nationalists in Congress, the military, and government say that the growing presence of foreigners in the Amazon is undermining Brazil's sovereignty and fueling deforestation.

"I think these accusations are being exaggerated. There are a few companies and NGOs linked to biopiracy. But they are the overwhelming minority," Minc said, referring to groups who allegedly smuggle plants to pharmaceutical laboratories abroad for commercial development.

"Today the Amazon unfortunately is destroyed mostly by Brazilians," said Minc, wearing one of a large collection of colorful vests that have become his trademark.

"Often the big loggers accuse NGOs like Greenpeace or WWF because they're not happy with criticism against themselves," said Minc, who won the United Nations Global 500 Award in 1989 for his conservation efforts.

Since taking office as minister in May, the founder of the Green Party in Brazil cracked down on illegal cattle ranchers and soy farmers, suspended the construction of hydroelectric dams and roads, and is promoting forestry management to help conserve the world's largest rainforest.

The fall in commodity prices resulting from a global economic slowdown will reinforce the government's own efforts in curbing deforestation, said Minc, who fought the 1964-85 military dictatorship as a student leader and was arrested at the age of 18 and exiled.

"It's true that the reduction of commodity prices reduces (deforestation) pressure but we don't want to depend on an external factor to protect the Amazon," Minc said.

Government measures include agreements with meat packers and saw mills not to buy meat and timber from illegally logged areas of the Amazon.

TARGETS

Brazilian diplomats and industry leaders have for years rejected proposals to adopt deforestation targets, saying wealthy countries needed to do more to help conserve what has been billed as the "lung of the world" for its biodiversity, abundance of fresh water, and ability to store carbon.

Now that other countries are beginning to contribute to an Amazon Fund to be officially launched on October 21, it is time the government formalizes its pledge to reduce deforestation with an official target, said Minc.

"I'm in favor," he said of the targets, which he believes Brazil could adopt in coming years.

The government last month announced voluntary objectives to end net deforestation within seven years, mostly by planting trees for commercial use and thereby reducing pressure on Amazon resources.

The Amazon Fund aims to finance conservation and sustainable development projects.

After a pledge of $100 million from Norway, the government is now talking to the governments of Sweden, South Korea and Japan and hopes to raise $1 billion within a year, Minc said.

Some countries were wary of donating to the fund without any say in how the money is spent. But a reassurance of its good use, Minc said, is that the government can only draw on the fund if it reduced deforestation during the previous calendar year.

(Additional reporting by Fernando Exman; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

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