Moulting Gliders
from Life's Indulgences
Chestnut-Bellied Malkoha collecting nesting material
from Bird Ecology Study Group
The Jesus bird
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Kusu Island pilgrimage season: 18 Oct - 16 Nov
from wild shores of singapore
Freedom for hawksbill turtles of Kusu Island
from wild shores of singapore
Coastal forest at Marina at Keppel Bay
from wild shores of singapore
A Meeting of Minds - Wilson and Watson in Conversation
from Encyclopedia of Life Blog
Michael Casey, Associated Press 25 Sep 09;
BANGKOK — A gecko with leopard-like stripes on its body and a fanged frog that eats birds were among 163 new species discovered last year in the Mekong River region of Southeast Asia, an environmental group said Friday.
WWF International said that in 2008 scientists discovered 100 plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, 2 mammals and 1 bird species in the region. That is in addition to the 1,000 new species catalogued there from 1997 to 2007.
This photo taken Jan. 1, 2008, released by The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) shows a Khorat big-mouthed frog, known by its scientific name Limnonectes megastomias at an unknown location in Thailand.
"After millennia in hiding these species are now finally in the spotlight, and there are clearly more waiting to be discovered," said Stuart Chapman, director of the WWF Greater Mekong Program.
Researchers working for WWF warned that the effects of climate change, including an upsurge in droughts and floods, threaten the diverse habitat that supports these species.
"Some species will be able to adapt to climate change, many will not, potentially resulting in massive extinctions," Chapman said in a statement. "Rare, endangered and endemic species like those newly discovered are especially vulnerable because climate change will further shrink their already restricted habitats."
Among the stars in this new list was a fanged frog in eastern Thailand. Given the scientific name Limnonectes megastomias, the frog lies in wait along streams for prey including birds and insects. Scientists believe it uses its fangs during combat with other males.
Another unusual discovery was the leopard gecko found on Cat Ba Island in northern Vietnam. Goniurosaurus catbaensis has large, orange-brown cat-like eyes, and leopard stripes down the length of its body.
Lee Grismer, of La Sierra University in California, said he found the gecko and was "engrossed" in capturing it "when my son pointed out that my hand was on a rock mere inches away from the head of a pit viper."
"We caught the snake and the gecko and they both proved to be new species," he said.
Other new species found were a tube-nosed bat named Murina harpioloides that lives in southeastern Vietnam and a new bird species called the Nonggang babbler found in the karst rainforest on the Chinese-Vietnamese border, an area of limestone fissures, sinkholes and underground streams.
Experts said a range of factors contributed to the upsurge in new species including better access to regions that have seen decades of war and political unrest and governments stepping up spending on research to protect and identify plants and animals.
The discoveries have been published in peer-reviewed journals and the WWF simply compiled the findings to publicize what it says could otherwise go unnoticed.
The WWF called for efforts to ensure the new species are protected, by preserving their habitat and the river networks that are a foundation of the region's ecosystem.
New species discovered in the Greater Mekong at risk of extinction due to climate change
WWF 25 Sep 09;
Greater Mekong - A bird eating fanged frog, a gecko that looks like it’s from another planet and a bird which would rather walk than fly, are among the 163 new species discovered in the Greater Mekong region last year that are now at risk of extinction due to climate change, says a new report launched by WWF ahead of UN climate talks in Bangkok.
During 2008 alone, scientists identified these rare and unique species within the jungles and rivers of the Greater Mekong, including a bird eating fanged frog that lies in streams waiting for prey, one of only four new species of musk shrew to be described in recent times, and a leopard gecko whose “other world” appearance – orange eyes, spindly limbs and technicolour skin – inspired the report’s title Close Encounters.
Such is the immense biodiversity of this region that some discoveries such as the tiger-striped pitviper were made by accident.
“We were engrossed in trying to catch a new species of gecko when my son pointed out that my hand was on a rock mere inches away from the head of a pitviper! We caught the snake and the gecko and they both proved to be new species,” said Dr Lee Grismer of La Sierra University in California.
Close Encounters spotlights species newly identified by science including 100 plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, 2 mammals and a bird, all discovered in 2008 within the Greater Mekong region of Southeast Asia that spans Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the south-western Chinese province of Yunnan.
The reluctant flyer, Nonggang babbler, was observed walking longer distances than flying. It would only use its wings when frightened.
“After millennia in hiding these species are now finally in the spotlight, and there are clearly more waiting to be discovered,” said Stuart Chapman, Director of the WWF Greater Mekong Programme.
But no sooner are these new species discovered than their survival is threatened by the devastating impacts of climate change, the report warns.
Recent studies show the climate of the Greater Mekong region is already changing. Models suggest continued warming, increased variability and more frequent and damaging extreme climate events.
Rising seas and saltwater intrusion will cause major coastal impacts especially in the Mekong River delta, which is one of the three most vulnerable deltas on Earth, according to the most recent International Panel on Climate Change report.
“Some species will be able to adapt to climate change, many will not, potentially resulting in massive extinctions,” said Chapman.
“Rare, endangered and endemic species like those newly discovered are especially vulnerable because climate change will further shrink their already restricted habitats,” he said.
Often these newly discovered species are highly dependent on a limited number of species for their survival. If they respond to climate change in a way that disrupts this closely evolved relationship it puts them at greater risk of extinction.
Over the next two weeks, government delegates will meet in Bangkok, Thailand, for the next round of UN climate change talks in the lead up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit this December, where the world is scheduled to agree on a new global climate treaty.
“The treasures of nature are in trouble if governments fail to agree a fair, ambitious and binding treaty that will prevent runaway climate change,” said Kathrin Gutmann, Head of Policy and Advocacy at the WWF Global Climate Initiative.
“Protecting endangered species and vulnerable communities in the Greater Mekong and elsewhere around the world depends on fast progress at the UN talks in Bangkok - a hugely important conference that can lay the groundwork for success at the Copenhagen Climate Summit this December.”
Download the report on the WWF website.
Climate change threatens rare species in Mekong: WWF
Thin Lei Win, Reuters 25 Sep 09;
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Climate change is threatening 163 rare species discovered only last year in the Greater Mekong region, conservation group WWF said Friday.
Events such as frequent droughts and floods plus a rise in sea levels spell danger for species in what WWF called in a report "one of the world's last biological frontiers," a region spanning Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and China's Yunnan province.
"Forecasts for the Greater Mekong region show that climate change will dramatically alter ecosystems," Geoffrey Blate, WWF's regional climate change coordinator, told Reuters.
"Species most at risk are those with the least physiological tolerance to changes in temperature and precipitation, and those species with narrow or very restricted habitats."
Among the rare new species identified as vulnerable in the "Close Encounters" report are a bird that would rather walk than fly, a frog with fangs and a leopard-striped gecko with orange eyes.
Their habitats and the food they need for survival are often already restricted and climate change is expected to worsen the situation, according to the WWF.
It said many would not be able to adapt to climate change, "potentially resulting in massive extinctions."
With a diverse geography and climate zones, the Mekong is home to over 320 million people and numerous rare species, including the deer-like saola and the world's largest huntsman spider with a leg span of 30 cm (12 inches).
(Editing by Alan Raybould)
Agency calls prequalifying tender to build test facility for intelligent energy grid
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 25 Sep 09;
(SINGAPORE) In years to come, you could be looking at the humble electrical socket on your wall in a whole new light.
Singapore is setting up an experimental base for a future islandwide 'smart' energy grid which potentially will be able to incorporate power not just from mainstream power stations but also from new alternative energy sources.
With electric cars looking like becoming viable, one little scenario might involve car owners selling unused electrical power back into the national power grid while being also able to tap into the grid to recharge their batteries as needed.
But the possibilities as to what can be fed into the grid to diversify its sources will be limited only by the imagination and feasible technology. Potential sources could involve biodiesel, solar photo-voltaic cells or any feasible future technology.
Taking a step forward, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) yesterday called a prequalifying tender for a developer to design and build an Experimental Power Grid Centre (EPGC) microgrid and distributed energy test facility towards realising an intelligent national energy grid.
The EPGC microgrid and distributed energy test facility will be built on Jurong Island. EPGC - a new A*Star research centre based at the Institute of Chemical & Engineering Sciences - aims to be a world-class research centre for intelligent grids and distributed energy resources.
According to A*Star, the EPGC will conduct research, together with other collaboration partners, on intelligent grids, microgrids and on integration of distributed energy resources, including conventional and alternative fuels such as diesel, natural gas, biodiesel and hydrogen in a variety of power network configurations.
The distributed energy resources may include biofuel generators, fuel cells, electrical storage, solar photovoltaic, microturbines and electric, plug-in, hybrid vehicles which can sell back electricity to the system during peak demand hours.
A*Star said that the overall EPGC research infrastructure will comprise a remote command and control (C&C) facility located in Fusionopolis and the distributed energy test facility on Jurong Island. The C&C facility is being developed to support infocomm technologies and computer-based research activities and will also enable remote monitoring and control of the test facility on Jurong Island.
The latest EPGC project follows Energy Market Authority chief executive Lawrence Wong telling BT earlier this month that the development of a smart grid was an area which EMA was looking at together with other agencies here, and that it expects to announce 'the next steps of what we want to do' by year-end.
A smart grid, he said, can potentially allow plug-in electric cars (testing of which will start here next year) to re-sell energy back to the system. It can also integrate renewable energy options - accommodating, for example, the otherwise intermittent power obtained only during sunshine hours from solar panels.
'So when we look at smart grids, we are thinking about how to make our energy grid smarter,' said Mr Wong.
Singapore is already testing the use of smart meters under the Electricity Vending System (EVS) to eventually allow for full retail contestability, where households can choose which retailer to buy electricity from.
The EVS pilot in Marine Parade and West Coast will be completed by November, giving EMA the chance to study the feasibility of deploying it on a larger scale. That could also eventually become an integral component of the smart grid infrastructure here.
A*Star said in its EPGC tender document that the microgrid will be based on a low-voltage network and connected to the main grid. The power that can be generated from the microgrid will be around one megawatt.
This compares with the smallest generating unit of 2.13 MW in the power grid here - that of IUT Singapore's bio-methanisation plant, which creates energy from food-waste.
The tender for design, building, installation, testing and commissioning of the EPGC microgrid and distributed energy test facility - to be sited on Pesek Road, off Jurong Island Highway - will be done in two stages: prequalification, followed by a design-and-build tender.
The estimated timeline for the entire project, from award of tender, is about 15 months.
The New Straits Times 24 Sep 09;
KUCHING: Peninsular Malaysia needs a cheap source of efficient and reliable energy to feed the power-hungry, high-end technological industries, and nuclear energy is touted to provide this as opposed to relying on energy supplies from Sarawak.
Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Fadillah Yusof said even though Sarawak's 12 hydro-electric dams could produce enough energy to meet the nation's needs two decades from now, the need to feed the state's own energy-intensive industries might leave little power for the peninsula.
High energy-consuming industries like aluminium smelters and steel mills will be set up in the Sarawak Corridor for Renewable Energy development area.
"There is also the question of power loss. The transmission over long distance via the undersea cable means there is a load loss (before it reaches the first Tenaga Nasional transmission station in Johor)," Fadillah said at his Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house in Petra Jaya yesterday.
The undersea cable is 670km long.
"Sarawak may produce enough energy but once you go into high-end technology, which is the direction Malaysia is taking now, the energy supplied must be sufficient and efficient."
He said his ministry, together with the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry, was working out the proposal for the country's nuclear policy.
Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post 24 Sep 09;
Wild elephants in the Way Kambas National Park have encroached into neighboring residential areas, destroying crops and frightening local villagers.
Over the last few days, the animals have wreaked havoc with coffee and rice crops, and destroyed chicken coops.
Local villager Sulasno said the elephants were no longer frightened off by the torches or drums traditionally used to shoo them away.
“We’re scared because the elephants have trampled several people to death in the past few years,” he said Thursday.
“We don’t dare leave our homes at night for fear of an elephant attack.”
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) coordinator Dwi Nugroho Adhiasto said the elephants were simply returning to their old habitat, which had been converted into residential areas and farmland.
“Their instincts have driven them to their old territory,” he said.
WCS data shows elephant incursions into nearby villages have intensified over the last three months, affecting 100 hectares of farmland.
The park management and the WCS built a 29-kilometer canal around the park to prevent elephants from encroaching into villages a few years ago, but the moat is no longer effective.
National Geographic 24 Sep 09;
September 24, 2009—After millions of years of obscurity, this little gecko is finally getting some respect, thanks to a new study.
Newly identified as its own species, the tiny pinkish-brown gecko, which scurries through rocky habitat on the Arabian Sea island of Socotra, was long thought to be another kind of gecko.
"That's why we chose to call it the Latin word for 'misunderstood,'" said study co-author Fabio Pupin.
The gecko's new scientific name, Gekkonidae Hemidactylus initellectus, roughly translates to "misunderstood half-toed gecko."
During field surveys between 2007 and 2009, Pupin and colleagues had observed and collected several of the roughly two-inch-long (five-centimeter-long) geckos.
The team then compared H. initellectus' genetics and physical appearance with those of similar gecko species, including some museum specimens. The gecko turned out to be unique—large nodules on its back, for example, set the lizard apart. The team reports its findings in the September issue of the journal Acta Herpetologica.
(See pictures of another new gecko, a flying frog, and more.)
The newly named, nocturnal lizard adds to the "incredible" uniqueness of the Yemeni island, where 95 percent of the native reptiles are found nowhere else on Earth, said Pupin, an ecologist at the University of Pavia in Italy.
Situated between Somalia and Yemen, the 62-mile-long (100-kilometer-long) island is like "a desert in the middle of the ocean," he said. Six million years of isolation from the mainland—and little competition—has allowed Galápagos-like diversity to flourish.
Though H. initellectus is a common sight on Socotra, some of the island's other wild animals and plants may be threatened by goats and other animals kept by a booming human population, said Pupin, who hopes news of the misunderstood gecko will lead to greater understanding of the need for conservation.
"When you discover a new species, you show to all the people how great nature is," he said. "If we don't know what we have in our planet, we cannot protect it."
—Christine Dell'Amore
Photograph courtesy Fabio Pupin
Yahoo News 24 Sep 09;
KABULWARNAMYO, Australia (AFP) – Australia on Thursday said it has created a massive nature reserve in the country's far north that will be managed by Aborigines.
The so-called Indigenous Protected Areas in the Northern Territory contain rock art sites that are 50,000 years old and wilderness areas rivalling the nearby World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park, officials said.
The new reserve covers almost 20,500 square kilometres (7,900 square miles) near the city of Darwin -- an area more than twice the size of America's Yellowstone National Park.
The plan formalises management by traditional landowners including time-honoured burning practices to help prevent the devastating wildfires that periodically sweep the Australian Outback.
Aborigines will also hunt wild animals such as buffalo and help preserve rare native plants, officials said, adding the program would benefit the local environment and provide jobs in remote communities.
"This is a major milestone for conservation in Australia," said Michael Looker, the Australian director of environmental group The Nature Conservancy, which worked with the government on the project. "The region has remarkable natural and cultural value."
Yahoo News 24 Sep 09;
BWINDI IMPENETRABLE FOREST, Uganda (AFP) – Uganda is poised to launch a scheme to allow gorilla lovers short of time or money to visit the endangered apes to become virtual friends with them on the net, officials said.
Thanks to a system of cameras placed in this forest in the extreme south-west of the country, enthusiasts will be able to watch the gorillas feed, charge through the undergrowth and maybe even give birth, Moses Mapesa Wafula, the head of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), told AFP.
The "Friend a Gorilla" project will be launched officially on Saturday in Kampala and cost just one dollar a year for enthusiasts.
The money generated will help with mountain gorilla conservation.
"Because we cannot physically satisfy global demand to track gorillas we have decided to use technology and bring these gorillas into the sitting rooms of people around the globe, by positioning cameras in the wild," Wafula told AFP.
Uganda already has seven groups of gorillas habituated to tourists. An eighth, the Nshongi group, made up of 34 individuals, is to be introduced later Thursday.
The habituated animals account for only 23 percent of Uganda's gorilla population.
"We're being conservative because the most important thing with the gorillas is their own safety. They are vulnerable to diseases, especially airborne diseases," the UWA head said.
There is little chance that internet tracking will supplant the real thing, UWA officials say, as sitting in front of a screen does not give the visitor the adrenalin rush of being charged by a silverback nor the thrill of watching a female play with her baby.
Nor does it give you the breathtaking views from the road up the mountain into the forest.
Uganda has been careful to ensure that local communities around the forest benefit from gorilla trekking, recognising that this is the only way to keep villagers from hunting in the forest or clearing it, two practices that threaten the gorillas' habitat.
In addition to a 20 percent share of national park entry fees, local communities run some of the accommodation around Bwindi and sell some of their crops to the more top-end lodges and tented camps.
In Rushaga village, next to one of the park entrances, villagers remember the days when they would be publicly caned by UWA rangers if they were found setting foot in the forest.
Kamari and his friends, gathered at the village's only bar, are now fully aware of the benefits of gorilla tourism for local communities -- the road linking Rushaga to the nearest town has just been resurfaced.
In 2008, some 600,000 gorilla enthusiasts came to Uganda specifically to see the gorillas, paying 500 dollars each to spend an hour or so tracking the apes through dense -- and often wet and slippery -- forest.
Gorilla tracking does not come cheap, since on top of the permit the tourist has to pay for car hire and accommodation. Gorilla tourism is Uganda's second biggest foreign-currency earner.
Uganda is home to some 340 of the world's estimated 720 highly endangered mountain gorillas. The animals are found only in Bwindi and in the Virunga mountains on the border of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Endangered Ugandan gorillas join Facebook, MySpace
Godfrey Olukya, Associated Press Yahoo News 26 Sep 09;
KAMPALA, Uganda – He's hairy, his table manners are atrocious, and he wants to be your friend on Facebook.
No, it's not the ex-boyfriend. It's Muhozi, an endangered Ugandan mountain gorilla, who's appearing online as part of a fundraising program the Ugandan Wildlife Authority launched Saturday to help save the species.
Around 340 mountain gorillas — nearly half of the 740 remaining worldwide — live in Uganda's lush Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park and 40 more live in another Ugandan reserve. The rest live in the Virunga mountain range, which stretches from Uganda into Rwanda and the war-ravaged Congo.
Despite their size — a male silverback can reach over 7 feet (2.1 meters) and weigh 400 pounds (180 kilogram) — the gorillas are threatened by poachers who kill them for meat, farmers and charcoal-burners who encroach on their habitat, and the indiscriminate bullets of rebels on the run. They must be protected by rangers with automatic rifles.
The Wildlife Authority is hoping that fans will befriend a gorilla on Facebook or MySpace or follow it on Twitter in return for a minimum donation of $1. The money will be used to hire extra rangers to protect the gorillas and safeguard their habitat.
In return, gorilla friends will receive regular updates about their chosen gorilla, have their gorilla's picture on their home page and receive gorilla trivia — like the fact that the name is derived from a Greek word, gorillai, meaning "hairy women."
Wildlife Authority spokeswoman Lilian Nsubuga said she hoped the program would give people who could not afford to travel to Uganda themselves the chance to feel closer to the animals.
About 10,500 tourists visit Uganda each year to see the gorillas. An entry permit for the park is $500 per person. Last year Uganda earned $600 million through tourism and more than 90 percent of the money was from gorilla tourism.
"Why visit Rome to see ruins or Egypt to see mere piles of stones called pyramids, yet you can go to Bwindi and see your next of kin?" asked Uganda's Minister of Tourism, Kahinda Otafiire, pointing out that gorillas share more than 95 percent of their DNA with humans.
Thomas Slater, the director of the gorilla Web site, said Internet users would be able to befriend any individual from one of seven groups habituated to human contacts.
"You will be able to learn more concerning the particular gorilla, its character, family and relationships," he said.
http://www.friendagorilla.org
Charge increased to ensure 'sufficient deterrent' to shoppers who arrive at checkout counters with no bags
Henry McDonald, guardian.co.uk 24 Sep 09;
Ireland has revealed plans to double the tax on plastic bags as a way of protecting the country's environment.
The Irish Republic was the first nation to tax plastic bags, and now Dublin's Fianna Fail-Green party coalition plans to increase the levy to €44 cents (40p) per bag.
The Irish Department of the Environment said the charge would be doubled to ensure a "sufficient deterrent" to shoppers who arrived at checkouts with no bags of their own.
The move comes as part of an environmental bill scheduled to be published next month. The seven-year policy of charging for plastic bags has generated more than €120m (£109m) in tax.
It has also sharply reduced Irish reliance on throwaway bags, the annual use of which once numbered 1.2bn per year – more than 300 bags for every man, woman and child.
The success of the tax has been noted around the world, with countries and communities from Jersey to India considering following the Irish example.
In the three months after the tax was introduced in 2002, shops in the Republic handed out just over 23m plastic bags – about 277m fewer than normal.
Irish shoppers are encouraged to use tougher reusable bags instead, and many retailers give out recyclable paper bags free of charge.
The doubling of the tax will also help Ireland at a time of recession, when the nation's public finances are being squeezed.
Since the plastic bag tax's introduction, some of the revenue has been channelled into local government services which are aimed at improving and protecting the environment.
Sanjaya Jena, BBC News 24 Sep 09;
An oil spillage from a ship which has sunk off the coast of the Indian state of Orissa could harm rare Olive Ridley sea turtles, environmentalists warn.
They say that parts of the beach have turned black as oil carried by waves continues to come ashore.
They also say that dead fish have been found on the coast near Paradip port.
But port authorities insist that there will not be a major spill because most of the oil is "semi-solid" and remains inside three sealed containers.
The Mongolian ship experienced difficulties on 9 September and then sank off the coast in the Bay of Bengal.
At the time of the accident, the ship was sailing out of the harbour with about 24,000 tonnes of iron ore on board.
Of the 27 crew members, 26 were rescued by port employees and the Coast Guard.
'High mortality'
"If urgent steps are not taken by concerned agencies to empty the fuel tank of the capsized vessel, the oil spill may spread onto Gahirmatha beach, posing a serious threat to the mass nesting grounds of Olive Ridley sea turtles," environmentalist Biswajit Mohanty said.
"The turtles are likely to begin their mass nesting in the area by the end of this month.
"The sea waves in the region break from south to north, which will push the oil spill towards Gahirmatha beach. This may also cause high mortality among marine species including jelly fish and crabs. That in turn will lead to starvation among Olive Ridleys, who feed on them," Mr Mohanty said.
Gahirmatha sea beach is five nautical miles away from the spot where the ship ran into difficulties.
Orissa's state government has asked for help from central government, saying it is worried about the delay in salvaging the ship and the possibility of a serious oil spill.
Small spillages
However, port authorities in the state say that the leakage will not cause much damage to the local eco-system.
"The furnace oil stored in the chambers [of the ship] was in semi-solid condition and becomes liquid only after heating. Therefore the oozing of semi-solid oil... from the vessel is remote," Paradip Port Trust chairman K Raghuramaiah said.
The port chairman insisted that a large scale spillage was also not possible because the bulk of the oil was in three sealed chambers which remained intact.
However port officials have not ruled out the possibility of some small spillages of "furnace and lube oil" from the ship's engine room.
The beaches of Orissa are one of the world's last nesting grounds for Olive Ridleys, which have been listed under the US Endangered Species Act.
Guy McLean, ABC News 24 Sep 09;
A team of researchers will set sail from Darwin today to find out more about the environmental impact of a large oil spill in the Timor Sea, off Western Australia's north coast. Thousands of tonnes of oil and gas have been pouring from the West Atlas rig for the past month.
Dr Gilly Llewellyn, WWF Australia's conservation director, says the affected area is home to many rare species.
"There's a bit of a myth out there that an oil spill is only a disaster when it washes up on beaches," she said.
"And I mean there's been a lot of talk and a lot of information about how toxic oil can be when it's in the open ocean.
"What we'll be looking for is types of marine wildlife, such as sea turtles, sea snakes, sea birds and any sort of whales or dolphins that might be in there."
However, she says no one knows exactly what the team will find.
"We need to have some eyes on the water, some information from scientists, ecologists, people experienced at doing wildlife surveys of what creatures are at risk in the area that's been affected," she said.
A spokesman for the federal Environment Department says it has already done preliminary tests on fish collected in the vicinity of the spill and no visible oil contamination was detected.
Further toxicology testing of the fish is being carried out but those results will not be available for at least a fortnight.
The company responsible for the West Atlas rig says another rig is being used to block the leak but that job could take another three or four weeks to complete.
FAO 24 Sep 09;
High level event on forests and climate change supports emissions reduction mechanism
23 September 2009, New York - In an unprecedented display of cooperation between developed and developing countries on climate change, eighteen Heads of State gathered at UN headquarters in New York to publicly express their commitment and support for REDD—Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in developing counties.
They asserted that the new climate change agreement to be negotiated in Copenhagen must address in an effective and equitable way the role of forests as a mitigation option.
Following the previous day’s Summit on Climate Change, and in advance of the critical Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen taking place this December, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convened leaders and dignitaries from developed and developing countries to dialogue and publicly support REDD. After remarks by Secretary-General Ban, Presidents and Prime Ministers from Africa (Republic of Congo); Asia and the Pacific (Papua New Guinea); Latin America and the Caribbean (Guyana); industrialized countries (Australia, Norway, Sweden), and World Bank President Zoellick took the stand to support progress and actions on REDD. Statements by other high ranking officials included Bangladesh, Belgium, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Indonesia, Japan and the People’s Republic of China also underlined their commitment.
The event marked the largest gathering of countries to date on the issue of REDD, with the participation of over 80 countries and over 150 dignitaries and leaders from international and non-governmental organizations, academia, think tanks and the private sector from around the world concerned with climate change and forests.
“This convergence of world leaders highlights a positive, growing momentum in support of REDD and signals how this mechanism may be feasible from a technical, financial and collaboration perspective,” Secretary-General Ban said about the event. “While drastic reductions in fossil fuel-related emissions are crucial in addressing climate change, reducing greenhouse gas emissions from forests and land use is pivotal to the overall equation.”
Participating developing countries expressed their willingness to undertake significant cuts in deforestation and forest degradation, provided that they receive sufficient financial support. Secretary-General Ban highlighted global emissions can be substantially reduced by preventing deforestation.
A report by the Informal Working Group on Interim Finance for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (IWG-IFR) estimates a 25 percent reduction in deforestation could be achieved with a financial commitment of 15-20 billion Euros ($22-29 billion) by 2015.
Deforestation and the degradation of forests are responsible for just under one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than all the world’s cars, trucks, ships and planes combined. In addition to storing over one trillion tons of the world’s carbon, forests provide for essential human needs, including adaptation. Yet under the current Kyoto Protocol, developing countries cannot receive credit for the social and environmental benefits their forests provide. The absence of rewards for maintaining forests means they continue to be cut, burnt and degraded. A REDD mechanism, that will be discussed during the climate change negotiations this December in Copenhagen, proposes to change the perverse incentives that make forests worth more dead than alive.
The UN-REDD Programme, a collaborative partnership between FAO, UNDP and UNEP, supports countries to develop capacity to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and to implement a future REDD mechanism.
Timothy Gardner, Reuters 24 Sep 09;
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Droughts from Australia to the U.S. Southwest, acidic ocean water and melting glaciers are signs that the pace of climate change is surpassing the worst-case scenarios scientists predicted in 2007, a U.N. report said on Thursday.
Mountain glaciers in Asia are melting at a rate that could eventually threaten water supplies, irrigation or hydropower for 20 percent to 25 percent of the world's population, the U.N. Environment Program report said.
"We are headed to very serious changes in our planet and we need to appreciate how serious it is in order to lend support to the transformational policy measures that need to be taken," Achim Steiner, UNEP's executive director, told reporters.
The Climate Change Science Compendium 2009 report analyzed 400 scientific reports released through peer-reviewed literature, or from research institutions, since the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its last report in 2007.
Global leaders including Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. President Barack Obama spoke at a one-day climate change conference at the United Nations this week to try to break a global deadlock on how rich and developing countries will share the burdens of slowing global warming.
Some 190 countries will try to reach an agreement on how to slow global warming at a meeting in Copenhagen in December.
ACIDIFICATION OF OCEANS
An increase in global greenhouse gas concentrations has raised concern among scientists that a rise of between 1.4 and 4.3 degrees Celsius (2.5 to 7.75 F) above pre-industrial temperatures is likely, the report said.
That is above the range of between 1 to 3 degrees C (2 to 5.4 F) many scientists see as a level that could lead to the end of summer Arctic sea ice and the eventual melting of the Himalayan glaciers and the Greenland ice sheet, the report said.
In addition, increased absorption of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by oceans is leading to acidification of sea water faster than expected. For example, water that can corrode a seashell-making substance is "already welling up along the California coast -- decades earlier than existing models predict," the report said.
The acidification of oceans could threaten shellfish and coral reefs, the breeding grounds for many fish species.
Environmentalists hope leaders will pay attention to the UNEP report as the Copenhagen meeting nears but news about how the global recession is affecting emissions may also be a factor. The Paris-based International Energy Agency, said this week the recession has set the stage for the 2.6 percent drop in global carbon dioxide output this year, the sharpest fall in 40 years.
Still, the UNEP report said that emissions that have already been released into the atmosphere could lead to the loss of ecosystems and increased desertification from Africa to Asia.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects U.S. emissions to begin rising again next year as the economy improves.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Climate change accelerating – UNEP
Climate change is happening faster than previously thought, according to a new report from the UN Environment Programme.
The Telegraph 24 Sep 09;
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published in 2007 is widely considered the most authoritative report on global warming.
However a new report looking at the science that has been produced since found that temperature rises could be even higher because of increasing amounts of pollution in the atmosphere, speeding up of melting glaciers, collapsing ecosystems and acidification of the oceans.
The Climate Change Science Compendium 2009 looked at 400 scientific reports released through peer-reviewed literature, or from research institutions.
It said an increase in global greenhouse gas concentrations made a rise of between 1.4 and 4.3 degrees Celsius (2.5 to 7.75 F) above pre-industrial temperatures more likely – this is above the range of between 1 to 3 degrees C (2 to 5.4 F) that could lead to the end of summer Arctic sea ice and the eventual melting of the Himalayan glaciers and the Greenland ice sheet, the report said.
In addition, increased absorption of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by oceans is leading to acidification of seawater faster than expected. For example, water that can corrode a seashell-making substance is "already welling up along the California coast – decades earlier than existing models predict," the report said.
Some 190 countries will try to reach an agreement on how to slow global warming at a UN meeting in Copenhagen in December.
Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the UN, said the report was a call to action.
“This Climate Change Science Compendium is a wake-up call. The time for hesitation is over," he said.
Impacts of Climate Change Coming Faster and Sooner: New Science Report Underlines Urgency for Governments to Seal the Deal in Copenhagen
UNEP 24 Sep 09;
Washington/Nairobi, 24 September 2009 -The pace and scale of climate change may now be outstripping even the most sobering predictions of the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC).
An analysis of the very latest, peer-reviewed science indicates that many predictions at the upper end of the IPCC's forecasts are becoming ever more likely.
Meanwhile, the newly emerging science points to some events thought likely to occur in longer-term time horizons, as already happening or set to happen far sooner than had previously been thought.
Researchers have become increasingly concerned about ocean acidification linked with the absorption of carbon dioxide in seawater and the impact on shellfish and coral reefs.
Water that can corrode a shell-making substance called aragonite is already welling up along the California coast?decades earlier than existing models predict.
Losses from glaciers, ice-sheets and the Polar Regions appear to be happening faster than anticipated, with the Greenland ice sheet, for example, recently seeing melting some 60 percent higher than the previous record of 1998.
Some scientists are now warning that sea levels could rise by up to two metres by 2100 and five to ten times that over following centuries.
There is also growing concern among some scientists that thresholds or tipping points may now be reached in a matter of years or a few decades including dramatic changes to the Indian sub-continent's monsoon, the Sahara and West Africa monsoons, and climate systems affecting a critical ecosystem like the Amazon rainforest.
The report also underlines concern by scientists that the planet is now committed to some damaging and irreversible impacts as a result of the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere.
Losses of tropical and temperate mountain glaciers affecting perhaps 20 percent to 25 percent of the human population in terms of drinking water, irrigation and hydro-power.
Shifts in the hydrological cycle resulting in the disappearance of regional climates with related losses of ecosystems, species and the spread of drylands northwards and southwards away from the equator.
Recent science suggests that it may still be possible to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. However, this will only happen if there is immediate, cohesive and decisive action to both cut emissions and assist vulnerable countries adapt.
These are among the findings of a report released today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) entitled Climate Change Science Compendium 2009.
The report, compiled in association with scientists around the world, comes with less than 80 days to go to the crucial UN climate convention meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In a foreword to the document, the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, who this week hosted heads of state in New York, writes, "This Climate Change Science Compendium is a wake-up call. The time for hesitation is over".
"We need the world to realize, once and for all, that the time to act is now and we must work together to address this monumental challenge. This is the moral challenge of our generation."
The Compendium reviews some 400 major scientific contributions to our understanding of Earth Systems and climate change that have been released through peer-reviewed literature, or from research institutions, over the last three years.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said, "The Compendium can never replace the painstaking rigour of an IPCC process?a shining example of how the United Nations can provide a path to consensus among the sometimes differing views of more than 190 nations".
"However, scientific knowledge on climate change and forecasting of the likely impacts has been advancing rapidly since the landmark 2007 IPCC report," he added.
"Many governments have asked to be kept abreast of the latest findings. I am sure that this report fulfils that request and will inform ministers' decisions when they meet in the Danish capital in only a few weeks time," said Mr. Steiner.
The research findings and observations in the Compendium are divided into five categories: Earth Systems, Ice, Oceans, Ecosystems and Management. Key developments documented since the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report include:
Earth Systems
A new climate modeling system, forecasting average temperatures over a decade by combining natural variation with the impacts of human-induced climate change, projects that at least half of the 10 years following 2009 will exceed the warmest year currently on record. This is despite the fact that natural variation will partially offset the warming "signal" from greenhouse gas emissions.
The growth in carbon dioxide emissions from energy and industry has exceeded even the most fossil-fuel intensive scenario developed by the IPCC at the end of the 1990s. Global emissions were growing by 1.1 percent each year from 1990-1999 and this accelerated to 3.5 percent per year from 2000-2007.
The developing and least-developed economies, 80 percent of the world's population, accounted for 73 percent of the global growth of emissions in 2004. However, they contributed only 41 percent of total emissions, and just 23 percent of cumulative emissions since 1750.
Growth of the global economy in the early 2000s and an increase in its carbon intensity (emissions per unit of growth), combined with a decrease in the capacity of ecosystems on land and the oceans to act as carbon "sinks", have led to a rapid increase in the concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This has contributed to sooner-than-expected impacts including faster sea-level rise, ocean acidification, melting Arctic sea ice, warming of polar land masses, freshening of ocean currents and shifts in the circulation patterns of the oceans and atmosphere.
The observed increase in greenhouse gas concentrations are raising concern among some scientists that warming of between 1.4 and 4.3 degrees Centigrade above pre-industrial surface temperatures could occur. This exceeds the range of between 1 and 3 degrees perceived as the threshold for many "tipping points", including the end of summer Arctic sea ice, and the eventual melting of Himalayan glaciers and the Greenland ice sheet.
Ice
The melting of mountain glaciers appears to be accelerating, threatening the livelihoods of one fifth or more of the population who depend on glacier ice and seasonal snow for their water supply. For 30 reference glaciers in nine mountain ranges tracked by the World Glacier Monitoring Service, the mean rate of loss since 2000 has roughly doubled since the rate during the previous two decades. Current trends suggest that most glaciers will disappear from the Pyrenees by 2050 and from the mountains of tropical Africa by 2030.
In 2007, summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean shrank to its smallest extent ever, 24 percent less than the previous record in 2005, and 34 percent less than the average minimum extent in the period 1970-2000. In 2008, the minimum ice extent was 9 percent greater than in 2007, but still the second lowest on record.
Until the summer of 2007, most models projected an ice-free September for the Arctic Ocean towards the end of the current century. Reconsideration based on current trends has led to speculation that this could occur as soon as 2030.
Melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet surface also seems to be accelerating. In the summer of 2007, the rate of melting was some 60 percent higher than the previous record in 1998.
The loss of ice from West Antarctica is estimated to have increased by 60 per cent in the decade to 2006, and by 140 percent from the Antarctic Peninsula in the same period.
Recent findings show that warming extends well to the south of the Antarctic Peninsula, to cover most of West Antarctica, an area of warming much larger than previously reported.
The hole in the ozone layer has had a cooling effect on Antarctica, and is partly responsible for masking expected warming on the continent. Recovery of stratospheric ozone, thanks to the phasing out of ozone-depleting substances, is projected to increase Antarctic temperatures in coming decades.
Oceans
Recent estimates of the combined impact of melting land-ice and thermal expansion of the oceans suggest a plausible average sea level rise of between 0.8 and 2.0 metres above the 1990 level by 2100. This compares with a projected rise of between 18 and 59 centimetres in the last IPCC report, which did not include an estimate of large-scale changes in ice-melt rates, due to lack of consensus.
Oceans are becoming more acidic more quickly than expected, jeopardizing the ability of shellfish and corals to form their external skeletons. Water that can corrode a shell-making carbonate substance called aragonite is already welling up during the summer along the California coast, decades earlier than models predict.
Ecosystems
Since the 2007 IPCC report, wide-ranging surveys have shown changes to the seasonal behaviour and distribution of all well-studied marine, freshwater and terrestrial groups of plants and animals. Polar and mountaintop species have seen severe contractions of their ranges.
A recent study projecting the impacts of climate change on the pattern of marine biodiversity suggests dramatic changes to come. Ecosystems in sub-polar waters, the tropics and semi-enclosed seas are predicted to suffer numerous extinctions by 2050, while the Arctic and Southern Oceans will experience severe species invasions. Marine ecosystems as a whole may see a species turnover of up to 60 percent.
Under the IPCC scenario that most closely matches current trends ? i.e. with the highest projected emissions ? between 12 and 39 percent of the Earth's land surface could experience previously unknown climate conditions by 2100. A similar proportion, between 10 and 48 percent, will see existing climates disappear. Many of these "disappearing climates" coincide with biodiversity hotspots, and with the added problem of fragmented habitats and physical obstructions to migration, it is feared many species will struggle to adapt to the new conditions.
Perennial drought conditions have already been observed in South-eastern Australia and South-western North America. Projections suggest that persistent water scarcity will increase in a number of regions in coming years, including southern and northern Africa, the Mediterranean, much of the Middle East, a broad band in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
Management
The reality of a rapidly-changing climate may make conventional approaches to conservation and restoration of habitats ineffective. Drastic measures such as large-scale translocation or assisted colonization of species may need to be considered.
Eco-agriculture, in which landscapes are managed to sustain a range of ecosystem services, including food production, may need to replace the current segregation of land use between conservation and production. This could help create resilient agricultural ecosystems better able to adapt to the changing climate conditions.
Experts increasingly agree that active protection of tropical forests is a cost-effective means of cutting global emissions. An international mechanism of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) is likely to emerge as a central component of a new agreement in Copenhagen. However, many issues need to be resolved, such as how to verify the reductions and ensuring fair treatment of local and indigenous forest communities.
A number of innovative approaches are emerging to keep carbon out of the atmosphere, including the use of "biochar", biologically-derived charcoal. It is mixed in soils, increasing fertility and potentially locking up carbon for centuries. This is a 21st century application of a technology known as Terra Preta, or Black Earth, used by Amazon peoples before the arrival of Europeans in South America.
To download the full report, visit http://www.unep.org/compendium2009/
The world has gone into 'ecological debt' having used up more resources and produced more waste already this year than the planet can cope with, the New Economics Foundation warned.
Louise Gray, The Telegraph 25 Sep 09;
The global recession meant "ecological debt day" on September 25 fell a day later than the previous year for the first time in 20 years as less resources were used.
However environmental groups said the slow down was not enough to make a difference to the environmental damage being caused by over consumption, the burning of fossil fuels and intensive farming.
Think tank the New Economics Foundation measures how much land, forests and seas are used up to produce our food, energy, clothes and other goods per head. When this reaches a point when each individual is using more than the world could possibly replace through planting new forests, recovering fish or food stocks or absorbing carbon dioxide the world goes into "ecological debt".
In 1995, ecological debt day fell on November 25 but this year it was two months earlier on September 25.
Andrew Simms, NEF policy director and co-author of the report, said it was a day later than last year but still too early in the year.
"Debt-fuelled overconsumption not only brought the financial system to the edge of collapse, it is pushing many of our natural life-support systems towards a precipic," he said.
"Politicians tell us to get back to business as usual, but if we bankrupt critical ecosystems no amount of government spending will bring them back.
"We need a radically different approach to 'rich world' consumption. While billions in poorer countries subsist, we consume vastly more and yet with little or nothing to show for it in terms of greater life satisfaction."
Recession barely dents 'eco-debt'
Judith Burns, BBC News 25 Sep 09;
The recession has had little impact on humanity's over-consumption of resources, says a report.
The New Economics Foundation (Nef) calculates the day each year when the world goes into "ecological debt."
This is the date by which humanity has used the quantity of natural resources that ought to last an entire year if used at a sustainable rate.
This year, "ecological debt day" falls on 25 September - just one day later than in 2008.
According to Nef, this means that the biggest recession for nearly a century has made very little difference to global consumption.
The report, entitled The Consumption Explosion: the Third UK Interpendence Day Report, asserts that the overall trend of our collective ecological footprint is deeply negative, with humanity still environmentally over-extending itself to a dangerous degree.
Debt-fuelled
Andrew Simms, Nef policy director and co-author of the report, said: "Debt-fuelled over-consumption not only brought the financial system to the edge of collapse, it is pushing many of our natural life support systems toward a precipice.
"Politicians tell us to get back to business as usual; but if we bankrupt critical ecosystems, no amount of government spending will bring them back.
"We need a radically different approach to rich world consumption."
Calling for an end to the consumption explosion, he said that while billions in poorer countries subsist, "we (in the rich West) consume vastly more, and yet with little or nothing to show for it in terms of greater life satisfaction."
The report calls for an end in particular to what it calls "boomerang trade", where countries simultaneously import and export similar goods.
For example, the report says the UK imports 22,000 tonnes of potatoes from Egypt and exports 27,000 tonnes back the other way.
While 5,000 tonnes of toilet paper heads to Germany from the UK, more than 4,000 tonnes is imported back.
The report calls for us to pay the full environmental cost of transport, and calls for more investment in renewable energy.
It also rejects suggestions that reducing the size of the Earth's human population would help the environment, claiming this focus is a critical distraction from tackling over-consumption in wealthy countries.
It points out that one person in the US will, by 4am on the morning of 2 January, already have been responsible for emitting as much carbon as someone living in Tanzania would generate in an entire year.
It says that a UK citizen would reach the same position by 7pm on 4 January.
Nef used figures from the Global Footprint Network to make its calculations.
Seth Borenstein, Associated Press Yahoo News 24 Sep 09;
WASHINGTON – Earth's temperature is likely to jump nearly 6 degrees between now and the end of the century even if every country cuts greenhouse gas emissions as proposed, according to a United Nations update.
Scientists looked at emission plans from 192 nations and calculated what would happen to global warming. The projections take into account 80 percent pollution cuts from the U.S. and Europe by 2050, which are not sure things.
The U.S. figure is based on a bill that passed the House of Representatives but is running into resistance in the Senate, where debate has been delayed by health care reform efforts.
Carbon dioxide, mostly from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, is the main cause of global warming, trapping the sun's energy in the atmosphere. The world's average temperature has already risen 1.4 degrees (0.8 degrees Celsius) since the 19th century.
Much of projected rise in temperature is because of developing nations, which aren't talking much about cutting their emissions, scientists said at a United Nations press conference Thursday. China alone adds nearly 2 degrees (1 degree Celsius) to the projections.
"We are headed toward very serious changes in our planet," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N.'s environment program, which issued the update on Thursday.
Even if the developed world cuts its emissions by 80 percent and the developing world cuts theirs in half by 2050, as some experts propose, the world is still facing a 3-degree (1.7 degree Celsius) increase by the end of the century, said Robert Corell, a prominent U.S. climate scientist who helped oversee the update.
Corell said the most likely agreement out of the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December still translates into a nearly 5 degree (2.7 degree Celsius) increase in world temperature by the end of the century. European leaders and the Obama White House have set a goal to limit warming to just a couple degrees.
The U.N.'s environment program unveiled the update on peer-reviewed climate change science to tell diplomats how hot the planet is getting. The last big report from the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change came out more than two years ago and is based on science that is at least three to four years old, Steiner said.
Global warming is speeding up, especially in the Arctic, and that means that some top-level science projections from 2007 are already out of date and overly optimistic. Corell, who headed an assessment of warming in the Arctic, said global warming "is accelerating in ways that we are not anticipating."
Because Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets are melting far faster than thought, it looks like the seas will rise twice as fast as projected just three years ago, Corell said. He said seas should rise about a foot every 20 to 25 years.
Other problems that have worsened since the 2007 report include the oceans getting more acidic — a threat to some sea creatures — and projections for regular long-term droughts in the U.S. Southwest.
"As sobering as this report is, it is not the worst case scenario," said U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, co-author of the bill that passed the U.S. House. "That would be if the world does nothing and allows heat-trapping pollution to continue to spew unchecked into the atmosphere."
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On the Net:
U.N. Climate Change Science Compendium: http://www.unep.org/compendium2009/
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