Toyotarization in North Africa
At
the International Geographical Congress 2004 in Glasgow, Scotland on
August 19, desert expert Andrew Goudie presented new research that
shows an alarming increase in dust production from the use of
four-wheel drive vehicles. Dubbed Toyotarization, this effect of the
growing number of off-road vehicles that disturb the earths surface
could have severe consequences for global environmental health. The
number of four-wheel-drives now in the Southwestern US and the Middle
East is staggering, said Goudie. They destabilize the desert surface;
you can still see tracks from Second World War vehicles in the Libyan
desert.
With a tenfold rise in dust production in parts of North
Africa over the past 50 years, the growing frequency of dust storms
gives rise to a plethora of environmental consequences. Yearly, 2,000
to 3,000 million tons of dust are released into the air; according to
Goudie, 20 to 30 million tons of that dust are then dispersed during an
average dust storm, carrying dust around the world. Dust is one of the
least understood components of the earths atmosphere, said Goudie,
but one which may have a greater importance than has been realized up
until now for climate change.
Scottish Press Association, 8/19
South Africa must limit coal use
In September, speaking at the opening of a sustainable development conference in Johannesburg, South Africas Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk declared that his country must address
its apparent addiction to coal if it is to live up to its commitment to
protect the environment.
South Africa is one of the largest emitters
of carbon dioxide in the world, generating about 95 percent of its
power by burning coal.
In the context of climate change and the Kyoto Protocol we know that this is unsustainable, van Schalkwyk said.
Outside the Johannesburg+2 conference on Sustainable Development, members of Earthlife Africa,
Environmental Justice Network, and the Anti-Privatization Forum
protested what they called lags in renewable technology development.
Inside
the Convention Centre, van Schalkwyk acknowledged the protestors’
concerns, saying he supported integration of South Africas
environmental, economic, and social priorities.
Joburg Business Day, 9/2
Even the weariest glacier
Some
glaciers in Antarctica are flowing more quickly to the sea, with
ominous potential implications for worldwide sea levels. A paper in the
online edition of the journal Science said glaciers flowing into the Amundsen Sea were thinning twice as quickly as they were in the 1990s.
Satellite
and aircraft imaging studies released in September show that while
parts of the polar continent are getting colder, Antarcticas coasts
are warming up. Historically, gigantic floating ice shelves have acted
as dams to keep continental ice sheets on land. But as those ice
shelves melt, the continental ice is freed to flow out into the ocean,
where it will certainly melt.
Floating ice sheets do not raise sea
levels when they melt, as floating ice already displaces water. But
melting of on-shore ice does pose the prospect of sea level increase,
with estimates ranging from a conservative two feet this century
enough to doom low-lying places such as the Bengali and Mississippi
deltas to 20 feet if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melts.
New York Times, 9/24
Mining Asias water
Farmers
wells are threatening to suck Asias aquifers dry. This
little-heralded crisis is repeating itself across Asia and could cause
widespread famine in the decades to come, says the British science
magazine New Scientist, in a report on a Swedish water conference.
The
problem is most severe in India, where traditional shallow wells no
longer function. Farmers must now rely on wells hundreds of meters
deep, drilled using oil extraction technology. Indias thirsty rice,
sugar cane, and alfalfa farms are spurring the development of a million
new wells each year.
Tushaar Shah, head of the International Water Management Institute‘s
groundwater station in Gujarat, says that Indian farmers are taking 200
cubic kilometers of water out of the earth per year, much more than the
monsoons can replace.
The same revolution is being replicated
across Asia, with millions of tube wells pumping up precious
underground water reserves in water-stressed countries like Pakistan,
Vietnam, and in northern China, Fred Pearce wrote in New Scientist.
In
China, 30 cubic kilometers more water is pumped to the surface each
year than is replaced by rain. Officials have said water shortages will
soon make China dependent on grain imports. Vietnam has over a million
tube wells up from 250,000 in 1994 and water tables are plunging in
Punjab, which produces 90 percent of Pakistan’s food.
New Scientist, 8/28
Three die of bird flu in Vietnam
Another outbreak of bird flu in Vietnam in early August killed three
people. Two of the three, both children, lived in Ha Tay province,
about 30 miles west of Hanoi; the third victim lived in Southern Hau
Giang province in the Mekong Delta. Hans Troedsson, head of the World Health Organization (WHO), said it is imperative that the entire country take precautions.
Troedsson also said that he believes Vietnam is better prepared to
handle this situation than it was last year when the bird flu swept
through Asia, forcing the slaughter of millions of chickens and ducks.
Since Vietnam declared itself free of the bird flu in March, it has
struggled to crush small outbreaks. Whenever theres bird flu in the
poultry population, said WHO Beijing spokesman Roy Wadia, there are
concerns it will be in humans as well. More than 50,000 domestic fowl
were slaughtered between March and August this year.
Kansas City Star, 8/12
Climate change greater threat than terrorism
Mike
Rann, premier of the state of South Australia, has stated that climate
change poses a greater threat to Australia than does terrorism and is
exhorting his counterparts in other states and territories, and within
the federal government, to take action to counter the threat.
What
we’re asking for, Rann said, is the same kind of resolve that we had
when state and federal and territory ministers, Prime Minister and
premiers met over terrorism after [the bombing in] Bali
I’m simply
asking for the same kind of national cooperation to tackle the threat
of greenhouse and global warming.
AAP Newsfeed, 8/27
Russia and Kyoto
Russias President Vladimir V. Putin may be preparing to put the Kyoto Protocol to a vote in his countrys parliament. The protocol, in which
signatories agree to reduce greenhouse gases to 5.2 percent below 1990
levels by 2012, will not take effect unless Russia signs it.
Putin directed his Cabinet ministers to sign draft ratification
documents for the accord as soon as possible, a necessary step toward
a decision on the protocol in the parliament.
Kyoto is controversial
within the Russian government, with some such as economic advisor
Andrei Illiaronov echoing the USs position that the accord would
weaken economic growth. Russias Natural Resources Ministry has signed
off on the draft documents, but the Economic Development and Trade
Ministry expressed reluctance to sign without further study of the
economic consequences.
Russias ratification of the protocol is by
no means certain at press time. The draft documents must be approved by
all Ministries and the final agreement approved by the parliament and
signed by Putin before ratification becomes official a process that
opposition could obstruct at several different points. Still Putins
move signals that he has dropped his earlier reluctance to push for
ratification, which observers take as a welcome bit of good news for
the agreements chances in the parliament.
LA Times, 9/24
Bushs Blair-weather friend
Often
considered George W. Bushs best friend on the international stage,
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been taking positions on climate
change that are 180 degrees opposed to those of his transatlantic pal
going so far as to urge the US to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, despite
Bushs steadfast opposition to the climate change agreement.
Blair, who will chair both the G8 and the European Union next year, minced no words when he spoke of the priorities he will set during his tenure in both positions.
Pointing to the past years extreme weather event, from Europes killer
heat wave, and the deadly droughts in the worlds arid regions, to this
summers unprecedented string of hurricanes in the Caribbean Basin,
Blair pooh-poohed the so-called climate change skeptics who claim the
scientific jury is still out.
If there were even a 50 percent
chance that the scientific evidence is right, the bias in favor of
action would be clear, Blair said. But of course it is far more than
50 percent.
There’s already enough evidence, he said, to make
clear that the danger of climate change is so far-reaching in its
impact and irreversible in its destructive power, that it alters
radically human existence.
Lord Whitty, the Labour Party’s former
general secretary, says that Blair’s chairmanship will press for an EU
emissions trading scheme.
The Guardian, 8/24
Europes climate changing faster…
The European Environmental Agency (EEA) warned on August 18 that climate change is going to hit Europe
hard, and soon. In a 107-page report, the EEA said that climate change
will considerably affect our societies and environments for decades
and centuries to come. Rising temperatures could eliminate
three-quarters of the Alpine glaciers by 2050 and precipitate mammoth
flooding. The report also predicts that sea levels along the European
coast will rise significantly, and that Europe will suffer another heat
wave like the one that burned up crops and killed 26,000 people last
year. Cold winters could disappear by 2080, and hot summers, droughts,
and heavy rainstorms could become more frequent. The forecast also
includes extinction of mountain plant species.
Its not news that
the climate is changing, but according to Jacqueline McGlade, executive
director of EEA, the speed of the change is astonishing. It takes a
long time to see these changes in the glaciers. Now that we see them
changing direction, then it means that there are warning signals in too
many parts of our life.
The report was released just as
flashfloods, heavy rains, and landslides tore through parts of Europe,
emphasizing the seriousness of accelerated climate change.
AP, 8/19; Reuters, 8/20
...And faster still if the air is cleaner
According to Professor Meinrat Andreae of the Max Planck Institute in Germany, air pollution may hide the magnitude of the threat posed by
global warming. Andreae, speaking at a London conference on pollution,
said that global warming may proceed more quickly than expected if
aerosol particlulate cooling has masked the true extent of global
climate change.
Aerosols help cool the earth by reflecting
sunlight back into space. Because of pollution control, in conjunction
with the relatively short lifespan such particles have before
settling out of the atmosphere, this climate protection will diminish
in the future. At the London conference, Andreae said, These arguments
suggest that there is a considerable chance that climate change in the
21st century will follow the upper extremes of current estimates, and
may even exceed them.
The solution? According to Andreae, the
only way to address the ever-increasing threat of climate change is to
do as much as possible, as fast as possible, to cut emissions of
greenhouse gases.
The Scotsman, 8/24
Polar bears on borrowed time
In the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard,
there are equal numbers of people and polar bears. However, experts
fear that balance is about to shift as the bears slide steadily toward
extinction.
Theoretically a protected species, the polar bear is
rapidly losing habitat and succumbing to other man-made perils. Besides
DDT and PCBs, brominated flame retardants have begun to pose a serious
threat to the bears. The source of toxins and environmental waste is
basically in the south, in the industrial zones like North America,
Russia, and Europe, said Bjarne Otnes, a local Svalbard government
representative. The substances tend to evaporate and settle in the
Arctic.
While the direct effects of these toxins is largely
unclear, researchers suspect that they damage the bears immune systems
and threaten their ability to reproduce. Topping the Arctic food chain,
polar bears store nutrients and poisons, consumed by their prey.
Global warming is also imperiling the polar bears, as their hunting ground melts under their feet. The Hadley Centre,
a British climate research institute, predicts the ice cap will melt by
2080, leaving the bears land-locked; hunting seals from the summer ice
provides about 95 percent of their food intake.
And as if that
werent enough for the bears to contend with, climate change may also
deprive them of their chief hunting strategy: camouflage. Animals that
have adapted by turning white during the winter… may not have enough
time to adapt to a world in which winters are no longer white, said
Samantha Smith, director of the World Wide Fund for Natures Arctic program.
Terra Wire, 7/28
Bush blinks on climate change
The
Bush administration is almost admitting that warmer temperatures in
North America may indeed be caused by human activity. The
administration backed a government-sponsored report sent to Congress in
late August asserting that warmer weather in North America since 1950
has probably been caused by human pollution. The report has had no
effect on the Bush administrations environmental policy.
In an
interview with the New York Times, when Bush was asked why his
administration had changed its position on climate change, he replied:
Ah, did we? I dont think so. Later, White House spokesman Trent
Duffy said the study sent to Congress did not change the presidents
position because more research was needed. The presidents policy is
the same
we need to fill in the knowledge and the scientific gaps,
Duffy said.
Earlier in his presidency, Bush withdrew the US from the
Kyoto Protocol, claiming that the American economy would suffer too
much from such restrictions. Instead, the White House promotes a
voluntary program for US power plants, oil refineries, and other
industries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
MSNBC, Reuters, 8/27
Kicking the herbicide habit
A $541,050 federal grant will enable researchers at The Rodale Institute (TRI) to demonstrate how a new spin on old technology could reduce the need for toxic herbicides in American agriculture.
Our new no-till technology could eliminate the use of 30 million
pounds of herbicides every year in the US, said David Ward, vice
president of program development for TRI, which has developed a new
tractor implement to reduce herbicide use in major crops such as soy,
corn, and cotton.
According to the USDA Economic Research Service, 52.5 million acres or 17.5 percent of all US planted cropland were in no-till management in 2000.
No-till systems plant seeds without ripping the soil apart, preventing
soil erosion. But standard no-till relies on application of herbicides
to kill weeds. TRIs modified no-till technology adds mechanical
rollers, which kill weeds by running over them.
TRI press release, 9/22
Rocky Mountain low
The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a 22-year-old energy-efficiency NGO in Colorado, will quantify
its greenhouse gas emissions each year, then buy an equivalent amount
of carbon dioxide credits through the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) market to offset its emissions. RMI will then retire the
purchased credits, mitigating the Institute’s impact on global climate
change.
RMI contributes to emissions of greenhouse gases through
business-related travel, heating fuel purchases, and some electricity
purchases.
RMI, 6/26
Mexican gas
The Mexican Secretariat for Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) has launched the Mexico GHG Pilot Program, a voluntary
national program to measure and report business greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions. The project is the first government-led climate initiative
of its kind.
This program will provide tools and training to
Mexican businesses, helping them to apply accounting approaches to
quantify GHG emissions, identify GHG reduction opportunities, and
attract new technologies and investments, said Alberto Cárdenas
Jiménez, secretary of SEMARNAT.
The program will help Mexican
businesses gain financial benefits through participation in carbon
trading, reducing local air pollutants, and mitigating global warming.
While
many industries throughout the world have implemented the GHG Protocol,
Mexico is the first country to adopt it, said Jonathan Lash, World Resources Institute president. In the absence of international leadership in tackling
climate change, Mexico has taken the lead in showing what can be done
to mitigate global warming.
Peter Denton, WRI
Canadian vapor
A
refinery in Canada failed to inform the proper officials after it
released five tons of sulphur trioxide (SO3) that passed over downtown
Montreal. The federal agency Environment Canada said it wasnt
expeditiously notified when the sulphur gas leaked from the Noranda
zinc refinery in Valleyfield, Quebec, 50 kilometers west of Montreal.
A
family living just east of the plant called an ambulance after
experiencing throat irritation. The call, placed 45 minutes after the
leak, was the first indication that something had gone wrong, said an Environment Canada representative, who spoke with typical Canadian élan. Were not very
pleased this happened, said Claude Rivet, Environment Canadas Quebec
emergency coordinator.
Rivet said his department could launch
court action against the plant once it determines exactly what
happened. An inspector will also be sent to Valleyfield to speak with
plant officials.
Toronto Star, 8/11
Hot pursuit
In
July, eight states filed a complaint in federal district court in New
York claiming that global warming is damaging crops, tourism, beaches,
citizens health, forests, and fish, and threatening coastal
communities as sea levels rise. The states filing the complaint are
Wisconsin, Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Iowa,
Connecticut, and California.
Targeting the nations five largest
public utilities, the suit claims that these companies are major
contributors to global warming, generating more than 650 million tons
of carbon dioxide annually as they burn coal to produce electricity.
The states are not demanding a financial settlement, but they want the
power companies to cap their CO2 emissions.
In order to win this
courtroom battle, the states have to demonstrate, with a greater than
50 percent certainty, that the companies are responsible for the
damages. This is a difficult task, given current politics, but most
scientists now agree the planet is indeed warming and that carbon
dioxide is the main villain.
Christian Science Monitor, 8/19
Chilean indigenes face trial
Eighteen
Mapuche Indian leaders are scheduled to go on trial in Chile soon.
Accused under a statute that prohibits generating fear among sectors
of the population, leaders of Chiles indigenous people currently face
charges for a series of incidents in the past seven years in which
groups of Mapuche destroyed tree farming equipment, burned commercial
forests, and set fire to farmhouses, serious crimes against property.
The Chilean government seeks to blunt the indigenous land-rights
movement by invoking an antiterrorist law dating from the dictatorship
of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, 1973 to 1990.
These are crimes, not
against human life or liberty, but basically against property, said
Sebastian Brett, a representative of Human Rights Watch in Chile. They stem from a wide sense of grievance among the Mapuches that they have illegally been deprived of their lands.
After the Mapuche were forcibly removed from their lands and put onto
reservations in the late 19th century, policies changed; the Mapuche
lost title to all but a tiny fragment of their ancestral lands in the
1920s, through procedures now considered illegal. Much of that land is
now covered in tree farms, with Monterey pines and eucalyptus planted
on hundreds of thousands of acres. The non-native trees require large
amounts of water and fertilizer.
According to Rodrigo Lillo, a
lawyer who has defended Mapuche leaders in military tribunals, the
Mapuche have lost Chilean public support. By using the terrorist law,
the government has not only succeeded in [disenfranchising] Mapuche
groups, it has also robbed them of the moral prestige and sympathy they
once enjoyed.
New York Times, 8/11
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