Afloat in the Ocean, Expanding Islands of Trash

Lindsey Hoshan, The New York Times 9 Nov 09;

ABOARD THE ALGUITA, 1,000 miles northeast of Hawaii — In this remote patch of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from any national boundary, the detritus of human life is collecting in a swirling current so large that it defies precise measurement.

Light bulbs, bottle caps, toothbrushes, Popsicle sticks and tiny pieces of plastic, each the size of a grain of rice, inhabit the Pacific garbage patch, an area of widely dispersed trash that doubles in size every decade and is now believed to be roughly twice the size of Texas.

But one research organization estimates that the garbage now actually pervades the Pacific, though most of it is caught in what oceanographers call a gyre like this one — an area of heavy currents and slack winds that keep the trash swirling in a giant whirlpool.

Scientists say the garbage patch is just one of five that may be caught in giant gyres scattered around the world’s oceans. Abandoned fishing gear like buoys, fishing line and nets account for some of the waste, but other items come from land after washing into storm drains and out to sea.

Plastic is the most common refuse in the patch because it is lightweight, durable and an omnipresent, disposable product in both advanced and developing societies. It can float along for hundreds of miles before being caught in a gyre and then, over time, breaking down.

But once it does split into pieces, the fragments look like confetti in the water. Millions, billions, trillions and more of these particles are floating in the world’s trash-filled gyres.

PCBs, DDT and other toxic chemicals cannot dissolve in water, but the plastic absorbs them like a sponge. Fish that feed on plankton ingest the tiny plastic particles. Scientists from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation say that fish tissues contain some of the same chemicals as the plastic. The scientists speculate that toxic chemicals are leaching into fish tissue from the plastic they eat.

The researchers say that when a predator — a larger fish or a person — eats the fish that eats the plastic, that predator may be transferring toxins to its own tissues, and in greater concentrations since toxins from multiple food sources can accumulate in the body.

Charles Moore found the Pacific garbage patch by accident 12 years ago, when he came upon it on his way back from a sailing race in Hawaii. As captain, Mr. Moore ferried three researchers, his first mate and a journalist here this summer in his 10th scientific trip to the site. He is convinced that several similar garbage patches remain to be discovered.

“Anywhere you really look for it, you’re going to see it,” he said.

Many scientists believe there is a garbage patch off the coast of Japan and another in the Sargasso Sea, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Bonnie Monteleone, a University of North Carolina, Wilmington, graduate student researching a master’s thesis on plastic accumulation in the ocean, visited the Sargasso Sea in late spring and the Pacific garbage patch with Mr. Moore this summer.

“I saw much higher concentrations of trash in the Pacific garbage patch than in the Sargasso,” Ms. Monteleone said, while acknowledging that she might not have found the Atlantic gyre.

Ms. Monteleone, a volunteer crew member on Mr. Moore’s ship, kept hoping she would see at least one sample taken from the Pacific garbage patch without any trash in it. “Just one area — just one,” she said. “That’s all I wanted to see. But everywhere had plastic.”

The Pacific garbage patch gained prominence after three independent marine research organizations visited it this summer. One of them, Project Kaisei, based in San Francisco, is trying to devise ways to clean up the patch by turning plastic into diesel fuel.

Environmentalists and celebrities are using the patch to promote their own causes. The actor Ted Danson’s nonprofit group Oceana designated Mr. Moore a hero for his work on the patch. Another Hollywood figure, Edward Norton, narrated a public-service announcement about plastic bags, which make their way out to the patch.

Mr. Moore, however, is the first person to have pursued serious scientific research by sampling the garbage patch. In 1999, he dedicated the Algalita foundation to studying it. Now the foundation examines plastic debris and takes samples of polluted water off the California coast and across the Pacific Ocean. By dragging a fine mesh net behind his research vessel Alguita, a 50-foot aluminum catamaran, Mr. Moore is able to collect small plastic fragments.

Researchers measure the amount of plastic in each sample and calculate the weight of each fragment. They also test the tissues of any fish caught in the nets to measure for toxic chemicals. One rainbow runner from a previous voyage had 84 pieces of plastic in its stomach.

The research team has not tested the most recent catch for toxic chemicals, but the water samples show that the amount of plastic in the gyre and the larger Pacific is increasing. Water samples from February contained twice as much plastic as samples from a decade ago.

“This is not the garbage patch I knew in 1999,” Mr. Moore said. “This is a totally different animal.”

For the captain’s first mate, Jeffery Ernst, the patch was “just a reminder that there’s nowhere that isn’t affected by humanity.”

Travel expenses were paid in part by readers of Spot.Us, a nonprofit Web project that supports freelance journalists.

Read more!

Commercial fishing threatens survival of albatross, conservationists warn

Scientists call for new measures to protect the seabirds as experts warn one albatross drowns every five minutes after becoming entangled in fishing gear
Press Association, guardian.co.uk 9 Nov 09;

Albatrosses and other birds are facing extinction as they become tangled in commercial fishing gear, conservation organisations warned today.

Thirty-seven species of seabird are at risk and 18 of these species, including albatrosses, are under threat of extinction, the RSPB and BirdLife International warned.

The birds take bait from hooks, get caught in the fishing lines and drown.

The conservation groups are calling for action as scientists gather for fisheries talks in Recife, Brazil, today to agree on quotas for the Atlantic and Mediterranean stocks of tuna and swordfish.

The RSPB and BirdLife International will urge the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to agree measures to protect these birds in the Mediterranean and Atlantic.

Albatross expert Dr Cleo Small said: "Dying at a rate of around one every five minutes, the albatross family is becoming threatened faster than any other family of birds. The wandering albatross – possessing the largest wingspan of any bird – is rapidly declining on South Georgia, and links have been made between these declining populations and longline fishing. This situation is needless because the technology exists to prevent these deaths.

"We will be urging delegates to approve rules that make it mandatory for all vessels fishing for tuna and swordfish in the Atlantic to abide by simple measures which lower the risk of albatrosses and other seabirds dying."

Small added: "The main problem is that albatrosses try to steal fish and squid bait from longline fishing hooks.

"The birds get caught on the hook and quickly drown when the lines are set. The bodies of these birds, recovered hours later, are a grim reminder of the sheer toll of seabirds that these fisheries can take."

Monitoring of wandering albatrosses by the British Antarctic Survey on South Georgia has revealed a halving in the number in 2009 compared with the early 1960s. The most at-risk species include the Tristan albatross of the South Atlantic and the Balearic shearwater of European waters.

Both species, which are listed as critically endangered by BirdLife, are important to the UK.

The Balearic shearwater, which nests on the Balearic islands of the Mediterranean, is a regular non-breeding visitor to the waters off southern Britain, while the Tristan albatross is endemic to Gough Island, part of the UK overseas territory of Tristan da Cunha, and is found nowhere else in the world.

Read more!

'Last chance' for tuna authority

Richard Black, BBC News 9 Nov 09;

The annual meeting of the body charged with conserving Atlantic tuna opens on Monday to warnings that this is its "last chance" to manage things well.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat) is criticised for setting high quotas and not tackling illegal fishing.

Stocks of bluefin tuna are at about 15% of pre-industrial fishing levels.

US Commissioner Rebecca Lent said her country and others feel this is Iccat's last chance to put things right.

"We think Iccat is the body that should be managing bluefin tuna, and this is its chance to prove it can do so effectively," she told BBC News from the meeting in Recife, Brazil.



"We'd like to have science-based management that has a good chance of stopping overfishing and rebuilding the stock, with effective compliance and monitoring."

In recent years, Iccat has routinely set quotas higher than its scientific advisers have recommended, and illegal fishing has put even more pressure on the species.

It is estimated that the illegal take adds about 30% to the legal catches.

In its last assessment, Iccat scientists noted that the rapid expansion of the fishing industry around the Mediterranean Sea meant "there appears to no longer exist any refuge for bluefin in the Mediterranean during the spawning season".

Down to zero

A number of European countries share US reservations about the ineffectiveness of Iccat.

This led Monaco to propose regulating the tuna trade through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), an idea that has garnered support from most EU nations.

Others, including the US, would prefer Iccat to allocate quotas that the stock can withstand and then enforce them - but will back the trade ban if it does not.

Conservation groups, meanwhile, are pressing for a complete suspension of the fishery - a measure that was recommended by an independent review of Iccat published last year.

"For over 30 years, Iccat has wasted countless opportunities to set science-based catch limits and curb overfishing of Atlantic bluefin," said Sue Lieberman, director of international policy with the Pew Environment Group.

"A zero quota will show the world that Iccat is ready to heed the science, and recognise the importance of fully alleviating fishing pressure on Atlantic bluefin until stocks recover."

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is campaigning for Iccat to tighten regulation of longline fishing for tuna and swordfish.

It says threatened species such as albatrosses are routinely caught on hooks deployed by these vessels.

"We will be urging delegates to approve rules that make it mandatory for all vessels fishing for tuna and swordfish in the Atlantic to abide by simple measures which lower the risk of albatrosses and other seabirds dying in these fisheries," said Cleo Small, an albatross specialist working with the RSPB.

Pew is also pressing Iccat to ban the removal of shark fins at sea - a measure that they say would reduce the toll on sharks, many of which are recent additions to the threatened species list.

Read more!

Linking Sri Lanka's biodiversity

ECOS Magazine: Towards a Sustainable Future By Eric Marx
Science Alert 10 Nov 09;

Sri Lanka was once an island nation so rich in biodiversity that when field researchers from the International Conservation Union (IUCN) re-assessed existing faunal survey data in 2007 for a first ever national endangered species Red List report, they were staggered to have to revise three-fold the number of known amphibian species that once inhabited the country.

Rather than rejoice, however, the news came as a shock and raised alarms – nearly all the newly classified creatures were either already extinct or by now critically endangered.

Today, a third of Sri Lanka’s inland vertebrate fauna and more than half of the evaluated flora are threatened. The chief factor, say the report’s authors, has been habitat destruction linked to expanding monoculture crops, resulting in an annual loss of 33 000 hectares of forest cover being recorded since 1995. More than a third of the most precious old-growth forest cover that still stood on Sri Lanka in 1990 had disappeared by 2005.

The message of the IUCN’s authoritative biodiversity assessment was clear: protecting Sri Lanka’s wildlife and their forests will require adopting new models of conservation – quickly.

‘We have seen the habitat area for these threatened species disappear in front of our own eyes,’ says Vimukthi Weeratunga, one of two project managers at The World Conservation Union Sri Lanka who helped prepare the Red List together with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. ‘Thirty-seven species of plants and 21 of amphibians are gone. The numbers are staggering.’

How did this happen?

Competing priorities for government

Approximately 30 per cent of Sri Lanka’s land area falls under some level of natural resource management, but critics say field staff working in the forest and wildlife sectors are severely under-resourced.

More importantly, the government has yet to take a concerted landscape approach to conservation which goes beyond forest borders to collaborate with local villagers.

Conventional reforestation plans don’t consider connections with the highly fragmented and most biologically important lowland forest in the south-western wet zone. This region is home to 90 per cent of the island’s 830 endemic flowering plants but accounts for less than five per cent of the country’s protected parklands and reserves.

The best known wet zone parkland is the Sinharaja Forest Reserve, the largest rainforest remnant in Sri Lanka and one of roughly 140 forest patches, the smallest of which range from 10 to 25 kilometres in size but nevertheless contain dense pockets of endemic plant and wildlife species.

The stress on these fragments is now excessive, say observers such as Dr Sumith Pilapitiya, the World Bank’s lead environmental specialist for the South Asia region. Pressure from a wave of encroaching small-scale tea farmers continues unabated, while the main priority of the government seems to lie with infrastructure development plans now being given added backing in the present post-war atmosphere.

Eco-tourism that earns extra rupees for buffer communities can counter the demand for land development, but Dr Pilapitiya sees it as only a part-way solution.

‘Nature tourism, while not a panacea, will earn revenue from the forest and prevent its destruction,’ he said in a recent interview. ‘That’s the only hope I see.’

Yet, currently most eco-tourism bypasses the southern wet zone, heading instead to eastern and northern parkland areas renowned for their large game animals and migratory birdlife.

More promising, says Dr Sarath Kotagama, one of Sri Lanka’s leading wildlife ecologists, is the effect of local organisation Rainforest Rescue International’s (RRI) ongoing reforestation project in the wet zone, which aims to use the island’s traditional home garden methods to establish a 15-kilometre long biological corridor connecting the Sinharaja and Kanneliya Forest Reserves.

But while expressing support for the project, Dr Kotagama also voices some skepticism about its immediate chances of success.

‘At present you have remnant patches very far and wide apart and what you have in between is mostly tea – not home gardens,’ says Dr Kotagama, referring to the wet zone’s one- and two-acre monoculture tea plots. ‘If the extent of the fragmentation is so bad,’ he asked, ‘how successful can they [RRI] be?’

Analog Forestry and Rainforest Rescue International

Trying to compete against an expanding monoculture crop system is going to be difficult, says Charith Senanayake, Rainforest Rescue International’s Managing Director. Still, he envisions that within 25 years the corridor area can be turned into an established green development zone with smallholder farms and commercial plantations deriving income from reforestation on their properties.

With the help of revenues from a fledgling eco-tourism program, and support from other non-government organisations, RRI is gradually advancing this ambitious community project. Four years in, Charith’s team has opened educational centres, signed agreements with local politicians, developed relationships with local villagers, distributed thousands of seeds and plants and, most importantly, developed what he believes to be a viable economic alternative to monocropping.

‘The main argument,’ he says, ‘is that it can be economically feasible for smallholder farmers.’

Analog Forestry achieves this, says Charith, by enabling farmers to harvest and derive income from forest-based products – such as herbs and fruits – in addition to their already existing tea crops.

Over time, the newly introduced species then mimic native forests by building soil and improving water quality.

A selection of the newly introduced forest species – including everything from creeper vines and epiphytes to shrubs and satinwood trees for canopy cover – is worked out in partnership with the farmer according to his income preferences. These species, in turn, are carefully considered by RRI for their microhabitat potential.

According to Charith, the analog forest is a perennial polyculture, structurally and functionally analogous to the natural forest. It goes beyond other current agroforestry practices since it focuses on the identification and incorporation of biological diversity within food crop areas.

‘It’s a reference to the forest or ecosystem that existed in an area prior to human change. We try and bring back components of that reference forest … and we do that in Sri Lanka generally by coming up with a forest garden – because we’re talking about regenerating tropical forested areas with high canopy tree layers.’

Located alongside paddy fields, home gardens have traditionally provided food, fibre, fuel, oil and raw material for medicines. It’s the Kandyan version, however, with its incorporation of exotic crop species introduced by the British, that proved both its capacity for biodiversity promotion and income generation.

Charith’s father, Dr Ranil Senanayake, pioneered Analog Forestry in the early 1980s based largely on experiments at a 14-acre abandoned tea estate where he and roughly 15 colleagues applied ecological sciences to the Sri Lanka forest garden model.

But by 1989 repeated clashes with the authorities found Dr Senanayake out of favour with the government. His residency in Australia at Monash University and subsequent travels working with farmers in field trials established the science of Analog Forestry internationally and popularised its practice in countries ranging from Vietnam and the Philippines to Peru, Canada and Zimbabwe.

But observers say the culmination of his life’s work lies in establishing a biological corridor system for Sri Lanka in the densely populated portion of the southern wet zone lying between the Sinharaja World Heritage Forest Reserve and the lesser known Kanneliya Forest Reserve.

Corridors would allow the movement of biodiversity between the two reserves and outlying forest patches, and should therefore decrease local extinction rates by improving habitat availability. Charith, who has now taken up his father’s cause, says satellite mapping of the roughly 100-kilometre area and field research in the remaining forest patches have confirmed both the existence of high value species and four possible corridors.

It was a project the elder Senanayake set about earnestly pursuing upon his return to Sri Lanka in the late 1990s but which was stymied by funding shortfalls, political resistance and then the 2004 tsunami.

The immediate effect of the tsunami was to throw the corridor plans into disarray. Only one month prior, RRI had made its first purchase of land for the project, a 17-acre plot on which it aimed to develop an education, training and research centre.

Ironically, the tsunami ultimately proved invaluable to the corridor project’s long-term survival. Charith said it was at that point he gave up his Australian tea import business and returned to Sri Lanka to assist in the humanitarian effort and run RRI Sri Lanka.

Working in partnership with other non-government organisations, RRI began employing Analog Forestry to rehabilitate home gardens in the affected south-west coastal zone. It engaged communities and developed valuable relationships with local authorities, while 37-year-old Charith – a
far less politically controversial figure than his father – gradually assumed leadership of the corridor effort.

Over the last three years, RRI has moved beyond education awareness and training. Its first reforestation program with 100 smallholder tea farmers in the village of Hiniduma, just outside the Kanneliya Forest Reserve, is underway and Charith says he’s confident farmers will embrace the idea when they start realising economic and biological benefits.

‘They [farmers] are not told to reduce their cropping land by 20 per cent,’ he says, citing a common misconception. ‘What we do is map their land and look for areas that they’re not using – such as riverine and rocky areas – which we then target for planting.’

RRI will, for example, introduce threatened vine varieties such as supsanda (Aristolochia indica), the food plant for the birdwing butterfly (Troides hellena), Sri Lanka’s largest butterfly, but also a nataive medicinal plant which is used in traditional ayurvedic practice.

If you can establish a canopy with different layers and stratas, then Charith says the natural biodiversity returns along with improved soils, water quality and enhanced biodiversity.

Other incentives include a joint program with Conservation Carbon Company providing carbon credit funding to the farmers, and an added option of selling crops under either an organic or Forest Garden Products certification program.

Charith says the lack of funding support for system-based restoration remains an obstacle to broadening the corridor’s impact. He’s greatly encouraged by a pending amphibian restoration study project of the corridor area soon to be issued by the National Geographic Society, but says there’s an urgent need for more targeted research on microhabitats and potential species cross-overs.

‘If we can have four or five individual species crossing from Sinharaja to Kanneliya then we will have a successful program,’ Charith highlights. ‘We still have quite a bit of work ahead.’

More information:

RRI’s Forest Corridor project

About Analog Forestry (PDF)

Read more!

Aussie birds disappearing fast

Monash University, Science Alert 10 Nov 09;

A 15-year study across northern and central Victoria has shown that about two-thirds of bird species - including lorikeets, pardalotes, thornbills and honeyeaters - have declined dramatically in distribution and numbers.

A team of researchers, including ecologists from the Australian Centre for Biodiversity at Monash University, systematically monitored woodland bird populations at 560 sites in a 30,000 km2 region from St Arnaud to Chiltern, mostly in box and ironbark forests.

"Most worrying is that species thought to be secure, the red wattlebird, striated pardalote, grey shrike-thrush and musk lorikeet, have declined as much as or more than species already of conservation concern - those listed as threatened, vulnerable or endangered, such as the crested bellbird, black-chinned honeyeater and crested shrike-tit," Professor Mac Nally said.

"Many species were encountered 60 per cent less often in surveys, and their abundances were down by at least 40 per cent."

Professor Mac Nally said climate change and the provision of food such as nectar, insects and seeds had compounded the already serious effects of broad-scale habitat loss and fragmentation in the region since the 19th century.

"The region has been largely cleared and the remaining woodlands poorly managed over many decades, so that the system was vulnerable to effects of climate change and the severe drying we have seen since 1996," Professor Mac Nally said.

"There also seems to be much less breeding and lower breeding success in the past few years in remnant vegetation. We think that the recent plunge in numbers reflects a longer period of breeding failure, so that when adults die, there are few young to replace them," Professor Mac Nally said.

However, the research team reported some positives.

They found more breeding in relatively young replanted sites, especially on more fertile soils, suggesting that widespread replanting may be part of the solution to reversing the decline.

The results of the study, which also involved scientists from Deakin and Melbourne Universities, were published in the July issue of the international journal Diversity and Distributions.

Read more!

A Hunt for Seeds to Save Species, Perhaps by Helping Them Move

Anne Raver, The New York Times 9 Nov 09;

CHICAGO — Pitcher’s thistle, whose fuzzy leaves and creamy pink puffs once thrived in the sand dunes along several of the Great Lakes, was driven by development, drought and weevils into virtual extinction from the shores of Lake Michigan decades ago.

But in the 1990s, seeds collected from different parts of the thistle’s range were grown at the Chicago Botanic Garden and planted with the help of the Morton Arboretum along the lake, in Illinois State Beach Park, north of Chicago near the Wisconsin state line. The plants from Indiana’s dunes to the south are doing well; the plants that had come from the north are failing.

With those mixed results in mind, scientists from the botanic garden are sending teams out across the Midwest and West to the Rocky Mountains and Great Basin to collect seeds from different populations of 1,500 prairie species by 2010, and from 3,000 species by 2020. The goal is to preserve the species and, depending on changes in climate, perhaps even help species that generally grow near one another to migrate to a new range.

“In 50 to 100 years, because habitats or climates are so altered, we might end up trying to move species in a restoration context, in assemblages of species,” said Pati Vitt, a conservation scientist and curator of the Dixon National Tallgrass Prairie Seed Bank at the botanic garden.

The garden is seeking permits to test the concept with the thistle, by pushing it into new, colder territory along the shores of Lake Ontario. “It may be the best test case for moving an individual species outside its range,” Dr. Vitt said.

But assisted migration, as it is called, is a hotly debated issue. On one side are those like the botanic garden scientists, who argue that the risks are better than doing nothing.

“We recognize that climate change is likely to be very rapid and that seeds only disperse a few hundred yards, half a mile at most, naturally,” said Kayri Havens, the botanic garden’s director of plant science and conservation. “They’ll need our help if we want to keep those species alive.”

Other scientists argue that tinkering with the complexity of habitats is courting disaster — and huge expense.

“Even given our best science, we’re not good at predicting which species will be invasive,” said Jason S. McLachlan, a biologist at the University of Notre Dame who has studied postglacial population spread. “And it’s going to be especially complex as climates change.”

The American beech, for example, was so rare during the ice age that it is rarely found in fossils. “It may have been one of those rare and unusual species we think about saving with approaches like assisted migration,” Dr. McLachlan said. Now, the beech is so abundant in Eastern forests, he said, it is shading out “almost all other species.”

Dr. McLachlan and other scientists have formed a working group on managed relocation, financed by the National Science Foundation and the Cedar Tree Foundation, to open up the discussion to citizens, economists, natural resource managers and policy makers.

While the debate proceeds, scientists at the botanic garden are building the seed collection and assessing the adaptability of different populations of species. Dr. Vitt and Dr. Havens recently showed off the new Rice Science Center, which has laboratories and a 420-square-foot seed vault with floor-to-ceiling stainless steel shelves.

When temperatures in the giant humidity-controlled freezer stabilized at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit at the end of September, they moved collections of 800 Midwestern species — some made up of 300,000 seeds — from their old home in four large freezers, hardly different from the kind a large family might use to store home-grown produce and a side of beef.

“The first time I walked in here, I started to cry,” Dr. Vitt said. “I know what having this will allow us to do in the future. It’s the most important conservation work the garden can be doing.”

The prairie effort is part of a Bureau of Land Management project called Seeds of Success, which intends to collect seeds of the entire flora of the United States, except for species already under protection and recalcitrant species, or those that cannot survive long-term storage.

That is 14,000 native plant species.

Seeds of Success, started in 2001 in response to a Congressional mandate to plant native seed in restoring public lands destroyed by wildfire, began its far more ambitious initiative in June 2008.

A consortium of botanic gardens and other institutions have sent 65 teams across the country, which so far have collected groupings of 3,200 species.


“We hope to collect 20 populations across the species’ range so we can get 95 percent of the genetic diversity of the species,” said Peggy Orwell, the plant conservation program manager at the bureau. “Because frankly, we don’t know what it is we’re going to need when we’re talking restoration in light of climate change. It’s going to be one big experiment.”

Seeds of Success sends one collection of every species to the Millennium Seed Bank Project, at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in Britain, which intends to collect 25 percent of the world’s flora by 2020. Seeds are also stored at the National Center for Genetic Resource Preservation in Fort Collins, Colo., and the Western Regional Plant Introduction Station in Pullman, Wash.

The Dixon seed bank at the Chicago Botanic Garden houses not only species from the tallgrass prairie, but also natives of the bogs, dunes and other ecosystems in the prairie region. It also includes the working collections of species singled out for restoration.

“In the Midwest, we have about 200 that are going to be very important,” Dr. Havens said. “These are the matrix species, the bread-and-butter species that can be used in restorations after disturbance to really stabilize the community.”

Climate models all show temperatures rising, but they do not agree on the prairie’s future climate.

“Some models show us with more Virginia-like ecosystem, some say more like Texas,” Dr. Havens said.

In a paper to be published in the journal Biology Conservation and available now online, Dr. Vitt, Dr. Havens and three other scientists at the botanic garden outline a framework for assisted migration, calling first for a globally unified seed banking strategy, which involves collecting genetically diverse populations of each species, accompanied by provenance data like GPS coordinates, soil type and the structure of the surrounding plant community.

They also propose how to predict where species can be relocated. The scientists are just beginning to test their theories in seven climate change gardens planted this fall across the country. Each contains genetically identical clones of plants grown from seed collected in four hardiness zones (4, 5, 6 and 7). Three sites are in the Chicago area, with the others in Boston; Chapel Hill, N.C.; Seattle; and Washington.

Students and volunteers will collect data on the species, and can compare their gardens with others through a webcam system. “If plants grown from seed collected in Zone 4, 5 or 6 can’t withstand Texas conditions,” Dr. Havens said, “that’s a good sign they’re going to become extinct here, if there’s no way for them to migrate on their own or human-assisted.”

Collecting all the native species in the United States, as well as developing restoration techniques and growing huge amounts of seed will take about 10 years and cost about $500 million, Dr. Havens said — a cost that she argues is well worth it.

Dr. Vitt said: “I won’t be around in 100 years, but if the research isn’t there, we won’t know how to do it on that scale. That’s why the seed bank is so important.

“For now, we are trying to follow Aldo Leopold’s maxim: ‘The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to keep all the pieces.’ ”

Read more!

Coral reef scientist slams Brumby over 'reckless vandalism'

Melissa Fyfe, The Age 9 Nov 09;

One of the world's leading coral reef scientists has slammed the Brumby Government's proposal to export Victoria's brown coal to India as "reckless vandalism".

John "Charlie" Veron, who discovered a quarter of the world's identified coral species, said any move to export the state's vast reserves of brown coal would only further endanger the Great Barrier Reef.

"It's reckless vandalism. Brown coal would have to be the dirtiest, nastiest form of energy there is. It is absolutely essential that it remains in the ground. That is obvious," he told The Age.

The Sunday Age revealed in September that Energy Minister Peter Batchelor had championed in a Cabinet committee a 40-year proposal to export 12 million tonnes of brown coal to India. Mr Brumby has said that, given environmental approval processes, there is no reason why Victoria should not export its coal. "Australia exports oil, Australia exports gas, Australia exports black coal and Australia exports uranium," he said. "So why you would single out brown coal and say you can't export that?"

But Dr Veron, the Townsville-based author of the three-volume Corals of the World, said that avoiding every tonne of carbon dioxide was now crucial to save the world's reefs. Moreover, he said science had now shown that corals will struggle to survive with the carbon dioxide levels already in the atmosphere.

High levels of carbon dioxide - the world is currently at 378 parts per million of carbon dioxide - have two impacts on corals. As the globe warms, so too does the sea, which sparks coral bleaching. But scientists now understand that the bigger problem is ocean acidification, when the chemistry of the ocean changes because of the large amounts of carbon dioxide they absorb from the atmosphere. These changes reduce the ability of reefs to form and regrow after bleaching events.

Mr Veron, who recently gave a talk on climate change and corals at the Royal Society introduced by Sir David Attenborough, said the current targets the world's politicians are talking about - 450 and 500 parts per million - would leave only "a very small band of ocean left in which corals can live".

"They will struggle just to exist, let alone build reefs," said Dr Veron, who has clocked 7000 hours of diving research on coral reefs.

Brown coal, which drives 90 per cent of the state's power supply, has been unsuitable for export because it is unstable and flammable. But proponents say recent developments in technology will allow them to dry the coal, making it less polluting - equal to black coal - and safe to transport.

The company behind the plan to export brown coal to India, Exergen, is hopeful the Government will give it access to a new release of brown coal. The company expects to earn $700 million a year in export income for Victoria.

Read more!

Britain unveils nuclear energy expansion plans

Daniel Fineren, Reuters 9 Nov 09;

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain set out plans Monday to speed up the planning process for big wind farms and new nuclear power plants and named 10 sites where reactors could be built.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said new nuclear plants, combined with cleaner coal plants and more renewable energy, would help Britain to secure its energy supplies and cut its greenhouse gas emissions.

About 20 percent of Britain's electricity was generated from existing nuclear power reactors in the second quarter of 2009, but all except one of them is due to shut by 2025.

Previous attempts to build new nuclear plants have been delayed by the exhaustive planning process. It took six years and cost 30 millions pounds ($50.33 million) to secure planning consent to build the Sizewell B reactor in southern England.

Under the new proposals, decisions on plants bigger than 50 megawatts, or 100 megawatts for offshore wind, will be cut to one year.

"The current planning system is a barrier to this shift (to low carbon)," Miliband said.

"It serves neither the interests of energy security, the interests of the low carbon transition, nor the interests of people living in areas where infrastructure may be built, for the planning process to take years to come to a decision."

The list of possible new nuclear power stations includes Kirksanton, a site in Cumbria, northern England, proposed by German utility RWE which is not close to any existing nuclear facilities and overlaps a small wind farm.

The government rejected EDF Energy's Dungeness power station on the south coast of England as a possible site for new reactors because of environmental and flooding concerns.

But it approved EDF sites at Hinkley Point in Somerset and Sizewell in Suffolk where the French energy giant plans to build four reactors.

"It means we can prepare to take the next steps in our plan for a multi-billion pound investment in the UK," EDF Energy Chief Executive Vincent de Rivaz said in a statement.

"It is in the public interest for the UK to build at least 15 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity which would be sufficient to meet at least 30 percent of our electricity demand by 2030."

Britain currently has about 11 GW of nuclear power plants.

EDF plans to get its first new reactor in Britain running by the end of 2017, but said the multi-billion pound new build program remained subject to the "right investment framework being in place."

Ten of the 11 sites which had been proposed by some of Europe's biggest utilities for building new nuclear power plants are next to existing atomic installations.

But they want significant and long-term charges on rival climate-warming power plants to support their multi-billion pound investments in low-carbon nuclear because current carbon emissions prices are not high enough.

Miliband told journalists Monday there would be no "specific" public subsidy for nuclear. A stronger carbon price would support nuclear and renewable energy development over dirtier coal plants.

THREE SITES

Three other sites, at Kingsnorth, southern England and Owston Ferry and Druridge Bay, both in northeast England, may be suitable for new nuclear plants to be built after 2025, Miliband said.

The opposition Conservative Party, expected to win an election due by June 2010, said the announcement had come 10 years too late to replace existing capacity before it closes.

"What we have heard...is a declaration of a national emergency for our energy security," Conservative energy spokesman Greg Clark told parliament. "Why did they leave it so late to act?"

The Trades Union Congress, an umbrella body which represents Britain's unions, said the new nuclear plants and other energy measures would create up to half a million jobs at a time of fragile economic recovery.

"It will create many new job opportunities and a more streamlined planning process will avoid lengthy delays," said TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber.

The government also announced plans to fund the development of new technology to capture climate-warming carbon from coal fired plants.

For reaction to the energy proposals, click on

(Writing by Peter Griffiths, editing by Anthony Barker and Sue Thomas)

FACTBOX: Reaction to British energy proposals
Reuters 9 Nov 09;

(Reuters) - The British government on Monday unveiled its plans for a new energy infrastructure, including 10 possible new nuclear plants and funding for four trials of carbon capture and storage technology.

Here is a round-up of reaction to the plans:

CONSERVATIVE ENERGY SPOKESMAN GREG CLARK

"Every one of the measures contained in this statement should have been brought forward 10 years ago when they had the chance to secure the investments that are so desperately needed to keep the lights on, keep prices down and cut carbon emissions."

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT ENERGY SPOKESMAN SIMON HUGHES

"A new generation of nuclear power stations will be a colossal mistake regardless of where they are built.

"New plants in the UK have never been built without massive cost to the taxpayer and a lethal legacy of toxic waste."

NUCLEAR INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION CHIEF EXECUTIVE KEITH PARKER

"This is a key step forward in the drive to de-carbonize our economy. A streamlined planning process will help the development of an array of low-carbon technologies, including nuclear, which in turn can do so much to combat climate change."

RWE NPOWER CHIEF EXECUTIVE ANDY DUFF

"The closure of old coal and nuclear plant, and a likely return to growing demand in the next decade, means major modernization of the energy system is still needed.

"This will require billions of pounds of investment to tackle carbon dioxide emissions, keep the lights on and keep energy prices manageable."

BRITISH CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE POLICY DIRECTOR ADAM MARSHALL

"Decisions involving nuclear power are never easy. Yet British business is clear that nuclear power will be a crucial part of a more sustainable future energy mix.

"A faster, more streamlined planning process is also required to safeguard the UK's energy supply in the decades to come."

CONFEDERATION OF BRITISH INDUSTRY DEPUTY HEAD JOHN CRIDLAND

"These planning statements will help reassure companies that the government has a clear strategy for delivering new nuclear power, clean coal and renewable energy plants, and that this will be reflected in planning decisions."

GREENPEACE NUCLEAR CAMPAIGN HEAD BEN AYLIFFE

"Our lawyers will be examining this announcement very closely.

"You can't justify building more nuclear power stations when there is no solution to radioactive waste and when international regulators are saying there are huge uncertainties surrounding the basic safety of new reactor designs."

DIRECTOR OF THE GREEN ALLIANCE STEPHEN HALE

"Nuclear power will always cost more and deliver less than its advocates claim.

"We require a national plan and locations for carbon capture and storage, not for nuclear power."

(Compiled by Peter Griffiths; Editing by)

FACTBOX: UK's 10 approved new nuclear power sites
Reuters 9 Nov 09;

(Reuters) - The British government has approved 10 new nuclear power plant sites out of a previous 11 nominations. The new units could be built by 2025.

The rejected site was EDF's Dungeness nomination on the south coast of England.

Many of Europe's biggest utilities plan to build nuclear power plants in Britain, often in joint bids.

The approved sites announced by the Department of Energy and Climate Change on Monday are:

Hartlepool in north east England, nominated by EDF Energy

Heysham in north west England, nominated by EDF Energy

Sellafield in north west England nominated by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

Kirksanton in Cumbria, north west England, nominated by RWE

Braystones in Cumbria, nominated by RWE

Wylfa Peninsula in Wales, nominated by the NDA and RWE

Oldbury in south west England nominated, by NDA and EON

Hinkley Point in south west England, nominated by EDF Energy

Bradwell, south east England, nominated by the NDA

Sizewell in Cumbria, nominated by EDF Energy

(Reporting by Kwok W. Wan; editing by Sue Thomas)

Read more!

Maldives anger at climate inertia

Charles Haviland, BBC News 9 Nov 09;

The president of the Maldives has strongly criticised the world's rich countries for doing too little to stem climate change.

Mohamed Nasheed said there was so little money offered to vulnerable nations that it was like arriving at an earthquake with a dustpan and brush.

He was opening a high-level two-day gathering of countries deemed especially at risk from global warming.

The Maldives government says the islands face disaster if oceans rise.

This was an outspoken attack on the G8 rich countries by the leader of a country so low that rising sea levels threaten to submerge most or all of it by 2100. The Maldives stands about 2.1 metres (7ft) above sea level.

President Nasheed said the wealthy nations had pledged to halt temperature rises to 2C, but had refused to commit to the carbon targets that would deliver this.

Glaciers melting

Even with a 2C rise, he added, "we would lose the coral reefs… melt Greenland, and… my country would be on death row".

"I cannot accept this," he said.

The Maldives wants the countries at this gathering to follow its own example in aiming to go carbon neutral, switching to renewable energy and offsetting aviation pollution.

Such a bloc of developing countries could change the outcome of next month's climate change summit in Denmark, the president said, making it morally harder for rich countries not to take action themselves.

The Maldives is hosting about 10 nations vulnerable in different ways - African countries threatened by desertification, mountain ones whose glaciers are melting, large Asian ones affected by floods and typhoons, and other small islands like itself.

Maldives urges small states to go 'carbon neutral'
AFP Yahoo News 9 Nov 09;

MALE (AFP) – The Maldives, which is one of the nations most vulnerable to rising sea levels, on Monday asked fellow endangered states to go carbon neutral and lead a drive to reduce global warming.

Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed opened a two-day conference here on climate change urging smaller countries, which are faced with the prospect of being wiped out, to adopt environmentally-friendly energy.

"A group of vulnerable, developing countries committed to carbon neutral development would send a loud message to the outside world," Nasheed said, adding that they needed to make a commitment to carbon neutrality.

Nasheed, 52, called the meeting of 11 of the world's least polluting smaller states, including Kiribati and Barbados, in a bid to hammer out a common stance ahead of the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen in December.

"If those with the least (pollution) start doing the most, what excuse can the rich have for continuing inaction?" he asked. "We know this is not an easy step to take, and that there might be dangers along the way.

"We want to shine a light, not loudly demand that others go first into the dark."

Last week, the Maldives flagged off construction of a 200-million-dollar wind farm as part of efforts to make the low-lying archipelago carbon neutral by 2020.

The wind turbine facility on a small islet just north of the capital Male is expected to be completed within 20 months, an official said, adding that it would supply more than half the nation's electricity needs.

Nasheed, whose cabinet met underwater last month in a stunt aimed at highlighting the Maldives' vulnerability to rising sea levels, said he wanted the country to be a showcase for renewable and clean energy.

Being carbon neutral normally means reducing emissions of greenhouse gases where possible and offsetting or compensating for any others that cannot be eliminated.

In 2007, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that an increase in sea levels of just 18 to 59 centimetres (seven to 24 inches) would make the Maldives virtually uninhabitable by 2100.

More than 80 percent of the tiny nation, famed as a tourist paradise because of its secluded beaches, coral reefs and white-sand beaches, is less than a metre (about three feet) above sea level.

Copenhagen failure would be 'suicide': Maldives
Yahoo News 9 Nov 09;

MALE (AFP) – The president of the Maldives has warned that a failure to agree a deal on limiting greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen next month would be an act of "collective suicide".

"At the moment every country arrives at climate negotiations seeking to keep their own emissions as high as possible," President Mohamed Nasheed said here. "This is the logic of the madhouse, a recipe for collective suicide.

"We don't want a global suicide pact. We want a global survival pact."

More than 190 nations are to meet for UN talks in Copenhagen from December 7-18, aiming for a post-2012 accord to slash emissions from fossil fuels that trap solar heat and drive global warming.

But after nearly two years of haggling, deep rifts remain over apportioning emissions curbs between rich economies and fast-growing developing nations and on the accord's architecture and legal status.

Nasheed opened a two-day forum for 11 countries considered the most vulnerable to climate change, urging them to go carbon neutral to show the rich world the way forward.

"A group of vulnerable, developing countries committed to carbon neutral development would send a loud message to the outside world," Nasheed said, adding that they needed to make a commitment to carbon neutrality.

Nasheed, 52, called the meeting of the world's least polluting smaller states, including Kiribati and Barbados, in a bid to hammer out a common stance ahead of the Copenhagen summit.

"If those with the least (pollution) start doing the most, what excuse can the rich have for continuing inaction?" he asked. "We know this is not an easy step to take, and that there might be dangers along the way.

"We want to shine a light, not loudly demand that others go first into the dark."

Being carbon neutral normally means reducing emissions of greenhouse gases where possible and offsetting or compensating for any others that cannot be eliminated.

Some 85 delegates were taking part in the conference at the Bandos island resort, a short boat ride from Male, the capital of the archipelago which is best known for its upmarket tourism.

Last week, the Maldives flagged off construction of a 200-million-dollar wind farm as part of efforts to make the low-lying archipelago carbon neutral by 2020.

The facility on a small islet just north of the capital Male is expected to be completed within 20 months, an official said, adding that it would supply more than half the nation's electricity needs.

Nasheed, whose cabinet met underwater last month in a stunt aimed at highlighting the Maldives' vulnerability to rising sea levels, said he wanted the country to be a showcase for renewable and clean energy.

In 2007, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that an increase in sea levels of just 18 to 59 centimetres (seven to 24 inches) would make the Maldives virtually uninhabitable by 2100.

More than 80 percent of the tiny nation, famed as a tourist paradise because of its secluded beaches, coral reefs and white-sand beaches, is less than a metre (about three feet) above sea level.

China, Britain, Denmark, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia and the United States sent observers for the conference, called the Climate Vulnerable Forum, officials said.

Threatened Maldives urges joint action at climate talks
Maryam Omidi, Reuters 9 Nov 09;

MALE (Reuters) - The Maldives, threatened by rising sea levels because of global warming, on Monday pleaded with developed nations to reduce carbon emissions and said developing nations could change the outcome at climate talks in Copenhagen.

The appeal by the Indian ocean archipelago came at a climate change summit grouping Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Kiribati, Barbados, Bhutan, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania before next month's global climate change summit in Copenhagen.

Despite being among the world's lowest emitters of greenhouse gases, the countries share the worst impacts of climate change including desertification, drought, floods and storm surges.

"We are vulnerable because we have modest means with which to protect ourselves from the coming disaster," Maldivian President Mohammed Nasheed told the conference.

Nasheed, who in March outlined ambitious plans to make the world's first carbon-neutral nation within a decade, said developing nations could change the outcome of Copenhagen, blaming developed nations for the global warming.

"They never make commitments, unless someone else does first. This is the logic of the madhouse, a recipe for collective suicide. We don't want a global suicide pact. And we will not sign a global suicide pact, in Copenhagen or anywhere.

"I think a bloc of carbon-neutral, developing nations could change the outcome of Copenhagen. At the moment every country arrives at the negotiations seeking to keep their own emissions as high as possible."

The summit comes three days after hopes of a legally binding treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol were dashed during talks in Barcelona.

Nasheed last week said Maldives could achieve its aim of becoming carbon neutral well before its 2020 target, the Indian Ocean island nation's president said on Monday.

(Writing by Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Read more!

Yangtze warned to prepare for more droughts, floods and storms

WWF 10 Nov 09;
• First-ever large-scale report on the Yangtze and climate change adaptation released in Beijing
• Experts recommend taking “no-regrets” adaptation strategies

Beijing, China－ Temperatures across the Yangtze River Basin could increase from 1.5 - 2 Degrees Celsius over the next 50 years, while extreme weather events will also become more frequent, according to the largest river basin climate vulnerability assessment yet done.

The Yangtze River Basin Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation Report, released today in Beijing, not only describes the impact of climate change but also offers specific adaptation strategies for the Yangtze.

“Extreme climate events such as storms and drought disasters will increase as climate change continues to alter our planet,” said Professor Xu Ming, the report’s lead researcher.

“Given the complexities and uncertainties associated with climate change, adaptation should firstly consider a ‘no-regrets’ strategy,” which does not require additional cost. If we take the right steps now, adaptation measures will pay for themselves.” he said.

Specific adaptation measures discussed in the report include strengthening existing infrastructure, such as power supply, transportation as well as river and coastal dike reinforcement. Other steps involve promoting Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM), switching to more flexible cropping systems, and reducing human impact on fragile ecosystems.

Data collected from 147 monitoring stations across the 1.8 million km2 river basin points to a 0.33℃ temperature rise during the 1990s. This hotter weather led to a spike in extreme climate events and flooding across the Yangtze basin, a trend that is expected to become increasingly dire over the next 50 years.

Other findings show that from 2001 – 2005, the basin’s climate grew even hotter, increasing by an average of 0.71℃.

According to the new report, wetlands will be the hardest hit. Lower water levels will reduce the number of aquatic birds in the Central and Lower Yangtze while climate change strips wetland ecosystems of important resources.

Other impacts that could affect the 400 million people whose livelihoods depend on the basin include more frequent snowstorms and drought.

‘The Yangtze Vulnerability Assessment is an important symbol of China’s commitment to fighting climate change,” said Mr. James Leape, Director General of WWF-International.

“Beyond setting out the vulnerabilities, the Yangtze assessment also underlines how investment in climate change adaptation is a prudent investment in safeguarding the continuing functioning of a landscape vital to many millions”

Extreme weather will be seen on Yangtze
Tini Tran, Associated Press Google News 10 Nov 09;

BEIJING — Increased droughts, floods and storms will hit China's Yangtze River Basin over the next few decades, the result of rising temperatures globally, according to a report released Tuesday.

Climate change will trigger extreme weather conditions along the country's longest river, but strategies can be taken to control it, said the report, issued by the environmental group WWF-China.

In the past two decades, the temperature in the river basin area has risen steadily, which has led to a spike in flooding, heat waves and droughts, the report said. It is the largest assessment yet on the impact of global warming on the Yangtze basin area, which is home to 400 million people.

Data collected from 147 monitoring stations along the 700,000-square-mile (1.8 million-square-kilometer) area showed temperatures rose by 0.59 degree Fahrenheit (0.33 degree Celsius) during the 1990s. Additional findings show that between 2001 and 2005, the basin's temperature rose on average another 1.28 degrees Fahrenheit (0.71 degree Celsius).

"Extreme climate events such as storms and drought disasters will increase as climate change continues to alter our planet," said Xu Ming, the lead researcher on the report, which included expert contributions from the China Academy of Sciences, the China Meteorological Administration and other academic institutions.

The report identifies key areas that will be affected: from agriculture to various ecosystems such as forests, grasslands, wetlands and coastal regions.

Crops such as corn, winter wheat and rice will see clear declines in production, with rice crops alone dropping between 9 percent to 41 percent by the end of the century, it said. Natural habitat such as grasslands and wetlands have receded steadily in recent years while rising sea levels triggered by global warming will make coastal cities such as Shanghai more vulnerable.

Countermeasures include strengthening existing infrastructure, such as river and dike reinforcements, transport and power supply systems, the report said. Other steps include adjusting cropping systems and switching to hardier strains.

"Adaptation is a must for large developing nations" such as China, which is particularly vulnerable to climate change because of its large population and relatively low economic development, said James Leape, director general of WWF-International.

"The report is a reminder that while the whole world rises to meet the challenge of climate change, we must prepare for impacts that are already inevitable," he said.

Read more!

Western Australia sea level rising fast

Phil Mercer, BBC News 9 Nov 09;

New figures have revealed that sea levels along the coast of Western Australia are rising at a rate double that of the world average.

Statistics from Australia's National Tidal Centre show levels have increased by 8.6mm a year off the coast of the state capital Perth.

That compares to a global average of just over 3mm.

Scientists have said that man-made climate change has played a significant role in the rise.

Climatologists have said that a combination of natural variability and man-made pollution have caused sea levels to rise around the world.

Double trouble

For much of the past century there were average increases of 1.7mm per year, while that rate doubled after 1993.

Some regions, however, have suffered more than others.

New figures show that the sea level rose off Perth in Western Australia and in the Kimberley region to the north by more than 8mm.

Dr John Church, from Australia's government-funded science and research body, the CSIRO, says these are worrying signs.

"Man's role is making a significant contribution to this global average rise," he said.

"I think the fact that sea levels are rising is a major reason for concern and it's a combination of the global average rise together with the natural variability leading to larger regional rises over certain periods and extreme events as in storm surges which will have the most impact…and, of course, sea level rise will not stop in 2100, it will continue for many centuries," he added.

About 80% of Australians live in coastal areas.

There are fears that vulnerable low-lying communities may have to be abandoned in years to come because of flooding and erosion.

CSIRO scientists have said that warming temperatures, which cause water to expand, have been a major trigger for sea-level rises in the 20th Century.

They have also blamed the melting of the world's icecaps and glaciers.

Read more!

Stop selling out science to commerce

Stuart Parkinson and Chris Langley, New Scientist 9 Nov 09;

DO COMMERCIAL pressures have a negative impact on science? This debate has been raging for so long that it usually raises little more than a shrug of indifference.

That is no longer a defensible response. A new report from our organisation, Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR), exposes problems so serious that we can no longer afford to be indifferent to them.

The report looks at the impact of five commercial sectors on science and technology over the past 20 years. The damaging influence of two of these, pharmaceuticals and tobacco, has been noted before. But we also looked at the oil and gas, defence and biotech sectors, which have been subjected to less scrutiny.

We found a wide range of disturbing commercial influences on science, and evidence that similar problems are occurring across academic disciplines.

Over the past two decades, government policy in the US, UK and elsewhere has fundamentally altered the academic landscape in a drive for profit. Universities have been pushed to adopt a much more commercial mindset, from taking out patents to prioritising research that promises short-term economic gains. The rapid spread of partnerships between businesses and universities has led to some disciplines becoming so intertwined with industry that few academics are able to retain their independence.

Chemical engineering and geology are strongly linked to oil companies, for example, and it is hard to find an engineering department in the UK which does not receive funding from the arms industry. And many life sciences departments have extensive links with the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

This creates enormous potential for conflicts of interest. The problem has long been recognised in medical research, and journals are starting to crack down on it, but in other disciplines the problems are rarely even discussed, let alone acted upon.

Such problems are a major concern because they can undermine the quality and reliability of research. This is perhaps best illustrated by "sponsorship bias", where research generates results that suit the funder (The Journal of the American Medical Association, vol 290, p 921). Another well-documented problem is the failure to report results unfavourable to the funder.

Research is also undermined by misleading messages put out by industry-funded lobby groups. Again, these tactics are well known from the tobacco and oil industries, with their deliberate questioning of health research and sponsorship of climate sceptics. Less attention has been given to the funding of some patient groups by pharmaceutical companies and the (sometimes covert) use of PR companies by the biotechnology industry in the debate over genetically modified crops. This does not bode well for public discussions on the risks of synthetic biology.

Another cornerstone of science that is being eroded is the freedom to set the public research agenda so that it serves the public interest. Governments are increasingly focused on delivering competitiveness, and business interests are able to exert pressure on funding bodies through representatives on their boards. As a result, environmental and social problems and "blue-sky" research commonly lose out to short-term commercial gain.

For example, genetics now dominates agricultural science, not least because genetic technologies are highly patentable. This not only dominates privately funded research, but also steers publicly funded research away from work that takes a different approach or explores low-tech solutions.

As a result, "low-input" agriculture, which requires minimal use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides and is cheaper and more useful to poorer farmers, is largely overlooked. Similarly, research on how to improve food distribution receives inadequate support.

Another example is research on security issues, which is overwhelmingly focused on new military technology. Research into understanding the roots of conflict, or to support negotiation and reconciliation programmes, receives a tiny fraction of the tens of billions of dollars spent globally on developing military hardware. And most of that is public money.

Put bluntly, much publicly funded science is no longer being done in the public interest. Despite this, policy-makers are complacent and argue that any damaging effects of commercial influence are minor.

In contrast, many scientists are noticing the effects and becoming discomfited by them. Some are starting to speak out. For example, staff at the Open University in the UK are pushing for new ethical standards for business partnerships following the university's involvement in a major military contract.

However, these campaigns are few and far between. There is a strong incentive for scientists not to make a fuss if their department receives industry funds. This is strengthened by contractual requirements for secrecy that often come with industry partnerships.

To defend independent science, reform is needed, from the level of government policy down to that of the research study. To this end, SGR is making recommendations. These include: the open publication of all funding arrangements between academia and business; ethical standards for business-university partnerships; proper handling of conflicts of interests by journals; more involvement of the public in setting research priorities; and a change in government policies which prioritise research with short-term commercial priorities above all else.

Scientists must now voice their concerns publicly in order that policy-makers hear them. They could do worse than follow the example set by campaigners at the Open University.

Stuart Parkinson and Chris Langley are authors of the SGR report Science and the Corporate Agenda, which can be downloaded from sgr.org.uk

Read more!