Reef Survey @ Pulau Satumu Aborted
from colourful clouds
Semakau - Always a pleasure to see new things
from Singapore Nature and wonderful creation with lots of animals and wild shores of singapore
Night feeding by Masked Lapwing
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Wintering Tiger Shrikes
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Monday Morgue: 21st September 2009
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales
Are we on a one-way street away from nature?
from snail's tales
Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com 21 Sep 09;
The fashion world has been rocked: not by the newest designer or the most shocking outfit, but by the continuing destruction of forests in Indonesia. On September 15th, the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) helped open New York City's styling Fashion Week with a party to encourage fashion designers to take a closer look at the paper bags they give customers.
Many luxury shopping bags are destroying forests as far away as Indonesia, impacting the world's climate and threatening orangutans, Asian elephants, tigers, the Sumatran rhino, and innumerable other less well-known species, according to RAN.
The organization decided the best way to reach out to the fashion world was to throw a party and it appears to have worked. RAN says that several companies have cancelled contracts with Asia Pulp and Paper through New Hampshire based company, Pak 2000, including H&M, Billabong, Baker & Taylor, Osborn & Little, and OKA.
APP has long been accused by environmentalists of massive and unsustainable forest destruction in Indonesia, including clearcutting wildlife habitat, contributing to global warming, and destroying indigenous peoples' land.
The party was hosted by fashion standby Tiffany's and Co. The company was the first to make the switch in its paper bags—and all other paper products—to those certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
"Tiffany & Co. has a long history of concern for the natural world," said Michael J. Kowalski, chairman and chief executive officer of Tiffany & Co. "From our shopping bags to our gemstones to our gold and silver, we’re trying to tread more gently upon the Earth so that our customers can be assured we share their desire to protect the world our children will inherit."
The destruction of forests and peatlands in Indonesia has given the nation the dubious status of the becoming world's third highest greenhouse gas emitter after China and the United States. Globally the degradation and destruction of rainforests is responsible for fifteen to twenty percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Stopping such destruction has been considered by many environmentalists to be the cheapest and quickest way to mitigate the impact of global warming.
Having discovered that nearly 100 fashion labels are complicit in rainforest destruction due to the bags they give away, RAN has also sent letters to the world's top fashion labels.
"The world looks to New York Fashion Week to set trends," said Michael Brune, RAN’s executive director. "After this party, top designers around the world will see that the trend for Spring 2010 is to get rainforest destruction out of their boutiques."
Previously, APP has lost contracts with Staples, Wal-Mart, Office Depot, and Woolworths over its environmental record.
Related article
Asia Pulp & Paper and fashion for glossy, paper shopping bags is ‘destroying rainforest’ Ben Webster and Emily Gosden Times Online 19 Sep 09;
Michael Richardson, Straits Times 20 Sep 09;
CARBON dioxide is the main greenhouse gas warming the planet and causing potentially dangerous climate change. So why not remove it before or after fossil fuels are burned and bury it deep underground - a process known as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)?
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has described CCS as one of the most promising technological solutions to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The need is certainly compelling. Nearly 70 per cent of the 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere each year is energy-related. Burning fossil fuels - mainly coal, but also natural gas and oil - to generate electricity accounts for more than 40 per cent of these emissions. Another 25 per cent comes from large-scale industry, such as iron and steel production, cement making, natural gas processing and oil refining.
With energy demand, especially in Asia, projected to grow by more than 40 per cent over the next two decades, keeping greenhouse gas emissions within tolerable limits will call for improved energy efficiency, increased use of solar, wind and other renewable energy, more nuclear power - and implementation of CCS on a wide scale.
CCS is currently expensive but technically feasible. Just last week, three of the world's leading energy companies, Chevron, Shell and ExxonMobil, agreed to invest US$37 billion (S$52.3 billion) to develop the giant Gorgon liquefied natural gas project off the coast of western Australia and include the world's largest CO2 capture and burial plan.
The Gorgon zone is estimated to contain 40 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas beneath the seabed. However, about 7 per cent of this reserve is CO2. Traditional gas processing would strip the CO2 and vent it into the atmosphere.
At a cost of about US$1.7 billion, the Gorgon joint venture plans to compress and inject 3.4 million metric tons of CO2 per year into a naturally occurring reservoir more than 2,000m below the processing plant on an offshore island. Over the life of the project, 120 million tons of CO2 will be buried this way.
This will be the first commercial scale CCS project in Australia. There are four similar, though smaller, projects around the world, all linked to oil and gas production. Two are in Norway, one in Algeria and the other straddles the United States-Canada border.
The longest in operation is at Norway's Sleipner gas field in the North Sea, 250km from land. Since 1996, one million tons of CO2 per year has been removed from the natural gas and injected back into the seabed. By the end of last year, 11 million tons of CO2 had been stored this way with no leakage.
This is important. When consultant McKinsey & Company studied CCS last year, it found that public concerns about whether the CO2 captured and stored would remain isolated from the atmosphere in the long term was one of the barriers to application of the technology.
Other obstacles included: One, concerns about the safety of CO2 transported by pipeline or ships on the way to underground storage; two, whether there were enough locally available geological formations suitable for storage; and three, lack of legal frameworks and government support to encourage development of CCS.
Another barrier is cost. The IEA says about half of all CCS would be in power generation, with the remainder in heavy industry and energy processing. The uptake in power generation and industry has been slow because CCS raises capital and operating expenses substantially, while decreasing plant energy efficiency. This is a key consideration in Asia, where coal - the most carbon-intensive of the fossil fuels - is the dominant source of electricity supply.
The IEA calculates that for coal-fired plants it costs US$40-55 for each ton of CO2 captured, and for gas-fired plants US$50-90. McKinsey reckons that the extra costs of running a 300-megawatt CCS demonstration power plant over its full life could amount to between US$735 million and US$1.6 billion.
Still, Sweden's Vattenfall group, Europe's fifth largest electricity generator, started running a 30-megawatt CCS coal-burning plant in Germany a year ago. It aims to test and prove all aspects of the technology for at least three years before deciding whether to build two 300-megawatt demonstration plants. The company says the first, in Denmark, could be in operation by 2013 and the second, in Germany, by 2015.
Vattenfall believes that by then, or a few years later, the cost of CCS will be no more than the price of emitting CO2 under emissions trading schemes. It aims to develop 1,000-megawatt coal-fired plants with CCS by 2020.
The next decade will be critical for the future of CCS. The IEA says that if there are at least 20 commercial-scale CCS projects operating by 2020 in a range of power and industrial settings around the world, it will 'considerably reduce uncertainties related to the cost and reliability' of the technology.
This would be a practical validation of one of the most promising options for a fast and significant reduction in global CO2 emissions.
The writer is visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Daniel Shields, Straits Times 21 Sep 09;
TOMORROW, United States President Barack Obama will speak to world leaders on climate change during a special United Nations summit in New York. The nations of the world are working hard to negotiate a new global agreement to combat climate change - one of the greatest challenges facing our world today. Already, its impact is apparent and consequences severe.
Arctic sea ice is disappearing faster than expected. The Greenland Ice Sheet is shrinking. Sea levels threaten to rise higher than anticipated. And water supplies are increasingly at risk from both melting glaciers and extreme climate events, such as droughts and floods. These changes threaten not only the environment, but also security and stability.
The science sends a simple and stark message: all countries must work together to combat climate change, and the time for action is now.
Mr Obama recognises that the US must be a leader in the global effort to combat climate change. We have a responsibility as the world's largest historic emitter of greenhouse gases. We know that without US emissions reductions, no solution to climate change is possible. So the US will take the lead in building a 21st century clean energy economy.
The President has called on Congress to develop comprehensive clean energy legislation to cut emissions by 14 per cent from 2005 levels and 83 per cent in 2050. A Bill has passed the House of Representatives and is making its way through Congress. His economic stimulus package includes over US$80 billion (S$113 billion) for clean energy. And recently instituted vehicle standards will increase fuel economy and reduce emissions.
From an environmental perspective, the European Union and US climate packages are comparable and lead to emissions reductions that are consistent with the science. Rather than debate on negligible differences between EU and US policies, it is far more critical to work together to prevent unchecked emissions growth among key emerging economies.
All major emitting nations have to work together to take strong action. There is no other way to contain climate change: The International Energy Agency estimates 97 per cent of emissions growth will come from the developing world. The US is pursuing a global strategy to combat climate change through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiating process, the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate and key bilateral relationships.
Developed countries need to reduce their emissions substantially by 2020 on an absolute basis, compared to a 2005 or 1990 baseline. Major developing nations must take actions that will substantially reduce their emissions by 2020 on a relative basis, compared to their so-called 'business as usual' path. Other developing countries should focus on preparing low-carbon growth plans - with financial and technical assistance where needed - to guide their longer-term development path. It is important to ensure that a new agreement will not require developing countries to take steps that would stifle their capacity to develop and grow.
Ultimately, a climate change agreement must be about not only limiting carbon emissions but about providing a pathway for sustainable development. Clean energy development is the only sustainable way forward. To facilitate this path, countries with advanced capabilities must stand ready to develop and disseminate technologies to countries in need.
If we work together, the effort to build a clean energy global economy can provide significant opportunity, driving investment, economic growth and job creation around the world.
The US and Singapore share many goals on preventing climate change. Both have much to lose from the negative impact of climate change, but we also have much to offer in finding ways to mitigate that impact or avoid it altogether.
Singapore is well placed to lead efforts in research and development of renewable energy technologies and promote new 'clean tech' industries that could not only help save the planet, but also provide new jobs for Singaporeans and new export opportunities for Singapore business. US and Singapore scientists are already collaborating on energy and environmental research to pave the way for these new industries. The US and Singapore have been discussing these issues with the rest of the region's economies at this year's Apec meetings.
The US is clear in its intent to secure a strong international agreement.
The writer is Charge d'Affaires at the Embassy of the United States in Singapore.
Jose Manuel Barroso, Straits Times 21 Sep 09;
THIS week, world leaders will gather for a United Nations summit to discuss the forthcoming climate change negotiations in Copenhagen. Much attention will be focused on the main players - China, India and the United States. Nonetheless, it is important to remember that all Asian countries have an important role to play in this process.
As a region, Asia probably faces the largest impact from climate change. Asian governments need to be part of a solution that allows them to mitigate and adapt to climate change while at the same time develop their economies. I believe this is possible. However, it will require a pragmatic approach.
Climate change is happening faster than we believed it would only two years ago. Continuing with business as usual almost certainly means dangerous, perhaps catastrophic, climate change during the course of this century.
I am now very concerned about the prospects for Copenhagen. The negotiations are dangerously close to deadlock at the moment - and such a deadlock may go far beyond a simple negotiating stand-off that we can fix next year. It risks being an acrimonious collapse, perhaps on the basis of a deep split between the developed and developing countries. The world cannot afford such a disastrous outcome.
So I hope that as world leaders peer over the edge of the abyss this week, we will collectively drive the negotiations forward. Now is not the time for poker playing. Now is the time for putting offers on the table, offers at the outer limits of our political constraints. That is exactly what Europe has done, and will continue to do.
Part of the answer lies in identifying the heart of the potential bargain that might yet bring us to a successful result.
The first part of the bargain is that all developed countries need to clarify their plans on mid-term emissions reductions, and show the necessary leadership, in line with our responsibilities for past emissions. If we want to achieve at least an 80 per cent reduction by 2050, developed countries must strive to achieve the necessary collective 25 per cent to 40 per cent cuts by 2020. The European Union is ready to go from 20 per cent to 30 per cent if others make similar efforts.
Second, developed countries must now explicitly recognise they have to play a significant part in helping to finance mitigation and adaptation action by developing countries. Our estimate is that by 2020, developing countries will need roughly an additional EU100 billion (S$208 billion) a year to tackle climate change. Part of it will be financed by economically advanced developing countries themselves. The biggest share should come from the carbon market, if we have the courage to set up an ambitious global scheme.
But some will need to come from inflows of public finance from developed to developing countries, perhaps EU22 billion to EU50 billion a year by 2020. Almost half of this amount will be required to support adaptation action, with priority given to the most vulnerable and poorest developing countries. Depending on the outcome of international burden-sharing discussions, the EU's share of that could be anything from 10 per cent to 30 per cent - that is, up to EU15 billion a year.
So we need to signal our readiness to talk finance this week. The counterpart is that developing countries, at least the economically advanced, have to be much clearer on what they are ready to do to mitigate carbon emissions as part of an international agreement. They are already putting in place domestic measures to limit carbon emissions but they clearly need to step up such efforts.
They understandably stress that the availability of carbon finance from the rich world is a prerequisite to mitigation action on their part. But the developed world will have nothing to finance if there is no commitment to action in the developing world.
We have less than 80 calendar days to go till Copenhagen. As of the Bonn meeting last month, the draft text contains some 250 pages: a feast of alternative options, a forest of square brackets. If we don't sort this out, the document risks becoming the longest and most global suicide note in history.
This week in New York and Pittsburgh promises to be a pivotal one. It will reveal how much global leaders are ready to invest in these climate negotiations, to push for a successful outcome.
Copenhagen is a critical occasion to shift, collectively, onto an emissions trajectory that keeps global warming below 2 deg C. The fight back has to begin this week.
The writer is President of the European Commission.
New Straits Times 20 Sep 09;
In Central Kalimantan, the hunters and poachers have the blood of orang utan on their hands. The forests that are home to these animals are also being cleared at an alarming rate in the name of development. A rehabilitation centre offers some measure of hope, writes AMY CHEW.
NODDY, an orphaned baby orang utan, climbs up a tree and stares into the distance at the Nyaru Menteng Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre, his future as uncertain as the existence of the forests which used to be his home.
His mother was killed in the wilds, under what circumstances, his carers do not really know. But what is sure is that she met with a cruel and violent end -- hacked to pieces, burnt or shot to death -- like so many others before her.
In a forest in Sampit, an animal poacher fires a shot at a female orang utan with a baby in her arms. As the orang utan falls, she clings tightly to her baby.
When the hunter comes over to the dying creature, he is stunned -- he sees tears flowing from its eyes.
"The mother held on to her baby until she breathed her last," recounts Eko Haryuwono, founder of the Nyaru Menteng orang utan rescue unit.
"The hunter was moved by the orang utan's tears and has since stopped killing them."
The hunter now helps the rescue team by informing the unit of orang utan in danger of being killed or poached.
The orang utan, or people of the forest, is our closest relative. Orang utan and humans share 98 per cent of the same DNA.
"They have emotions just like humans. They can cry, worry and experience sorrow and joy just like us," says Eko.
While only two per cent of DNA separates us from the orang utan, we have often shown ourselves to be more beast than human.
We grab a disproportionate share of the land and leave little or nothing for the animals.
Forest land is relentlessly being cleared to make way for oil palm plantations as demand for bio-fuel rises, driving the orang utan out of their homes and to certain death.
Workers at huge oil palm plantations regard the orang utan as pests and often kill them in the most cruel and inhumane way.
"They (workers) pour petrol over them, then throw a lighted match to set them on fire. This happened in a huge plantation company in 2003," says Eko.
"We have also found body parts of orang utan in oil palm plantation. The animal was chopped to pieces."
Eko and his team also find orang utan beaten to death with iron bars and wooden planks.
"Some were beaten unconscious and buried alive. We humans should be ashamed of ourselves," Eko says quietly.
Nyaru Menteng, which sits on 6.5ha of land, was originally set up to house 100 orang utan but the number has now grown to 648.
It is funded by the Borneo Orang Utan Survival Foundation (BOS) of Indonesia and BOS International.
Rehabilitation in the centre means teaching the baby orang utan how to climb trees and look for food -- skills to help them fend for themselves in the wild.
The majority of the orang utan brought to the centre are orphans who have lost their mother, who would otherwise have been the one teaching them survival skills.
The centre faces great difficulties in finding forest land to release the mammal back into the wild after rehabilitating them as forest land shrinks.
Indonesia has 120 million ha of forest and peat land out of which 28.3 million ha have been cleared or degraded, according to the Forestry Ministry.
Illegal logging and timber companies also drive the rapid deforestation of Indonesia's pristine forests and peat lands which are important "green lungs" to the world.
Indonesian environmentalists have often called on the government to give out permits of degraded land to large plantation companies. But the call is seldom heeded as forest trees are worth millions of dollars in the timber trade.
"Many palm oil companies clear forests and orang utan habitat to generate income from the valuable timber as it would be five years before new plantings of oil palm produce any products," says Michelle Desilets, director of the British-based Orang Utan Land Trust.
According to Desilets, palm oil companies are even allowed to develop within designated national parks like the Tanjung Puting National Park which is home to 6,000 orang utan.
Tanjung Puting is located in Central Kalimantan .
"When plantations clear habitat, the orang utan are driven into ever smaller patches of forest with dwindling food supply," says Desilets.
"Starving and desperate for whatever nutrition they can find, the orang utan venture into the newly-planted areas and eat the young shoots of the plant. As a result, they become regarded as an agricultural pest."
Indonesia and Malaysia combined produce nearly 90 per cent of the global palm oil supply. Many of the multi-million dollar plantation companies operating in Central Kalimantan have Malaysians and Singaporeans as their joint venture partners.
Desilets appeals to the Malaysian and Indonesian government to put a moratorium on the conversion of primary forests, high conservation value forests and peat land into industrial logging and oil palm plantations.
"We would (also) like to see both governments take a united stand to combat illegal logging and trade in endangered species, put more resources into protecting forests through ranger patrols, fire-fighting efforts and satellite surveillance," he says.
With an estimated 5,000 orang utan perishing every year, there is little time left to save the remaining 45,000 in the wild.
Experts believe it is only a matter of time before the animals become extinct.
"It will be difficult to protect them all without the commitment of the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia ," she says.
"It is distressing to think that even if we can save 10,000 of them, about 35,000 wild orang utan will needlessly suffer and die. "We need all the help we can get to minimise these numbers."
Saving the orang utan will be a demonstration of our humanity, that we are indeed worthy to be called humans, and not beasts.
Yahoo News 20 Sep 09;
BEIJING – Sixty pandas relocated last year from a famous Chinese nature reserve after their breeding center was severely damaged by a massive earthquake will return home after repairs in 2012.
The panda breeding center in the Wolong nature reserve in southwest China's Sichuan province is undergoing a 379 million yuan ($55 million) reconstruction expected to be completed by 2011, the official Xinhua News Agency said late Saturday.
The Wolong reserve's location in a damp, narrow valley several hours from Chengdu, the Sichuan capital, made it vulnerable during the 7.9-magnitude quake, which sent boulders the size of cars crashing down, destroying enclosures and administrative buildings.
The May 12, 2008, quake left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing, including 12 staffers at the panda center.
The center had 63 pandas before the quake, but one died, another went missing and a third died of illness, Xinhua said, citing Luo Zengbin, deputy head of the provincial forestry department. The surviving pandas have been moved to zoos elsewhere in China, with most sent to the Bifengxia panda base in the city of Ya'an.
About 1,590 pandas are living in the wild, mostly in Sichuan and the western province of Shaanxi. An additional 180 have been bred in captivity.
Wolong is part of efforts to breed giant pandas in hopes of increasing the species' chances of survival.
China quake-hit pandas to return home: state media
Yahoo News 20 Sep 09;
BEIJING (AFP) – Sixty giant pandas who were transferred to zoos around China after last year's devastating earthquake in Sichuan province destroyed their home are set to return in 2012, state media reported.
The 8.0-magnitude quake in May last year left more than 87,000 people dead and missing in Sichuan, and seriously damaged the Wolong nature reserve, which had 63 pandas in captivity, the official Xinhua news agency said late Saturday.
One panda was killed in the tremor, one is still missing, and another died of an illness, the report quoted Luo Zengbin, deputy head of the Sichuan Provincial Forestry Department, as saying.
The quake also killed 12 people who worked with the pandas, seriously injured 57 others, and damaged nearly 60,000 hectares (148,000 acres) of the animals' habitat in southwestern China, the report said.
The surviving animals were moved to zoos in other parts of the country while the Wolong base underwent a 380-million-yuan (56 million dollars) reconstruction programme, expected to be completed by 2011.
They should return to their home base in 2012, the report said.
There are about 1,590 pandas living in the wild around China, mostly in Sichuan, northern Shaanxi and northwestern Gansu provinces. A total of 180 have been bred in captivity, according to earlier reports.
But their notoriously low libidos have frustrated efforts to boost their numbers.
In a recent report issued by the World Wildlife Fund, the conservation group warned that the giant panda could soon die out as rapid economic development is infringing on its way of life.
Catherin Cheung, The Age 5 Sep 09;
This Monday, September 7, marks the celebration of National Threatened Species Day. Ecologist Catherine Cheung explains why this particular date has great - and tragic - significance for Australia's rapidly declining natural national treasures.
September 7, 1936 was a historic day for Australia's endemic wildlife.
It was a day of no return, not for some ground-breaking discovery or the passing of a famous celebrity, but rather the extinction of a species cursed by hysteria, greed and apathy.
For at least two million years, the thylacine – Tasmanian tiger – had roamed the Australian continent. Humans first came ashore some 46,000 years ago. Our megafauna began to decline, marking the start of our Earth’s 6th mass extinction.
Unlike the last one, which finished off the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago, this one is not caused by a wandering asteroid or comet, super-volcano or other natural phenomenon. It is caused by us.
"Australia, we now know, was the first continent to be stripped of its giants … rhino-sized marsupial diprotodons, massive kangaroos, six-meter-long goannas and horned tortoises as long as a Volkswagen Beetle … Thus, in its first forty millennia, the sixth extinction ran a wild and deadly course, exterminating the world’s giants. Australia lost 95 per cent of its land-animal genera weighing more than forty-five kilograms… Dr Tim Flannery.
As the sixth mass extinction progresses, the thylacine disappeared from the continent, about 3000 years ago, leaving only the Tasmanian tiger population still co-existing with the early Aborigines.
Since European colonization on Tasmania in 1803, the 'tiger' was exhaustively shot or trapped by sheep farmers paranoid of the marsupial predator. Whole-scale extermination was encouraged by private and state bounties, and lucrative rewards from international museums and zoos. Competition with feral dogs and diseases among the remaining, weakened populations, all contributed to its demise.
The last confirmed record of a wild tiger came from a farmer who killed the animal in 1930.
Six years later, the thylacine was finally granted legal protection. This came far too late. In the same year - on September 7, 1936 - the last surviving Tasmanian tiger on Earth died in Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo after 12 years of captivity.
The thylacine was gone merely 131 years after the first European encountered it. In 1996, Australia declared September 7 as National Threatened Species Day, in commemoration of this tragic loss.
More recently, in 1981, the Southern Gastric Brooding Frog of South-East Queensland also became extinct.
The female of this species had for milleniums an ingenious way of ensuring the survival of its offspring. It swallowed its tadpoles, stopped producing digestive acids temporarily and brooded the tadpoles inside its stomach. In less than two months, little froglets emerged as the female regurgitated.
Despite such a reproductive marvel, and the apparent healthy stream habitats of the Conondale and Blackall Ranges north of Brisbane where the species once thrived, it has vanished. Its close relative, the northern gastric brooding frog in Eungella National Park, followed suit soon after.
It took years before scientists concluded that chytrid fungus caused the demise of the gastric brooding frogs, decline of several other frog species in the Wet Tropics, and indeed havoc in many other amphibians worldwide.
The introduction of the fungus into Australia is likely a result of poor quarantine procedures associated with the exotic amphibian pet trade.
Another introduced disease of national significance is the Phytophthora root rot, caused by the soil fungus Phytophthora cinnamomi. Imported unknowingly with citrus trees from Asia, the fungus has caused 'dieback' of many native plants and affected natural ecosystems as well as agricultural crops.
Australians probably have more stories to tell than most other nations when it comes to introduced pests, many of which were initially considered 'super-heroes', 'magic fixers', or simply brought in as hunting targets, new food sources or familiar companions.
While the prolific rabbit, toxic cane toad and cunning fox have stolen the spotlight, countless other animals and plants have been introduced, deliberately or not, causing irreversible damage to our fragile environment and wildlife.
Predation by red foxes and feral cats, competition with native species and land degradation by feral rabbits, pigs and goats, are all listed as Key Threatening Processes under the federal government’s EPBC Act.
Of the 28,000 plant species (ornamentals, pasture grasses, horticultural species) that arrived with early Europeans, 2800 have become problem weeds.
Each year, management of weeds and feral animals and agricultural losses accounts for more than $4.7 billion.
Interestingly, native species out of their natural ranges can also become pests. Examples include the tropical cadaghi (a eucalypt) and the umbrella tree. Both have become weeds in populated areas on the east coast. The latter, with its abundant seeds, is out-competing native species, even in national parks and reserves.
Native fauna and flora need habitat. Yet, in the second half of the 20th century, Queensland cleared more land than in the preceding 150 years.
Under the federal and state government’s Brigalow Scheme, three million hectares of native bushland were cleared, using bulldozers and metal chains strung between powerful tractors.
Furthermore, a report commissioned by WWF-Australia outlined that Queensland’s clearing rate between 1997 and 1999 was estimated at around 446,000 hectares per year, a rate equivalent to one hundred football fields every hour, according to Dr Nicola Markus of Bush Heritage Australia.
Despite stricter clearing regulations in recent years, land clearing has continued on a smaller yet devastating scale, especially in SE Queensland.
To many native wildlife, the combined impacts of loss of food, shelter and territory, habitat loss or fragmentation, the spread of weeds, fire, susceptibility to diseases and increased mortality to road traffic, dogs and cats, have become too much to cope with.
A case in point: "The Koala Coast has experienced dramatic development and population growth in the past decade and this has impacted upon the significant koala population of the area. The most recent study by the Department of Environment and Resource Management concludes that the koala population has declined by 51% in the last three years” - Redland City Council.
According to the Australian Koala Foundation, some 25,000 koalas have died from disease, dog attacks, cars and, increasingly, starvation in the past decade in South-East Queensland.
Despite such grim findings and strong recommendations from the local council, numerous environmental groups and researchers, the koala (in particular the SE Queensland population) remains unlisted on the EPBC Act. Without national level protection, the many isolated populations of this iconic Australian species, and ultimately the species itself, will be doomed.
Indeed, the 6th mass extinction has taken its toll on tens of thousands of species worldwide and is, with each passing year, growing in intensity.
In Australia, the EPBC Act lists 426 threatened fauna species: 55 Extinct, one Extinct in the wild, 36 Critically Endangered, 134 Endangered, 197 Vulnerable and 3 Conservation dependent.
Alarmingly, 1324 species of plants and 46 ecological communities are also considered threatened and warrant protection.
Marine species are not immune, either. Dugong, whales, turtles, sharks, fishes, even corals are now Endangered or Critically Endangered - globally.
As populations decline, risks from isolation, inbreeding, diseases, habitat degradation, catastrophes, climate change and other impacts increase.
Species become increasingly trapped in an 'extinction vortex' from which there is no escape.
Ironically, the listing of a species on the EPBC Act does not necessarily mean that they are safe from harm’s way. A few examples still found in South-East Queensland include the Northern Quoll, Grey-headed Flying-fox, False Water Rat, Coxen’s Fig Parrot, Regent Honeyeater, Black-breasted Button-quail, Wallum Sedge Frog, Mary River Turtle, Australian Lungfish, Humpback Whale, Grey Nurse Shark, Orange Roughy and four marine turtles.
The State government’s proposed Traveston Crossing Dam on the Mary River alone, if approved, would further endanger some 20 already threatened species. The proposal has been described as environmentally, hydrologically and socially irresponsible by a wide range of international, national and regional organisations, scientists and individuals.
The recent approval of the Gorgon Gas Project on Barrow Island off WA, despite being home to many threatened species, raises furether questions about the agendas of governments, both national and state.
So is there hope?
From the achievements of some 2009 Australian Museum Eureka prize winners, the answer has got to be 'yes'.
Notably, Dr Conrad Hoskin came to fame with the discovery of seven new reptiles in tropical Queensland, and with his colleagues, rediscovery of a frog species that was thought to be extinct.
Dr Hoskin also discovered a new frog and shed light on how new species might evolve rapidly.
Evolve they must, with global warming threatening every corner of the globe.
Is it not our moral obligation to protect at least some of what is left of the natural ecosystems and their services for future generations? Functioning ecosystems, with the species and genetic diversity they nurture, will provide the essential ingredients and opportunities for adaptation to change.
Perhaps more heartwarming is the announcement of the Eureka People’s Choice Award to Dr Katherine Belov.
She revealed how the lack of genetic diversity among the dwindling populations of the Tasmanian Devil has caused the current cancer 'plague', and is on the way to finding the gene needed to reverse the situation.
Perhaps Australians’ hearts are still with our 'natural treasures' – who would want to see the 'devil' go the same way as the 'tiger’ – appearing only as a symbol of loss or on beer bottles?
Ten things you can do to help:
- Value every native tree, shrub and grass – grow local natives and spare a second thought before you cut a tree down.
- Learn more about your local native species and the environment. Share this knowledge with friends, colleagues and students.
- Spend time in nature with your kids and grandkids. Encourage them to explore and discover.
- Join or support the work of conservation groups.
- Vote for politicians with clear environmental advocacy, and not climate change sceptics.
- Phone or write to politicians to voice your environmental concerns.
- Write to the media to show your support for environmental causes.
- Sign up your property as Nature Refuge or Land for Wildlife if it is eligible.
- Be a responsible pet owner, or better still, a wildlife carer instead.
- Live more sustainably – reduce your carbon / ecological footprint.
Catherine Cheung is Education Officer for Noosa Integrated Catchment Association in Queensland.
Two new species discovered each week: report
ABC 6 Sep 09;
A flesh-eating plant and one of the world's most venomous snakes are two of the more unusual species listed in a report on plants and animals recently discovered in Australia.
The study by WWF Australia found that, on average, two new species have been discovered in this country every week during the last decade.
They include the venomous pilbara death adder and the flesh-eating pitcher plant, found on northern Cape York in 2006, which eats small rats, lizards and birds.
WWF's threatened species program manager Michael Roache says there are probably many more undiscovered species in Australia.
"It just highlights the amazing richness of Australian biodiversity," he said of the report.
"Really, it's further confirmation that Australia is indeed one of the world's mega-diverse countries, that harbour most of the world's species.
"But this could just be the tip of the iceberg. There could be thousands more out there."
Mr Roache says the report should remind Australians how vital it is that ecosystems are protected.
"Some of the species that have been discovered in the last 10 years we already know to be threatened, so it really is crucial," she said.
"The beauty of this list is that it gives us hope and inspiration that Australia is such an amazing country for its biodiversity and it can give people a positive reminder of what we should be doing. We've got something to protect."
Related links
Download the report from the WWF-Australia website.
Robert Leslie Yahoo News 20 Sep 09;
LONDON (AFP) – In tiny urban gardens, Britons are doing their bit to counter the mysterious worldwide decline of bees -- they are starting to keep their own.
The ancient art of beekeeping is enjoying a renaissance in Britain, fuelled by concerns about the provenance of food and the desire to do something for the environment.
Jon Harris, 43, was a bee novice just six months ago.
Now, with hundreds of bees buzzing around him in his white protective suit, he lifts the frames out of the hive in his compact back garden in Brixton, south London, and gives a satisfied smile at what he finds.
"That honeycomb is just amazing," he says, brushing off the remaining bees to reveal the white-crusted product of the busy insects' magic.
Harris has enjoyed a bumper first summer with his hive, harvesting 20 kilogrammes (45 pounds) of honey -- "which goes to prove there is something around here they love."
Bees don't need pastures of wild flowers to find nectar -- the hedgerows and bushes alongside the railway line behind his house are a perfect substitute, but they will happily fly up to four miles (6.5 kilometres) looking for food.
When Harris was made redundant from his job as a retail buying manager in March, he found he had time on his hands. He had always wanted to keep bees -- but he thought his garden was too small for a hive.
A one-day course on urban beekeeping set him on the right path.
"As long as you have enough room for a hive, you've got enough room to keep bees," he told AFP.
"It is one of those hobbies that gets you outdoors and it actually gets you involved with something natural as opposed to doing a pottery course or a photography course."
While the bees are thriving in one London garden, globally they are in trouble.
Experts gathered this weekend in the southern French city of Montpellier for the 41st world apiculture conference, Apimondia, to ponder why parts of North America and Europe, and now also Asia, have been struck by Colony Collapse Disorder, which can wipe out up to 90 percent of a bee community.
Chris Deaves, chair of education at the British Beekeepers' Association, said a combination of factors was probably to blame.
"The decline is real," he says. "In the UK last winter we lost about 21 percent (of the population).
"The winter before it was about 25 to 30 percent. It is probable that the cause is multi-layered."
Some experts say the blood-sucking varroa mite could be to blame, but pesticides, viruses and industrialised farming are also suspected to be attacking and weakening bee communities.
"It is rather like a human being, when you are rundown you may start to exhibit the effects of the flu," Deaves says.
But his smile returns when he reflects on the newfound public enthusiasm for his passion in Britain.
"The interest in beekeeping is growing very, very rapidly," he said. "Perhaps it is because of the feeling that everybody has to do something to make the planet a better place to live," especially in polluted cities.
"You can't keep cows or sheep (in a city), but you can keep bees," Deaves said.
"People are also concerned about having the capability to create food in the UK," and people are increasingly worried about where their food comes from, and how many air miles were involved in getting it to the dinner table, he said.
Back in Brixton, Jon Harris' honey has travelled just a few steps from the garden to his kitchen.
He slices the honeycomb, takes a taste and licks his lips.
"It has got a very minty, eucalyptus-y taste to it when it comes out. That dies back a bit. But it is probably the best honey I have tasted."
Martin Fackler, The New York Times 19 Sep 09;
OMA, Japan — Fishermen here call it “black gold,” referring to the dark red flesh of the Pacific bluefin tuna that is so prized in this sashimi-loving nation that just one of these sleek fish, which can weigh a half-ton, can earn tens of thousands of dollars.
The cold waters here once yielded such an abundance of bluefin, with such thick layers of tasty rich fat, that this tiny wind-swept seaport became Japan’s answer to California’s Napa Valley or the Brie cheese-producing region of France: a geographic location that is nearly synonymous with one of its nation’s premier foods.
So strong is the allure of Oma’s tuna that during the autumn fishing season, tens of thousands of hungry visitors descend on this remote fishing town, located on the northernmost tip of Japan’s main island of Honshu. On a recent Sunday, dozens of tourists, filmed by no fewer than three local television crews, crowded into an old refrigerated warehouse on a pier where Oma’s mayor presided over a ceremony to slice up a 220-pound bluefin into brick-size blocks for sale.
“This is a pleasure you can only have a few times in your life,” said Toshiko Maki, 51, a homemaker from suburban Tokyo, as she popped a ruby-red cube of sashimi into her mouth.
But now the town faces a looming threat, as the number of tuna has begun dropping precipitously in recent years because of overfishing. This has given Oma another, less celebrated distinction, as a community that has stood out by calling for greater regulation of catches in a nation that has adamantly opposed global efforts to save badly depleted tuna populations.
Just a decade or two ago, each boat here could routinely catch three or four tuna a day, fishermen say. Now, they say Oma’s entire fleet of 30 to 40 boats is lucky to bring in a combined total of a half-dozen tuna in a day.
The problem, they say, is that all the fish are being taken by big trawlers that come from elsewhere in Japan, or farther out to sea from Taiwan or China. Some of these ships even use helicopters to spot schools of tuna, which they scoop up in vast nets or catch en masse with long lines of baited hooks. According to local newspapers, there have been repeated incidents of small fishing boats from Oma and other ports intentionally cutting such trawl lines.
“I’m furious at Tokyo’s bureaucrats for failing to protect our tuna,” said Hirofumi Hamahata, 69, the president of the Oma fishermen’s co-op, who has worked as a commercial fisherman since age 15. “They don’t lift a finger against the industrial fishing that just sweeps the ocean clean.”
Such flares of temper are rare in normally reserved Japan, and especially in conservative fishing communities like this one. But this is a town fiercely proud not only of its tuna, but also of how it catches them: in two-man open boats, using hand-held lines and live bait like squid.
Mr. Hamahata described catching tuna in this traditional way as a battle of wits against a clever predator that he called “the lion of the sea.” After hooking one, the contest becomes a battle of strength: he said it typically took one or two hours to pull a big tuna close enough to the boat that it could be stunned with an electric charge.
In one Hemingwayesque battle, Mr. Hamahata said he fought for 12 hours with a huge bluefin that finally broke free.
Despite such difficulties, Oma’s fishermen said they preferred their generations-old fishing method because it allowed them to catch just large, adult fish, leaving the smaller young ones to sustain local stocks.
Fishing experts say the overfishing is a result of a broader failure by the Tokyo authorities to impose effective limits on catches in its waters. Indeed, Japan, which consumes some 80 percent of the 60,000 tons of top-grade tuna caught worldwide, has lobbied hard against efforts to limit tuna catches, such as are now being proposed by European countries for the Atlantic Ocean.
“There are too many entrenched interests whose objective is maximizing profit, not sustainable use,” said Masayuki Komatsu, an expert on the fishing industry at Tokyo’s National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
In Oma, catching a big tuna has become rare enough — and the market price high enough — to be cause for celebration. On a recent evening, family members rushed to the pier to greet one boat that had caught a 410-pound bluefin, whose tear-shaped body had to be hoisted off the boat’s deck with a forklift.
Moving quickly to gut and ice the fish to preserve its value, workers from the fishing co-op presented the footlong dorsal fin as a trophy to the captain’s wife, who said it was the first catch in 10 days. The workers said the fish would fetch more than $10,000 at Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market.
“Catching a tuna is like winning the lottery,” said another fisherman, 23-year-old Takeshi Izumi, who said his boat had yet to catch a tuna this season.
To maximize prices, Oma has registered its name as a trademark that can be used only with tuna brought ashore here. This has made Oma a brand that is gaining recognition even outside Japan. In March, a sushi chef from Hong Kong paid some $50,000 to buy half of a 280-pound Oma bluefin.
The prices can be even higher: In 2001, a Japanese buyer paid a record $220,000 for a 444-pound Oma bluefin.
One unfortunate side effect, said the town’s mayor, Mitsuharu Kanazawa, was that few of Oma’s 6,200 residents can now afford their own town’s tuna. However, he said the fish have been a boon to the town’s economy, pumping in some $15 million a year from fishing and tuna-related tourism.
After a popular 2000 TV drama featured Oma, the town increased tourism by starting a three-day tuna festival every year in mid-October, which now draws 15,000 visitors a day, as well as hordes from the Japanese media, Mr. Kanazawa said.
“We Japanese have a weakness for brands,” said Ryuko Nishimura, 43, a homemaker from Kuroishi, a three-hour drive away. “It makes the tuna taste two or three times more delicious.”
But with tuna now in danger of perhaps disappearing, the mayor said the town was struggling to find another local product to keep the tourists coming.
“We tried kelp and abalone,” Mr. Kanazawa said, “but nothing has the appeal of tuna.”
Justin Juozapavicius, Associated Press Yahoo News 20 Sep 09;
SCRAPER, Okla. – David Overbey is no scientist, but he says a person doesn't have to be to see how much the Illinois River has improved in recent years.
Overbey, a 67-year-old retired laborer who spends his days fishing the river in the foothills of the Ozarks in eastern Oklahoma, said the water is clearer now than it was 30 or 40 years ago, and the drum and channel catfish he catches are bigger. And other locals, too, say the river is slowly beginning to heal after decades of deterioration.
Some trace the roots of the recovery to 2005, when Oklahoma brought a pollution lawsuit against the Arkansas poultry industry, suggesting the threat of legal action may have spurred the companies to do better at policing themselves.
"The water quality is getting better, and this year, especially, we had very little algae," said Archie "Trey" Peyton III, 35, a former environmental consultant who now runs the Peyton's Place float company.
"There's got to be a reason for that, which to me it follows that the last two years that most of the poultry litter in this region has been trucked out. But it looks to me like that's making an impact on the river," Peyton said.
But Oklahoma says the industry needs to do more, and its closely watched case against 11 companies — including food giants Tyson Foods Inc. and Cargill Inc. — goes to trial Thursday.
It's been a long-standing practice among poultry farmers in the Illinois River watershed to spread their chickens' droppings on their fields. But as big business took over the production of broilers, the amount of waste being spread on local fields ballooned — to an estimated 345,000 tons annually in recent years, according to Oklahoma.
Rather of disposing the waste in safer but more expensive ways — including burning it as energy, processing it into pellets or composting it — the state argues that Big Poultry has chosen the easiest, and cheapest, route. Runoff from the waste spread on the fields has polluted the Illinois River with harmful bacteria, degraded its water quality and caused algae blooms, the state argues.
The bacteria in the water threatens the health of the tens of thousands of people who use the river recreationally each year, and of the many businesses that rely on it.
The industry argues that Arkansas and Oklahoma sanctioned this practice by issuing farmers permits to spread the inexpensive waste.
The companies say they've also taken steps to reduce the amount of waste spread on the fields. Records provided to The Associated Press by the poultry industry show that nearly 290,000 tons of chicken waste have been trucked out of the area between 2005 through last month.
The four-year estimate, which does not include litter hauled away by the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, still is about 55,000 tons less than the amount of waste produced in just one year in the watershed.
But the industry says it's a start, and says it's spending millions of dollars researching alternative uses for chicken waste and has bankrolled various river improvement projects.
Other states considering taking on Big Poultry are closely watching the Oklahoma case, which is expected to last several weeks.
In the meantime, the poultry and tourism industries will continue to share the lush, 1 million-acre swath of land that extends from northeastern Oklahoma into western Arkansas, with its thick forests, babbling brooks and 1,800 low-slung chicken houses that dot the landscape.
Those who live and work along the river say its health appears to be improving. There's the fatter and more plentiful fish, for one, and less of the thick algae that once coated the river's bottom like shag carpeting. Local merchants say they logged banner seasons outfitting the tens of thousands of tourists who flock to the river each year.
"This river is better now than it was 20 years ago," said Jack Spears, a retired college professor who owns Arrowhead Resort, the second-largest float company in the area. His operation equips roughly 20,000 customers a year for trips down the river.
Spears has spent most of his 75 years in this county and remembers when he could look at water so clear in the Illinois that 10 or 12 feet down seemed like 6 inches.
"If I was in (the poultry companies') position, I'd say, 'hey, let's police our act. Let's clean up our act, or they'll be forced to by someone else,'" Spears said.
The other defendants named in the lawsuit are Cal-Maine Foods, Inc.; Tyson Poultry Inc., Tyson Chicken Inc., Cobb-Vantress Inc., Cargill Turkey Production L.L.C., George's Inc., George's Farms Inc., Peterson Farms Inc. and Simmons Foods Inc.
Christophe Koffi Yahoo News 19 Sep 09;
AKOUEDO, Ivory Coast (AFP) – Three years after a ship dumped toxic waste in Ivory Coast, residents of a village off the main city of Abidjan are still traumatised by untimely deaths they say are linked to poisoning.
"We are living on borrowed time," said Bienvenue Danho, who is in charge of waste disposal at Akouedo, northeast of Abidjan, about the 2006 spill that caused 15 deaths and countless infections, according to a UN expert.
"There are unexplained deaths even today," said Blaise Adja, the head of a local youth association.
Over 100,000 people have sought medical help for problems including vomiting, diarrhoea and breathing difficulties.
"Three years after the scandal, we are only witnessing the short-term effects," Adja, a high school teacher, said, evoking the case of a 40-year-old man who had worked to clear up the waste and died this week of a throat tumour.
"Who will be the next one?" added Jean Fortune Tope, echoing a common worry.
In August 2006, the Probo Koala ship, chartered by Dutch firm Trafigura, dumped deadly caustic soda and petroleum residues on city waste tips in Abidjan -- having first attempted to offload the cargo in Amsterdam.
Trafigura, an oil trading firm, has already paid a one hundred billion CFA francs (152 million euros) in damages to the victims of the toxic poisoning in an out-of-court deal with the Ivory Coast government which exempts it from legal proceedings in the west African nation.
It also cleaned up the waste and agreed to build a waste incinerator to tackle Abidjan's pollution problem.
However, a UN expert this week said there was "strong" evidence linking at least 15 deaths and several hospitalisations to the incident.
"Indeed, there is a strong basis to conclude that the deaths and illnesses were directly and indirectly linked to the dumping waste," said Okechukwu Ibeanu.
"Residents in areas close to the dumping sites were directly exposed to the waste through skin contact and breathing of the volatile substances," he said.
A lawyer for victims taking legal action in Britain, where Trafigura has offices, had said on Wednesday that the company had offered a global settlement which "is likely to be acceptable to most, if not all, of the claimants."
The company will pay thousands of people who suffered short-term illnesses including vomiting, diarrhoea and breathing difficulties. The compensation will run to millions of pounds (dollars), reports said.
The Dutch multinational firm had reiterated that it was not responsible for deaths or serious injuries from the dumping, and has not admitted liability.
Court proceedings are ongoing in the Netherlands, with hearings scheduled for 2010.
Environmental group Greenpeace has asked a Dutch judge to order prosecutors to broaden the probe beyond the Netherlands. A decision should be taken within two months.
The possibility of a new compensation deal is however dismissed by most in Akouedo, with locals saying victims had only received a fourth of the compensation Trafigura paid the government.
Many allege that their names do not figure in the list of victims.
"It was a bargain," snorted Jean Fortune Tope.
"The state rushed through this urgent matter without thinking of the future," added David Gouedan.
Locals complain that they have not seen any of 500 million CFA francs allocated by the government for social projects in the village, where there is a giant dumping ground spanning scores of acres.
Meanwhile, a stench hangs over the area even now and "becomes stronger during the monsoon," complained Agnes Koutouan, casting a worried glance at a gutter filled with slimy green water and emanating a nauseous odour.
Trafigura settles over Ivory Coast toxic waste claims
Yahoo News 20 Sep 09;
LONDON (AFP) – Oil-trading company Trafigura has agreed to pay 30 million pounds to victims of toxic waste dumped in Ivory Coast in an out-of-court settlement, a spokesman for the firm said Sunday.
The agreement with British lawyers Leigh Day and Company, who represent 31,000 claimants in Abidjan, accepts however that there is no link between exposure to the waste and any deaths or miscarriages, as was alleged.
"The agreement was signed late on Saturday night," a spokesman for Trafigura told AFP on Sunday, confirming the deal was worth 30 million pounds (33 million euros, 49 million dollars).
Each victim will get 750,000 francs CFA (1,150 euros, 1,700 dollars), the spokesman added. They originally asked for a total of 180 million pounds.
In August 2006, the Probo Koala ship, chartered by Trafigura, dumped caustic soda and petroleum residues on city waste tips in Abidjan -- having first attempted to offload the cargo in Amsterdam.
Ivory Coast has said the dumping killed 17 people and caused more than 100,000 to seek medical help, while a report by a UN expert last week found "strong" evidence linking the waste to 15 deaths and several hospitalisations.
Trafigura has always disputed this, however, and its position was upheld in the out-of-court settlement.
In a joint statement issued late Saturday, Leigh Day and Trafigura said that more than 20 independent experts had been brought in to examine the case.
"These independent experts are unable to identify a link between exposure to the chemicals released from the slops and deaths, miscarriages, still births, birth defects, loss of visual acuity or other serious and chronic injuries," it said.
"Leigh Day and Co, in the light of the expert evidence, now acknowledge that the slops could at worst have caused a range of short-term, low-level flu-like symptoms and anxiety."
Trafigura director Eric de Turckheim said the settlement "completely vindicates Trafigura".
"Over the past three years, the company has been the target of numerous attacks which have wrongly asserted that Trafigura?s actions led to deaths and serious injuries," he said.
"These accusations have now been found to be baseless."
He added: "While we certainly do not accept legal liability, Trafigura regrets the Probo Koala incident and in particular the distress that it caused the local population."
However, Denis Yao Pipira, president of the national federation of toxic waste victims in Ivory Coast, said last week that the settlement was an "admission of guilt" which would bring "moral comfort to the victims."
At least 75 percent of the claimants gave their backing for the compensation agreement, Trafigura said, the legal minimum for such an out-of-court settlement to be reached.
Trafigura has already paid one hundred billion CFA francs (152 million euros) in damages to the victims in an out-of-court deal with the Ivory Coast government, which exempted it from legal proceedings in that country.
Saturday's agreement came a fortnight before the dispute was due to go to court in London on October 6, and just days after a damning United Nations report into the issue.
Okechukwu Ibeanu, who is the UN special rapporteur on the issue, said there was "a strong basis to conclude that the deaths and illnesses were directly and indirectly linked to the dumping waste".
Trader Trafigura says settles Ivorian waste case
Loucoumane Coulibaly and Reed Stevenson, Reuters 20 Sep 09;
ABIDJAN/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - International commodities trader Trafigura said on Sunday it had reached a settlement with thousands of people in Ivory Coast who said they had fallen ill from toxic waste dumped around the economic capital Abidjan.
Each of the 31,000 claimants represented by British law firm Leigh Day and Co would be entitled to damages of about 950 pounds ($1,553), Trafigura board director Eric de Turckheim told Reuters.
Trafigura said the settlement was in no way an admission of liability. An Ivorian group representing the victims said it rejected the offer, and accused the company of exploiting Africa's poverty to end the row and avoid taking responsibility.
Trafigura, one of the world's biggest commodities traders with offices in Geneva, Amsterdam and London, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in relation to the 2006 incident, when slops from a cargo ship it had chartered were dumped in Abidjan, the main city in Ivory Coast.
Trafigura said in a statement that Leigh Day and Co had accepted that experts were unable to identify a link between the slops deposited and any deaths, miscarriages, still births or other serious injuries.
The slops "could at worst have caused a range of short-term, low-level flu-like symptoms and anxiety," it said. Lawyers at Leigh Day and Co could not be reached for comment.
De Turckheim, a co-founder of Trafigura, said the settlement vindicated the firm's stance that the toxic waste did not cause any deaths.
"NOT FAIR"
But the Ivorian National Federation of Victims of Toxic Waste, which says it represents nearly all the victims, accused Trafigura of trying to push through the agreement to avert a class action case due to be heard in a London court next month.
"Trafigura wants to excuse itself morally but it is not fair," Denis Pipira Yao, the group's president, told Reuters.
"The waste was toxic and lethal. Trafigura is proposing 750,000 CFA francs ($1,683) for each victim," he said. "As people are poor in Africa, Trafigura is using money to get away with it. We are not at all happy with this way of doing business and we will work with our lawyers to make it clear."
It was not clear why the compensation figure he cited was different from that stated by Trafigura.
De Turckheim declined to respond directly to Yao's comments, saying Trafigura's settlement was with the 31,000 claimants represented by Leigh Day and Co.
Leigh Day and Co said in a statement that in the last few weeks it had been exploring the possibility of settling the claims with Trafigura.
"We have reached a point where we are now in the process of putting a global deal to the claimants," Martyn Day said.
Trafigura hired a contractor in 2006 to dispose of slops from a ship it had chartered, the Probo Koala. It described the petrochemical waste as residues from gasoline, mixed with caustic washings.
Trafigura said in a press release that the settlement was "in no way an acceptance of liability," but a sign of its social and economic commitment to the region.
"Trafigura also recognises that the slops had a deeply unpleasant smell and their illegal dumping ... caused distress to the local population," it said.
A United Nations report on Wednesday said that on the face of it, there was a strong link between the waste and the deaths of at least 15 people and illness suffered by thousands more. Trafigura called the report "deeply flawed."
The company agreed to a $198 million out-of-court settlement with the Ivory Coast government in 2007, which exempts it from legal proceedings in the West African country.
(Additional reporting by Avril Ormsby; Writing by David Lewis and Reed Stevenson; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Yahoo News 19 Sep 09;
BAGHDAD (AFP) – Turkey has agreed to up the flow of water along the Euphrates river to Iraq for a month, Baghdad said on Saturday, amid tensions between the two sides over distribution of the precious commodity.
The agreement came after talks in Istanbul involving Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Turkish Environment Minister Veysel Eroglu, following a months-long war of words between Baghdad and Ankara.
"Turkey has agreed to give Iraq 450 to 500 cubic meters of water per second along the Euphrates until October 20," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.
On Friday, however, Eroglu said between 500 and 550 m3/s would be released to Iraq. Dabbagh did not address the discrepancy in his statement.
At the end of June, Baghdad said Turkey had increased the Euphrates flow from 360 m3/s to 570 m3/s to help overcome a shortage and promised to raise that to 715 m3/s in July, August and September.
But last month, Iraq claimed the amount was cut back to around only 250 m3/s -- around a quarter of the minimum requirement for irrigation.
One cubic metre is equivalent to 35.3 cubic feet.
Iraq and Syria have often complained that Turkey monopolises the waters of the Euphrates and Tigris through a series of dams built on both rivers as part of a massive project to irrigate its southeastern corner.
Turkey insists the dams allow for better management, ensuring a constant flow of water downstream in spite of seasonal changes.
Jad Mouawad and Kate Galbraith, The New York Times 19 Sep 09;
With two laptop-loving children and a Jack Russell terrier hemmed in by an electric fence, Peter Troast figured his household used a lot of power. Just how much did not really hit him until the night the family turned off the overhead lights at their home in Maine and began hunting gadgets that glowed in the dark.
“It was amazing to see all these lights blinking,” Mr. Troast said.
As goes the Troast household, so goes the planet.
Electricity use from power-hungry gadgets is rising fast all over the world. The fancy new flat-panel televisions everyone has been buying in recent years have turned out to be bigger power hogs than some refrigerators.
The proliferation of personal computers, iPods, cellphones, game consoles and all the rest amounts to the fastest-growing source of power demand in the world. Americans now have about 25 consumer electronic products in every household, compared with just three in 1980.
Worldwide, consumer electronics now represent 15 percent of household power demand, and that is expected to triple over the next two decades, according to the International Energy Agency, making it more difficult to tackle the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming.
To satisfy the demand from gadgets will require building the equivalent of 560 coal-fired power plants, or 230 nuclear plants, according to the agency.
Most energy experts see only one solution: mandatory efficiency rules specifying how much power devices may use.
Appliances like refrigerators are covered by such rules in the United States. But efforts to cover consumer electronics like televisions and game consoles have been repeatedly derailed by manufacturers worried about the higher cost of meeting the standards. That has become a problem as the spread of such gadgets counters efficiency gains made in recent years in appliances.
In 1990, refrigerator efficiency standards went into effect in the United States. Today, new refrigerators are fancier than ever, but their power consumption has been slashed by about 45 percent since the standards took effect. Likewise, thanks in part to standards, the average power consumption of a new washer is nearly 70 percent lower than a new unit in 1990.
“Standards are one of the few ways to cheaply go after big chunks of energy savings,” said Chris Calwell, a founder and senior researcher at Ecos, a consulting firm that specializes in energy efficiency.
Part of the problem is that many modern gadgets cannot entirely be turned off; even when not in use, they draw electricity while they await a signal from a remote control or wait to record a television program.
“We have entered this new era where essentially everything is on all the time,” said Alan Meier, a senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a leading expert on energy efficiency.
People can, of course, reduce this waste — but to do so takes a single-minded person.
Mr. Troast, of South Freeport, Me., is just the kind of motivated homeowner willing to tackle such a project. His day job is selling energy efficiency equipment through an online business. He was not put off by the idea of hunting behind cabinets to locate every power supply and gadget, like those cable boxes, Web routers or computers that glowed in the dark.
The Troasts cut their monthly energy use by around 16 percent, partly by plugging their computers and entertainment devices into smart power strips. The strips turn off when the electronics are not in use, cutting power consumption to zero.
While Mr. Troast’s experience demonstrates that consumers can limit the power wasted by inactive devices, another problem is not as easily solved: many products now require large amounts of power to run.
The biggest offender is the flat-screen television. As liquid crystal displays and plasma technologies replace the old cathode ray tubes, and as screen sizes increase, the new televisions need more power than older models do. And with all those gorgeous new televisions in their living rooms, Americans are spending more time than ever watching TV, averaging five hours a day.
The result is a surge in electricity use by TVs, which can draw more power in a year than some refrigerators now on the market.
Energy experts say that manufacturers have paid too little attention to the power consumption of televisions, in part because of the absence of federal regulation.
Another power drain is the video game console, which is found in 40 percent of American households. Energy experts — and many frustrated parents — say that since saving games is difficult, children often keep the consoles switched on so they can pick up where they left off.
Noah Horowitz, at the Natural Resources Defense Council, calculated that the nation’s gaming consoles, like the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the Sony PlayStation 3, now use about the same amount of electricity each year as San Diego, the ninth-largest city in country.
Mandatory efficiency standards for electronic devices would force manufacturers to redesign their products, or spend money adding components that better control power use.
Many manufacturers fight such mandates because they would increase costs, and they also claim the mandates would stifle innovation in a fast-changing industry.
The government has never aggressively tackled the television issue because of opposition from the consumer electronics lobby in Washington, experts say. In 1987, before televisions had swelled into such power hogs, Congress gave the Energy Department — which generally carries out the standards — the option of setting efficiency rules for TVs.
But industry opposition derailed an effort in the 1990s to use that authority, according to Steve Nadel of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. A more recent attempt to require home electronics to use no more than one watt of power in standby mode met the same fate. The federal government has moved forward on only two standards for electronics, covering battery chargers and external power supplies.
In the absence of federal action, a few states have moved on their own. The California Energy Commission just proposed new standards for televisions that would cut their power consumption in half by 2013. But that effort has set off a storm of protest from manufacturers and their trade group, the Consumer Electronics Association. (It is still expected to pass, in November.)
A spokesman for the industry said that government regulations could not keep up with the pace of technological change.
“Mandates ignore the fundamental nature of the industry that innovates due to consumer demand and technological developments, not regulations,” said Douglas Johnson, the senior director of technology policy at the association.
Mr. Johnson said that California’s limits on manufacturers, which he called arbitrary, might delay or even prohibit some features of new devices. Instead, he praised the government’s voluntary Energy Star program, which he says encourages efficiency without sacrificing innovation.
“Mandatory limits, such as we see in California, threaten to raise prices for consumers and reduce consumer choice,” he said.
Estimates vary regarding how much a mandatory efficiency program for gadgets would cost consumers. For some changes, like making sure devices draw minimal power in standby mode, experts say the cost may be only a few extra cents. At the other extreme, the most energy-efficient of today’s televisions can cost $100 more than the least energy-efficient. (That expense would be partly offset over time, of course, by lower power needs.)
Some types of home electronics are rated under Energy Star, a program that classifies products in more than 60 categories according to their energy consumption. But that program, while a boon to conscientious consumers who buy only the most efficient products, does not prevent the sale of wasteful devices and has not succeeded in driving them off the market.
The lack of regulation of gadgets is a notable contrast to the situation with appliances.
Congress adopted the nation’s first electrical efficiency standards in the 1980s, focusing initially on kitchen and other large appliances. That effort made some steep gains, particularly for refrigerators, which were once among the biggest power hogs in a typical home.
The federal effort lagged during the administration of George W. Bush, and the Energy Department missed a string of deadlines set by Congress. But the Obama administration has vowed to make maximum use of existing law, speeding up the adoption of 26 standards on a host of products that include microwave ovens and clothes dryers. Tougher lighting standards, embraced by both the Bush and Obama administrations, are due to take effect in coming years.
But Congress has never granted any administration the authority to set standards for power-hogging electronic gadgets like game consoles and set-top boxes. Even now, when both the administration and Congress are focused on the nation’s energy problems, no legislation is moving forward to tackle the issue.
Experts like Dan W. Reicher, who directs Google’s energy efforts, argue that the United States must do better, setting an example for the rest of the world.
“If we can’t improve the efficiency of simple appliances and get them into greater use,” Mr. Reicher said, “it’s hard to believe that we’ll succeed with difficult things like cleaning up coal-fired power plants.”
Sylvia Poggioli, NPR 20 Sep 09;
The construction of mobile floodgates aims to safeguard the 1,300-year-old island city of Venice. It's an ambitious engineering project, but some scientists say it may not be sufficient to protect Venice from rising sea levels due to climate change.
Venice rose from mudflats in the middle of a lagoon which forms the largest wetland in the Mediterranean. One of the world's most endangered cities, it has been subject to increasing flooding due to sinking land — but also to rising sea levels.
It's known as "aqua alta" — high water — and it brings city life to a standstill for several hours. Big boats can't go under low-hanging bridges, and water seeps into buildings through the sewage system. Venetians have not lived on the ground floor for decades.
Moses To The Rescue
Sophisticated technology is now being used for what has become a full-scale emergency. At one of the three inlets that lead from the sea into the lagoon, a massive mechanical hammer is driving a steel and concrete piling into the lagoon bed. Elena Zambardi works for the consortium safeguarding Venice and says the use of pilings was invented by the visionaries who founded the city 1,300 years ago.
"Under the Salute bridge or Rialto Bridge," for example, "there are piles, wooden piles to consolidate the subsoil," she says.
Artist's rendering of how the mobile barriers work. Graziano Arici/New Venice Consortium/AP
Enlarge Graziano Arici/New Venice Consortium/AP
An artist's rendering of how the mobile barriers around Venice would work.
Artist's rendering of how the mobile barriers work. Graziano Arici/New Venice Consortium/AP
Graziano Arici/New Venice Consortium/AP
An artist's rendering of how the mobile barriers around Venice would work.
The project acronym is MOSE, which is also the Italian word for Moses, recalling the biblical parting of the sea.
Once completed in 2014, there will be 78 large, mobile flood gates at the three inlets. When not in use, they will sit on the lagoon bed. When a high tide is forecast, Zambardi says, the gates will rise and shut off the sea from the lagoon.
But the project, which is 54 percent completed, has been hounded by controversy and, critics say, may already be outdated.
The IPCC — the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — has forecast a sea level rise by the end of this century of between 18 and 59 centimeters. But scientists caution it could be even higher.
An Ecosystem In Danger
Marine scientist Laura Carbognin has been studying the Venetian lagoon for decades. Like many scientists, she fears rising sea levels could mean the floodgates will be closed often and for long periods. That would upset the vital exchange between the sea and the lagoon, suffocating its delicate ecosystem.
Carbognin co-authored a report that suggests another radical solution: "To complement the Moses solution, it is necessary that all the city is uplifted."
She says research already suggests the feasibility of raising Venice.
"Based on hydrological and geochemical data, the preliminary simulation shows that fluid injection into deep formation can uniformly raise Venice up to 30 centimeters over 10 years," Carbognin says.
Carbognin hypothesizes the injections of salt water or even carbon dioxide at a depth of 600 to 800 meters below the lagoon, but she concedes much more research is needed.
That would mean huge investments at a time when delays in state funding for the more-than-$6-billion MOSE has already substantially delayed the project's completion.
Yahoo News 20 Sep 09;
PARIS (AFP) – Two-thirds of the world's major deltas, home to nearly half a billion people, are caught in the scissors of sinking land and rising seas, according to a study published Sunday.
The new findings, based on satellite images, show that 85 percent of the 33 largest delta regions experienced severe flooding over the past decade, affecting 260,000 square kilometres (100,000 square miles).
Delta land vulnerable to serious flooding could expand by 50 percent this century if ocean levels increase as expected under moderate climate change scenarios, the study projects.
Worst hit will be Asia, but heavily populated and farmed deltas on every continent except Australia and Antarctica are in peril, it says.
On a five-tier scale, three of the eleven deltas in the highest-risk category are in China: the Yellow River delta in the north, the Yangtze River delta near Shanghai, and the Pearl River Delta next to Guangzhou.
The Nile in Egypt, the Chao Phraya in Thailand and the Rhone River delta in France are also in the top tier of danger.
Just below these in vulnerability are seven other highly-populated deltas, including the Ganges in Bangladesh, the Irrawaddy in Myanmar (Burma), the Mekong in Vietnam and the Mississippi in the United States.
These flood plains and others all face a double-barrelled threat, reports the study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
On the one side, a range of human activity -- especially over the last half-century -- has caused many delta regions to subside.
Without human interference, deltas naturally accumulate sediment as rivers swell and spread over vast areas of land.
But upstream damming and river diversions have held back the layers that would normally build up.
Intensive subsurface mining has also contributed mightily to the problem, notes the study, led by James Syvitski of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado.
The Chao Phraya delta, for example, has sunk 50 to 150 millimetres (two to six inches) per year as a result of groundwater withdrawal, while a 3.7-metre (12-foot) subsidence of the Po Delta in Italy during the 20th century was due to methane mining.
Indeed, oil and gas mining contribute to so-called "accelerated compaction" in many of the most vulnerable deltas, according to the study, the first to analyse a decade's worth of global daily satellite images.
The other major threat is rising sea levels driven by global warming.
In a landmark report in 2007, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted oceans would rise by 18-59 centimetres (7.2 and 23.6 inches) by 2100.
More recent studies that take into account the impact of melting icesheets in Greenland and Antarctica have revised that estimate upwards to at least a metre (39 inches) by century's end.
The already devastating impact of such increases will be amplified by more intense storms and hurricanes, along with the loss of natural barriers such as mangroves.
In the Irrawaddy delta the coastal surge caused by Cyclone Nargis last year flooded an area up to six metres (20 feet) above sea level, leaving 138,000 people dead or missing.
"All trends point to ever-increasing areas of deltas sinking below mean sea level," the researchers concluded.
"It remains alarming how often deltas flood, whether from land or from sea, and the trends seems to be worsening."
World's River Deltas Sinking Due To Human Activity, Says New Study
ScienceDaily 20 Sep 09;
A new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder indicates most of the world's low-lying river deltas are sinking from human activity, making them increasingly vulnerable to flooding from rivers and ocean storms and putting tens of millions of people at risk.
While the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report concluded many river deltas are at risk from sea level rise, the new study indicates other human factors are causing deltas to sink significantly. The researchers concluded the sinking of deltas from Asia and India to the Americas is exacerbated by the upstream trapping of sediments by reservoirs and dams, man-made channels and levees that whisk sediment into the oceans beyond coastal floodplains, and the accelerated compacting of floodplain sediment caused by the extraction of groundwater and natural gas.
The study concluded that 24 out of the world's 33 major deltas are sinking and that 85 percent experienced severe flooding in recent years, resulting in the temporary submergence of roughly 100,000 square miles of land. About 500 million people in the world live on river deltas.
Published in the Sept. 20 issue of Nature Geoscience, the study was led by CU-Boulder Professor James Syvitski, who is directing a $4.2 million effort funded by the National Science Foundation to model large-scale global processes on Earth like erosion and flooding. Known as the Community Surface Dynamic Modeling System, or CSDMS, the effort involves hundreds of scientists from dozens of federal labs and universities around the nation.
The Nature Geoscience authors predict that global delta flooding could increase by 50 percent under current projections of about 18 inches in sea level rise by the end of the century as forecast by the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. The flooding will increase even more if the capture of sediments upstream from deltas by reservoirs and other water diversion projects persists and prevents the growth and buffering of the deltas, according to the study.
"We argue that the world's low-lying deltas are increasingly vulnerable to flooding, either from their feeding rivers or from ocean storms," said CU-Boulder Research Associate Albert Kettner, a co-author on the study at CU-Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and member of the CSDMS team. "This study shows there are a host of human-induced factors that already cause deltas to sink much more rapidly than could be explained by sea level alone."
Other study co-authors include CU-Boulder's Irina Overeem, Eric Hutton and Mark Hannon, G. Robert Brakenridge of Dartmouth College, John Day of Louisiana State University, Charles Vorosmarty of City College of New York, Yoshiki Saito of the Geological Survey of Japan, Liviu Giosan of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and Robert Nichols of the University of Southampton in England.
The team used satellite data from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which carried a bevy of radar instruments that swept more than 80 percent of Earth's surface during a 12-day mission of the space shuttle Endeavour in 2000. The researchers compared the SRTM data with historical maps published between 1760 and 1922.
"Every year, about 10 million people are being affected by storm surges," said CU-Boulder's Overeem, also an INSTAAR researcher and CSDMS scientist. "Hurricane Katrina may be the best example that stands out in the United States, but flooding in the Asian deltas of Irrawaddy in Myanmar and the Ganges-Brahmaputra in India and Bangladesh have recently claimed thousands of lives as well."
The researchers predict that similar disasters could potentially occur in the Pearl River delta in China and the Mekong River delta in Vietnam, where thousands of square miles are below sea level and the regions are hit by periodic typhoons.
"Although humans have largely mastered the everyday behaviour of lowland rivers, they seem less able to deal with the fury of storm surges that can temporarily raise sea level by three to 10 meters (10 to 33 feet)," wrote the study authors. "It remains alarming how often deltas flood, whether from land or from sea, and the trend seems to be worsening."
"We are interested in how landscapes and seascapes change over time, and how materials like water, sediments and nutrients are transported from one place to another," said Syvitski a geological sciences professor at CU-Boulder. "The CSDMS effort will give us a better understanding of Earth and allow us to make better predictions about areas at risk to phenomena like deforestation, forest fires, land-use changes and the impacts of climate change."
Adapted from materials provided by University of Colorado at Boulder, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Sinking River Deltas Threaten Millions
livescience.com Yahoo News 21 Sep 09;
Most of the world's low-lying river deltas are sinking due to human activity, making them increasingly vulnerable to flooding from rivers and ocean storms and putting tens of millions of people at risk, a new study finds.
Researchers have long warned that the mass human migration to coastal areas in recent decades puts more and more people at risk of death from major storms. About 500 million people in the world live on river deltas.
A 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which concluded that many river deltas are at risk from sea level rise. The new study indicates other human factors are causing deltas to sink significantly.
Why? The sinking of deltas from Asia and India to the Americas is made worse by the upstream trapping of sediments by reservoirs and dams, man-made channels and levees that whisk sediment into the oceans beyond coastal floodplains, and the accelerated compacting of floodplain sediment caused by the extraction of groundwater and natural gas, the scientists say.
Clear example
New Orleans is one example of a city that sits in a sinking delta, a problem known long before the city was ravaged by hurricane Katrina.
The new study, led by professor James Syvitski at the University of Colorado at Boulder, concluded that 24 out of the world's 33 major deltas are sinking and that 85 percent experienced severe flooding in recent years, resulting in the temporary submergence of roughly 100,000 square miles of land.
The results were detailed in the Sept. 20 issue of the journal Nature Geoscience. The study is part of a $4.2 million effort funded by the National Science Foundation to model large-scale global processes on Earth like erosion and flooding. Hundreds of scientists from dozens of federal labs and universities around the nation are involved.
Syvitski and colleagues predict that global delta flooding could increase by 50 percent under current projections of about 18 inches in sea level rise by the end of the century, as forecast by the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. The flooding will increase even more if the capture of sediments upstream from deltas by reservoirs and other water diversion projects persists and prevents the growth and buffering of the deltas, according to the study.
"We argue that the world's low-lying deltas are increasingly vulnerable to flooding, either from their feeding rivers or from ocean storms," said CU-Boulder Research Associate Albert Kettner, a co-author on the study. "This study shows there are a host of human-induced factors that already cause deltas to sink much more rapidly than could be explained by sea level alone."
Storm surges
The team used satellite data from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which carried a bevy of radar instruments that swept more than 80 percent of Earth's surface during a 12-day mission of the space shuttle Endeavour in 2000. The researchers compared the SRTM data with historical maps published between 1760 and 1922.
"Every year, about 10 million people are being affected by storm surges," said CU-Boulder's Overeem, also an INSTAAR researcher and CSDMS scientist. "Hurricane Katrina may be the best example that stands out in the United States, but flooding in the Asian deltas of Irrawaddy in Myanmar and the Ganges-Brahmaputra in India and Bangladesh have recently claimed thousands of lives as well."
The researchers predict that similar disasters could potentially occur in the Pearl River delta in China and the Mekong River delta in Vietnam, where thousands of square miles are below sea level and the regions are hit by periodic typhoons.
"Although humans have largely mastered the everyday behavior of lowland rivers, they seem less able to deal with the fury of storm surges that can temporarily raise sea level by three to 10 meters (10 to 33 feet)," wrote the study authors. "It remains alarming how often deltas flood, whether from land or from sea, and the trend seems to be worsening."
'Millions at risk' as deltas sink
Richard Black, BBC News 21 Sep 09;
Most of the world's major river deltas are sinking, increasing the flood risk faced by hundreds of millions of people, scientists report.
Damming and diverting rivers means that much less sediment now reaches many delta areas, while extraction of gas and groundwater also lowers the land.
Rivers affected include the Colorado, Nile, Pearl, Rhone and Yangtze.
About half a billion people live in these regions, the researchers note in the journal Nature Geoscience.
They calculate that 85% of major deltas have seen severe flooding in recent years, and that the area of land vulnerable to flooding will increase by about 50% in the next 40 years as land sinks and climate change causes sea levels to rise.
"We argue that the world's low-lying deltas are increasingly vulnerable to flooding, either from their feeding rivers or from ocean storms," said Albert Kettner from the University of Colorado in Boulder, US.
"This study shows there are a host of human-induced factors that already cause deltas to sink much more rapidly than could be explained by sea level alone."
Most of the at-risk river basins are in the developing countries of Asia, but there are several in developed nations as well, including the Rhone in France and the Po in Italy.
The Po delta sank by 3.7m during the 20th Century, mainly from methane extraction, the researchers say.
Sinking feeling
The researchers drew on data from various space missions including the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, an 11-day project run from the shuttle Endeavour in 2000, and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (Modis) carried on two Nasa satellites.
Combined with historical records and measurements of sea level rise, this allowed the team to view how fast land was sinking in some deltas, and to look at the various factors that might be responsible.
Of the 33 major deltas studied, 24 were found to be sinking.
Possibly the worst affected is the Chao Phraya, the river that flows through Bangkok. In some years, parts of the delta have sunk relative to sea level by 15cm (six inches).
This is significantly more than the global rate of sea level rise as a consequence of climate change (1.8-3.0mm per year).
The flow of sediment down to the Chao Phraya delta has been almost entirely blocked, the researchers report - by taking water out for irrigation, damming the river, and directing the main flow through just a few channels.
Normally, this sediment would add to the height of the land, a process known as aggradation.
Taking water from aquifers for drinking, industry and agriculture is also compacting the ground, making it sink.
As the ground falls and sea level rises, people become more vulnerable to inundation during storms.
"Every year, about 10 million people are being affected by storm surges," said Irina Overeem, another of the study team from the University of Colorado.
"Hurricane Katrina may be the best example in the US, but flooding in the Asian deltas of the Irrawaddy in Burma and the Ganges-Brahmaputra in India and Bangladesh have recently claimed thousands of lives as well."
The team identifies the Mekong and the Pearl River delta near Hong Kong as places where similar disasters are likely in future.
THE HIGH-RISK LIST
# Deltas with "virtually no aggradation (supply of sediment) and/or very high accelerated compaction"
# Chao Phraya, Thailand
# Colorado, Mexico
# Krishna, India
# Nile, Egypt
# Pearl, China
# Po, Italy
# Rhone, France
# Sao Francisco, Brazil
# Tone, Japan
# Yangtze, China
# Yellow, China
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