A Pied Triller comes a-calling
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
Sentosa on April Fool's Day
on the teamseagrass blog
More Sentosa surprises
on the wild shores of singapore blog and special mangrove tree at Sentosa and the Tiup tiup tree
Updates On Okenia Nudibranch
on the colourful clouds blog
Rubble runner
on the annotated budak blog and two more
Rickety Lim Chu Kang pier
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog and law-abiding monkeys
All out for the Sipadan vote
Daily Express 1 Apr 09;
Kota Kinabalu: The State Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry, through the Sabah Tourism Board (STB), is embarking on an all-out "Vote for Sipadan" campaign to promote the island as one of the world's New Seven Wonders of Nature.
The island, also known as a dive haven among divers worldwide, is currently on 17th place under the island category in the on-going search for the new wonders of nature, which is being carried out via an Internet online voting system.
Sipadan still needs more votes to make it to the top 77 by group categories in the second stage period from January to July 7 this year. It must be in 11th place under the island category within these three months to go to the next round.
Sipadan is one of the 261 national and multinational nominees from 222 countries which participated in the New Seven Wonders of Nature search.
It went through the first stage - the National Qualification - on Dec. 31 last year.
"We will work together with Tourism Malaysia, dive operators, hotels and travel agents, the press and government agencies in disseminating information to the public and tourists to vote Sipadan," said State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun in a press conference to announce the campaign, Tuesday.
They will also go to schools and colleges to conduct talks on this as well as write to all the elected representatives in the country on top of a cyber campaign.
Malaysians in Sabah can vote for Sipadan under the island category via website address: www.sabahtourism.com or directly at www.new7wonders.com/nature.
"Let's show the world that Sipadan too has what it takes to become one of the seven Wonders of Nature," said Masidi, adding that Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman had himself already agreed to provide a special allocation for effort.
He said Sabah is currently also getting help from Professional Association of Diving Instructor (PADI), an international organisation which comprises 80 per cent of the certified divers in the world, in fishing for votes for Sipadan.
Meanwhile, Masidi said Sipadan island which is still under the Federal Government's jurisdiction is expected to be returned to the State Government's administration soon.
Sipadan had been under the Federal Government's jurisdiction pending the outcome of the dispute on the sovereignty of the island between Malaysia and Indonesia, he said, adding the Federal Government is now finalising a move to transfer the jurisdiction back to the State Government now that the matter had been resolved.
"Only then (after the jurisdiction returns to the State Government) we can sit down and discuss how to manage it better. The Attorney-General is looking into it. The process is on track and hopefully it would be immediate," he said.
Currently only a limited number of divers at a time are allowed to dive at more than 10 dive spots around the island as part of conservation efforts, he said, confident that Sipadan island will greatly boost the State's tourism industry by being one of the new Seven Wonders of Nature.
Straits Times Forum 2 Apr 09;
WE AT the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) would like to thank Mr Lor Choon Yee for his letter, 'Switching off lights alone won't save Mother Earth', on Monday. He is absolutely right. It won't.
But the larger objective of the Earth Hour campaign just might help us make a start.
Ultimately, climate change has three major imperatives: urgency, a global effort and leadership. In line with these, Earth Hour's primary objective was to provide a sense of urgency - that we must act now. By creating an 'hour' for focus, we hope that we achieved this urgency.
The secondary objective for Earth Hour was to highlight that when we unite and work together, we can achieve change. Certainly the event demonstrated a growing momentum all over the world to make change a reality beyond one single hour or one single person.
And having made a change once, we are now asking individuals to consider permanently changing their behaviour - why not reset your air-conditioner, recycle more or take public transport?
But the third objective is perhaps the most important of all. Earth Hour was designed to provide a global visual spectacle representing a mandate from one billion people who believe in the need for action on climate change.
This vote is now in the hands of world leaders who will be gathering in Copenhagen in December for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
At WWF, this is the space in which our work will continue over the next eight months. We will be encouraging world leaders to step up to meet this challenge and achieve a just, science- based and effective agreement.
But what of the question of energy usage? Interestingly, a recent WWF report, 'Climate Solutions: The WWF Vision for 2050', concluded that the technologies and sustainable energy resources known or available today are in fact sufficient to meet the growing global energy demand while avoiding dangerous climatic change.
Moreover, there is still sufficient time to build up and deploy them, but only if the necessary decisions are made in the next three years.
That's why for us, Earth Hour's contribution by the micro (through the people) is critical to make a difference to the macro (infrastructure and policy).
This is the space in which we can truly save Mother Earth, and the space in which we hope the people of Singapore will continue to engage with and support the WWF in achieving its goal.
Carine Seror (Ms)
Director, Corporate Responsibility
(& Earth Hour Campaign Manager)
World Wide Fund for Nature
Why not every month?
Murali Sharma, Today Online 2 Apr 09;
Is one hour a year to observe Earth Hour good enough?
Why not try one hour a month, on the last Saturday of each month? Saving the Earth cannot only be about saving electricity.
We need to adopt a total approach — conserving water, not littering, reusing waste and others.
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 2 Apr 09;
INDIA'S GMR Group is intent on pushing ahead with Singapore's long-stalled $1.5 billion Island Power project through its half- owned unit Intergen.
'We are optimistic the project can be commissioned soon,' GMR International CEO Ranjit Murugason said here yesterday.
But he would not give a time line for construction of the 785-megawatt (MW) plant, saying only that 'the commissioning date is currently under review'.
Mr Murugason was speaking at a news conference to launch GMR's South-east Asian regional headquarters - its first Asian office outside India.
The company is keen on a generating presence here after it bid unsuccessfully last year for Tuas Power and Senoko Power when Temasek Holdings put them on the block.
Reflecting this, the Singapore office 'will for the immediate future focus on power generation projects', said GMR's South-east Asian head Ng Quek Peng, a former managing director with Temasek.
Mr Murugason said GMR, which is also into infrastructure projects such as airport expansions in Delhi and Hyderabad, has for the past four months been looking at the Island Power project and considers it an excellent idea.
'We have high expectations of the project's return on investment,' he said.
GMR's push for Island Power follows its US$1.1 billion acquisition last October of a half-stake in Intergen, which has been trying to build Island's project here since 2002.
'We don't envisage any issue over gas supplies,' Mr Murugason said, without saying directly whether Island would use liquefied natural gas (LNG), which will be available here when the planned LNG terminal on Jurong Island is ready around mid-2010.
But Island clearly still wants to pursue its initial plan to use piped natural gas (PNG), with Mr Murugason stressing that the project is exempt from an Energy Market Authority (EMA) freeze on further imports of PNG for power generation, at least until the LNG terminal is on its feet.
BT reported in February that Island was trying to negotiate a new PNG deal while awaiting a response to its appeal to the Ministry of Trade and Industry against an EMA decision that it cannot access Singapore's gas pipeline network unless it has a natural gas supply deal in hand.
It was a Catch 22 for Island - its earlier agreement to buy 110 million cu ft of gas daily was cancelled by Indonesian gas regulator BPMigas after it failed to gain access to the Singapore pipeline.
Through Intergen, GMR has 808MW of operational power projects in India, among 7,658MW worldwide.
Its Singapore HQ will help oversee power projects in Australia and the Philippines and coal mines in Indonesia.
Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia 1 Apr 09;
Singapore: Scenes few probably never imagined they'd see of Singapore have come to light through video sharing website YouTube.
The little known documentary called 'Singapore - Crossroads of the East 1938' was posted on the site by Global ImageWorks, a company that deals in stock footage.
As of April, the video has generated more than 30,000 views on YouTube including one Singapore cabinet member and active netizen, Foreign Minister George Yeo, who posted a link to the video on his Facebook social networking site.
It was the work of an American filmmaker in the days when the film camera was as uncommon as the cars and trucks featured in the approximately 11-minute feature of turn of the century Singapore.
The creator of the filmlet, Andre De la Varre, was a cameraman and cinematographer who created a series of travel documentaries in the 1930s.
It is not known why he chose Singapore as a subject, but one reason could be postcards from the 'exotic East' as De la Varre is said to have often based his topics on postcards he received from fans around the world.
De la Varre died at the age of 85 in 1987. But his work has lived on to reach a worldwide audience.
Those who cannot imagine Singapore without its modern high-rise skyline get a treat with the filmlet, complete with bullock carts, rickshaws and familiar spots that still can be found today on the island nation.
The National Archives of Singapore said the black and white scenes depict Singapore's development from the 1900s to the 1950s.
However, as Irene Lim, Deputy Director of the National Archives of Singapore pointed out, it is important to verify the accuracy of information.
"(The Internet) is the tool that people use nowadays. So it is one of the platforms and you could use that perhaps as a starting point to obtain some leads and from there you could perhaps go on to do more advanced research to make sure that information you want to use from the Internet is reliable and authentic," she said.
"So for example, footage of 1930s Singapore - you want to verify whether the information is accurate. You could, for example, look at archival photographs from that period and could use that to verify against the footage," she added.
One way is to go to the Access to Archives Online Website at www.a2o.com.sg, which has a collection of photos, documents and audio visual stock that has been authenticated by the National Archives.- CNA/sf
James Porteous ScienceAlert 1 Apr 09;
At Pemuteran, five hours driving northwest of Denpasar’s action, the silhouettes of Java’s massive volcanoes set the dramatic backdrop to a proud fishing community, its traditionally painted luggers pulled up on the beach.
Less than 10 years ago things weren’t so good. The once thriving near-shore coral ecosystem which had supplied food and income to generations of families lay devastated by dual forces. Over-harvesting, cyanide poisoning and bombing by cash-poor fishermen, and then a massive bleaching event in 1998, had virtually destroyed the marine garden.
With its demise came the decline of livelihoods for the local people, many of whom had also relied on the flow-on benefits of diving tourism hosted by adjacent hotels.
It is a scenario common around Indonesia’s 17 500 islands. But, for Pemuteran, the confluence of two men’s ideals, their simple marine electrical technology and the will of the villagers for change has yielded a better fate, setting a powerful example for global reef conservation.
Dr Thomas Goreau has dedicated most of his life to understanding and preserving coral reefs around the world, including Indonesia’s. Together with research partner the late Professor Wolf Hilbertz, an architect, marine scientist and inventor, Dr Goreau developed the Biorock Process.1 Based on mineral accretion technology invented by Professor Hilbertz, the process became an ingenious means of restoring healthy coral growth, supporting mariculture and protecting shorelines.
The method delivers safe, low voltage electrical currents via cables, and through seawater, to submerged metal reef structures. This causes dissolved minerals to crystallise out onto the structures as a white limestone substrate (similar to that which naturally makes up coral reefs and tropical white sand beaches), meanwhile accelerating the formation and growth of the skeletons of corals and other shell-bearing animals – at two to six times natural rates.
The structures eventually become rapidly colonised by a full range of coral reef organisms, including fish, crabs, clams, octopus, lobster and sea urchins. Species typically found in healthy reef environments are given an electrical advantage over the weedy organisms which often overgrow them in reefs stressed by humans. According to Dr Goreau, if the current is maintained, coral reefs can often be restored in areas where water quality would prevent their recovery by any other method.
In 1998, fully aware of the significance of Pemuteran’s reefs, Dr Goreau made attempts to start reef restoration there. But it was in the middle of the Asian Economic Crisis and coral reef destruction was ‘totally out of control’.
By 2000, with rising concern about the deterioration of their reef and livelihoods, villagers had started action to prevent use of destructive fishing methods on their reefs, whether by locals or by outsiders, forming de facto marine patrol groups. Following a workshop in coral reef restoration in Bangkok in May that year, Yos Amerta, President of the Bali branch of the Indonesian Watersports Federation, invited Dr Goreau and Professor Hilbertz to start their restoration projects at Pemuteran.
‘It took us two more years to find local support,’ Dr Goreau reflects. ‘But Pemuteran’s “Karang Lestari” (“Protected Coral”) community project has since steadily grown for eight years and is now the largest reef restoration project in the world.’
Scraping together funds from personal donors, and local hotels or businesses, the researchers led the construction and installation of 28 initial Biorock coral nursery structures along half a kilometre of what became the Pemuteran Village Marine Protected Area. With prospects of returning catches and dive tourists, they eventually had the cooperation of the entire community, including the fishermen, the Municipality of Pemuteran, local dive shops and hotels, and other local stakeholders and volunteers. Covering an area of nearly 10 000 square metres, this reef nursery and restoration site exceeds the combined sizes of other Biorock projects ongoing in the Pacific, Caribbean and Indian oceans.
Around 50 structures, of various geometric design, now stretch out offshore. More are being added each year as funds are raised, and the community is running the ongoing building, monitoring and maintenance. Cooperation and crosssupport were the key.
The five or so hotels and dive shops that line the shore were instrumental in providing the power and cable facilities for the project, as well as promotion, fundraising, dive support, monitoring and education of workers and vistors. It’s in everyone’s interest to have the reef back.
Local businessman Agung Prana, who established the Taman Sari Hotel, was heavily involved in recent progress as part of his dedication to Pemuteran. He had worked to convince the community to rise to the challenge, to help turn the fishermen from poachers into conservationists, and now uses business funds to support the project’s expansion.
His partner, Rani Morrow-Wuigk, helps run the hotel and is treasurer, co-ordinator and archivist for Karang Lestari. Together with Komang Astika, a dedicated young Balinese who qualified as a dive master and is now the project manager, Rani helps with day-to-day operations from a Biorock information hut on the foreshore.
‘Things are going well,’ Rani says, ‘but we rely on a trickle of visitor donations through our “Sponsor a coral” scheme to run. Luckily, the goodwill is growing too.’ For US$35, donors get a project certificate and their name in wire fixed to a chosen structure, where it becomes new coral habitat. A photo of it in situ arrives by email later.
Komang is happy. His passion for the project is clear, and he’s out checking the burgeoning corals and their fish tennants every day as part of a new career. ‘They’re my family,’ he says. ‘The fishermen respect me. There are many more fish available now, and there is pride.’
The Pemuteran Reef Gardeners Program, meanwhile, is training young people from the village to dive, and employs them to maintain and restore their coral reef resources. This is what Tom Goreau and Wolf Hilbertz foresaw. ‘Such projects, giving the community the knowledge and skills to bring back their coral reefs and fisheries, are needed everywhere,’ Dr Goreau emphasises.
‘This project has transformed barren areas of dead coral with very few fish into lush reefs full of colourful and exceptionally rapidly growing corals swarming with fish – on the Biorock structures themselves as well as in the surrounding areas.
‘Those who see it are absolutely amazed, because they did not believe it possible to restore such a complex ecosystem so quickly in places where little or no natural recovery was taking place. Those who have not seen these projects continue to deny that they are possible.
‘We have already lost most of the world’s corals and there is little time left to restore damaged reefs before they vanish. But the head-in-the-sand attitude of governments and funding agencies has resulted in denial – of both the problems and solutions – and blocking of funds by the international community to help coastal fishing communities in poor countries to grow back their rapidly vanishing living resources.
‘It is now just a matter of the next record hot year for us to lose most of the little coral left,’ he relays emphatically.
‘When that happens, Biorock reefs may be all we have left in many places, because the corals we grow have 16 to 50 times higher survival from heat shock than surrounding reefs.’
Biorock projects can be powered by a wide range of electrical sources including renewable energy such as windmills, photovoltaic solar panels and tidal current generators. This means they can even restore the magic of reef ecosystems in areas where conventional electric power is unavailable.
More information:
Pemuteran’s Biorock and Karang Lestari project
Global Coral Reef Alliance
Biorock® is a registered trademark of Biorock, Inc. The Biorock Process is owned by Biorock, Inc.
Questions on UK National Parks
Cahal Milmo, The Independent 2 Apr 09;
Why are we asking this question now?
Some 60 years after its 627 square miles of chalk upland and river valleys spreading from Sussex to Hampshire were first recommended for preservation, the South Downs this week became Britain's newest national park. The announcement by the Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, came after years of campaigning and legal wrangling over the areas to be included in the park, which stretches from Eastbourne to Winchester. Conservation groups heralded the decision as proof of a renewed determination in Government circles to extend powerful protection to unique landscapes.
What is so special about the South Downs?
Shaped by centuries of sheep grazing and farming, the Downs have provided inspiration for innumerable admirers. William Blake was moved to describe "England's mountains green" in his poem, Jerusalem, while Rudyard Kipling, a long-time resident, wrote of "our blunt, bow-headed, whale-backed Downs". With about 39 million visitors each year, the new national park will be by some distance the most popular in Britain and one of the most visited in the world. Campaigners point out that the location of the Downs in the heart of the South East and sandwiched between the population centres of the south coast and London means it is a vital "green lung" for the region. The unique mixture of habitats, from windswept grassland to coastal wetland, means it is host to important wildlife species such as colonies of Barbastelle and Bechstein's bats, woodland butterflies such as the pearl-bordered fritillary and rare birds including the nightjar and Dartford warbler.
What are the national parks and where are they?
The South Downs will become Britain's 15th – and England's ninth - national park when it becomes fully operational in 2011. The parks were born in 1949 with the National Parks Act, described as "the most exciting Act of the post-war Parliament" and a recreational gift to Britain's returning Second World War service men and women. The first designated areas, established in 1951, were the Peak District, the Lake District, Snowdonia and Dartmoor. Each park is supervised by a National Park Authority, which takes responsibility for areas such as enforcing stringent planning regulations. By law, each authority has to "conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage" of each park as well as promote it to a wider audience and improve the social and economic well-being of the communities within its boundaries. The influence of the parks can be far reaching. Some 20 per cent of the land area of Wales is covered by its three national parks – Snowdonia, the Brecon Beacons and the Pembrokeshire Coast. The remaining English parks – the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, Exmoor, New Forest, Northumberland, North Yorkshire Moors and Yorkshire Dales – cover seven per cent of the land mass. Scotland's two parks - the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs – account for seven per cent of the land.
Who thought of them?
In 1810, William Wordsworth arguably planted the seed of the parks by describing the Lake District as "a sort of national property, in which every man has a right and an interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy". It took another 121 years before a British government even held its first inquiry into the creation of preserved spaces as a growing urban population began to seek access to the countryside. This friction between a mobile public and a landowning class long used to its privacy was graphically displayed in 1932 with the mass trespass on Kinder Scout in the Peak District, which led to the imprisonment of five protesters. The breakthrough came in 1947 with the landmark report by Sir Arthur Hobhouse which set out the philosophy for the national parks and put forward 12 suggestions for their location. Noting that every main population centre within England and Wales had to be within easy of a park, Sir Arthur said: "The essential requirements of a National Park are that it should have great natural beauty, a high value for open-air recreation and substantial continuous extent."
Who decides whether there should be a national park?
The genesis of the South Downs National Park would suggest the process of designation is long and tortuous. Natural England and its equivalents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are responsible for the process of gathering evidence and putting the case for a new park. In the case of the South Downs, John Prescott signalled New Labour's support for the project in 1999 but it was not until 2003 that a public inquiry began hearing evidence about the suitability of the scheme. Despite evidence of widespread public support, the park was opposed by six of the 15 local authorities within its boundaries. The final planning inspector's report was presented to the Government at the end of 2008, leaving it to Mr Benn to complete the final stage in the designation process this week by signalling his assent.
What difference do the parks make?
As well preserving the landscape within their boundaries in perpetuity, the parks are credited with providing an economic lifeline to the 433,600 people who call them home. Visitors to the South Downs, which has 165 miles of rights of way, spend £333m a year, of which £178m goes to businesses that employ about 8,000 people in the area. In the Yorkshire and Humber regions, which have the most national park land in England, visitors spend some £400m annually, supporting 12,000 jobs. Overall, the parks contribute an estimated £1.6bn a year to their local economies.
So everyone is delighted with them?
Not quite. Opponents to the South Downs park complained it would hinder the development of infrastructure and put planning decisions into the hands of "an unelected quango". Britain's national parks are unusual in consisting mainly of privately-owned land. Residents of "honeypot" towns such as Keswick in the Lake District and Bakewell in the Peak District complain that the popularity of the parks leads to overstretched services and gridlock in summer months. Soil erosion on popular footpaths and overgrazing by livestock have been identified as significant problems. There is also friction with Britain's armed forces over the continued use of the "national walking grounds" for military training. Campaigners have complained about live firing exercises in three parks and low flying by aircraft.
Are we going to get any more?
The addition of the South Downs means that all 12 of the areas originally identified in the 1947 Hobhouse Report are now designated National Parks. Further large-scale additions are unlikely – Cornwall and the north Pennines were considered and rejected 30 years ago. Conservationists hope to push the case for uniting the Lake District and North Yorkshire parks by extending their boundaries to include all of the Howgills – an area of fell land left out of the original boundaries. In Scotland, there are moves to create Britain's first marine national park covering the Outer Hebrides after the Isle of Harris voted to seek the status as a mean of reversing its depopulation.
So have we now got enough national parks?
Yes...
* This over-crowded island needs all the space it can find for sensitive development
* In 1947, the Government called for 12 national parks. Now we have 15
* National park authorities undermine the accountability of local government
No...
* The preservation of this over-crowded island's dwindling wilderness with new national parks is vital
* The economic benefits of the national parks are considerable, contributing £1.6bn to the economy.
* Marine national parks, well established abroad, have yet to arrive here
Yahoo News 1 Apr 09;
JAKARTA (AFP) – Environmental group Greenpeace called on Indonesia Wednesday to drop plans to tackle global climate change with credits for preserving forests, saying the measure could destroy carbon markets.
The Southeast Asian nation, a key backer of "avoided deforestation" measures that would award tradeable carbon credits for conservation, should abandon the plan in favour of funds to preserve forests, campaigner Bustar Maitar said.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should use meetings on the sidelines of the G20 meeting this week in London to push for a modified version of its draft Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degredation (REDD) plan, Maitar said.
The REDD plan should replace the proposed credits with a global fund, paid for by rich nations, to finance forest conservation efforts, he said.
"The market-oriented draft, which focuses more on investment rather than reducing deforestation, only benefits big (industrial) companies with huge emissions," Maitar said.
"Under the scheme, companies can easily pay for (forest) carbon credits while still being able to pollute. This won't help to reduce deforestation in this country," he said.
Greenpeace criticised Indonesia for failing to meet targets to reduce emissions from deforestation and allowing the clearing of carbon-rich peat lands.
The group said the government should introduce an immediate moratorium on deforestation and back the creation of a global carbon market that focuses on reducing industrial emissions, not deforestation.
A Greenpeace report this week argued plans to introduce forest credits could send carbon credit prices in a future market plummeting 75 percent, removing incentives for polluting industries to clean themselves up and stifling clean technologies.
Emissions from deforestation make up most of Indonesia's greenhouse gas emissions.
The country is widely considered the world's third-highest carbon emitter, behind the United States and China.
John Acher, PlanetArk 2 Apr 09;
OSLO - Brazilian senator and former environment minister Marina Silva won Norway's $100,000 Sophie Prize for her work to protect the Amazon rainforest, the prize foundation announced on Wednesday.
The Sophie Prize is awarded annually for environmental protection and sustainable development. It was set up in 1997 by Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder and is named after the main character of his book "Sophie's World."
Silva, who was environment minister in 2003-2008, clamped down on illegal activity in the forest, the Sophie Foundation said in its citation.
"During this period she reduced deforestation in the Amazon to historically low levels -- by 60 percent from 2004 to 2007," it said.
"Huge areas were conserved, more than 700 people were arrested for illegal activities in the forest, over 1,500 companies were closed down and equipment, properties and illegal timber were confiscated. These measures were effective."
Brazil's rainforest absorbs huge amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) -- the main gas blamed by scientists for global warming -- and rainforest conservation is crucial to limit the greenhouse effect and dramatic climate changes, the foundation said.
During Silva's last three years in government, deforestation was reduced to the second lowest level in 20 years, it said.
"She also balanced the concerns of indigenous peoples' traditional farming societies," it said.
Fred Pearce, New Scientist 1 Apr 09;
THE acres upon acres of lush tropical forest in the Amazon and tropical Africa are often referred to as the planet's lungs. But what if they are also its heart? This is exactly what a couple of meteorologists claim in a controversial new theory that questions our fundamental understanding of what drives the weather. They believe vast forests generate winds that help pump water around the planet.
If correct, the theory would explain how the deep interiors of forested continents get as much rain as the coast, and how most of Australia turned from forest to desert. It suggests that much of North America could become desert - even without global warming. The idea makes it even more vital that we recognise the crucial role forests play in the well-being of the planet.
Scientists have known for some time that forests recycle rain. Up to half the precipitation falling on a typical tropical rainforest evaporates or transpires from trees. This keeps the air above moist. Ocean winds can spread the moisture to create more rain. But now Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva of the St Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute in Russia say that forests also create winds that pump moisture across continents.
How can forests create wind? Water vapour from coastal forests and oceans quickly condenses to form droplets and clouds. The Russians point out that the gas takes up less space as it turns to liquid, lowering local air pressure. Because evaporation is stronger over the forest than over the ocean, the pressure is lower over coastal forests, which suck in moist air from the ocean. This generates wind that drives moisture further inland. The process repeats itself as the moisture is recycled in stages, moving towards the continent's heart (see diagram). As a result, giant winds transport moisture thousands of kilometres into the interior of a continent.
The volumes of water involved in this process can be huge. More moisture typically evaporates from rainforests than from the ocean. The Amazon rainforest, for example, releases 20 trillion litres of moisture every day.
"In conventional meteorology the only driver of atmospheric motion is the differential heating of the atmosphere. That is, warm air rises," Makarieva and Gorshkov told New Scientist. But, they say, "Nobody has looked at the pressure drop caused by water vapour turning to water." The scientists, whose theory is based on the basic physics that governs air movement have dubbed this the "biotic pump" and claim it could be "the major driver of atmospheric circulation on Earth". This is a dramatic claim. The two Russians argue that their biotic pump underlies many pressure-driven features of the tropical climate system, such as trade winds, and helps create intense local features like hurricanes.
To back up their hypothesis they show how regions without coastal forests, such as west Africa, become exponentially drier inland. Likewise, in northern Australia, rainfall drops from 1600 millimetres a year on the coast to 200 mm some 1500 kilometres inland. In contrast, on continents with large forests from the coast to interior, rainfall is as strong inland as on the coast, suggesting the trees help shuttle moisture inland (Ecological Complexity, DOI: 10.1016/j.ecocom.2008.11.004, in press). In the Congo, for instance, around 2000 mm of rain falls each year at the coast and the same amount falls inland. The same is true in the Amazon, the Siberian Arctic and the Mackenzie river basin in northern Canada. But the US, largely forested until recently, now seems be headed for desert. Makarieva and Gorshkov told New Scientist that without rapid reforestation "the degrading temperate forests of North America are on their way to desertification".
The Russians' ideas have languished since they were published in a small journal in 2007. "We are facing enormous difficulties in overcoming the initial resistance of the scientific community," they say. Antoon Meesters of the Free University in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, recently described it as "an untenable result of confused principles". Meesters does not dispute the physics behind the Russians' theory but claims the effect is negligible.
This week, a leading British forest scientist based at the Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation in Kabale, Uganda, came to the Russians' aid. In a review of the work in the journal Bioscience (DOI: 10.1525/bio.2009.59.4.12), Doug Sheil and his co-author Daniel Murdiyarso underline the importance of the idea. "Conventional models typically predict a 20 to 30 per cent decline in rainfall after deforestation," Sheil says. "Makarieva and Gorshkov suggest even localised clearing might ultimately switch entire continental climates from wet to arid, with rainfall declining by more than 95 per cent."
Sheil explains that current theory doesn't explain clearly how the lowlands in continental interiors maintain wet climates. "There is a missing element," Sheil says. The biotic pump "may be the answer". He calls the Russians' findings "a most profound insight into the impact of forest loss on climate. They will transform how we view forest loss, climate change and hydrology."
Many forest scientists are intrigued by the idea. "It makes perfect sense," says Andrew Mitchell, director of the Global Canopy Programme, Oxford, UK. "We know that coastal rainforests are critical to maintaining rainfall deep inland." He says it could offer a more convincing explanation for how Amazon rainfall is typically recycled six times.
The implications are global, he adds. "We think some of the recycled Amazon moisture is taken on a jet stream to South Africa, and more maybe to the American Midwest. Gorshkov and Makarieva are looking at the front end of an absolutely critical process for the world's climate." If their theory is correct, it means that large forests help kick-start the global water cycle. However, because forest models do not include the biotic pump, it is impossible to say what wiping the Amazon off the map would mean for rainfall worldwide.
The theory suggests that past civilisations could have had a much greater impact on global climate than we thought. Australia once had forests but is now largely desert. Gorshkov and Makarieva argue that Aborigines burning coastal forests may have switched the continent from wet to dry by shutting down its biotic pump.
Climatologists are already worried about the state of the Amazon rainforest. Last month, the UK's Met Office warned that if the planet warms by 4 degrees, 85 per cent of the forest could dry out and die. If Gorshkov and Makarieva are right, the Amazon will be gone before warming kicks in. They predict that even modest deforestation could shut down the pump and reduce rainfall in central Amazonia by 95 per cent.The same could happen in the world's other large rainforest regions, such as central Africa.
According to Richard Betts, head of climate impacts at the Met Office, "The jury is still out on whether the mechanism is significant or not. But the role of tropical forests in protecting us against climate change is severely underrated."
It's not all bad news. If natural forests can create rain, then planting forests can, too. Sheil says, if forests attract rain, then replanting deforested coastal regions could re-establish a biotic pump and bring back the rains. "Once forests are established, the pump would be powerful enough to water them. Could we one day afforest the world's deserts? Makarieva and Gorshkov's hypothesis suggests we might."
Jay Lindsay, Associated Press Yahoo News 1 Apr 09;
BOSTON – There's gold in that thar sea floor. Silver, copper, zinc and lead, too. The problem is, it's a mile or two underwater and encased in massive mineral deposits that layer a dark, mysterious world. But new technology and worldwide demand have combined to make mining for these metals economically feasible for the first time.
A breakthrough project is moving forward in New Guinea, and new rules to govern deep ocean mining will be set by an international authority this spring.
On Thursday, scientists, businessmen and policymakers from 20 countries meet on Cape Cod for a public forum on how to best extract these riches while protecting hidden worlds in the earth's oceans. Strange animals, from six-foot tubeworms to "blind" shrimp, thrive in water as acidic as battery acid, near "hydrothermal vents" that spew out mineral-laden liquid as hot as 750 degrees.
"It's a unique set of life down there. Frankly, we haven't found everything. We need make sure we go in with our eyes open," said Maurice Tivey, a geologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which is hosting the public ocean mining colloquium.
Scientists have long known about remarkably pure concentrations of metals found near some of the hydrothermal vents, nicknamed "black smokers" because they resemble underwater chimneys.
The vents sprout in areas with heavy seismic activity, including the mid-Atlantic ocean ridge and the Pacific's volcanic "Ring of Fire," which stretches along the west coast of the Americas, to Asia and down near New Zealand. There, the earth's spreading plates allow sea water to seep into the earth's crust, where it becomes heated, leaching precious minerals from the surrounding rock.
Eventually, the water is hot enough to become buoyant and bursts toward the surface, similar to when cold milk is poured into a cup of coffee, gets heated and rises to the top. The minerals cool in the frigid sea water and solidify into the deposits.
About 200 active vents have been found, though only 10 nearby deposits are considered prolific enough to mine, according to a report by the International Seabed Authority. Dormant vents are much tougher to locate, but the deposits around them may also be fruitful.
The ISA report indicates a single deposit could weigh 100 million tons.
"We want to cautious about concluding, in effect, that all our problems are solved. But clearly there's a possibility of significant quantities of resource there," said Rod Eggert of the Colorado School of Mines.
High demand for metals has fueled interest in deep ocean mining, as land-based resources get stretched and need increases in nations such as China and India, which have growing economies but relatively few natural resources. The projects cost hundreds of millions of dollars just to get started, and widespread ocean mining is years away. But new technology has investors seeing possibilities.
The first full-scale deep ocean mining project is being run by Canada-based Nautilus Minerals Inc., which is negotiating to mine an area about 1,600 meters (5,249 feet) deep off Papua, New Guinea, and hopes to be operating by 2011 or 2012. The project is piggybacking on technology developed by oil companies for deep water drilling, said Scott Trebilcock, Nautilus's vice president of business development.
Deposits would be extracted by 180-ton, remotely operated machines that oil companies developed to dig trenches for pipelines. The material is pumped in a mix of sea water to a ship on the surface, then pumped down so that the highly acidic water doesn't kill surface level sea life.
The Nautilus project is planned within New Guinea's territorial water, a 200-mile zone from every country's coastline where it has exclusive ocean floor mining rights. But Trebilcock said the rules set by the ISA at its annual session, beginning in late May, will likely set precedents for all projects.
Most of the earth's known hydrothermal vents are outside the 200-mile zones, in open ocean that is under the jurisdiction of ISA, which was established in 1982 by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The United States still has not signed onto the Law of the Sea treaty, which has been stalled for decades by Senate opponents who say it requires the country to surrender important sovereignty rights.
The United States has been consulted as the rules have been drafted, but proponents say the country could be shut out from future claims to deep ocean mines, since the seabed authority would award the rights.
The Obama administration has indicated it wants to sign the treaty, and this week's meeting at Woods Hole is proceeding as if the U.S. ultimately will have a say as a treaty participant.
The unique species that thrive near the vents are a chief concern of scientists, including marine geologist Peter Rona of Rutgers University, who discovered the Atlantic's first hydrothermal vents in the 1980s. He describes the area near the vents as "like another planet." Creatures there include footlong clams, man-length tubeworms and a shrimp species that has no eyes, but may have sensors that detect the vents' infrared radiation.
The species there may tell us more about the origins of life of earth, and even what life elsewhere might look like, Rona said. Already, he said, the species there have been a benefit. For instance, an enzyme from microbes found there are being used to enhance the flow of oil extracted from deep reservoirs.
"The mining needs to go forward, the environments need to be sustained and conserved," Rona said. "That's a challenge, but it's doable."
Jonathan Ernst, PlanetArk 2 Apr 09;
SAN FRANCISCO - U.S. environmental groups on Wednesday published online maps of the American West with vast areas that they said should be off-limits for renewable energy projects begun by the Obama administration.
President Barack Obama's plan to ramp up the country's renewable energy infrastructure has sparked some concerns among environmentalists who fear that a boom in solar and wind energy could endanger wildlife.
The western United States is home to sunny deserts and windy plains but also many endangered or threatened species.
"Developers have regularly come to me and said please, tell me where we should not go," said Johanna Wald, senior attorney for the National Resources Defense Council, which was one of two groups to issue the maps with "no-go" areas.
The National Audubon Society was the other.
The maps cover about half the continental United States and show legally prohibited sites, such as national parks, and areas that are key wildlife habitats -- where environmentalists might put up a fight with developers.
For instance, Audubon has mapped breeding areas for sage-grouse in Wyoming.
Wald, however, added that the maps were only a first step for developers and that other areas could be declared off limits. "We are not greenlighting development in areas that are left on our map."
In early March, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein said she would introduce legislation to protect 600,000 acres of former railroad lands from development, setting the stage for a potential battle with developers.
The maps were developed with funds from Google Inc's philanthropic arm, google.org. They can be found here and work with the Google Earth program.
(Editing by Paul Simao)
Navin Singh Khadka, BBC News 1 Apr 09;
The forest fires that flared unusually viciously in many of Nepal's national parks and conserved areas this dry season have left conservationists worrying if climate change played a role.
At least four protected areas were on fire for an unusually long time until just a few days ago. Nasa's satellite imagery showed most of the big fires were in and around the national parks along the country's northern areas bordering Tibet.
Active fires were recorded in renowned conservation success stories like the Annapurna, Kanchanjunga, Langtang and Makalu Barun national parks.
The extent of the loss of flora and fauna is not yet known.
Press reports said more than 100 yaks were killed by fire in the surrounding areas of the Kanjanchanga National Park in eastern Nepal.
Trans-Himalayan parks host rare species such as snow leopards, red pandas and several endangered birds.
Carbon source
More than the loss of plants and animals, the carbon dioxide emitted by the fires was a matter of concern, according to Ghanashyam Gurung, a director at WWF's Nepal office.
Some of the national parks in the plains bordering India were also on fire, but those caused less concern among conservationists and forest officials.
"Fires in the protected areas in the plain lands can be controlled easily because we have logistics and manpower ready for that - and that is what we did this time," said Laxmi Manandhar, spokesman for Nepal's Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation.
"But in the national parks in the Himalayan region, we could hardly do anything because of the difficult geography. Nor do we have facilities of pouring water using planes and helicopters."
Forest fires in Nepal's jungles and protected areas are not uncommon during the dry season between October and January.
Most of the fires come about as a consequence of the "slash and burn" practice that farmers employ for better vegetation and agricultural yields.
But this time the fires remained out of control even in the national parks in the Himalayan region where the slash and burn practice is uncommon.
In some of the protected areas, the fires flared up even after locals and officials tried to put them out for several days.
High and dry
So, why were the fires so different this time?
"The most obvious reason was the unusually long dry spell this year," says Mr Gurung, just back in Kathmandu from Langtang National Park to the north of the capital.
"The dryness has been so severe that pine trees in the Himalayan region are thoroughly dry even on the top, which means even a spark is enough to set them on fire."
For nearly six months, no precipitation has fallen across most of the country - the longest dry spell in recent history, according to meteorologists.
"This winter was exceptionally dry," says Department of Hydrology and Meteorology chief Nirmal Rajbhandari.
"We have seen winter becoming drier and drier in the last three or four years, but this year has set the record."
Rivers are running at their lowest, and because most of Nepal's electricity comes from hydropower, the country has been suffering power cuts up to 20 hours a day.
Experts at the department said the severity of dryness fits in the pattern of increasing extreme weather Nepal has witnessed in recent years.
Had it not been for recent drizzles, conservationists say some of the national parks would still be on fire.
They point to "cloud burst phenomena" - huge rainfall within a short span of time during monsoons, and frequent, sudden downpours in the Himalayan foothills - as more examples of extreme weather events.
"Seeing all these changes happening in recent years, we can contend that this dryness that led to so much fire is one of the effects of climate change," said Mr Rajbhandari.
Anil Manandhar, head of WWF Nepal, had this to ask: Are we waiting for a bigger disaster to admit that it is climate change?
"The weather pattern has changed, and we know that there are certain impacts of climate change."
Gaps in the record
However, climate change expert Arun Bhakta Shrestha of the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) was cautious about drawing conclusions.
"The prolonged dryness this year, like other extreme events in recent years, could be related to climate change but there is no proper basis to confirm that.
"The reason (why there is no confirmation) is lack of studies, observation and data that could have helped to reach into some conclusion regarding the changes."
Indeed, there has been no proper study of the impacts of climate change on the region: not just in Nepal but in the entire Hindu Kush Himalayas.
This is the reason why the region has been dubbed as a "white spot" by experts, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Limited studies have shown that temperature in the Himalayas has been increasing on average by 0.06 degrees annually, causing glaciers to melt and retreat faster.
The meltdown has been rapidly filling up many glacial lakes that could break their moraines and burst out, sweeping away everything downstream.
In Nepal and neighbouring countries, these "glacial lake outburst floods" and monsoon-related floods resulting from erratic rainfalls are at present the most talked-about disasters in the context of climate change.
If conservationists' and meteorologists' latest fears mean anything, forest fires may also be something that would be seen as one of the climate impacts.
In the wake of the 2007 United Nations climate change conference in Bali, Nepal has been preparing to join an international effort known as Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD).
But if the forest fires it saw this year became a regular phenomenon, the country will instead be emitting increased carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - a case of climate science's not very aptly-named "positive feedback".
Campaign group criticises leading manufacturers HP, Dell and Lenovo for not cutting down on toxic components – but praises Apple, Nokia and Acer
Bobbie Johnson, guardian.co.uk 1 Apr 09;
Greenpeace has accused three of the world's biggest PC manufacturers of failing to live up to their promises to make more environmentally friendly computers.
Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Lenovo have all been singled out in a report from the environmental campaign group, which claims they have failed to deliver new machines that do not depend so heavily on toxic chemicals.
"HP, Lenovo and Dell had promised to eliminate vinyl plastic (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their products by the end of 2009. Now they've told us that they won't make it this year," Greenpeace said in its latest Guide to Greener Electronics report.
"The phase-out of toxic substances is an urgent priority to help tackle the growing tide of e-waste. Still, producers only go green when they feel public and consumer pressure to do so," it continued.
Indeed, computer companies are facing a different kind of pressure thanks to the recession – which analysts say has caused the biggest slump for the industry in its history.
Despite such a slowdown, however, hundreds of millions of PCs are still sold every year. In the last quarter alone, the three companies singled out by Greenpeace sold more than 30m computers around the world.
Given such high sales volumes, the use of toxic components can have a devastating environmental impact – particularly in west African countries that accept vast amounts of electronic waste from Europe and the US, in contradiction with international regulations.
As a result of the west's decision to export e-waste, cities such as Lagos, Nigeria, and Accra, Ghana, play home to huge toxic dumps full of discarded computers and electronic devices, where scavengers – often children – attempt to extract the metals in order to resell them.
Since 2006, Greenpeace has monitored companies' promises to reduce the number of toxic components and has noted a gradual improvement from many electronics manufacturers.
The Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia currently leads in Greenpeace's rankings, after keeping up with plans to reduce its CO2 emissions. The Japanese videogames company Nintendo remains bottom of the rankings for its approach to e-waste and a lack of transparency.
The PC makers lost position after pushing back plans to introduce greener products. Lenovo said its line of eco-friendly laptops would be delayed until 2010, while HP and Dell – the world's two largest computer makers – have put similar schemes on indefinite hold.
Some brands, however – including Apple and the Taiwanese manufacturer Acer – have made significant progress in reducing their long-term impact on the environment. This, said Greenpeace, should stand as an example to others.
"If Apple can find the solutions, there should be no reason why other leading PC companies can't," said Iza Kurszewska, who leads the organisation's campaign against toxics. "All of them should have at least one toxic-free line of products on the market by the end of this year."
Presented with Greenpeace's concerns, a spokeswoman for Hewlett-Packard did not directly address the accusations. Instead, she said that "the Greenpeace report confirms that the electronics industry as a whole continues to make progress".
"For decades, HP has adopted practices in product development, operations and supply chain that are transparent and help reduce its environmental impact," she said, adding that the company would "continue its efforts".
Dell and Lenovo did not respond to requests for comment.
Richard Ingham Yahoo News 1 Apr 09;
PARIS (AFP) – Scientists on Wednesday said they could ease a key doubt that clouds "clean coal" -- the dream of harnessing a fuel that is as cheap and plentiful as it is environmentally dangerous.
China, India and other countries have ramped up burning of coal this decade to power their growth and brake their dependence on expensive imported oil. By doing so, they have also cranked emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the heat-trapping byproduct of this dirty, low-energy fuel.
A powerful lobby has emerged, sustained by the coal industry itself, to argue that with financial help and innovation, "clean coal" lies just on the horizon.
This term refers to a basket of technologies, the biggest of which is carbon capture and storage, or CCS.
Under CCS, power stations would burn coal but siphon off the CO2 at source before pumping the unwanted gas into deep chambers underground, such as disused gas or oilfields.
The CO2 would be stored there indefinitely rather than be disgorged into the atmosphere to add to the greenhouse effect.
CCS has surged up the agenda in the past few years as the United States, Australia and other big coal producers struggle to address their greenhouse-gas emissions yet also keep using their biggest sources of indigenous energy.
But ecologists and geologists have sounded a loud word of caution: what are the guarantees that these chambers are leakproof? A breach would surrender the man-made CO2 to the air, amplifying global warming.
In a study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, a British team give a qualified "yes" to that question.
So far, attempts to investigate the leak issue have been limited to computer simulation and a few small-scale pilot studies in the North Sea and the United States, which have only been going on for a few years.
The British scientists have taken a different tack.
They pored over chemical signatures from gas fields in North America, China and Europe that are rich in natural CO2.
"We looked at nine CO2 fields, ranging from 10,000 years to about 42 million years old, and they have all stored CO2 for this length of time without obvious leakage signs," said Stuart Gilfillan, of the Scottish Centre for Carbon Storage at the University of Edinburgh.
"Basically, if you store it in the right location, the CO2 should be contained on that sort of time scale."
What traps the CO2 is, quite simply, underground water, Gilfillan and colleagues believe.
They looked at the ratio between isotopes of carbon dioxide and isotopes of a group of so-called noble gases, including helium.
These signatures indicate that highly soluble CO2 dissolves in the groundwater -- just like sparkling mineral water -- and does not leak to the surface, said Gilfillan.
The team believe that just a small amount -- just 18 percent or less -- of the CO2 reacts with minerals in the rock to form a new carbonate shell in the chamber. This is the other theoretical way by which CO can be sequestrated.
Gilfillan said the outcome is good news for "clean coal" but not an automatic green light for it.
Any potential storage site had to be thoroughly prospected to see it was geologically sound and ensure that its groundwater did not leak to the surface, he said.
"If you're talking about an old gas field or an old oil field and you've got no evidence of [gas] leakage up to the surface or oily water coming up, then that would be a strong candidate for storage."
Another shadow hanging over CCS is the cost of stripping out the CO2 and pumping it to the nearest suitable underground chamber.
Critics say the price could be higher than switching to a mix of solar, wind, fuel cells and other renewables that would resolve the problems of fossil fuels once and for all.
Carbon capture and storage moves a step closer
Greenhouse gases can be stored safely stored under the sea for millions of years, scientists have discovered, in a major step forward in the fight against climate change.
Louise Gray, The Telegraph 1 Apr 09;
Storing carbon dioxide underground in a process known as carbon capture and storage or CCS would enable fossil fuel power stations in countries like India and China to continue operating without harming the environment.
The technology is also being considered by the British Government as a way of enabling new coal-fired power stations like Kingsnorth to continue operating while meeting ambitious climate change targets on cutting carbon emissions.
However, until now it has not been certain whether it would be safe to store the carbon dioxide underground over a long period of time without leakage occuring.
Now a study published in the journal Nature has shown that for millions of years carbon dioxide has been stored safely and naturally in underground water in gas fields saturated with the greenhouse gas.
In the first real studies into greenhouse gas storage, rather than looking at computer models, scientists examined how the carbon dioxide dissolved in nine gas fields in North America, China and Europe. These gas fields were naturally filled with carbon dioxide thousands or millions of years ago.
The international team of researchers - led by the University of Manchester - found naturally occurring carbon dioxide can be trapped in two ways. The gas can dissolve in underground water – like bottled sparkling water - or it can react with minerals in rock to form new carbonate minerals.
Dr Stuart Gilfillan, the lead researcher who completed the project at the University of Edinburgh, said the study shows greenhouse gases can be stored safely underground.
He said: "We've turned the old technique of using computer models on its head and looked at natural carbon dioxide gas fields which have trapped carbon dioxide for a very long time.
"By combining two techniques, we've been able to identify exactly where the carbon dioxide is being stored for the first time. We already know that oil and gas have been stored safely in oil and gas fields over millions of years. Our study clearly shows that the carbon dioxide has been stored naturally and safely in underground water in these fields."
Professor Chris Ballentine of the University of Manchester, the project director, said the findings will help to develop storage techniques. Although further research is needed into capturing carbon dioxide from power stations and injecting it underground.
He said: "This new approach will be essential for monitoring and tracing where carbon dioxide captured from coal-fired power stations goes when we inject it underground – this is critical for future safety verification."
Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar, of the University of Toronto and co-author of the study, hopes the new data can be fed into future computer models to make modelling underground carbon capture and storage more accurate.
Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 2 Apr 09;
BONN - China, India and other developing nations joined forces on Wednesday to urge rich countries to make far deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions than planned by 2020 to slow global warming.
Many developing states at 175-country talks in Bonn, working on a new U.N. climate pact, urged the rich to cut emissions by "at least 40 percent" below 1990 levels by 2020 to confront what they said were worsening signs of climate change.
The calls, part of negotiations on a new U.N. climate pact due to be agreed in December, marked a break with praise earlier this week for President Barack Obama's promises to do more to fight global warming than former President George W. Bush.
"We believe that by 2020 the (developed nations) should reduce their emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels," Chinese delegate Xu Huaqing told the March 29-April 8 meeting.
India was among other nations urging same level, far deeper than goals set by the United States, the European Union or other rich nations. Obama met Chinese President Hu Jintao in London on Wednesday, the eve of the G20 summit which will focus on ways to revive the world economy.
Obama's goal is to cut U.S. emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, back to 1990 levels by 2020, a cut of between 16 and 17 percent from current levels. Bush had foreseen a peak in emissions only in 2025.
Several developing nations said that scientific findings about global warming, ranging from a melt of the Arctic ice to signs of quicker sea level rise by 2100, were getting more alarming and so demanded tougher action.
ISLANDS
"The strongest voice (for at least 40 percent) has come from the small island states. But it seems to have broad support," said Harald Dovland, a Norwegian official who chairs a group looking at ranges of future cuts by developed nations.
Small island developing states, who fear that some atolls will be wiped off the map by rising seas, agreed to call for at least 40 percent cuts in December last year. Delegates said that many poor nations had since lined up behind the number.
Rich and poor are deeply split about sharing out the burden of fighting warming, that could bring more floods, heatwaves, extinctions and droughts. The poor want new funds, and green technology as a price for slowing the rise of their emissions.
The U.N. Climate Panel said in a report in 2007 that developed nations would need to cut emissions on average by between 25 and 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to avoid the worst of climate change.
"Recent scientific information and analysis has painted a bleaker picture," said Selwin Hart of Barbados, representing small island states.
Climate change "will result in the demise -- if we don't take urgent action -- of many small island states," he said.
China's Xu said that the rich had to do most to allow the poor a chance to burn more energy to end poverty.
Among the most ambitious goals by developed nations, the European Union has agreed to cut its emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and to deepen the cuts to 30 percent if other developed nations join in.
Yahoo News 1 Apr 09;
BRUSSELS (AFP) – Europe must prepare both for more floods and drought caused by climate change, regardless of the measures taken to combat it, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas warned Wednesday.
"Even if we have zero emissions it is simply impossible to reverse climate change overnight," Dimas warned, as he unveiled a new report on what Europe should do to deal with its effects.
"Urgent action is therefore necessary to make our people... resilient to the inevitable impact of climate change," he added.
Europe would suffer "more regular flooding... more frequent droughts, more stress on infrastructure and ecosystems," he warned.
Dimas cited water shortages already suffered in 14 EU nations since 1998; and 100 major cases of flooding which left some 700 people dead and half a million displaced and a total of 25 billion euros of water damage.
EU nations have agreed to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, rising to 30 percent if the rest of the developed world agrees to do so.
But those efforts could be insufficient in achieving the overall aim of keeping global warming to two degrees centigrade or less, Dimas admitted: recent recent studies suggest the situation was moving quicker than previously thought.
Scientists meeting in Copenhagen last week stressed that even with a 30 percent decrease in greenhouse gases the impact of climate would accelerate faster than previously predicted.
The key Copenhagen meeting will take place in December when nations around the world gather to seek agreement on how to tackle the problem.
So far, no other country had committed to the kind of measures the European Union had adopted, said Dimas.
But he welcomed new US plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions, even if they too feel far short of Europe's targets.
"This is really very encouraging," Dimas said.
"I am even more optimistic in getting an agreement in Copenhagen" in December, he added.
On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives started considering a draft bill for clean energy development which aims to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent from their 2005 levels by 2020 and boost reliance on renewable energy sources.
Such US targets were unheard of before President Barack Obama took over from George W. Bush in January.
But they still represent only a five- to six-percent reduction using the EU's baseline, said Dimas.
The EU blueprint unveiled Wednesday outlined measures including a clearing house mechanism for exchanging information on climate change risks, impacts and best practice.
But Dimas stressed that there was no one-size-fits-all measure.
The impact of climate change would also vary by region, the commission said, with coastal and mountain areas and flood plains particularly vulnerable.
Environmentalists say the effects are already being seen, with deadly tornadoes in France, water shortages in Spain, devastating forest fires in Greece and Portugal and flooding in Britain and Germany.
However Green groups including the WWF, argued that while the EU was recognising the scale of the problem it was not doing enough to tackle it.
"We are particularly concerned for a potential water crisis across Europe, whereby southern countries will suffer from reduced supplies and other regions will face increased extreme weather events and floods," said Tony Long, director of WWF?s European Policy Office.
"Why isn?t action taken now, how much longer do we have to wait?," he asked.
Posts
visitors since Nov 07