'We need to evolve a new attitude to our seas' - Achim Steiner

Achim Steiner, for CNN 30 Apr 10;

Achim Steiner is U.N. Under-Secretary General and Executive Director, U.N. Environment Program (UNEP). Here he expresses his opinion on environmental protection of the oceans.

(CNN) -- The epic voyage of Plastiki is bringing into sharp focus the inordinate environmental and economic impact that humanity is having on the oceans and seas.

While the focus is solid waste, and especially plastic marine litter, the expedition also underlines the myriad of other, sometimes invisible, factors that are accelerating the degradation and decline of fisheries to coastal ecosystems, such as mangroves and sea grasses.

Unless urgent action is taken, commercial fish stocks may have disappeared in a matter of decades, along with the livelihoods of millions of often poor people, who depend on fish for food and jobs. And unless urgent steps are taken, ecological infrastructure such as mangroves may soon be lost and with them natural coastal defenses, water purification systems and fish nurseries.

Instead of mining the world's marine environment and running it down as a result of pollution and mismanagement, humanity needs to re-commit and re-engage on the challenge of healthy seas and oceans.

How can this be achieved?

First, sound science is absolutely central: it provides governments with the reality of how the marine environment is faring and the kinds of choices that need to be made. Science can also be empowering: it can validate positive actions that are catalyzing improvements that can stage a recovery of one of the world's most important natural and economically-significant assets.

State of the Marine Environment-Positive and Negative Trends UNEP, through its Global Program of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Sources (GPA), spotlights how some persistent problems are indeed improving.

Its latest "State of the Marine Environment" report found that oil and oily wastes being discharged or spilled have been reduced by 40 percent since the mid 1980s. Oil spills linked with tankers accidents are also down by 75 percent; from tanker operations they have fallen by 95 per cent and oil from city and industrial discharges has dropped by 90 per cent.

Improvements have also occurred in terms of radioactive substances, in large part linked with the prohibition in the early 1990s of the dumping of low-level radioactive wastes at sea under the London Convention.

In terms of so called persistent organic pollutants long lived and toxic chemicals used, or once used, in industries such as power generation transformers to agriculture the picture is mixed. For example in the Baltic Sea there has been a 50 percent reduction in pollution loads, especially of the notorious pesticide DDT and other pesticides are generally falling too in of eastern and western South America. Levels of several key persistent organic pollutants are also dropping in the North East Atlantic.

All in all, the decision by many countries to ban many of these chemicals has borne positive fruit.

However, more action is needed is places like the Caspian Sea; South East Asia and the Pacific; East Asia and the Indian Ocean where pesticides are either heavily used or produced.

There is also emerging concern that, as a result of climate change, the problem without national and international action, may intensify rather than recede. There is evidence that toxic chemicals like DDT and their break-down products -- stored in glaciers and at the poles -- may be being discharged back into rivers and seas, as the ice melts.

Heavy Metals to Waste Water: Big and Emerging Challenges

These are some of the high points, cases where concerted national and international action is making a difference. But other sobering facts abound. Heavy metals, including the neuro-toxin mercury, remain a challenge, not least because they can travel around the world in the seas and the jet stream.

In the Arctic, there are areas where concentrations of mercury in beluga whales and ringed seals are between two and four times higher than 25 years ago.

These are marine animals upon which many indigenous peoples rely on for food. In the seas of East Asia, rising amounts of electronic waste disposed of on land -- which can contain up to 1,000 different materials including heavy metals -- is an increasing problem as it leaks from landfills into rivers and the sea. As many as nine million batteries are dumped annually in this region alone.

In respect to mercury, measures are being drawn up to reduce the threat. Governments have now agreed to establish an international treaty to tackle mercury and negotiations are underway.

But a great deal more needs to be done by governments and by industry in respect to other heavy metals, including federating take-back schemes for end-of-life products such as mobile phones and the rapid establishment of more re-use and recycling especially in developing economies.

Many of these metals have economic value which should be captured in smart market mechanisms that favor recovery rather than dumping.

Meanwhile, the levels of soils and sediments swilling down rivers into coastal waters is in many areas further cause for concern and linked with deforestation and changes in land use due to agriculture and urbanization.

In South Asia, an estimated 1.6 billion tones of sediment is now entering the Indian Ocean and in the seas of East Asia, the levels of silt draining into river basins are three to eight times the global average. In the Wider Caribbean, sediment loads are estimated to be one gigaton or 12 percent of the global level with loss of forests the main trigger.

Excessive sediments can choke coral reefs and smother other coastal ecosystems such as seagrasses. Dam building, for example, can have the diametrically opposite effect.

The building of the Aswan Dam in Egypt has led to close to 100 percent of the soils and sediments that once ran down the Nile being trapped. Erosion has thus occurred at the mouth of the river which is being linked in part with a decline in the sardine catch of 95 percent.

Perhaps the most serious challenge is the level of wastewater, and especially raw sewage, which is being discharged into coastal waters. To mark World Water Day in March this year, UNEP and partners launched the report "Sick Water?"

It estimated that around 2 million tons of wastes are passed into sewage systems every day: this may be producing well over two billion tons of polluted water daily, 365 days a year, right into our freshwaters and oceans.

The consequences are profound.

Waste water, a cocktail of human and animal wastes; agricultural fertilizers and other chemicals, is in part linked to a rise in deoxygenated, dead zones. These zones, which can be permanent, persistent or temporary, form when high levels of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous trigger algal blooms, which in turn such oxygen out of seawater. The result is areas where little if any life can survive.

The number of dead zones in coastal waters has doubled every decade since 1960 with the problem mainly in developed economies but spreading to the developing world as economies there grow.

Fisheries: A Major Unresolved Challenge

Finally, over-fishing: Lord Stern, the British economist, has called climate change the biggest market failure of all time.

Well, fisheries must run a close second.

According to UNEP's Global Environment Outlook-4, three-quarters of marine fisheries are exploited up to, or beyond, their maximum capacity.

Today's industrial-scale fleets, deploying giant nets, are going further and farther in pursuit of fish stocks yet often finding less and less to catch. The struggle to better manage fish stocks to match science with sensible quotas; to deploy more sustainable fishing technology to reduce bycatch and leave young fish to grow -- was brought into sharp relief at the meeting of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Doha, Qatar earlier in the year.

Despite sound scientific evidence that stocks of the western Atlantic Blue Fin tuna are in serious trouble -- down to 80 percent of their former size -- governments failed to agree on tough conservation and trade measures.

This fish stock like so many, could now be heading for collapse and the consequences could be irreversible.

When the explorer Cabot arrived off Canada's Newfoundland some 300 years ago, stocks of cod were so plentiful they slowed down his sailing ships, and crews could catch fish simply by lowering buckets overboard. Not any more. By 1992, overfishing had forced the closure of this once highly productive fishery, and despite all efforts the Grand Banks fishing grounds have never recovered.

Over fishing of sharks in the Caribbean has triggered a rise in octopus and a drastic drop in spiny lobster and scallops -- two major sources of revenue for neighboring coastal communities.

Turning the tide and making a more intelligent economic case

How should the world respond to this reckless tide of pollution, habitat destruction and overexploitation?

Firstly, governments need to look at science as an ally rather than as a provocation. Industry should view science-based recommendations and conservation-led measures not as a restriction but as an opportunity to re-tune their operations, boost competitive practices and a path towards guaranteeing profitability over short term gains.

Bringing the latest economics into the political and business equations could be key. One contribution to 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity, is The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB).

The initiative, hosted by UNEP and funded by among others the European Commission, Norway, Germany and the United Kingdom, will publish its landmark report just before the meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity in October.

However, some key facts and figures are already emerging which if taken up by governments could shift the balance away from damage and destruction and in favor of more intelligent management.

Take shrimp farms for example. TEEB cites one study from Thailand. Subsidized shrimp farms can generate returns of around $1,220 per hectare by clearing coastal mangrove forests. But this does not take into account the losses to local communities totaling over $12,000 a hectare linked with losses due to reduced availability of wood and non-wood forest products; fisheries and coastal protection services.

Nor does the profit to the commercial operators take into account the costs of rehabilitating the exhausted and abandoned sites after five years of exploitation -- estimated at over $9,000 a hectare.

Coral reefs, increasingly under threat from coastal developments, pollution, destructive activities such as cyanide and dynamite fishing and now climate change, are generating close to $190,000 per hectare in terms of coastal defenses and other areas of "natural hazard management".

In terms of diving and other tourism revenues, the annual services generated by coral reefs equate to perhaps $1 million a year. Genetic materials -- for example, pharmaceuticals -- up to $57,000 per hectare and fisheries just under $4,000 per hectare per year. Many fishing folk fear that establishing a comprehensive network of Marine Protected Area or marine parks could damage their livelihoods.

TEEB makes a different economic case. Its experts argue that such areas, involving a 20 percent closure of global fishing grounds, would result in losses to the industry of an estimated $270 million annually. However, it argues that such a network could sustain fisheries worth $80 to $100 billion a year; assist in conserving an estimated 27 million related jobs, while generating one million new ones while protecting the food supply of one billion people.

New kinds of international markets and funding mechanisms also need exploring. A recent study -- Blue Carbon-- by UNEP; the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization and IUCN, estimates that mangroves, seagrasses and salt marshes could be absorbing up to half the world's transport emissions.

Governments are moving to pay countries to maintain tropical forests, precisely because of the links between deforestation and climate change. Why not marine ecosystems too?

In terms of wastewater, it is estimated that if all the nutrients could be re-used and recycled, it could supply all the fertilizer farmers need, and perhaps at a fraction of the cost, while generating new businesses and jobs in recycling and re-use. Similar arguments could be made for all the wastes -- including plastics -- that end up in the seas and oceans, if smart policies and creative market mechanisms can be deployed to tip the balance in favor of waste as a resource rather than as a problem.

Healthy, well managed oceans are going to be key to whether six billion people rising to over nine billion, will be able to survive let alone thrive over the coming decades especially in a climate-constrained world.

If society can begin turning the tide in 2010, then Plastiki will have assisted in not only raising awareness about marine litter as it sails from San Francisco to Sydney. But the ship, David de Rothschild and his courageous crew will have helped charter a fundamental and decisive new course: one that sees the seas and oceans as an extraordinary resource which we damage and degrade at our peril.

Human beings evolved from the oceans, it is high time we evolved a different attitude to the place from where we came. Getting rid of rubbish and pollution by pouring it into the sea may line the pockets of some, but it will ultimately impoverish the many.

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Migratory bird sanctuary threatened in Philippines

Cecil Morella (AFP) Google News 30 Apr 10;

SAN VICENTE, Philippines — A Chinese egret pauses in its hunt as a group of fishermen strides across the vast mudflats of Olango island in the Philippines, carrying off baskets of its favourite crab snack.

Spring beckons and great flocks of waterfowl are laying on the last layers of fat before the long-haul flight back to mainland Asia, but sightings of the yellow-beaked, green-legged bird are becoming less frequent, experts say.

Wild Bird Club of the Philippines member Nilo Arribas, a frequent Olango visitor, fears the worst for the species after observing the egret flocks dwindle in recent years.

"Rare species of birds can easily disappear in this site without being recorded or reported," he told AFP.

For the tall and graceful wading bird that mainly winters in Olango and two nearby islands, habitat loss is the main threat as tidal flats and estuaries in its northern breeding sites are turned into fish ponds, farms or factories.

Just under 3,500 Chinese egrets are believed left, qualifying it for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's "Red List". Trade in its plumes had nearly led to its extinction in the late 19th century.

The IUCN says the birds now breed in protected sites, mainly small islands off the Russian far east, North and South Korea, and northern China.

To the south, the nature reserve on the southern tip of the rocky Olango outcrop off the port of Cebu is a vital winter habitat for the egret and dozens of other birds.

Reginaldo Bueno, who supervises the 1,030-hectare (2,545-acre) expanse of mudflats, mangrove forests and seagrass beds, says it is among the world's most important wetland sites.

More than half the 77 species of migratory birds that use the East Asian-Australasian flyway -- including the Eurasian curlew which has 'near-threatened' status, the Asiatic dowitcher and black-tailed godwit -- arrive in September and leave by April.

Both Arribas and Bueno have watched a disturbing decline in bird visitors to the island in recent years.

The number of birds stopping off there in winter dropped to 12,000 last year, from 16,000 in 2008, according to Bueno.

Human interference appears to be the main culprit.

Even though Olango has no fresh water and no local economy to speak of, the last government census revealed human residents now outnumber the visiting birds three to one.

Overworked park wardens have in the past year arrested poachers who use a deadly chemical, cyanide, to stun fish. Some mangrove trees have also been illegally cut for firewood, Bueno said.

Residents are banned from collecting crabs and seashells in the reserve. However they still gather them in the seagrass just outside the reserve, then cut inside and across the intertidal flats to get to their homes in San Vicente village, scattering the feeding birds.

On the outskirts of the reserve the locals collect starfish, sea urchins, and other marine creatures by the thousands, which they preserve using embalming fluid, paint in gaudy colours and sell to foreign markets.

"Our livelihood all comes from the sea and everything gets collected here," said one resident, Nimfa Pugoy, 48, a mother of eight

However neighbour Giovanni Tanio, 24, said catches were declining.

"We are collecting less compared to 10 years ago," Tanio said as he spread out starfish on a tarpaulin to dry in his yard.

Filipinas Sotto, head of the marine biology programme at nearby Cebu city's University of San Carlos, said the Cebu region around Olango was no stranger to environmental degradation involving small island ecosystems.

Most of Cebu's forests have been denuded, pushing the black shama, a robin-like bird found only in Cebu, close to extinction.

"They thought it had gone extinct, but when they found one the government decided to preserve a 100-hectare (247-acre) patch of forest where it now lives," she said.

The fate of one species of sea snake on another small island north of Olango serves as a warning, Sotto added -- it disappeared in the 1960s after being hunted for its skin, prized by Japanese for its supposed medicinal properties.

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Dead dugongs in Australia not netted by commercial fishermen

Reg Burton, North Queensland Register 30 Apr 10;

THREE dugong found dead in a net near Cairns were not caught by professional fishermen according to the Queensland Seafood Industry Association QSIA).

Industry spokesman Michael Gardner said he wanted to make it very clear that the net with two dugongs trapped had nothing whatsoever to do with commercial fishermen.

The net was spotted and picked up by the Navy's landing vessel, HMAS Labuan, while on its way from Cairns Harbour to Cooktown to take part in the ANZAC Day service.

"I think most people in the Cairns region probably realise what's going on with the deliberate killing of dugong but, whenever an incident like this involves a net, commercial fishermen can still suffer some collateral damage," he said.

"I want to make sure the reputation of local commercial fishermen is not harmed by the deaths of these dugong. This was not done by commercial fishermen."

LNP environment spokesman Glen Elmes called on the State Government to produce the net saying that the State Environment Minister, Kate Jones has made a habit of brushing aside widespread community concern and anger over dugong killings.

"The net picked up by the Navy appears to be black cotton of the type used in the illegal trade of dugong meat. That net needs to be produced and examined by local experts who will be able to tell who made it and where it came from," Mr Elmes said.

He said it appeared the commercial fishing industry was being blamed unfairly - especially as the net had not been properly identified.

Mr Gardner, president of the QSIA, called on authorities to take action on the deliberate netting of dugong.

He said local fishermen had confirmed the net involved was not a type used by commercial fishermen.

"Apparently, this is a net made to catch and kill dugong. There is no excuse for this type of killing of dugong. This wasteful, untargeted killing makes a mockery of State and Federal Government attempts to protect the species.

"It is also an insult to commercial fishermen who have been banned from working in a number of productive fishing grounds, had nets restricted and accepted a range of onerous fishing rules to reduce the risk of accidentally catching even a single dugong in a net anywhere in the State."

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Hunt for culprits who have made billions and damaged environment in Malaysia

Lourdes Charles, The Star 30 Apr 10;

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is on a nationwide hunt for sand thieves who have not only raked in billions of ringgit but also caused massive damage to the environment.

It is learnt that MACC officers who went undercover have so far nabbed 43 suspects and several more are on their radar.

MACC director of investigations Mustafar Ali said a special task force had unearthed the activities of several syndicates that had been “exporting” sand under the guise of silica to a neighbouring country.

“Exporting sand is illegal but not silica which is a component in sand used to make glass.

“Nineteen people have been charged so far and more will be taken to court once we obtain the Deputy Public Prosecutor’s consent,” he told The Star.

Mustafar said the MACC had received 410 tip-offs and reports on illegal sand mining and it was working closely with other relevant agencies.

He said in one state alone, it was estimated that 3,000 lorries were transporting sand illegally, involving a face value of about RM1.6mil daily.

In a month, the sand thieves would have amassed at least RM48.9mil, and RM587mil a year. This amount does not include sand smuggled in barges.

“This illegal activity has been going on for years and they are damaging the environment, flora and fauna as well as causing erosion,’’ Mustafar added.

Mustafar said MACC investigations revealed that bribes paid out to those in authority ranged between RM500 and RM88,000, with sexual favours also thrown in.

He said those caught before the MACC Act 2009 was enforced in 2009 could be jailed a minimum of 14 days and up to 20 years, and fined RM10,000 or five times the gratification amount, whichever is higher, or both.

Under the MACC Act, a person convicted of the offence could be jailed up to 20 years or fined five times the amount of gratification or both.

Mustafar appealed to the public who knew of such illegal activities to contact the authorities.

Only one permit for sand mining
Stuart Michael, The Star 1 May 10;

PETALING JAYA: The Selangor Government will only issue one company – Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd – the permit to carry out sand mining in the state in an effort to check rampant illegal mining.

State chairman for agriculture, natural resources and entrepreneurial development Yaakob Sapari said all other companies which carried out the activity would be deemed illegal.

“The state is losing millions of ringgit because of illegal sand mining. It is to control this that we have made such a decision,” he said yesterday.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is on a nationwide hunt for sand thieves and have nabbed 43 suspects with 19 people being charged so far.

It was reported that in one state alone, it was estimated that 3,000 lorries were transporting sand illegally, involving about RM1.6mil daily. Sand thieves can amass at least RM48.9mil a month and RM587mil in a year.

Yaakob said illegal sand mining was still rampant in Selangor but the state authorities would go all out to catch the culprits.

The activity is especially rampant in Gombak, Kuala Langat, Hulu Selangor and Sepang.

Those involved in the activities – individuals or companies – would not only be hauled to court but would be blacklisted from doing business in Selangor, said Yaakob.

“We are cracking down on illegal operators and have conducted joint operations with the police, Land Office and Road Transport Depart­ment. We urge the public to provide us with information,” he said.

He added that those found guilty of conducting earth works without the council’s approval or stealing sand could be fined up to RM25,000 under the Local Government Act.

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Indonesia to grant public access to environmental affairs information

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 29 Apr 10;

The Environment Ministry said it was geared up to implement the 2008 Freedom of Information Law by allowing the public to access 28 pieces of information related to environmental affairs.

The ministry’s deputy for communication and public empowerment, Henry Bastaman, said the law enabled the public to access information such as quality of air, water and land.

“The public could also learn more about pollution levels of the air and water in their respective areas,” he told the Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta was slated to announce the details of information that could be accessed by the public on May 5.

The freedom of information law will take effect Friday.

Henry said that the public could also access environmental impact analysis and strategic environmental analysis documents as well as information on projects to be developed by the ministry.

A Whole New World of Information
Dessy Sagita, Farouk Arnaz & Ismira Lutfia Jakarta Globe 29 Apr 10;

What will or will not be divulged by public bodies should become clearer today after they declared their readiness on Thursday to release all information within their authority, in line with the Law on Freedom of Information, which comes into effect today.

The new law states that information that threatens national security will stay hidden from the public’s eye, but skepticism remains across the country about how classified information is actually defined, considering, for example, the military’s plan to classify information relating to its active arsenal and annual budget as secret.

Agus Sudibyo, head of public complaints and ethics enforcement at the Press Council, said that though some public institutions had already rearranged their standard operating procedures in order to implement the law, doubt remained over what information would be accessible to the public.

“If this law is implemented properly, big changes are in store for all of us. With exceptions that we will never really know about, the public will have access to almost anything,” Agus told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday, adding that, ideally, the amount of classified information should not exceed that which is accessible.

Tritarayati, a Ministry of Health spokesperson, said most of the information held by the ministry would be released.

“Information about procurement will be classified during the [procurement] process as will our financial report. We can’t disclose the report before it is verified or audited by the Supreme Audit Agency, but they will be classified only temporarily,” she said.

She added, however, that certain information relating to medical records would be treated differently.

“Everybody reserves the right to keep their medical records a secret. Also, we cannot reveal any information that might cause instability or mass panic.”

Agus said anybody with a clear agenda requesting information within reason should not be obstructed by the regulation on classified information.

“This is where the Information Commission plays a very important role in helping to decide whether a person or a group deserves access the information,” Agus said.

M Jasin, deputy head of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), said that despite his body’s preparations to welcome the new law, some information could not be disclosed for obvious reasons. He said data would remain classified if it would hamper ongoing investigations, reveal the identity of a witness or a victim in a criminal case, or endanger the lives of law enforcers.

“We will also consider the importance of the applicant’s request for information. For instance, if the National Police or the Attorney General’s Office asks for the wealth report of a high-ranked official, of course we will give it, but if it is requested by a dubious person or group, we would have to reconsider the request,” Jasin said, adding that in order to implement the law, the antigraft agency had appointed officials to handle such information and documentation.

According to the law, certain information that has the potential to harm criminal investigations or create unhealthy competition among enterprises, should remain classified. Public bodies nationwide, including political parties and law-enforcement agencies, are obligated to release all information that falls under their authority as well as providing regular updates.

Meanwhile, the National Police Headquarters said it was quite prepared to meet its obligations under the new law.

“Our Web site will contain information that the public and journalists need. Information will be updated regularly,” National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said.

Gatot Dewa Broto, spokesman for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, had previously told the Globe that not all public bodies were absolutely ready to disclose their information and that the law would not immediately eliminate barriers to access.

“The most important thing is that the law should help reduce unequal access to information,” Gatot said.

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2006 had highest number of suspicious transactions in forestry in Indonesia

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 28 Apr 10;

The Financial Transaction and Analysis Center (PPATK) said Wednesday that it found the highest number of suspicious transactions related to the forestry sector was recording in the period between 2006 and 2007.

PPATK chairman Yunus Husein said that the suspicious transactions involved those belonging to law enforcers, including local forestry officers.

“The highest number of the suspicious transactions was between 2006 and 2007. Since then it continues to decline with only less than 10 cases in 2009,” he said without giving details.

He said that most of the suspicious transactions were made during the launching of sustainable forest operation aimed to tackle illegal logging in the country.

Yunus declined to elaborate, saying the suspicious transactions had been reported to the National Police and Attorney General office.

He made the statement at a meeting between Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan and Anti Judiciary Mafia Task Force at the forestry ministry office in Jakarta.

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Illegal logging in Malaysia linked to political funding by timber companies

Ng Cheng Yee, The Star 30 Apr 10;

KUALA LUMPUR: Political funding by timber companies could be a reason why illegal logging is so rampant in the country, said Transparency International (TI) Malaysia president Datuk Paul Low.

Low said political funding was a grey area in Malaysia in that it was not necessary for political parties to declare their financial sources.

“Political parties have to look for funds from the private sector or individuals.

“There is a possibility that financial aid comes from loggers and these companies ask for favours to carry out illegal logging,” he told a press conference here at the opening ceremony of the Forest Governance and Integrity Workshop here yesterday.

Low said TI Malaysia was currently working on a paper, in collaboration with TI in South East Asian countries, especially Indonesia, to identify corrupt practices in forestry.

“Having identified where corruption risk is highest, appropriate measures and recommendations will be needed to stop the practice,” he said, adding the research was expected to be completed in August.

He said corruption was not just limited to paying bribes but also the abuse of entrusted power for personal gain.

“It may not involve money but it is also about showing favouritism as well as granting concessions without proper evaluation or tender,” he said.

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Reefs and Mangroves Essential for Economic Growth in Dominican Republic

World Resources Institute 29 Apr 10;

The degradation of coastal ecosystems, such as coral reefs and mangroves, could cost the tourism industry in the Dominican Republic nearly USD $100 million and threaten the livelihoods of Dominican fishermen who depend on these ecosystems for survival.

Coastal Capital: Valuing Coastal Ecosystems in the Dominican Republic, a new report released today by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and Reef Check-Dominican Republic, offers a first-ever detailed view of the economic and recreational value of the Dominican Republic’s coralline beaches, reef and mangrove fisheries, and ecotourism industry. The report follows similar analyses for Tobago, St. Lucia and Belize.

“Coral reefs and mangroves provide many valuable benefits or ‘ecosystem services’ to the people and economy of the Dominican Republic,” said Lauretta Burke, senior associate at WRI. “They help build beaches and slow erosion, draw millions of local and international tourists to the coasts, and provide habitat for valuable fisheries. However, these ecosystems are being degraded by pollution and overfishing – threatening both the local and national economy.”

Coastal Capital places a dollar figure on what the country stands to lose if efforts are not taken to preserve its beaches and coastal ecosystems. The analysis finds that each meter of beach lost in front of an all-inclusive resort reduced average nightly per-person hotel room rates by about USD $1.50. If beaches continue to erode at the current rate, this translates to USD $52-100 million of lost revenue for the Dominican tourism industry over the next decade.

Overfishing has also taken a toll on the country’s fisheries. The report estimates that the income from reef- or mangrove-dependent fisheries has decreased by 60 percent in the past decade – from USD $41 million to $17 million. The downward trend is endangering the livelihoods of many Dominican fishermen, and will continue unless overfishing is curbed.

“To date, little work has been done in the Dominican Republic to show the link between coastal ecosystems and economic growth, chiefly due to a lack of information and understanding on the exact services and benefits these ecosystems provide,” said Ruben Torres, executive director of Reef Check-Dominican Republic. “This report fills that gap by giving data to policymakers and tourism developers to identify problem areas and recommendations on how to fix them.”

For instance, better enforcement of fishing regulations, coupled with increased dive tourism in the country’s marine parks, could be a win-win solution for both fish populations and the fishermen that depend on them. One case study found that tourism operators at La Caleta Marine Park could charge USD $50-60 per person for dive trips. Fishermen who become dive operators in the park could earn 90 percent of what they currently earn from fishing – a number that would increase as tourism activities expand.

To address the problem of beach erosion, the Dominican Republic has regulations to control coastal development. Recommendations from the report suggest that the government strengthen and enforce existing regulations. It also recommends that the government implement new measures to protect coral reefs from sediment and pollution from agriculture, deforestation, and coastal development.

Coastal Capital also examines the economic benefits of the Dominican Republic’s Jaragua, Sierra de Bahoruco, and Lago Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve. Tourists – mostly Dominican citizens – spend more than USD $1 million annually on hotel, food, and travel expenses to visit the Reserve. In view of current plans to develop mass tourism and mining in and around the park, the report argues that the Reserve and surrounding areas should be kept as they currently stand. This would preserve the Reserve’s fragile biodiversity, benefit Dominican tourists, and benefit roadside communities where tourists pay for food and lodging, some of which are located in poor, rural areas.

Burke added, “Coral reefs and mangroves are inextricably linked to national economies, bringing in revenue from tourism and fisheries and protecting the coastline. Our valuations of coral reefs and mangroves in four Caribbean countries have all found that it is in their long-term economic interest to protect coastal ecosystems.”

WRI’s Coastal Capital project was made possible by financial support from the MacArthur Foundation and the Swedish Biodiversity Programme (SwedBio).

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Experts: Most of the Gulf Oil Spill Won't Be Cleaned Up

Jeanna Bryner, livescience.com 30 Apr 10;

BP is attacking the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on all fronts, from the traditional skimmers and booms to more advanced technologies. But history and science suggest this clean-up effort probably won't end in a spotless environment.

BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward said the company would do "everything in our power to contain this oil spill and resolve the situation as rapidly, safely and effectively as possible," according to news reports. The company, which was leasing the Transocean oil rig that exploded and sank on April 22 in the Gulf, is responsible for the clean-up.

And yes, all hands are on deck - skimmers, booms, domes, controlled burning and chemical dispersants - to try to clean up the 1,000 to 5,000 barrels a day estimated to be leaking out of the well.

However, for an oil spill at sea, typically only 10 to 15 percent of the oil is recovered, Gerald Graham, president of Worldocean Consulting, a marine oil spill prevention and response planning firm based in British Columbia, told LiveScience.

So far, BP claims it has recovered 685,062 gallons (more than 2.5 million liters) of an oil-and-water mix. That mix is almost entirely water, with oil stirred in like vinaigrette. Until the entire recovery process finishes, it will be impossible to tell how much crude oil BP has recovered, Graham said.

The rest of the oil that doesn't get cleaned up evaporates, breaks up and floats on the surface, or sinks to the bottom, Graham said.

"It's kind of overwhelming," U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Cory Mendenhall said of the cleanup effort.

"A lot of it cannot be collected," Mendenhall said. "95 percent [of the oil] is a rainbow-y sheen. It's too thin to scoop up. Most of that breaks up naturally, so about 3 percent of the oil is what people think of as big globs of oil that you can skim off the water. Now, how much of that 3 percent has been collected is still unsure."

History attests to the lingering problem of oil spills. Exxon Valdez, one of the worst oil spills ever, dumped more than 10 million gallons of crude into Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989. And there's still a lot of oil that didn't get cleaned up, which has continued to impact wildlife in the area for the past 20 years, experts say.

"Despite spending $2 billion dollars and using every known clean-up method there was, they recovered 8 percent of the spilled Exxon Valdez oil," said Jeffrey Short, Pacific science director for Oceana, a Washington, D.C.-based ocean conservation organization. "That is typical of these exercises when you have a large marine oil spill. You're doing really great if you [get] 20 percent."

Cleanup under way

So far, the most effective method has been chemical dispersants. Least effective: booms, according to Mendenhall. Here's what's being done to capture the oil:

Chemical dispersants: About 100,000 gallons of chemical dispersant has been dropped from the air into the Gulf, where it breaks up the oil slick into smaller droplets. The droplets then get mixed into the water, where they are subjected to ocean currents and natural degradation processes, according to the Minerals Management Service (MMS). "This potentially exposes the water column and near shore shallow bottom-dwelling organisms to oil," according to MMS.

Skimmers: Once broken up, skimming vessels come in and collect what's left. The droplets are collected in drums and some of that material gets cleaned and recycled. The rest is "properly disposed," Mendenhall said. But skimmers can only capture about 10 percent of the volume of spilled oil, according to Charlie Henry of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Controlled burn: On Wednesday, BP and the Coast Guard, along with other agencies, conducted an in-situ burn in which they used a fireproof boom to corral dense parts of the oil spill, moving it to another location and then burning it.

In general, burning is probably the most effective method for cleaning up heavy oil like that leaking in the Gulf, according to said Edward Overton, a professor emeritus of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University. But it has drawbacks. When you burn near the coast, you have to destroy wildlife, and offshore burning is harder to do.

"I have no idea what we're going to do, this is trial and error to see what works and what doesn't work," Overton said. And news reports suggest since the oil is really an oil-water mix, burning actually might not do the trick.

Collection domes: BP has also started to put together a subsea oil collection system, and when used will be the first time this shallow-water technology has been adapted for the deep water. The oil leaks in the Gulf are nearly a mile down. It is expected to be ready for deployment within the next four weeks, according to BP.

When ready, here's how the oil-spill technology would work: The dome would be placed on the seabed to capture the leaking oil. This oil would then be pumped up to surface vessels that could collect the oil and take it away. Similar systems have been used in shallow water, but never at depth of 5,000 feet. The Coast Guard has said the construction could take two to four weeks.

New method: However, Thursday afternoon officials said they might try an experimental oil-dispersal method that would involve releasing chemicals from under the water. "We were notified that this technique might be more effective in spreading the dispersant at the source on the riser than by using aircraft to spread it on the sea," said Doug Suttles, BP's Chief Operating Officer.

Leftover oil

As for what happens to the "dispersed oil," that doesn't get skimmed off or burned off or otherwise collected, "We're told it disperses naturally. It eventually breaks up and evaporates. There are different ways, but we're told it just kind of goes away," U.S. Coast Guard's Mendenhall said.

Bacteria can also help degrade most components of oil.

But not all oils are created equally. At first, reports suggested the oil leaking into the Gulf was standard Louisiana crude oil, a type of oil that biodegrades pretty well, Overton said. But sample testing revealed that the leaking oil was a different type, one that contains a very high concentration of components that don't degrade easily, called asphaltenes, according to Overton. He estimates that the concentration of these asphaltic components could be as high as 50 percent in this oil spill, while in other types of crude oil it might be as low as 1 or 2 percent.

"That is bad, bad news, because this oil is going to be very slow to degrade," Overton said today.

Some of the oil sinks to the sea bottom, where it can get buried into an anaerobic zone where there's no oxygen. Oil in these zones stays in a chemically reduced form and doesn't degrade as much, Overton said. But, he added, there's not much life down there to be contaminated.

The oil slick could reach the Mississippi Delta coast as early as Friday, so at least some oil will hit shore. A satellite image of the slick taken Thursday showed it was almost touching the delta.

History as a guide

The 1989 Exxon Valdez spill that fouled over 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) of shoreline in Alaska in 1989 has shown that once an oil slick makes landfall and soaks into the beach, it can take decades for the pollution to break down and disappear. About 40 percent of the 10.8 million gallons spilled reached shore in Prince William Sound, according to Short.

"There's still a lot of oil that didn't get cleaned up," from the area around Prince William Sound where the spill occurred, said Daniel Esler, a University Research Associate, based at the Centre for Wildlife Ecology at the Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada.

Some beaches didn't get cleaned up as much as others, and certain coastal environments (with particular types of sediments and patterns of water flow) tend to hold on to the oil for longer than others. While it can't be seen if you walk along the beach, digging down into the sediments at certain spots can lead to pools of oil that remain in much the same condition as when they first spilled.

For instance, in 2001, 2003 and 2007, researchers dug over 12,000 pits at dozens of beach sites that had been covered in oil back in 1989. The team found black, oily liquid in over half of the holes dug in 2001.

This subsurface oil was "fingerprinted" back to the Exxon Valdez as the ultimate source (the star-crossed region also had an earthquake-caused oil spill back in 1964). This hidden oil contained the same proportions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in it as the Exxon Valdez oil collected right at the initial time of the spill. "There was no question we were looking at Exxon Valdez oil," Short, who led the three surveys, told Livescience.

The lingering oil estimate for affected Alaskan beaches stood at 21,000 gallons (80,000 liters) in 2004. This Exxon Valdez oil is decreasing at a rate of 0 to 4 percent per year according to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (EVOSTC) - though the lower rate is much more likely - meaning it will take decades or even centuries for the oil to disappear entirely.

Though the lingering oil has broken down, in some locations it remains almost as toxic to the environment as the freshly spilled variety, according to EVOSTC's Web site. (EVOSTC oversees restoration use of civil money to clean up the Sound.)

And even though this leftover oil is "just a teeny fraction of what was originally spilled," Esler said, certain species can still be exposed to it.

Esler and his colleagues used a biomarker that indicates exposure to hydrocarbons (of which oil is one) to look at the potential exposure of harlequin ducks, a particularly vulnerable species, in the area affected by the spill. They found that these ducks were coming into contact with the spilled oil even 20 years after the incident.

Take-home

The findings suggest that oil spills can have an impact on the environment for much longer than previously thought, even decades later.

In the case of the Gulf spill, the oil won't last as long if it stays in open ocean - there it will either evaporate or congeal into clumps and sink to the ocean floor, Esler explained. But if it reaches the coast, it could encounter the types of environments where it can stick around for a long time.

Given the number of places where oil spills have happened and oil has remained even after clean-up efforts, "it's not unreasonable" to think that oil could remain for some time if reaches the Gulf coast, Esler said in a telephone interview Thursday.

The situation at Prince William Sound isn't all bad though, as it seems some species are out of the woods in terms of exposure threats and "there are lots of hints that things are getting better," Esler said.

Oil spill fans fears of fishery, tourism damage
Evelina Shmukler, Reuters 30 Apr 10;

PASS CHRISTIAN, Mississippi (Reuters) - Fishermen and tourism businesses in the northeast Gulf of Mexico are dreading the nightmare possibility that a huge oil spill could wreck their livelihoods if it reaches shore.

The threat could not come at a worse time as the oyster season ends and shrimp season is set to begin.

For Joe Jenkins, owner of Crystal Seas Oysters, an oyster and shrimp processing factory in the picturesque Mississippi coastal town of Pass Christian, there is little option but to wait and hope disaster does not strike.

"It's time for the little shrimp to start coming out so we can catch those guys," Jenkins said. "An oil spill will kill all of those guys."

Around 100 boats work out of Pass Christian, one of the busiest harbors on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

As the Coast Guard and oil company BP Plc struggle to contain the slick from a blown-out well off Louisiana, states to the east were deploying fire-retardant booms and other measures to protect their coastlines.

The slick, five times bigger than first thought, threatens the eastern shores of Louisiana and could also affect coastal waters in Mississippi, Alabama and northwest Florida.

The Southern Shrimp Alliance told the National Marine Fisheries Service in Washington this week it could help with prevention and clean-up.

"They are willing to pull booms if they have to," said Deborah Long, a spokeswoman for the non-profit trade alliance. "The timing of this could be horrible."

U.S. landings of shrimp were valued at $442 million in 2008, up 2 percent from the previous year, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

But the industry has been hammered by cheap imports and falling international prices, Long said.

At this time of year, shrimp head out to sea from inland estuaries where they spawn. The industry fears a southerly wind could keep oil off the coast but push the shrimp into the slick, Long said.

THREAT TO TOURISM, ECOLOGY

The slick could also hit the tourism sector that is vital to Gulf Coast economies.

In Alabama, coastal residents and businesses were "frantic" about the possible impact if the slick was blown east, said George Crozier, director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, a state marine research facility.

Tourists spent $2.3 billion on Alabama's beaches in 2008, supporting 41,000 workers, according to the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau.

But Alabama's beaches would be easier to clean than salt marshes and oyster reefs. Crozier said the state's oyster fisheries are in "immediate jeopardy."

"If they can't stop it and we wind up dealing with a flow of oil for three months, that carries us into hurricane season and all bets are off because it becomes a very significant ecological problem," he said.

The spill could also fracture a fragile relationship between Louisiana's powerful energy lobby and environmental groups that say decades of exploration have hurt the coastline.

Coastal Louisiana sits on the Mississippi Delta and environmentalists say inland oil and gas exploration and the building of pipelines and canals have eroded wetlands.

That loss exacerbated the storm surge in Louisiana that devastated New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and an oil spill will do further harm, said Steven Peyronnin, executive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.

"We have a catastrophe on our hands right now. This is a moment to change policy, to really look at the risk we have undertaken here for a century and make changes," he said.

"The state's greatest challenge is to find a way to harmonize safe, effective (oil and gas) production to maintain the state's engine and to recognize the natural system as important to the state as well."

But restoring wetlands would cost big money. Estimates even before Katrina stood at $14 billion, Peyronnin said.

(Additional reporting by Kelli Dugan in Alabama; Writing by Matthew Bigg; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and John O'Callaghan)

Oil slick expected to hit coast reserve Thursday
Chris Baltimore, Reuters 29 Apr 10;

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A massive oil slick from a blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to reach a Louisiana wildlife reserve on Thursday as it threatens an environmental disaster across four southern U.S. states.

The rig accident, which has pounded the share prices of energy giant BP Plc and other companies involved in the project, may also have ramifications for proposals in Congress and by President Barack Obama to issue new offshore drilling permits.

Obama said London-based BP was ultimately responsible for the cost of the cleanup but that his government would "use every single available resource" -- including the military -- to address the spill.

Louisiana, still recovering from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, declared a state of emergency as the growing slick appeared to be coming ashore much sooner than predicted.

"We are expecting to see the first impact at Pass-a-Loutre (Wildlife Management Area) today, Chandeleur Islands on Saturday," said Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.

The Coast Guard said the edge of the slick was just 3 miles from the Pass-a-Loutre reserve, a maze of waterways, marsh and sandbanks on the edge of the Mississippi Delta.

Earlier at a briefing in Washington, Coast Guard Rear Admiral Sally Brice-O'Hare had predicted the leading edge of the slick would make landfall in the Mississippi Delta "sometime" on Friday.

The leak, after a rig leased by BP exploded last week, is spewing five times more oil than previously estimated and raising fears of severe damage to fisheries, wildlife refuges and beaches in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

"This is a spill of national significance," Janet Napolitano, the secretary of Homeland Security, told a news conference at the White House. "We will continue to push BP to engage in the strongest response possible."

Bill Nelson, a Democratic senator from Florida, said he was filing a bill to temporarily prohibit the administration from expanding offshore drilling, citing the risk of a potential "environmental and economic disaster" from the spill.

SHIPPING AND DRILLING

Cameron International Corp, which supplied the blowout preventer for the rig, said on Thursday it was insured for $500 million of liability, if needed. Halliburton said it did a variety of work on the rig and was assisting with the investigation.

Shrimp fishermen in Louisiana filed a class-action lawsuit against BP, Transocean, Halliburton and Cameron late on Wednesday, accusing them of negligence. None of the companies had an immediate comment on the lawsuit.

The White House said Obama has been briefed on how the slick may interfere with shipping channels, which it said could affect tankers delivering petroleum to the U.S. market.

It was not immediately clear to what extent shipping in the Gulf could be affected. While the Mississippi is a major export route for U.S. grains and the region is a significant importer of crude oil, there were no reports of disruptions.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which handles more than 1 million barrels a day of crude imports and is connected by pipeline to the biggest U.S. refining region, said it did not expect any effect on its operations, which remained normal.

But there are signs the spill will be worse than one in 1969 off Santa Barbara, California, that prompted a moratorium on oil and gas drilling off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts -- a ban Obama has said he wants to modify.

The Obama administration did not rule out imposing a pause in new deepwater drilling until oil companies can show they can control any spills that may happen.

"Everything is on the table," Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes told reporters before Senator Nelson announced his legislation, adding it could take 90 days to install a relief valve to stop the leak.

STRUGGLE TO CONTAIN SLICK

Eleven workers are missing and presumed dead after the rig disaster, the worst in the United States in almost a decade.

Transocean's Deepwater Horizon rig sank on April 22, two days after it exploded and caught fire while the company was finishing a well for BP about 40 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.

The daily leak from the well blowout is now estimated at 5,000 barrels or about 210,000 gallons (795,000 liters).

The Navy said it was supplying the Coast Guard with inflatable booms and seven skimming systems.

BP and the Coast Guard have mounted what the company calls the largest oil spill containment operation in history, involving dozens of ships and aircraft. But they are struggling to control the slick from the leaking well 5,000 feet (1,525 meters) under the sea off Louisiana's coast.

After underwater robots failed to activate a cutoff valve to stop the leak, BP and the Coast Guard set a "controlled burn" on Wednesday to try to prevent the slick from growing.

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and John O'Callaghan)

Factbox: Other major marine oil spills
Reuters 29 Apr 10;

(Reuters) - A widening oil spill off the Gulf coast was expected to make landfall on Friday evening and the White House declared the spill an incident of national significance.

Following are some of the world's major marine oil spills:

1991 - During the Gulf War, Iraqi forces opened valves and destroyed oil facilities in Kuwait, releasing about 520 million gallons (1.9 billion liters) of oil, creating a slick that covered some 4,000 square miles (10,360 square km) in the biggest spill in history.

1989 - The Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound, spilling 10.8 million gallons (40.8 million liters) of oil. It polluted more than 1,100 miles of coastline and devastated wildlife in the largest spill in U.S. history.

1983 - In the gulf off Iran, a tanker struck a drilling platform which collapsed into the sea, releasing some 80 million gallons (303 million liters) before it was repaired.

1983 - The Castillo de Bellver sanks off the South African coast, spilling 79 million gallons (300 million liters) of oil.

1979 - A Greek oil tanker collided with another ship during a tropical storm, spilling 90 million gallons (340 million liters) of crude oil off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.

1978 - The Ixtoc exploratory well blew out in the Bay of Campeche off Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico. By the time it was brought under control almost a year later, it spilled some 140 million gallons (530 million liters) of oil into the bay.

1978 - The Amoco Cadiz ran aground off the coast of Britanny, France, spilling its entire cargo of 69 million gallons (260 million liters) of oil and polluting 200 miles of coastline.

1967 - The Torrey Canyon, one of the first oil supertankers, hit a reef and spilled 31 million gallons (117 million liters) of crude oil in the sea between England and France in the first major oil spill. It contaminated about 180 miles of coast, and many of the attempted measures to clean up the slick proved more deadly to wildlife than the oil.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

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More countries sign on to illegal fishing treaty

Signature by Russian Federation brings total to 16
FAO 29 Apr 10;

29 April 2010, Rome - Five more nations have signed the FAO-brokered treaty that once it enters into force will deny access to fishing ports to ships involved in illegal fishing.

The new signatories include: Australia (27/04/2010), Gabon (26/04/2010), Peru (3/03/2010), New Zealand (15/12/2009) and the Russian Federation (29/04/2010).

This brings the number of countries that have signed the "Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing" to sixteen.

Signatures represent a signal of support for the Agreement and are an important first step in the process, followed by ratification at the national level and then official notification of ratification to FAO.

Once notice of the 25th ratification is received by FAO, the Agreement will become active. It will be the first legally binding international treaty focused specifically on the problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. It will also be the only such treaty to enlist so-called "non-flag states" in this effort alongside "flag states," which are primarily responsible for the conduct of vessels flying their flags on the high seas. (See definitions at right).

Eleven other FAO members -- Angola, Brazil, Chile, the European Community, Iceland, Indonesia, Norway, Samoa, Sierra Leone, the United States and Uruguay -- signed the Agreement in November 2009 after its text was approved by the FAO governing conference.

"Once it becomes active, this will be the most significant international treaty dealing with fisheries since the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement," said Changchui He, FAO's Deputy Director-General, following the signing of the Agreement by Andrey Krainiy, Head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries of the Russian Federation, on April 29 during a ceremony at FAO.

"We take it as a very positive sign that the Russian Federation as well as other recent signatories such as Australia, Gabon, Peru, and New Zealand have come on board. It indicates a broad level of support. The sooner the treaty receives the required 25 ratifications to become active, the sooner countries will have a valuable new tool for combating illegal fishing," he added.

An effective tool

"Port state measures" generally refer to actions taken to detect illegal fishing when ships come to port. This can include undertaking inspections of documentation, catches and equipment when boats land to take on fuel and supplies or offload fish, or requiring vessels to make activity reports before entering port. Vessels found to be involved in IUU fishing can be denied docking rights, causing considerable financial losses to their owners. Such measures are among the most-effective means of preventing the import, transhipment or laundering of illegally caught fish.

The text of the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing is available online; additional background information can be found here and here.

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Plan B: California Braces for Climate Change

Ted Greenwald, Wired Science 29 Apr 10;

When it comes to environmental regulation, California doesn’t wait for the Feds to ride in and lay down the law. The Golden State led the way on mandating emissions-control equipment in motor vehicles in 1961. It pioneered tailpipe-emissions standards in 1967 and ratcheted them up into the 1990s, prompting the federal government to follow. When the Environmental Protection Agency proved reluctant to tighten fuel-economy standards, California outmaneuvered it in 2002 by limiting carbon dioxide from cars. That decision achieved the same end — and was the first move in the United States to control greenhouse gases.

And so it goes with climate change. By the mid-2000s, when the rest of the country was waking up to the challenge of global warming, California was already pursing an aggressive program to assess the likely damage.

According to the state energy commission’s climate research, the U.S. west coast faces sea-level rise of 12 to 18 inches by 2050, and as much as nearly six feet by the turn of the century. Precipitation is projected to fall increasingly as water rather than snow, draining into the sea rather than lying in cold storage until the long, dry summers. Higher-than-average temperatures and more frequent extreme weather promise heat waves, wildfires, droughts and floods.

The sense of impending crisis sent California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger into action-hero mode. In 2006, he signed the Global Warming Solutions Act, capping carbon emissions statewide throughout all activities and sectors. Then, last December, he stood on Treasure Island — an expanse of landfill in the San Francisco Bay that stands to be inundated by the upwelling of glacial melt — and unveiled the 2009 California Climate Adaptation Strategy, a plan to prepare for what many scientists regard as inevitable changes. “We have the responsibility to have a Plan B just in case we can’t stop the global warming,” he said, apparently missing the document’s emphatic assertion that mitigation (making efforts to minimize the onset of climate change) and adaptation (learning to live with it) are equally necessary and inherently complementary undertakings.

The strategy document is 200 pages of meticulously footnoted, thoroughly bureaucratic prose that directs state agencies to take climate change into account. Individual chapters are devoted to seven critical sectors: agriculture, biodiversity, coastal resources, energy and transportation, forestry, public health, and water supply and flood protection. The plan outlines the range and severity of potential impacts — eroding coastlines, flooded freeways, extended wildfire seasons, devastating disease outbreaks. The executive summary lists a dozen action items and an appendix of 163 further recommendations.

Mostly, these directives call for better coordination between federal, state and local regulators; updating existing resource-management plans in light of the latest scientific findings; ongoing research to sharpen estimates of impending change; and funding to accomplish these aims and, presumably, the more concrete actions that would follow. Perhaps most interesting is the recommendation to create a website called CalAdapt that would mash up government data with Google maps, providing officials with up-to-date visualizations of rising waters, increasing temperatures and other risks.

Not all of this is new. California’s coastal and water agencies have been planning for the impact of climate change since the mid-1980s. Until the turn of the century, though, adaptation was a dirty word in Sacramento. “You got slapped on the head if you mentioned it,” says Anthony Brunello, who worked for the Pew Center for Global Climate Change from 1999 to 2001. “It equated to giving up.”

But evidence began to mount that the effects were already being felt, particularly a 7-inch rise in sea level at the Golden Gate over the past century, which convinced even hard-core advocates of mitigation that it wasn’t too early to consider, say, building sea walls. In late 2008, Schwarzenegger ordered the California Natural Resources Agency to look into what it would take to adapt to the changes wrought by global warming.

By then, Brunello had become California’s Deputy Secretary for Climate Change and Energy — and the state was deep into a fiscal crisis. He directed state agencies to form sector-specific working groups that invited business leaders, academics and NGOs to help hash out the strategy. The governor released the plan just in time for the Copenhagen climate summit — only to see it swept off the front pages when leaked e-mails from eminent climate scientists sparked the Climategate scandal.

That was a pity because — lack of bold proposals notwithstanding — the Climate Adaptation Strategy is a significant step forward in the U.S. response to climate change. “Of the dozen states published or working on plans that include adaptation measures, California stands out for the breadth and depth,” says Terri Cruce, a climate researcher with the Pew Center for Global Climate Change and the Georgetown Climate Center. (Cruce maintains a website detailing climate-change adaptation initiatives on a state-by-state basis.) The report covers every state agency and reaches into every vital sector that’s touched by climate change. Most important, it establishes a permanent task force to guide implementation, so the effort won’t die when Schwarzenegger leaves office. And although it may seem trendy, the CalAdapt website looks like an especially smart move, creating a convenient, cost-effective way for officials see how latest projections play out in their jurisdiction.

Which is not to say the document is perfect. “It’s a strategy, not a plan,” Cruce notes — a set of general directions, not a detailed roadmap. Generally, action items are divided between politically low-cost/low-impact maneuvers (such as adding agricultural inspection stations to catch pests following warmer temperatures northward) and more ambitious goals (a host of measures to restore wetlands that would absorb storm surges) with no deadline, budget or process attached.

The milquetoast language of many recommendations (”Consider requiring applicants to address how sea-level rise will affect their project….”) leaves officials with any number of ways to avoid taking action. Moreover, economic analysis is almost entirely absent. Given that both adaptation and mitigation will have a price tag, it’s impossible to know which is more expensive in any given case. Is it more costly to cut emissions or relocate San Francisco International Airport on higher ground? And where will the money come from?

The strategy’s harshest critics believe that such flaws render it ineffectual. Susanne Moser, a geographer who worked as a consultant on the project, dismisses the near-term goals as merely “best practices” and the long-term objectives as unattainable without a more forceful mandate. But she finds some good in the effort. The most important outcome, she says, isn’t the document itself but a cultural shift in Sacramento: The disparate agencies, accustomed to competing for jurisdiction and funding, have discovered the value of cooperation. “They realized they needed to work together if they were going to get beyond business as usual,” she says. “That’s a huge shift — from ‘I don’t want to talk to these people’ to ‘let’s work together.’ It will make all the difference moving forward.”

Despite weaknesses in the plan, most observers view it as an important first step. “There’s a broad range of decision makers,” says Matt Vander Sluis, who contributed to the effort as global warming program manager at the Planning and Conservation League, an environmental lobbying group based in Sacramento. “Some get it, but others need this type of guidance to wrap their heads around the problem.” One immediate result, he points out, is that officials will think twice about approving proposed San Francisco Bay Area developments that would stand below sea level. “It’s a useful set of recommendations,” he says. “Now, state and federal decision makers need to make the investment in carrying them out, because without resources, it’s going to be like trying to put out a fire without a fire hose.”

The follow-up is already underway, starting with the top-line directive: formation of a task force to establish future priorities. William Reilly, who served as the first President Bush’s head of the Environmental Protection Agency, leads the group, which is due to report its recommendations to the governor by summer. Meanwhile, the strategy will be updated every two years. By the time the first biennial review rolls around in late 2011, the short-term goals should be complete and presumably the roadmap to the more politically challenging recommendations will have been sketched in. That is, unless California finds that adapting to the new politics of climate change even harder than responding to the change itself.

This report was produced by the Climate Desk collaboration.

Image: The central San Francisco Bay coastline has areas, including the San Francisco International Airport, that will be inundated by a 16-inch sea-level rise (in light blue) and a 55-inch sea-level rise (in dark blue)./San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

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Climate Change Increases Heat Waves, Floods in the USA

Timothy Gardner, Reuters 30 Apr 10;

Deaths from heat waves, property damage from floods and rising seas from melting glaciers are a few of the things Americans can expect as a result of climate change, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a report released Tuesday.

The report, called "Climate Change Indicators in the United States," examined the impact of global warming on 24 environmental indicators, such as ice cover and ocean temperatures.

It said there was scientific evidence that climate change was making 22 of the 24 indicators worse.

For instance, eight of the top 10 years for extreme one-day floods or heavy snowfalls in the United States have occurred since 1990, the report said.

In addition heat waves have increased steadily since the end of the 1970s. "For society, increases in temperature are likely to increase heat-related illnesses and deaths, especially in urban areas," said the report, which relied on data from a variety of U.S. and international agencies and sources.

President Barack Obama has pushed the EPA to take steps to fight climate change to pressure lawmakers to support the climate bill. Late last year the EPA declared greenhouse gases a threat to human health and welfare which set the ball rolling for its regulation of the emissions.

The agency is regulating greenhouse gases from automobiles for the first time. By May it is expected to issue a rule that would determine which power plants and factories it will regulate for the emissions.

The agency will also soon undertake an economic analysis of the climate bill, which suffered a blow after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham dropped out of negotiations.

Senator John Kerry, the lead writer of the bill, said on Tuesday he is sending the bill to the EPA. The analysis could take six weeks to complete.

Environmentalists said Tuesday's report showed the need for a new energy and climate law. Emily Figdor, the director for global warming programs at Environment America, said it "underscores the urgent need for the Senate to pass meaningful legislation to limit pollution and jump-start the move to truly clean energy, like energy efficiency and wind and solar power."

The report found that the science surrounding some indicators is too young to conclude climate change is making them worse.

For instance, from 2001 to 2009 some 30 to 60 percent of the U.S. land area experienced drought conditions at any one time, it said. But the data have not been collected long enough to determine whether droughts are increasing over time, it added.

Overall, however, the indicators will likely get worse.

"Considering that future warming projected for the 21st century is very likely to be greater than observed warming over the past century, indicators of climate change should only become more clear, numerous and compelling," the EPA report concluded.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

EPA: U.S. Climate Is Warming, Seas Rising, Glaciers Melting
Environmental News Service 28 Apr 10;

WASHINGTON, DC, April 28, 2010 (ENS) - Heat waves, storms, sea levels, glaciers, and wildlife migrations are just a few of the environmental indicators that show measurable signs of climate change, finds a report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released Monday.

The report, "Climate Change Indicators in the United States," looks at 24 key indicators that show how climate change impacts the health and environment of the nation's citizens.

"These indicators show us that climate change is a very real problem with impacts that are already being seen," said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Air and Radiation.

The report finds that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are increasing. Between 1990 and 2008, there has been about a 14 percent increase in emissions in the United States. Carbon dioxide accounts for most of the nation's emissions and most of this increase. Electricity generation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, followed by transportation, the report finds. Emissions per person have remained about the same since 1990.

Worldwide, emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities increased by 26 percent from 1990 to 2005, according to the report, which is based on data collected by federal government agencies and universities.

Emissions of carbon dioxide, which account for nearly three-fourths of the total, increased by 31 percent over this period. As in the United States, the majority of the world's emissions are associated with energy use.

Concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have risen substantially since the beginning of the industrial era. "Almost all of this increase is attributable to human activities," the report states. "Historical measurements show that the current levels of many greenhouse gases are higher than any seen in thousands of years, even after accounting for natural fluctuations."

Average temperatures are rising. Seven of the top 10 warmest years on record for the continental United States have occurred since 1990.

Tropical cyclone intensity has increased in recent decades. Six of the 10 most active hurricane seasons have occurred since the mid-1990s.

Sea levels are rising. From 1993 to 2008, sea level rose twice as fast as the long-term trend. The report finds that along the U.S. coastline, sea level has risen the most relative to the land along the Mid-Atlantic coast and parts of the Gulf Coast. Sea level has decreased relative to the land in parts of Alaska and the Northwest.

Glaciers are melting. Loss of glacier volume appears to have accelerated over the last decade.

The portion of North America covered by snow has generally decreased since 1972, although there has been much year-to-year variability, the report states. Snow covered an average of 3.18 million square miles of North America during the years 2000 to 2008, compared with 3.43 million square miles during the 1970s.

The frequency of heat waves has risen steadily since the 1960s. The percentage of the U.S. population impacted by heat waves has also increased.

McCarthy says the information included in this report will inform future policy decisions and will help evaluate the success of climate change efforts.

"The actions Americans are taking today to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions will help us solve this global challenge," said McCarthy.

The data used in the report were collected by several government agencies, academic institutions, and other stakeholder organizations. As new data and information become available, EPA will update and broaden the indicators in future reports.

Click here for the Climate Change Indicators report.

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