Cleanup: Individual participation closed for 2009
from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore
Hungry Ghost Festival Wayang 3-4 Sep
from Pulau Ubin Stories
Corals at Keppel Bay
from Pulau Hantu and wild shores of singapore
Peregrine Falcon in urban locations
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Palm Tree Inspection
from Life's Indulgences
Bloomberg, Japan Times 2 Sep 09;
The port of Taiji in Wakayama Prefecture is going ahead with its annual dolphin hunt even after an Australian town suspended its sister-city ties because of the slaughter and a documentary that has focused attention on the seaside village.
The hunt, in which dolphins are caught at sea or corralled into coves and impaled, was to start Tuesday and last through February.
Hunting dolphins for food in Japan dates back as far as 9,000 years and the town's hunt is legal under international and domestic law, according to the Web site operated by Taiji's fishing association.
Taiji's fishermen will go ahead with the hunt, an official with the association who declined to give his name said last week.
Worldwide attention on Taiji increased with the release this summer of "The Cove," a U.S. documentary that shows the dolphin cull through footage shot with hidden cameras.
The council of Broome, a town in northwestern Australia that has had formal ties with Taiji for 28 years, voted last month to suspend the relationship "while the practice of harvesting dolphins exists."
Taiji government spokesman Hironobu Ryono said Monday he couldn't comment on the relationship with Broome because the Australian town hasn't informed him of the change.
The connection between the towns goes back to the 19th century, when pearl divers from Taiji emigrated to Broome, according to Ryono.
"My understanding is that our fishermen are preparing for the hunt this season, and I haven't heard that there is any change in plans," Ryono said.
According to the Fisheries Agency, 1,623 dolphins were killed in 2007 in Wakayama, the second-highest number in Japan after Iwate Prefecture.
Eight prefectures are permitted to hunt dolphins, with the number killed targeted at around 20,000 annually, according to the agency.
IUCN 3 Sep 09;
One of the world’s most enigmatic mammals, the Saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), is on the brink of extinction, according to a group of experts who held an emergency meeting in Lao PDR to try to save the animal.
The Saola, which was only discovered to world science in 1992, resembles the desert antelopes of Arabia, but is more closely related to wild cattle. It lives in the remote valleys of the Annamite Mountains, along the border of Lao PDR and Vietnam.
“We are at a point in history when we still have a small but rapidly closing window of opportunity to conserve this extraordinary animal,” says William Robichaud, Coordinator of the Saola Working Group, set up by IUCN’s Asian Wild Cattle Specialist Group. “That window has probably already closed for another species of wild cattle, the Kouprey, and experts at this meeting are determined that the Saola not be next."
Conservation biologists based in four countries, met in Vientiane, Lao PDR, last month, and agreed that Saola numbers appear to have declined sharply since its discovery in 1992, when it was already rare and restricted to a small range.
Today, the Saola's increasing proximity to extinction is likely paralleled by only two or three other large mammal species in Southeast Asia, such as the Javan Rhinoceros, according to the experts. The situation is compounded by the fact that there are no populations of Saola held in zoos.
“The animal's prominent white facial markings and long tapering horns lend it a singular beauty, and its reclusive habits in the wet forests of the Annamites an air of mystery,” says Barney Long, of the IUCN Asian Wild Cattle Specialist Group. “Saola have rarely been seen or photographed, and have proved difficult to keep alive in captivity. None is held in any zoo, anywhere in the world. Its wild population may number only in the dozens, certainly not more than a few hundred.”
The Saola is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, which means it faces "an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild”. With none in zoos and almost nothing known about how to maintain them in captivity, for Saola, extinction in the wild would mean its extinction everywhere, with no possibility of recovery and reintroduction.
The Saola is threatened primarily by hunting. The Vientiane meeting identified snaring and hunting with dogs, to which the Saola is especially vulnerable, as the main direct threats to the species.
Experts at the meeting emphasized that the Saola cannot be saved without intensified removal of poachers' snares and reduction of hunting with dogs in key areas of the Annamite forests. Improved methods to detect Saola in the wild and radio tracking to understand the animal’s conservation needs are needed, according to the biologists.
In addition, there needs to be more awareness in Lao PDR, Vietnam and the world conservation community of the perilous status of this species and markedly increased donor support for Saola conservation, according to the group.
Hunting pushes Saola to the brink
TRAFFIC 7 Sep 09;
Excessive hunting is threatening the survival of the rare Saola, a relative of wild cattle that lives in remote forests of Southeast Asia Click photo to enlarge © 1996 by W. Robichaud/WCS Gland, Switzerland, 7 September, 2009—One of the world's most enigmatic mammals, the Saola Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, is on the brink of extinction, according to a group of experts who held an emergency meeting in Vientiane, Lao PDR, to try to save the animal.
The meeting identified snaring and hunting with dogs, to which the Saola is especially vulnerable, as the main direct threats to the species.
Experts emphasized that the Saola cannot be saved without intensified removal of poachers' snares and reduction of hunting with dogs in key areas of the Annamite forests, along the border of Lao PDR and Viet Nam.
Improved methods to detect Saola in the wild and radio tracking to understand the animal's conservation needs are also needed, according to the biologists.
"We are at a point in history when we still have a small but rapidly closing window of opportunity to conserve this extraordinary animal," says William Robichaud, Coordinator of the Saola Working Group, set up by IUCN’s Asian Wild Cattle Specialist Group.
"That window has probably already closed for another species of wild cattle, the Kouprey, and experts at this meeting are determined that the Saola not be next."
The Saola, which was only discovered to world science in 1992, resembles the desert antelopes of Arabia, but is more closely related to wild cattle.
Experts agreed that Saola numbers appear to have declined sharply since its discovery in 1992, when it was already rare and restricted to a small range.
The Saola is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. No animals are held in zoos and almost nothing is known about how to maintain them in captivity.
Jyotsna Singh, BBC News 2 Sep 09;
A scientist in India says he has found three rare species of frogs that make nests in which to lay their eggs.
Dr SD Biju of Delhi University says the frogs make nests after laying eggs to protect them from heat and predators.
The discovery was made in the rainforests of the Western Ghats mountain range in the southern Indian states of Kerala and Karnataka.
It comes after 20 years of intensive research carried out in Wayanad in Kerala and Coorg in Karnataka.
'Extremely rare'
The tiny frogs, which measure up to 12cm (about five inches) in length, roll leaves from top to bottom to make a cocoon and produce a sticky substance to close the ends to secure the eggs.
"These are extremely rare frogs, the only ones of their kind found in Asia," Dr Biju told the BBC.
He said the frogs differed from leaf-nesting frogs found in America and Africa as they make their nests after the females have laid the eggs.
The American and African species build the nest in the process of laying eggs, and both male and female frogs build it together.
Dr Biju says the species are seriously threatened by coffee and other plantations due to which they are losing their habitat in the forest.
"Eight years ago when I visited the area it was easy to spot them breeding during the night. But there has been a dramatic change and it's now extremely rare to spot them," he says.
Nick Wadhams in Nairobi, National Geographic News 2 Sep 09;
Wildebeests, antelope, and other iconic African animals are declining just as quickly in Kenya's parks and reserves as in the country's unprotected lands.
That's the finding of a recent study that questions a central tenet of Kenya's wildlife conservation strategy.
Based on existing data, the team estimates that key animal populations have fallen by 40 percent over the past 30 years both inside and outside parkland.
The work seems to confirm what Kenyan environmentalists have suspected for years: Aside from a few success stories, such as elephant and zebra conservation programs, efforts to sustain wildlife numbers in Kenya seem to be failing due to poor monitoring and enforcement.
The paper adds to growing evidence that many of Africa's protected parks are seeing wildlife declines as a result of poaching for trophies and bush meat, habitat destruction, and human encroachment.
In Kenya "we're seeing that the settlement of livestock and the settlement of people is beginning to degrade the rangelands," said David Western, one of the report's co-authors and chair of the African Conservation Center.
"I think we're at the beginning of another sort of downturn that is going to be quite serious."
Nowhere to Run
The study, published online by the journal PLoS ONE, looked at data on population counts for herd animals such as wildebeests and gazelles collected over the past 25 years by the Kenya Wildlife Service and other government branches.
According to the authors, the new work is one of few attempts to measure the overall conservation success of parks and reserves, which now account for 10 percent of the world's land surface.
Kenya, which has a population of around 40 million, has 49 parks and reserves covering 8 percent of its 224,081 square miles (580,367 square kilometers).
One of the problems, the report notes, is that none of the country's protected areas cover the full ranges of the migratory animals that inhabit the parks and reserves.
That means animals frequently move out of the parks and come up against the growing number of towns and farms cropping up around the edges of protected regions.
Such settlements are on the rise in Kenya, as land that was once communally owned is parceled out for individually owned farms and an increasing number of semi-nomadic Maasai herders decide to stay put.
Animal declines are "a problem across African wildlife areas mainly because of increasing human population," said Noah Sitati of the Eastern Africa Regional Programme Office for the conservation nonprofit WWF.
"Most of the former wildlife range has been turned into settlements and agriculture."
A drop in wild herd animals is particularly worrisome for Kenya, because wildlife tourism is central to the country's economy.
The loss of the famed wildebeest migration through the Masai Mara National Reserve, for instance, could lead tourists to go elsewhere, the report authors note. (Watch a wildebeest migration video.)
What's more, the recent increases in Kenya's elephant population, a trend hailed as one of the country's greatest conservation successes, may be hurting other animals, the study authors write.
In both Masai Mara and the Amboseli National Park, elephants have destroyed woodland where antelope forage and hide, exposing the antelope to more predation and forcing them to search for new territories.
"It's what we call ecological dislocation, which is a much bigger problem than anything else," study co-author Western said.
"It's the dislocation of all these processes that is leading to the loss of diversity and the loss of different sorts of species."
Perilous State
Kenyan officials say they are aware of species declines within protected lands, and they point to multiyear efforts to overhaul the country's decades-old wildlife policy.
One of the problems is that Kenya hasn't had the funding to support long-term wildlife monitoring and enforcement in its parks.
The Kenya Wildlife Service is starting an endowment fund that it hopes will attract foreign donations for wildlife conservation.
"The problem is not alarming, but sooner or later it's going to become alarming, given pressure of human population, loss of habitat, and dispersal of wildlife population," wildlife service spokesperson Paul Udoto said.
In the paper, Western and his co-authors point to studies that suggest greater community involvement in wildlife protection can help reverse the declines.
But some conservationists worry that community efforts might amount to little without strong government support.
"In a sense the question is, does Kenya value its wildlife sufficiently to do long-term monitoring?" said Allan Earnshaw, a safari operator and conservationist who is trying to implement a management plan for the Masai Mara reserve.
"I don't think [the government] values wildlife sufficiently to look after it, which is why it's in the perilous state it's in. All wildlife is suffering because of bad implementation of laws or bad policies."
The Jakarta Post 2 Sep 09;
The Maritime and Fishery Affairs Ministry will go ahead with plans to introduce cluster-like territorial water areas for fisheries where concession rights will be allocated to firms by tenders, arguing that this will not be detrimental to small-scale fishermen.
The ministry’s head of central data, statistics and information, Soenan H. Poernomo, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the planned cluster division system would in fact facilitate healthy competition among fishermen and fishing companies.
“The cluster divisions are basically also intended to help preserve natural resources in water territories,” he said, adding that the planned cluster divisions were based on the Ministerial Regulation No. 5/2008 and may take effect as early as next year.
He said the system, similar to that of Forestry Ministry concessions for rights where holders can exploit a certain area of forest for a certain period of time, would be based on the concept of environmental sustainability.
“This will let big-scale and small-scale fishermen exploit water resources to a certain extent only, which will be decided after the research is completed,” he said, adding that the first results of the related research would be published by the end of this year.
The research will also determine details on the sizes of the clusters, the maximum period of the fishing rights in each cluster, detailed mechanisms for the tenders, arrangements between central and local administrations, monitoring systems, and related issues.
The Indonesian Fishery Industry Association (Gappindo) however has already voiced its objections on concerns that the proposed system would pave the way for big industry players to dominate the country’s proposed territorial water divisions.
Madeline Chambers, Reuters 2 Sep 09;
BERLIN (Reuters) - Governments can help combat climate change by investing more in natural areas, including forests and mangroves, a European study said on Wednesday.
The paper pointed out that nations have natural assets worth trillions of dollars which could help fight global warming and save investment in industrial schemes for carbon capture.
"Natural systems represent one of the biggest untapped allies against the greatest challenge of this generation," said The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study, part of a global project, to be published next year.
Launched by Germany and the European Commission, the report is examining the economics of biodiversity loss.
An investment of $45 billion in protected areas could save nature-based services worth $4.5-$5.2 trillion a year, more than the value of the car, steel and information technology sectors, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel told reporters.
Scientists say preserving nature is crucial in fighting climate change but warn extinctions are speeding up due to human activity. Extinction rates are at 1,000 times their natural pace and three species vanish every hour, research shows.
The study highlighted the role of forests in naturally mitigating CO2 emissions as they absorb an estimated 15 percent of global greenhouse emissions every year.
Agreeing on funding to save forests must be a priority for governments at December's global talks in Copenhagen to try to agree on a successor to the Kyoto protocol on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, said the authors of the report.
"To target the removal of carbon dioxide, the best mechanism we have is in nature. In tropical forests we have both an opportunity and a solution to the significant challenges we face," study leader Pavan Sukhdev told reporters.
The report highlighted the dangers facing coral reefs which have risen due to a build up of greenhouse gases. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are already irreversibly damaging coral reefs and their extinction would jeopardize the livelihoods of millions of people, said the study.
Coral reefs, which protect coastlines from the effects of global warming and are essential for some kinds of fish, are worth up to $170 billion a year, said the study.
"An estimated half a billion people depend on them for livelihoods and more than a quarter of marine fish species are dependent on coral reefs," said Sukhdev.
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the U.N. Environment Programme said billions of dollars of government investment in power station carbon capture schemes may not be the full answer.
"Perhaps it is time to subject this to a full cost benefit analysis to see whether the technological option matches nature's ability to capture and store carbon," he said.
(Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Climate change killing corals, costing billions: study
Yahoo News 2 Sep 09;
BERLIN (AFP) – Climate change is killing valuable coral reef systems, a United Nations-backed report published on Wednesday warned.
The report -- entitled "The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity" -- unveiled in Berlin, concluded: "We face the imminent loss of coral reefs due to climate change, with all the serious ecological, social and economic consequences this will entail."
It said coral reef systems were worth up to 172 billion dollars per year in terms of economic activity.
The research, hosted by the UN's Environment Programme and sponsored by the European Commission, Germany and Britain, is intended to inform policymakers' thinking ahead of a crunch climate change summit in Copenhagen in December.
Presenting the report, the project's head, Pavan Sukhdev, stressed the importance of coral reefs to the global environment, saying: "The existence of half a billion people depends on them."
"Over a quarter of all fish species are also dependent on the coral reefs," he added.
To secure the survival of the coral reefs, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels need to be "significantly below 350 parts per million (ppm)" but current levels are 387 ppm.
The report recommended increased investment in "ecological infrastructure" -- conservation of forests, mangroves, river basins and wetlands -- as a means of adapting to climate change.
The report is a draft version of a fuller document that will be presented to world leaders in November ahead of the Copenhagen conference in December that aims to agree a new global climate pact to succeed the expiring Kyoto Protocol.
A second study published earlier Wednesday in Sydney found that Australia's Great Barrier Reef is in serious jeopardy as global warming and chemical runoff threatened to kill marine species and cause serious outbreaks of disease.
The inspiration for the report is the landmark 2006 assessment by British economist Sir Nicholas Stern that sparked awareness about the economic cost of global warming.
Stern said that climate change could shrink the global economy by as much as 20 percent, but if action were taken immediately, the bill would be only one percent of global gross domestic product (GDP).
Time to Tap Climate Change-Combating Potential of the World's Ecosystems
UNEP 2 Sep 09;
Inaction Already Threatening Multi-Billion Dollar Coral Reef Services and Livelihoods of Half a Billion People
Berlin, 2 September 2009 - Investing in restoration and maintenance of the Earth's multi-trillion dollar ecosystems - from forests and mangroves to wetlands and river basins - can have a key role in countering climate change and climate-proofing vulnerable economies.
This is among the central findings of a new climate issues update by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a project launched by Germany and the European Commission in response to a proposal by the G8+5 Environment Ministers (Potsdam, Germany 2007) to develop a global study on the economics of biodiversity loss. The study is hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme. The issues update was launched today by TEEB study leader Pavan Sukhdev, with German Federal Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, Director-General for Environment, European Commission, Karl Falkenberg; and UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UNEP, Achim Steiner.
It says the planet's biological diversity and 'ecological infrastructure' are increasingly being put at risk from the impact of climbing greenhouse gases.
Yet natural systems represent one of the biggest untapped allies against the greatest challenge of this generation, says the paper, part of a stream of work towards a final study in 2010.
Pump-Priming Nature's Mitigation and Adaptation Engine
The update underlines that an agreement on funding for forests is a key priority for governments attending the crucial United Nations climate convention meeting in Copenhagen in December.
An estimated 5 gigatonnes or 15 per cent of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions - the principal greenhouse gas - are being absorbed or 'sequestrated' by forests every year, making them the "mitigation engine" of the natural world. This could also be described as 'green carbon'.
Investing in ecosystem-based measures such as financing Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) could thus not only assist in combating climate change but could also be a key anti-poverty and adaptation measure.
Forests also provide services such as freshwaters, soil stabilization, nutrients for agriculture, eco-tourism opportunities and food, fuel and fibre - all of which will be key to buffering vulnerable communities against the climate change already underway.
TEEB is urging governments to factor these wider benefits into a forest carbon finance package in order to maximize the return of an agreement in Copenhagen into the future. This might pave the way for a new, Green Economy in the 21st century where natural or nature-based assets become part of mainstream economic and policy planning.
The TEEB climate issues update says that governments can already take steps to include ecosystem services in their national accounts in order to "measure what they manage". In support of this, it suggests that an upgrading of the United Nations' 2003 handbook on Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting be carried out to include forest carbon.
While the precise level of investment needed to maintain and enhance carbon storage and adaptation services of ecosystems in a climate-challenged world is unknown, TEEB findings indicate that investing in the Earth's ecological infrastructure has the potential to offer an excellent rate of return.
For example an investment of $45 billion in protected areas alone could secure nature-based services worth some $5 trillion a year.
Coral Reef Emergency: An Ecosystem on a Climatic Knife-Edge
Meanwhile the update highlights some of the consequences if governments fail to rise to the climate change challenge and seal an ambitious deal in Copenhagen. .
It underlines a 'Coral Reef Emergency' that is already here as a result of the current build-up of greenhouse gases.
Scientists contributing to the TEEB process indicate that irreversible damage to coral reefs can occur at atmospheric CO2 concentrations of over 350 parts per million (ppm). This is linked with rising temperatures but also ocean acidification.
Concentrations are already above this threshold and rising. It raises concerns that stabilizing CO2 levels at 450 ppm, or some 16 per cent above the current levels, may condemn this critical, multi-billion dollar ecosystem to extinction and take with it the livelihoods of 500 million people within a matter of decades.
Pavan Sukhdev, TEEB's study leader who is on secondment from Deutsche Bank, said the loss of the world's coral reefs would undermine one of nature's most productive assets and one that has a key role to play in coastal defense against a predicted rise in storm surges and other extreme weather events due to global warming.
"The ecosystem services from coral reefs - ranging from coastal defense to fish nurseries- are worth up to USD$170 billion annually; an estimated half a billion people depend on them for livelihoods and more than a quarter of all marine fish species are dependent on coral reefs".
"The climate stabilization goals of many governments may prove sufficient for some ecosystems and some biodiversity but there is now a real question mark against the survival of coral reefs world-wide and their natural treasure troves," he added.
"The economic consequences are significant, but so are the social and humanitarian ones. It underlines that a simple cost-benefit analysis alone will fail to capture the ethical dimensions of international climate policy decisions now and in the coming years and decades - especially in respect to an ecosystem at a climatic tipping point," said Mr Sukhdev, who also heads up the Green Economy initiative of the UN Environment Programme.
Mr Gabriel said: "Human vulnerability to the harmful impacts of global climate change is significantly increased by the loss of biodiversity. TEEB proves that the protection and restoration of ecological infrastructure is a cost effective means to mitigate global climate change and its effects. To me, ecological restoration is a critical tool in addressing global climate change, enhancing the extent and functioning of carbon sinks as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions. What we now need is a breakthrough in Copenhagen. We have to recognize that enhancing the resilience of ecosystems and maintaining the planet's biodiversity are key parts of the mitigation and the adaptation agendas."
Mr Falkenberg said: "These TEEB findings demonstrate that climate change and biodiversity loss must be tackled together. They lend further support to the EU's goal of achieving a concrete and ambitious agreement in Copenhagen that comprises both reductions in the world's greenhouse gas emissions and the creation of global mechanisms to stop tropical deforestation. Quite simply, we will not manage to halt biodiversity loss if we do not mitigate climate change. And we will not be able to mitigate and adapt to climate change if we do not protect our valuable ecosystems and biodiversity."
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UNEP, said:
"It is clearly emerging that investments in the planet's ecosystem infrastructure can deliver the twin, Green Economy gains of curbing and cutting emissions while assisting vulnerable communities to adapt".
"Currently governments are considering multi-billion dollar investments in carbon capture and storage at power stations. Perhaps it is time to subject this to a full cost benefit analysis to see whether the technological option matches nature's ability to capture and store carbon - a natural system that has been perfected over millions of years and with the multiple additional benefits for water supplies up to reversing the rate of biodiversity loss," he added.
Climate targets 'will kill coral'
Richard Black, BBC News 2 Sep 09;
Current climate targets are not enough to save the world's coral reefs - and policymakers urgently need to consider the economic benefits they bring.
Those are two of the conclusions from a UN-backed project aiming to quantify the financial costs of damaging nature.
Studies suggest that reefs are worth more than $100bn (£60bn) annually, but are already being damaged by rising temperatures and more acidic oceans.
The study puts the cost of forest loss at $2-5 trillion annually.
Looking ahead to December's UN climate conference in Copenhagen, study leader Pavan Sukhdev said it was vital that policymakers realised that safeguarding the natural world was a cost-effective way of protecting societies against the impacts of rising greenhouse gas levels.
Green roots
The current UN climate negotiations contain measures for protecting forests as carbon stores - an initiative called Redd (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation).
Its roots lie in the calculation that forest loss accounts for about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions, and that combating it is probably the cheapest way of reducing emissions overall.
But protecting societies against climate impacts (climate adaptation) will also be a key component of any Copenhagen deal, because it is the single biggest priority for many developing nations.
The TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) analysis emphasises that forests, coral reefs and many other ecosystems can be the cheapest "adaptation tools" as well.
"We feel this isn't really at the top of politicians' minds at the moment," he told BBC News.
"But when you decide how you invest money for climate adaptation, you should quickly come to the conclusion that ecology provides the best bangs for bucks - and that's even without taking into account the added benefits of saving biodiversity."
Mr Sukhdev, who is on secondment to the UN Environment Programme (Unep) from the global markets division of Deutsche Bank, cited studies showing that money spent on nature preservation provided rates of return of between three and 75 times the initial investment.
Preserving forests kept fresh water systems intact, he noted. Coral reefs and mangroves protected communities from storm damage; and healthy ecosystems were essential for food production.
Reef nots
There are a number of somewhat notional targets on the table in the run-up to Copenhagen.
One, an EU initiative that now has much wider support, is to keep the global average temperature rise since the pre-industrial age within 2C - which according to some analyses means carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere cannot rise above 450 parts per million (ppm).
The current level is about 387ppm, and it is rising at about 2ppm each year, although this year's global recession may bring a blip.
Mr Sukhdev's team heard evidence from coral scientists that these targets would not be enough to prevent damage to coral reefs around the tropics.
"There's evidence that current levels of CO2 are already causing damage to reefs," said Alex Rogers from London's Institute of Zoology.
"Stabilising at anything more than about 350ppm will lead to further destruction, and really we need to be aiming for zero emissions."
Elevated carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have a twin impact on coral. They warm the oceans; but also, a portion of the extra CO2 becomes dissolved in seawater, which makes it slightly more acidic (or less alkali).
Ocean pH levels have already decreased by about 0.1 since pre-industrial times.
A 2007 study showed that rates of coral growth on the Great Barrier Reef had fallen by 14% since 1990.
TEEB's analysis suggests that between half a billion and one billion people depend on coral reefs for at least part of their food supply.
Set up in 2007 by the German government and the European Commission, TEEB is now supported by some other governments (including the UK) and by Unep.
Its final report is due out in the second half of 2010, just before a key meeting of the UN biodiversity convention.
For that analysis, Mr Sukhdev's team will also attempt to capture the economics of fisheries loss, and finalise a complex matrix giving legislators comprehensive information about the costs and benefits of protecting - or destroying - various aspects of the natural world.
OCEAN ACIDIFICATION
# Up to 50% of the CO2 released by burning fossil fuels over the past 200 years has been absorbed by the world's oceans
# This has lowered the pH value of seawater - the measure of acidity and alkalinity - by 0.1
# The vast majority of liquids lie between pH 0 (very acidic) and pH 14 (very alkaline); 7 is neutral
# Seawater is mildly alkaline with a "natural" pH of about 8.2
# The IPCC forecasts that ocean pH will fall by "between 0.14 and 0.35 units over the 21st Century, adding to the present fall of 0.1 units since pre-industrial times"
Climate-change-combating Potential Of The World's Ecosystems Described In New Report
ScienceDaily 2 Sep 09;
Investing in restoration and maintenance of the Earth's multi-trillion dollar ecosystems - from forests and mangroves to wetlands and river basins - can have a key role in countering climate change and climate-proofing vulnerable economies.
This is among the central findings of a new climate issues update by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a project launched by Germany and the European Commission in response to a proposal by the G8+5 Environment Ministers (Potsdam, Germany 2007) to develop a global study on the economics of biodiversity loss. The study is hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme. The issues update was launched today by TEEB study leader Pavan Sukhdev, with German Federal Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel; Director-General for Environment, European Commission, Karl Falkenberg; and UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UNEP, Achim Steiner.
It says the planet's biological diversity and 'ecological infrastructure' are increasingly being put at risk from the impact of climbing greenhouse gases.
Yet natural systems represent one of the biggest untapped allies against the greatest challenge of this generation, says the paper, part of a stream of work towards a final study in 2010.
Pump-Priming Nature's Mitigation and Adaptation Engine
The update underlines that an agreement on funding for forests is a key priority for governments attending the crucial United Nations climate convention meeting in Copenhagen in December.
An estimated 5 gigatonnes or 15 per cent of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions - the principal greenhouse gas - are being absorbed or 'sequestrated' by forests every year, making them the "mitigation engine" of the natural world. This could also be described as 'green carbon'.
Investing in ecosystem-based measures such as financing Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) could thus not only assist in combating climate change but could also be a key anti-poverty and adaptation measure.
Forests also provide services such as freshwaters, soil stabilization, nutrients for agriculture, eco-tourism opportunities and food, fuel and fibre — all of which will be key to buffering vulnerable communities against the climate change already underway.
TEEB is urging governments to factor these wider benefits into a forest carbon finance package in order to maximize the return of an agreement in Copenhagen into the future. This might pave the way for a new, Green Economy in the 21st century where natural or nature-based assets become part of mainstream economic and policy planning.
The TEEB climate issues update says that governments can already take steps to include ecosystem services in their national accounts in order to "measure what they manage". In support of this, it suggests that an upgrading of the United Nations' 2003 handbook on Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting be carried out to include forest carbon.
While the precise level of investment needed to maintain and enhance carbon storage and adaptation services of ecosystems in a climate-challenged world is unknown, TEEB findings indicate that investing in the Earth's ecological infrastructure has the potential to offer an excellent rate of return.
For example an investment of $45 billion in protected areas alone could secure nature-based services worth some $5 trillion a year.
Coral Reef Emergency: An Ecosystem on a Climatic Knife-Edge
Meanwhile the update highlights some of the consequences if governments fail to rise to the climate change challenge and seal an ambitious deal in Copenhagen.
It underlines a 'Coral Reef Emergency' that is already here as a result of the current build-up of greenhouse gases.
Scientists contributing to the TEEB process indicate that irreversible damage to coral reefs can occur at atmospheric CO2 concentrations of over 350 parts per million (ppm). This is linked with rising temperatures but also ocean acidification. Concentrations are already above this threshold and rising. It raises concerns that stabilizing CO2 levels at 450 ppm, or some 16 per cent above the current levels, may condemn this critical, multi-billion dollar ecosystem to extinction and take with it the livelihoods of 500 million people within a matter of decades.
Pavan Sukhdev, TEEB's study leader who is on secondment from Deutsche Bank, said the loss of the world's coral reefs would undermine one of nature's most productive assets and one that has a key role to play in coastal defense against a predicted rise in storm surges and other extreme weather events due to global warming.
"The ecosystem services from coral reefs - ranging from coastal defense to fish nurseries - are worth up to USD$170 billion annually; an estimated half a billion people depend on them for livelihoods and more than a quarter of all marine fish species are dependent on coral reefs".
"The climate stabilization goals of many governments may prove sufficient for some ecosystems and some biodiversity but there is now a real question mark against the survival of coral reefs world-wide and their natural treasure troves," he added.
"The economic consequences are significant, but so are the social and humanitarian ones. It underlines that a simple cost-benefit analysis alone will fail to capture the ethical dimensions of international climate policy decisions now and in the coming years and decades -especially in respect to an ecosystem at a climatic tipping point," said Mr Sukhdev, who also heads up the Green Economy initiative of the UN Environment Programme.
Mr Gabriel said: "Human vulnerability to the harmful impacts of global climate change is significantly increased by the loss of biodiversity. TEEB proves that the protection and restoration of ecological infrastructure is a cost effective means to mitigate global climate change and its effects. To me, ecological restoration is a critical tool in addressing global climate change, enhancing the extent and functioning of carbon sinks as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions. What we now need is a breakthrough in Copenhagen. We have to recognize that enhancing the resilience of ecosystems and maintaining the planet's biodiversity are key parts of the mitigation and the adaptation agendas."
Mr Falkenberg said: "These TEEB findings demonstrate that climate change and biodiversity loss must be tackled together. They lend further support to the EU's goal of achieving a concrete and ambitious agreement in Copenhagen that comprises both reductions in the world's greenhouse gas emissions and the creation of global mechanisms to stop tropical deforestation. Quite simply, we will not manage to halt biodiversity loss if we do not mitigate climate change. And we will not be able to mitigate and adapt to climate change if we do not protect our valuable ecosystems and biodiversity."
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UNEP, said: "It is clearly emerging that investments in the planet's ecosystem infrastructure can deliver the twin, Green Economy gains of curbing and cutting emissions while assisting vulnerable communities to adapt."
"Currently governments are considering multi-billion dollar investments in carbon capture and storage at power stations. Perhaps it is time to subject this to a full cost benefit analysis to see whether the technological option matches nature's ability to capture and store carbon - a natural system that has been perfected over millions of years and with the multiple additional benefits for water supplies up to reversing the rate of biodiversity loss," he added.
The Coral Reef data was drawn from a scientific statement on climate change and coral reefs published at a Royal Society Meeting organised by ZSL, the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) and the Royal Society on 6 July 2009.
Economic valuation of human welfare benefits derived from coral reefs was estimated at $172 billion annually (Martinez et al. 2007).
Adapted from materials provided by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Retracing the wildlife quest of his friend Douglas Adams
Stephen Fry, The Guardian 2 Sep 09;
I first met Douglas Adams some time in 1983. I can't imagine what we actually did for the first seven months of our friendship – twiddle our thumbs and yawn, I suppose – but at last, in January 1984, the first Apple Mac was launched, and from then on we visited each other every day to swap and play.
Our interests for the next year or so centred entirely around inanimate electronic equipment and its habit of not working – if we gave the natural world a second thought, it was when we looked out of the window and wondered if a thunderstorm was brewing. Lightning strikes could cause a power outage or even a spike or surge in the line that might damage our precious toys. So much for nature.
Time passed. One day, much to my surprise, Douglas went off to Madagascar on a peculiar journalistic mission that had to do with a rare species of lemur. On his return I began to notice an alteration in my reliably geeky-nerd companion. He read Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker and gave me copies, telling me that my life would be changed. Which it was. What Niels Bohr said of quantum mechanics is true of evolution: "If you're not shocked then you haven't understood it properly."
I had been sharing a place in Dalston at this time with a group of friends from university, but we were now at the stage where it was possible to consider splitting up and buying our own flats and houses. I wanted to find a place in Islington, but also felt that I needed time to look around and wait for the perfect property. Perhaps I should rent first? I offloaded my tedious residential worries on Douglas one afternoon as we sat in his study staring at a Mac and wondering, for the thousandth time, if we could stop it going "boing" and closing down whenever we tried to do something unusual with it.
"Why don't you stay here for a year?" he suggested. "You can house-sit for me. I've decided to go round the world for 12 months seeking out rare animals."
"You've de-whatted to go round the what, whatting out whats?"
Douglas explained that his journey to Madagascar had lit a fire within him that would not go out. In the company of a zoologist called Mark Carwardine, he had found and photographed the elusive lemur known as the aye-aye, an experience, together with reading Dawkins, that had made him realise that the technology that now most excited him was the one that had evolved over millions of years and resulted in him and me and, ultimately, the device that wouldn't stop going "boing". He really wanted to understand this business of life and extinction. He and Mark had hit it off straightaway, and the plan was now to find seven more species like the aye-aye that were in imminent danger of disappearing for ever.
The result was Mark and Douglas's Last Chance to See, a book and a BBC radio series. While the intrepid pair were travelling the globe, I duly stayed at Douglas's house fielding the occasional call and request. This was the time before faxes were in general use, let alone emails or texts, so communication and flight reservations and other travel details had to be expedited by landline and telex. It was not unusual to be awoken at three in the morning by a Douglas too excited by what was happening around him to have worked out time differences. "Can you telex Garuda Air and tell them we want to change our flight?" he would yell down the phone. I would copy down the names of islands, ports and towns I had never heard of and make calls to countries I couldn't point to on the map.
The book was a remarkable success. I do not believe it has ever been out of print, a testament to the importance of the subject and to Douglas and Mark's natural storytelling abilities, charm, wit and unforced writing styles. Alarm about the environment, issues of conservation, pollution, habitat degradation and species endangerment existed before Last Chance to See, but they were far less the common currency of concern than they are now.
Mark and Douglas's book focused general worry into a particular understanding of the clock that was ticking on the future of wildlife in so many corners of the planet. Every campaign needs heroes, faces that represent the issue at stake. Icons, we would say now. It was typical of Douglas and, as I later found out, of Mark too, that their icons should be such strange and (at first glance) unprepossessing animals as the Amazonian manatee, the aye-aye and the kakapo.
There is something in the solemn oddity, the idiosyncratic earnestness of these species that tears at the heart with greater urgency and pathos than the more photogenic and glamorous pumas, dolphins and pandas. Nature admits of no hierarchy of beauty or usefulness or importance. We like to think, entirely wrongly, that we, mankind, are nature's last word, at the summit of evolution, or that animals "at the top of the food chain" are somehow more important than animals at the bottom. Last Chance to See showed us all that a bumbling earth-bound parrot is as good a symbol of the beauty and fragility of the natural world as a soaring condor and that a plug-ugly nocturnal lemur with a Twiglet for a middle finger can represent the glory of creation quite as aptly as a meerkat or an orang-utan.
I was proud to know Douglas, pleased to have been even tangentially connected with his and Mark's great and pioneering project, but I cannot honestly say that over the following 15 or so years I gave Last Chance to See much more thought. I re-read it once, I think, and began to develop my own small wildlife interests – involving myself in two films and a book about the spectacled bear in Peru.
On 11 May 2001, I was shocked and heartbroken to hear of the sudden and wholly unexpected death of Douglas Noel Adams – the DNA at the core of so much that I loved and valued in the world. He was just 49 years old. The years since have passed and every day I have missed Douglas as a friend, teacher and companion. How can I know what to think of iPhones and iMacs, compact cameras, GPS devices and Blu-ray players without Douglas here to offer his unique sideways view?
Then one day in 2007, out of the blue, I had a phone call. Might I consider travelling, with Mark, back to those animals that had formed the principal cast list of Last Chance to See, this time filming the experience for television? I sounded myself out, I sounded Mark out and then I sounded the BBC out. We all seemed to be in agreement that the time was right. Out of the eight species Mark and Douglas had originally chosen, it seemed that two were already functionally extinct (the northern white rhino and the Yangtze river dolphin) – in other words, a quarter of their almost random snapshot of vulnerable species had been wiped from the map of creation. Mark told me at our first meeting that he believes whichever eight critically endangered species they had chosen back then, the chances are that a quarter would now be extinct.
And so, in January 2008, I flew from Miami, Florida to Manaus, Amazonia, to join Mark and start work on the first film, which was to feature the Amazonian manatee. There is no length to which Mark will not go in order to observe an animal, photograph it and, if needs be, save it from peril. He has put his own life in the severest possible danger time and time again in his work for anti-poacher patrols in Africa and Asia, all at the service of protecting rhinos, elephants and tigers from those who would slaughter them wholesale for gain. Not only that, but he will encourage, belabour and enthuse any large, sweaty unwilling companions who happen to be lumbering at his side wishing there were better phone signals and air conditioning available.
I embarked on this whole project honestly believing I had bitten off more than I could chew. I am no physical hero: I am clumsy, overweight, unfit and uncoordinated. The first episode of filming began with me falling off a floating dock and smashing my right humerus. Yet somehow, a year and a quarter later, I had lost much weight and was happily hurling myself into physically demanding conditions that I would have wept and gibbered at before. The life-changing benefits of the filming experience I owe to the animals and to Mark. That he and I never quarrelled is testament to his extraordinary good temper and sweetness of nature. He tolerated the presence of an amateur, idler and dilettante and proved a perfect teacher and matchless travel companion.
If our adventures have any purpose it is to help with the conservation conversation. Are the animals worth saving because they hold an important place in the great interconnected web of existence? Are they worth saving because they might one day yield important clues and compounds to help us with medicine or some other useful technology? Or are they worth saving because they are the beautiful achievement of millions of years of natural selection? Extinction is a natural part of creation, this is unquestionably true: yet no matter what one's views on climate change or global warming, it is impossible, impossible, to deny that man-made alterations to habitat are threatening thousands of plant and animal species across the planet at an unprecedented rate and scale. So the question is perhaps not "Why should we save them?" but "What right do we have to destroy them?"
Let us never stop talking about the creatures we share the planet with. The first step is to know them a little better.
Last Chance to See by Mark Carwardine and Stephen Fry is published by Collins (RRP £20). To order a copy for £18 with free UK p&p go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
Reuters 2 Sep 09;
INFRASTRUCTURE AT RISK
There's a sign in the heart of Florida's Everglades wetlands that sums up the threat of rising sea levels. Located many miles from any coast, it reads "Rock Reef Pass -- Elevation 3 feet."
Coastal authorities in Florida routinely replenish beaches by dredging sand from offshore or importing it from the Carribbean.
The Florida Keys, Miami Beach, Sanibel and Captiva, and Palm Beach, the exclusive east coast hideaway of the super-wealthy, are all built on barrier islands and some experts believe these sand islands would be swamped by rising seas.
"With a 3 foot (90 cm) sea level rise, most of the lower half of the Everglades disappears. Much of the Keys are under water," said Brian Soden, professor of oceanography at Miami University.
But its not just high priced beachhouses that are at risk from storm surges and rising seas. Parts of Cape Canaveral, home of the Kennedy Space Center and the space shuttle launch pads, and Tampa Bay are considered vulnerable to rising seas.
In New York City, with more than 8 million people, a sea level rise of 1.5 feet by 2050 and a category 3 hurricane could wash away seaside restaurants and centuries-old homes perched along Rockaway Beach and near the famed Coney Island boardwalk. Southern Brooklyn and Queens, Wall Street in lower Manhattan, and eastern Staten Island could also end up underwater.
In California, nearly $100 billion worth of coastal property and infrastructure are at risk of severe flooding from rising sea levels, warns the Pacific Institute, an environmental think-tank.
Likely flood casualties include the San Francisco and Oakland international airports, 3,500 miles (5,630 km) of roads and 280 miles (450 km) of railways, 140 schools, 30 power plants and 29 wastewater treatment plants, said the Institute.
In Sydney, a city of four million people, its coastal sewage and stormwater systems work on gravity and rising sea levels and storm surges threat to overload the ageing infrastructure.
"The biggest risk is to infrastructure on the coast and that will be the most expensive risk. A huge amount of government infrastructure is within that coastal zone in Sydney, there are hospitals, storage, electricity, water," says McMurdo.
NO RISING SEA INSURANCE
American fisherman Shane Wilson loves living on South Padre Island in the Gulf of Mexico, Texas. But it comes at a price.
Last year a hurricane storm smashed his home, a short stroll from the seashore, causing $28,000 worth damage.
Insurance covered $19,000 worth of the damages as Wilson pays about $5,000 a year for a range of insurance, from flood, wind, rain and hail insurance to catastrophe insurance.
Rising seas will only make Wilson's home even more vulnerable to hurricane storm surges and lead to higher insurance costs.
"The only thing we can do is prepare for it. We have aluminium shutters for the windows -- when you crank them down they seal everything up," says Wilson.
In Australia, 19 of the 20 biggest property losses in the past 40 years have been weather related. Cyclones, storms and floods account for 80 percent of the total cost of natural disasters in Australia from 1967-1999.
But in Australia you can not be insured for rising sea levels and the Insurance Council of Australia does not see that policy changing, despite identifying 896,000 residential properties it says have "significant exposure".
"I do not believe that a commercial (insurance) product, on present analysis, is viable," says Karl Sullivan, general manager, policy risk and disaster planning directorate, Insurance Council of Australia.
Risk averse insurance firms, with their passion for actuarial tables and probabilities, are as much in the dark as everyone else when it comes to the unknown consequences of climate change.
"If we had this conversation in 100 years time, it would really be anyone's guess. It comes down to how well the community can mitigate the risks that are present there," says Sullivan. (Additional reporting Ed Stoddard in Dallas, Jim Loney in Miami, Steve Gorman in Los Angeles)
(Editing by Megan Goldin)
Sven Egenter, Reuters 22 Sep 09
GENEVA (Reuters) - The world's seas could rise by more than a meter (3 feet) by 2100 as the melting Arctic has an impact on weather across the planet, the environmental group WWW said in a report on Wednesday.
That projection, roughly twice the sea-level rise cited in U.N. and other research, takes account of the impact of disappearing ice sheets of Greenland and western Antarctica.
Sharply higher seas could also lead to flooding of costal regions, potentially affecting about a quarter of the world's population, the WWF said.
"If we allow the Arctic to get too warm, it is doubtful whether we will be able to keep these feedbacks under control," Martin Sommerkorn, senior adviser for WWF's Arctic program, said in a statement.
"It is urgently necessary to rein in greenhouse gas emissions while we still can,"
The dramatic loss of sea ice resulting from the Arctic's warming at about twice the rate of the rest of the world will affect conditions well beyond the planetary poles, WWF found.
Europe and North America may, for example, experience unusually cold winters, whereas Greenland may experience warmer winters from the sea-level changes and shifted humidity.
Moreover, the warming of the Arctic could itself become an engine for more global warming, it argued.
The Arctic's frozen soils and wetlands store twice as much carbon as is held in the atmosphere.
As warming in the Arctic continues, soils will increasingly thaw and release carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane, at significantly increased rates, the report said.
Levels of atmospheric methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas, have been increasing for the past two years, probably due to the warming Arctic tundra.
The WWF called the world's leaders to agree on rapid and deep cuts of carbon emissions when they meet in December in Copenhagen for the final round of negotiations for a new global agreement on climate change.
(Editing by Laura MacInnis)
Warming Arctic's global impacts outstrip predictions
WWF 2 Sep 09;
Warming in the Arctic could lead to flooding affecting one quarter of the world’s population, substantial increases in greenhouse gas emissions from massive carbon pools, and extreme global weather changes, according to a new WWF report.
The Arctic Climate Feedbacks: Global Implications report, released today, outlines dire global consequences of a warming Arctic that are far worse than previous projections. The unprecedented peer-reviewed report brings together top climate scientists who have assessed the current science on arctic warming.
"What they found was a truly sobering picture,' said Dr Martin Sommerkorn, senior climate change advisor for WWF’s Arctic programme. 'What this report says is that a warming Arctic is much more than a local problem, it’s a global problem.
"Simply put, if we do not keep the Arctic cold enough, people across the world will suffer the effects."
The report shows that numerous arctic climate feedbacks – negative effects prompted by the impacts of warming -- will make global climate change more severe than indicated by other recent projections, including those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2007 assessment.
The dramatic loss of sea ice resulting from the Arctic warming at about twice the rate of the rest of the world will influence atmospheric circulation and weather in the Arctic and beyond. This is projected to change temperature and precipitation patterns in Europe and North America, affecting agriculture, forestry and water supplies.
In addition, the Arctic’s frozen soils and wetlands store twice as much carbon as is held in the atmosphere. As warming in the Arctic continues, soils will increasingly thaw and release carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane, at significantly increased rates. Levels of atmospheric methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas, have been increasing for the past two years, and it is suggested that the increase comes from warming arctic tundra.
In a first-of-its kind assessment incorporating the fate of the ice sheets of Greenland and West Antarctica into global sea level projections, the WWF report concludes that sea- levels will very likely rise by more than one meter by 2100 -- more than twice the amount given in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2007 assessment that had excluded the contribution of ice sheets from their projection. The associated flooding of coastal regions will affect more than a quarter of the world’s population.
"This report shows that it is urgently necessary to rein in greenhouse gas emissions while we still can," Sommerkorn said. "If we allow the Arctic to get too warm, it is doubtful whether we will be able to keep these feedbacks under control.
WWF has joined with other NGOs to produce a model climate treaty for Copenhagen that gives the world a blueprint for achieving the kind of emissions cuts needed to likely avoid arctic feedbacks.
"We need to listen now to these signals from the Arctic, and take the necessary action in Copenhagen this December to get a deal that quickly and effectively limits greenhouse gas emissions,” said James Leape, director general of WWF International.
In December 2009, the governments of 191 countries will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the final round of negotiations for a new global agreement on climate change. The first period of the current agreement, called the 'Kyoto Protocol', will end in three years, in December 2012. The negotiations in Copenhagen are supposed to approve a new legal framework for global climate action from 2013 onwards.
According to WWF, this framework must guarantee much deeper and more rapid emission cuts from industrialized countries, and financing to developing countries to enable them also to take climate action.
Arctic thaw threatens much of world: WWF report
Yahoo News 2 Sep 09;
GENEVA (AFP) – Global warming in the Arctic could affect a quarter of the world's population through flooding and amplify the wider impact of climate change, a report by environmental group WWF said Wednesday.
Air temperatures in the region have risen by almost twice the global average over the past few decades, according to the peer-reviewed scientific report.
That is not just down to melting the polar ice pack, a major cooling agent for global weather patterns and reflector of sunlight.
It is also linked to the release of more of the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming that are naturally trapped in frozen soil, it claimed.
"What this report says is that a warming Arctic is much more than a local problem, it's a global problem," said Martin Sommerkorn, senior climate change advisor on the WWF's Arctic Programme.
"Simply put, if we do not keep the Arctic cold enough, people across the world will suffer the effects," he warned.
The combination of thawing Arctic sea ice and melting ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica was likely to raise global sea levels by about 1.2 metres (four feet) by 2100, more than previously thought, according to scientists commissioned by the WWF for the report.
"The associated flooding of coastal regions will affect more than a quarter of the world's population," the WWF said.
Scientists have expressed concern in recent years about the now visible melting of the Arctic region, to the extent that some have predicted virtually ice-free summers there this century.
The full impact of polar melting has yet to be taken into account by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the scientific reference for world climate predictions, as reliable observations have only started to emerge in recent years.
Sommerkorn said the melting was already having an effect on the weather in the northern hemisphere, such as drier conditions in Scandinavia or the southwest of North America, or more humid Mediterranean winters.
However some climatologists at the World Climate Conference here urged caution about such short-term judgments, while acknowledging the major long-term influence of Arctic melting on the world's climate.
"We see that summer sea ice is likely to disappear by 2060," said Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at Britain's Met Office.
"But I don't think we understand the physics yet," she added, pointing to possible natural variability to account for recent local weather patterns.
The WWF report concluded that melting sea ice and the release of pockets of greenhouse gases -- carbon dioxide from thawing permafrost and methane seeping from the depths of the warming Arctic Ocean -- would also fuel disruption to atmospheric and ocean currents much further afield.
Arctic permafrost stores twice as much carbon as contained in the atmosphere, acording to the WWF. Some 90 percent of near surface permafrost in the Arctic could disappear by the end of the century, the report found.
That trend could significantly accelerate global warming and force a shift in emissions targets, Sommerkorn told journalists.
"If we allow the Arctic to get much warmer it is really doubtful whether we will be able to keep the Arctic climate feedbacks under control," he said.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is due at the conference later this week, on Wednesday urged world leaders to act now to halt global warming, after seeing first-hand its effects in the Arctic during a visit to Norway.
"The Arctic is similar to sending a canary into a coalmine -- this is a danger warning for the global climate," he said.
World leaders will gather at a UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December to try and seal a new international accord on fighting climate change.
On thinning Arctic ice, U.N.'s Ban urges climate deal
Wojciech Moskwa, Reuters 2 Sep 09;
ARCTIC OCEAN ICE SHEET (Reuters) - Standing on increasingly vulnerable Arctic sea ice, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made an impassioned plea for politicians to seal a global climate pact this year.
Ban said the Arctic, where temperatures have been rising faster than elsewhere, was "ground zero" for climate research and a warning to politicians to move fast toward a deal to slash emissions of greenhouse gasses stoking global warming.
"Here on the polar ice I feel the power of nature and at the same time a sense of vulnerability," Ban told Reuters after disembarking from Norwegian coastguard ice breaker "KV Svalbard" to walk on the sea ice and talk to Arctic researchers.
"We must do all we can to preserve this Arctic ice. This is the political responsibility required of global leaders and we count on their commitment," he said late on Tuesday.
The Arctic ice cap has been shrinking faster than scientists expected, as air and water temperatures rise, and may disappear totally during summers before 2050, research shows.
As the reflective ice cap melts, it reveals darker waters which absorb more solar energy and accelerate climate change.
Moving northward through increasingly thick sea ice for nearly two hours, the coastguard vessel met an Arctic research ship some 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole -- a latitude of more than 80 degrees North.
There, researchers showed Ban how they measure the ice's thickness, temperature and other qualities in the hope of finding out why more of it has been drifting out of the Arctic Ocean in past years to melt in the relatively warmer North Atlantic.
To protect against polar bears, spotted in the area hours earlier, guards armed with rifles and flare guns controlled the perimeters of the ice sheet.
DEMONSTRATING LEADERSHIP
Ban said he expected the 100 or so world leaders who will take part in climate talks in New York this month to "demonstrate their leadership" and reinvigorate negotiations before December's main meeting in Copenhagen.
Ban is also fighting to renew his leadership credentials after a scathing memo from a Norwegian diplomat criticized him for weak rule and warned of a potential flop in Copenhagen.
The Copenhagen talks are due to work out a replacement for the Kyoto protocol which limits emissions until 2012. But a deal remains elusive until the world's industrialized countries strike a deal with developing states led by China and India over the scope of emission curbs and how to pay for them.
Ban said he was "working hard" with leaders to agree emission reduction targets for developed nations of at least 25 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. Already announced cuts fall well short of the target.
"We must seal the deal in Copenhagen. That is a must," he said, adding the December 7-18 talks may produce the framework for a climate pact but not resolve all the details.
"I do not expect that we will be able to agree on all details in Copenhagen, time is too short," Ban said.
Melting sea ice does not lead to higher sea levels but warmer Arctic temperatures are also melting glaciers, whose run-offs fill oceans with more water.
"Unless we stop this trend, we will have devastating consequences for humanity," Ban told reporters.
(Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Has runaway Arctic warming already begun?
Fred Pearce, Geneva, New Scientist 3 Sep 09;
Runaway warming of the Arctic threatens to spread climate havoc across the globe in the coming decades, according to a new study by the environment group WWF. But has the process already begun? Climate scientists meeting at the World Climate Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, where the report was launched today, are in two minds.
Some reckon the WWF report may understate future events. The report's author, climate adviser Martin Sommerkorn, reckons 90 per cent of the Arctic's surface permafrost could be lost by 2100. But Jerry Meehl of the US government's National Center for Atmospheric Research at Boulder, Colorado, told the conference that unless humans curb their greenhouse gas emissions "there will be zero permafrost by 2100".
Melting permafrost is likely to release huge volumes of methane, accelerating global warming faster than previous predictions, according to many speakers at the conference. Fears of such releases prompted another US government agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this week to start regular research flights over Alaska, sniffing for methane.
What it did last summer
Conversely, the WWF's headline-grabbing claim that the disappearance of Arctic sea ice during summer 2007 was a tipping point in Arctic warming may be wide of the mark. Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at Britain's Met Office, said less ice disappeared in the summer of 2008. And that there had probably been even less melting there this year, though final reports will only come in over the next two weeks.
Met Office scientists reckon they know what really happened in 2007. "High pressure sat over the Arctic, which caused cloudless skies and extra melting," Pope told New Scientist. "It was basically natural variability, and 2007 was an outlier."
One theory discussed at the meeting is that the unusual high pressure was connected to the Pacific climate phenomenon called La Ni̱a. But now its opposite, El Ni̱o, is forming Рreducing the chances of an Arctic refreeze next year.
"All this shows that we have to be careful not to assume that everything is caused by climate change," said Pope. But, whatever the short-term swings, the long-term warming will get its way in the end.
Persistent warming has been making Arctic ice thinner. "So when we do get a sunny summer, the effects are much greater than in the past," said Pope. The world, it seems, is skating on thin ice.
Yahoo News 2 Sep 09;
COPENHAGEN (AFP) – Greenland's glaciers are melting into the sea faster than ever before, the environmental pressure group Greenpeace claimed on Wednesday.
Glaciers move when melting occurs from the effects of global warming, causing masses of ice to slide into fjords and the sea.
Greenland's Helheim glacier, which measures six kilometres wide (four miles) and is one kilometre thick, moves about 25 metres (yards) a day, Greenpeace said in a statement. The group said that is twice as fast as when its Arctic Sunrise vessel last visited Greenland in 2005.
The speed of the other major glacier in Greenland, Kangerdlugssuaq, is even more dramatic. It moves some 38 metres a day or 14 kilometres a year, Greenpeace said.
"Kangerdlugssuaq Glacier is probably the world's fastest moving glacier," said Dr. Gordon Hamilton, from the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute.
Hamilton is a member of this year's Greenpeace expedition currently inspecting the glaciers in the north and east of the Danish territory.
The group's Arctic Sunrise vessel left for the region at the end of June and is due to complete its mission at the end of September.
The two glaciers produce 10 percent of Greenland's ice output into the North Atlantic.
Glaciers that shed their ice cause sea levels to rise.
Sea levels are currently on the increase by three millimetres a year, according to Greenpeace, and pose a serious threat to people living on islands or in coastal regions.
Marlowe Hood Yahoo News 2 Sep 09;
PARIS (AFP) – Africa and much of south Asia face extreme risk from climate change but top carbon polluters will be relatively shielded from its ravages, according a ranking of 166 nations obtained by AFP Wednesday.
Somalia, Haiti and Afghanistan top the Climate Change Vulnerability Index, calculated from dozens of variables measuring the capacity of a country to cope with the consequences of global warming.
"We wanted to look at what is going to impact human populations," explained Fiona Place, senior environmental risk analyst at Maplecroft, a Britain-based firm that provides global risk intelligence for businesses.
Even if the world agrees at make-or-break climate talks in December to slash CO2 emissions, many of those impacts -- rising sea levels, increased disease, flooding and drought -- are already inevitable, UN scientists say.
Of the 28 nations deemed at "extreme risk", 22 are in Africa.
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are similarly threatened, with Pakistan right on the edge and India not far behind.
At the other end of the spectrum, Norway, Finland, Japan, Canada and New Zealand are best insulated, due to a combination of wealth, good governance, well-managed ecosystems and high resource security.
The United States and Australia -- the largest per capita emitters of CO2 among developed nations -- are comfortably within the top 15 countries least at risk, according to the index.
With the exception of Chile and Israel, the rest of the 41 nations in the "low risk" category of the ranking are European or from the Arab Peninsula.
Japan's enviable position is due to its highly-developed infrastructure, its stable political and economic system, and its overall food and water security, explained Place.
Although it imports much of its energy needs, it does so from many sources, spreading the risk.
"Japan is also relatively rich in biodiversity, including well-managed forests. Human induced soil erosion is not a critical issue," she said.
"That's in contrast to, say, Ethiopia" -- or dozens of other poor nations -- "where there's a high population density and soil erosion is a real issue, impacting the ability to grow crops," she said.
One weak point in Japan, however, is the high concentration of populations along the coast exposed to rising sea levels.
"Japan does need to take very seriously the issue of climate change vulnerability," Place said.
Another country threatened by ocean levels, which many scientists say will go up by at least a metre by century end, is Bangladesh, most of whose 150 million people live in low-lying delta areas.
Among the so-called BRIC economies -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- only India is in the "high risk" group, due to high population density, security risks and especially its resource security.
India's food vulnerability was highlighted last month by a study in the British journal Nature which said that the country's underground water supply was being depleted at an alarming rate.
China and Brazil face "medium" risk, while Russia is in the "low" category.
Many small island states literally at risk of being washed off the map by rising seas, such as Tuvalu and the Maldives, were not included in the ranking.
The climate change index is based on 33 distinct criteria grouped into six sub-indices: economy, government institutions, poverty and development, ecosystems, resource security, and population density in relation to infrastructure.
The two items weighted most heavily are potential impact of rising sea levels, and mismanagement of land resources, both forests or agriculture.
Alister Doyle and Sven Egenter, Reuters 2 Sep 09;
GENEVA (Reuters) - Experts at 150-nation climate talks agreed guidelines on Wednesday to improve a flow of information to help the world cope with heatwaves, sandstorms or rising sea levels likely to be caused by global warming.
"In the 21st century the peoples of the world will be facing multi-faceted challenges of climate variability and climate change," according to a one-page draft summary of three-day talks among 1,500 experts at a World Climate Conference.
The experts, including leading scientists, urged better monitoring of the climate, free and open exchange of data, more research, speedier information for everyone from farmers to governments, and other measures such as more education.
The draft document was due to be endorsed by governments on Thursday as part of a plan to bolster climate services. The Geneva agreement could help implement a separate U.N. climate treaty due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December.
"We're on track," Jane Lubchenco, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and head of the U.S. delegation, told Reuters of the Geneva meeting and its goals.
The talks are aimed mainly at helping developing nations adapt to climate change that will affect all parts of society from farming to energy supplies and from health to transport. It would help rich nations too, she said.
IN OWN BACK YARD
"Climate change is real and it's happening every place ... every country will have to adapt to climate change," Lubchenco said. "It's happening in our own back yards."
"If you are going to invest in wind energy you would want to know where the winds are going to be good in the next 100 years, not the past 100 years," she said.
Delegates said governments at the talks were trying to end splits over a separate document mentioning global warming that is also due to be endorsed by about 80 ministers and 20 heads of state at the final two days of talks on Thursday and Friday.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will be among the speakers.
"Developing nations are trying to make sure they don't promise more here in a declaration than they will in Copenhagen," one African delegate said.
Poor nations insist the rich must take the lead in cutting emissions under a Copenhagen deal, while allowing them to use more fossil fuels as they pursue development. Rich nations want more actions from the poor to slow the rise of their emissions.
Martin Visbeck, the chair of the committee of experts in Geneva, said the disputes did not threaten agreement on a new "Framework for Climate Services" in Geneva.
"It's really more technical -- about how do we refer to, or not refer to, the Copenhagen process in this declaration," he said. "Nothing of substance here is under debate."
Lubchenco also said that none of the key elements of Copenhagen were meant to be debated in Geneva.
Visbeck said that improved climate information was already paying off. The Red Cross, for instance, appealed for money last year to help southern Africa cope with severe flooding, based on forecasts that heavy rains were coming.
He said it was the first time the Red Cross had appealed for cash before a disaster struck. Despite resistance from some donors, he said the plan paid off. The number of deaths fell to 80 from about 2,000 in past similar floods.
(Additional reporting by Laura MacInnis; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Climate risks, and how to limit damage
Reuters 3 Sep 09;
(Reuters) - A 155-nation conference in Geneva agreed on a plan to improve climate information to help people cope with ever more droughts, floods, sandstorms and rising sea levels projected this century.
The plan for a "Global Framework for Climate Services" includes the appointment of a task force of high-level, independent advisors within four months.
This task force will prepare a report within another 12 months with recommendations for elements and implementation of the framework.
Among examples of risks and solutions from around the world given by U.N. agencies:
DISASTER RISKS
Between 1991 and 2005, natural disasters killed 960,000 people and economic losses totaled $1.19 trillion. Nine out of 10 natural disasters in the past 50 years have been caused by extreme weather and climate events.
-- The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) supplies early warnings of disasters including cyclones and dust storms. Vietnam is replanting mangroves along the Mekong River delta to help protect low-lying areas from floods as seas rise.
HUMAN HEALTH
Water-borne diseases may become more frequent because of climate change -- for instance, warmer oceans can lead to toxic algal blooms and cholera epidemics. A heatwave in Europe in 2003 caused 70,000 more deaths than normal.
-- Botswana is using seasonal rain forecasts to help predict malaria outbreaks. The forecasts give time to deploy resources against mosquitoes and provide nets to keep the insects at bay.
TRANSPORT AND TOURISM
Tourism generated $735 billion in revenue in 2006, of which $221 billion was in developing nations. Projected sea level rise this century would worsen coastal erosion and lead to the loss of beaches on tropical islands that depend on tourists.
-- Some ski resorts are using temperature projections for coming decades to site ski lifts. In Vermont, one ski resort has built a reservoir to feed water to snow-making machines.
MANAGING WATER
More than 1 billion people worldwide lack access to clean water. Drought and desertification worldwide threaten the livelihoods of 1.2 billion people.
-- Countries in the Himalayas are working to assess risks of floods from lakes, now held in behind glaciers. A thaw of the glaciers could lead to an "outburst flood."
ENERGY
In 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed more than 100 offshore oil and gas platforms off the United States. Energy industry losses from hurricanes in 2005 were estimated at $15 billion.
-- Developing countries such as India and Mali are turning to jatropha, which grows with little rain on wasteland and does not compete with crops. Jatropha can be burned as fuel, helps store carbon in the ground and slows desertification.
SECURING FOOD SUPPLIES
Climate change will disrupt farming and fishing just as the world population rises to a projected 9 billion by 2050 from more than 6 billion now.
-- Farmers in the Ningxia region of China are trying to work out better ways to allocate water during droughts and think how crops will change in the next 70 years.
Potential seen for climate insurance in tourism
Alister Doyle, Reuters 2 Sep 09;
GENEVA (Reuters) - Insurance is an under-used way for the tourism industry to manage the risks of climate change, with existing offers ranging from a "perfect weather guarantee" by Barbados to ski resorts promising deep snow, experts say.
"Insurance products...have a huge potential for tourism," Daniel Scott, chair of a team on tourism and climate for the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization, told Reuters at a climate conference in Geneva.
"It's coming but it's been under-utilized. Many operators do not even know about it," said Scott, who works at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
The 150-nation conference in Geneva from August 31-September 4 is seeking to boost the flow of climate information to help nations adapt to shifts such as droughts, storms or rising seas that will affect everything from farming to health.
A U.N.-commissioned survey led by Scott of weather-related insurance in recent years includes Barbados' guarantee, refunding travelers if daytime temperatures are below 26 Celsius (78.8 F) or there is more than 5 mm (0.2 inch) of rain.
Temperatures for the Caribbean island were forecast to be around 32 C (89.6 F) for Wednesday.
Some ski resorts in Europe and North America offer a refund if snowfall is inadequate. Bombardier Motor Corp. in Canada promised a partial refund on new snowmobiles if snowfall was less than 50 percent of a three-year average.
One PGA Golf event in North Carolina bought insurance against too much rain that would keep spectators away. Some holiday operators offer insurance against rain on holiday.
WINE BARS
And a chain of wine bars in London took insurance for every Thursday and Friday when temperatures did not reach 24 C (75.2 F), reckoning chilly days keep drinkers away.
"Much more should be done to mainstream climate considerations into tourism policy," said Alain Dupeyras of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Experts say the tourism industry is one of the most exposed to climate change that is set to disrupt rain patterns, push up sea levels that could wash away beaches or warm the oceans and damage coral reefs.
Among hurdles, developing nations find it hard to get access to proper insurance because of a lack of historical weather data, such as cyclones, on which to calculate risks. And those risks are changing with global warming.
"Most Caribbean islands don't have a risk profile," said Ulric Trotz, science adviser to the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center. That meant their risks were assumed to be the same as for the U.S. Gulf coast.
"When Hurricane Andrew hit the southern United States the premiums for all the Caribbean rose," he said, referring to the devastating 1992 storm. There was also a need to consider micro-insurance for tourism workers who could lose jobs.
Tourism generated $735 billion in revenues worldwide in 2006, of which $221 billion was in developing nations, according to U.N. data. Some tropical island states rely on tourism for half their gross domestic product.
Scott said that it was hard to estimate the overall value of tourism insurance but it was a tiny part of the market for weather derivatives -- estimated at $32 billion in 2007-08 and dominated by agriculture and energy clients.
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Nina Chestney, Reuters 2 Sep 09;
LONDON (Reuters) - People want to save the planet but are unwilling to make radical lifestyle changes like giving up air travel or red meat to reduce the effects of climate change, a straw poll by Reuters showed.
As leaders gear up for another round of climate change talks later this month in New York, motivating people to change their lifestyles will be crucial in ensuring cuts in planet-warming greenhouse gases, experts say.
Over 40 percent of Britain's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the main greenhouse gas causing climate change, come from the energy we use at home and in traveling.
A straw poll of 15 British men and 15 British women between the ages of 25-75 in central London, showed all were willing to make small changes for the environment, such as recycling, but few would commit to more fundamental changes to behavior.
"I try to minimize using my car but I wouldn't give it up," a 42-year-old man, Emerald Wijesinthe, told Reuters.
Changing small habits like leaving appliances on standby are relatively easy, but more radical changes face resistance.
"We know from plenty of evidence in social, personality, and clinical psychology that people generally do not like to change their identities - they prefer stability," Tim Kasser, psychology professor at Knox College in Illinois, told Reuters.
Tapping into gender differences could help focus energy efficiency measures and deliver better results.
"Women are more likely to be energy conscious and willing to make habit-related changes, whereas men are more likely to make investments in more efficient equipment," said Sarah Darby, research fellow at UK Research Council's Energy Programme.
All the women interviewed in the straw poll said they made efforts to reduce energy use, compared with 60 percent of men.
Seventy percent of men said they were unwilling to change their lifestyles, compared with just 10 percent of women.
"I make sure the house isn't overheated, lower our meat intake and grow vegetables," said 71-year old Rosie Hughes.
Eighteen percent of all greenhouse gas emissions is due to meat production, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation.
Research suggests women in general show more empathy and concern for the greater good than men, Kasser added, which made them more likely to think about the impacts of their daily behavior on the environment.
In fact, appealing to people's altruistic side is likely to spur people to make fundamental changes, rather than motivation from financial concerns, and advertisers can play an important role in encouraging greener lifestyles.
"Climate change is now a marketing challenge as well as a scientific one," said Ian Curtis, founder of Oxfordshire climate project ClimateXchange.
(Editing by Sue Thomas)
FACTBOX: Impacts, savings from cutting UK energy use
Reuters 2 Sep 09;
LONDON (Reuters) - Over 40 percent of Britain's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the main greenhouse gas causing climate change, come from the energy we use at home and in traveling.
As politicians gear up for more climate change talks later this month in New York, changing people's attitudes toward energy consumption could be key in reducing emissions.
The average British home emits around five and a half tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, twice the amount of a car.
Homes could save 1.5 tonnes of CO2, equivalent to 300 pounds a year, by insulating, improving their heating system and being energy efficient. Businesses could save over 2.5 billion pounds a year through carbon reduction measures, such as replacing oil boilers or installing new lighting.
The impacts of energy consumption in Britain and some potential savings are set out below.
HOUSEHOLDS
Leaving appliances and gadgets on standby wastes as much electricity as the annual output of two 700 megawatt power stations.
We waste over 600,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, equal to 170 million pounds, by leaving lights on unnecessarily.
Over 700,000 tonnes a year of CO2 is wasted by people overfilling their kettles. If people boiled only the water needed each time, we could save enough electricity in a year to run Britain's street lighting for nearly 7 months.
Britain could save 180 mega liters of water a day - enough to supply nearly 500,000 homes, by turning taps off while brushing teeth.
If we stopped wasting food which could have been eaten, we could save 18 million tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of taking one in five cars off our roads.
If everyone reduced their thermostat by one degree centigrade we could save 5.5 million tonnes of CO2, the same reduction as taking 1.8 million cars off the road.
Installing cavity wall insulation could cut CO2 by nearly 4 million tonnes. That's enough to fill Wembley stadium 500 times.
Drying clothes outside in the summer, rather than using tumble driers, would save as much CO2 as taking 240,000 cars off the roads.
Upgrading fridges and freezers to energy saving recommended products could save over 700 million pounds of electricity every year. This could power UK street lighting for three years.
BUSINESSES
Air conditioning can increase a building' energy consumption and CO2 emissions by 100 percent.
Switching off lights in corridors and rooms not being used could cut lighting costs by 15 percent.
A seven-day timer on shared equipment such as printers, vending machines and water coolers could save up to 70 percent on energy costs.
A single computer and monitor left on for 24 hours a day could cost over 50 pounds a year. Switching it off out of hours could reduce this to 15 pounds. Upgrading IT can bring substantial CO2 reductions.
Maintaining boilers regularly could save firms 10 percent on annual heating costs.
Sources: Energy Saving Trust www.energysavingtrust.org.uk, The Carbon Trust www.carbontrust.co.uk
(Reporting by Nina Chestney)
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