Getting Mosquitoes to Poison Their Own Larvae

Henry Fountain, The New York Times 19 Jun 09;

Controlling the mosquito that’s largely responsible for infecting people with the dengue fever virus isn’t easy. That’s because the bug, Aedes aegypti, has evolved in parallel with humans, living around them and breeding in even the smallest puddles of water — rainwater in a discarded can, say, or the saucer under a flower pot.

With so many potential breeding sites, spreading pesticide can be a painstaking, door-to-door activity. But Gregor J. Devine of Rothamsted Research, an agricultural institute in Britain, had a different idea: why not let the mosquitoes do the work?

Building on laboratory studies that showed that adult mosquitoes could pick up an insecticide and transfer it, he and his colleagues conducted field experiments in Iquitos, Peru, using pyriproxyfen, a compound that kills larvae but is not harmful to adult mosquitoes (or to people, either, in the amounts used).

After getting a meal of blood from a human, a female A. aegypti likes to find a dark, damp spot to rest while its eggs develop, buzzing off later to find water to deposit the eggs in. Dr. Devine said their work, described in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, took advantage of this routine.

He and his team set up “dissemination stations,” consisting of dark, damp cloths dusted with pyriproxyfen, in the nooks and crannies of above-ground tombs in a cemetery. When a female rested on the cloth, its legs picked up some of the pesticide, which came off when it later landed in a breeding pool. The researchers found that putting stations in as little as 3 percent of the available spots in the cemetery resulted in coverage of almost all the breeding habitats in the immediate area, and mortality of up to 98 percent of the mosquito larvae.

Dr. Devine said the technique may be useful for controlling A. aegypti in conjunction with other eradication methods and may also help control mosquito species that spread other diseases, like malaria.

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Ivory trafficking surpasses drugs in Africa: experts

Yahoo News 19 Jun 09;

NAIVASHA, Kenya (AFP) – Trafficking in ivory and game meat has become one of the most lucrative illegal trades in Africa due to rising demand in Asia, experts said on Friday.

"In terms of monetary value, ivory trade has surpassed drugs and is now one of the most thriving illegal trade in the continent," said Karl Karugaba, the head of a panel from the Lusaka Agreement Task Force.

He told reporters in Naivasha that the large amount of contraband nabbed at various African airports pointed to rising demand, but did not cite any figures.

He spoke at the end of a conference of monitors drawn from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Lusaka Agreement, which came into force in 1992, is designed to help African law enforcement agencies tackle wildlife smuggling.

A global wildlife trade monitoring group, TRAFFIC, on Friday said Thailand is Asia's largest illegal elephant ivory market and shows few signs of addressing the problem.

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Europe to hunt more whales than Japan, figures show

Europeans are killing whales in increasing numbers as Norway, Denmark and Iceland propose to hunt 1,478 whales compared to Japan's 1,280 in 2009
John Vidal, guardian.co.uk 19 Jun 09;

Europe plans to hunt more whales than Japan for the first time in many years, dividing EU countries and dismaying conservationists who say that whaling is escalating in response to the worldwide recession.

Figures seen by the Guardian before a meeting of more than 80 countries next week, show that Norway, Denmark and Iceland propose to hunt 1,478 whales compared to Japan's 1,280 in 2009. This would be an increase of nearly 20% by Europe on last year.

"Europe likes to point the finger at Japan as a rogue whaling nation but Europeans are killing whales in increasing numbers in their own waters. Europe has become whale enemy number one", said Kate O'Connell, campaigner for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).

Iceland – which today began its 2009 hunt by killing the first two of 150 fin whales – and Norway, are the only two countries to hunt whales commercially. This breaches a 23-year-old worldwide moratorium introduced to preserve critically endangered whale populations.

This year, Norway proposes to kill 885 minke whales, and Iceland 350 whales in total. Denmark will apply to hunt 245 on behalf of indigenous Inuit hunters in its semi-autonomous territory Greenland. Most of the whale meat caught in European waters will be sold to Japan.

Japan, which practises thinly disguised commercial whaling under the guise of scientific research, plans to kill 850 whales in Antarctic waters this season, as well as more than 400 in the Pacific. It wants to kill fewer whales than last year but is seeking permission to hunt more in its coastal waters.

Britain today increased diplomatic pressure on Iceland to stop its whaling, warning that it intended to make it a condition of the country's expected application to join the EU that it abandon commercial whaling. Fisheries minister Huw Irranca-Davies said: "If Iceland were to join Europe then Britain would expect they would be obliged to end their whaling operation. We would urge renegotiation."

A spokesman for the new Iceland government said: "The government has said it will honour this year's quota but will reassess the whaling situation by the end of the year. A study is being done by the economic institute of the University of Iceland. Whaling will obviously be part of the talks when Iceland negotiates its entry to the EU."

An independent economic report commissioned by conservation groups WWF and WDCS released today in advance of the International whaling commission (IWC) summit in Madeira, concludes that whaling is no longer economically viable.

Japan, it claimed, has spent $164m (£100m) backing its whaling industry since 1988, and Norwegian subsidies equal almost half of the gross value of all whale-meat landings. Sales of whale meat, blubber, and other whale products in Japan "have made financial losses for most of the last 20 years", it said.

The research says that killing more whales will only hurt the growing whale-watching industry, and damage the international image of Norway and Japan. "Norway and Japan are hurting tourism, a potential growth industry in both countries in order to spend millions of dollars obtaining whale meat, the sale of which makes no profit. How much longer are they going to keep wasting their taxpayer's money?" said a spokeswoman for WWF.

Earlier this year more than 115,000 people pledged to visit Iceland as soon as the government announced an end to whaling.

The number of pro- and anti-whaling countries are finely balanced within the IWC, with both sides continuing to recruit as many countries as possible to boost their positions. Japan in the past has offered many small countries development aid to vote with them, but Britain and other countries have also leaned on eastern European countries to join.

Australia and New Zealand said this week that they would mount a non-lethal whale research expedition to the Antarctic, as a direct challenge to Japan's research programme, which maintains it must kill whales to study them. The six-week expedition aims to prove that whales needn't be killed for study, the two governments said in a joint statement.

The IWC meeting is being held amidst are fears that environment groups are stepping up campaigns to stop whaling. A previously unknown Norwegian group called Agenda 21 attacked a whaling ship in April, bringing to six the number of whaling boats sabotaged in Norway.

Sea Shepherd, a radical California-based group which has admitted sabotaging whalers in Iceland and elsewhere, has also threatened to return to Europe.

Today , the Icelandic whaling ship Hvalur 9 returned to the Hvalfjord whaling station to process its first catch.

FLASHPOINTS

GREENLAND: The semi-autonomous Danish territory wants to hunt 50 endangered fin whales for indigenous consumption, but most of the meat will be sold to Japan

RUSSIA: Oil companies on the Sakhalin peninsular in the far east of Russia threaten feeding grounds of critically endangered whales

NORWAY: The Lofoten islands are the centre of Norwegian whaling, but also target of anti-whaling groups

ANTARCTICA: The entire sea around Antarctica has been declared a whale sanctuary but Japan regularly hunts whales there

ICELAND: Government may be forced to stop whaling if it wants to joins EU

EU membership will kill whale hunting in Iceland: CEO
Yahoo News 19 Jun 09:

REYKJAVIK (AFP) – Iceland would probably be forced to end its controversial whale hunting tradition in its bid to join the European Union, the head of a leading Icelandic whaling company said.

Kristjan Loftsson, the 66-year-old chief executive of Hvalur, fears Brussels would clamp down on whaling in Iceland due to widespread opposition by European countries.

"I would not be surprised if whale hunting has to be stopped," Loftsson told AFP.

Iceland and Norway are the only two countries in the world that authorise commercial whaling despite a 23-year-old moratorium set by the International Whaling Commission, which opens its annual meeting Monday in Portugal's Madeira island.

Iceland, which pulled out of the moratorium in 2006, launched its annual whaling season on May 26 with a larger hunting quota, sparking protests from EU powerhouses Britain, France and Germany as well as the United States.

Loftsson said Iceland should stay out of the EU, not in the interests of whale hunters but in the interest of the country's fishing industry as a whole.

Iceland's Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir campaigned in the country's recent elections on a promise to let Icelandic voters have the final say on joining the EU.

But Loftsson questioned whether many support membership.

"I am very sceptical that Iceland will join the European Union in the near future," Loftsson said.

"I think the Icelandic people are sufficiently well-informed to say 'No' to Europe," he said.

In February, Iceland sparked an outcry amongst environmental groups when it increased its whaling quotas to 150 fin whales and 100 minke whales per year, up from the nine fin whales and 40 minke whales per year.

But Loftsson, who started hunting at the age of 13, is defiant on this point. He stressed that whaling "like any other industry creates jobs, income and foreign currency" and is an essential part of the Icelandic economy.

The Hvalur chief executive also rejected the fears of environmentalists, who argue the whale is an endangered species and must be protected.

"This is just a natural resource that people want to use. It's estimated there are some 20,000 fin whales around Iceland. With that in mind, 150 (hunted this year) is unlikely to make a big difference," Loftsson said.

He dismissed claims by Greenpeace that the popularity of whale meat was on the slide.

"Each whale's value depends on its size and age. I don't know anyone in business and aims to lose money," he said.

Hvalur has been hunting whales since 1948 and employees about 150 people, of which 30 people are deployed on its two fishing vessels. It is currently the only company which is allowed to hunt fin whales around the Icelandic coast.

Iceland's higher hunting quota may add fuel to the always heated debate at the annual International Whaling Commission meeting, where pro-hunting nations have been fighting for an end to the moratorium that was set in 1986.

While Iceland and Norway openly defy the ban, Japan uses a loophole that allows "lethal research" on the ocean giants, with the meat then heading to restaurants and supermarkets.

Last year, Iceland decided to resume whale meat exports to Japan after an 18-year hiatus.

Icelandic whalers bring in season's first big catches
Yahoo News 19 Jun 09;

AKRANES (AFP) – Icelandic whale hunters have brought in their first big catches of the season, two fin whales weighing around 35 tonnes each, an AFP photographer witnessed Friday.

The boat, Hvalur 9, arrived overnight Thursday to Friday at the port of Akranes, 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of capital Reykjavik, towing the bodies of the 20 metre (65 foot) long mammals.

The huge whales were swiftly carved up to separate the blubber from the meat, and a piece of meat was tasted by an inspector to check the quality.

Environmental campaign group Greenpeace condemned the catch, saying Iceland would pay a high price for continuing the controversial practice.

"What little profit (the whaler) may take from this fin whale hunt will come at a great cost to Iceland - economically and politically," warned Sara Holden, Greenpeace International's whale campaign coordinator.

Iceland's whaling season opened on May 26, amid fierce opposition from environmental groups angered by a sharp rise in quotas this year.

Iceland increased its quota to 100 minke whales and 150 fin whales, from a quota of 40 minke whales and nine fin whales last year.

Many species of whales are now endangered and hunting of the marine mammal was officially banned with a moratorium in 1986.

Iceland and Norway are the only two countries in the world that now authorise commercial whaling.

Iceland withdrew from the moratorium in 2006, and Norway in 1993, triggering an international outcry on both occasions.

Japan officially allows whaling for scientific purposes, but the meat is then sold to restaurants and supermarkets.

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New Yangtze dam may be death sentence for rare fish

Emma Graham-Harrison, Reuters 19 Jun 09;

BEIJING (Reuters) - Rare fish squeezed by China's decades of frantic dam-building could be pushed over the brink into extinction if a hydropower project planned for a protected stretch of the Yangtze river goes ahead, experts say.

Scientists and activists have petitioned the government to veto the Xiaonanhai dam, which would block a critical stretch of China's longest river above the city of Chongqing, and create a reservoir stretching deep into a national-level reserve.

"This reserve is considered by many fish experts as the last habitat for some of the endangered and local fish species," said environmentalist Ma Jun, who signed a letter asking the government to protect rare Yangtze fish threatened by the construction of too many dams.

For fish that have evolved to migrate and breed along a free-flowing river, large reservoirs can be a death sentence.

"When a dam is built you effectively change everything from the point of view of a river fish," said David Dudgeon, professor of freshwater ecology at the University of Hong Kong.

"The water temperature and the oxygen content, movement and current speed change. You prevent them accessing breeding sites, and alter the characteristics of the river bottom."

The Yangtze, which rises in the Himalayas and is known in Chinese as "the long river," is rich with unique species including the Yangtze sturgeon, the Baiji or Yangtze river dolphin, and the Chinese paddlefish.

But cascades of dams now block large sections of the river as power-hungry China seeks to fuel its growth. One is the Three Gorges, the world's biggest hydropower project.

Yangtze fish also have to battle overfishing, pollution from breakneck industrialization, and heavy river traffic.

The Baiji is already believed to be functionally extinct, and the last chance of survival for other species may be the 400 km (250 miles) of river now threatened by the Xiaonanhai dam -- which would provide power to fast-growing Chongqing.

"My guess is that the paddlefish and the Yangtze sturgeon are on the way to extinction already but there are other species that the reserve may be critically important for," Dudgeon warned.

"The (Xiaonanhai) dam would probably finish off some of the more vulnerable species -- the last nail in the coffin."

POWER VS NATURE

A rare and endemic fish nature reserve was originally established on the Yangtze in the mid-1990s, but subsequently moved to make way for the giant Xiangjiaba and Xiluodu dams.

But the new reserve had been touted as a possible site for a dam before the reserve was moved and officials are exploiting this to push their plans, environmentalists fear.

Defenders of the dam say it will lie in an "experimental" zone where some construction is allowed. Opponents argue the reservoir will stretch into areas set aside for conservation.

"(Officials) just see it from an economic development angle ... this will be a big investment," said Guo Qiaoyu, Yangtze River Project Manager at The Nature Conservancy.

Water expert Ma said the dam will not be very economical, even if the spending boosts the local economy.

"This is not a tall dam, and so the installed capacity is limited and the number of people that need to be relocated is relatively high, with compensation due for that," he said.

Experts fear that pressure for growth means the fish they study may pay a price for strange looks and elusive habitats.

"The very fact that this dam may be going ahead in the center of a national-level reserve tells you how important people think the conservation of fish is compared to the cuddlier animals," Dudgeon said.

(Editing by Ken Wills)

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Dams near China's Yellow River fragile: media

Reuters 19 Jun 09;

BEIJING (Reuters) - Several dams on tributaries of China's Yellow River are near collapse shortly after being built, highlighting risks that parts of China's hastily built infrastructure may not be safe, media reported on Friday.

At least five newly built dams in Huan county, in Gansu province in arid northeast China, are "in very fragile condition," the China Daily said, citing a report from the China Youth Daily.

Reports blamed improper construction and embezzlement of funds.

"As flood season approaches in July, August and September, China's dam safety is coming under heavy pressure," Chen Lei, Minister of Water Resources, was cited by the China Daily as saying.

Inspections show many dams are not in good condition, Chen added.

A devastating earthquake in Sichuan province last year, near a river clogged with dams, turned the spotlight on the risks posed by China's thousands of dams.

Improper construction procedures, shoddy materials and diversion of funds by government departments have all contributed to fragile dams, the newspaper added.

A total of 59 dams nationwide were breached between 1999 and 2008, 20 caused by quality defects and the remainder by torrential rains, Chen said.

One dam in Huan county, 80 metres long and 20 meters wide, developed a breach more than 10 meters wide just two years after it was constructed in 2006, it said.

"There are many construction problems," the China Youth Daily cited local villagers as saying, when asked why many dams collapsed one or two years after being built.

One of the worse dam accidents ever occurred in China's Henan province in 1975, when a collapse at one dam triggered a domino effect, drowning 26,000 people. Over 100,000 more may have died in the subsequent famine and epidemics.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Lucy Hornby)

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Nuclear power emerges as green option for Asia

Prime Sarmiento www.chinaview.cn news.xinhuanet.com 20 Jun 09;

MANILA, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Nuclear power is emerging as an option key source of "green energy" for most developing Asian countries, in order to stem the spike in greenhouse gas emission which came along way with the region's economic success, experts who participated in a Manila forum said.

The growing concern over climate change -- and how it will hurt the region's environment, human health and economy -- has forced economic planners, advocates and business leaders in Asia to search for a stable energy source that can moderate the carbon emissions, they said.

"Developing Asian countries -- whether they like it or not -- should take a look at nuclear power as a source of energy," said Piyasvasti Amranand, chief advisor of the Bangkok-based Energy for Environment Foundation and former Thai energy minister at Friday's closing of the Asia Clean Energy Forum.

The three-day forum was organized by the Asian Development Bank(ADB) and the United States Agency for International Development.

Piyasvasti said renewable energy sources -- such as wind power and biofuels -- are indeed environment-friendly, but they may not be enough to meet the needs of the fast-growing region.

In Thailand, for instance, Piyasvasti said it will be difficult to rely on biofuels for its energy requirements as it doesn't have enough land for fuel crops like oil palm.

"Nuclear power is proven technology and it won't contribute to greenhouse gas emissions," Piyasvasti said.

From 1990 to 2006, the average annual 3.5 percent GDP growth rate in Asia resulted to annual energy consumption growth rate of 3.2 percent. But the region's dependence on fossil fuels has also raised its greenhouse gas emissions, and now accounts for 30 percent of the world's nearly 30 billion metric tons carbon emissions, the Tokyo-based Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre (APERC) said in a report.

According to APERC, Asia consumed 2,558 million tons of oil equivalent (MTOE) in 2006, most of which were sourced from coal and oil. The threat of climate change won't stop Asian economies from using fossil fuels, but they will definitely include other energy sources that won't contribute to global warming.

Naoko Doi, senior economist at the Institute of Energy Economics in Japan, said that the trend is moving towards the development of low-carbon technology and diversifying of energy sources which include renewables and nuclear power.

China and India -- the twin biggest economies and largest energy consumers in Asia -- are actively developing nuclear power in line with their respective policies on energy security and clean energy.

China's top economic planning body -- the National Development and Reform Commission -- in May announced that it has developed an energy development plan that focuses on increasing the share of nuclear power and renewable energy such as wind and solar power totheir total energy sources.

Currently, coal accounts for 70 percent of the roughly 980 MTOE that China consumes each year, while renewables and nuclear energy only account for less than 10 percent.

The Indian government, on the other hand, plans to increase the production of nuclear power generation from its present capacity of 4,000 megawatts to 20,000 megawatts in the next decade, according to data issued by the Asian Development Bank.

Last year, the Indian government sealed a nuclear pact with the U.S. government. The pact will give India access to nuclear reactors, fuel and technologies from the U.S. and supported India's plan to develop its nuclear power capacity.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had endorsed nuclear energy as one of the "commercially available climate change mitigating technologies," IPCC chairman Rajendra K.Pachauri, described nuclear energy as a "green technology" as it doesn't contribute to carbon emission that causes the global warming.

But not everyone agrees with this view. Environmental watchdog Greenpeace International has been actively campaigning against nuclear energy, arguing that it's not only expensive and inefficient but also harmful to the environment.

"When it comes to combating climate change, nuclear energy cannot deliver the necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in time; any emissions reductions from nuclear power will be too little, too late and come at far too high a price," according to a paper issued by Greenpeace in April.

Greenpeace said that no one has yet found a solution to the hazards posed by nuclear wastes.

"Despite the billions already invested in research and development for dealing with radioactive waste, new experiments are still being presented as 'solutions'; methods that will not be ready for a long time, may never be commercially viable or do little to solve the long term waste problem," the group said.

For Pachauri, nuclear energy may be an option for those who want to develop green technology. But he admits that nuclear power isn't for everyone.

"Nuclear energy provides a solution (to our climate change problem), but its not a solution (fit) for every country in the world. You need a certain infrastructure, engineering skills and safety standards that are followed very strictly. Not every country can ensure that," he said.

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Renewable energy wave rolls across Australia

WWF 19 Jun 09;

Waves around Australia and hot rocks beneath it have the capacity to power Australia into a clean energy future and provide tens of thousands of new jobs, according to new reports from WWF. “What we are seeing here is the birth of new industries," said WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne.

Waves around Australia and hot rocks beneath it have the capacity to power Australia into a clean energy future and provide thousands of new jobs, according to two new reports from WWF.

Power to Change: Australia’s Wave Energy Future estimates the the wave energy industry will create 3,210 jobs by 2020, including jobs in local manufacturing and maintenance. By 2050 this figure is expected to grow to 14,380 jobs.

The report was prepared with the assistance of the Carnegie Corporation, whose CETO wave energy demonstration plant in Western Australia is regarded as a world leader in harnessing the oceans to provide clean, baseload renewable energy.

“Australia has the largest and most consistent wave energy resource globally and at least 35 per cent of our current baseload power needs could be generated from the Southern Ocean," said Carnegie Corporation Managing Director Dr Michael Ottaviano.

Meanwhile, Power to Change: Australia’s Geothermal Future, a report prepared in collaboration with the Australian Geothermal Energy Association (AGEA), predicted that more than 17,000 Australians could be employed in the geothermal energy industry by 2050.

“When it comes to geothermal energy, we truly are the lucky country,” said Paul Toni, WWF Program Leader for Sustainable Development. “The energy stored in hot rocks near the Earth’s surface in Australia is a thousand fold what we use each and ever year.”

A key advantage of geothermal energy in the shift to a low carbon economy is the ability to take up some fo the employment slack from declining fossil fuel industries.

“The geothermal energy industry provides opportunities for workers to move from industries like coal, oil and gas into clean energy jobs, as much of the technology and expertise is transferable from one to the other,” said Susan Jeanes, Chief Executive of AGEA

Both technologies are expecting a boost from Australia’s so far fitful moves to putting a price on carbon emissions. They would also benefit from a freeing up of the Renewable Energy Target scheme to embrace more technologies.
“Renewable technologies are the nuts and bolts of Australia’s clean energy future,” said WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne.

“What we are seeing here is the birth of new industries that will provide tens of thousands of jobs and a technology and expertise that we can export around the world, as well as renewable energy to power Australia.”

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1.02 billion people hungry

One sixth of humanity undernourished - more than ever before
FAO 19 Jun 09;

19 June 2009, Rome - World hunger is projected to reach a historic high in 2009 with 1 020 million people going hungry every day, according to new estimates published by FAO today.

The most recent increase in hunger is not the consequence of poor global harvests but is caused by the world economic crisis that has resulted in lower incomes and increased unemployment. This has reduced access to food by the poor, the UN agency said.

"A dangerous mix of the global economic slowdown combined with stubbornly high food prices in many countries has pushed some 100 million more people than last year into chronic hunger and poverty," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf. "The silent hunger crisis — affecting one sixth of all of humanity — poses a serious risk for world peace and security. We urgently need to forge a broad consensus on the total and rapid eradication of hunger in the world and to take the necessary actions."

"The present situation of world food insecurity cannot leave us indifferent," he added.

Poor countries, Diouf stressed, "must be given the development, economic and policy tools required to boost their agricultural production and productivity. Investment in agriculture must be increased because for the majority of poor countries a healthy agricultural sector is essential to overcome poverty and hunger and is a pre-requisite for overall economic growth."

"Many of the world's poor and hungry are smallholder farmers in developing countries. Yet they have the potential not only to meet their own needs but to boost food security and catalyse broader economic growth. To unleash this potential and reduce the number of hungry people in the world, governments, supported by the international community, need to protect core investments in agriculture so that smallholder farmers have access not only to seeds and fertilisers but to tailored technologies, infrastructure, rural finance, and markets," said Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

"For most developing countries there is little doubt that investing in smallholder agriculture is the most sustainable safety net, particularly during a time of global economic crisis," Nwanze added.

"The rapid march of urgent hunger continues to unleash an enormous humanitarian crisis. The world must pull together to ensure emergency needs are met as long term solutions are advanced," said Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme.

Hunger on the rise

Whereas good progress was made in reducing chronic hunger in the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, hunger has been slowly but steadily on the rise for the past decade, FAO said. The number of hungry people increased between 1995-97 and 2004-06 in all regions except Latin America and the Caribbean. But even in this region, gains in hunger reduction have been reversed as a result of high food prices and the current global economic downturn (see background note).

This year, mainly due to the shocks of the economic crisis combined with often high national food prices, the number of hungry people is expected to grow overall by about 11 percent, FAO projects, drawing on analysis by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Almost all of the world's undernourished live in developing countries. In Asia and the Pacific, an estimated 642 million people are suffering from chronic hunger; in Sub-Saharan Africa 265 million; in Latin America and the Caribbean 53 million; in the Near East and North Africa 42 million; and in developed countries 15 million in total.

In the grip of the crisis

The urban poor will probably face the most severe problems in coping with the global recession, because lower export demand and reduced foreign direct investment are more likely to hit urban jobs harder. But rural areas will not be spared. Millions of urban migrants will have to return to the countryside, forcing the rural poor to share the burden in many cases.

Some developing countries are also struggling with the fact that money transfers (remittances) sent from migrants back home have declined substantially this year, causing the loss of foreign exchange and household income. Reduced remittances and a projected decline in official development assistance will further limit the ability of countries to access capital for sustaining production and creating safety nets and social protection schemes for the poor.

Unlike previous crises, developing countries have less room to adjust to the deteriorating economic conditions, because the turmoil is affecting practically all parts of the world more or less simultaneously. The scope for remedial mechanisms, including exchange-rate depreciation and borrowing from international capital markets for example, to adjust to macroeconomic shocks, is more limited in a global crisis.

The economic crisis also comes on the heel of the food and fuel crisis of 2006-08. While food prices in world markets declined over the past months, domestic prices in developing countries came down more slowly. They remained on average 24 percent higher in real terms by the end of 2008 compared to 2006. For poor consumers, who spend up to 60 percent of their incomes on staple foods, this means a strong reduction in their effective purchasing power. It should also be noted that while they declined, international food commodity prices are still 24 percent higher than in 2006 and 33 percent higher than in 2005.

The 2009 hunger report (The State of Food Insecurity in the World, SOFI) will be presented in October.

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Uganda forests rapidly disappearing: study

Yahoo News 19 Jun 09;

KAMPALA (AFP) – Uganda has lost nearly a third of its forest cover since 1990 due to expanding farmlands, a rapidly growing human population and increased urbanisation, a government report said on Friday.

In 1990, the east African nation had more than five million hectares of forest cover but by 2005 only 3.5 million hectares (8.6 million acres) remained, the report, published by Ugandan's National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), said.

If deforestation continues at the present rate Uganda will have lost all its forested land by 2050, it warned.

On average 10 percent of the population of Uganda has access to electricity, while the rest make do with firewood for cooking.

"Because 89 percent of rural Ugandans rely on burning firewood for cooking, deforestation is occurring at an alarming rate," NEMA said.

Compounding the problem is that Uganda, an east African country of roughly 31 million people, has one of the world's highest population growth rates.

Recent government estimates put the figure at more than seven live births per adult female.

This growth rate has resulted in the expansion of built-up areas in urban areas, particularly around the capital Kampala.

Three districts surrounding Kampala lost more than 78 percent of their forestland since 1990, as people have migrated out of the increasingly crowded city into neighbouring regions, according to the report.

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U.N. seeks to avert half of natural disaster deaths

Laura MacInnis, Reuters 19 Jun 09;

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations called on Friday for more aid funds to help countries prepare for -- instead of respond to -- natural disasters, saying simple steps could halve the number of deaths they cause.

John Holmes, the U.N.'s emergency relief coordinator, said that 10 percent of humanitarian aid and 30 percent of climate change response money should be used to help fortify schools and hospitals and teach people how to survive crises.

"You can't stop the disasters happening but you can make an enormous difference to whether they kill people and, to some extent at least, have their livelihoods destroyed," he told a news conference in Geneva.

Speaking at the end of a week-long U.N. disaster response meeting, Holmes said that smarter spending of foreign assistance could go a long way to shield lives in countries that are highly exposed to storms, earthquakes and cyclones.

Last year, natural disasters killed nearly 236,000 people and caused $181 billion in economic damage, mainly in China, according to U.N. estimates.

Bangladesh and China are considered most at risk from deaths from floods, landslides and other hazards that are expected to increase in frequency alongside global warming.

While death rates swing wildly from year to year depending on the storms that occur -- in 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar and China experienced the big Sichuan earthquake -- Holmes said that preparation measures could bring down the long-term toll.

Among the recommended measures endorsed at the U.N. meeting were plans to review the structural soundness of all schools and hospitals in disaster-prone areas, and to ensure building and land-use codes better reflect natural hazard risks.

About $3 billion a year of aid funds should be used to lower disaster risks, Holmes said, noting that Australia, Sweden, the United States, Britain and Germany already in principle allocate 10 percent of humanitarian aid to such efforts.

Some life-saving measures can be accomplished at very low cost, so long as governments keep natural hazard preparedness high on their agendas, the U.N. official said.

"It can be extremely low-tech. It's people on bicycles and bullhorns," he said, describing successful steps undertaken in flood-prone Bangladesh to inform people about how and when to seek shelter from rising waters. "That is not something that requires huge financial outlay."

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

(For a table of the most and least risky places for natural disasters, see the interactive map at: www.preventionweb.net/english/maps/?pid:34&pih:2)

(For more information about humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters, see: www.alertnet.org)

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New York 'carbon counter' sign shows greenhouse gases in real time

Adam Vaughan, guardian.co.uk 18 Jun 09;

New Yorkers leaving Penn station and the tenor Andrea Bocelli's concert at Madison Square Garden stadium were confronted with an unusual advert yesterday – a huge sign showing greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere.
Updated in real time, using projections from monthly measurements of CO2 and other greenhouse gases by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Carbon Counter is designed to get everyone to reduce their emissions.

Kevin Parker, the global head of Deutsche Bank's asset management division, which put up the 21-metre sign, said: "Carbon in the atmosphere has reached an 800,000-year high. We can't see greenhouse gases, so it is easy to forget that they are accumulating rapidly."

Yesterday the counter, which uses 40,960 low-energy LEDs and carbon-offsets its electricity usage, gave a figure of 3.64tn tonnes.

At current rates, the counter's figures are expected to rise by 2bn tonnes a month. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere stands at about 387 parts per million (ppm), up by more than a third on pre-industrial revolution levels of about 280ppm.

Ronald Prinn, professor of atmospheric science at MIT, explained the data behind the sign: "The number on the counter is based on global measurements. It shows the total estimated tonnage of greenhouse gases expressed as their equivalent amounts of carbon dioxide, with seasonal and other natural cyclical variations removed to more clearly reveal the underlying long-term trends driven by human and other activity."

The carbon counter will be updated online at www.know-the-number.com.

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How aerosols mask climate change

Victoria Gill, BBC News 19 Jun 09;

A Norwegian scientist says he has shown how much aerosols influence climate.

Aerosol particles scatter and reflect the Sun's rays - an effect that "masks" global warming.

This study aimed to bring together models and observations of this "direct aerosol effect", to accurately estimate the magnitude of this cooling.

Reporting in the journal Science, climate scientist Gunnar Myhre has found that the effect is weaker than previous studies have estimated.

Dr Myhre, from the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo, said this clarifies just how much humans have changed the climate so far.

The pollution particles he studied include industrial aerosols such as sulphates, nitrates found in smoke from burning agricultural waste and black carbon (soot) from diesel engines and other forms of combustion.

"Global models of the emission of these aerosols suggest the cooling effect they have cancels out approximately 10% of the global warming caused by greenhouse gases," explained Jim Haywood, an aerosol researcher from the UK Met Office, who was not involved in this study.

"But satellite methods that detect the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere suggest a cooling effect that cancels out about 20%."

By identifying the source of this discrepancy, Dr Myhre was able to reconcile the two approaches and come up with a more precise estimate - closer to 10%.

This suggests the effect is weaker than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated.



"Sulphate and organic carbon scatter solar radiation, whereas black carbon, to a large degree, absorbs it," he explained.

"The models take into account that black carbon [emissions] have increased more than the other types of aerosol.

"But this has been difficult to take into account in the observational-based method since we have only observations of the current situation, and not before human activity started."

Dr Haywood praised the research. "Until the publication of this paper, us aerosol researchers have been scratching our heads trying to understand the difference between model-based and observational-based assessments," he said.

"This will have an impact on future climate predictions."

Engineering clouds

But aerosols have not yet revealed all of their climate-influencing secrets.

The particles also modify clouds, increasing the concentration of droplets, and therefore cloud-cover.

Dr Myhre said there was "still a lot of uncertainty about the masking or cooling" caused by this "indirect aerosol effect".

Dr Haywood agreed. "The effect of aerosols on clouds gives us a big headache," he told BBC News. "It creates a big hole in our data-gathering."

He and and his colleagues at the Met Office have already started investigating whether aerosols could be employed to deliberately mask global warming.

In a recent study, he used a climate model to find out what effect the deliberate brightening of clouds, by adding sea-salt particles to increase their reflectivity, would have on global temperatures.

The research team, led by fellow Met Office scientist Dr Andy Jones, found that global warming could be slowed by up to 25 years, but they also found the approach could also have some very detrimental effects.

The most serious of these, they say, is a sharp decrease in rainfall over South America, which would likely accelerate the die-back of the Amazon rainforest, and contribute to the loss of one of the world's major carbon sinks.

"You would have to be very careful about which clouds you choose with this approach," said Dr Haywood.

Dr Myhre stated that the impact of aerosols on the climate would eventually become insignificant, compared to greenhouse gases.

"Aerosols have a very short lifetime and the greenhouse gases have a very long lifetime - more than 100 years for carbon dioxide," he said.

"In the future it's really the greenhouse gases that are the big issue for warming. They will dominate more and more."

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