Bush Meat: When Conservation And Child Nutrition Collide

Enlarge Christopher Golden

A man prepares an aye-aye, a rare type of lemur found only on the island of Madagascar, for dinner. These primates are an important source of iron and protein despite being critically endangered.

Christopher Golden A man prepares an aye-aye, a rare type of lemur found only on the island of Madagascar, for dinner. These primates are an important source of iron and protein despite being critically endangered.

With its big, round eyes and bushy tail, the aye-aye lemur looks like a a cross between a monkey and a squirrel. To many people in Madagascar, it's a tasty, traditional meal, and an excellent source of protein and iron.

But with as few as 1,000 to 10,000 lemurs left on the island, conservationists say they're critically endangered and don't belong on the dinner table.

The hunger for rapidly declining bush meat is raising the possibility of a troubling ultimatum for people who want to help the poor and the wildlife in countries like Madagascar. The question is who to prioritize: malnourished children or wildlife at risk of extinction?

A study published online yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences only adds to the dilemma. It showed that children in Madagascar who ate more wildlife were less likely to suffer from iron deficiency anemia than other kids.

 

Anemia can affect brain development and has been linked to a host of problems related to attention span and information processing, in addition to physical weakness. Those health and learning problems can follow children into adulthood, Christopher Golden, who did the research for the paper as a graduate student in public health at the University of California, Berkeley, tells The Salt.

Currently, 63 percent of Malagasy children under the age 12 suffer from anemia and malnutrition. Bush meat (not including fish) comprises around 20 percent of the animal products in the local diet.

After a year of monitoring the iron levels of 77 kids, the researchers looked at what would happen if the children ate no bush meat and found it could increase the risk of anemia by nearly 30 percent. In the region's poorest households, loss of bush meat as a food source might mean a tripling of the number of children with anemia, the study found.

As important as the bush meat has been for providing kids with the iron they need, conservationists say there's less and less of it around for the taking. The Makira-Masoala Landscape, one of the largest tracts of rainforest in Madagascar, has traditionally supplied local people with 23 different species of mammals to eat, including lemurs, bats and mongoose-like carnivores that aren't found anywhere else in the world. "Many of them are threatened or endangered," Golden tells The Salt.

Conservation laws that heavily restrict hunting in hopes of protecting wildlife populations exist. But those laws are not enforced and local people continue to hunt. Consequently, they risk losing their food source forever. Either way, Golden says, the communities don't have enough meat to eat and health problems are increasing as a result.

"Food security is an enormous problem in much of sub-Saharan Africa, and poses a great threat to public health, wildlife populations and ecosystem health," Natalie Bailey, coordinator for the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (ABCG), told The Salt in an email. The ABCG is a coalition of seven conservation organizations, including the World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy.

Golden agrees. "The trajectories in human health and in environmental conservation are inextricably woven together," Golden says. He hopes his research will lead to more collaboration between groups with different goals, but admits, "it's very difficult to bring these two communities into conversation."

Conserving wildlife populations is a problem throughout Africa, and each country has unique struggles. As NPR's Christopher Joyce reported earlier this year, in Namibia, where wildlife is seen as having a high dollar value, conservation improved when local farmers were given more control over the animals and stood to profit from keeping their populations healthy.

In Madagascar, Golden says, money is less of an issue than nutrition. Less than 5 percent of what's hunted is sold, while the rest is eaten right away.

Luckily, while the Malagasy may prefer to eat lemur, their second favorite food is chicken, which is also high in iron. "It's an incredibly important dietary resource," Golden says — one that could be expanded upon, reducing people's need to hunt bush meat.

Chickens aren't native to the area, and local people have never been taught to care for them. As a result, it's common for 60 to 80 percent of their flock to die off from common avian diseases.

In December, a team of veterinarians from the San Francisco zoo will visit Madagascar, bringing vaccination to the chickens and training for their handlers.

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Air pollution linked for first time to droughts and major storms

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Ocean Temperatures Can Predict Amazon Fire Season Severity

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By analyzing nearly a decade of satellite data, a team of scientists led by researchers from the University of California, Irvine and funded by NASA has created a model that can successfully predict the severity and geographic distribution of fires in the Amazon rain forest and the rest of South America months in advance.

Though previous research has shown that human settlement patterns are the primary factor that drives the distribution of fires in the Amazon, the new research demonstrates that environmental factors -- specifically small variations in ocean temperatures -- amplify human impacts and underpin much of the variability in the number of fires the region experiences from one year to the next.

"Higher than normal sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic and the Pacific proved to be red flags that a severe fire season was on its way in four to six months," said Yang Chen, the University of California, Irvine, scientist who led the research. Chen and his colleagues found temperature changes of as little as .25°C (.45°F) in the North Atlantic and 1°C (1.8 °F) in the Central Pacific can be used to forecast the severity of the fire season across much of the Amazon.

The researchers believe that unusually warm sea surface temperatures cause regional precipitation patterns to shift north in the southern Amazon during the wet season. "The result is that soils don't get fully saturated. Months later, humidity and rainfall levels decline, and the vegetation becomes drier and more flammable," said James Randerson, a scientist at University of California, Irvine who co-authored the study.

To establish the connection between fire activity and sea surface temperatures the researchers analyzed nine years of fire activity data collected by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instruments (MODIS) on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites and compared the number of fires to records of sea surface temperatures maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Years with anomalously cool ocean temperatures had fewer fires, while years that experienced unusually warm ocean temperatures experienced more fires. The team also looked for and found changes in precipitations patterns as measured by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), a satellite managed jointly by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Article continues: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111110192306.htm

Image credit: UC Irvine/Yang Chen

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Boston's Leaky Gas Lines May Be Tough On The Trees

Robin Lubbock/WBUR

Bob Ackley, left, and Nathan Phillips measure methane levels on a Boston street. They found about 4,000 significant gas leaks after driving 785 miles of Boston and suburban roads.

A scientist in Boston has been driving around the city measuring leaks in the gas mains. He's found a lot, and he wants the public to know where they are.

Gas leaks aren't uncommon, and gas companies spend a lot of time tracking them down and repairing them. But the scientific team says they're surprised at how many they've found, and what those leaks are doing to the health of the city's trees.

The project started after biologist Nathan Phillips at Boston University met a former gas inspector, Bob Ackley, on a stroll through town. Ackley was using a gas sniffer to look for leaks from underground gas mains. He told Phillips that Boston's gas system was leaky.

So Phillips obtained his own methane detector — a state-of-the-art model called a cavity ringdown spectrometer — and put it in a car. "We just measure while we drive," he says. "It's a very fast-acting piece of equipment."

Enlarge Robin Lubbock/WBUR

Nathan Phillips looks at methane data plotted on a map of Boston streets on Nov. 17. Data from a mobile methane "sniffer" and a GPS show a real-time display of the gas levels in Google Earth. The orange spike in the center of the screen, on St. Paul Street, indicates methane levels about two or three times above normal levels, Phillips says.

Robin Lubbock/WBUR Nathan Phillips looks at methane data plotted on a map of Boston streets on Nov. 17. Data from a mobile methane "sniffer" and a GPS show a real-time display of the gas levels in Google Earth. The orange spike in the center of the screen, on St. Paul Street, indicates methane levels about two or three times above normal levels, Phillips says.

Together he and Ackley, who runs a company called Gas Safety USA, drove 785 miles of Boston and suburban roads. They found about 4,000 significant leaks.

"Like many people, I really didn't know the scope of the problem, so I was very surprised," says Phillips.

In some cases, the levels were high.

"The record level that we found for a leak — this is in the atmosphere on the surface in Boston — was about 30 parts per million of methane," Phillips says, "and that's over 15 times the normal background level."

Phillips notes that he's not a health expert and says he has no reason to believe methane at those levels poses a risk to human health. But he does believe, as a plant physiologist, that the methane is probably harming trees.

"Natural gas is largely methane," Phillips says. "That displaces the oxygen. It's also dry gas, so it desiccates the soils as well. And roots need to have oxygen for the metabolism of the roots, for repair of the root membranes. If they are starved of oxygen, the tree will suffer."

Fixing Up The System

A state advocacy group is suing utilities in the region for damages to trees and it's citing Phillips' research. The plaintiffs are communities that claim millions of dollars of damage has been done to trees in the Boston area.

Tom Kiley, head of the Northeast Gas Association, says it's true that methane can damage vegetation, but it's not common.

"There certainly are a lot of potential causes to the damage to trees and vegetation," says Kiley. "That can include insect infestation, vehicular damage, disease, storm damage, drought, salt, waste oil, gasoline."

Kiley, whose association represents gas companies in the region, disputes the claim that damage is widespread. He says when there's damage, gas companies remove and replace the trees. That's confirmed by David Graves, a spokesman for National Grid, the major supplier of natural gas to the Boston area.

As for the leaks, Kiley says gas companies do report how much they lose statewide to the state Department of Public Utilities. He doesn't know how many leaks there are in Boston but says leaks are a problem that the companies take seriously.

"It's an older system," says Kiley. "It is being replaced. There are some cast-iron facilities and some bare steel — unprotected steel – [pipes] that are being replaced, so there are in fact leaks on the joints."

Graves says his company is replacing about 150 miles of old pipeline a year in the state.

For his part, Phillips says he recognizes that the gas company is working to contain leaks. His aim, he says, is to make information about the leaks' whereabouts and frequency easily available to the public.

"The buried infrastructure, when it's out of sight, it's out of mind," he says, "and it's easy for us to just forget that it even exists."

Phillips notes methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas that warms the planet. And in fact, scientists at Picarro, the California company that makes the methane sniffer, have begun mapping leaks in San Francisco. Ackley has mapped parts of Washington, D.C., as well.

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Morning Edition–

Photographer Steve Winter documents the perils — and promise — for Asia's remaining tigers.

In Madagascar, the question is who to prioritize: malnourished kids or wildlife facing extinction?

Concentrations of carbon dioxide are up 39 percent since the start of the industrial era in 1750.

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The Chevrolet Carbon Stories, Part 3 Metrolina Greenhouse

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Can Electric Cars Help Automakers Reach 55 MPG?

Rick Bowmer/AP

A Nissan Leaf charges at a station in Portland, Ore., that can recharge an electric car in 30 minutes. Electric cars could be an integral part of meeting 55-mpg fuel standards by 2025, but many consumers are put off by the vehicles' higher price and what some call "range anxiety."

First in a three-part series

Under fuel-economy rules announced by the White House this summer, cars will have to get an average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 — nearly double the current average. Reaching that goal will take not only feats of engineering but also changing how Americans think about their cars and how they drive them.

Under standards proposed by the Obama administration, Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards will rise to 54.5 mpg by 2025. A carmaker's entire fleet average must meet this target.

CAFE standards for 1978-2011 are in miles per gallon. For 2012-2025 they include mpge, an EPA standard for alternative fuel vehicles.

The electric car is one of the ways carmakers expect to lower their average fuel consumption and get to the 55 mpg average. The problem is, people aren't buying, whether all-electric or plug-in hybrid.

General Motors is struggling to sell 10,000 Chevy Volts this year, and Nissan has sold just over 8,000 Leafs. For context, about 13 million cars are expected to be sold in the U.S. in 2011.

Brian Brockman with Nissan took me on a test drive of the all-electric Leaf. Starting the car, there's no sound of the engine turning on because there's no gas engine under the hood. The car is not only quiet but also smart, and it looks genuinely space-aged.

The Leaf doesn't fly, but Nissan claims the car gets about 100 miles per charge — sort of.

Brockman says physics naturally takes over even with these cars. If you're going 80 mph on the highway, you will naturally get more resistance against the car.

"The car has to work a little bit harder, so the range is going to go down a little bit faster," he says.

What Brockman doesn't say is you're only going to reach the 100-mile range on cool spring days doing about 40 mph, with the air conditioning off and the car going downhill. Consumer Reports, which tested the Leaf, said it gets an average of about 65 miles on a charge.

To see how the cars charge, we drove to a charging station at the local power company near Detroit. The problem is that there aren't yet enough places to go to charge the cars, and right now it can take up to 16 hours depending on the type of outlet used.

Deloitte conducted a survey of what consumers around the world expect from electric cars.

The other problem is what car people call "range anxiety."

"That feeling in your stomach starts to set, like, 'Oh, no. What if I can't make it?' And that's part of the problem," says Brian Moody with AutoTrader.com.

Moody says people feel like they don't have a grasp on how it works or how long the range is.

"It's sort of like a microwave oven: You know what it does, but you don't know exactly how it does it," Moody says. "It works by magic, and people don't like that."

Once people actually find out about the cars, they like them even less. Craig Giffi, a U.S. automotive practice leader for Deloitte, recently conducted a study of what people around the world think about electric vehicles. Giffi says people like the idea of electric cars — that's the good news.

"The bad news is that the technology is currently at a point where they have to make trade-offs," Giffi says. "So they want that same vehicle — they want it to look and feel the same. They also want it to perform the same."

Giffi says consumers want an electric car to go as far as a gasoline-powered car on a single charge, and they want to be able to recharge it as quickly as they can refuel.

Nobody is expecting those capabilities anytime soon.

"The problem is, the chances of there being a 500-mile range electric car, at this point, it seems pretty unlikely," Moody says. "You can go to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., and see electric cars. To me, that's not great progress."

Bob Casey, senior curator of transportation at the Henry Ford Museum, took me on a tour to see some of those electric cars from more than 100 years ago.

One of the vehicles on display is an electric car owned by Clara Ford, wife of Henry Ford. Like today, electric cars in Clara's day couldn't do what gas-powered cars could, so electric carmakers had to turn to niche markets. And there was demand for electric cars, it turned out, among well-to-do urban women, Casey says.

"[The cars are] quiet, they're clean, [and] if you're living in a city you don't have to go very far," he says. "If you're wealthy, you can install a charger in your home or in your garage. And if you're wealthy, you can afford these things, because they were expensive."

Not that much has changed with electric cars in more than 100 years. Casey says if they're to be widely adopted, it's drivers themselves — and their habits — that will need to change.

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Getting To 55 MPG

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Technology exists for gas cars to get 55 mpg, but they won't have all the comforts consumers want.

They make up under 3 percent of all vehicles sold in the U.S. but the ratio is higher in some areas.

For car companies to double their average fuel economy by 2025, hybrids must play a bigger role.

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In India, Spreading A Green Gospel Among Pilgrims

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Photographer Captures Plight Of The Tiger

Showcasing the perils that tigers face today was a challenging assignment for National Geographic photographer Steve Winter — but not for the reason you might think.

Sure, it's scary walking into the world of killer carnivores, but the seasoned photog has been in many dangerous situations before. Actually, Winter was preoccupied with how he was going to capture compelling photos of an animal that everyone seems to have grown desensitized to. The result appears in National Geographic's December issue.

His answer? Show all sides of the story: The extinction, the threats, the protection and the promise of resurgence.

Fewer than 3,200 tigers exist in the wild today, a result of poachers and habitat loss. The animal is sought for its valuable bones, penis and pelt — mostly for traditional Asian medicines. As director of media for the conservation group Panthera, Winter is passionate about all large cats and works hard to protect them.

With the help of guides and camera traps, he snapped away for two years on a grant from National Geographic's Expeditions Council. The Picture Show leaped at the chance to talk with Winter about his images.

The Picture Show: Can you talk a bit about this assignment?

Steve Winter: "My job was to show the diverse issues surrounding tigers today and show what is being done for their future. But how do I walk out the door and show readers something completely different? My job is to excite people again with an animal we see all the time.

"I think there's a future for tigers, but it was time to bring the issue back to the public and find some images people might not have seen — something that might ignite a spark in the next generation and let them know there is hope."

Why choose these locations?

"The next tiger to go extinct could be the Sumatran tiger. I knew we had to go there. I also went to Thailand. Those tigers are coming back from the brink of extinction. But the [heart of the story] was India. It's the only place you can actually go and see tigers. Many reserves are set up for tourists there."

Do any of these photos stand out to you?

"We learned a zoo tiger had been killed. Its bones and pelt were taken, but the entrails were left. How do you illustrate an empty cage? You're trying to illustrate the fact that someone had the audacity to murder an animal. They murdered this tiger under the noses of everyone.

Enlarge Steve Winter/National Geographic

Dara Arista, 8, holds a photo of Sheila in front of the tiger's cage at the zoo in Jambi, Indonesia. Poachers had slaughtered Sheila during the night.

Steve Winter/National Geographic Dara Arista, 8, holds a photo of Sheila in front of the tiger's cage at the zoo in Jambi, Indonesia. Poachers had slaughtered Sheila during the night.

"Two days later, we were at the zoo on a Sunday, and here's all these children coming to see the tiger. I asked this little girl to hold this picture up of the tiger. There was still blood in the cage.

"The picture illustrates what's worth more dead than alive. Tigers have to have a value in our society. They have to be worth more alive than dead. That was one of the most disgusting representations of humanity that I've ever seen."

Did they catch the poacher?

"They caught him. The guy took a bus. He got 100 bucks for the job. If you take a tiger apart, you can get $50,000 to $150,000 to sell his bones."

What's one thing Panthera is doing to help tigers?

"We look at large landscapes for tigers to live, not just pockets. The adults have to leave when they get older. If there's not a safe place for them to travel through, they could be taken out by poachers or by retaliation from angry villagers. We need to give them the opportunity to walk a safe corridor to a new place.

"Panthera set a goal to increase tiger numbers in key spots by 50 percent over 10 years."

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Bioluminescent Christmas Trees?

I know this is the season for many of you to buy a tree and cover it with little blinking lights. You should therefore know that a Dr. Yen-Hsun Su of the Research Center for Applied Science in Taiwan has just made this a whole lot easier. He has just bioengineered a way to make a tree that glows.

Georgia Tech Gold nanoparticles mixed in with noncancerous cells.

In fact, he's just made a luminescent plant. It's the real deal.

 

What he did is so weird, I can't quite believe it. Yen-Hsun is interested in traffic lights. He was trying to come up with a more efficient light emitting diode, presumably to enhance street lighting in Taiwan, and somewhere along the way he decided to dump the phosphor powder normally used in LEDs and switch to gold nanoparticles. Nanoparticles are really, really small. Then, (and I'm not sure why) he decided to implant the gold not onto a lamp, but into a living plant.

He chose the plant you see here. It's a common aquatic herb called Bacopa caroliniana.

When the gold went in, the leaves began to glow. The chlorophyll produced a "red emission" when exposed to ultraviolet light.

Gold, in other words, got the plant to light up the way those deep sea creatures do at the bottom of the ocean.

The Taiwanese scientists now propose "to improve the efficiency of the bioluminescence and apply the technology to other biomolecules," meaning they plan to move on to bigger plants. In their paper they said they hoped to create trees along roads that one day could replace or enhance street lights.

What a notion! Gold-injected trees lighting up our streets.

One of my favorite bloggers, Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG went into a kind of ecstasy at the thought of it:

That's right: glowing trees. The scientists who discovered it call it bio-LED ... The idea that trees impregnated with gold might someday line city streets, turning night into day, is like a vision of Gustav Klimt unexpectedly crossed with Con Edison: a botanical alchemy through which base wood becomes light at the speed of photosynthesis.

I know what a lot of you are thinking and I'm thinking it too: What happens to our "streetlights" when the leaves fall off the trees? Can you do this with pine tree? A spruce? Wouldn't gold somehow hurt the tree? Or hurt the critters to eat the leaves? Who's going to want to inject a tree leaf by leaf? What would this cost? Do you have to place a UV light next to each tree to see the glow? Why are you taking this seriously?

Well, I have two answers. First, the Taiwanese have shown we can make plants glow, and that, for better or worse, is real news. And second, while all this will of course happen slowly, if it happens at all, even thinking about a living room on Christmas Eve, presents on the floor, everything quiet with a 6 foot tree glowing from within ... makes me smile.

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The Contribution of Peatland CO2 to Climate Change

/ecosystems/article/43598

Peat, the accumulated turf made up of decayed vegetation, forms in many parts of the world in places like bogs, moors, and swamp forests. Due to its high carbon content, it can be harvested and burned as fuel. There are estimates that the global inventory of peat, covering 2 percent of all land area, contains 8 billion terajoules of energy. A new study has revealed that peat also has a high potential to contribute to climate change. The study, published by researchers from Bangor University in Maine, found that drought causes the release of far more carbon dioxide from peat than previously assumed.

Peatlands of the world lie in regions which are predicted to experience more frequent and severe droughts as climate change deepens. This will lead to the peat drying out and releasing vast quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere. Peat normally contains ample moisture which locks in the greenhouse gas. As it dries, the peat becomes exposed to the air where CO2 can be released.

The new study was published in the journal Nature Geosciences by Dr. Nathalie Fenner and Professor Chris Freeman of Bangor University. They found that not only with drought increase the rate of CO2 release, but that the release will also continue after the drought has concluded and the peat is re-wetted. This is because the new rainwater will drain away the dried out peatlands as dissolved organic carbon, where it can also be released.

"As our global climate and rainfall patterns change, our peatlands may not have sufficient opportunity to recover between these drought-induced episodes of CO2 loss," explains Dr Fenner. "What we previously perceived as a 'spike' in the rate of carbon loss during drying out, now appears far more prolonged- with a potential peak after the initial drought period is over."

Other potential problems from future droughts in peatland may be the deterioration of drinking water quality from the dissolved organic carbon. Peatlands can often be found upland in the northern hemisphere and their waters may travel down gradient to reservoirs or into the groundwater. Also, the loss of carbon may lead to degradation of the peatland itself. More lowland flooding may be possible as the peatland's natural sponge-like quality diminishes. Habitat and species loss may also occur.

"The previous focus of research in this area has been on the drought period, and our own work identified how the release of CO2 occurs," explains Prof Freeman, who leads the Wolfson Peatland Carbon Capture Laboratory at Bangor University. "We were initially surprised at finding that the effects are so prolonged- we think what's happening is microbial and that this activity has been triggered by the introduction of oxygen into previously waterlogged conditions. Once the water returns, conditions have changed and the microbes are further able to thrive until conditions eventually return to normal."

Link to published article: http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo1323.html

Image credit: Kevin Eaves/Shutterstock

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UN Climate Chief warns Science, not politics must drive Durban climate talks

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Global climate talks need to focus on the growing threat from extreme weather and shift away from political squabbles that hobble progress toward a tougher pact to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, the head of the U.N. climate panel said.

Negotiators from nearly 200 countries meet in Durban, South Africa, on Monday for two-week talks, with minimal expectations of major progress toward an agreement that will eventually bind all major economies to emissions caps.

Rajendra Pachauri warned the latest round of talks risked being bogged down by "short-term and narrow political considerations."

"It is absolutely essential that the negotiators get a continuous and repeated exposure to the science of climate change," Pachauri told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday.

"If we were to do that it will definitely have an impact on the quality and outcome of the negotiations, after all these are human beings, they have families, they are people also worried about what is going to happen to the next generations."

Pachauri heads the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which issued a report for policymakers on Friday saying an increase in heat waves is almost certain, while heavier rain, more floods, stronger cyclones, landslides and more intense droughts are likely across the globe this century.

"I am afraid the way the whole thing is structured loses sight of these realities," Pachauri said of the talks.

The report comes after a year of costly weather disasters, from floods in Thailand to a string of multi-billion dollar disasters in the United States that have killed hundreds.

At best Durban is expected to result in modest steps toward a deal to lower emissions from factories, power stations and transport that scientists say are heating up the planet.

The negotiations have become a battleground between rich and poor nations on the question of how much cuts in greenhouse gases each should take, with developing countries insisting they should be allowed to emit more to grow out of poverty.

Image credit: Shutterstock, szefei

Article continues: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/23/us-climate-pachauri-idUSTRE7AM0RJ20111123?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

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U.N. Agency: Greenhouse Gases At Record Levels

Global warming gases have hit record levels in the world's atmosphere, with concentrations of carbon dioxide up 39 percent since the start of the industrial era in 1750, the U.N. weather agency said Monday.

The new figures for 2010 from the World Meteorological Organization show that CO2 levels are now at 389 parts per million, up from about 280 parts per million a quarter-millenium ago. The levels are significant because the gases trap heat in the atmosphere.

WMO Deputy Secretary-General Jeremiah Lengoasa said CO2 emissions are to blame for about four-fifths of the rise. But he noted the lag between what gets pumped into the atmosphere and its effect on climate.

"With this picture in mind, even if emissions were stopped overnight globally, the atmospheric concentrations would continue for decades because of the long lifetime of these greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," he said.

Negotiators from virtually all the world's nations will gather later this month in South Africa to try to agree on steps to head off the worst of the climate disruptions that researchers say will result if concentrations hit around 450 parts per million.

That could happen within several decades at the current rate, though some climate activists and vulnerable nations say the world has already passed the danger point of 350 parts per million and must somehow undo it.

The WMO said the increase of 2.3 parts per million in CO2 in the atmosphere between 2009 and 2010 shows an acceleration from the average 1.5 parts per million increase during the 1990s.

But there are seasonal fluctuations, too. During the summer growing season, plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In winter, the concentration of C02 rises as vegetation and other biomass decompose.

Since 1750, WMO says, atmospheric concentrations of CO2 have risen 39 percent, those of nitrous oxide have gone up 20 percent and concentrations of methane jumped 158 percent.

Its report Monday cites fossil fuel-burning, loss of forests that absorb CO2 and use of fertilizer as the main culprits.

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Photographer Steve Winter documents the perils — and promise — for Asia's remaining tigers.

In Madagascar, the question is who to prioritize: malnourished kids or wildlife facing extinction?

Concentrations of carbon dioxide are up 39 percent since the start of the industrial era in 1750.

View the original article here

Economic woes no excuse for climate inaction, says China

/pollution/article/43600

Economic problems in Europe and elsewhere should not get in the way of a new pact to fight global warming, China's top climate official said on Tuesday ahead of major climate talks in South Africa.

Delegates from nearly 200 countries meet from Monday till Dec 9 in Durban as part of marathon U.N.-led negotiations on a broader pact to curb growing greenhouse gas emissions as the world faces rising sea levels and greater weather extremes.

"After the financial crisis, every country has had its problems, but these problems are just temporary," Xie Zhenhua, vice-director of the National Development and Reform Commission, told reporters on Tuesday.

Officials in Beijing have suggested economic turmoil in Europe and political unrest in North Africa have pushed climate change far down the list of global priorities, overshadowing next week's talks and undermining plans to provide cash and technical support to poor nations to adapt to climate change.

"Climate change isn't unimportant at this stage, but it isn't so salient, and I think it will again draw the attention of the global community in 2015 after the (new round of) scientific assessments are carried out," said Xie.

He was referring to a review of nations' emissions reduction pledges and a major 2013-14 report by the U.N. climate panel.

At the last round of negotiations in Cancun in 2010, all sides agreed on $30 billion in fast-start funding to help poorer countries adapt to the impact of rising temperatures and changing weather patterns up to 2012, with plans to increase the amount to $100 billion a year by 2020.

Xie said the $30 billion commitment is now unlikely to be met, but expressed hope that mechanisms for a green climate fund could still be established at Durban.

"We understand the difficulties facing Western countries, but the problem we are talking about now is a long-term financing mechanism while the economic problems are temporary."

With little progress expected at Durban, environmental groups have said time is quickly running out if the world is to stay below a 2 degrees Celsius temperature rise.

The World Meteorological Organization said on Monday that carbon dioxide levels rose to 389 parts per million last year, an annual rise of 2.3 ppm and edging closer to the 450 ppm level that could precipitate two degrees of warming.

Durban, South Africa photo credit: Shutterstock, Chris Jenner

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African nations show leadership for action against climate change

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Africa is leading the push for clean energy policy-making as climate change turns millions of its people into "food refugees," the head of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) Achim Steiner said.

"On the African continent, there is sometimes more leadership being shown by countries, by governments, than we see in some of the industrialized nations," Steiner told Reuters.

"Kenya is currently doubling its energy and electricity generating infrastructure largely using renewables. These are policies that are pioneering, that are innovative," he said.

Kenya generates most of its energy from hydroelectric dams but water levels have fallen due to recurring drought. It is now investing heavily in geothermal and wind power.

The African Development Bank is financing Africa's biggest wind farm on the shores of Lake Turkana, one of the windiest places on Earth. The $819-million project aims to produce 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity per year, boosting Kenya's energy supply by 30 percent.

Toyota and Hyundai are building a fourth geothermal power station in Naivasha, 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Nairobi, which will increase geothermal capacity from 115 MW to 395 MW by 2014.

"We see across the continent both a realization of how threatening climate change really is and also the inevitable necessity that governments have an interest in beginning to put their own development priorities on a different trajectory," said Steiner.

Investments in renewable energy are hitting record levels. In 2010, $211 billion dollars was invested in renewable energy, the majority of it in the developing world, Steiner said.

As the world's poorest continent, Africa is also the most vulnerable to the extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels brought by climate change.

"The consequence of global warming for Africa is one of disruption, of greater vulnerability, higher risks and enormous expenditures to cope with these changes," said Steiner.

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Foreign Policy Funding A Top Candidate For Cuts

Enlarge Andy Wong/AP

Workers take a break in front of the cooling towers of a coal-fired power plant in Dadong, Shanxi province, China. At a House hearing on Tuesday, Nisha Biswal defended USAID's programs in China, saying the money goes to efforts that include reducing harmful emissions from the country's power plants.

Andy Wong/AP Workers take a break in front of the cooling towers of a coal-fired power plant in Dadong, Shanxi province, China. At a House hearing on Tuesday, Nisha Biswal defended USAID's programs in China, saying the money goes to efforts that include reducing harmful emissions from the country's power plants.

Should the United States give aid to China? Given America's trade imbalance with China, few politicians think it's a good idea.

That's why a hearing over $4 million that the U.S. Agency for International Development intends to spend on environmental programs in China drew such heat on Capitol Hill this week.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers lined up at a House hearing on Tuesday to denounce the program as "an insult to the American taxpayer" that would pour "U.S. taxpayer dollars down the toilet."

That sort of open derision is very much in keeping with the political reception foreign aid spending is receiving nowadays. At a time when all types of federal spending is being questioned — and potentially facing large cuts, foreign aid is particularly vulnerable.

At last Saturday's GOP presidential debate, several candidates suggested they would slash such spending.

"The foreign aid budget in my administration for every country is going to start at zero dollars, and then we'll have a conversation," Texas Gov. Rick Perry said, although his campaign made clear he would exempt Israel.

Proponents of foreign aid spending warn that cuts to the relatively modest amounts of money the U.S. spends overseas for diplomatic, military and humanitarian purposes could cause harm to American interests abroad. But, given the current political and budgetary environments, they recognize that they face an uphill battle making that case.

"This is the 98-pound weakling of the federal budget," says Gordon Adams, a professor of U.S. foreign policy at American University. "The idea that we give away something to other countries when we ought to be spending it on ourselves, which is the public view, has been around forever."

Public Misperceptions

Polls consistently show that the public believes foreign aid takes up a far greater share of federal spending than it actually does – which is less than 1 percent.

A CNN/ORC poll conducted earlier this year suggested that most Americans believe foreign aid makes up at least 10 percent of the budget. One in five thought it represents 30 percent of total government spending.

"Americans have consistently overestimated the amount of money that goes to foreign aid," agrees Karlyn Bowman, a polling expert at the American Enterprise Institute.

That leaves foreign aid spending politically vulnerable. It's easy to cut something that people believe is already getting too much. Especially when foreign aid enjoys less of a domestic constituency than, say, Medicare or farm subsidies.

"The levels of cuts to the foreign assistance budgets are so significant that even programs that are high priorities are bound to get cut," says Nora Bensahel, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

On The Chopping Block

Bensahel points out that cuts to foreign assistance made up a disproportionate share of the budget reductions that averted a government shutdown last April.

"It was reduced by 17 percent at a time when the defense budget in that same bill received an increase of $5 billion," she says.

Something similar might be about to happen. For the current fiscal year, a stand-alone bill to fund foreign aid and State Department operations appears to be "dead," as one Senate aide says.

Foreign aid spending is therefore likely to be wrapped up in an omnibus spending package, which could leave it particularly vulnerable. If foreign aid is in the same bucket as more popular programs, it will be that much easier to cut, says Adams, the AU professor. Every dollar taken out of foreign aid will be seen as a dollar that doesn't have to be cut from defense or other priorities.

But because foreign aid is so much smaller, it will feel the pinch.

"In some budgets — transportation or Department of Defense — a cut of $5 or $6 billion is something you sneeze at," says Jay Knott, executive vice president of Abt Associates, an international development company based in Massachusetts. "But in the context of foreign aid, that's a major game changer."

No Momentum For Bill

Congressional debate about foreign aid this year has not turned mainly on money — although the Senate wants to cut $6 billion from the Obama administration's request of $60 billion in total spending for foreign aid and State Department operations, while the House would cut $5 billion more.

Instead, the Senate bill has been held up because of proposals to use it as a vehicle to impose further sanctions on Iran and to cut certain programs to punish Palestine for its bid for United Nations membership.

The fact that some foreign aid dollars go to countries that are considered unreliable allies — such as Pakistan — leaves many members of Congress skeptical about continued funding.

Spending Dollars At Home

But not all foreign aid goes directly to other countries. Much of the budget is devoted to specific programs that are meant to offer help in areas such as disaster assistance, food programs and health matters such as malaria and AIDS.

Lobbyists are trying to make the case on Capitol Hill that a considerable percentage of foreign aid spending — as high as 75 percent for some programs — actually stays in the United States in the form of food orders or payments to contractors.

"The concept that most of those dollars pays Americans or buys American things has never sunk in," Adams says.

The Value Of Aid

For that reason, foreign aid boosters are trying hard to make the argument that cutting a few extra billion from their favored programs will do little to erase the enormous federal deficit while causing great harm to American foreign policy.

Aid programs give U.S. diplomats leverage with allies, while also offering public relations benefits from helping average people in other countries cope with hunger and health problems, says Joseph Parent, a political scientist at the University of Miami.

At the House hearing on Tuesday, Nisha Desai Biswal, USAID's assistant administrator for Asia, sought to defend her agency's programs in China. She point out that the money goes not to the Chinese government but to Tibetan communities and programs bolstering health, legal reform and environmental concerns.

She defended the $4 million for environmental programs by pointing out that a considerable share of pollution in California and mercury elsewhere comes from Chinese coal-fired power plants. "USAID programs work to reduce these harmful emissions, which are having an impact on our own shores," Biswal said.

Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee weren't buying it. "What has been proposed here, essentially, is that we borrow money from China to give back to China to fix its own domestic problems," said Don Manzullo, an Illinois Republican who chairs the subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.

"This particular (program), while small in the grand scheme of things, is emblematic of the dysfunction in American's foreign aid spending priorities," Manzullo said.

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Crying was once considered political suicide. But not anymore. A look at the politics of weeping.

Commentators E.J. Dionne and David Brooks discuss Congressional stalemate and economic mobility.

Many fear that the approval rating — now at 9 percent — can only get worse.

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Durban climate summit: is it time to forget about 2 degrees of warming?

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Chinese Drywall Maker Agrees To Deal With Builders

A settlement outlined Wednesday between a major manufacturer of Chinese-made drywall and homebuilders who used the tainted product in Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi could affect anywhere from 800 to 1,500 homes, attorneys said.

Lawyers called it a significant step toward resolving problems with some 10,000 buildings blamed on the drywall.

Plaintiffs' lawyer Bruce Steckler said the settlement with the Knauf Group manufacturer involves reimbursements to builders for homes that have been fixed or are being repaired now, and others that are in line to be remediated. He expects U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon to approve the settlement.

Fallon presides over other cases involving more than 10,000 properties owned by people who blame damage to their homes, including corroding plumbing and electrical connections, on defective Chinese-made drywall.

Steckler acknowledged that there is a long way to go in settling the many cases but said the settlement was significant.

"We see now a collaborative and cooperative effort by homebuilders, the plaintiffs and Knauf to fix and repair homes," he said.

"It's a piece of the puzzle," said Russ Herman, head of a committee of attorneys representing plaintiffs in the case. The attorneys noted that more than a thousand other homes are included in an earlier court-approved pilot remediation program involving Knauf.

Herman said German-based Knauf was the maker of tainted drywall at plants in China that wound up in thousands of homes. Chinese-based businesses also provided significant amounts of the material that wound up in U.S. homes.

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A series of shootings by police in Miami draws scrutiny from the Justice Department.

Details behind the sexual abuse charges against former Penn State assistant Jerry Sandusky.

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