Beaked whales - into the abyss

Richard Black, BBC News 29 Sep 08;

Most articles about scientific subjects start by telling you what people have discovered about something.

This one is mainly about what people have not discovered about something.

"There's not much known about these creatures - where they live, their lifestyle," says Ted Cranford from San Diego State University in California, US.

"In fact, they might be the least understood group of large mammals on Earth."

The creatures in question are beaked whales - rarely seen, elusive, private, yet the subject of some attention in recent years because of the damage that military sonar systems appear to inflict on them.

This summer, the research vessel Song of the Whale is attempting to fill in some of the gaps in our understanding as it sails in and around the Canary Islands, home to several beaked whale species.

Operated by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), the yacht's main research tools are hydrophones - underwater microphones - that listen for and track the whales' characteristic high-frequency clicks.

And there is much to discover.

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Scientist Oliver Boisseau explains how to listen out for beaked whales

"Some species have never been seen alive, and these are animals as big as an elephant," says Vassili Papastavrou, a whale biologist with Ifaw who is on board Song of the Whale.

Just about the most obvious question you could ask about any kind of animal is "how many of them are there?".

Well, we have no idea - for any of the beaked whale species.

So let us take another obvious question: how many species are there?

Once again, the answer is unclear.

The 2002 reference work Sea Mammals of the World book, written by leading lights in the cetacean academic world, lists 21.

But, it says, Arnoux's beaked whale may actually be the same as Baird's, while DNA analysis suggests the apparently single species of southern bottlenose whale could be two.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in its Red List of Threatened Species, lists 17.

And, to drive the point home, the list says that for 15 of those species, there is simply not enough data to know whether they are threatened with extinction to any degree or not.

Fat bodies

The kind of data gathered by Song of the Whale and other missions around the world gives snapshots of how the animals behave.


But for most beaked whale species, more data has come down the years from examination of dead animals - for some species, corpses are the only source, as they have never been seen alive.

Sea Mammals of the World notes dryly that the northern bottlenose whale is the best understood of all the species because it used to be commercially hunted; and some hunters kept good records of what they caught and what they found.

From a well-preserved corpse - even better, from many corpses - scientists can determine an animal's size, gain clues to its diet and longevity and take DNA samples for analysis.

They can also look at how species have adapted to the environment they live in.

And perhaps the best understood and most fascinating adaptation of beaked whales is in their heads.

Head gear

Over millennia of evolution, this family has developed an acoustic echo-location system that uses windpipes to generate sound, fat to focus it and bone structures that help channel reflections back to the ears.

The basic structure has been known for decades; but last year Ted Cranford had a unique opportunity to get a closer view.

A Cuvier's beaked whale washed up on the shores of Oregon. The people who found it managed to get the head quickly frozen; and Dr Cranford persuaded those in charge of Hill Air Force Base nearby to let him put it through a scanner routinely used for examining rocket motors.

The scan, which took several days, showed that the conventional view of sound production was about right.

Clicks are generated when a structure just below the blowhole known as "monkey's lips" smacks together.

That generates a wave radiating spherically outwards, which is transformed into a directionally forward-focussed plane wave as it passes through a fat "melon" - an acoustic lens.

So the sound - too high-pitched for a human to hear - shoots out in front of the whale, and if it hits food, such as a squid, a portion is reflected.

The reflection was thought to travel to the whale's ears, via its lower jawbone. But the scan suggested a more important route is under the bone.



Top of head for transmitting, bottom of head for receiving; a neat system.

The sound reception part appears to be very complex, involving fat bodies that focus sound and air sacs that reflect it.

"Air sacs are perfect acoustic mirrors," says Ted Cranford.

"The whales need to be able to isolate their ears from each other in order to maintain their directional sense, and one of the best ways to do that is through air sacs."

The use of air sacs is almost incredible when you think that the whales are diving as deep as 2km (1.2 miles), where the pressure equates to 20 megapascals (about 200 atmospheres).

The whales' lungs collapse as they dive, a defensive mechanism against damage from the huge disparity of water pressure outside and air pressure inside; yet somehow the air sacs channelling sound, which appears to be key to the whales' hunting success, stay operational.

First light?

What we know about beaked whales may be fascinating; but it is dwarfed by our ignorance.

Ifaw believes its line of research, concentrating on observing animals in the wild, can answer questions about their behaviour that autopsies of dead whales cannot address.


"This kind of work led to the beginning of our understanding of social structures, such as with the sperm whale," says Mr Papastavrou.

"But then, sperm whales are incredibly loud. Beaked whales use such high frequencies that you can't even hear them without specialised equipment."

As I sit in Song of the Whale's cabin, the specialised equipment is deployed behind the boat, and sounds of beaked whales are being registered.

Scientists now understand the clicks well enough to distinguish between the various species seen here, such as Cuvier's and Blainville's beaked whales and the northern bottlenose whale.

But that is a far cry from what we perhaps ought to know - how they live, where they go, how many there are and what threats they face.

I wonder how much luck we will have filling in the gaps.

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Great Lakes wolf returns to endangered list

John Flesher, Associated Press Yahoo News 30 Sep 08;

A federal court Monday overturned the Bush administration's decision to remove gray wolves in the western Great Lakes region from the endangered species list.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington sided with environmental groups that accused the government of misreading the law last year when it lifted protections for about 4,000 wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

It was the second setback in a week for the administration's campaign to return management authority to state officials in the two regions where the wolf has rebounded after being driven to the brink of extinction in the lower 48 states.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Sept. 23 asked a judge in Montana to return gray wolves in the Northern Rockies to the endangered list, reversing a proposal to drop them earlier this year. That followed the judge's order in July barring plans for public wolf hunts in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

"The Bush administration's repeated attempts to push the limits of the Endangered Species Act have been decidedly rejected by the courts," said Amy Atwood, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

The biggest practical effect of Friedman's ruling is to nullify newly established state policies allowing people in the Great Lakes area to kill wolves attacking livestock or pets. It also bars the states from permitting hunting or trapping of wolves, although none had done so.

"In our judgment, this is an animal that deserves protection," said Howard Goldman, central states regional director for The Humane Society of the United States. "It has taken so long for their numbers to recover, we've got to be very careful before removing any protections from them."

Jason Holm, spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said its attorneys were studying the ruling to determine the next step.

"We are disappointed," he said. "The service and our partners worked toward recovery of the gray wolf in the western Great Lakes for more than three decades" and considered the population "robust enough that it no longer needed Endangered Species Act protection."

The wolf occupies only about 5 percent of its historical range, which once took in most of the continental U.S.

But the animal has recovered steadily in the western Great Lakes region since the late 1970s, migrating from Minnesota into Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Surveys this year turned up 2,921 wolves in Minnesota, at least 537 in Wisconsin and 520 in Michigan.

In a lawsuit challenging the Fish and Wildlife Service's 2007 decision, The Humane Society and several other groups claimed the government had acted illegally by designating Great Lakes wolves as a "distinct population segment" that could be bumped from the endangered list without regard to the species' nationwide standing.

Friedman said it was unclear whether the 1973 Endangered Species Act permits such a move. He ordered the agency to provide a better explanation of its interpretation and respond to concerns that its policy could undermine the goal of protecting the wolf. In the meantime, he returned the wolf to the federal endangered list.

"Little confusion or inefficiency will result from reinstating a regulatory regime that was in place from 1978 to 2007, particularly given the fact that state and federal wolf management authorities have been working in tandem for years," the judge said in his opinion.

But wildlife officials in the three states said the ruling would be disruptive.

"A lot of things are unknown right now," said Brian Roell, wolf coordinator for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. "This really takes away our ability to implement our management plan."

Wisconsin will revoke permits it had issued to seven farmers allowing them to shoot wolves attacking livestock, natural resources spokeswoman Laurel Steffes said.

Until the lawsuit is resolved, state officials said they probably would seek federal permits allowing non-lethal methods to deal with wolves that continually harass livestock.

"We hope it can be resolved and we can get an answer from the Fish and Wildlife Service about what the next steps will be," said Dan Stark, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

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Everglades in decline as restoration lags

Brian Skoloff, Associated Press Yahoo News 29 Sep 08;

A multibillion-dollar effort to restore Florida's Everglades has made little progress amid funding shortfalls, bureaucratic red tape and disagreements, according to a congressionally mandated report that warns the vast wetland is in peril.

The National Research Council, in findings Monday, warned that degradation of the Everglades could become irreversible if action isn't taken quickly.

"The Everglades ecosystem is continuing to decline. It's our estimate that we're losing the battle to save this thing," said William Graf, the report's committee chairman and head of the department of geography at the University of South Carolina at Columbia.

The South Florida Water Management District, which oversees restoration for the state, said in a statement that it agrees with the report's findings "that restoration progress is hampered by limited federal funding and a complex and lengthy federal planning process."

Approved by Congress in 2000, the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was originally estimated to cost about $7.8 billion and expected to take 30 years to complete — a price tag that has since ballooned due to construction costs and other inflation.

The intent is to help restore some natural water flow after decades of dikes and diversions for development and agriculture, which have shrunk the Everglades to half its historical 4 million acres.

The 2000 plan made the federal government and Florida 50-50 partners. To date, the state has committed more than $2 billion and pushed ahead alone with a few projects. Congress has only appropriated several hundred million dollars.

Lake Okeechobee, the liquid heart of the Everglades, remains heavily polluted with phosphorous mostly from fertilizer runoff. Wildlife habitat is disappearing and the report noted that at least 67 threatened or endangered species face extreme peril.

"Unless near-term progress is achieved on major restoration initiatives, the Everglades will likely face further loss of species and habitat deterioration, which could be difficult or impossible to reverse," the report said.

Meanwhile, the NRC committee commended Florida for its ambitious land acquisition, including a $1.75 billion proposal to buy some 300 square miles of farmland from U.S. Sugar Corp. that has long been a hindrance to water flow. However, much of that land may remain in agriculture, and the committee noted effects of such a deal may be more than a decade away.

Dexter Lehtinen, a Miami attorney who represents the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians living in the Everglades, has consistently fought for restoration. He said the entire effort has been mired in talk and not enough action.

"That's going to kill the Everglades," he said.

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Madagascar: solar power ends dark age for rural clinics

Gregoire Pourtier, Yahoo News 29 Sep 08;

Elisabeth's 13 children were born by candlelight. Her daughter, who has just become a mother for the first time, was more "fortunate".

Now, in Antasahadinta hospital in rural Madagascar, the use of solar energy means stories like Elisabeth's have been consigned to history -- a small success for a power source so abundant yet so hard to tap on a continent fraught with poverty, lacking infrastructures and prone to instability.

Still unconnected to the national network, several rural hospitals were equipped with solar technology four years ago to produce their own electricity.

Antsahadinta is a small village 20 kilometers (12 miles) to the west of the capital Antananarivo. The village health centre is responsible for 12,000 people and can see up to 400 patients a month.

"My 13 children were born in the old hospital by candlelight; my daughter is fortunate to have given birth in these conditions," said Elisabeth Razafindrataka, a 53-year-old grandmother, accompanying her daughter after giving birth to her first child.

Not that long ago, you had to bring your own candles with you if went into labour at night, she said.

And despite its close proximity to the capital, Antsahadinta will not be connected to the electricity supply for some years yet.

This Indian Ocean island state is one of the world's poorest countries, and its electricity grid is limited: just 43 percent of Madagascar is covered by the national water and electricity company, JIRAMA.

According to a 2006 United Nations report, only three percent of the rural population is connected to the network. Yet 85 percent of Madagascar's 17 million people live in the countryside, and most below the poverty line.

The poor financial health of JIRAMA, which struggles to maintain good supplies even in some large towns, and Madagascar's rampant poverty explain delays in fitting equipment and connecting people -- a scenario all too common in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

When Antsahadinta's health centre was rebuilt in 2004, the Development Intervention Fund (FID), a private association in part financed by the government, installed three large solar panels. The three panels can produce up to 400 watts of electricity.

"This really makes our work easier, especially since 80 percent of births take place at night," said Mamy Rakotondrainibe, the head doctor at the centre.

From now on, each room is equipped with light bulbs. The centre has also been able to get rid of the generator that it used to power a refrigerator that stores vaccinations and medicines. The generator used 30 litres (quarts) of fuel a month and was very noisy.

"The beneficiaries have said they are really satisfied and the tendency is to research alternative energy," said Rasendra Ratsima, FID's managing director.

With the help of financing from the World Bank, FID decided to launch a new wave of solar installations in 27 health centres at the cost of 1.3 billion ariary (739,000 dollars, 520,000 euros).

The initiative appears to be a success -- a way of tackling the problem of the remoteness of the majority of Madagascar's health centres.

The Antsahadinta centre still faces one major difficulty: the lack of running water. The staff are left with the only option of boiling water from a nearby well.

"The problem, as always, is water. There are no taps throughout the whole health centre. We only have a well, which is 20 meters (65 feet) deep," said Rakotondrainibe.

Read more!

Credit Crisis May Delay Biofuels Development

Gerard Wynn, PlanetArk 29 Sep 08;

LONDON - A global pull-back from bank lending may dent the commercialisation of biofuel technologies to replace conventional gasoline, said the chief executive of US cellulosic ethanol firm BlueFire Ethanol.

A credit crisis which claimed more bank victims on Monday has raised project finance costs and made ambitious targets to replace replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources look less achievable.

"Longer term, yes... the issue of capital may slow us down," Arnold Klann told Reuters on Monday. BlueFire Ethanol was hoping alternative investors including hedge funds may bridge any shortfall in bank lending, he added.

A global transition to renewable sources of energy, including waste, to replace gasoline and wind and solar power to replace gas and coal-fired power generation, is meant to cut carbon emissions and improve security of energy supply.

The credit crisis could slow that transition both through more costly finance and by diverting subsidies from renewables, which are often more expensive than conventional fossil fuels.

US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday said that he may have to scale back his US energy investment plans, if elected, in order to help pay for a planned US$700 billion financial market bailout.

Obama did not detail which aspect of his plans may be trimmed. He has previously promised to invest US$150 billion over the next decade to develop affordable, renewable energy sources and clean coal, touting these as a long-term energy solution rather than new, off-shore oil drilling.

BlueFire Ethanol is targeting up to 84 plants by 2022 producing more than 4 billion gallons annually of second generation biofuels, which consume waste rather than crops and so do not stoke food prices as corn and oil seed-based biofuels.

The United States has mandated 16 billion gallons a year of such cellulosic ethanol production by 2022, to ease the pressure of biofuels on agricultural land struggling to feed a growing, more prosperous world population.

That compares with about 150 billion gallons annual gasoline consumption in the United States now, Klann said.


MANDATE

Cellulosic ethanol producers use enzymes or acid to convert waste from plants, including grass, wood chips and cardboard, to produce sugar and ethanol, but the infant industry so far is producing next to nothing on a commercial scale.

BlueFire Ethanol is targeting two demonstration-scale plants using concentrated acid to convert municipal waste into a little over 3 million and 17 million gallons of ethanol annually, to come on line in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

"We're good on these, I think," said Klann, referring to those deadlines.

The capital costs of the two plants would be US$30 million and US$150 million respectively, and would produce cellulosic ethanol at a cost of US$1.4 and $1 per gallon, which compares with ethanol prices of over US$2.20 a gallon.

Some analysts already doubt the practicality of ambitious European Union goals to get a fifth of all energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020.

The EU renewable energy sector faced an annual 21 billion euros shortfall in debt finance to meet that goal by 2020, both because of the credit crisis and the pace of growth of the sector, a Rabobank banker said earlier this month.

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First US Carbon Auction Brings States US$39 Million

Timothy Gardner, PlanetArk 29 Sep 08;

NEW YORK - The first auction in the United States of permits allowing power plants to emit a greenhouse gas raised nearly US$39 million, which states plan to use to protect consumers from any higher energy bills that could result from capping the pollution.

The auction kicked off the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an agreement by ten states to begin regulating carbon dioxide emissions from more than 230 power plants in January. The states, from Maryland to Maine, are taking action in the absence of guidance from the Bush Administration on how to regulate the gases widely blamed for warming the planet.

The permits sold for for US$3.07 per ton, RGGI said on Monday.

The price was lower than the US$4.50 to $4.00 per ton that contracts on the permits had been fetching in recent weeks on futures markets. It is also lower than carbon prices in the European Union, where they were trading for about US$34 dollars per tonne (1.1 ton) on Monday. The EU, where countries have national carbon limits under the Kyoto Protocol, has had a greenhouse gas allowance market since 2005.

Still, all of the more than 12.5 million permits that had been offered in the RGGI auction sold. RGGI said 59 participants from the energy, financial and environment sectors had bid to buy nearly 52 million permits.

"I think the volumes exceeded the market's expectations," said Evan Ard, a spokesman for energy brokers Evolution Markets, LLC.

The price had been expected to be low in part because the cap RGGI set on emissions of 188 million tons per year was above pollution levels from last year. Emissions have fallen on mild weather and as power plants switched to cleaner natural gas amid falling prices for that fuel.

Among the players keeping an eye on the auction were states in the US West and Canadian provinces which hope to establish a broader cap-and-trade market by 2012. US lawmakers who hope to form a federal market on the gases were also watching after legislation to do so died in June.

President Bush walked away from the Kyoto Protocol in his first term saying it would raise costs and that it unfairly left rapidly developing countries like China and India without emissions limits.

The nearly US$39 million raised by the single-price auction will go to Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont. The states say they will invest those funds in energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and in shield energy consumers from any higher energy bills as a result of the carbon caps.

Several other states, including New York and New Jersey, did not finalize rules in time to participate in the first auction.

RGGI aims to cap carbon emissions from power plants at current levels for several years and then reduce them 10 percent by 2018. The next auction will be held on Dec. 17 and quarterly ones will be held after that. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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Scientists Demand Climate Action From Australia PM

Rob Taylor, PlanetArk 29 Sep 08;

CANBERRA - Top Australian climate scientists on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd calling for courageous moves to tackle global warming, as a poll showed economic upheaval sapping public support for the climate fight.

The centre-left government's climate change adviser, Ross Garnaut, will on Tuesday deliver his final report to Rudd on how the government should introduce a planned emissions trading scheme slashing Australia's carbon output by 2050.

But with Garnaut having already suggested middle-of-the-road options for a 10 percent emission cut by 2020, protecting the US$1 trillion energy-reliant economy from much upheaval, climate scientists said deeper reductions were needed.

"It's just a message of 'take the deepest cuts possible' because the science tells us that anything less than that will commit us to dangerous climate change," said Matthew England, a spokesman for the group of 16 scientists.

Australia, already the world's driest inhabited continent, is expected to be among the rich nations hardest-hit by climate change, with scientists warning storms, long-running droughts and water shortages will become more frequent and intense.

But Garnaut's cautious approach and signs the government is preparing to compensate big-polluting companies to protect them from the immediate impact of emissions trade pointed to Rudd's favouring of a less ambitious scheme, England said.

"There's deep concern. We are not seeing the rate of change in government and government policy that we need to address the problem," he said.

The carbon trading system will cover 75 percent of the economy, and 1,000 of Australia's biggest companies, with hefty initial subsidies for big polluting power generators and cement companies to help them adapt.

In an interim report this month, Garnaut recommended carbon be sold for an initial A$20 (US$16) a tonne from 2010, with only marginal increases for two years to help business adjust.

His final report, based on official Treasury modelling, will spell out the economic impact of doing nothing, as well as practical emission cuts of 10 percent versus "aspirational" 25 percent cuts by 2020.

Most environment groups favour a tougher target to help curb Australia's emissions, which are the world's fourth highest in per capita terms.

A new poll, meanwhile, showed Australians were becoming less concerned about climate change after a fortnight of international financial market ructions and steep stock market declines.

Taking action to stop climate change itself dropped from first place to fifth as a foreign policy goal, overtaken by action to strengthen the economy and guard jobs, the respected Lowy Institute poll found.

While respondents still considered global warming and drought as threats, just over half were unwilling to pay an extra A$10 a month for greener electricity not based on burning dirty coal.

"Concern over economic issues has risen at the expense of the environment," Lowy Executive Director Allan Gyngell said. (US$1=A$1.20)

(Editing by Michael Perry)

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Impacts of Climate Change in Europe

PlanetArk 29 Sep 08;

Europe is warming faster than the world average and governments need to invest to help citizens adapt to a global warming, according to a study on Monday.

Following are highlights of the report by the European Environment Agency and branches of the World Health Organisation and the European Commission:

- European average temperatures have risen by 1.0 Celsius (1.8 F) above pre-industrial levels, faster than an average global rise of almost 0.8 degrees.

- Shifts in precipitation are worsening differences between a wet northern Europe and a dry south, with some Mediterranean regions receiving 20 percent less rain than a century ago and could get steadily more arid.

- Global sea level rise could place 4 million Europeans at risk of flooding by 2100 along with 2 trillion euros (US$2,926 billion) of assets, from London to Athens.

- The reduction in Arctic sea ice has accelerated: in September 2007 the minimum surface was only half the normal minimum measured in the 1950s.

- Glacier retreat in Europe's mountains, and changes in temperature and precipitation, will affect river flows and farming. Two-thirds of Alpine glaciers had vanished since 1850.

- A northward movement of some fish species, by 1,000 km in the past 40 years, can have adverse effects on fisheries.

-- Plants, birds, insects and mammals are moving further north and uphill. By the end of this century, plant species may have shifted several hundred kilometres to the north and up to 60 percent of mountain plant species may face extinction.

- The agricultural growing season is now longer, especially in the north. Although this may favour the introduction of new crops, crop yields will become more variable because extreme weather events are projected to increase.

- Increasing water demand for agriculture in the Mediterranean region will lead to unsustainable competition for water with tourism and households.

- The growing season of forests is also changing and the danger of forest fires will increase in southern Europe.

- Human health is also significantly affected by climate change. The 70,000 excess deaths reported from 12 European countries in a 2003 heatwave could be an example of health impacts to come. Health systems will need to be strengthened.

(Source: European Environment Agency (EEA) --Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Europe Warms Fast: Med Drier, North Ever Wetter
Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 29 Sep 08;

OSLO - Europe is warming faster than the world average and governments need to invest to adapt to a changing climate set to turn the Mediterranean region arid and the north ever wetter, a study showed on Monday.

Europe's mountains, coasts, the Mediterranean and the Arctic were most at risk from global warming, according to the report by the European Environment Agency and branches of the World Health Organisation and the European Commission.

"Global average temperature has increased almost 0.8 C (1.4 F) above pre-industrial levels, with even higher temperature increases in Europe and northern latitudes," it said.

Europe had warmed by 1.0 C.

Northern Europe would get wetter this century while more of Europe's Mediterranean region might turn to desert, based on trends already under way, it said. European heatwaves like in 2003, during which 70,000 people died, could be more frequent.

"Annual precipitation changes are worsening differences between a wet northern part of Europe and a dry south," it said.

That meant a need to review everything from irrigation to the ability of southern rivers to help cool nuclear power plants.

Among other impacts, seas were rising in a threat to coasts, some fish stocks had moved 1,000 km north in the past 40 years -- pushing cod not caught by trawlers away from the North Sea -- and two-thirds of Alpine glaciers had vanished since 1850.

A few in Europe were getting benefits, such as northern farmers with longer growing seasons for crops.

The report urged Europe to do more to adapt to the impacts of climate change, such as protecting people from insect-borne diseases or safeguarding coasts from higher seas. So far, most adaptation has focused on easing more river floods.

"Implementation of adaptation actions has only just started," said Jacqueline McGlade, head of the Denmark-based European Environment Agency.

"We need to intensify such actions and improve information exchange on data, effectiveness and costs," McGlade said.

The report also said that Europe had a moral obligation to help people in developing nations adapt to a changing climate.

The world's governments have agreed to work by the end of 2009 a new treaty to fight climate change. But financial turmoil and economic slowdown may dampen willingness to invest in billion-dollar climate projects.

RISING SEAS

Seas are likely to rise by 18 to 59 cms (7 to 23 inches) by 2100, according to the UN Climate Panel, and could keep rising for centuries if ice sheets of Greenland or Antarctica thaw.

In Europe, 4 million people and 2 trillion euros (US$2.9 trillion) in assets would be at risk from flooding from higher seas by 2100, from the Baltic states to Greece, the report said.

Recent estimates indicated that losses from rising seas could total up to 18 billion euros a year by 2080 but spending of 1 billion a year -- on everything from dikes to raising beach levels -- could cut losses to about 1 bilion a year, it said.

Hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005 caused about US$80 billion in losses.

The European Union aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, or by 30 percent if other big economies join in.

The report suggested setting up a new European Clearing House to help distribute information on impacts, vulnerability and impacts of climate change.(Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Climate change: Floods, drought, mosquito disease aim at Europe
Yahoo News 29 Sep 08;

Climate change will amplify the risk of flooding in northwestern Europe, water scarcity and forest fires on the northern Mediterranean rim and bring milder winters to Scandinavia, the European Environment Agency (EAA) said on Monday.

Higher temperatures will also extend the habitat range of virus-carrying mosquitoes, including the Asian tiger mosquito which carries the chikungunya virus and other pathogens, it said.

"Many regions and sectors across Europe are vulnerable to climate change impacts," Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of the Copenhagen-based EAA, said in a press release.

"Implementation of adaptation actions has only just started. We need to intensify such actions and improve information exchange on data, effectiveness and costs."

The report is an update of a 2004 assessment on Europe's exposure to climate change. It is an overview of data drawn mainly from the EAA's own resources and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The EAA said the warming trend in Europe was above the global average.

Since pre-industrial times, Europe's landmass has warmed by 1.0 degrees Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) and the seas around it by 1.2 C (2.16 F), compared with a global mean of 0.8 C (1.44 F) and 1.0 C (1.8 F) respectively, it said.

"Projections suggest further temperature increases in Europe between 1.0 and 5.5 C (1/8-9.9 F) by the end of the century," said the report.

"More frequent and more intense hot extremes and a decreasing number of cold extremes have occurred the past 50 years, and this trend is projected to continue."

In 2007, the IPCC gave an estimate of a global rise in temperature this century of 1.8-4.0 C (3.24-7.2 F).

The report said Europe's climate was already being affected by warming in several ways.

Snow cover has decreased by 1.3 percent per decade in the last 40 years, and Greenland is being affected by ice-sheet loss.

There have been several major droughts in the past few decades, including the catastrophic heatwave in 2003 that claimed tens of thousands of lives in continental Europe, and water shortages that gripped Spain and Portugal in 2005.

Among wildlife, some species of birds, insects and mammals are moving northwards and uphill to escape higher temperatures, and sub-tropical species of fish are showing up in European waters with increasing frequency.

On the plus side, more carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air is helping forests, which in most cases are growing faster now than a century ago, it said.

Looking to the future, the report also made these points:

-- STORMS: The strongest storms are likely to get stronger, but they will be slightly less frequent.

-- FLOODS: Flooding is projected to occur more frequently in many regions, particularly in winter and spring, with northwestern and central and eastern Europe most vulnerable.

-- HEALTH: Heatwaves, mosquito-borne viruses and water-borne diseases are among the panoply of challenges to health from warming. "The risk is very dependent on human behaviour and the quality of health care services and their ability to detect early and act," the report warns.

-- COSTS: Many costs are likely to be substantial, although an accurate figure cannot be placed upon them.

These include the bills from biodiversity loss, from the loss of hydropower and ski tourism as a result of changed rainfall and snowfall patterns, damage to agriculture from heatwaves and coastal erosion caused by rising sea levels.

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Rich Nations' Greenhouse Gases Fell in 2006 - Survey

Alister Doyle, Reuters 29 Sep 08;

OSLO - Rich nations' greenhouse gas emissions dipped for the first time in five years in 2006, easing 0.1 percent despite robust economic growth, a Reuters survey of the latest available information showed on Friday.

The figures were less gloomy than a report this week, based on scientist estimates to 2007, which said world emissions were surging, led by rocketing growth in poor countries such as China and India twinned with a tiny rise by industrialised nations.

The Reuters survey, of data submitted by 40 industrialised nations to the UN Climate Change Secretariat and against which the UN judges compliance on cutting emissions, indicated 2006 emissions fell to the equivalent of 18.01 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from 18.03 billion in 2005.

A mild US winter cut demand for energy for heating while rising oil prices were a possible factor restraining growth.

Most experts reckoned that a drive for energy efficiency by rich nations has stalled in recent years, despite programmes to fight global warming.

And economic growth, estimated at 3 percent for advanced economies in 2006 by the International Monetary Fund, had been expected to push up emissions.

"It's a bit surprising to find a fall for 2006," said Knut Alfsen, research director of the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo.

Overall emissions by developing nations last declined in 2001, when the Sept. 11 suicide hijacker attacks on the United States aggravated an economic slowdown.

Current economic turmoil is likely to cut emissions in 2008. Governments are working on a new long-term treaty to cut emissions to avert heatwaves, floods, droughts and rising seas projected by the UN Climate Panel.


SMOKESTACK COLLAPSE

The government data, due to be compiled for official release in October, also showed that emissions were 4.7 percent below levels in 1990, the benchmark year for a UN assault on global warming, largely because of a collapse in smokestack industries in the former Soviet bloc.

The Reuters survey shows that Turkey's emissions have risen most since 1990 among industrialised nations, by 95 percent. Latvia's are down furthest, by 56 percent.

On Thursday, the Global Carbon Project of leading experts said that world emissions of carbon dioxide were growing four times faster since 2000 than in the 1990s. The surge was led by developing nations, which do not report to the United Nations.

"The rich countries' emissions (until 2007) are relatively flat...the numbers we have show a very slight increase," said Corinne Le Quere of the University fo East Anglia, one of the scientists leading the carbon project.

"Developing nations are emitting more, faster than we thought, and the rich nations' improvements in energy are not as quick as expected," she told Reuters.

Rising oil prices, which ranged from about US$60 to $75 a barrel in 2006, might have helped dampen emissions.

"The increasing oil price should give an impact on fossil fuel use," Alfsen said. "But some of that demand is shifting to coal" rather than going to energy savings or towards renewable energies such as wind or solar power.

More than 190 governments have agreed to work out a deal by the end of 2009 to succeed the UN's Kyoto Protocol, which obliges 37 rich nations to curb emissions until 2012.

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Best of our wild blogs: 29 Sep 08

Volunteers needed at Acres' World Animal Day event
more details on the wildsingapore happenings blog

Dive Pulau Hantu
another great dive on HBing's site with a pipefish that has gone to the dark side on the colourful clouds blog

Secret Shores of Singapore
come for Ria's talk this Saturday on the wild shores of singapore blog

A walk at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve
on the manta blog

Weeding at Central Nature Reserve
on HBing's site

Roots & Shoots Day of Peace
on the Cicada Tree Eco-Place blog

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UN uses IUCN Red List to measure success of Millennium Development Goals

IUCN website 25 Sep 08;

For the first time, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals is monitoring the world’s plants and animals using the IUCN Red List Index.

Until now, the seventh Millennium Development Goal, to ensure environmental sustainability, has not included any mention of biodiversity or the need to save species as a critical contribution to human development.

But with the launch of the latest Annual Report on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, in advance of the High-level Event on the Millennium Development Goals at UN Headquarters in New York on 25 September, 2008, the goal now includes the aim to “significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010” as one of its targets. Progress will be monitored by measuring the proportion of species threatened with extinction – calculated by the IUCN Red List Index.

“This new target puts the importance of species at the top of the world’s agenda,” says Holly Dublin, Chair of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission.

“The links between biodiversity and development are strong, which is why it’s important that the Millennium Development Goals prioritize the need to conserve species across the world. Species are harvested for food, medicines and fibres.They’re domesticated for agriculture and play an essential role in regulating local and global environments. It is great to see that nature is recognized as an essential contributor to human wellbeing.”

The Index, which is based on the world-renowned IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, shows genuine trends in the overall extinction risk of sets of species at global, regional and increasingly at national levels.

“The IUCN Red List is the world’s most authoritative and reliable system for assessing the risk of species extinction,” says Jane Smart, Head of IUCN’s Species Programme. “Species are the best known component of biodiversity and therefore it’s vitally important to expand our work to establish a reliable trend in the rate of species loss. We’re delighted to have our Red List information used as a primary tool by the United Nations to monitor the status of the animals and plants we depend upon.”

The eight Millennium Development Goals, agreed by the world's governments and development institutions, range from reducing extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS. They provide measurable targets which can be achieved by the year 2015.

IUCN has partnered with BirdLife International, Conservation International, NatureServe and the Zoological Society of London to strengthen the standards of the IUCN Red List and to develop the Red List Index.

Birds have the longest history of comprehensive assessment of any class of organisms. As a result, BirdLife International has developed the first IUCN Red List Index for birds, which now has 20 years of trends.

A preliminary index has been published for amphibians and RLIs for mammals, cycads and corals will be produced shortly. RLIs for additional groups of species will be produced when they have been assessed though the IUCN Red List process.

The IUCN Red List Index has been presented for use to the United Nations through the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) which also, with IUCN, compiles the World Database on Protected Areas used to report progress in protected area coverage under the biodiversity target of the Millennium Development Goals. The index will be used to monitor progress and highlight where conservation efforts are needed.

Additional quotations

“It is excellent to see that BirdLife’s pioneering approach for measuring trends is being rolled out for other taxonomic groups, and has been adopted by the United Nations as an indicator against the Millenium Development Goals,” says Dr Stuart Butchart, BirdLife’s Global research and Indicators Coordinator. “BirdLife has found the IUCN Red List Index to be a powerful tool to track biodiversity trends. The IUCN Red List Index is a biological barometer telling us how the status of biodiversity changes over time. Using the IUCN Red List Index is a simple yet powerful approach that allows the assessment of trends in endangerment – the rate at which species are slipping towards extinction.”

“The world is waking up to the fact that environmental destruction and species extinction does real damage to peoples’ lives and livelihoods,” says Dr Matt Walpole, UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre. “Pledging to reduce biodiversity loss as part of the Millennium Development Goals demonstrates clear recognition by the World’s governments that poverty reduction and sound environmental management go hand in hand.”
• “Maintaining biodiversity is integral to a healthy planet and achieving the Millennium Development Goals,” says Jonathan Baillie, Zoological Society of London (ZSL). “If we fail to safeguard biodiversity, ecosystems, upon which the poor depend, will be degraded and any progress we make in other areas of development may be shortlived. The bottom line is that development without consideration of biodiversity will not be successful.”

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Natural disasters: Managing the other threat to prosperity

Vinod Thomas, For The Straits Times 29 Sep 08;

EVEN as our attention is riveted on the financial crisis, other calamities have been wreaking havoc on people's lives. From hurricanes in the United States and Central America to floods in South and South-east Asia, natural disasters are striking countries with increasing frequency and intensity. These events were once considered just an interruption to business; they now represent an unmistakable brake on prosperity.

We may label them as hazards of nature, but they are increasingly rooted in man-made causes. Note that the striking increase is in hydro-meteorological events, such as floods and storms, not geophysical phenomena, such as earthquakes and volcanoes. Environmental destruction and climate change can be linked to the rise in natural calamities.

We need urgently a shift in our very mindset. Timely attention to emergency relief and recovery is clearly of paramount importance. But also needed are efforts to mitigate the sources of the growing problem and adaptation in our ways of living. Emergency aid following a calamity may have visibility; but political leaders need to also focus on long-term acts of prevention.

In the first half of the 1980s, some 800 natural disasters were reported worldwide, affecting 400 million people. Twenty years later, the number reached more than 2,300 natural disasters, affecting some 1.4 billion people. The direct cost of calamities in the past decade may have been US$1 trillion (S$1.4 trillion), 20 times more than five decades earlier.

In Bangladesh, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, the concern is not only the frequency of disasters but their geographical coverage and their impact on the economy. By one estimate, Vietnam ranks fifth in the world in potential impact with 90 per cent of its economy at risk, the Philippines is in 10th place with 85 per cent, and Indonesia 28th with 60 per cent.

What must be done by way of mitigation and adaptation?

The first is linked to climate change. The relentless discharge of CO2 emissions in the air is causing temperatures and sea levels to rise, glaciers to melt and aggravates flooding as well as hot droughts. Industrial countries are clearly most responsible for the accumulated stock of greenhouse gases, but solutions to the problem would also rest on large developing nations such as Brazil, China, India and Russia.

Second, local degradation of the environment must be reversed. Wetlands provide a buffer against disasters, but 50 per cent of them worldwide have been lost over the past century. Forests, a key source of protection against flash flooding and landslides, are shrinking. Replanted mangroves helped to lessen the ravages from a typhoon in Vietnam in 2000 and a cyclone in southern India in 2002.

A third priority is investment in early warning systems. In Bangladesh in the early 1970s, a cyclone killed more than 300,000 people. But after the country put in an extensive early warning system, and built robust programmes for community-based preparedness, evacuation and mitigation, a recent cyclone of similar intensity took 3,000, not 300,000, lives.

Fourth, adaptation calls for better land-use planning and zoning regulations to ensure that people live in places less likely to be hit. Building standards can help ensure that buildings withstand natural disasters. One reason the recent California earthquake caused only minor damage was new, tough building codes.

Fifth, adaptation also involves the use of risk transfer mechanisms - for example, catastrophe insurance markets. Insurance coverage in developing countries is only a fraction of that in developed countries. Well-designed use of insurance markets could introduce predictability in the post-disaster management - but in ways that don't encourage people to locate in flood prone areas.

We need better coordination among government units, non-government actors and the communities. Government units need management capacity, financial resources and information.

This may all look like a long list of steps, but the stakes are high. Countries used to view environmental mitigation or adaptation as a deviation of resources from growth. But the situation now is the reverse. Without prevention and adaptation to reduce the risk of disasters, sustained growth will not be possible.

The writer is director-general, Independent Evaluation Group, The World Bank.

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