Grain of hope for rice research

Fund will help raise output, ensure there is no shortage that may send prices soaring
Victoria Vaughan, Straits Times 26 Nov 09;

A FUND to support research into rice - a food staple for half the world - has been launched in Singapore.

The money will go towards continuing research into securing the supply of rice, rice genetics and climate change.

The ultimate aim is to ensure that rice output does not plateau and to forestall shortages that will send rice prices rocketing again like they did last year.

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) headquartered in the Philippines is behind this fund-raising effort, the first major one for rice.

It aims to raise US$300 million (S$416.5 million) by 2012 from individuals, organisations and companies, and hopes to appeal to young wealthy Asians interested in philanthropy, said IRRI's director-general Robert Zeigler.

The fund has so far secured US$59 million, including $50 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; a further $20 million to $25 million from other donors is in the pipeline.

Dr Zeigler said the not-for-profit IRRI has, in the last 50 years, been working quietly behind the scenes to raise rice output.

Its research areas include developing rice varieties that can resist flooded conditions, droughts, pests and disease.

Half the world's rice is dependent on rainfall, and the other half, on irrigation. When rice stands in water, the greenhouse gas methane is produced. IRRI has been trying since the early 1990s to come up with a way to reduce the amount of methane produced.

A research collaboration between IRRI and the National University of Singapore (NUS) is being planned; funds will have to be secured for this early next year.

The researchers, also to be drawn from the Temasek Life-Sciences Laboratory, will study drought- and flood-resistant rice varieties and look into raising the yield as well as the plant's resistance to fungal disease.

Professor Prakash Kumar of NUS' department of biological sciences, the liaison person for the collaboration, said: 'This fund is timely as investment in rice research has been dwindling in the last decade. Governments have all realised that in the next 20 to 30 years, we must increase food production by 50 per cent, which will be impossible without investment.

'Scientists think that with funding, we can get that increase and the IRRI can see that through.'

President S R Nathan and Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan attended the launch.

The minister pointed out that because Singapore was not a rice-producing nation, it should not take its supply lightly.

'Rice plays a fundamental role in Singapore - economically, culturally and socially. Between 2005 and 2008, our rice consumption rose by about 40 per cent, from 197,000 tonnes to 275,000 tonnes,' he noted.

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Indonesian government in the dark on how to cut emission

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 25 Nov 09;

If Indonesia can reduce forest fires in peat lands by 75 percent, it would cut nine percent of its emissions.

The government remains unclear on how to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s October declaration to voluntarily cut Indonesia’s carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020 using the state budget.

The Forestry Ministry admitted it had not yet issued any data on emissions cuts targets from the forestry sector, believed to be the Indonesia’s largest emissions contributor.

“We are still discussing it,” Nur Masripatin, a senior ministry official dealing with negotiations on forestry emissions cuts, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

State Minister for the Environment Gusti Muhammad Hatta announced Monday the forestry sector’s emissions cuts were expected to contribute about 14 percent of the 26 percent target, while energy and waste management sectors could cut emissions by 6 percent each.

“I don’t know how such [large] emissions cuts by the forestry sector will be made,” Nur said.

Earlier, Hatta was confident Yu-dhoyono’s pledge of 26 percent emissions cuts could be met with cuts by only the forestry and energy sectors.

Hatta’s office then revised the plan by incorporating a slash in emissions from waste management.

Nur warned that calculating emissions cuts should be discussed carefully because they would require a huge budget to resolve the main drivers of deforestation: rampant illegal logging and forest fires.

“If there are no significant changes in budget allocation, we will not be able to cut forestry emissions.

We cannot seek foreign aid to fund emission cuts in this sector,” she said.

A document made available to the Post showed that by planting 33.2 million hectares of trees and undertaking REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation) programs, Indonesia could slash about 15 percent of its emissions.

The document says that if Indonesia can reduce forest fires in peat lands by 75 percent, it would cut nine percent of its emissions.

Yudhoyono made his pledge at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in October. He further committed to slash emissions by 41 percent if developed nations provided financial aid.

With the announcement, Indonesia — one of the countries most vulnerable to the impact of climate change — became the first developing nation to declare an emissions cuts target.

Negotiators from all over the world will gather in Copenhagen in December to discuss emissions cuts targets to mitigate the impacts of global warming.

The existing climate treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, binds only developed nations to cut emissions by 5 percent by 2012 from 1990 levels. The treaty expires in 2012.

The Environment Ministry released its emissions report Monday, which showed the country’s emissions stood at about 1.4 million tons in 2000, the forestry sector alone contributed up to one million tons of emissions.

Energy and waste management each contributed about 333.540 tons and 151.578 tons.

If Indonesia can reduce forest fires in peat lands by 75 percent, it would cut nine percent of its emissions.

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Indonesian government may allow mining of protected forests

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 25 Nov 09;

The government has revealed plans to amend the law on natural resource conservation, which could pave the way for mining companies to exploit the country’s rich mineral resources in protected forests.

Director general for forest protection and natural conservation at the Forestry Ministry, Daruri, said that many mineral resources, including coal or geothermal sources were located in conservation forests.

“We are now reviewing articles prohibiting mining activities in conservation forests,” Daruri told a workshop Wednesday.

The 1990 Natural Resources Conservation Law prohibits the mining sector from exploiting mineral resources in conservation areas.

Meanwhile, the 1999 Forest Law stipulates that non-forest activities can only be conducted in both protected and production forests.

Daruri, however, immediately warned environmental activists not to politicize the plans.
“We will only change the law if there is guarantee that mining activities will not damage conservation forests,” he said.

“But we need a law as an umbrella for conserving the forest.”

He said that about 70 percent of geothermal sources were located below conservation forests.

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New species galore in discoveries around the world

John Platt, Scientific American 25 Nov 09;

I usually write about species that we're about to see for the last time, but the past few weeks have brought news of literally hundreds of newly discovered species. Some of these may not be around for long, though, so here are some introductions while they can still be made:

• The ongoing Census of Marine Life has uncovered thousands of new species existing so far beneath the surface of the sea that they have never seen the light of day. Included on the list so far are 40 new species of coral, a large squid, and a family of "yeti crabs". Scientific American has a slide show of some of these critters here.
• A chameleon dubbed Kinyongia magomberae has been discovered in the forests of Tanzania. Discovered by Andrew Marshall of the University of York in England, he was lucky to find it: A snake was in the process of eating the novel creature but dropped it after being startled by Marshall's presence. Since the discovery, only three more specimens have been found.
• A spiny eel called Mastacembelus reygeli has been found in Lake Tanganyika in Africa. The new species had previously been confused with another eel with a similar morphology.
• A tiny new fish has been discovered in the drainage areas of the Brahmaputra River in India. Transparent and just 16 millimeters (0.63 inch) long, Danionella priapus was only determined to be a new species by close examination of its genitalia.
• Six new sea slug species have been discovered, five in Spain and one in Cuba, part of an ongoing inventory of sea slugs that has so far uncovered 54 new species.
• Two new catfish have recently been discovered: a bagrid catfish (Tachysurus spilotus) located in Vietnam, and a whale catfish (Cetopsidium soniae) found off the Takutu River in southwestern Guyana.
• Also in Guyana, a lungless, legless, wormlike amphibian has been discovered and named Caecilita iwokramae.
• "The Crocodile Hunter," Steve Irwin, lives on in the names of species named after him and his mannerisms. The latest, Crikey steveirwini, is a rare tree snail discovered in Queensland, Australia, where it has so far only been found in three locations.
• Eight new species of Hyposmocoma moths have been discovered on three remote Hawaiian islands.
• Finally, two new species of custard apple (Miliusa wayanadica and M. gokhalae) and a new orchid (Oberonia swaminathanii) were recently discovered in Puthurvayal, India, along with two other plant species (Eugenia argentea and Hedyotis wyanadensis) that have not been seen in 130 years and had long been considered "possibly extinct".

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Venomous Aussie redback spiders invading Japan

Yahoo News 25 Nov 09;

TOKYO (AFP) – Australia's venomous redback spiders are on the march in Japan, where they are believed to have arrived years ago as stowaways on cargo ships, a wildlife expert warned Wednesday.

The creepy-crawlies, named after their fiery markings, have infested the Osaka region and are drawing closer to the capital Tokyo, said Japan Wildlife Research Centre official Toshio Kishimoto.

A dozen people have reportedly been bitten in Osaka prefecture alone, media reports say, including a six-year-old boy who was treated with antivenom in June, the first time the medication had been used in the country.

"Their poison is strong and they are particularly dangerous to people in weak physical condition, like children and the elderly," Kishimoto told AFP.

"Redbacks are becoming a common species in Japan. They are very numerous, especially in the western region, and are now often sighted in residential areas.... Once the spiders spread, it's hard to eliminate them."

Redback bites, which inject a potent neurotoxin, have caused numerous deaths in Australia, although an antivenom stocked in hospitals has prevented fatalities more recently.

Redbacks were first spotted in Japan in 1995, around Osaka, a major port where, experts believe, they may have arrived in a container of Australian woodchips used to make paper in Japan.

Several years ago a major redback infestation was found in the street drainage system of the city, and the arachnids have now spread to prefectures covering roughly a third of the country.

In one case, a man moving from Osaka north to the Tokyo region by car unknowingly took a redback spider with him after the animal had latched onto the vehicle, the wildlife researcher said.

He said Japanese people must become more aware of the dangers of redbacks, a species long feared in Australia, where the creatures are known to lurk in garden sheds, in shoes left outdoors, and under toilet seats.

"People need to be warned on how to treat them, and to be careful when they're out cleaning ditches, and to wear thick cotton gloves for example," said Kishimoto.

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Sustainability standards for Asian catfish farming reach final stage

WWF 25 Nov 09;

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Global sustainability standards governing Asian catfish farming – also known as pangasius, tra or basa farming -- are in the final stage of development, and will assure that this fast growing industry addresses environmental and social impacts such as water pollution, and poor fish health management, and feeding practices.

This month, the public comment period began for the Pangasius Aquaculture Dialogue (PAD) draft standards, marking the final step before the standards are finalized.

They will address the key environmental and social impacts associated with pangasius farming, an industry whose production has doubled to 1.1 million tons in a few years.

Aquaculture is the fastest growing food production system in the world. The industry has grown at a steady 8-10 percent during the past 30 years, and this is expected to continue. When finalized, the standards will be given to a new organization, to be co-founded by WWF, that will be responsible for working with independent, third party entities to certify farms that are in compliance with the standards.

Feedback received during the 60-day public comment period will be used by the
PAD’s participants to finalize the standards in the first quarter of 2010. The process began in 2007 and includes more than 400 producers, conservationists, government officials, academics and others interested in pangasius farming.

“We welcome feedback because we know that tapping into the experiences and expertise of a broad and diverse group of people will make the standards more robust,” said Dr. Flavio Corsin of WWF, who coordinates the PAD. “I am confident that, because of the open and transparent process we use, the final standards will help transform the pangasius farming industry.”


Significant changes have been made to the PAD standards as a result of the input received from 140 people during the first public comment period, discussions at the PAD meeting held in Vietnam in August, and meetings with small-scale pangasius farmers in Vietnam and Bangladesh.

The process used by the PAD and the seven other Aquaculture Dialogues is the only one for aquaculture standard-setting that is in compliance with the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labeling Alliance’s guidelines for creating environmental and social standards.

Other changes made to the pangasius standards based on input received include prohibiting the conversion of natural resources for pangasius farming, banning all antibiotics listed by the World Health Organization as critical antibiotics for human health, and assessing the quality of receiving waters (not just what water comes into and goes out of the farm).

Most of the standards will be metrics-based, which is the only way to effectively know whether the industry’s impact on the environment is reduced. The standards also will be performance-based, thereby encouraging innovation at the farm level.

The PAD standards will be given to the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) to manage when that entity is in operation. WWF announced in January that it is going to help create the ASC, which will be responsible for working with independent, third party entities to certify farms that are in compliance with the standards being created by participants of the Aquaculture Dialogues.

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Landmark treaty seeks to slash illegal fishing

Yahoo News 25 Nov 09;

ROME (AFP) – A landmark treaty aimed at denying port access to foreign boats engaged in illegal fishing has been signed by the United States and a host of other nations, as well as the EU, the UN said Wednesday.

Ichiro Nomura, assistant director-general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation's Fisheries Department, called it the most significant international fishing treaty since 1995.

It marks the first time countries will be called upon to deny foreign fishing boats access to their ports if they are found to have engaged in illegal fishing.

Responsibility for the boats has primarily been with the countries granting them permission to fly their flags.

"It's a milestone achievement," Nomura said. "No longer will we solely rely on the ability of fishing nations to monitor behaviour by vessels flying their flags on the open waters of the oceans.

"Now countries are committing to taking steps to identify, report and deny entry to offenders at ports where fishing fleets are received. That's a key back-door that will be slammed shut with the new international treaty."

The FAO's governing body has approved the treaty and 11 members have signed it, the organisation said.

They are: Angola, Brazil, Chile, the European Commission, Indonesia, Iceland, Norway, Samoa, Sierra Leone, the United States and Uruguay.

It will take effect once 25 countries have ratified it.

The FAO said foreign fishing vessels wishing to dock will be required to request permission from ports ahead of time, transmitting information on their activities and the fish they have on board.

That provides authorities an opportunity to spot any red flags in advance, it said. Port states will also conduct regular inspections of ships according to a common set of standards.

When a vessel is denied access, port states must communicate that information publicly and national authorities of the country whose flag the vessel is flying must take follow-up action, the FAO said.

Illegal fishing agreement to push pirates out of ports
WWF 27 Nov 09;

Rome, Italy – A new international agreement to better control vessels in the world’s ports will cut off access to global markets for pirate fishers, responsible for fueling overfishing and the illegal seafood trade.

This week, states participating in the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) adopted an agreement on port control of vessels engaged in fishing and fish trade, which will greatly reduce illegal fishing.

The new Binding International Agreement on Port State Control Measures to Combat, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing (Port State Agreement) sets minimum standards for what every port state must do to prevent illegally caught fish from being offloaded and reaching global markets.

WWF applauds the FAO for ensuring that the Port State Agreement was successfully developed and adopted, and commends progressive member states such as Norway for encouraging the negotiation process for the past two years.

“The oceans are not a ‘free-for-all.’ This landmark agreement makes clear the responsibility of states to keep illegal fish from entering their ports;” said Miguel A. Jorge Director Marine Program at WWF International. “States serious about stamping out pirate fishing and preventing illegally caught seafood from reaching our dinner plates will sign on to this agreement quickly.”

The Port State Agreement was opened for signature on Nov. 23 during the FAO Annual Conference in Rome. Currently, 11 states including the European Union, Chile, Indonesia, Norway and the United States have signed the new treaty, an important first step to become a party to the agreement. In order to enter into force, 25 states need to become parties to the Port State Agreement.

Illegal fishing is one of the largest causes of overfishing and threatens the livelihoods of legitimate fishers and coastal communities. Current estimated value of financial losses because of illegal fishing worldwide is estimated at USD 10 billion to USD 23 billion annually.

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Eating 30 Percent Less Meat Good For Health, Planet

Kate Kelland, PlanetArk 26 Nov 09;

LONDON - Cutting meat production and consumption by 30 percent would help to reduce carbon emissions and improve health in the most meat-loving nations, scientists said on Wednesday.

Using prediction models, British and Australian researchers found that improving efficiency, increasing carbon capture and reducing fossil fuel dependence in farming would not be enough to meet emissions targets.

But combining these steps with a 30 percent reduction in livestock production in major meat-producing nations and a similar cut in meat-eating, would lead to "substantial population health benefits" and cut emissions, they said.

The study found that in Britain, a 30 percent lower intake of animal-source saturated fat by adults would reduce the number of premature deaths from heart disease by some 17 percent -- equivalent to 18,000 premature deaths averted in one year.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil, it could mean as many as 1,000 premature deaths averted in a year, they said.

According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions are from meat production and experts say rising demand for meat, particularly in countries with growing economies, could drive livestock production up by 85 percent from 2000 levels by 2030.

The scientists said global action was needed to maximize the benefits of cutting meat production and consumption, and that the environmental advantages "may apply only in those countries that currently have high production levels."

The study was published in The Lancet medical journal as part of a series in climate change and health ahead of the Copenhagen global climate summit scheduled next month.

In a second study, British scientists found that increased walking and cycling, and fewer cars, would have a much greater impact on health than low-emission vehicles in rich and middle-income countries.

Andrew Haines, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and head of the research series, said delegates at Copenhagen needed "to understand the potential health impacts of their plans."

(Editing by Dominic Evans)

Eating less meat helps the planet – and your heart
Andy Coghlan, New Scientist 25 Nov 09;

Skip that third helping of roast beef, save the planet and do your heart a favour at the same time.

That's the advice of Alan Dangour of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and colleagues who explored the livestock industry's potential to help the UK halve its carbon emissions by 2030, relative to 1990 levels, and the knock-on effect on the nation's health.

They found that the industry could slash its emissions, but only if the livestock the UK produces, and the meat the nation consumes, drops by 30 per cent. Farms must also optimise their energy efficiency by, for example, capturing carbon in manure.

The health pay-off would be considerable: 18,000 fewer people would die prematurely in the UK each year from heart attacks – a reduction of 17 per cent – as they would eat less of the saturated fats found in meat.

The effect would not be limited to rich nations. The team found that Brazil could achieve the same health benefits. "We're not saying go vegetarian, we're saying reduce how much livestock produce you consume," says Dangour. The savings could be even higher if reduced death rates from colorectal cancer and obesity had been included, he adds.

Agronomist Kenneth Cassman of the University of Nebraska warns that cutting production in one region can boost it elsewhere, causing a rise in global emissions. "Reducing production of livestock products in a developed country like the UK does little to influence global trends in production and consumption where most of the increase in demand between now and 2050 will come from developing countries," he says.

Journal reference: The Lancet, DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61753-0

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Curbing global warming saves lives, studies say

Seth Borenstein, Associated Press 25 Nov 09;

WASHINGTON – Cutting global warming pollution would not only make the planet healthier, it would make people healthier too, new research suggests.

Slashing carbon dioxide emissions could save millions of lives, mostly by reducing preventable deaths from heart and lung diseases, according to studies released Wednesday and published in a special issue of The Lancet British medical journal.

Global and U.S. health officials unveiled the results as they pushed for health issues to take a more prominent role at upcoming climate change negotiations in Copenhagen. Also on Wednesday, President Barack Obama announced that he would go to Copenhagen at the start of international climate talks. U.S. health officials said the timing was not planned.

"Relying on fossil fuels leads to unhealthy lifestyles, increasing our chances for getting sick and in some cases takes years from our lives," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a telecast briefing from her home state of Kansas. "As greenhouse gas emissions go down, so do deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. This is not a small effect."

Sebelius, British health officials, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the head of the World Health Organization all took part in briefings based in Washington and London.

The journal Lancet took an advocacy role in commissioning the studies and timing their release before the Copenhagen summit, but the science was not affected by the intent, said journal editor Dr. Richard Horton.

Instead of looking at the health ills caused by future global warming, as past studies have done, this research looks at the immediate benefits of doing something about the problem, said Linda Birnbaum, director of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. That agency helped fund the studies along with the Wellcome Trust and several other international public health groups.

The calculations of lives saved were based on computer models that looked at pollution-caused illnesses in certain cities. The figures are also based on the world making dramatic changes in daily life that may at first seem too hard and costly to do, researchers conceded.

Some possible benefits seemed highly speculative, the researchers conceded, based on people driving less and walking and cycling more. Other proposals studied were more concrete and achievable, such as eliminating cook stoves that burn dung, charcoal and other polluting fuels in the developing world.

And cutting carbon dioxide emissions also makes the air cleaner, reducing lung damage for millions of people, doctors said.

"Here are ways you can attack major health problems at the same time as dealing with climate change," said lead author Dr. Paul Wilkinson, an environmental epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The calculations are based on proposals that would cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050. To accomplish that, industrialized countries have to cut emissions by 83 percent. Obama's proposal, also unveiled Wednesday with his Copenhagen announcement, is in sync with that.

Wilkinson said the individual studies came up with numbers of premature deaths prevented or extra years of life added for certain locales.

For example, switching to low-polluting cars in London and Delhi, India, would save 160 lost years of life in London and nearly 1,700 in Delhi for every million residents, one study found. But if people also drove less and walked or biked more, those extra saved years would soar to more than 7,300 years in London and 12,500 years in Delhi because of less heart disease.

Outside scientists praised the studies and said the research was sound.

"The science is really excellent; the modeling is quite good," said Dr. Paul Epstein of the Harvard School of Medicine's Center for Health and the Global Environment. "It really takes the whole field a step farther."

___

On the Net:

The Lancet: http://www.lancet.com/

Clean Energy, Better Homes Cut Pollution, Save Lives
Tan Ee Lyn, PlanetArk 26 Nov 09;

HONG KONG - Better home insulation and ventilation and using electricity instead of fossil fuels could reduce indoor pollution and save thousands of lives, especially in low-income countries like India, a study has found.

Using mathematical modeling and case studies, researchers said such strategies could avert 5,500 premature deaths and reduce carbon dioxide emission by up to 41 megatonnes, or 41 million tonnes, per year in a country like Britain.

"Indoor household fuel pollutants would be removed by switching all household fossil fuels to electricity, and energy could be saved by reducing thermostat temperatures," the researchers said in a paper published in The Lancet Series on Health and Climate Change

Led by Paul Wilkinson at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the researchers said the costs of such energy-efficient improvements would be substantial but would be offset by significant savings on fuel.

The researchers examined the benefits of introducing cleaner cooking stoves in a low-income country like India, where burning of biomass results in lung and heart disease.

Assuming that 150 million efficient low-emission household cooking stoves were installed, the authors said: "By 2020, 87 percent of Indian households would have very much cleaner combustion and air."

"The total number of averted premature deaths from acute lower respiratory infections will have reached about 240,000 children aged younger than 5 years, and more than 18 million premature adult deaths from ischemic heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease will have been averted."

In another paper in the same series, researchers said reducing carbon-based electricity generation would lead to significant health benefits worldwide, particularly in countries like India and China.

Led by Anil Markandya at the BC3 Basque Center for Climate Change in Spain, the researchers calculated the benefits of reducing total carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent in 2030.

"The best-case scenario would, in India, avert 93,000 premature deaths in 2030 compared with business as usual," the researchers wrote.

"In the EU, 5,000 deaths would be averted and in China the number would be 57,000."

(Editing by Paul Tait)

Climate policies 'improve health'
BBC News 25 Nov 09;

Cutting emissions to mitigate climate change will also make people healthier, according to research.

A special series of articles, published in medical journal, the Lancet, outlines how such policies could have a direct impact on global health.

The series has been released ahead of the UN climate summit in Copenhagen.

World Health Organization (WHO) director, Margaret Chan, said health protection should be a criterion by which mitigation measures were judged.

Dr Chan was just one of the key figures in global health research who wrote a comment article that was published alongside the Lancet reports.

Another was Professor Sir Andrew Haines, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who is chair of the international task force of scientists that wrote the series.

He said that the public health benefits of mitigation policies had not had "sufficient prominence" in international negotiations.

Dr Chan commented: "As this series shows, cutting greenhouse gas emissions can represent a mutually reinforcing opportunity to reduce climate change and improve public health."

Some of the key findings presented in the reports included evidence that moving towards low carbon transport systems could reduce the health impacts of urban air pollution and physical inactivity.

Researchers also found that changes in farming practice to reduce livestock and meat consumption could improve health by lowering the intake of saturated fat.

And in poor countries, reducing the need to burn solid fuel indoors could have a significant impact on child and maternal health by cutting indoor air pollution.

Dr Chan pointed out that the poorest countries were the most vulnerable to the health impacts of climate change.

Cleaner energy

In one of the articles, scientists from the Basque Centre for Climate Change in Bilbao, Spain, showed how decreasing fossil-fuel-dependent electricity generation could have significant health benefits worldwide.

The researchers said that the middle-income countries such as India and China would benefit most. A reduction in pollution there could prevent many of the premature deaths that are associated with heart and lung damage caused by inhaling the polluting particles.

But the researchers also examined the health impacts in wealthier countries.

One group of researchers described the results of an 18-year study of the long-term health effects of pollution in the US.

The team, led by Professor Kirk Smith from the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, US, pointed out that "short-lived" greenhouse pollutants, such as particles of black carbon and ozone, can directly damage the heart and lungs.

They said that "separate climate change agreements" might be needed for these pollutants.

In another paper, scientists quantified changes that were needed in the agricultural sector, which contributes 10-12% of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

They wrote that "high-producing countries" should reduce livestock production by 30% to slow climate change. Should this translate into a reduction in the consumption of meat, the scientists say that it could also reduce heart disease.

Researchers called for health and climate change scientists to work together and for more funding for such interdisciplinary projects.

Copenhagen hope

The editor of the Lancet, Dr Richard Horton cautioned against putting too much pressure on the Copenhagen meeting.

He said: "By suggesting that Copenhagen is the 'last chance' for a binding international climate change agreement, anything less will seem a failure.

"Copenhagen is a beginning, not the end."

Professor Haines said: "The Copenhagen conference presents an important opportunity to choose those policies that can not only achieve needed reductions in greenhouse gases, but also move toward development and health goals."

KEY FINDINGS
# Food: High-producing countries should reduce livestock production by 30%. If this translated into reduced meat consumption, the amount of saturated fat consumed would drop sharply, which could reduce heart disease
# Transport: Cutting emissions through walking and cycling and reducing use of motor vehicles would bring health benefits including reduced cardiovascular disease, depression and dementia
# Household: In low-income countries, solid fuel stoves create indoor air pollution. National programmes to introduce low-emission stoves could avert millions of premature deaths and reduce greenhouse gas emissions
# Pollution: Short-lived pollutants including ozone and black carbon contribute to climate change and damage health. Reducing emissions of these would offer immediate benefits
# Energy: Decreasing the proportion of carbon-based electricity generation would give health benefits worldwide, particularly in middle-income countries such as India and China

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Taiwan rethinks land use after killer typhoon

Benjamin Yeh Yahoo News 25 Nov 09;

TAIPEI (AFP) – The death and destruction wreaked on Taiwan by Typhoon Morakot was a disaster waiting to happen, aggravated by decades of unrestrained environmental abuse, critics say.

Sixty years of intense use of the small island's natural resources left it increasingly fragile and vulnerable to a major blow such as that dealt by Morakot, which left more than 700 people dead or missing in August.

Mountainsides collapsed because the deep-rooted trees that should have held them together had been chopped down, while a water-diversion tunnel was blamed for a landslide that buried hundreds of people in one village.

"After years of depletion of the land, nature is striking back," said Tsao Chi-hung, magistrate of south Taiwan's Pingtung county, one of the worst affected areas.

With 23 million people and the 15th highest population density in the world, Taiwan was bound to encounter problems even with the gentlest of policies.

But critics say the typhoon laid bare the consequences of ruthless exploitation of the island, ignored by a government and a people pursuing fast economic development at any cost.

"Land development has been excessive," said Liu Yin-yuh, a geography professor at National Taiwan University.

The Morakot disaster may be changing the thinking even at the highest levels. President Ma Ying-jeou termed the typhoon, which touched off some of the worst flooding in Taiwan's history, a "painful lesson".

The island's government is now introducing a tough new planning law, pending parliament's approval.

It is a beginning, critics say, but point out that the law will have to handle the accumulated legacy of practices dating back at least half a century.

It began when China's Nationalist government fled to the island at the end of a civil war won by the Communists.

The Nationalists brought hundreds of thousands of troops and encouraged many of them to make a living after retirement growing fruit and vegetables in the mountainous areas.

The policy was generally seen as a success as it created numerous jobs for idle veterans.

But the money they made attracted local farmers to join their ranks, cutting down indigenous trees on the mountains to grow crops such as apples, tea and betel nuts.

The cultivated plants have sustained a number of farmers and their dependents for decades, but, it now emerges, at a steep cost to the environment.

"The roots of those plants are shallow and unable to protect the soil from the erosion caused by downpours," said Liu of National Taiwan University.

The situation grew worse over the past 10 years as hot spring resorts and hotels expanded into the mountains, many built in prohibited areas, despite public criticism.

"In some cases, businesspeople have colluded with corrupt government officials," environmental activist Ho Tsung-hsun said.

The improper use of land has also hit alarming rates in some coastal areas where fishermen have pumped up underground water to breed fish for export and for local consumers.

Pingtung county is one such area, with land sinking by several metres in some cases, explaining why several coastal townships were so hard hit in the flooding triggered by Typhoon Morakot.

Fishermen in Pingtung, however, argue that it is hard to find alternative ways of making a living.

The same pressure to make ends meet no matter the cost to the environment is faced by betel nut farmers.

In Nanhsing, a village in central Taiwan, farmers chopped down a majority of betel nut trees and planted 390,000 deep-rooted trees after a powerful earthquake exposed the dangers posed by an eroding landscape.

But in the intervening years some farmers have quietly planted betel nut trees again, said Liu Wei-shih, a local official.

"It underscores the problems we face when we encourage the plantation of trees. Farmers can hardly survive by the meagre subsidies they get," he said.

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Land pressures 'turning a quarter of India to desert'

Yahoo News 25 Nov 09;

NEW DELHI (AFP) – Nearly a quarter of India's land mass is desert or is turning into desert, according to a study published Wednesday, with deforestation and overgrazing among the main factors spurring the process.

Northern and western India are the worst parts of India affected by the phenomenon, according to the study, which used satellite mapping and was the first national-level government-commissioned research published on the issue.

"There has been a long-pending need for desertification/land degradation status mapping of the entire country based on scientific methods," said the study by the Space Applications Centre and the Current Science journal.

It said the total area under desertification -- areas already considered desert and those under threat -- was over 80 million hectares (200 million acres) or almost a quarter of India's 328-million hectare land area.

The study noted that India accounted for 2.4 percent of the global land mass, but supported about 16.7 percent of the world's population and 18 percent of its cattle.

"There is tremendous pressure on our land-based natural resources," it said.

Changes in the frequency and amount of rainfall, water and wind erosion, as well as harmful agricultural practices, were other causes for desertification cited in the research.

In total, just over 32 percent of the country was described as undergoing "land degradation," with the process most pronounced in the states of Rajasthan, Kashmir, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The Space Applications Centre study comes after research led by consulting firm McKinsey and Co. revealed this week that India's water needs were set to double by 2030, which could dry up its river basins.

Demand for rice, wheat and sugar will push India's huge agricultural sector to consume 1.5 trillion cubic metres (53 trillion cubic feet) of water by 2030, almost double that of China, the McKinsey study warned.

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Climate change to hit water-scarce Arab world hard

Dina Zayed, Reuters 25 Nov 09;

CAIRO (Reuters) - Climate change is likely to hit the water-starved Arab world harder than many other parts of the globe and threatens to slash agricultural output in the area, U.N. and Arab League officials said.

Arab governments have shown more awareness of the issue but need to cooperate further to improve research and policies to protect vulnerable groups, including women who could bear the burden of adapting to increased water scarcity, they said.

"Climate change will be critical for the Arab world because this region in particular already suffers from poverty, widespread aridity, water scarcity and social marginalization," said Sima Bahous, Deputy Secretary General for Social Development in the Arab League.

Fifteen percent of people in the Arab world already have limited or no access to potable water, the officials said, speaking on Tuesday at the launch in Cairo of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) report on climate change.

The report was released worldwide on November 18, ahead of U.N. climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.

UNFPA Regional Director for Arab States Hafedh Chekir said that, while 80 percent of Arab world water consumption was for agriculture, climate change induced scarcity was expected to cut food production by half in the region.

Henrietta Aswad, regional communication adviser for UNFPA, said more cooperation between the Arab League, UNFPA, and Arab non-governmental entities was needed to help governments draw up appropriate policies.

"Awareness in the Arab region is getting better at this point and governments are aware of the impact of climate change," she said.

"Yet more studies and data need to be conducted to basically have a better assessment of the real impact especially on vulnerable groups in the region," she added.

The UNFPA report did not outline specific policies for the region but said policies should focus on women, children and the elderly because these groups were likely to carry a bigger burden of adapting to water scarcity and climate change.

It said the disproportionate burden on women can create "a cycle of deprivation, poverty and inequality."

Chekir said Egypt, where most of the 77 million population are crammed into Nile Valley and low lying Delta, could be one of the world's countries worst effected by climate change.

A previous U.N. study said 8 million people could be displaced by a one meter rise in sea levels flooding the Delta, a major agricultural production area. Egypt is already the world's biggest wheat importer.

"We want to integrate the human element into environmental policy making," Chekir said.

The report said slower population growth would help build social resilience to the impact of climate change and would help reduce green-house gas emissions in future.

(Editing by Edmund Blair)

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