Forests Absorb 20 Percent Of Fossil Fuel Emissions: Study

Michael Kahn, PlanetArk 19 Feb 09;

LONDON - Tropical trees have grown bigger over the past 40 years and now absorb 20 percent of fossil fuel emissions from the atmosphere, highlighting the need to preserve threatened forests, British researchers said Wednesday.

Using data collected from nearly 250,000 trees in the world's tropical forests over the past 40 years, their study found that tropical forests across the world remove 4.8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

"To get an idea of the value of the sink, the removal of nearly 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by intact tropical forests, based on realistic prices for a ton of carbon, should be valued at around 13 billion pounds per year," said Lee White, Gabon's chief climate change scientist, who co-led the study, said in a statement.

The researchers do not know exactly why trees are getting bigger and mopping up more carbon but they suspect that extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may be acting like a fertilizer.

While nature has provided a free subsidy for dealing with carbon emissions, it is one that won't last forever because trees can only grow so much bigger, said Simon Lewis, an ecologist at the University of Leeds who led the study.

"The trees are growing just a bit bigger but they make a big difference because there are so many trees and half their mass is carbon," Lewis said in a telephone interview.

"Our study gives us another reason why it is really important to conserve tropical rain forests."

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that human activity produces 32 billion tons of carbon dioxide worldwide each year, but only about 15 billion tons actually stays in the atmosphere and affects climate change.

Human-produced greenhouse gases are blamed for warming temperatures, which experts say will spark heat waves, droughts, more powerful storms, species extinctions and higher sea levels.

Knowing what exactly what happens to the carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere will help researchers better

understand future climate change, Lewis added.

The team analyzed data on 250,000 tree records collected from the world's tropical forests over a 40-year period and found that the total mass of trees -- which is mostly in their

trunks -- was getting bigger on average.

As a result, tropical forests absorb more carbon emissions and now make up about half the world's land carbon sink, the researchers said in the journal Nature.

"This is all about what is happening with the trees but we still don't know what is happening with the soils," said Lewis, who noted that oceans absorb about 8 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year.

(Editing by Will Dunham and Richard Williams)

Read more!

Deforestation jumps 55% in Vietnam province

mongabay.com 18 Feb 09;

Deforestation increased 55 percent during the past year in Vietnam's Dak Nong province, reports the Vietnam News Agency.

At least 440 hectares (1100 acres) of tropical forest were illegally logged in the central highland province. Protected areas are also being logged.

Forest officials attribute the increase to high commodity prices, which incentivize the conversion of forest for cropland, as well as lack of staff and resources among companies that have leased forest concessions.

Vietnam has one of the world's highest rates of primary forest loss. Between 1990 and 2005 the country lost 78 percent of its old-growth forests. Much of these were replaced with industrial plantations — overall forest cover has actually increased 38 percent since 1990.

Plantations are biologically impoverished relative to natural forests. They also store less carbon.

Read more!

Unchecked economic growth imperils Amazon: study

Yahoo News 19 Feb 09;

NAIROBI (AFP) – Unbridled economic development fuelled by globalisation is devastating large swathes of the Amazonian basin, the United Nations warned in a major study released Wednesday.

A population explosion concentrated in poorly planned cities, deforestation driven by foreign markets for timber, cash crops and beef, and unprecedented levels of pollution have all taken a heavy toll on the planet's largest forest basin, the United Nations Environment Programme said.

The report, which pooled research by more than 150 experts from the eight countries that straddle Amazonia, acknowledged that these governments have individually taken steps to address environmental degradation.

But coordinated action is urgently needed to stem and possible reverse the damage, it said.

Trends to date are not encouraging. By 2005, the region had lost more than 17 percent of its forests -- 875,000 square kilometers (331,000 square miles), an area larger than Pakistan or France.

While the rate of deforestation has slowed since then, another 11,224 square kilometers (4,333 square miles) disappeared in 2007 in Brazil alone.

"If the loss of forests exceeds 30 percent of the vegetation cover, then rainfall levels will decrease," the report said. "This will produce a vicious circle that favours forest burning, reduces water vapour release and increases smoke emissions into the atmosphere."

Internal migration and the unplanned expansion of urban zones are also serious threats to the Amazonian environment, the report concluded.

The region today counts some 35 million people, nearly 65 percent of them in cities, including three with more than one million inhabitants.

Changes in land use patterns -- including a ten-fold increase in the road network over three-decades -- have also led to fragmentation of natural ecosystems and an alarming drop in biodiversity.

Water resources are also threatened, the report cautioned. About 20 percent of the world's fresh water spills into the Amazonian basin -- some 15,000 cubic kilometres (3,600 cubic miles) each year.

The lack of coordinated management has made it difficult to control the human activities damaging water quality: pollution from industrial-scale mining, oil spills, chemicals used in agriculture, and solid waste from the cities.

Global demand for commodities -- timber, cattle, bio-fuel crops, minerals -- have also led to over-exploitation of natural resources.

All of these problems are likely to be aggravated by global warming change, the report noted.

"Climate change and extreme (weather) events are putting pressure on the Amazonia ecosystems and making it more vulnerable," the UNEP said in a statement.

The report called on the region's eight nations to forge "an integrated Amazonian vision" and to harmonise their environmental policies.

The eight countries astride Amazonia are Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Surinam and Venezuela.

A Strong Impact is Made on the Amazonia by its Economic Growth Model
UNEP press release 18 Feb 09;

- However, responses by the governments of Amazonian countries indicate that efforts are under way on concrete action to deal with their environmental challenges.

- The population is increasing, reaching a level of 33.5 million inhabitants in 2007.

- Cities grew at an accelerated rate and there are now three cities with over one million inhabitants.

- By 2005 accumulated deforestation has affected more than 857,000 km2, a 17 per cent reduction in the region's vegetation cover.

- The Amazonian ecosystem is being rapidly transformed by land use changes, infrastructure construction and the establishment of human settlements.

- Climate change is putting pressure on the Amazonian ecosystems making them more vulnerable.

- Food supplies and human health are being affected by increasing deterioration of water quality.

Nairobi/Kenya, Panama City/Panama, 18 February 2009 - United Nations Environment Programme, Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The report, Environment Outlook in the Amazonia: GEO Amazonia, uncovers a revealing panorama of accelerated ecosystem transformation and a marked environmental degradation in this vast region of the South American humid tropics - shared by Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela - which is also the planet's most extensive forest zone. The study, prepared by the 8 Amazonian countries, with the support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), is a new publication in UNEP's series of integrated environmental assessments, also known as GEO (Global Environment Outlook) reports, and on which more than 150 experts, researchers, academics and scientists in the countries of the assessed region participated.

During the preparation of this report, the principal stakeholders from the eight Amazonian countries met to discuss the future outlook of the regional environment. They reached a consensus, clearly expressed in the text: "Our Amazonia is changing at an accelerated rate with very profound modifications in its ecosystems".

After more than two years of analysis, the experts affirm that a joint action of the Amazonian governments in the following areas could enable the region to face the challenges (of the changing environment): construction of an integrated environmental vision for Amazonia, and definition of a role of the region in national development; harmonization of environmental policies on regionally relevant themes; design and application of instruments for integrated environmental management; regional strategies that allow sustainable utilization of Amazonian ecosystems; insertion of risk management in the public agenda; strengthening of Amazonian environmental institutions; increased effort on environmental information production and dissemination in the region; promotion of studies and the economic value of Amazonian environmental services; and designing of a monitoring and evaluation system of policies, programmes and projects.

So far, the effort of the Amazonian countries concerning the management of environmental problems has primarily been reflected in progress related to the development of national instruments for planning and management of Amazonia.

Figures to be considered

In essence, the publication points out that the growing environmental degradation in the Amazonia can be seen by the advance of deforestation, the loss of biodiversity, and localized climate change impacts.

The way in which economic activities, infrastructure construction, and the establishment of human settlements are changing Amazonian land use has resulted in an accelerated transformation of the region's ecosystems. By 2005, accumulated deforestation in Amazonia was 857,666 km2, reducing the region's vegetation cover by approximately 17 per cent. This is equal to two-thirds of Peruvian or 94% of Venezuelan territory.

The loss of biodiversity is expressed in an increased number of endangered species. GEO Amazonia, however, points out that, while local information is available on the different countries' biodiversity, there are no statistics or any general cartography available showing the updated information about this problem for the whole region.

Concerning water resources, note is taken of the importance of the Amazonia because of its value in the continental and global water balance, but the publication reports that limited action is taken on the basin's integrated management. The volume of water captured by the Amazonia basin-from 12,000 to 16,000 km3 a year-represents about 20% of the world's total fresh water.

The availability of surface water in the Amazonia basin depends to a large extent on it being properly used and managed in each of the basin countries. These waters are being affected by different anthropogenic activities that damage its quality: mine waste, hydrocarbon spills, use of agrochemicals, cities' solid wastes, and wastes resulting from processing illicit crops such as coca.

The demands of international markets are putting pressure on the region's economic-productive dynamics, which leads to the intensive use of its natural resources. This results in exploiting timber and non-timber forest products (chestnut in particular) and hydrocarbons, and in expanding mining, agriculture and cattle raising to meet the demands for commodities by globalized markets and encouraging the adoption of a production model which, for the most part, takes no account of sustainable use criteria.

The publication mentions that growing populations, expanding economic activities and building infrastructure have led to a significant change in the region's land use, causing ecosystem fragmentation, deforestation and loss of biodiversity. For example, over a 30-year period (1975-2005), in Brazilian Amazonia the road network multiplied by 10, thus encouraging the establishment of human settlements. The study comments that increased biofuel production could accelerate this land use change.

Amazonia has also experienced accelerated and unplanned urbanization. Of the population of 33.5 million (38.7 million if the concept of "Greater Amazonia" is used), approximately 21.3 million-63.6% of the total population-live in urban areas, indicating how important urbanization is to the region's sustainable development strategy.

Climate change and extreme events are putting pressure on the Amazonian ecosystems and making it more vulnerable. The region has been affected by a rise in average temperature, although the extent differs depending on the zone. The level of precipitation has also changed although the trends are not very clear.

GEO Amazonia maintains that deforestation in the zone may be having an affect on the regional climate. If the loss of forests exceeds 30% of the vegetation cover, then rainfall levels will decrease; this will produce a vicious circle that favours forest burning, reduces water vapour release, and increases smoke emissions into the atmosphere, resulting in further reduced precipitation. Because of deforestation, Amazonia is progressively becoming a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

The publication brings together the results of the Nepstad (2007) study projecting that 55 per cent of the humid Amazonian forest will have been lost by 2030 with the subsequent conversion of a large part of Amazonia into a savannah before the end of the 21st century.

Scenarios

The study considers four possible scenarios for 2026 which, along general lines, show that the development style chosen by the Amazonian countries and their citizens is limiting both the options for the region's future sustainable development and the hope of creating an alternative future for the Amazonia. The publication points out that while it will be impossible to entirely conserve the integrity of the Amazonian ecosystems, the different decisions taken today will be of fundamental importance in determining to what degree citizens of the Amazonia would accept exchanging environmental degradation for socio-economic development.

Lines of Action

The publication suggests different ways of proceeding, based on joint action by the Amazonian governments, to allow them to confront the challenges posed by the region. Its main challenges are: have an integrated Amazonian vision and define the region's national development role; harmonize environmental policies on themes relevant to the region; design and implement integrated environmental management instruments; design and implement regional strategies that allow sustainable use of the Amazonian ecosystems; include risk management in the public agenda; strengthen efforts in the region to produce and disseminate environmental information; promote economic valorization studies and action on Amazonian environmental services; and design a monitoring and assessment system on the impact of policies, programmes and projects.

How countries respond

The governments of Amazonian countries have also made efforts to manage environmental problems. In fact, some progress has been made on national instruments designed for the region's management. In general, the countries have sustainable development plans, sub-national development strategies, ecological economic zoning instruments, as well as sub-national programmes and projects for the Amazonian part of their territory. In all Amazonian countries, the Constitution includes an article on the right to a healthy environment, with a clear mandate as to how the environment should be used and managed.

Countries in the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), including Andean-Amazonian countries like Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, have adopted different agreements on the environment, and on promoting national strategies in their respective countries.

In addition, Brazil has a project on monitoring Amazonian deforestation that is one of the world's most advanced on real-time deforestation monitoring. Also to be highlighted is the establishment of the Amazonian Fund with regulations on investing in action to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation.

As far as water is concerned, ACTO has begun a process to discuss and design, together with UNEP, GEF and OAS, a programme to tackle the challenge of regional water resources management

NOTE: The report, Environment Outlook in Amazonia: GEO Amazonia, has seven chapters covering: Amazonia: territory, society and economy over time; Dynamics in Amazonia; Amazonia today; The footprints of environmental degradation; Responses by stakeholders to the Amazonian environmental situation; The future of Amazonia; and Conclusions and proposals for action.

NOTE: The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), is an inter-governmental body established in 2003 in Brasilia, Brazil, by the eight Amazonian countries (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela) in order to promote sustainable development initiatives in this strategic region with the framework of regional cooperation.

Read more!

Iceland to keep larger whaling quota for at least one year

Yahoo News 18 Feb 09;

REYKJAVIK (AFP) – Iceland will maintain its new whaling quota of 150 fin and up to 150 minke whales this year despite international calls for it to reconsider the sixfold catch increase, the government said Wednesday.

"It is our conclusion that the decision on whaling remains unchanged for this year," Fisheries Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson told reporters, adding that no decision had been taken for the coming four years.

Iceland's former government announced the increase in late January as one of its last moves before leaving office, saying the annual quota would be valid for five years.

But a new left-wing interim government that came to power just days later vowed to review the decision.

Seven countries -- Britain, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States -- sent a letter to the new government last week urging it to review the decision.

"We realise that this might lead to harsh criticism and even acts against Iceland and we will have to react to that," Sigfusson told AFP.

The new minority government is made up of two anti-whaling parties, the Social Democrats and the Left Green party but it decided to maintain the quota after seeking legal opinion on the matter.

"It is (the lawyer's) conclusion that the Icelandic state is bound by the decision ... Therefore the current minister of fisheries is not able to recall the regulation," Sigfusson said.

Sigfusson said whalers could not, however, expect the quota to remain at the same level for the next four years.

"The government must follow the whaling and issues related to whaling closely and maintain the right to act, even this year, if there are changes in the preconditions" for whaling, he said.

Prior to the announcement of the increased catch, Iceland, which pulled out of an international whaling moratorium in 2006 after 16 years, had a quota of just nine fin whales and 40 minke whales per year.

Sigfusson said Iceland's Whaling Act of 1949 will undergo a review, starting Wednesday. Areas close to several harbours frequented by whale watchers will be closed to whaling, he added.

Iceland and Norway are the only two countries in the world that authorise commercial whaling. Japan officially hunts whales for scientific purposes, which are contested by opponents, and the whale meat is sold for consumption.

Iceland To Allow Whaling In 2009
Ints Kalnins, PlanetArk 19 Feb 09;

REYKJAVIK - Iceland's interim government said on Wednesday it would allow whale hunting to go ahead this year but left in doubt whether the practice would be allowed to continue beyond 2009.

Fishermen will be allowed to catch 100 minke whales and 150 fin whales during 2009, a decision that will upset environmental groups and many in the international community.

Fisheries Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson said hunters should not take it for granted that whaling would be permitted over the following four years, as proposed by the previous government.

The decision to resume whaling was taken despite international pressure and a promise by the new government of Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir to review a decision by the previous administration to set new five-year quotas.

The United States, Germany, Britain, France, Finland and Sweden have called on Sigurdardottir to drop the whaling plans.

An international moratorium on whaling has been in force since 1986.

Iceland ended a 20-year ban on commercial whaling in August 2006, issuing quotas that ran through August 2007. After a temporary halt the country resumed whaling in May last year, despite protests by environmentalists.

(Editing by Tim Pearce)

Read more!

Widespread floods hit Australian mines, towns

Yahoo News 18 Feb 09;

SYDNEY (AFP) – Serious flooding across Australia halted mining operations and forced officials to declare a number of disaster areas as deadly wildfires raged on in the south on Wednesday.

Global mining giant Rio Tinto said its iron ore operations in Western Australia had been significantly disrupted by torrential rains and floods as a tropical low hit the region.

"Many roads are impassable and all employees have been advised to exercise extreme caution," Rio said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange, announcing the suspension of several projects.

In the east, parts of New South Wales were declared natural disaster zones after heavy storms spawned floods that severed roads and left towns isolated. The declaration opens the way for government assistance.

The drought-stricken town of Bourke was drenched by 200 millimetres of rain (eight inches) -- about two-thirds of its annual rainfall -- in just 15 hours. Officials put the damage bill at about six million dollars (3.9 million US).

Areas north of the state capital Sydney, Australia's largest city, were also declared a disaster zone, with the swollen Bellinger river cutting off the town of Bellingen.

Meanwhile, parts of neighbouring Queensland state were still under water after cyclonic rains flooded more than one million square kilometres (386,100 square miles).

The towns of Normanton and Karumba have been cut off by floodwaters for six weeks, and farmers estimate that between 100,000 and 150,000 cattle have perished.

The latest floods come less than two weeks after a record heatwave hit Victoria, sparking wildfires which killed at least 200 people. Thousands of firefighters are still fighting five blazes in parts of the state.

Authorities have put the cost of Queensland's floods at 210 million dollars, with 3,000 homes affected and hundreds of people forced to evacuate.

Read more!

Erosion Rate Doubles on Stretch of Alaskan Coast

livescience.com Yahoo News 18 Feb 09;

Most of California isn't falling into the sea yet, but big parts of Alaska are.

In a possible sign of things to come, erosion of a stretch of Alaska's coast surged in recent years to more than double the average historical rate, threatening some towns, a new study finds. The loss of land is documented in photos that show newly collapsed sections of permafrost coastline as well as decades-old artifacts that have slipped into the sea.

Scientists caution that the study does not include the entire coastline, but they said the shift might be due to declining Arctic sea ice extent, increasing summertime sea-surface temperatures, the rising sea level, and increases in storm power and corresponding wave action.

"These factors may be leading to a new era in ocean-land interactions that seem to be repositioning and reshaping the Arctic coastline," the scientists write in the Feb. 14 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The details

The study involved a 64-kilometer (40-mile) stretch of the Beaufort Sea. Researchers compared the period 2002 through 2007 to average erosion rates during two previous periods.

The details:

Average annual erosion rates along the area studied had already climbed from about 20 feet (6.1 m) per year during the 1950, 60s and 70s to 28 feet (8.5m) per year in the period from the late-1970s to the early 2000s. The most recent erosion rates reached an average of 45 feet (14 meters) per year during the 2002 to 2007 period, said Benjamin Jones, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Anchorage.

They also documented sections of coastline that eroded more than 80 feet (24 meters) during 2007 alone.

The researchers caution that the pattern may not be representative of the overall Arctic. However, it may well forecast the future pattern of coastline erosion in the region, they said.

"This segment of coastline has historically eroded at some of the highest rates in the circum-Arctic, so the changes occurring on this open-ocean coast might not be occurring in other Arctic coastal settings," Jones said. But Arctic climate change is leading to rapid and complex environmental responses in both terrestrial and marine ecosystems in ways that will almost certainly affect the rate and pattern of coastline erosion in the Arctic, the authors write.

Interestingly, there were no westerly storm events during the summer of 2007, traditionally thought to be the drivers of coastal erosion in this region the Arctic. However, 2007 did boast the minimum arctic sea-ice extent and the warmest ocean temperatures on record.

Slipping into the sea

Jones and his coauthors verified in another recent study the disappearance of cultural and historical sites along the same stretch of the Beaufort Sea. Those sites include Esook, a turn-of-the-century trading post now buried in the sea and Kolovik (Qalluvik), an abandoned Inupiaq village site that may soon be lost.

At another site, near Lonely, Alaska, Jones snapped a picture of a wooden whaling boat that had rested on a bluff overhanging the ocean for nearly a century. A few months later the boat had washed away to sea. That study was published in the journal Arctic.

"The recent trends toward warming sea-surface temperatures and rising sea-level may act to weaken the permafrost-dominated coastline by helping more quickly thaw ice-rich coastal bluffs and may potentially explain the disproportionate increase in erosion along ice-rich coastal bluffs relative to ice-poor coastal bluffs that we documented in our study," Jones said.

"Any increases in already rapid rates of coastal retreat will have further ramifications on Arctic landscapes - including losses in freshwater and terrestrial wildlife habitats, in subsistence grounds for local communities, and in disappearing cultural sites," he said, "as well as adversely impacting coastal villages and towns. In addition, oil test wells are threatened."

Alaska Coasts Melting -- And Not Just the Ice
Rebecca Carroll, National Geographic News 20 Feb 09;

Part of Alaska's coast is drifting into the sea at twice the rate it has in the past, reshaping the Arctic shoreline, a new study says.

The trend could seriously threaten the area's caribou and other wildlife, as well as local landmarks that document human settlements.

Some stretches of the state's northern shore along the Beaufort Sea receded by more than 80 feet (25 meters) in summer 2007 alone, when Arctic sea ice was at a record low.

In the past, spurts of erosion had often been linked to storms, but there were no major storms in 2007. That suggests "a shift in the forces driving erosion," said lead author Benjamin Jones, a research geographer at the U.S. Geological Survey.

One major force now is global warming, according to the research.

The study of the 40-mile (64-kilometer) stretch of coast was published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Out to Sea

Warming air and sea temperatures are melting the ice in the region's permafrost, or perpetually frozen earth. The meltwater then streams over the land and melts more permafrost, carrying sediment into the sea as it goes.

From 2002 to 2007, the melting ice caused the coast to disappear at a rate of about 45 feet (14 meters) a year. That's up from an annual average of 30 feet (9 meters) between 1979 and 2002 and 20 feet (6 meters) between 1955 and 1979.

Remains of the ghost town of Esook, a hundred-year-old trading post, have been buried underwater as a result of the erosion, Jones said.

And near the town of Lonely, Jones took a picture of a whaling boat that a few months later was swallowed by the sea after nearly a century on shore.

The erosion also threatens oil wells. At least one has already been lost since 2002, and another will soon be gone, if the melting continues at these rates.

Especially Vulnerable

Larry Hinzman, director of the International Arctic Research Center in Fairbanks, Alaska, said the permafrost in this region has a considerable amount of ice, which is one reason it is melting so fast.

"If it were a different soil type, it would have less ice and would not erode so quickly," said Hinzman, who was not involved with the research.

Hinzman said the findings "would not be representative of the whole Arctic, but there are many places in the Arctic where the permafrost does contain similarly massive amounts of ice.

"This is not an unusual landscape feature in Alaska, Canada, or Siberia, but it would be unusual in Greenland, Iceland, and [the Swedish archipelago] Svalbard," he said.

The researchers call for more study of the erosion patterns so that preservation plans can be devised and new development can avoid early demise.

"Erosion is a natural process, and it is likely that this coastline has experienced erosion for quite some time," Jones said. It's the speed at which it is now occurring that worries researchers.

Read more!

Andean glaciers 'could disappear': World Bank

Yahoo News 18 Feb 09;

LIMA (AFP) – Andean glaciers and the region's permanently snow-covered peaks could disappear in 20 years if no measures are taken to tackle climate change, the World Bank warned Tuesday.

A World Bank-published report said rising temperatures due to global warming could also have a dramatic impact on water management in the Andean region, with serious knock-on effects for agriculture and energy generation.

According to the report, in the last 35 years Peru's glaciers have shrunk by 22 percent, leading to a 12 percent loss in the amount of fresh water reaching the coast -- home to most of the country's citizens.

"It is highly probable that the earth's surface will undergo an unprecedented temperature increase of nearly two degrees centigrade (four Fahrenheit) by 2050 and up to four degrees (eight Fahrenheit) by the end of the century," said Pablo Fajnzylber, a senior World Bank economist.

The equivalent of seven billion cubic meters of water could be lost.

In a bid to help slow the rate of warming, the World Bank has established a six-billion-dollar fund to help develop low-carbon technologies.

Read more!

Melt-pools 'accelerating Arctic ice loss'

Pools of melted ice and snow that form on the surface of the Arctic sea ice explain why it is melting faster than predicted, scientists say

Gwladys Fouché, guardian.co.uk 18 Feb 09;

New research has revealed that melt-water pooling on the Arctic sea ice is causing it to melt at a faster rate than computer models had previously predicted.

Scientists have been struggling to understand why the northern sea ice has been retreating at a faster rate than estimated by the most recent assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in 2007.

The IPCC's computer models had simulated an average loss of 2.5% in sea ice extent per decade from 1953 to 2006. But in reality the Arctic sea ice had declined at a rate of about 7.8% per decade.

Arctic sea ice has retreated so much that in September 2007 it covered an all-time low area of 4.14m km sq, surpassing by 23% the previous all-time record set in September 2005.

And during the summer of 2008, the north-west and north-east passages - the sea routes running along the Arctic coastlines of northern America and northern Russia, normally perilously clogged with thick ice – were ice-free for the first time since records began in 1972.

Part of the reasons for the discrepancy has to do with melt ponds, which are pools of melted ice and snow that form on the sea ice when it is warmed in spring and summer. As they are darker than ice and snow, they absorb solar radiation rather than reflect it, which accelerates the melting process.

"Melt ponds were not taken into consideration by global climate models as sea-ice albedo [the ratio of reflected to incident solar radiation] is a complex process that is poorly described in these models," explains Christina Alsvik Pedersen from the Norwegian Polar Institute, the first author of the research which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

"The inclusion of the melt ponds in the models goes towards explaining why the sea ice in the Arctic melts faster than the models can predict," she says.

Melt ponds may play a growing role in the melting of the Arctic sea ice in future, Pedersen adds, as first-year ice - which melts in summer and freezes in autumn – is replacing the old multi-year ice – which stays frozen regardless of the seasons.

"First-year ice has normally a smoother surface than multi-year ice, which tends to have rougher, ridged surfaces," says Pedersen. "That allows melt ponds to cover a wider area on first-year ice, which extends the surface on which the solar radiation is absorbed, and that will accelerate the melting process."

The research helps our understanding of the physical processes behind the melting of the Arctic, according to Pål Prestrud, author of a 2007 UN report on the melting of the ice and snow and the director of the Centre for international climate and environmental research in Oslo.

"The global climate models have been good at predicting temperature, but when it comes to sea ice, they are not good enough," he said. "This research is one piece of the puzzle that will help us understand the physical process involved in the melting of the Arctic and predict better what will happen in future."

"Another piece of the puzzle we need to understand better is what happens with oceans currents in the Arctic Ocean and the warming of the oceans as a whole," he said.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg and the SINTEF institute in Trondheim were also part of the team.

Read more!

Wrapping Greenland in reflective blankets

Rising sea levels are threatening the planet but a glaciologist has devised a way to prevent glaciers from melting further - by wrapping them in a reflective blanket.

Jessica Salter, The Telegraph 18 Feb 09;

Glaciers cover just 10 per cent of the earth’s surface but 75 per cent of the world’s fresh water are locked beneath the ice.

Jason Box, from Ohio State University, says the way to combat melting glaciers is to cover them with blankets that will reflect the sun’s rays.

Dr Box said: “We’re in the midst of a climate catastrophe and glaciers are the epicentre of that problem.

“Glaciers around the planted are decanting into the oceans at shocking rates and I want to stop that.”

Dr Box, who has conducted climate research expeditions to the Greenland ice sheet every year since 1994, has set out with a team of three others to test his idea on a real glacier in Greenland and prove the technology works.

The bulk of their cargo is 31 giant rolls of uniquely designed white polypropylene blankets. These blankets, which are used in the Alps to preserve ski hills in the summer, will cover a total surface area of 10,000 square meters and are designed to reflect sunlight and block out Greenland’s winds.

The team have to endure a hurricane-force ice storm to test how resilient the material is and test whether it would survive in the Arctic.

Dr Box said: “It’s going to be expensive but when you consider the cost of reengineering our coastlines – this may actually be cheaper.”

Read more!

Emissions Trading: Asian Airlines' Friend Or Foe?

David Fogarty, PlanetArk 19 Feb 09;

SINGAPORE - Already trapped in a tailspin as earnings plunge and a global recession curtails passenger and freight traffic, Asian airlines face yet another challenge -- figuring out how to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions.

Green groups, governments and passenger bodies are piling on the pressure for airlines to rein in carbon pollution, and to have their emissions included in a broader U.N. climate pact.

Carriers such as Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, which fly some of the world's longest routes, already plan to curb or offset pollution through emissions trading, more efficient planes and other measures.

But they worry that numerous domestic and regional emissions schemes now emerging could prove costly and unfair because not all airlines will be treated equally, crippling their competitiveness and their already shrinking earnings.

Despite only having a small share in global carbon emissions, at around 2 percent, the airlines are a high-profile target for regulators and environmentalists: their emissions are among the most intensive per kilometer of travel and the most damaging as they are released high in the atmosphere.

"What we don't want to see is a proliferation of regional schemes or regional and sectoral combinations or some weird and wonderful brainchild that applies in one country but not in others," Dominic Purvis, Cathay Pacific's general manager for environmental affairs, told Reuters.

The European Union plans to make the aviation industry subject to its emissions trading scheme from 2012, covering all airlines using EU airspace. Australia will have a domestic emissions trading scheme from 2010, while the U.S. government wants to introduce a cap-and-trade system as well.

For a graphic of global shipping emissions, please click on: here

Last Thursday, Air France/KLM, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic and airport operator BAA said they wanted aviation emissions to be included in a broader global climate pact this year, the first time a group of airlines has made such a call.

Their aim is to shape the debate to avoid being saddled with a scheme not of their choosing.

"We are very concerned about the fragmented approach here. Aviation is a global business," said Stephen Forshaw, spokesman for Singapore Airlines.

"If we're flying aircraft from one emissions trading zone into another, and there's different schemes that apply, we run the very real risk of getting caught in the middle."

EARNINGS PRESSURE

The main aviation industry grouping, the International Air Transport Association, estimates the EU emissions trading scheme will cost airlines 2.4 billion euros ($3 billion) in 2012, but admits the figure is a fast-moving target.

A major variables is the price of European emission allowances, which now stand just above 8 euros, having fallen from a peak of more than 30 euros last year.

The EU scheme requires carriers in its airspace to offset emissions over their entire journey, a rule Asian airlines call unfair. Britain's separate air passenger duty has also woken concern among carriers, who fear a rash of aviation taxes.

"Emissions trading would be affordable and fair if applied across all airlines," said Andrew Herdman, director-general of the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines, which groups 17 carriers.

"On the other hand, if there is unequal treatment then airlines will not be able to pass on the full cost, and will see margin erosion and/or loss of market share."

The aviation industry emits around 650 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, Herdman estimated. Charged at $25 per tonne, this would cost the industry $16 billion, but even at $15 per tonne, the figure would work out to $10 billion.

That represents just a small percentage of global industry revenues of about $500 billion, however.

AIRLINE PACT

Airlines are already taking steps to cut emissions, such as buying newer aircraft and trying out biofuels. Air New Zealand, Virgin and Japan Airlines are among the carriers that have tested biofuel blends.

But these steps alone won't cut expected growth in emissions, which are expected to grow 3 to 4 percent annually, according to the U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

That means tougher action may be necessary when world leaders meet at the end of the year in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, to try to agree on a replacement for the U.N. Kyoto Protocol.

Developing nations as well as aviation and shipping emissions are excluded from Kyoto's first commitment period, which runs from 2008 to 2012, but aren't expected to be so lucky again.

Among the numerous schemes under discussion to help airlines pay for emissions is a universal levy assessed at the point of purchase of fuel.

"Everybody pays a figure," said Purvis. "However, the regulator decides to set the figure, which represents the cost of taking the CO2 back out of the atmosphere when you burn that fuel."

For environmentalists, though, emissions trading and levies are not the complete answer.

"Currently aviation is a product that's underpriced because its full environmental costs are not factored in," said Peter Lockley, aviation analyst for global conservation group WWF.

"A global scheme is a fundamental part of the policy but emissions trading on its own is never going to be enough to drive the kind of reductions we need to see," he added.

"In the long term, aviation emissions are going to have to come down. Maybe that means less flying, using high-tech video conferencing. There are alternatives and the world doesn't revolve around the aviation industry."

(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Read more!

Hunt Begins For World's Most Polluted Places

Timothy Gardner, Yahoo News 19 Feb 09;

NEW YORK - Researchers will fan out across more than 80 developing countries beginning this month to hunt out and assess many of the world's dirtiest industrial waste sites.

The New York-based nonprofit Blacksmith Institute is training the researchers from local semi-government agencies, universities and nonprofit groups in the countries to create a database of the sites called the Global Inventory Project.

"Blacksmith is doing what no other governmental organization, NGO or nonprofit has ever even attempted," said Jack Caravanos, a professor of environmental health at Hunter College of City University of New York.

Caravanos said the inventory is a "first step" to help governments and international organizations prioritize the clean up of waste sites that pose health threats to people including cancer risks to adults and learning disability risks to children. Asthma and other respiratory ailments are other problems millions of locals suffer at sites like abandoned metal mines in Africa and factories that made weapons or industrial chemicals in former Soviet Union states.

Concern about polluted places is growing as the world's population swells and people in developing countries like China and India buy more goods like cars and electronics, habits that were once mostly limited to rich places like the United States and Europe.

Blacksmith director Richard Fuller said the rich countries have mostly already cleaned up their contaminated places because they have strong anti-pollution laws. But in many industrializing countries, "the cost of life in the politician's mind is much lower what we are used to," he said.

The European Commission and Green Cross Switzerland funded the inventory for the next 18 months with $1.5 million, and the U.N. Industrial Development Organization has partnered with Blacksmith on a database that could list 1,200 to 2,000 sites.

Blacksmith has developed a nonconfrontational approach over the last several years. It attempts to encourage the companies that made the messes and the nearby communities to work together to clean up sites, instead of bogging down the process with lawsuits. A key to the technique has been Blacksmith's publishing of lists of the world's top polluted sites. In some cases that has pushed companies that were responsible for the mess to act.

"The companies get embarrassed and they say 'what can we do to get off the list?'" Caravanos said.

Some of the worst polluted sites involve lead battery recycling, which takes place in almost every urban center in developing countries, said Fuller.

Blacksmith recently lead a $200,000 clean up of a battery site in Haina in the Dominican Republic, in which much of the underlying soil was 35 percent lead, a pollutant that leads to severe learning disabilities in children.

Blacksmith hopes to establish a $500 million Health and Pollution Fund to help clean up sites. Cleanup costs can range from $10 million for sites that involve polluted rivers, to $20,000 for cleaning up rusty containers of toxic chemicals that face the risk of exploding.

(Editing by David Wiessler)

Read more!

Nigeria dumping ground for TVs, mobiles: Greenpeace

Yahoo News 18 Feb 09;

LAGOS (AFP) – Nigeria has become a dumping ground for potentially toxic electronic waste such as televisions disguised as second-hand goods from developed countries, Greenpeace said Wednesday.

"Nigeria is just one of many destinations for the developed world's toxic e-waste," the global environmental group said in a statement.

The group said its finding was based on an undercover operation it carried out with Sky television in the United Kingdom.

Greenpeace said the operation highlighted how the failure of electronic companies to take responsibility for recycling their products was expanding the trade in hazardous waste from Europe to the developing world.

"Companies can stop this illegal toxic trade now by ensuring their goods are free from hazardous components," it said.

"It is critical they take full responsibility for the safe recycling of their products and put an end to the growing e-waste dumps that are poisoning people and the environment across the developing world," said Martin Hojsik, Greenpeace international toxics campaigner.

Greenpeace said children often break apart television sets, mobile phones, game consoles and other electronic items that arrive in their tonnes across the developing world.

"With no safety measures, they are exposed to highly toxic chemicals, including mercury, which damages the brain; lead, which can damage reproductive systems; and cadmium, which causes kidney damage," it said.

Greenpeace said it launched the operation by taking an irreparably broken television, fitted with a tracking device, to the United Kingdom's Hampshire County council for recycling.

"Instead of being safely dismantled in the UK or Europe, as required by law, the council's 'recycling' company BJ Electronics passed it on as 'second-hand goods' after which it ended up in Nigeria," it added.

In 2007, an American NGO, Basel Action Network, published a report in which it said that some 500 containers with 400,000 second-hand computers were unloaded every month in Lagos, Nigeria's most populous city with some 15 million people.

Dumped in Africa: Britain’s toxic waste
Children exposed to poisonous material in defiance of UK law
Cahal Milmo, The Independent 18 Feb 09;

Tonnes of toxic waste collected from British municipal dumps is being sent illegally to Africa in flagrant breach of this country’s obligation to ensure its rapidly growing mountain of defunct televisions, computers and gadgets are disposed of safely.

Hundreds of thousands of discarded items, which under British law must be dismantled or recycled by specialist contractors, are being packaged into cargo containers and shipped to countries such as Nigeria and Ghana, where they are stripped of their raw metals by young men and children working on poisoned waste dumps.

In a joint investigation by The Independent, Sky News, and Greenpeace, a television that had been broken beyond repair was tracked to an electronics market in Lagos, Nigeria, after being left at a civic amenity site in Basingstoke run by Hampshire Country Council. Under environmental protection laws It was classified as hazardous waste and should never have left the UK.

The television, fitted with a satellite tracking device, was bought by a London-based dealer, one of dozens of operators buying up a significant proportion of the estimated 940,000 tonnes of domestic electronic waste, or e-waste, produced in the UK each year and sending it for export.

Investigators bought back the television after a 4,500-mile journey from Tilbury Docks in Essex to the giant Alaba electronics market in Lagos, where up to 15 shipping containers of discarded electronics from Europe and Asia arrive every day. At least a third of the contents of each container is broken beyond use and transferred to dumps where waste pickers scavenge amid a cocktail of burning heavy metals and dioxins. The television is just one example of a broader problem with the enforcement of the legislation, which permits the export of functioning equipment but prohibits broken electronic goods from being sent outside the EU to a country with a developing economy.

Such is the confused state of the recycling industry, with some local authorities collating figures on the amount of waste being exported and others simply handing the task to sub-contractors, that the e-waste body representing the electronics industry admits abuse is widespread.

Claire Snow, the director of the Industry Council for Equipment Recycling (ICER), told The Independent: “It is clear that the system for collecting equipment which UK householders have thrown away is not working as well as it should.

“On the pretext of re-use, equipment which is clearly not suitable for any type of re-use is effectively being dumped in developing countries.”

Government figures show that 450,000 tonnes of e-waste is currently being treated in accordance with Britain’s waste electronic and electrical equipment laws, which place a responsibility on manufacturers to meet the environmental cost. But with the average Briton throwing away four pieces of e-waste every year, approximately 500,000 tonnes is going unaccounted for. Industry research seen by The Independent estimates that at least 10,000 tonnes of waste televisions and 23,000 tonnes of computers classified as hazardous waste are being illegally exported as part of a wider e-waste market worth “tens of millions of pounds”.

Campaigners say dealers offering around £3 for a television and £1 for a computer monitor to waste sites are undercutting specialist recycling companies, creating a “grey market”.

Britain is responsible for around 15 per cent of the EU’s total e-waste, which is growing three times faster than any other muncipal waste stream.

Martin Hojsik, toxics campaigner for Greenpeace International, said: "Companies can stop this illegal toxic trade now by ensuring their goods are free from hazardous components. It is critical they and governments take full responsibility for the safe recycling of their products and put an end to the growing e-waste dumps that are poisoning people."

Bosses at Hampshire County Council last night launched an inquiry into its waste sites but insisted it and its household waste site contractor, Hopkins Recycling, only used dealers who exported functional equipment.

A spokesman for Consumers International, which is campaigning for tightened e-waste controls, said: “The sight of children scavenging toxic wastelands overflowing with the West’s unwanted computers and televisions makes a mockery of international bans to prevent the dumping of e-waste. Western governments, including the UK, have shown little desire to deal with the root cause of this problem.”

Read more!