'Super Reefs' Fend Off Climate Change, Study Says

ScienceDaily 23 Apr 09;

The Wildlife Conservation Society announced today a study showing that some coral reefs off East Africa are unusually resilient to climate change due to improved fisheries management and a combination of geophysical factors. WCS announced the results of the study at the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), which is meeting this week in Phuket, Thailand.

The study, published in the online journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, provides additional evidence that globally important "super reefs" exist in the triangle from Northern Madagascar across to northern Mozambique to southern Kenya and, thus, should be a high priority for future conservation action.

Authors of the study include Tim McClanahan and Nyawira Muthiga of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Joseph Maina of the Coral Reef Conservation Project, Albogast Kamukuru of the University of Dar es Salaam's Department of Fisheries Science and Aquaculture, and Saleh A.S. Yahna of the University of Dar es Salaam's Institute of Marine Sciences and Stockholm University's Department of Zoology.

The study found that Tanzania's corals recovered rapidly from the 1998 bleaching event that had wiped out up to 45 percent of the region's corals. Along with monitoring Tanzania's reefs, WCS helps coral conservation in this region through training of park staff in protected areas.

The authors attribute the recovery of Tanzania's coral reefs due in part to direct management measures, including closures to commercial fishing. Areas with fishery closures contained an abundance of fish that feed on algae that can otherwise smother corals, while the few sites without any specific management measures remain degraded; one site had experienced a population explosion of sea urchins—pests that feeds on corals.

The findings also showed that the structure of the reefs played a major factor in their resiliency. Tanzania's reefs are particularly complex and experience unusual variations in current and water temperature. These factors allow for greater survivorship of a higher diversity of coral species, including those that can quickly re-colonize after bleaching.

"Northern Tanzania's reefs have exhibited considerable resilience and in some cases improvements in reef conditions despite heavy pressure from climate change impacts and overfishing," noted Wildlife Conservation Society scientist Dr. Tim McClanahan, the study's lead author. "This gives cause for considerably more optimism that developing countries, such as Tanzania, can effectively manage their reefs in the face of climate change."

The authors suggest that reefs in Tanzania and elsewhere that exhibit similar environmental conditions have the ability to recover from large-scale climatic and human disturbances. They may, therefore, be a priority for conservation under predicted climate change scenarios where many reefs are expected to suffer further degradation.

On a broader scale, the Wildlife Conservation Society is actively conserving nearly 90 percent of the world's tropical coral reef species in priority seascapes in Belize, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Kenya and Madagascar.

The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) is a global partnership among governments and organizations working to stop and reverse the degradation of coral reefs and related ecosystems. This ICRI General Meeting was convened by the joint Mexico - United States Secretariat. WCS is an institutional partner to ICRI.

From Fiji to Glover's Reef, the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) and The Tiffany & Co. Foundation have provided generous support for Dr. McClanahan's research, which examines the ecology, fisheries, climate change effects, and management of coral reefs at key sites throughout the world.

Read more!

Handsome Devils to the rescue in Extinction Sucks

WWF 24 Apr 09;

Australians Aleisha Caruso and Ashleigh Young enlist the help of a posse of “handsome devils” in this week's episode of Extinction Sucks as they join the fight to save the iconic Tasmanian Devil from a deadly disease.

The Devils – made famous in the Warner Brothers cartoons – could disappear within twenty years because of a horrific facial cancer which causes the animal to die of starvation. Scientists are baffled and are struggling to find a cure before it's too late.

Aleisha and Ash hold a “handsome devils” fundraiser, and persuade five hunky guys to sell kisses and cakes at a nightclub, They raise enough money to buy motion-activated camera traps which they then donate to the conservationists working with the remaining Tasmanian Devil populations. The cameras enable scientists to observe these unique creature and better understand how the disease is spread.

Extinction Sucks is a unique co-production between WWF and Babelgum to bring high-quality conservation programming to web audiences. It's thought to be the first time that an online video channel has commissioned original, full-length wildlife shows specifically for the internet. The series is being broadcast over a six week run on www.panda.org and www.babelgum.com. Other programmes see Ash and Aleisha raise funds for WWF programmes protecting elephants in India and rhinos in Nepal threatened by poachers, and rare dolphins in New Zealand.

Read more!

Amur tigers threatened by economic crisis

WWF 24 Apr 09;

Primorye, Russia – Loggers in Russia’s Far East increasingly are cutting down Korean cedar pine, raising concerns that the endangered Amur tiger could lose critical habitat and its prey could lose a major food source.

Under pressure from the ongoing economic crisis, loggers are turning to the more lucrative Korean cedar pine (Pinus korajensis) as commodity prices for other types of wood fall, which in turn has led to large-scale illegal logging operations in the Ussuriiskaya taiga in Primorye, according to WWF-Russia.

“Chinese importers of the Far Eastern wood have sharply dropped prices and demand for oak and ash wood as an answer to the world crisis,” said Denis Smirnov, head of the forest program at WWF-Russia’s Amur branch. “These species were the most desired ones for poachers before, but the demand was reduced after export customs duties for these species of timber had been increased from Feb. 1.”

“At the same time, Korean pine wood is still highly demanded both in domestic and international markets and is sold at rather high prices,” Smirnov said.

Russia’s Far East Korean cedar pine forests were heavily logged during the second half of the 20th century, particularly in the late 1990s, which resulted in a 50 percent reduction and left only around 2.88 million hectares of the forests today.

Although P. koraiensis is not nationally protected in Russia, its logging is either prohibited or regulated in certain provinces of Russia and China. However, loggers typically exploit loopholes in regional regulations to launder illegally logged wood, often taking advantage of lax customs controls or by under-declaring the volume of legal exports.

“This rampant and mindless logging is shocking and disturbs the habitat and prey base of some of the rarest animals in the world including the Amur tiger and Amur leopard,” said Dr. Susan Lieberman, Director of the Species Programme for WWF-International.

In the Amur region, tiger conservation hinges on protecting the Korean cedar pine. Pine nuts from the tree represent an integral food source for the Amur tiger’s prey, such as wild boars. Korean pine-broadleaved forests also provide habitats for the Far Eastern leopard, Asiatic and brown bears, sika deers and many other species. These pine nuts are also sold internationally, benefiting local communities as well.

Awareness of the recently increased demand for Korean cedar pine surfaced after WWF staff, with members of Russia’s Internal Affairs Department, the Primorskii Province Forestry Department and Rosselkhoznadzor -- the Federal Service of Veterinary and Phyto-Sanitary Supervision – raided a wood exporter platform in January in the city of Dalnerechensk.

They found about 10 to 15,000 cubic meters of Korean cedar pine originating from illegal logging sites in Dalnerechenskii, Krasnoarmeiskii and Lesozavodskii districts in central and northern Primorye.

Two largest of logging sites, with total volume exceeding 3,000 cubic meters, were found close to the village of Malinovo in an area leased by one of the biggest logging companies in Primorye – JSC “Dalnerechenskles,” which is part of the “Dallesprom” group.

Before enforcement of a new Russian Forest Code in 2007, Korean pine held a special status as a species protected from commercial use, which contributed to its conservation. Korean pine has now lost its protective status and increased demand for Korean pine timber along with the complete inaction of regulators and forest control services to address the need for a new special status for the Korean pine have made it an easy target for illegal logging.

The only way to stop the complete destruction of the Far Eastern Korean pine forests is to impose a moratorium on its harvesting, according to WWF. The conservation organization asks that provincial and federal authorities come up with a proposal to urgently add Korean pine into the list of species forbidden to harvest, and to inform importing countries accordingly.

The Amur tiger, which can weigh up to 300 kg and measure around three metres from its nose to the tip of its tail, has come back from the brink of extinction to its highest population for at least 100 years. Only about 40 were alive in 1950 but nowadays there are around 450, one of the strongest tiger populations in the world.

Read more!

Tree "Found" In Ethiopia Raises Hopes For Species

Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 24 Apr 09;

OSLO - A tree that covers a large area of eastern Ethiopia but has only recently been categorized by botanists raises hope for finding new species elsewhere, experts said.

The acacia fumosa tree, which grows in an area the size of the island of Crete, was not "found" for scientific purposes until 2006-7, mostly likely because its main habitat is a war zone.

"I have spent a lifetime looking at plants and describing species -- it knocked me sideways when I heard about this tree," David Mabberley of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England, told Reuters.

"The total numbers must be in the millions," he said of the pink-flowered, 6-m (20-ft) tall tree that covers hillsides in an inaccessible area of 8,000 sq kms (3,100 sq miles) near the border with Somalia.

In an article in Friday's edition of the journal Science, he wrote that the tree had been overlooked by generations of botanists, apparently because of few visits to the area where the Ogaden National Liberation Front is fighting for autonomy.

The discovery was an encouraging sign that other overlooked large species might still be found, from rainforests to the ocean depths. Still, he said, scientists were "highly unlikely" to find another tree dominating such a large area.

The discovery contrasts with gloom about destruction of habitats and global warming threatening more extinctions. Environment Ministers of the Group of Eight are meeting in Italy from April 22-24 discussing ways to slow a loss of biodiversity.

"It's an upbeat story for a change," Mabberley said. The tree was found by Swedish botanist Mats Thulin and previously described in a Nordic journal.

People in the sparsely populated region did not exploit the tree except for firewood but it might have commercial uses, for instance in gum used for foodstuffs or glues.

About 10,000 new species of plants or creatures are described worldwide every year, most of them tiny, he said.

COELACANTH

Among exceptions, a coelacanth fish known only from fossils was caught off South Africa in 1938. The wollemi pine, also known from fossils, was found in Australia in 1994. And the saola antelope in Vietnam and Laos was identified in 1992.

"I suspect there are still large species out there to be discovered," Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of endangered species, told Reuters.

He said that countries that have suffered conflicts -- such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Cambodia or Colombia -- were likely places to find overlooked species.

And some types of beaked whales that dive to great depths were only known from washed up corpses. "There are probably still a few things in the deep ocean we haven't found," he said.

(Editing by Michael Roddy)

Read more!

'G8-Plus' vow stronger biodiversity commitments

Gina Doggett, Yahoo News 23 Apr 09;

SYRACUSE, Italy (AFP) – The environment ministers of rich and emerging nations Thursday pledged new commitments to stopping biodiversity loss even with resources hit hard by the global financial crisis.

Ministers from 16 leading economies will agree a "Syracuse Charter" spelling out ways to reinforce and extend goals for 2010 that were set in 2002, European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas told a news conference.

"Efforts must be redoubled and we must start thinking beyond 2010," he said.

Climate change is a growing threat to biodiversity at a time when a quarter of all animal and plant species may be at risk of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

"We must deliver together what science has told us," Swedish Environment Minister Andras Carlgren told the news conference, saying "carbon emissions must peak in 10 years."

On a hopeful note, he added: "There is no doubt that action on climate change will show the path out of the crisis and bring opportunities to business."

Delegates will pledge in the Syracuse Charter "to ensure that the current deep economic crisis does not translate into a reduction in resources for the protection of biodiversity," according to a draft obtained by AFP.

Noting that the global financial crisis is spurring major infrastructure projects to create employment, a set of guidelines for delegates to the talks warned that "such investments ... are the main cause of negative effects on the natural environment."

The cost of bailing out financial institutions during the economic meltdown, while huge, pales in comparison to the lost value caused every year by ecological damage to the environment, experts say.

The three-day meeting in Sicily brings together countries responsible for more than 40 percent of the world's carbon gas emissions.

The United States and China each use up about a fifth of total global biocapacity, but US per capita consumption is much higher.

The administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, was attending on her first international trip in the job.

The G8 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

The G8 is one of several forums on the way to a UN meeting in Copenhagen in December aimed at sealing an international pact for curbing greenhouse gases beyond 2012.

The G8 ministers have been joined by their counterparts from China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, South Africa, South Korea and Egypt.

The Czech Republic -- current holder of the rotating European Union presidency -- plus the European Commission and Denmark as host of the upcoming Copenhagen conference are also attending the talks.

The UN goal is either to halve emissions compared with a benchmark year, or to peg temperature increases below 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial times.

Some 1,000 activists staged a protest Thursday accusing the conference of being "part of the problem, not part of the solution."

The group Contro-G8 (Against G8) staged the protest far from the heavily secured G8 venue, the medieval Maniace Castle at the tip of a peninsula jutting off Syracuse.

G8 and poor nations vow to tackle species loss
Daniel Flynn and Massimiliano di Giorgio, Reuters 24 Apr 09;

SYRACUSE, Italy (Reuters) - Environment ministers from major rich and developing nations signed a deal on Friday to try to slow species loss, but failed to make progress in crucial climate change talks despite U.S. pledges of commitment.

Almost every country in the world in 2002 agreed to a "significant reduction" in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, but scientists say extinctions are gathering pace.

The Group of Eight (G8) industrial countries and major developing economies, meeting on the island of Sicily, signed a charter pledging to tackle deforestation, trade in illegal wildlife, and to boost research into the rate of species loss.

"We set objectives on biodiversity for 2010 ... but unfortunately we have all recognized they have not been met," said Italian Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo, who hosted the summit.

"We are all convinced of the urgency ... of intervening to safeguard our biodiversity."

By some calculations extinction rates are running at 1,000 times their natural pace, due to human influence. Three species disappear every hour, according to U.N. figures.

The Syracuse Charter emphasized the economic value of biodiversity, particularly for developing countries. It was adopted after Washington dropped opposition to a reference to the future need to pay for the use of wildlife, such as plants employed in medical and scientific research, delegates said.

The meeting in Syracuse had generated excitement as it was the first ministerial summit involving the new administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, who has reversed his predecessor's opposition to an international deal to cut carbon emissions.

Rich and poor nations are embarking on complex negotiations to clinch a deal on carbon emissions in December in Copenhagen, with developing countries calling on the West to make steep cuts and pay billions of dollars a year for clean fuel technology.

U.S. URGED TO TAKE FIRST STEP

Obama has promised to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas output to 1990 levels by 2020. Developing nations welcomed the positive U.S. approach at Syracuse but expressed disappointment Washington did not take the first step in negotiations.

"If the U.S. does not say clearly what it wants, then we cannot move forward," said Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc.

"Developing countries, like China, are willing to make cuts, I believe, but there is a climate of mistrust ... The U.S. has still not put anything concrete on the table."

G8 countries have suggested $100 billion a year be put aside globally to help poorer nations adapt to a low-carbon technology and face the effects of climate change, but Brazil has said that at least twice this amount is required, Minc said.

Obama has asked Congress to approve a cap-and-trade law to address climate change and is to host a summit of leaders from the 17 largest carbon emitting nations in Washington next week.

The Syracuse meeting grouped for the first time ministers from Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Korea, South Africa and Sweden, in an effort to forge a broad consensus. The Czech Republic was also present as the rotating head of the European Union.

The United Nations has set a goal of halving emissions by 2050, in order to keep global warming to below 2 degrees centigrade, but has not set a base year for the comparison.

"We need to see the U.S. go further ... both in terms of its own emission reduction target and what it is going to contribute to emissions reductions targets and adaptation overseas," said Kim Carstensen, director of the WWF's global climate initiative.

(Editing by Andrew Roche)

Read more!

Peru Mulls New Reserves To Protect Amazon Tribes

Dana Ford, PlanetArk 24 Apr 09;

LIMA - Peru's government, which is encouraging energy companies to develop the resource-rich Amazon, is considering creating five new reserves to protect jungle tribes that are living in voluntary isolation.

Advocacy groups have been pressuring Peru to balance indigenous and environmental rights demands with those of foreign investors as the country tries to boost energy output.

The government signed 13 oil and gas concessions earlier this month and has said it will auction at least another dozen lots in July.

"The first step is to see whether there are tribes living within the proposed areas. If there are, we must recognize and protect them," said Mayta Capac Alatrista, president of the government's indigenous affairs department, INDEPA.

Three of the five proposed reserves are nestled in northeast Peru. One reserve is at the Ecuadorean border and the fifth is in central Peru.

The government has angered human rights groups in the past by casting doubt on whether isolated tribes actually exist. But the official position now is that they do and that it's the government's responsibility to protect them.

Survival International, a London-based indigenous rights group, is hopeful the proposal for new reserves will become a reality and has said the stakes are high.

Roughly half of the world's 100 so-called uncontacted tribes are thought to live in either Brazil or Peru.

"If contact is made, the tribes may be decimated, either though violent conflict or diseases against which they have no immunity," said Survival International researcher David Hill.

THE GREATER GOOD?

In most cases, outsiders -- like scientists, miners and loggers -- are not allowed on reserves for people living in voluntary isolation, but the government can make exceptions if it considers the work to be done is in the public interest.

Practically, this means oil and gas companies are free to operate on reserves marked for isolated tribes.

And they do.

The project at Camisea, a massive natural gas field in southern Peru run by Argentina's Pluspetrol, overlaps a reserve as does a lot operated by Brazil's Petrobras.

Companies have also been granted concessions to work in areas that fall within the proposed reserves.

Firms that have activities where uncontacted tribes are recognized must have a plan for how they aim to protect indigenous integrity and prevent against the spread of disease, said Capac Alatrista, adding it's the government's job to respect life.

He estimated that as many as 3,500 people may live in voluntary isolation within the proposed reserve areas.

"Peru has 29 million people and a poverty rate of around 35 percent. We can't give up the right to extract resources where they are found," said Capac.

"We prioritize, I believe, the needs of the majority, which also needs protection," he said.

(Editing by Jim Marshall)

Read more!

Afghans get first national park

BBC News 22 Apr 09;

Afghanistan has established its first national park in a spectacular region of deep blue lakes separated by natural dams of travertine, a mineral deposit.

Band-e-Amir is visited by thousands of Afghans and pilgrims, though foreign tourism stalled with the increase in violence since 1979.
Declaring Band-e-Amir a park should help protect its fragile environment.

The new park is near the Bamyan Valley, where 1,500-year-old giant Buddha statues were destroyed by the Taleban.

Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency (Nepa) said the creation of the park would help the region attract international tourism and obtain World Heritage Status.

"The park will draw people from Herat to Kabul to Jalalabad... to be inspired by the great beauty of Afghanistan's first national park, Band-e-Amir, " said Mostapha Zaher, Nepa's director-general.

Hand grenades

In the stillness of the high, thin air, the blue and turquoise waters are often like glass, perfectly reflecting the slopes around them, says the BBC's Alan Johnston, who has visited Band-e-Amir.

However, this quietness may be occasionally punctured by the damaging local practice of fishing by blasting the lake waters with hand grenades, he adds.

Much of the park's wildlife has been lost, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

But recent WCS surveys show it still contains ibex, a species of wild goat, and urial, a type of wild sheep.

Other wildlife include wolves, foxes, smaller mammals and fish, and various bird species including the Afghan snow finch, which is believed to be the only bird found exclusively in Afghanistan.

Read more!

Food prices remain high in developing countries

Despite improved global cereal supplies food emergencies continue in 32 countries
FAO 23 Apr 09;

23 April 2009, Rome - High food prices persist in developing countries despite an improved global cereal supply situation and a sharp decline in international food prices, FAO warned today in its latest Crop Prospects and Food Situation report. This is creating further hardship for millions of poor people already suffering from hunger and undernourishment.

This year's world cereal production is forecast to decline by 3 percent from the 2008 record, but it would still be the second largest crop ever, according to FAO's first 2009 forecast. Most of the decrease is expected to be in wheat, mainly due to a significant reduction in plantings in developed countries in response to lower international prices. In developing countries, cereal output could remain close to last year's good level.

Food emergencies persist in 32 countries, despite good 2008 cereal crops in many of the countries normally most at risk of food insecurity.

Out of reach

Cereal prices in developing countries remain generally very high - in some cases at record levels, FAO said. Worst affected are the urban poor and food-deficit farmers who are dependent on the market to access food. Moreover, the global economic recession is drying up remittances from family members working abroad that often sustain the food consumption levels of vulnerable households.

An analysis of domestic food prices for 58 developing countries shows that in around 80 percent of the cases food prices are higher than 12 months ago, and in around 40 percent higher than three months ago. In 17 percent of the cases, the latest price quotations are the highest on record.

The situation is most dramatic in sub-Saharan Africa. Domestic prices of rice are much higher than 12 months earlier in all countries analyzed, while prices of maize, millet and sorghum are higher in 89 percent of the countries compared to a year earlier.

Food prices remain at high levels in other regions as well, particularly in Asia for rice and in Central and South America for maize and wheat.

Slower imports

The cereal import bill for low-income food-deficit countries (LIFDCs) is expected to decline in 2008/09 to $28 billion, down 27 percent from the previous season's all-time high, with lower international prices and freight rates bringing some relief, the report said.

But the slow pace of both commercial cereal imports and food aid is one of the factors keeping food prices high in poor countries, FAO says. By late March, only 45 percent of the LIFDCs' cereal import requirement for the marketing years ending in 2009 had been met.

Hunger hotspots

Food insecurity prevails in parts of Asia, especially in parts of Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. In the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, amid chronic food insecurity, food rations have reportedly been halved following reduced supplies.

In Eastern Africa more than 17 million people face serious food insecurity due to poor harvests, conflict or a combination of these factors. In Somalia, an estimated 3.2 million people currently require food assistance. In Sudan, the continued conflict and the recent expulsion of some humanitarian agencies in Darfur have raised serious concern for millions of vulnerable people faced already with dire situations.

In Southern Africa high domestic prices, slow pace of imports and high demand during these peak hunger months are affecting the food security of around 8.7 million people, including over 5 million in Zimbabwe, where the ongoing outbreak of cholera poses a serious threat to the health and nutrition of vulnerable groups.

Read more!

Ice Study Has Good And Bad News For Planet: Scientist

David Fogarty, PlanetArk 24 Apr 09;

SINGAPORE - A study of Greenland's icesheet has revealed that a vast store of planet-warming methane appears to be more stable than thought, easing fears of a rapid rise in temperatures, a scientist said on Friday.

Methane is about 25 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2) and vast amounts of the compound are trapped in permafrost in the far northern hemisphere or in seabed deposits called clathrates.

Scientists have feared climate change could trigger a huge release of methane from the clathrate reservoir, sending global warming spiraling out of control.

An estimated 5,000 billion tonnes of carbon are locked up in these deposits, said Vasilii Petrenko of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado.

"That's about equal to all of the oil, coal and gas reserves that we think we have," he told Reuters from Boulder, Colorado.

Petrenko and an international team of scientists spent six years studying air samples from vast blocks of Greenland ice to see if a rapid rise in temperatures about 12,000 years ago was triggered by methane from clathrates or another source.

The results showed the methane was most likely to have come from wetlands rather than the clathrates, deposits which resemble ice and are held in place on the ocean bed by high pressures and relatively low temperatures.

Petrenko said temperatures in Greenland 12,000 years ago had increased about 10 degrees Celsius in 20 years. But it took 150 years for methane levels in the atmosphere to increase by 50 percent.

The rapid warming was driving the release of methane, he said, with the most likely sources being tropical wetlands and the vast northern wetlands created after the large-scale retreat of icesheets about 18,000 years ago.

GOING BACK IN TIME

Previous studies of ice core samples from Greenland and Antarctica had shown an increase in methane levels about 11,500 years ago came from the tropics and the northern wetlands.

But Petrenko and his team wanted to be sure of the source, particularly since a massive release of methane from clathrate deposits is believed to have sent temperatures soaring about 56 million years ago, when the planet was much warmer than today.

His team measured the amount of an isotope called carbon-14 (C14) in tiny amounts of methane extracted from air bubbles trapped in Greenland ice going back 12,000 years.

C14 deteriorates at a known rate, so the scientists can use it to determine the age of the ice and also the likely source of the methane.

Methane from wetlands has different C14 "signature" than methane from clathrate deposits.

"The project involved pushing the analytical techniques to a level no one has taken them before," Petrenko said.

Only about one trillionth of the methane from the air bubbles contained the carbon-14 isotope. The analysis was undertaken at Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization.

"The results definitely help us to say that it doesn't seem methane clathrates respond to warming by releasing lots of methane into the atmosphere, which is really good news for global warming."

But the sting in the tale were the ice core records showing methane levels rising as the planet warms.

"We're warming now and we know that there's evidence of northern wetlands becoming more productive. If it's not clathrates, the wetlands might still drag the methane up."

(Editing by Sugita Katyal)

Read more!

Fires Seen Making Climate Change Worse

Deborah Zabarenko, PlanetArk 24 Apr 09;

WASHINGTON - In a vicious cycle made worse by humans, scientists now believe fires spur climate change, which in turn makes blazes bigger, more frequent and more damaging to the environment.

Climate experts have known that a warmer world would spawn more fires, but in research published on Thursday in the journal Science, scientists reported that fires -- especially those set by humans to clear forests -- influence climate change.

Smoke particles sent into the atmosphere by fires inhibit rainfall, which makes the land drier and encourages more fires to start, said study co-author Jennifer Balch of the University of Santa Barbara in California.

On a global scale, burning releases vast amounts of heat-trapping greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, making fires more likely in a warming world, Balch said in a video news briefing.

The report's authors estimate that greenhouse emissions from the world's fires equal about 50 percent of emissions that come from the burning of fossil fuels.

Deforestation fires, like those set to clear forest for pasture in tropical areas like the Amazon, are part of an unintentional "extreme experiment," Balch said: "We're testing how burning forests will influence the climate system."

"THE SCARY BIT"

These deliberately set forest fires contributed up to one-fifth of all human-generated warming in industrial times, she said.

The climate-fire cycle works like this: plants store the climate-warming gas carbon dioxide; when they burn, they release the gas into the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming.

The more fires, the more carbon dioxide is released, which in turn causes more warming in a cycle scientists call positive feedback.

"The scary bit is that, because of the feedbacks and other uncertainties, we could be way underestimating the role of fire in driving future climate change," said co-author Thomas Swetnam of the University of Arizona in Tucson.

This important piece of the climate change puzzle has not previously been emphasized, said co-author David Bowman of the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia.

Most climate scientists considered fire to be a natural disturbance that was not a crucial force that should be considered in creating models of how the planet's climate will change, Bowman said.

"Humans and fire have a complex and ancient relationship," Bowman said. "The relationship means that we can manage fire but we can also start fires. A citizen can't create hurricanes, but a citizen (who sets a fire) can create a mass disaster."

The report's 22 authors called on the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to take the role of fire into account when making future climate models.

Fires Fuel for Climate Change
A warmer climate mean more fires, and more fires mean more greenhouse gases, says new report
Katherine Harmon, Scientific American 23 Apr 09;

The wildfires blazing through North Myrtle Beach, S.C., today are hardly an anomaly in a warming world. According to a landmark report that will be published tomorrow in Science, fires are not just a result of a changing climate, they're also contributing to the overall warming trend much more than imagined, the authors report. As vegetation burns, it releases stored-up carbon into the atmosphere, speeding global warming and thereby exacerbating conditions that may generate a greater incidence of wildfires in the coming years.

Because fires have been part of the global environment for hundreds of millions of years—since the first land plants emerged—as well as a tool for humans for more than 50,000 years, they're largely assumed to be a natural and negligible part of the carbon and climactic cycles. As people use fire on a massive scale as a cheap and efficient way to clear forests for agriculture or development, however, it is having a much greater impact than many scientists realized. In fact, deforestation fires alone have contributed 20 percent of the total greenhouse gases humans have contributed to the atmosphere since industrialization.

The report brought together 22 scientists from a range of disciplines and countries in an effort to better understand the global impact of fire. "This is a critical move away from the thinking that fires are just a disaster," says David Bowman, a professor of forest ecology at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia, and a lead author of the report. Taken in isolation, each conflagration can cause massive human, economic and natural devastation, but as a broader force fire wields a much larger power, according to the report. "Fire is a feature of our planet…. High levels of fire activity have the capacity to change climate," he says.

But across the globe, fires have been getting larger and stronger. "We are witnessing an increasing instance of these megafires," says Thomas Swetnam, director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. This year alone has seen an increase in both the magnitude and deadliness of conflagrations sweeping Australia and the U.S. Southwest. In the past 20 years, the area scorched by fire in the western U.S. was six times greater than in the two decades that preceded it. These infernos are in large part a result of longer, drier summers, which are only poised to get worse with climate change, Swetnam explains.

"The real originality of this work is that we've been able to say something so obvious," Bowman says. He noted that the challenge now will be integrating fire into the large-scale climate models, and that will take further research and understanding.

"What we're calling for," said Bowman of the report, "is inclusion [of fire] in the next [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] models." Not only is the fire of a broader concern for climate stability and human well-being, but large-scale events also pose a risk of upsetting new carbon trading schemes, notes Jennifer Balch, a postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara, because they can release huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere with one fell poof.

For more, visit our In-Depth Report on fires and climate change.

Read more!

How to stop biofuel crops becoming invasive

IUCN 23 Apr 09;

Experts have come up with a series of tips for biofuel producers to stop biofuel crops becoming invasive species.

All introduced crops for biofuel production should be treated as suspect or potentially invasive until proven otherwise, according to the experts. Risk assessments should be carried out at the earliest stages of planning biofuel production, they add.

Production systems should be monitored for possible escapes and appropriate barriers should be used, such as fences, gullies or buffer zones of resistant plants to reduce chances of escapes and invasions.

Finally, the crops should be converted into the first stage of fuel on site if possible to remove the possibility of spreading invasions through seeds or other plant parts.

“We need alternatives to fossil fuels and the judicious development of a range of biofuel production systems is a logical way of addressing that need,” says Geoffrey Howard, IUCN’s expert on invasive species. “Biological invasions from the introduced species themselves, as well as from the production processes, are real risks to biodiversity and livelihoods. The risks can be reduced by following the recommendations we’ve set out.”

The recommendations, compiled by a workshop hosted by IUCN in Nairobi, Kenya, will be published as soon as they have been refined by industry and other invasive species experts.

The experts found that many characteristics of biofuel crops are shared by invasive species, such as fast growth, high productivity, adaptability to a range of soil and climatic conditions and resistance to pests and diseases.

“Existing standard food-crops that are used for biofuels have limited risk of becoming invasive,” says Nadine McCormick, of IUCN’s Energy, Ecosystems and Livelihoods Initiative. “But new plants that are being proposed to increase biofuel production often have higher risks of developing invasive tendencies.”

IUCN will develop a series of best practices and guidance for the avoidance of biological invasions. This will be discussed at a second workshop later in the year for eventual input to the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels principles.

Read more!

UK Imposes Carbon Limits On New Coal Plants

Nina Chestney and Gerard Wynn, PlanetArk 24 Apr 09;

LONDON - Britain announced on Thursday plans to force all new coal plants in the country to test a pioneering carbon-cutting technology, as it tries to sharpen efforts to meet steep climate change targets.

The move would make Britain the first country to require coal plants to fit carbon capture and storage (CCS), still unproven on a commercial scale.

Initially, new plants would have to apply CCS to only about a quarter of power production rising to all output by 2025, Energy and Climate Minister Ed Miliband told parliament.

The government would fund up to four CCS test plants -- including one previously announced -- said Miliband, on measures which won support from analysts and some green groups.

"We need to signal a move away from the building of unabated coal-fired power stations," he said.

CCS traps and then buries underground the carbon dioxide which power plants produce as a result of burning fossil fuels, and so cuts emissions of the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.

Fossil fuels are expected to continue to provide the bulk of energy for modern life worldwide for many years, explaining the urgency to develop a low-carbon fix.

CCS adds about $1 billion to the cost of a power station. Funding for the test plants would be raised either by a premium on electricity produced or a payment per unit of carbon stored.

That would raise consumer power prices by about 2 percent by 2020. The first test should be up and running by 2015, Miliband said, on proposals the government is now consulting on.

WELCOME

Supporters want Britain to lead a CCS race already involving Australia, Norway, the United States and Canada.

"It's extremely welcome," said Stuart Haszeldine, a CCS expert at the University of Edinburgh.

"Britain will be back in front because we'll have up to four plants built. What's been stopping them is the funding."

The initial pilot plants could be in a regional cluster, piping greenhouse gases into depleted oil and gas fields in the North Sea between Britain and Germany.

The government said Humber, Teeside, Merseyside and the Firth of Forth in the North and Thames Gateway in the South were all potential regions for CCS clusters.

The new rules follow Britain's adoption on Wednesday of a target to curb greenhouse gas emissions by 34 percent by 2020. A third of Britain's aging coal plants will close in the next 10 years, adding to the urgency to develop CCS.

The proposed measures drew some support from green groups.

"At last Ed Miliband is demonstrating welcome signs of climate leadership," said John Sauven, Greenpeace executive director.

"But we're not there yet. For every tonne of carbon captured and buried from new coal plants before the 2020s, the government seems happy to see three tonnes released into the atmosphere."

Utilities broadly welcomed the news, but British utility ScottishPower, part of Spain's Iberdrola, argued the tests should apply to existing coal plants, too.

The UK unit of Germany's E.ON said it would still commit to fit CCS to a coal-fired plant in Kingsnorth, if it is approved to build it.

Coal exporters to Britain said there would be less coal consumption in Britain regardless of CCS.

The timescale for any new coal plant is so far into the future that it makes no difference, a South African supplier told Reuters.

(Editing by James Jukwey and Sue Thomas)

'Clean' coal plants get go-ahead
BBC 23 Apr 09; with links to more about how it works, tech option 2, tech option 3 and carbon burial.

The government has given the go-ahead for a new generation of coal-fired power plants - but only if they can prove they can reduce their emissions.

Up to four new plants will be built if they are fitted with technology to trap and store CO2 emissions underground.

The technology is not yet proven and would only initially apply to 25% of power stations' output.

Green groups welcomed the move but said any new stations would still release more carbon than they stored.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband's announcement followed confirmation in the Budget that there would be a new funding mechanism for at least two - and up to four - "demonstration" carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects.

Stations closing

He told MPs it would allow the UK "to lead the world" in the technology - and keep coal within the UK's energy mix without abandoning climate change commitments.

It is not clear where the new plants will be located although the government said areas where the greatest benefits could be generated included parts of Kent and Essex, Humberside, Teesside, Firth of Forth and Merseyside.

In 2008 coal power stations provided 31% of the UK's electricity but a third of them are due to close in the next ten years.

Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel but is likely to remain widely used across the world because it is cheap and relatively abundant.

Mr Miliband said there was an "international imperative to make coal clean" and said the era of "unabated" growth in coal-fired plants was over.

He said only allow new coal stations fitted with CCS would be allowed to be built in England and Wales.

Higher bills

The technology would at first have to cover between 20 and 25% of the station's energy output.

Once it is "independently judged as economically and technically proven" - which the government expects by 2020 - those stations would have five years to "retrofit" CCS to cover 100% of their output.

Mr Miliband said successful CCS development could cut carbon emissions from coal by 90%.

He told MPs the move put the UK "in a world leadership position on CCS and coal".

"There is no alternative to CCS if we are serious about fighting climate change and retaining a diverse mix of energy sources for our economy," he added.

One publicly funded project had already been planned and the additional ones will be funded through a scheme which will guarantee the price companies receive for electricity generated by CCS.

Mr Miliband said that would add an estimated 2% to energy bills by 2020.

Shadow energy secretary Greg Clark welcomed what he called the government's "Damascene conversion" to CCS adding: "This statement is urgently needed because after 12 years Britain's energy policy is as much of a horror show as our public finances."

For the Lib Dems, Martin Horwood was concerned that by only insisting on 100% CCS use when the technology was deemed ready, Mr Miliband had inserted a "dirty great loophole big enough for some of the dirtiest power stations possible to fit into".

The announcement was welcomed by trade unions who said it could create thousands of jobs, avoid energy shortages and put the UK at the forefront of a technology that could cut carbon emissions across the world.

But while environmental groups welcomed an end to unabated coal fired stations - there were concerns about increased emissions.

Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said that for every tonne of carbon captured before 2020, three would be released into the atmosphere.

Some concerns were raised that billions of pounds of taxpayers' money was being spent on technology that remains unproven.

WWF-UK's Keith Allott said the taxpayer should not have to "shoulder the full brunt of the costs" and the "polluter" should make significant financial contributions.

Clean coal push marks reversal of UK energy policy
Decision not to allow any new coal-powered plants to be built in Britain without carbon capture represents a major victory for the new Department for Energy and Climate Change and green pressure groups
John Vidal, guardian.co.uk 23 Apr 09;

No new coal-fired power stations will be built in Britain from now on unless they capture and bury at least 25% of greenhouse gases immediately and 100% by 2025, the climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, announced today.

In a reversal of energy policy which represents a major victory for the new Department for Energy and Climate Change and green pressure groups, the government will direct the building of four energy "clusters", generating a total of 2.5GW of electricity, on the east coast of Britain.

Each cluster will have at least one major new coal-fired power station able to collect carbon emissions and transport them out to sea, where they will be buried in redundant oil or gas fields.

The new power stations, the first to be built in over 30 years, are not expected to come onstream until 2015. They will be sited in the Thames Gateway, on the rivers Humber and Tees and in the Firth of Forth in Scotland, with a possible fifth on Merseyside. The government envisages oil and coal companies linking to reduce emissions from coal-powered electricity generation by up to 60% by 2025.

Demanding carbon capture and storage (CCS) on all new coal plants is expected to cost around £1bn for each plant and increase energy bills. Government and energy companies are in talks over how these will be funded but it is expected to come from a levy on all fossil fuel electricity generation in Britain. This could put 2%, or roughly £8 per household a year, on a consumer's electricity bills by 2020. Other funding alternatives being considered are to pay the energy companies according to how much carbon they store underground.

Earlier today, Ed Miliband said that Britain planned to lead the world in clean coal technology. This is expected to become a global industry in the next 50 years as countries commit to reducing carbon emissions to combat global warming. Coal is the dirtiest of fossil fuels but provides at least one-third of the world's electricity.

"There is a massive gain we can benefit from by being in the front of this revolution. We need to signal a move away from the building of unabated coal-fired power stations because it is right for our country to drive us towards a low-carbon [economy]. The change starts now," he said.

Environmental groups found themselves in the unusual position of joining the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in hailing a government initiative.

"At last Ed Miliband is demonstrating welcome signs of climate leadership in the face of resistance from Whitehall officials and cabinet colleagues. He is the first minister to throw down the gauntlet to the energy companies and demand they start taking climate change seriously," said John Sauven, Greenpeace UK's director.

"This time last year energy issues were being decided by tired ministers in thrall to regressive civil servants. Now we see hints of real climate leadership."

But he added: "Very significant questions remain unanswered, with environmentalists concerned that emissions from coal could still be undermining Britain's climate efforts for years to come. For every tonne of carbon captured and buried from new coal plants before the 2020s, the government seems happy to see three tonnes released into the atmosphere. Until there is a cast-iron guarantee that new coal plants won't be allowed to pump out massive amounts of CO2 from day one, our campaign continues."

The announcement will have the effect of delaying a decision on the go-ahead for a major new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent for at least another year, but it is not expected to stop major climate change protests over coming months.

Miliband said it was technically not possible to insist on 100% carbon capture and storage immediately. "Some people will say that Britain needs 100% carbon capture and storage from day one, but this is not practical, affordable or right. The technology must be shown to work on a large scale. If it leads to no new coal-fired power stations going ahead it would be a dramatic failure of leadership. 2025 is a practical."

Environmentalists have run a two-year campaign against new highly polluting coal plants, with attention focusing on E.ON's plans to build the new plant at Kingsnorth. The German utility submitted plans for a normal "unabated" plant, and came within weeks of being given permission by energy secretary John Hutton.

The announcement follows this week's budget which pledged £1.4bn towards home energy saving and other climate change reduction initiatives.

Read more!