Seminar on Tue 13 Jul 2010: 2pm – Jaboury Ghazoul on “Is REDD the new green? Reconciling conservation conflicts” from The Biodiversity crew @ NUS
How's Tanah Merah one month after the oil spill?
from wild shores of singapore
How's the East Coast sandy shore doing after the oil spill?
from wild shores of singapore
2nd Asia Pacific Coral Reef Symposium
from Psychedelic Nature
Crude oil in sand: how fast does it biodegrade?
from wild shores of singapore
Raffles Museum Treasures: Sun bear
from Lazy Lizard's Tales and Smooth otter
Best of our wild blogs: 2 Jul 10
ABC award for creative water features
Admiralty park one of 14 projects that get Active, Beautiful, Clean certificate
Victoria Vaughan Straits Times 2 Jul 10;
PROPERTY developers who incorporate attractive and functional water features in their designs can now apply for an award from Singapore's water authority PUB.
The Active, Beautiful, Clean (ABC) certificate - the first 14 of which were handed out yesterday during Singapore International Water Week - is the next step in efforts to change the scape of canals and drains.
The aim is to encourage cleansing of rainwater as well as support human interaction with the waterways.
Ideas such as rain gardens and bioswales, which use vegetation and soil rather than concrete to catch and channel rainwater, filtering it before it hits the canal, are design features recognised by the award.
Greenwood Sanctuary @ Admiralty, a new park located in Woodlands, was one of five projects from the Housing Board (HDB) to be given the certificate.
The 1.5ha park, which was completed in December, uses grass depressions - bioswales - and dry ponds to collect rainwater which then filters through a sand bed to tanks beneath where it is slowly released back into the ground to water plants and trees.
It cost $1.2 million to create but would have cost $1.6 million if concrete drains had been used, said Ms Tay Bee Choo, head of the landscape unit at HDB.
Mr Yap Kheng Guan, director of PUB's 3P (People, Public and Private) Network, said that such concepts also help to slow down the flow of water which can alleviate flooding, as well as add value to properties.
'I think with the focus on making water sustainable when we develop, there is so much we can do to make sure water is cleaned up before it hits our rivers and canals which supply our drinking water,' he added.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Dr Amy Khor, who presented the certificates, said: 'The continued increase in urbanisation calls for a paradigm shift in the way we manage storm water.
'Detaining and treating run-off water before it flows into our waterways, using natural elements - ABC water design features - is one example of how this can be done.'
The certificates will be awarded annually and there are no plans to make it a compulsory requirement for new developments yet.
Lower Seletar Reservoir's family and rower's bays, which feature a children's playground and a stage, are the latest of four ABC projects to be completed and 11 more will be ready by the end of next year.
PUB launches Active, Beautiful & Clean Waters certification scheme
Mustafa Shafawi and Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid Channel NewsAsia 1 Jul 10;
SINGAPORE: National water agency, PUB, has introduced the Active, Beautiful, Clean or ABC Waters certification scheme.
Launching the scheme, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Water Resources Amy Khor says it will further encourage the proliferation of ABC Waters designs throughout Singapore, even in areas not alongside a reservoir, river or canal.
The certification will provide recognition to public agencies and private developers who embrace ABC Waters designs in their developments.
Twelve projects by public agencies and two by private developers have been identified as the pioneers of the ABC Waters Certification scheme.
These projects showcase sustainable ABC Waters designs which integrate well with the surroundings.
The projects range from residential to industrial developments, parks and educational institutions, to commercial and recreational developments.
One project is the Greenwood Sanctuary@Admiralty, located in Woodlands.
Built at the cost of S$2.1 million, an interesting feature of this ecological park is in the way it drains rainwater. The rainwater will go into tanks hidden underground. Once the tanks are full, the excess rainwater will overflow to the roadside drains.
The park's jogging track is also made of recycled rubber mulch that allows rainwater to permeate through.
The HDB said it saved about $500,000 incorporating such natural features, compared to building concrete canals that are aesthetically less appealing.
The park is one of the five developments by HDB that has been awarded the ABC water certification.
The plan is to incorporate similar features in future estates.
Sng Cheng Keh, deputy CEO (Building), HDB said: "HDB houses more than 80 per cent of Singaporeans, so our development definitely plays a very important role.
"This award is a recognition of the efforts that we have put in so far, and will definitely spur us more into delivering more eco-friendly kind of development into our projects."
The two private developers who also obtained the ABC waters certification are City Developments/Hong Realty and Goodwood Residence.
Public agencies include the National Parks Board, National Environment Agency and JTC corporation.
On its part, PUB hopes to see more coming on board the certification scheme.
Yap Kheng Guan, director, 3P Network at PUB said: "We look at features in which they can help to treat the water, make it clean, so that by the time it reaches the reservoir, we would have clean water. That's why we are expanding the ABC Waters programme."
Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Water Resources Amy Khor elaborates.
"With advances in technology, we hope that 90 per cent of Singapore's land use will one day become water catchment. This continued increase in urbanisation calls for a paradigm shift in the way we manage storm water."
PUB said organisations that make the cut would be able to market their developments as "ABC Waters Certified."
In the next two to three years, PUB said there will be over 20 similar projects around the island. - CNA/jy/ls
Victoria Vaughan Straits Times 2 Jul 10;
PROPERTY developers who incorporate attractive and functional water features in their designs can now apply for an award from Singapore's water authority PUB.
The Active, Beautiful, Clean (ABC) certificate - the first 14 of which were handed out yesterday during Singapore International Water Week - is the next step in efforts to change the scape of canals and drains.
The aim is to encourage cleansing of rainwater as well as support human interaction with the waterways.
Ideas such as rain gardens and bioswales, which use vegetation and soil rather than concrete to catch and channel rainwater, filtering it before it hits the canal, are design features recognised by the award.
Greenwood Sanctuary @ Admiralty, a new park located in Woodlands, was one of five projects from the Housing Board (HDB) to be given the certificate.
The 1.5ha park, which was completed in December, uses grass depressions - bioswales - and dry ponds to collect rainwater which then filters through a sand bed to tanks beneath where it is slowly released back into the ground to water plants and trees.
It cost $1.2 million to create but would have cost $1.6 million if concrete drains had been used, said Ms Tay Bee Choo, head of the landscape unit at HDB.
Mr Yap Kheng Guan, director of PUB's 3P (People, Public and Private) Network, said that such concepts also help to slow down the flow of water which can alleviate flooding, as well as add value to properties.
'I think with the focus on making water sustainable when we develop, there is so much we can do to make sure water is cleaned up before it hits our rivers and canals which supply our drinking water,' he added.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Dr Amy Khor, who presented the certificates, said: 'The continued increase in urbanisation calls for a paradigm shift in the way we manage storm water.
'Detaining and treating run-off water before it flows into our waterways, using natural elements - ABC water design features - is one example of how this can be done.'
The certificates will be awarded annually and there are no plans to make it a compulsory requirement for new developments yet.
Lower Seletar Reservoir's family and rower's bays, which feature a children's playground and a stage, are the latest of four ABC projects to be completed and 11 more will be ready by the end of next year.
PUB launches Active, Beautiful & Clean Waters certification scheme
Mustafa Shafawi and Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid Channel NewsAsia 1 Jul 10;
SINGAPORE: National water agency, PUB, has introduced the Active, Beautiful, Clean or ABC Waters certification scheme.
Launching the scheme, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Water Resources Amy Khor says it will further encourage the proliferation of ABC Waters designs throughout Singapore, even in areas not alongside a reservoir, river or canal.
The certification will provide recognition to public agencies and private developers who embrace ABC Waters designs in their developments.
Twelve projects by public agencies and two by private developers have been identified as the pioneers of the ABC Waters Certification scheme.
These projects showcase sustainable ABC Waters designs which integrate well with the surroundings.
The projects range from residential to industrial developments, parks and educational institutions, to commercial and recreational developments.
One project is the Greenwood Sanctuary@Admiralty, located in Woodlands.
Built at the cost of S$2.1 million, an interesting feature of this ecological park is in the way it drains rainwater. The rainwater will go into tanks hidden underground. Once the tanks are full, the excess rainwater will overflow to the roadside drains.
The park's jogging track is also made of recycled rubber mulch that allows rainwater to permeate through.
The HDB said it saved about $500,000 incorporating such natural features, compared to building concrete canals that are aesthetically less appealing.
The park is one of the five developments by HDB that has been awarded the ABC water certification.
The plan is to incorporate similar features in future estates.
Sng Cheng Keh, deputy CEO (Building), HDB said: "HDB houses more than 80 per cent of Singaporeans, so our development definitely plays a very important role.
"This award is a recognition of the efforts that we have put in so far, and will definitely spur us more into delivering more eco-friendly kind of development into our projects."
The two private developers who also obtained the ABC waters certification are City Developments/Hong Realty and Goodwood Residence.
Public agencies include the National Parks Board, National Environment Agency and JTC corporation.
On its part, PUB hopes to see more coming on board the certification scheme.
Yap Kheng Guan, director, 3P Network at PUB said: "We look at features in which they can help to treat the water, make it clean, so that by the time it reaches the reservoir, we would have clean water. That's why we are expanding the ABC Waters programme."
Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Water Resources Amy Khor elaborates.
"With advances in technology, we hope that 90 per cent of Singapore's land use will one day become water catchment. This continued increase in urbanisation calls for a paradigm shift in the way we manage storm water."
PUB said organisations that make the cut would be able to market their developments as "ABC Waters Certified."
In the next two to three years, PUB said there will be over 20 similar projects around the island. - CNA/jy/ls
This powder could help save 8,000 swimming pools of water a year
Part of a pilot study here, it reduces the evaporation of water from reservoirs
Grace Chua Straits Times 2 Jul 10;
SINGAPORE could save about 20 million cubic metres of water each year, or 8,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools' worth, by using a thin film of organic molecules to cut evaporation from reservoirs.
That is what a PUB pilot study found when the national water agency tested the technology, called WaterSavr, at Bedok Reservoir for three months last year. Blocking or cutting evaporation from Singapore's 17 reservoirs is a key research and development concern here.
About 60 million cubic metres of water escape into the air each year from 3,000ha of reservoir surface area because of the island's sunny climate, the study found.
That amount of lost water is enough on its own to meet Singapore's water demand for more than two months.
Other evaporation barriers, such as big plastic covers, are only about 10ha in size at most and they are also costly. For example, plastic barrier VapourGuard would cost about $180,000 per hectare by some estimates.
And they are not suitable for reservoirs here, such as Bedok, where people kayak, wakeboard and fish.
WaterSavr has a solution. The technology, invented by Canadian company Flexible Solutions, uses a fine powder containing non-toxic fatty alcohols and calcium hydroxide.
When placed on the surface of water, it spreads evenly to form a clear, colourless liquid 'blanket', a single layer, molecules thick, which blocks evaporation.
Tests here and in other parts of the world, such as in Australia and California's arid Owens Valley, have shown that WaterSavr can cut water loss by an average of 30 per cent.
The idea of putting fatty alcohols on water to curb evaporation - just as lanolin in moisturisers keeps skin moist - stretches as far back as the 1920s. But when such fatty alcohols are put on water, they clump together and do not spread. Adding calcium, however, makes the molecules repel each other and spread across water.
To allay fears that the powder is toxic, the PUB tested water quality before, during and after the pilot survey.
PUB researcher P. Suresh Babu, presenting the study findings at the Singapore International Water Week on Wednesday, said the WaterSavr application had had no impact on dissolved oxygen, water pH, or other quality measures.
It biodegrades within two to three days and measures up to international standards, like the Water Quality Association's gold seal and the NSF ANSI 60 safety standard, for chemical additives.
Though the chemicals used are not harmful, National University of Singapore biologist Peter Ng said the long-term impact on ecosystems of cutting evaporation was not known.
'I'm not too worried about Bedok reservoir as it's a totally artificial system, but I would advise caution with the natural catchments in central Singapore,' Professor Ng said.
The PUB's presentation estimated it would cost about $4 million a year to continually minimise water loss at Singapore's reservoirs. That works out to 20 cents or so per cubic metre of water, a fraction of the cost of desalinated water.
PUB does not have any plans to roll out the WaterSavr technology across reservoirs at the moment, as it says the study was only a pilot test.
However, WaterSavr's Singapore office is already manufacturing automatic-spreader machines together with the Singapore branch of New Zealand engineering firm Nu-Con, and plans to market these in the region and worldwide, said WaterSavr Singapore director Anthony Price.
Grace Chua Straits Times 2 Jul 10;
SINGAPORE could save about 20 million cubic metres of water each year, or 8,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools' worth, by using a thin film of organic molecules to cut evaporation from reservoirs.
That is what a PUB pilot study found when the national water agency tested the technology, called WaterSavr, at Bedok Reservoir for three months last year. Blocking or cutting evaporation from Singapore's 17 reservoirs is a key research and development concern here.
About 60 million cubic metres of water escape into the air each year from 3,000ha of reservoir surface area because of the island's sunny climate, the study found.
That amount of lost water is enough on its own to meet Singapore's water demand for more than two months.
Other evaporation barriers, such as big plastic covers, are only about 10ha in size at most and they are also costly. For example, plastic barrier VapourGuard would cost about $180,000 per hectare by some estimates.
And they are not suitable for reservoirs here, such as Bedok, where people kayak, wakeboard and fish.
WaterSavr has a solution. The technology, invented by Canadian company Flexible Solutions, uses a fine powder containing non-toxic fatty alcohols and calcium hydroxide.
When placed on the surface of water, it spreads evenly to form a clear, colourless liquid 'blanket', a single layer, molecules thick, which blocks evaporation.
Tests here and in other parts of the world, such as in Australia and California's arid Owens Valley, have shown that WaterSavr can cut water loss by an average of 30 per cent.
The idea of putting fatty alcohols on water to curb evaporation - just as lanolin in moisturisers keeps skin moist - stretches as far back as the 1920s. But when such fatty alcohols are put on water, they clump together and do not spread. Adding calcium, however, makes the molecules repel each other and spread across water.
To allay fears that the powder is toxic, the PUB tested water quality before, during and after the pilot survey.
PUB researcher P. Suresh Babu, presenting the study findings at the Singapore International Water Week on Wednesday, said the WaterSavr application had had no impact on dissolved oxygen, water pH, or other quality measures.
It biodegrades within two to three days and measures up to international standards, like the Water Quality Association's gold seal and the NSF ANSI 60 safety standard, for chemical additives.
Though the chemicals used are not harmful, National University of Singapore biologist Peter Ng said the long-term impact on ecosystems of cutting evaporation was not known.
'I'm not too worried about Bedok reservoir as it's a totally artificial system, but I would advise caution with the natural catchments in central Singapore,' Professor Ng said.
The PUB's presentation estimated it would cost about $4 million a year to continually minimise water loss at Singapore's reservoirs. That works out to 20 cents or so per cubic metre of water, a fraction of the cost of desalinated water.
PUB does not have any plans to roll out the WaterSavr technology across reservoirs at the moment, as it says the study was only a pilot test.
However, WaterSavr's Singapore office is already manufacturing automatic-spreader machines together with the Singapore branch of New Zealand engineering firm Nu-Con, and plans to market these in the region and worldwide, said WaterSavr Singapore director Anthony Price.
No More Shark Fin Soup: Hawaii's Shark Fin Ban Takes Effect
Environment News Service 30 Jun 10;
HONOLULU, Hawaii, June 30, 2010 (ENS) - Beginning July 1, it will be illegal to possess, sell or distribute shark fins in Hawaii, making the Pacific island state the first in the nation to enact a shark protection law.
Governor Linda Lingle, a Republican, on May 29 signed into law S.B. 2169, championed by State Senator Clayton Hee, a Democrat. The law closes an enforcement loophole which has allowed Hawaii to be the Pacific hub for the shark fin trade in Asia and beyond.
Senator Hee says killing sharks for their fins is like killing elephants for their ivory. He says Hawaii will set an example for the world, as some 89 million sharks are killed for their fins globally each year.
Under the new law, vessels that could once transfer, trans-ship and store tons of fins in Hawaii can no longer do so. The only exemptions in the new law apply to shark research and educational institutions holding permits issued by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Today, local, national and international advocates for shark conservation gathered at the State Capitol in Honolulu to celebrate the historic shark protection measure.
Kelly Hu, Hawaii-born model, actress and ocean protection supporter, was present to commend Hawaii's legislators and local advocates for their tremendous efforts on this unprecedented measure. Renowned Hawaiian artist Wyland and other conservationists sent congratulatory messages via Skype.
Peter Knights, executive director of Wild Aid, shared public service announcements from basketball star Yao Ming and other celebrity advocates.
"With the enactment of this ban on shark finning, Hawaii has once again set an example for the rest of the country, if not the world, to follow," said Inga Gibson, Hawaii state director for The Humane Society of the United States.
Shark finning involves cutting off the fins of sharks then throwing them back into the ocean, often while still alive. Millions of sharks are killed each year to supply the demand for shark fin soup, a Chinese delicacy.
Shark fins are prized for their slippery and glutinous texture that results in a thickened soup that is regarded as a tonic food and an aphrodisiac. The Chinese believe shark fin soup strengthens the internal organs and retards aging.
Under the new law, restaurants holding fins prepared for consumption and possessing a permit issued by the Hawaii Department of Health, as of July 1 have one year to sell, remove or dispose of any shark fin inventory, including shark fin soup. Restaurants or retailers not in possession of such a permit by July 1 will be in violation of the law.
But environmentalists and biologists agree that shark populations cannot sustain current slaughter rates, which have brought some species of shark to the brink of extinction.
One reason why people shrink from shark protection legislation is due to fear of sharks. The rate of shark attacks in Hawaii remains steady at about three per year, usually perpetrated by tiger sharks, which eat human-sized prey. From 1882 to October 2009 there have been 114 total unprovoked shark attacks in Hawaii. Eleven of these were fatal attacks, the last in 2004.
Without knowing it, thousands of people in Hawaii come into close contact with sharks each year while swimming, surfing, and boating, says Hawaii Shark Encounters, a tour company that takes guests to see sharks in the wild off Oahu's North Shore from the safety of a cage.
"One of our main goals at Hawaii Shark Encounters is to support and further the cause of shark conservation," says the company website. "The demise of the shark populations is a global issue that needs our immediate attention and action. Support for shark protection is difficult to achieve because of the persistent irrational fear of sharks. A change in attitude, perception, media coverage, and improved conservation legislation and fishing policies are desperately needed. For that purpose we have founded Shark Allies, a nonprofit organization that will make every effort to achieve those goals."
"We hope that Hawaii's bill will inspire a move for immediate and strong legislation in other U.S. states and Pacific Island Nations," said Stefanie Brendl, founder and director of the Hawaii-based nonprofit Shark Allies. "Hawaii has shown the world that this can be done, and there is absolutely no reason why it shouldn't be replicated across the globe."
Alongside the fear of sharks, exists respect and appreciation. "Some families, believe that the spirit of an ancestor could appear as a shark, perhaps to chase fish into their nets, or to guide a lost canoe to safety," writes Herb Kawainui Kane, an author and artist-historian with special interest in Hawaii and the South Pacific.
"For these families, the killing or eating of any shark was an act of filial disrespect," writes Kane.
The U.S. Congress is currently considering the Shark Conservation Act, introduced by Democrats Representative Madeleine Bordallo of Guam in the House, where it has been approved, and by Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts in the Senate.
The national law would close critical loopholes in the federal law to improve enforcement, such as requiring boats to land sharks with their fins still attached. If enacted, it would strengthen Hawaii's new shark fin law.
HONOLULU, Hawaii, June 30, 2010 (ENS) - Beginning July 1, it will be illegal to possess, sell or distribute shark fins in Hawaii, making the Pacific island state the first in the nation to enact a shark protection law.
Governor Linda Lingle, a Republican, on May 29 signed into law S.B. 2169, championed by State Senator Clayton Hee, a Democrat. The law closes an enforcement loophole which has allowed Hawaii to be the Pacific hub for the shark fin trade in Asia and beyond.
Senator Hee says killing sharks for their fins is like killing elephants for their ivory. He says Hawaii will set an example for the world, as some 89 million sharks are killed for their fins globally each year.
Under the new law, vessels that could once transfer, trans-ship and store tons of fins in Hawaii can no longer do so. The only exemptions in the new law apply to shark research and educational institutions holding permits issued by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Today, local, national and international advocates for shark conservation gathered at the State Capitol in Honolulu to celebrate the historic shark protection measure.
Kelly Hu, Hawaii-born model, actress and ocean protection supporter, was present to commend Hawaii's legislators and local advocates for their tremendous efforts on this unprecedented measure. Renowned Hawaiian artist Wyland and other conservationists sent congratulatory messages via Skype.
Peter Knights, executive director of Wild Aid, shared public service announcements from basketball star Yao Ming and other celebrity advocates.
"With the enactment of this ban on shark finning, Hawaii has once again set an example for the rest of the country, if not the world, to follow," said Inga Gibson, Hawaii state director for The Humane Society of the United States.
Shark finning involves cutting off the fins of sharks then throwing them back into the ocean, often while still alive. Millions of sharks are killed each year to supply the demand for shark fin soup, a Chinese delicacy.
Shark fins are prized for their slippery and glutinous texture that results in a thickened soup that is regarded as a tonic food and an aphrodisiac. The Chinese believe shark fin soup strengthens the internal organs and retards aging.
Under the new law, restaurants holding fins prepared for consumption and possessing a permit issued by the Hawaii Department of Health, as of July 1 have one year to sell, remove or dispose of any shark fin inventory, including shark fin soup. Restaurants or retailers not in possession of such a permit by July 1 will be in violation of the law.
But environmentalists and biologists agree that shark populations cannot sustain current slaughter rates, which have brought some species of shark to the brink of extinction.
One reason why people shrink from shark protection legislation is due to fear of sharks. The rate of shark attacks in Hawaii remains steady at about three per year, usually perpetrated by tiger sharks, which eat human-sized prey. From 1882 to October 2009 there have been 114 total unprovoked shark attacks in Hawaii. Eleven of these were fatal attacks, the last in 2004.
Without knowing it, thousands of people in Hawaii come into close contact with sharks each year while swimming, surfing, and boating, says Hawaii Shark Encounters, a tour company that takes guests to see sharks in the wild off Oahu's North Shore from the safety of a cage.
"One of our main goals at Hawaii Shark Encounters is to support and further the cause of shark conservation," says the company website. "The demise of the shark populations is a global issue that needs our immediate attention and action. Support for shark protection is difficult to achieve because of the persistent irrational fear of sharks. A change in attitude, perception, media coverage, and improved conservation legislation and fishing policies are desperately needed. For that purpose we have founded Shark Allies, a nonprofit organization that will make every effort to achieve those goals."
"We hope that Hawaii's bill will inspire a move for immediate and strong legislation in other U.S. states and Pacific Island Nations," said Stefanie Brendl, founder and director of the Hawaii-based nonprofit Shark Allies. "Hawaii has shown the world that this can be done, and there is absolutely no reason why it shouldn't be replicated across the globe."
Alongside the fear of sharks, exists respect and appreciation. "Some families, believe that the spirit of an ancestor could appear as a shark, perhaps to chase fish into their nets, or to guide a lost canoe to safety," writes Herb Kawainui Kane, an author and artist-historian with special interest in Hawaii and the South Pacific.
"For these families, the killing or eating of any shark was an act of filial disrespect," writes Kane.
The U.S. Congress is currently considering the Shark Conservation Act, introduced by Democrats Representative Madeleine Bordallo of Guam in the House, where it has been approved, and by Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts in the Senate.
The national law would close critical loopholes in the federal law to improve enforcement, such as requiring boats to land sharks with their fins still attached. If enacted, it would strengthen Hawaii's new shark fin law.
Wildlife Trade Regulation Needed More Than Ever
UNEP 30 Jun 10;
CITES celebrates its 35th anniversary of coming into force
Geneva, 30 June 2010 - From medicine to musical instruments and from fashion and beauty products to delicacies, wildlife items in trade must be properly regulated to ensure the continued survival of animals and plants in the wild.
This is the main message coming from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which celebrates its 35th anniversary on 1 July 2010.
"While not a single one of some 34,000 CITES-listed species has become extinct as a result of international trade until now, growing pressures on biological resources make regulating global wildlife trade even more relevant today than it was in 1975 when countries brought this unprecedented global treaty into force", said CITES Secretary-General John Scanlon.
Global wildlife trade has increased significantly since 1975. CITES Trade Database, which registers legal trade in wildlife, holds over 10 million records of trade, with an average of 850,000 permits to trade in a CITES-listed species issued annually by the Convention's member States.
With the forthcoming accession of Bahrain announced today, CITES will have 176 Parties, while it only had 10 Parties 35 years ago, including Switzerland, which hosts the Convention's Secretariat, and the United States where the text of the Convention was adopted.
"By being a pioneer in adopting trade measures to prevent overexploitation and relying on scientific advice for the authorization of wildlife trade, CITES has put the machinery in place to contribute to the improved management of the key natural assets of our planet", declared Ambassador Betty E. King, Permanent Representative of the Mission of the United States of America to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva.
"Switzerland is very proud to host a biodiversity-related Convention that is able to deliver concrete conservation results. We hope that the international community will build on its successes for many more years to come to contribute to alleviating poverty and stopping the decline in global biodiversity", added Mr Thomas Jemmi, Deputy Director General of the Swiss Federal Veterinary Office, the CITES Management Authority of Switzerland.
"This treaty was visionary because it was able to put practical trade rules in place for the use of terrestrial and marine species, before the global boom created by the liberalization of trade and the acceleration of transactions via Internet. CITES is thus part of the transition to a resource efficient 21st century Green Economy", said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, which administers the CITES Secretariat.
CITES-listed species that are traded in significant volumes include species as diverse as orchids, crocodiles and sea shells. More recently, CITES has been used to address the precarious situation of marine and timber species, such as the great white shark and mahogany.
The Web-based CITES Trade Data Dashboards, unveiled on the occasion of this anniversary, use the trade data from the annual reports of the Parties to provide an instant overview of the magnitude of wildlife trade per country and per species group, such as mammals, birds or fish. For instance, the Dashboard provides a way to see general trends, such as "trade volume over time"; "top 10 trading partners", "top 5 items" and "trade by source (e.g. wild or captive breeding)".
"The International Year of Biodiversity offers an opportunity to both reflect upon the past successes and mobilize efforts to address current and future challenges. CITES has a proven track record in managing wildlife trade internationally. Its ongoing relevance and ability to adapt to changing circumstances are essential to the conservation and sustainable use of wildlife," concluded Scanlon.
CITES celebrates its 35th anniversary of coming into force
Geneva, 30 June 2010 - From medicine to musical instruments and from fashion and beauty products to delicacies, wildlife items in trade must be properly regulated to ensure the continued survival of animals and plants in the wild.
This is the main message coming from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which celebrates its 35th anniversary on 1 July 2010.
"While not a single one of some 34,000 CITES-listed species has become extinct as a result of international trade until now, growing pressures on biological resources make regulating global wildlife trade even more relevant today than it was in 1975 when countries brought this unprecedented global treaty into force", said CITES Secretary-General John Scanlon.
Global wildlife trade has increased significantly since 1975. CITES Trade Database, which registers legal trade in wildlife, holds over 10 million records of trade, with an average of 850,000 permits to trade in a CITES-listed species issued annually by the Convention's member States.
With the forthcoming accession of Bahrain announced today, CITES will have 176 Parties, while it only had 10 Parties 35 years ago, including Switzerland, which hosts the Convention's Secretariat, and the United States where the text of the Convention was adopted.
"By being a pioneer in adopting trade measures to prevent overexploitation and relying on scientific advice for the authorization of wildlife trade, CITES has put the machinery in place to contribute to the improved management of the key natural assets of our planet", declared Ambassador Betty E. King, Permanent Representative of the Mission of the United States of America to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva.
"Switzerland is very proud to host a biodiversity-related Convention that is able to deliver concrete conservation results. We hope that the international community will build on its successes for many more years to come to contribute to alleviating poverty and stopping the decline in global biodiversity", added Mr Thomas Jemmi, Deputy Director General of the Swiss Federal Veterinary Office, the CITES Management Authority of Switzerland.
"This treaty was visionary because it was able to put practical trade rules in place for the use of terrestrial and marine species, before the global boom created by the liberalization of trade and the acceleration of transactions via Internet. CITES is thus part of the transition to a resource efficient 21st century Green Economy", said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, which administers the CITES Secretariat.
CITES-listed species that are traded in significant volumes include species as diverse as orchids, crocodiles and sea shells. More recently, CITES has been used to address the precarious situation of marine and timber species, such as the great white shark and mahogany.
The Web-based CITES Trade Data Dashboards, unveiled on the occasion of this anniversary, use the trade data from the annual reports of the Parties to provide an instant overview of the magnitude of wildlife trade per country and per species group, such as mammals, birds or fish. For instance, the Dashboard provides a way to see general trends, such as "trade volume over time"; "top 10 trading partners", "top 5 items" and "trade by source (e.g. wild or captive breeding)".
"The International Year of Biodiversity offers an opportunity to both reflect upon the past successes and mobilize efforts to address current and future challenges. CITES has a proven track record in managing wildlife trade internationally. Its ongoing relevance and ability to adapt to changing circumstances are essential to the conservation and sustainable use of wildlife," concluded Scanlon.
No rights, no REDD: Communities
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 1 Jul 10;
Indigenous communities have warned the government they will reject the implementation of a planned carbon credit scheme unless the government guarantees their rights to livelihood in the forests.
The Alliance of Archipelagic Indigenous People (AMAN), which claimed to have 1,163 community members, said the international scheme — which is designed to reduce deforestation — could trigger new conflicts if land tenure disputes remained unsettled.
“Our stance is clear — no rights, no REDD. It is what we have told AMAN’s members across the country,” AMAN secretary-general Abdon Nababan told a discussion on climate change Wednesday, referring to the international policy.
REDD stands for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, which should it be agreed to would come into effect after 2012.
Under REDD, participating forest nations would be compensated by developed nations through a carbon credit scheme for preventing deforestation.
Abdon said many indigenous communities were already protecting their forests and had very small carbon footprints.
“Indigenous people have practiced “small-scale REDD” — so why are they then forced from their land to allow in oil palm plantations?” he said.
“Indigenous people only seek recognition of their land rights from the government, not money from rich nations through REDD,” he said.
Article 18 of the amended 1945 Constitution says the state recognizes and respects units of customary communities as well as their traditional rights.
However, the 1999 Forestry Law says customary forests are state forest that happen to be located in customary areas.
“The Forestry Law has become a source of problems in regard to the land rights of indigenous people,”
he said.
Indonesia has more than 120 million hectares of forests, but clears more than 1 million hectares per year, making it the fastest deforesting country in the world.
Special Envoy to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on climate change, Rachmat Witoelar, said indigenous communities were important stakeholders in forest protection. “But we must be careful with the issue since many of the groups could claim they are indigenous people; I myself have no clear understanding who indigenous people really are,” he told the discussions.
Rachmat said Indonesia’s plan to cut 26 percent of emissions could be reached if all stakeholders were committed to protecting the country’s forests.
Senior adviser for international forest carbon policy at the Nature Conservancy Wahjudi Wardojo also said local communities played a crucial role in preventing deforestation.
“But, the approach cannot be generalized because even neighboring villages have different customary laws,” he said.
Indigenous communities have warned the government they will reject the implementation of a planned carbon credit scheme unless the government guarantees their rights to livelihood in the forests.
The Alliance of Archipelagic Indigenous People (AMAN), which claimed to have 1,163 community members, said the international scheme — which is designed to reduce deforestation — could trigger new conflicts if land tenure disputes remained unsettled.
“Our stance is clear — no rights, no REDD. It is what we have told AMAN’s members across the country,” AMAN secretary-general Abdon Nababan told a discussion on climate change Wednesday, referring to the international policy.
REDD stands for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, which should it be agreed to would come into effect after 2012.
Under REDD, participating forest nations would be compensated by developed nations through a carbon credit scheme for preventing deforestation.
Abdon said many indigenous communities were already protecting their forests and had very small carbon footprints.
“Indigenous people have practiced “small-scale REDD” — so why are they then forced from their land to allow in oil palm plantations?” he said.
“Indigenous people only seek recognition of their land rights from the government, not money from rich nations through REDD,” he said.
Article 18 of the amended 1945 Constitution says the state recognizes and respects units of customary communities as well as their traditional rights.
However, the 1999 Forestry Law says customary forests are state forest that happen to be located in customary areas.
“The Forestry Law has become a source of problems in regard to the land rights of indigenous people,”
he said.
Indonesia has more than 120 million hectares of forests, but clears more than 1 million hectares per year, making it the fastest deforesting country in the world.
Special Envoy to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on climate change, Rachmat Witoelar, said indigenous communities were important stakeholders in forest protection. “But we must be careful with the issue since many of the groups could claim they are indigenous people; I myself have no clear understanding who indigenous people really are,” he told the discussions.
Rachmat said Indonesia’s plan to cut 26 percent of emissions could be reached if all stakeholders were committed to protecting the country’s forests.
Senior adviser for international forest carbon policy at the Nature Conservancy Wahjudi Wardojo also said local communities played a crucial role in preventing deforestation.
“But, the approach cannot be generalized because even neighboring villages have different customary laws,” he said.
North Jakarta coastal project unacceptable, minister says
Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post 2 Jul 10;
Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta has said he strongly disagrees with a plan to reclaim parts of Jakarta’s north coast, citing potentially severe environmental damage.
“If it’s possible, don’t do any reclaiming in the area. This is what we are aiming for,” he said Thursday.
He said he was concerned that reclaiming inundated coastal areas on Jakarta’s north coast would restrict the flow of sediment-laden water from rivers running through the capital, which would exacerbate flooding.
The reclamation project, he continued, could raise the temperature of sea water in the coastal areas, which would disrupt three steam-power power plants in North Jakarta.
The three plants — Muara Karang, Priok and Muara Tawar — supply 50 percent of Jakarta’s electricity and form the backbone of the Java-Bali power grid.
The Jakarta administration says it is mulling several reclamation projects to promote economic growth.
Combined, the projects would affect 32 kilometers of coastline, covering 2,700 hectares of land reaching out 1.5 kilometers from the coast. The deepest areas lie 8 meters under the sea.
The reclaimed area would span Green Beach, Kapuk Naga Indah, Angke, Mutiara, Sunda Kelapa, Ancol, Tanjung Priok and Marunda.
High rise buildings, landed residential estates, offices, shopping centers, mangrove forest areas, a golf course, a public beach and ports are all planned for the reclaimed swath of land.
Gusti also said he was concerned the plan would damage areas from which sand and soil was taken to be used to build up the coastal areas.
Gamal Sinurat, head of planning at the Spatial Planning Agency, said that following the issuance of the 1995 Presidential Decree on reclamation, the city had issued two reclamation permits for PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol and PT Manggala Krida Yudha.
“A small part of the reclaimed area in West Ancol has been developed into property, while Manggala Krida Yudha is still in the process of being reclaimed,” he said, adding that commercial buildings were also planned to support the new communities.
The first reclamation project ever undertaken in Southeast Asia was carried out by Intiland Group on Mutiara beach in North Jakarta in the 1980s.
Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta has said he strongly disagrees with a plan to reclaim parts of Jakarta’s north coast, citing potentially severe environmental damage.
“If it’s possible, don’t do any reclaiming in the area. This is what we are aiming for,” he said Thursday.
He said he was concerned that reclaiming inundated coastal areas on Jakarta’s north coast would restrict the flow of sediment-laden water from rivers running through the capital, which would exacerbate flooding.
The reclamation project, he continued, could raise the temperature of sea water in the coastal areas, which would disrupt three steam-power power plants in North Jakarta.
The three plants — Muara Karang, Priok and Muara Tawar — supply 50 percent of Jakarta’s electricity and form the backbone of the Java-Bali power grid.
The Jakarta administration says it is mulling several reclamation projects to promote economic growth.
Combined, the projects would affect 32 kilometers of coastline, covering 2,700 hectares of land reaching out 1.5 kilometers from the coast. The deepest areas lie 8 meters under the sea.
The reclaimed area would span Green Beach, Kapuk Naga Indah, Angke, Mutiara, Sunda Kelapa, Ancol, Tanjung Priok and Marunda.
High rise buildings, landed residential estates, offices, shopping centers, mangrove forest areas, a golf course, a public beach and ports are all planned for the reclaimed swath of land.
Gusti also said he was concerned the plan would damage areas from which sand and soil was taken to be used to build up the coastal areas.
Gamal Sinurat, head of planning at the Spatial Planning Agency, said that following the issuance of the 1995 Presidential Decree on reclamation, the city had issued two reclamation permits for PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol and PT Manggala Krida Yudha.
“A small part of the reclaimed area in West Ancol has been developed into property, while Manggala Krida Yudha is still in the process of being reclaimed,” he said, adding that commercial buildings were also planned to support the new communities.
The first reclamation project ever undertaken in Southeast Asia was carried out by Intiland Group on Mutiara beach in North Jakarta in the 1980s.
Deep-sea mining adds to fears of marine pollution
Michael McCarthy, The Independent 2 Jul 10;
Concerns about large-scale marine pollution, fuelled by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, are set to be heightened by a new development in exploitation of the oceans: deep-sea mining.
The Chinese government has just lodged the first application to mine for minerals under the seabed in international waters, in this case on a ridge in the Indian Ocean 1,700 metres (more than 5,000ft) below the surface.
The Chinese are hoping to recover valuable metals such as copper, nickel and cobalt – used in mobile phones, laptops and batteries – as well as gold and silver, in an area of currently inactive "hydrothermal vents", underwater geysers driven by volcanic activity.
Some of the vents, known as "black smokers", are black chimney-like structures which shelter their own ecosystems of little-known creatures, while emitting a cloud of hot, black material containing high levels of sulphur-bearing minerals, or sulphides.
Having explored the area using remotely operated underwater vehicles, the Chinese want to mine the sulphide deposits of a region of seabed in the south-west Indian Ocean for the rich mineral ores they contain. They have already applied to do so to the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the Jamaica-based body set up under the 1982 UN Convention on The Law of the Sea to deal with the liabilities relating to seabed exploitation and the environmental damage it may cause.
The application, which will be heard at a meeting next April, is the first to be made for permission to mine in international waters, but it is likely to be followed by many more, especially if the Chinese succeed. A major seabed sulphide-mining project is already under way in the waters of Papua New Guinea, run by the Toronto-based company Nautilus Minerals.
The environmental worries thrown up by the prospect of deep-sea mining are considerable, not least after the Gulf oil spill, which has become an intractable problem owing to the depth of the seabed where the well is sited. It has become clear that once something goes wrong at such a depth – in this case 1,500 metres, or nearly 5,000ft – putting it right is immeasurably more difficult than at the surface.
Although no one knows exactly what damage a deep-sea mine would do to the marine ecosystem, experts have no doubt that removing a considerable part of the sea floor would cause a major disturbance.
Not only that, but plumes of sediment – which may well be toxic – could have an impact over a much wider area, especially for filter-feeding marine organisms, which are common on the seabed. Such plumes might also block out light, hindering the development of plankton.
"At the mouths of these hydrothermal vents are some of the world's richest but least-known ecosystems, and the potential for conflict between commerce and conservation is huge," said Charles Clover, author of The End of The Line, the best-selling indictment of over-fishing, which has been made into a widely praised film.
The Chinese were taking it very seriously, Mr Clover said. "The reality is, they are identifying gold mines under the sea. The Chinese have played this by the book, but they lodged their application on the very first day it was possible, on the first day of the compliance regime for mining sulphides, which had taken the ISA seven years to establish."
Richard Harrington of the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) expressed similar concerns: "This is seriously deep exploitation of our sea floor and in the first instance we would question if this strategy would really be economically viable," he said.
"We've seen how difficult it has been to cap the oil in the Gulf – would the risk of an accident be worth taking? MCS is currently campaigning for marine protected areas to ensure protection of the sea bed around UK waters, where the damage to the marine environment from activities such as dredging and trawling are all too obvious.
"Deep sea mining would take this sort of damage to a new level in the wider oceans. Conditions at this depth are normally very stable, and any mining damage would impact the environment for a very long time."
Interest in deep-sea mining began in the mid-1960s with the publication of a book by JL Mero entitled The Mineral Resources of The Sea, which suggested that there was a near-limitless supply of certain metals contained in manganese nodules, potato-sized lumps of compressed sediment on the sea floor at depths of 5,000 metres or more. Over the next 20 years, the US, as well as France and Germany, conducted research projects on nodule mining, but these were eventually abandoned after hundreds of millions of dollars had been spent.
However, over the past 10 years the demand for metals from the exploding economies of the main developing countries, led by China, has led to a resurgence of interest in sea-bed minerals; the focus for this has now switched from nodules to hydrothermal vents, discovered by American scientists in 1977 in the Galapagos rift in the Pacific seafloor. Now they have been found all around the world, and have astonished scientists with the teeming communities of specialised deep-sea animals they support in the darkness – often at temperatures of more than 400C.
Concerns about large-scale marine pollution, fuelled by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, are set to be heightened by a new development in exploitation of the oceans: deep-sea mining.
The Chinese government has just lodged the first application to mine for minerals under the seabed in international waters, in this case on a ridge in the Indian Ocean 1,700 metres (more than 5,000ft) below the surface.
The Chinese are hoping to recover valuable metals such as copper, nickel and cobalt – used in mobile phones, laptops and batteries – as well as gold and silver, in an area of currently inactive "hydrothermal vents", underwater geysers driven by volcanic activity.
Some of the vents, known as "black smokers", are black chimney-like structures which shelter their own ecosystems of little-known creatures, while emitting a cloud of hot, black material containing high levels of sulphur-bearing minerals, or sulphides.
Having explored the area using remotely operated underwater vehicles, the Chinese want to mine the sulphide deposits of a region of seabed in the south-west Indian Ocean for the rich mineral ores they contain. They have already applied to do so to the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the Jamaica-based body set up under the 1982 UN Convention on The Law of the Sea to deal with the liabilities relating to seabed exploitation and the environmental damage it may cause.
The application, which will be heard at a meeting next April, is the first to be made for permission to mine in international waters, but it is likely to be followed by many more, especially if the Chinese succeed. A major seabed sulphide-mining project is already under way in the waters of Papua New Guinea, run by the Toronto-based company Nautilus Minerals.
The environmental worries thrown up by the prospect of deep-sea mining are considerable, not least after the Gulf oil spill, which has become an intractable problem owing to the depth of the seabed where the well is sited. It has become clear that once something goes wrong at such a depth – in this case 1,500 metres, or nearly 5,000ft – putting it right is immeasurably more difficult than at the surface.
Although no one knows exactly what damage a deep-sea mine would do to the marine ecosystem, experts have no doubt that removing a considerable part of the sea floor would cause a major disturbance.
Not only that, but plumes of sediment – which may well be toxic – could have an impact over a much wider area, especially for filter-feeding marine organisms, which are common on the seabed. Such plumes might also block out light, hindering the development of plankton.
"At the mouths of these hydrothermal vents are some of the world's richest but least-known ecosystems, and the potential for conflict between commerce and conservation is huge," said Charles Clover, author of The End of The Line, the best-selling indictment of over-fishing, which has been made into a widely praised film.
The Chinese were taking it very seriously, Mr Clover said. "The reality is, they are identifying gold mines under the sea. The Chinese have played this by the book, but they lodged their application on the very first day it was possible, on the first day of the compliance regime for mining sulphides, which had taken the ISA seven years to establish."
Richard Harrington of the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) expressed similar concerns: "This is seriously deep exploitation of our sea floor and in the first instance we would question if this strategy would really be economically viable," he said.
"We've seen how difficult it has been to cap the oil in the Gulf – would the risk of an accident be worth taking? MCS is currently campaigning for marine protected areas to ensure protection of the sea bed around UK waters, where the damage to the marine environment from activities such as dredging and trawling are all too obvious.
"Deep sea mining would take this sort of damage to a new level in the wider oceans. Conditions at this depth are normally very stable, and any mining damage would impact the environment for a very long time."
Interest in deep-sea mining began in the mid-1960s with the publication of a book by JL Mero entitled The Mineral Resources of The Sea, which suggested that there was a near-limitless supply of certain metals contained in manganese nodules, potato-sized lumps of compressed sediment on the sea floor at depths of 5,000 metres or more. Over the next 20 years, the US, as well as France and Germany, conducted research projects on nodule mining, but these were eventually abandoned after hundreds of millions of dollars had been spent.
However, over the past 10 years the demand for metals from the exploding economies of the main developing countries, led by China, has led to a resurgence of interest in sea-bed minerals; the focus for this has now switched from nodules to hydrothermal vents, discovered by American scientists in 1977 in the Galapagos rift in the Pacific seafloor. Now they have been found all around the world, and have astonished scientists with the teeming communities of specialised deep-sea animals they support in the darkness – often at temperatures of more than 400C.
Indonesia's last glacier will melt within years
Robin McDowell Associated Press Google News 2 Jul 10;
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Lonnie Thompson spent years preparing for his expedition to the remote, mist-shrouded mountains of eastern Indonesia, hoping to chronicle the affect of global warming on the last remaining glacier in the Pacific. He's worried he got there too late.
Even as he pitched his tent on top of Puncak Jaya, the ice was melting beneath him.
The 3-mile- (4,884-meter-) high glacier was pounded by rain every afternoon during the team's 13-day trip, something the American scientist has never encountered in three decades of drilling ice cores. He lay awake at night listening to the water gushing beneath him.
By the time they were ready to head home, ice around their sheltered campsite had melted a staggering 12 inches (30 centimeters).
"These glaciers are dying," said Thompson, one of the world's most accomplished glaciologists. "Before I was thinking they had a few decades, but now I'd say we're looking at years."
Thompson has led 57 such expeditions in 16 countries around the planet, from China to Peru.
But for him, the Papuan glaciers, because they lie along the fringe of the world's warmest ocean and could provide clues about regional weather patterns, were an unexplored "missing link."
It is this region that generates El Nino disturbances and influences climate from India's monsoons to the Amazon's droughts.
As such, it is one of the only "archives" about the story of the equatorial phenomenon, said Michael Prentice of the Indiana Geological Survey, who has long been interested in the area. It also could point to what lies ahead for billions of people in Asia.
The ice that covered much of Papua thousands of years ago is today just 1 square mile (2 square kilometers) wide and 32 yards (meters) deep. Deep crevasses crisscross the dirty ice.
Glaciers worldwide are in retreat, with major losses already seen across much of Alaska, the Alps, the Andes and numerous other ranges. What makes Puncak Jaya different, aside from its location in the Pacific, is just how little is known about it.
Research permits to work in Papua are difficult to obtain, in part because Indonesia's government is hugely sensitive to the region's long-simmering insurgency. Foreign journalists are barred and humanitarian groups are restricted.
It is also one of the most isolated corners of the sprawling archipelagic nation.
The U.S. mining company Freeport-McMoRan, operating nearby, helped airlift the team to Puncak Jaya's heights by helicopter, along with four tons of equipment — from electromechanical and thermal drill systems, to radars needed to map the underlying rock, said one of its employees, Scott Hanna.
There was a winch and cables, high-altitude camping gear and boxes to preserve ice samples, which will eventually join 70,000 yards (meters) of tropical cores being kept in cold storage in Columbus, Ohio.
There, glaciologists will help analyze the ice layer by layer through centuries past.
Flecks of dust, falling seasonally, enable them to count down the years, much like tree rings. Isotopes of oxygen, in minute air bubbles trapped in the ice, vary with temperature helping researchers understand how ancient weather shifted.
"I just hope we weren't too late," said Thompson, 62, adding that in addition to melting from the top, water likely seeped in to the base of the glacier, leaving them with limited records from a section of time.
"But still, the have horizontal layers all the way through, so I think we were able to salvage at least a little bit of the climate history," said Thompson of Ohio State University, who co-coordinated the expedition with Dwi Susanto of Columbia University.
Among other things, the team expects to find volcanic ash from past eruptions — the 1883 blast of Krakatau and Tambora in 1815 should help serve as timelines — soot from wildfires, pollen, plant debris and maybe even frozen animals.
Satellite images and aerial photos have long shown the glacier in rapid retreat.
The mountain has lost about 80 percent of its ice since 1936 — two-thirds of that since the last scientific expedition in the early 1970s.
Thompson says he thinks temperatures are rising twice as fast in high altitudes as at the earth's surface, which, if true, could have broad implications on people who depend on glaciers for water during the dry season, such as in the Himalayas.
Geoffrey Hope, a professor at Australian National University who took part in the 1971 expedition to Puncak Jaya, noted that Papua has the wettest mountain region in the world, so high precipitation levels didn't come as a great surprise.
Still, his own experience was markedly different.
"The roof of our marque tent fell in on many evenings due to the weight of the snow," he recalled, "and all water coming from the glacier would freeze by 8 p.m. each night."
Links
http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/blog/tag/indonesia-puncak-jaya/
http://www.earth.columbia.edu/videos/watch/247
US scientist in race to learn from Indonesia's dying glacier
Yahoo News 2 Jul 10;
JAKARTA (AFP) – The only glacier in the western Pacific could disappear in less than five years, taking with it vital clues about the earth's changing climate, a US scientist said Friday.
Ohio State University Professor Lonnie Thompson has just completed what he calls a "salvage mission" to extract ice cores from the glacier on Punjak Jaya, which soars above the tropical, reef-fringed waters of eastern Indonesia.
The ice core samples he collected after his 13-day trip to the Papuan central highlands are set to be shipped back to Chicago on Wednesday for further analysis.
But Thompson said one thing is clear: the glacier is dying.
"This is the only ice in the western end of the Pacific warm pool, which is the warmest water on earth. When it melts that history (from ice cores) is lost forever and there's no way we can recapture it," he told AFP.
"My biggest concern is that we may be too late to capture that history. Some is already missing from the top and from the bottom. How much of that history do we still have?"
Thompson estimated the glacier is disappearing at a rate of seven metres (22 feet) a year. As it is only about 32 metres deep, it could be gone in four or five years.
"Looking at the loss of ice that's been occurring since the 1830s we thought that we were looking at decades (before the Punjak Jaya ice disappeared)," he said.
"But I've never been to a glacier anywhere else in the world where it rains every day... If it rains on a glacier then that's the death of the glacier."
One of the world's leading experts, Thompson has visited glaciers from Kenya to Peru. But he said he had never seen anything like what he experienced in Papua, where the ice was visibly melting under his tent.
"It's the first glacier that I've visited where you can hear the water flowing underneath the ice," he said.
The 88 metres of ice samples from his expedition will be added to the Ohio State University's valuable archive of tropical ice cores, where it will remain available for researchers years after the glacier itself may have gone.
The study of glacier ice reveals evidence of past climate fluctuations, which can then be referenced with samples from other parts of the planet to get a better understanding of current climate change.
"We hope to be able to reconstruct past temperatures, look at the history of the ice here and compare that with ice from around the world, particularly with ice from the other side of the Pacific Ocean," Thompson said.
He said he hoped to publish his findings early next year.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Lonnie Thompson spent years preparing for his expedition to the remote, mist-shrouded mountains of eastern Indonesia, hoping to chronicle the affect of global warming on the last remaining glacier in the Pacific. He's worried he got there too late.
Even as he pitched his tent on top of Puncak Jaya, the ice was melting beneath him.
The 3-mile- (4,884-meter-) high glacier was pounded by rain every afternoon during the team's 13-day trip, something the American scientist has never encountered in three decades of drilling ice cores. He lay awake at night listening to the water gushing beneath him.
By the time they were ready to head home, ice around their sheltered campsite had melted a staggering 12 inches (30 centimeters).
"These glaciers are dying," said Thompson, one of the world's most accomplished glaciologists. "Before I was thinking they had a few decades, but now I'd say we're looking at years."
Thompson has led 57 such expeditions in 16 countries around the planet, from China to Peru.
But for him, the Papuan glaciers, because they lie along the fringe of the world's warmest ocean and could provide clues about regional weather patterns, were an unexplored "missing link."
It is this region that generates El Nino disturbances and influences climate from India's monsoons to the Amazon's droughts.
As such, it is one of the only "archives" about the story of the equatorial phenomenon, said Michael Prentice of the Indiana Geological Survey, who has long been interested in the area. It also could point to what lies ahead for billions of people in Asia.
The ice that covered much of Papua thousands of years ago is today just 1 square mile (2 square kilometers) wide and 32 yards (meters) deep. Deep crevasses crisscross the dirty ice.
Glaciers worldwide are in retreat, with major losses already seen across much of Alaska, the Alps, the Andes and numerous other ranges. What makes Puncak Jaya different, aside from its location in the Pacific, is just how little is known about it.
Research permits to work in Papua are difficult to obtain, in part because Indonesia's government is hugely sensitive to the region's long-simmering insurgency. Foreign journalists are barred and humanitarian groups are restricted.
It is also one of the most isolated corners of the sprawling archipelagic nation.
The U.S. mining company Freeport-McMoRan, operating nearby, helped airlift the team to Puncak Jaya's heights by helicopter, along with four tons of equipment — from electromechanical and thermal drill systems, to radars needed to map the underlying rock, said one of its employees, Scott Hanna.
There was a winch and cables, high-altitude camping gear and boxes to preserve ice samples, which will eventually join 70,000 yards (meters) of tropical cores being kept in cold storage in Columbus, Ohio.
There, glaciologists will help analyze the ice layer by layer through centuries past.
Flecks of dust, falling seasonally, enable them to count down the years, much like tree rings. Isotopes of oxygen, in minute air bubbles trapped in the ice, vary with temperature helping researchers understand how ancient weather shifted.
"I just hope we weren't too late," said Thompson, 62, adding that in addition to melting from the top, water likely seeped in to the base of the glacier, leaving them with limited records from a section of time.
"But still, the have horizontal layers all the way through, so I think we were able to salvage at least a little bit of the climate history," said Thompson of Ohio State University, who co-coordinated the expedition with Dwi Susanto of Columbia University.
Among other things, the team expects to find volcanic ash from past eruptions — the 1883 blast of Krakatau and Tambora in 1815 should help serve as timelines — soot from wildfires, pollen, plant debris and maybe even frozen animals.
Satellite images and aerial photos have long shown the glacier in rapid retreat.
The mountain has lost about 80 percent of its ice since 1936 — two-thirds of that since the last scientific expedition in the early 1970s.
Thompson says he thinks temperatures are rising twice as fast in high altitudes as at the earth's surface, which, if true, could have broad implications on people who depend on glaciers for water during the dry season, such as in the Himalayas.
Geoffrey Hope, a professor at Australian National University who took part in the 1971 expedition to Puncak Jaya, noted that Papua has the wettest mountain region in the world, so high precipitation levels didn't come as a great surprise.
Still, his own experience was markedly different.
"The roof of our marque tent fell in on many evenings due to the weight of the snow," he recalled, "and all water coming from the glacier would freeze by 8 p.m. each night."
Links
http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/blog/tag/indonesia-puncak-jaya/
http://www.earth.columbia.edu/videos/watch/247
US scientist in race to learn from Indonesia's dying glacier
Yahoo News 2 Jul 10;
JAKARTA (AFP) – The only glacier in the western Pacific could disappear in less than five years, taking with it vital clues about the earth's changing climate, a US scientist said Friday.
Ohio State University Professor Lonnie Thompson has just completed what he calls a "salvage mission" to extract ice cores from the glacier on Punjak Jaya, which soars above the tropical, reef-fringed waters of eastern Indonesia.
The ice core samples he collected after his 13-day trip to the Papuan central highlands are set to be shipped back to Chicago on Wednesday for further analysis.
But Thompson said one thing is clear: the glacier is dying.
"This is the only ice in the western end of the Pacific warm pool, which is the warmest water on earth. When it melts that history (from ice cores) is lost forever and there's no way we can recapture it," he told AFP.
"My biggest concern is that we may be too late to capture that history. Some is already missing from the top and from the bottom. How much of that history do we still have?"
Thompson estimated the glacier is disappearing at a rate of seven metres (22 feet) a year. As it is only about 32 metres deep, it could be gone in four or five years.
"Looking at the loss of ice that's been occurring since the 1830s we thought that we were looking at decades (before the Punjak Jaya ice disappeared)," he said.
"But I've never been to a glacier anywhere else in the world where it rains every day... If it rains on a glacier then that's the death of the glacier."
One of the world's leading experts, Thompson has visited glaciers from Kenya to Peru. But he said he had never seen anything like what he experienced in Papua, where the ice was visibly melting under his tent.
"It's the first glacier that I've visited where you can hear the water flowing underneath the ice," he said.
The 88 metres of ice samples from his expedition will be added to the Ohio State University's valuable archive of tropical ice cores, where it will remain available for researchers years after the glacier itself may have gone.
The study of glacier ice reveals evidence of past climate fluctuations, which can then be referenced with samples from other parts of the planet to get a better understanding of current climate change.
"We hope to be able to reconstruct past temperatures, look at the history of the ice here and compare that with ice from around the world, particularly with ice from the other side of the Pacific Ocean," Thompson said.
He said he hoped to publish his findings early next year.
Global carbon emissions steady for first time since 1992
Drop in rich countries' emissions caused by recession in 2009 was nullified by steep increases from China and India
John Vidal guardian.co.uk 1 Jul 10;
Greenhouse gas emissions from rich countries fell a record 7% in 2009 because of the recession, but the cut was entirely nullified by steep increases from fast-growing China and India, according to one of Europe's leading scientific research groups.
Overall, this meant annual global climate emissions remained steady for the first time since 1992, says the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency which drew on energy-use data from the US government, the EU, BP energy data, the cement industry, and elsewhere.
But the Dutch government-funded agency, which in 2007 was the first to correctly identify that China had overtaken the US as the world's greatest greenhouse gas polluter, warned that the figures did not mean that rich countries had cleaned up their act.
"A large part of production capacity has been suspended, but this could be re-employed as soon as the economy improves. It is likely that a recovering economy would cause emission levels in industrialised countries to go up. Nevertheless, the economic downturn has meant that these countries can meet their reduction obligations with more ease," said NEAA spokeswoman Anneke Oosterhuis.
"Another consequence of this downturn is that some industrialised countries may need to purchase fewer emission rights from reduction projects in developing countries, which, in turn, means that there will be less money available for emission reductions in those developing countries," said Oosterhuis.
The figures will come as a relief to the world's rich countries which – the US aside – are legally committed to reducing emissions by a collective 5.2% on 1990 figures by 2012. As it stands, says the Dutch agency, they are now 10% below 1990 levels, well below the Kyoto target level.
The research also shows that China and India's average CO2 emissions per inhabitant are still well below those in industrialised countries. In India the emissions are now 1.4 tonnes per person and in China 6 tonnes, compared with 10 tonnes per person in the Netherlands and 17 tonnes in the United States.
China's 9% growth in emissions came despite its doubling of wind and solar energy capacity for the fifth year in a row.
The report highlights the rapid growth in global emissions in the past 40 years. They are now 25% higher than in 2000, almost 40% more than in 1990, and double 1970's figure of 15.5bn tonnes. The big growth in Chinese and Indian emissions has been relatively recent. China has doubled its emissions in nine years, and India's have risen by 50% in that time.
But the recession has not hit all industrial countries uniformly. Russia (-11%) and Japan (-9%) have contracted their energy use the most, but the US – which is by far the most profligate power user in the world – reduced its emissions by nearly 500m tonnes in 2009. Other developing countries changed little in 2009. Emissions rose in Iran, Indonesia and South Korea but fell in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Taiwan.
2009 was a good year for renewable energy. Global wind power capacity grew by nearly one third, with nearly one third of all new installations in China. Total solar electricity installed in 2009 was 46% up on 2008. China now leads the world in large-scale hydropower with 19% of global production, well ahead of Brazil and the USA with a 12% share each.
The new figures supplement those of the International energy agency (IEA) which predicted in November 2009 that global CO2 emissions would decrease by 2.6% in 2009. At that stage it was unclear how China and India would ride out the recession.
John Vidal guardian.co.uk 1 Jul 10;
Greenhouse gas emissions from rich countries fell a record 7% in 2009 because of the recession, but the cut was entirely nullified by steep increases from fast-growing China and India, according to one of Europe's leading scientific research groups.
Overall, this meant annual global climate emissions remained steady for the first time since 1992, says the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency which drew on energy-use data from the US government, the EU, BP energy data, the cement industry, and elsewhere.
But the Dutch government-funded agency, which in 2007 was the first to correctly identify that China had overtaken the US as the world's greatest greenhouse gas polluter, warned that the figures did not mean that rich countries had cleaned up their act.
"A large part of production capacity has been suspended, but this could be re-employed as soon as the economy improves. It is likely that a recovering economy would cause emission levels in industrialised countries to go up. Nevertheless, the economic downturn has meant that these countries can meet their reduction obligations with more ease," said NEAA spokeswoman Anneke Oosterhuis.
"Another consequence of this downturn is that some industrialised countries may need to purchase fewer emission rights from reduction projects in developing countries, which, in turn, means that there will be less money available for emission reductions in those developing countries," said Oosterhuis.
The figures will come as a relief to the world's rich countries which – the US aside – are legally committed to reducing emissions by a collective 5.2% on 1990 figures by 2012. As it stands, says the Dutch agency, they are now 10% below 1990 levels, well below the Kyoto target level.
The research also shows that China and India's average CO2 emissions per inhabitant are still well below those in industrialised countries. In India the emissions are now 1.4 tonnes per person and in China 6 tonnes, compared with 10 tonnes per person in the Netherlands and 17 tonnes in the United States.
China's 9% growth in emissions came despite its doubling of wind and solar energy capacity for the fifth year in a row.
The report highlights the rapid growth in global emissions in the past 40 years. They are now 25% higher than in 2000, almost 40% more than in 1990, and double 1970's figure of 15.5bn tonnes. The big growth in Chinese and Indian emissions has been relatively recent. China has doubled its emissions in nine years, and India's have risen by 50% in that time.
But the recession has not hit all industrial countries uniformly. Russia (-11%) and Japan (-9%) have contracted their energy use the most, but the US – which is by far the most profligate power user in the world – reduced its emissions by nearly 500m tonnes in 2009. Other developing countries changed little in 2009. Emissions rose in Iran, Indonesia and South Korea but fell in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Taiwan.
2009 was a good year for renewable energy. Global wind power capacity grew by nearly one third, with nearly one third of all new installations in China. Total solar electricity installed in 2009 was 46% up on 2008. China now leads the world in large-scale hydropower with 19% of global production, well ahead of Brazil and the USA with a 12% share each.
The new figures supplement those of the International energy agency (IEA) which predicted in November 2009 that global CO2 emissions would decrease by 2.6% in 2009. At that stage it was unclear how China and India would ride out the recession.
Italy sees intermediate steps at UN climate summit
Alessandra Rizzo, Associated Press Yahoo News 1 Jul 10;
ROME – A U.N. climate summit in Mexico later this year won't broker a global accord on climate change, but may represent a positive intermediate step, the Italian environment minister said Thursday after co-hosting climate change talks.
Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo said the year-end summit in Cancun will not represent a "turnaround" but can still end with a "shared framework agreement" that can serve as a basis for a future global agreement.
A December summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, fell far short of the goal of a full-fledged and legally binding accord setting emission reduction targets for major countries. Expectations for the Mexico summit have been lowered as a result.
"Now we are all aware that conditions aren't there for a global accord," Prestigiacomo told reporters at the end of the talks held over two days in Rome.
U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern said "differences absolutely do remain" but insisted the focus remains on "how to bridge those gaps." Looking at Cancun, he said "different people mean different things" by framework.
"The thing that is important to us is that all the issues move forward together," he said. "We would not support an outcome that picked off two or three issues and left others behind. I don't think other countries would be supportive of that."
The closed-doors talks in Rome of the Major Economies Forum ended with no significant results, Prestigiacomo acknowledged. The delegates discussed all major outstanding issues — mitigation of greenhouse emissions, adaptation efforts, financing, verification methods among others. But, as expected, no breakthroughs were announced.
The Major Economies Forum group was created last year by the United States to prod along the slow-moving U.N. negotiations on a global climate change agreement by bringing together political leaders of 17 key countries in a private, relaxed setting.
This year, the meeting, in a walled garden complex, was expanded to add five more developing countries, including Bangladesh and Ethiopia, which could be severely affected by increasing droughts and floods brought on by a gradually warming Earth.
A paper summing up the discussions said the participants "emphasized the importance of quickly implementing the Copenhagen Accord's Fast Start financing provisions." The measure to provide $30 billion by 2012 in "fast-start" aid for developing nations to deal with climate change was one of the few concrete actions agreed upon at Copenhagen.
Still, many countries have yet to come through. Italy has not yet provided its share — euro200 million ($247 million) a year for three years — and Prestigiacomo said it might not all be "fresh" funds as demanded by the EU.
The Copenhagen conference concluded with a nonbinding three-page paper hammered out in an all-night private meeting among President Barack Obama and a handful of leaders, most importantly from China, India, Brazil and South Africa.
"We must not make the same mistake as in Copenhagen, to raise the level of expectations and then have it fail," Prestigiacomo said. "We must work to bring the positions closer and closer."
If Cancun were to conclude with an accord outlining the "architecture" of a future agreement, Prestigiacomo said, that would be a significant step forward and allow for a global accord in the medium term.
She said the talks highlighted the usual divide between the position of emerging economies that don't want a binding legal accord and those that do. She said previously that the issue of how to ensure that countries live up to their pledges was also a thorny one.
The summary circulated at the end of the talks also said an energy and technology meeting will be held in Washington in July 19-20 to launch new initiatives on energy efficiency and energy access.
ROME – A U.N. climate summit in Mexico later this year won't broker a global accord on climate change, but may represent a positive intermediate step, the Italian environment minister said Thursday after co-hosting climate change talks.
Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo said the year-end summit in Cancun will not represent a "turnaround" but can still end with a "shared framework agreement" that can serve as a basis for a future global agreement.
A December summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, fell far short of the goal of a full-fledged and legally binding accord setting emission reduction targets for major countries. Expectations for the Mexico summit have been lowered as a result.
"Now we are all aware that conditions aren't there for a global accord," Prestigiacomo told reporters at the end of the talks held over two days in Rome.
U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern said "differences absolutely do remain" but insisted the focus remains on "how to bridge those gaps." Looking at Cancun, he said "different people mean different things" by framework.
"The thing that is important to us is that all the issues move forward together," he said. "We would not support an outcome that picked off two or three issues and left others behind. I don't think other countries would be supportive of that."
The closed-doors talks in Rome of the Major Economies Forum ended with no significant results, Prestigiacomo acknowledged. The delegates discussed all major outstanding issues — mitigation of greenhouse emissions, adaptation efforts, financing, verification methods among others. But, as expected, no breakthroughs were announced.
The Major Economies Forum group was created last year by the United States to prod along the slow-moving U.N. negotiations on a global climate change agreement by bringing together political leaders of 17 key countries in a private, relaxed setting.
This year, the meeting, in a walled garden complex, was expanded to add five more developing countries, including Bangladesh and Ethiopia, which could be severely affected by increasing droughts and floods brought on by a gradually warming Earth.
A paper summing up the discussions said the participants "emphasized the importance of quickly implementing the Copenhagen Accord's Fast Start financing provisions." The measure to provide $30 billion by 2012 in "fast-start" aid for developing nations to deal with climate change was one of the few concrete actions agreed upon at Copenhagen.
Still, many countries have yet to come through. Italy has not yet provided its share — euro200 million ($247 million) a year for three years — and Prestigiacomo said it might not all be "fresh" funds as demanded by the EU.
The Copenhagen conference concluded with a nonbinding three-page paper hammered out in an all-night private meeting among President Barack Obama and a handful of leaders, most importantly from China, India, Brazil and South Africa.
"We must not make the same mistake as in Copenhagen, to raise the level of expectations and then have it fail," Prestigiacomo said. "We must work to bring the positions closer and closer."
If Cancun were to conclude with an accord outlining the "architecture" of a future agreement, Prestigiacomo said, that would be a significant step forward and allow for a global accord in the medium term.
She said the talks highlighted the usual divide between the position of emerging economies that don't want a binding legal accord and those that do. She said previously that the issue of how to ensure that countries live up to their pledges was also a thorny one.
The summary circulated at the end of the talks also said an energy and technology meeting will be held in Washington in July 19-20 to launch new initiatives on energy efficiency and energy access.