Indonesia: Asia Pulp & Paper denies breaking logging promise after WWF allegations

Asia Pulp & Paper has announced that it has not breached its deforestation policy following WWF allegations
Leigh Stringer guardian.co.uk 4 Apr 13;

Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) announced today that it has not breached its deforestation policy following allegations by WWF that it will not provide "any real conservation benefits".

Announced in February, APP and Sinar Mas's deforestation policy stated that it would form "an end to the clearing of natural forest across its entire supply chain in Indonesia, with immediate effect."

However, according to new analysis released today by Eyes on the Forest (EoF), a coalition of environmental organisations, including WWF, Jikalahari and Walhi Riau, the policy protects "at most 5,000 hectares of natural forest".

WWF said that this compares to the deforestation of more than 2 million hectares caused by the operation of APP's Sumatra pulp mills over the past three decades.

Conservation director of WWF-Indonesia, Nazir Foead, said: "When APP published the policy, we thought it could be great news for Indonesia's forests, biodiversity and citizens".

"However, after this new analysis for Sumatra, it appears that the company has announced a halt to deforestation only after completing nearly all the deforestation it could possible do," added Foead.

WWF also claims that, despite previous company promises to exclusively pulp plantation fiber by 2004, 2007 and 2009, the company's rate of deforestation remained constant between 1995 and 2011, apart from a period in 2007-2009 when authorities were investigating alleged illegal logging by the industry, including APP wood suppliers.

It added that the rate of deforestation slowed in 2012 for "the sole reason that there was very little natural forest left to cut".

Responding to the allegations, APP told edie that, to date, there have been no breaches of the policy.

"We are confident that the amount of forest that will be saved by our recently announced Forest Conservation Policy will be significant. We intend to release the results of that work" it said.

The company said it does not have an exact figure for the amount of forest that will be saved through the policy because "that work is not complete and APP has no intention of making claims that do not stand up to scrutiny".

The policy has been criticised for being 'too little too late', while many green groups say it avoids past accusations of the company's "irresponsible" deforestation. Green groups have called for APP to be more transparent in its operations and the company has been a focal point in the press for its disputes with protesters.

Walhi Riau's, Hariansyah Usman, said: "Our analysis points to one conclusion: APP once again seems to hope that it can fool people into imagining huge conservation benefits while overlooking past transgressions".

"We don't see the policy's potential future conservation benefits balancing in any way the many unresolved issues stemming from APP's deforestation legacy," added Usman.

However, APP says it has never stated that the past is unimportant, and claims it recognises the importance of the issue of restoration of certain areas in which natural forest was cleared.

"That issue remains on the table, but our immediate priority is ensuring that our global supply base implements the moratorium we have announced and the ambitious goals of our Forest Conservation Policy," said APP.

"This is no small undertaking. Our key focus, and one encouraged by a number of NGOs during extensive recent local consultations in several locations in Indonesia, is to adhere to the High Conservation Value (HCV) assessments, findings and recommendations" it continued.

Despite APP's focus on assessing its activities, the EoF says that only full disclosure of all activities, including the status of all existing and planned wood supply bases and all mill expansion plans "can prove whether this policy contains any real conservation benefits."

Last week, NGOs in Kalimantan, on the Indonesian side of Borneo, found continued logging of tropical forest taking place in the concessions of two APP wood suppliers, who, according to the WWF, are supposed to be bound by the February deforestation moratorium.

Director of Forests at WWF International, Rod Taylor, said: "WWF recommends that paper buyers do not rush into doing business with APP".

"APP cannot be regarded as a responsible producer without redressing the harm caused by its past operations and removing any doubt that wood linked to forest clearing can enter its mills," he added.

Later this week, APP shall release an independent report by TFT which, according to the company, will show that recent allegations about APP suppliers breaching the new Forest Conservation Policy are unfounded.

"We will release the report and associated data in full and welcome the fact that this, the third use of our new grievance policy since our Policy was announced on February 5th, has been shown to allow for considerable speed and transparency in assessing complaints made against APP and its suppliers," says APP.

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Indonesia: Minister supports proposal on extension of forest moratorium

Antara 4 Apr 13;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Minister of Forestry Zulkifli Hasan said he supported the idea on extending forest moratorium, that will expire in May 2013, to preserve the Indonesian forests.

"I principally support to extend it (forest moratorium)... thus, the investment on forestry should be growing and managed that the environment become well-preserved," Minister Zulkifli Hasan said here on Thursday after opening the Fifth Indogreen Forestry Expo 2013.

The minister said the forest moratorium was beneficial to preserve the Indonesian forest area and there were many institutions that have supported the idea to extend it.

The Ministry is waiting the President to make decision about the forest moratorium, regulated in the President Decree No.11/2011, that will be expired in May 2013.

Hasan said the moratorium was not intended to hamper investment on forestry sector, but to keep the preservation of Indonesian forests.

However, he did not specify the period of the next term of moratorium, expected to be approved by the President.

Previously, The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) urged the Indonesian Government to extend the forest moratorium to prevent social and environmental conflict in the future.

"If the moratorium is not extended, we are certain in the next five years, social and environmental conflict would rise in the 25 million hectares of Indonesian forest area," Forest and Large Scale Plantation Campaign Manager of Walhi Zenzi Suhadi said.

The moratorium on primary forest and peat land should be extended and strengthened. "Not only by suspending the forest concession, but also improving the management of forest area and concession as well as determining the penalties against the violating institutions," Suhadi said.

Suhadi said the moratorium, had not been effectively conducted as the Forum found some attempts of local administrations and authorities to deceive the moratorium by proposing concession for residential area.

"There are many of them, agreed for residential area, turned into plantation areas. This is what the government should take notice," Suhadi said.

"The government should view the Natural Resource as the national`s and citizens` priceless asset, not to put itself as a tax collector for private enterprises which exploit the Indonesian forest," Suhadi said.

Or else, there would come into surface a phenomena of increasing social income without accompanied by improving social welfare because the local people will have to pay for what they can get freely from the forest, he said.
(Uu.A059/F001)

Editor: Priyambodo RH

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Isolated Bleached Coral Reefs Can Heal Themselves

Douglas Main LiveScience.com Yahoo News 5 Apr 13;

Coral reefs may be more independent and resilient than previously thought.

New research shows that an isolated reef off the northwest coast of Australia that was severely damaged by a period of warming in 1998 has regenerated in a very short time to become nearly as healthy as it was before. What surprises scientists, though, is that the reef regenerated by itself, found a study published today (April 4) in the journal Science.

Until now, scientists have thought that damaged reefs depend on new recruits from nearby reefs to quickly heal themselves, said study author James Gilmour, a researcher at the Australian Institute of Marine Science. But this study found that may not always be the case ? at least with reefs like this one, which has good water quality and isn't heavily impacted by humans, Gilmour told OurAmazingPlanet in an email.

Hot water

In 1998, unusually warm weather heated up waters off the northwest coast of Australia by about 4 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above average. These temperatures persisted for several weeks.

The heat led to the bleaching of the corals, in which corals kick out the tiny symbiotic algae housed within them that provide corals food. If the water's temperature quickly returns to normal, the coral can recover. But often, it dies, becoming a white skeleton of its former self.

The 1998 event killed 70 percent to 90 percent of corals in various parts of the reef, and the number of coral embryos collected by researchers monitoring the reef dropped to almost zero. Gilmour said this shows that the remaining corals weren't reproducing and that there weren't any coral embryos washing in from surrounding reefs. Recovery was expected to take many decades, Gilmour said. [Stressed Coral: Photos of Great Barrier Reef]

Recovery

At first, the reef grew slowly, mostly through the enlargement of existing coral colonies. But to really recover, the coral needs to sexually reproduce, creating sperm and egg that form embryos that then land on the ocean floor and grow into adult corals ? if all goes well. These larvae can survive for hundreds of miles, swept along by ocean currents, and colonize new areas under the right circumstances.

Larvae floating in from other reefs could have helped the reef, had it not been so isolated.

But amazingly, after about six years, the surviving corals matured and began to reproduce, creating even more new colonies than before the bleaching. "They recovered, and the larvae they produced settled and survived, at much higher rates than is often reported," Gilmour said. By 2012, the reef was basically back to its old self.

The study suggests that, when it comes to reefs, being isolated from human activity may trump being connected to other reefs. Why? Human activities can hurt reefs in a number of ways. Overfishing, for example, removes fish that keep algae from choking out and outcompeting corals, and sediment and pathogens in runoff water can lead to coral diseases and death.

But the results also mean that local decisions about fishing and other issues can help preserve reefs, which are threatened by global warming. "Managing local conditions is a tangible way to maximize the resilience of coral reefs while the more difficult problem of addressing the causes of climate change are resolved," Gilmour said.

Isolated Australian reef recovers from bleaching
AAP Perth Now 5 Apr 13;

But it's made a quick recovery, suggesting new corals can be recruited from local sources when fish are plentiful and reefs are not disturbed.

Coral bleaching is a stress condition in reef corals.

It's usually caused by higher water temperatures that break down the coral's symbiotic relationship with algae that provide food for coral growth.

Scientists led by James Gilmour of the Australian Institute of Marine Science looked at the recovery of Scott Reef after extreme water temperatures struck in 1998 and up to 90 per cent of its corals were lost to bleaching.

Because the reef is more than 250km from Western Australia, recovery was expected to be slow as there were no nearby reef systems to supply coral larvae.

But coral cover still increased from nine per cent to 44 per cent across the entire system in 12 years.

Gilmour and colleagues suggest that's because herbivorous fish remained abundant in the Scott system, even after the bleaching.

They believe the fish kept microalgae in check and allowed coralline algae to thrive.

Their study, published in Science magazine, suggests that reef systems can recruit corals from local sources, especially when fish are plentiful and human disturbances are limited.

There's little fishing at Scott Reef, apart from the harvesting of sea cucumber, trochus and shark fin by Indonesian islanders using traditional fishing methods.

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Foreign demand for beef, soybeans adds pressure on Amazon forest

Alister Doyle PlanetArk 5 Apr 13;

Rising foreign demand for beef and soybeans will tempt Brazil to clear more of the Amazon rainforest, in a reversal of recent success in slowing forest losses, a study said on Thursday.

About 30 percent of deforestation in Brazil in the decade to 2010 was due to farmers and ranchers seeking land to expand export production of beef and soybeans, against about 20 percent in the 1990s, the report said.

"Trade is emerging as a key driver of deforestation in Brazil," according to experts at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, Oslo (Cicero).

"This may indirectly contribute to loss of the forests that industrialized countries are seeking to protect through international agreements," they wrote in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Exports of beef and soybeans accounted for 2.7 billion metric tons (1 metric ton = 1.102 tons) of carbon emissions caused by Brazil's deforestation in the decade to 2010, the report said. That exceeds greenhouse gas emissions of a nation such as Egypt over the same period.

Deforestation of Brazil's Amazon region fell 27 percent to 1,798 square miles between August 2011 and July 2012 from the same period a year earlier, the Brazilian Environment Ministry said in November.

That was the lowest since monitoring began in 1988. Brazil's so-called Legal Amazon covers 5.2 million square kilometers.

But growing foreign demand and the Brazilian government's eagerness for economic growth meant continued falls in the rate of forest loss were unlikely without new measures to safeguard forests, the report said.

Worldwide, deforestation accounts for up to a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions from human sources, according to U.N. estimates. Trees soak up carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they burn or rot.

Under U.N. climate change rules, greenhouse gas emissions count as those within national boundaries. Suggestions of shifting responsibility to consumers, for instance foreign buyers of Brazil's beef, are often dismissed as too complicated.

"It's been a bugbear in the forest sector," said Duncan Macqueen, a forest researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development in Edinburgh. "Consumers ask 'why should we suffer the cost of reforming the system?'" he said.

Some schemes seek to certify forest production as coming from a source that does not involve illegal logging. But these have drawbacks since the costs of audits can be prohibitive for small producers, he said.

The Cicero study suggested better labeling or information about imports to guide consumers.

The study did not try to compare the environmental impact of Brazil's beef or soybean production with that other nations to see where production was least damaging. "Similar analyses still have to be done," lead author Jonas Karstensen told Reuters.

(Editing by Jason Webb)

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Climate change making extreme events worse in Australia – report

Country faces more frequent and more severe weather events if it fails to make deep and swift cuts to carbon emissions
Damian Carrington guardian.co.uk 2 Apr 13;

The extreme heatwaves, flooding and bush fires striking Australia have already been intensified by climate change and are set to get even worse in future, according to a new report. Only fast and deep cuts to carbon emissions can start to reverse the trend, say scientists from the Climate Commission, an independent advisory group set up by the Australian government.

"Climate change is making many extreme events worse in terms of their impacts on people, property, communities and the environment," said climate commissioner professor Will Steffen. "We are very concerned that the risk of more frequent and more severe extreme weather events is increasing as we continue to emit more and more greenhouse gases."

Chief commissioner, Tim Flannery, said: "Records are broken from time to time, but record-breaking weather is becoming more common as the climate shifts. Only strong preventative action, with deep and swift cuts in emissions this decade, can stabilise the climate and halt the trend towards more intense extreme weather."

The report states that the number of record hot days in Australia has doubled since the 1960s, with the summer of 2012/2013 including the hottest summer, hottest month and hottest day on record. In a previous heatwave in southeastern Australia in 2009, Melbourne experienced three consecutive days at or above 43°C in late January, the report notes, leading to 980 heat-related deaths, three times the average mortality. Hot records are now being broken three times more often than cold records, the report found.

"There is little doubt that over the next few decades changes in extreme events will increase the risks of adverse consequences to human health, agriculture, infrastructure and the environment," in Australia, the report found. Key food-growing regions across the southeast and the southwest are likely to experience more droughts in the future, with part of western Australia having already experienced a 15% drop in rainfall since the mid-1970s.

Beyond the risk to human life, the report also highlights the great economic costs extreme weather can cause. The cost of the 2009 'Black Saturday' bushfires in Victoria was estimated at A$4.4bn (£3bn), while the the Queensland floods of 2010/2011 cost over A$5bn, the report said.

Global warming has already caused global sea level to rise 20cm, the report wrote, meaning storm surges ride towards the coast from a level higher than a century ago, significantly increasing the risk of flooding along Australia's socially, economically and environmentally important coastlines. The report cites the example of Fremantle, which since 1950 has experienced a tripling in flooding.

The underlying cause, the report concludes, is that climate change means the atmosphere is warmer, wetter and more energetic than 50 years ago, loading the dice towards more frequent and more severe extreme weather events.

In 2011, a report by 220 scientists concluded that extreme weather was increasing, with heatwaves near certain to become more damaging and intense rainfall likely to rise.

In Australia, the emergency services are already noting the need to prepare for a more extreme climate, with the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council stating: "Fire and emergency service agencies need to plan strategically to identify how they would cope with the projected increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather."

The Climate Commission based its report on the latest research and observations from Australian bodies including the CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology and leading universities and their international counterparts.

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Best of our wild blogs: 4 Apr 13

Southern Expedition (20 May - 7 Jun 2013) of the Mega Marine Survey from wild shores of singapore

Singapore Green Landscape 2013
from Green Future Solutions

Long-tailed Parakeet eating MacArthur palm fruits
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Making every patch of land work harder

Grace Chua The Straits Times AsiaOne 3 Apr 13;

SINGAPORE - Singapore is not unique - not in its ambition to be a leading global city, not in its size constraints, or in its diversity and the tensions that result when people from all backgrounds rub shoulders with one another.

But it has tried to manage its land use in some unusual ways, such as reclaiming a large percentage of its land area, going underground, and making every patch of land work harder.

Turning marshes or sea to solid land is one of Singapore's oldest methods of creating more land area.

Since the 1960s, Singapore has added more than 100 sq km, or a sixth of its original size - five times the size of the greater Tampines area.

The industrial Jurong Island itself is made up of seven smaller islands stitched together by reclamation, and at 32 sq km it is larger than Singapore's four gazetted nature reserves put together.

Today, the Government's Land Use Plan proposes future reclamation along northern and southern coastlines and islands from Pulau Tekong to Pulau Hantu, though environment groups are concerned this could affect marine biodiversity.

Land reclamation also has a limit: Filling in greater sea depths takes more sand and is more costly. Along the southern coast, reclaiming land farther out to sea would also begin to interfere with shipping lanes.

Singapore also puts some functions underground, particularly those that would otherwise take up too much valuable surface land.

Since 2008, the military has stored ammunition beneath a disused Mandai quarry, while the Jurong Rock Cavern is being built to store crude oil and other petroleum products.

Critical infrastructure like power cables, MRT lines, the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System, and the Common Services Tunnel under Marina Bay are also beneath the surface, and there are theoretical proposals and studies for housing power plants, water treatment, waste incineration and even nuclear energy underground.

Finally, it is trying to squeeze as much use from every piece of land.

The western Tengeh reservoir will get floating solar panels in a pilot project to tap the sun's energy for electricity, while community farms in Bukit Panjang and Clementi serve as recreation areas and a food source.

Even roads could be put to better use.

Last month, in a Budget debate in Parliament, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said the Land Transport Authority was studying the feasibility of a "reversible flow" traffic scheme for some areas where heavy traffic is one-directional at different times of the day, such as the stretch between the Kranji Expressway and the Pan Island Expressway.

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Measures for safe diving culture

Straits Times Forum 4 Apr 13;

WE REFER to Ms Angela Chong's letter ("Adopt zero-tolerance approach to diving mishaps"; March 26).

The National Water Safety Council (NWSC) set up a recreational diving safety committee in January 2011 to look into enhancing recreational diving safety standards.

Following two years of deliberations and consultations with stakeholders from the diving fraternity, the committee recommended establishing an official set of standard safety guidelines for local operators and participants, and a national safety programme for recreational diving.

The Technical Reference for Recreational Diving, or TR 32, was launched on Jan 7 this year by the NWSC and the Singapore Standards Council.

The TR 32 provides dive operators with a set of consistent standards to help them address safety concerns and make appropriate decisions when conducting overseas trips.

These include ensuring that equipment is well-maintained, trainee divers are certified to be competent and fit to undertake dives, and that operators are familiar with medical and first aid procedures. The TR 32 also aims to promote participants' awareness of safety issues.

Better-informed divers will thus be able to exercise greater personal responsibility for their safety, by expecting diving operators to provide the right level of safety measures.

The Singapore Underwater Federation will be managing a DiveSafer programme, which will accredit and audit dive operators compliant with the TR guidelines.

DiveSafer, which will be launched later this month, aims to encourage consumers to seek the services of DiveSafer-accredited operators.

As more operators get accredited, consumers would also have greater assurance that their training and safety needs are met.

We hope these measures will provide a set of best practices towards safer diving, and set the foundation for a safer diving culture in Singapore.

Teo Ho Pin (Dr)
Chairman, National Water Safety Council

Song Shing Hae
President, Singapore Underwater Federation

Adopt zero-tolerance approach to diving mishaps
Straits Times Forum 26 Mar 13;

THERE have been several cases over the years of recreational scuba divers from Singapore who encountered difficulties while in the water.

The latest incident claimed the life of a university professor ("SMU professor dies during dive trip off Mersing"; March 16).

One difficulty frequently cited in diving accidents is that if the incident occurs outside Singapore waters, the Singapore authorities may not have the powers to investigate it.

Nevertheless, divers should adopt a zero-tolerance approach towards accidents, and ensure that there is better awareness of the recommended operational guidelines.

Diving instructors in Singapore, like those in most other countries, usually rely on external international agencies that prescribe training procedures and certify instructors.

Many of these agencies have headquarters in the United States, such as the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, National Association of Underwater Instructors and Scuba Schools International, while others are based in Europe, such as the British Sub Aqua Club in Britain.

While many countries rely on these agencies to provide licensing for teaching professionals, some countries also require individual instructors or the dive shops that employ them to take out liability insurance, which adds to operating costs.

It would be good if the Singapore Underwater Federation, which is affiliated to the Singapore Sports Council, took on a more prominent leadership role in promoting safety awareness within the scuba diving fraternity and in the investigation of accidents - wherever they occur.

Having stated guidelines is good, but there must be a will and drive to ensure that they are followed.

It would be good to promote the orientation of divers and instructors in local and neighbouring waters, spread awareness of local boating etiquette and draw lessons from accidents.

Angela Chong (Ms)

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A third of frogs in danger of extinction

Borneo Post 4 Apr 13;

KUCHING: A third of frogs are in danger of going extinct, mostly from human-induced factors, said professor of herpetology Dr Indraneil Das.

However, the amphibians are being discovered faster than scientists can describe them, with 7,044 species (including other amphibians) recorded and new ones emerging every week.

During ‘The Amazing World of Frogs’ talk held by the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Kuching on Tuesday, Das from the Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) said frogs and other amphibians are our window to nature.

“By protecting frogs, we automatically protect nature,” he said, adding that frogs need both good forests and clean streams to survive.

He said frogs could potentially hold answers to human ailments.

Das described one genus of frogs where the mother would swallow the fertilised eggs, incubate them in her stomach and regurgitate them as young frogs.

Their ability to halt their digestive process with the eggs could have provided a cure for gastric, he said.

Sadly these particular frogs went extinct shortly after they were described.

While it is a better know fact that male frogs primarily call to attract females, Das said that certain species of frogs also emit a distress call when grabbed.

“Very often, the victim will have no chance of getting away when grabbed, but it will still make noise.”

He said that it is possible to tell if there is a snake in the vicinity by the calls made.

“Even if the frog is swallowed by the snake, you can still hear them call from inside the stomach. So what is the function? You have to devote some serious behavioural theories to understand this.”

On a lighter note, he said male frogs also have a specific release call they use when grabbed by another male.

He also warned those who come into contact with frogs to wash their hands thoroughly.

“Frogs are full of different chemicals on their skin, and are not to be messed with,” he said.

Das said there are over 180 species of frogs in Borneo, based on their limited research and unpublished research.

“Around 110 species were described in Mulu alone,” he said, before pointing out that Southeast Asia and South America are hotspots for amphibian research.

Meanwhile, the Bornean Frog Race 2013 will be held on April 27 at Kubah National Park.

Held in celebration of the international ‘Save the Frogs Day’, the race hopes to raise public awareness of declining populations of frogs and other amphibians.

Event general-secretary Pang Sing Tyan said 65 of the 100 spots have been filled.

“Those who do not want to join the race itself can still attend the talks and workshops in the afternoon,” she said.

The race will involve participants following designated trails in the national park within two hours to take photographic evidence for the most number of amphibians found, rarest amphibian found, and best amphibian photo taken.

Registration is RM25 for students, RM30 for non-students and RM50 for foreigners.

Participants must bring along their camera with appropriate flash, lenses and download cables.

For more information, go to http://theborneanfrograce2013.weebly.com or www.facebook.com/TBFR2013.

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/04/04/a-third-of-frogs-in-danger-of-extinction/#ixzz2PSFFJZZ8

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South Africa rhino poaching toll for year tops 200

(AFP) Google News 4 Apr 13;

JOHANNESBURG — Poachers have killed over 200 rhinos in South Africa this year, the environment ministry said Wednesday, as a major security operation fails to curb illegal hunting for the rhino horn trade.

The world-famous Kruger National Park was the hardest hit, with dozens of raids by poachers.

"This is like full scale war that's raging in that park," environment ministry spokesman Albi Modise told AFP, after 56 incursions were recorded by rangers in just 12 days in March.

The toll since the beginning of the year is now 203.

Even soldiers and police with helicopters deployed to stop the slaughter struggle to secure the vast reserve, which is roughly the size of Israel.

Last Sunday a mutilated rhino cow was found "bleeding profusely from having its horns, entire mouth, tongue, nose and eyes hacked off and had to be euthanised", the ministry said in a statement.

A poacher was killed in a shootout the same day, while another is believed to have committed suicide.

At the weekend, five soldiers died in a military chopper crash during an anti-poaching operation.

Sixty people have been arrested this year.

The lucrative Asian market for rhino horn drives poaching in South Africa, which has the largest rhino population on the continent. Asian consumers falsely believe the horns, the same material as fingernails, have powerful healing properties.

The killings have escalated from 13 poachings in 2007.

Last year, 668 rhinos were killed.

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Arctic Going Green from Warming, Study Finds

Tia Ghose LiveScience Yahoo News 4 Apr 13;

Large swaths of the Arctic tundra will be warm enough to support lush vegetation and trees by 2050, suggests a new study.

Higher temperatures will lessen snow cover, according to the study, which is detailed in the March 31 issue of the journal Nature Climate Change. That, in turn, will decrease the sunlight reflected back into the atmosphere and increase warming. About half the areas will see vegetation change, and areas currently populated by shrubs may find woody trees taking their place.

"Substitute the snowy surface with the darker surface of a coniferous tree, and the darker surface stores more heat," said study co-author Pieter Beck, a vegetative ecologist at the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts. "It's going to exacerbate warming."

Warming Arctic

The Arctic climate affects the world: Changes in sea ice affect ocean circulation, which, in turn, affects atmospheric circulation that then impacts the globe, said Bruce Forbes, a geographer at the Arctic Center at the University of Lapland in Finland, who was not involved in the study. [Images of Melt: Earth's Vanishing Ice]

Past research suggested that warming has already brought later winters and earlier springs to the Arctic. And fossil forests reveal the Arctic was once green as well.

To find out exactly how much greening Arctic warming would bring, the team used a model that projected how temperature changes would affect snow cover, vegetation, and the increased evaporation and transpiration from plants in the Arctic.

Transformed tundra

The team found that at least half of the tundra would see changes in the plant types it supported by 2050. In addition, they found more than a 50 percent increase in how much woody greenery — such as coniferous trees — would populate the Arctic. The tree line would also shift north, with coniferous forests sprouting where shrubs once grew.

Most of the greening was driven by the loss of reflectivity, or albedo, from snow cover. With less snow to reflect heat back into the atmosphere and more dark trees, the Earth gets warmer, "just like a dark car gets hotter in a warm parking lot than a light car does," Beck told LiveScience.

That warmth supports more tree and shrub growth, creating a positive feedback cycle to the warming, Beck said.

Real effect

The findings match forecasts for Arctic greening predicted by various other methods, and they foreshadow effects that will strike closer to home later, Forbes said.

"What's happening now in the Arctic is a faster version of what will be happening at lower latitudes," Forbes told LiveScience.

That could worsen extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy in the future.

"The snowstorms in Washington, D.C., and New York, and the flooding and the freezing on the River Thames — the extreme weather will continue to be extreme but it won't be so uncommon," Forbes said.

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Environmental groups pressure U.N. body for carbon aviation deal

Valerie Volcovici PlanetArk 2 Apr 13;

Environmental groups have urged the United States to back a global deal to curb carbon emissions produced by planes, noting that global aviation emits more of the greenhouse gas than all but six of the world's nations.

The groups, alarmed at scant progress toward an agreement within a United Nations aviation body, presented a petition with more than 60,000 signatures on Monday to a representative of the U.S. State Department.

The petition asked U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to secure agreement under the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for a market-based approach to curb heat-trapping emissions produced by planes.

Environmental groups, such as the Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council, want Kerry to honor a statement he made while still a U.S. senator that nations must forge an international agreement on aviation emissions.

Kerry did not attend a meeting of high-level negotiators from 17 countries from March 25 to March 27 at ICAO's Montreal headquarters but his climate change envoy Todd Stern represented the State Department

The high-level group is attempting to devise a plan that would avert the reinstatement of an unpopular European Union law requiring all aircraft that land at or take off from EU airports to pay for emissions through the bloc's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

The United States, China, India and Russia all lobbied fiercely against the EU law's planned implementation date of 2012. The countries won a one-year reprieve from Europe, where officials were worried about touching off a trade war.

In November the European Commission said its agreement to freeze the law for a year was intended to spur the creation of a less contentious global alternative at ICAO.

Since then ICAO's working group has considered various market-based measures to address emissions, such as mandatory carbon offsetting and a global carbon cap-and-trade system.

Aoife O'Leary, a policy officer for the advocacy group Transportation & Environment, told Reuters that three days of talks this week left negotiators no closer to an agreement.

"There is not much prospect of any global market-based mechanism by September," said O'Leary, who presented to the group on behalf of the International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation, an umbrella group of environmental NGOs.

O'Leary's presentation said that a global market-based mechanism to set a price on carbon emissions was the only way the airline industry can meet its own goal of achieving carbon-neutral growth in 2020 and cutting emissions 50 percent by 2050.

She said a plan for a global market-based mechanism should be agreed in time for ICAO's triennial assembly of its over 190 member countries in September, and that the assembly should agree to an "accelerated timeline" to implement it by 2016.

But so far, delegates have not advanced a plan, and concluded this week's meeting with a draft of general principles to discuss at a later meeting.

Countries seem to be deadlocked over the geographic scope of a global mechanism over how to charge for carbon emissions related to international flights.

A U.S. proposal for curbing aircraft emissions would exclude time spent flying over international waters. The EU, on the other hand, wants to apply a carbon charge to emissions released over international airspace.

U.S. airlines want any market-based mechanism delayed at least for the rest of the decade, instead preferring to focus on improving "technology, operations and infrastructure".

(Additional reporting by Allison Martell in Toronto; Editing by David Gregorio)

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