ALBANY, N.Y.(AP) —Twelve states sued the Bush administration Wednesday to force greater disclosure of data on toxic chemicals that companies store, use and release into the environment.
The state officials oppose new federal Environmental Protection Agency rules that allow thousands of companies to limit the information they disclose to the public about toxic chemicals, according to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the lead attorney general in the lawsuit.
The change lets 100 polluters off the hook in New York alone, he said.
The EPA, however, said the change improves the Toxics Release Inventory law and eases requirements only on companies that can certify they have no releases of toxins to the environment.
The EPA this year rolled back a regulation on the law signed by President Reagan after the deadly Bhopal toxic chemical catastrophe in India in 1984, according to the states involved in the lawsuit. That law required companies to provide a long, detailed report whenever they store or emit 500 pounds of specific toxins.
The new rule adopted this year requires that long accounting only for companies storing or releasing 5,000 pounds of toxins or more. Companies storing or releasing 500 to 4,999 pounds of toxins would have to file an abbreviated form, said Katherine Kennedy, New York's special deputy attorney general for environmental protection.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in New York City seeks to invalidate the EPA's revised regulations.
"The EPA's new regulations rob New Yorkers — and people across the country — of their right to know about toxic dangers in their own backyards," Cuomo said. "Along with 11 other states throughout the nation, we will restore the public's right to information about chemical hazards, despite the Bush administration's best attempts to hide it."
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the EPA's action cripples a 20-year program that required companies to report the amount of lead, mercury and other toxins they released.
"Polluters can release 10 times more toxins like lead and mercury without telling anyone," he said....
The other states suing the EPA are Arizona, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Vermont.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Nomura Jellyfish in Oki Japan
By SEBASTIAN MOFFETT of the WSJ online
Invasion of Jellyfish Envelops Japan In Ocean of Slime
Fisherman Ryoichi Yoshida pulled in his nets before dawn one morning, hoping for lots of yellowtail and mackerel. But the fish were overwhelmed by a heaving mass of living pink slime.
The creatures, called Nomura jellyfish, can measure six feet across and weigh up to about 450 pounds. They have been drifting en masse to places like Oki, a small island 40 miles off the coast, bobbing beneath the surface of the water like pink mines. They rip holes in fishermen's nets, and they poison fish.
"Normally, we just bring up the nets and it takes about an hour," said the weather-beaten Mr. Yoshida, 61 years old, after his crew had cleared the jellyfish out of the nets using long poles and hooks. "Now it takes two or three hours. And some of the fish escape."
Until 2002, these giant creatures were seen only occasionally in Japanese waters. But for the past five years, they have been swarming every year into the Sea of Japan, the water that separates Japan from mainland Asia. During the biggest invasion so far, in 2005, an estimated 500 million jellyfish -- not yet mature -- drifted in each day.
It's hard to calculate financial damage to fishermen, but the Japanese government last year counted about 50,000 incidents of jellyfish trouble. Fish poisoned by jellyfish tentacles die with their mouths agape. That mars their appearance and reduces their value by as much as 20%. "When their mouths are wide open, it means they've died going, 'I'm in pain! I'm in pain!' " explains Mr. Yoshida.
Scientists have various ideas about what causes the outbreak. One has devised a computer model of ocean currents that suggests the jellyfish are breeding off the Chinese coast near the mouth of the Yangtze River. One theory is that pollution, perhaps linked to industrialization in China, is helping create more algae in the sea. The algae are food for plankton, which is food for jellyfish.
Then, too, there is speculation about a link to the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric-power project under construction in the Yangtze, which could be changing water flows to the sea. A dam in a section of the Danube that runs between Serbia and Romania completed in 1972 changed the river flow, after which the jellyfish population of the Black Sea exploded.
Chinese officials and scientists deny that Chinese pollution has caused the outbreaks.
"No research evidence in China supports a connection between pollution and jellyfish," says Li Qi, a dean of the Ocean University of China. "Floating jellyfish are mostly in the Sea of Japan....That's Japan and Korea's problem."
Eager for a solution, slasher squads of fishermen went out last year armed with barbed poles to attack jellyfish that were jamming up nets. If the jellyfish are cut into three or more bits, they usually die and get eaten by other sea creatures.
Fishermen have also taken a trawl net and added a wire grill like a large potato masher at the trailing end: When the net is pulled through a swarm of jellyfish, they float through and are sliced up.
The Japanese government is doing what it can. It tracks the progress of jellyfish as they swarm through the Sea of Japan, urging trawlers to steer clear of them. The Japanese harvest some jellyfish to eat. Jellyfish can be boiled and added to salads -- though smaller varieties are said to be more tender and tasty. Trying to win converts, the fisheries ministry has drawn up a manual with tips on cooking with giant jellyfish. Menus include jellyfish-flavored biscuits, jellyfish soaked in rum and a dessert of jellyfish chunks in coconut milk.
One coastal firm, Tango Jersey Dairy, has for the past three years produced 2,000 or 3,000 cartons of vanilla-and-jellyfish ice cream. The jellyfish is soaked overnight in milk to reduce its smell, and is then diced. Fumiko Hirabayashi, a director of the dairy, says the jelly cubes are slightly chewy. Jellyfish is also getting publicity in women's magazines because it contains collagen, a protein used in cosmetics.
"We think it's important to use local ingredients," says Mrs. Hirabayashi. "And this has now become a local ingredient." (more)
Invasion of Jellyfish Envelops Japan In Ocean of Slime
Fisherman Ryoichi Yoshida pulled in his nets before dawn one morning, hoping for lots of yellowtail and mackerel. But the fish were overwhelmed by a heaving mass of living pink slime.
The creatures, called Nomura jellyfish, can measure six feet across and weigh up to about 450 pounds. They have been drifting en masse to places like Oki, a small island 40 miles off the coast, bobbing beneath the surface of the water like pink mines. They rip holes in fishermen's nets, and they poison fish.
"Normally, we just bring up the nets and it takes about an hour," said the weather-beaten Mr. Yoshida, 61 years old, after his crew had cleared the jellyfish out of the nets using long poles and hooks. "Now it takes two or three hours. And some of the fish escape."
Until 2002, these giant creatures were seen only occasionally in Japanese waters. But for the past five years, they have been swarming every year into the Sea of Japan, the water that separates Japan from mainland Asia. During the biggest invasion so far, in 2005, an estimated 500 million jellyfish -- not yet mature -- drifted in each day.
It's hard to calculate financial damage to fishermen, but the Japanese government last year counted about 50,000 incidents of jellyfish trouble. Fish poisoned by jellyfish tentacles die with their mouths agape. That mars their appearance and reduces their value by as much as 20%. "When their mouths are wide open, it means they've died going, 'I'm in pain! I'm in pain!' " explains Mr. Yoshida.
Scientists have various ideas about what causes the outbreak. One has devised a computer model of ocean currents that suggests the jellyfish are breeding off the Chinese coast near the mouth of the Yangtze River. One theory is that pollution, perhaps linked to industrialization in China, is helping create more algae in the sea. The algae are food for plankton, which is food for jellyfish.
Then, too, there is speculation about a link to the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric-power project under construction in the Yangtze, which could be changing water flows to the sea. A dam in a section of the Danube that runs between Serbia and Romania completed in 1972 changed the river flow, after which the jellyfish population of the Black Sea exploded.
Chinese officials and scientists deny that Chinese pollution has caused the outbreaks.
"No research evidence in China supports a connection between pollution and jellyfish," says Li Qi, a dean of the Ocean University of China. "Floating jellyfish are mostly in the Sea of Japan....That's Japan and Korea's problem."
Eager for a solution, slasher squads of fishermen went out last year armed with barbed poles to attack jellyfish that were jamming up nets. If the jellyfish are cut into three or more bits, they usually die and get eaten by other sea creatures.
Fishermen have also taken a trawl net and added a wire grill like a large potato masher at the trailing end: When the net is pulled through a swarm of jellyfish, they float through and are sliced up.
The Japanese government is doing what it can. It tracks the progress of jellyfish as they swarm through the Sea of Japan, urging trawlers to steer clear of them. The Japanese harvest some jellyfish to eat. Jellyfish can be boiled and added to salads -- though smaller varieties are said to be more tender and tasty. Trying to win converts, the fisheries ministry has drawn up a manual with tips on cooking with giant jellyfish. Menus include jellyfish-flavored biscuits, jellyfish soaked in rum and a dessert of jellyfish chunks in coconut milk.
One coastal firm, Tango Jersey Dairy, has for the past three years produced 2,000 or 3,000 cartons of vanilla-and-jellyfish ice cream. The jellyfish is soaked overnight in milk to reduce its smell, and is then diced. Fumiko Hirabayashi, a director of the dairy, says the jelly cubes are slightly chewy. Jellyfish is also getting publicity in women's magazines because it contains collagen, a protein used in cosmetics.
"We think it's important to use local ingredients," says Mrs. Hirabayashi. "And this has now become a local ingredient." (more)
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
"53 bird species face extinction in S.C."
Nearly 30 percent of the nation's most threatened birds species can be found in South Carolina, according to a conservation report released Wednesday.
Of 178 rare bird species in danger of extinction, 53 spend at least part of their lives in the Palmetto State. The biggest threat to them is suburban sprawl, especially along the coast, according to the Audubon and American Bird Conservancy's WatchList 2007.
Keeping cats indoors, leashing dogs on the beach, volunteering to protect nesting colonies, and donating to wetlands conservation are among the ways South Carolinians can help save the endangered birds, the report said.
Birds come to South Carolina for its wide range of habitats, from the beaches and salt marshes to the mountains, but development is limiting their places to breed and rest, according to the report.
WatchList species in South Carolina include the swallow-tailed kite, red-headed woodpecker, wood thrush and Bachman's sparrow.
"Whether you have heard of these birds or not, all of them perform vital roles in sustaining South Carolina's natural ecosystems," said Jeff Mollenhauer, director of bird conservation at Audubon South Carolina, in a release. "The time to act is now, while there is still time left."
____________
We get Red-headed Woodpeckers where we live now and they are probably my favorite bird. I had never seen them anywhere else where I had lived.
____________
Map of Red-headed-woodpecker range.
________________________________________
The Audubon watchlist.
________________________________________
Of 178 rare bird species in danger of extinction, 53 spend at least part of their lives in the Palmetto State. The biggest threat to them is suburban sprawl, especially along the coast, according to the Audubon and American Bird Conservancy's WatchList 2007.
Keeping cats indoors, leashing dogs on the beach, volunteering to protect nesting colonies, and donating to wetlands conservation are among the ways South Carolinians can help save the endangered birds, the report said.
Birds come to South Carolina for its wide range of habitats, from the beaches and salt marshes to the mountains, but development is limiting their places to breed and rest, according to the report.
WatchList species in South Carolina include the swallow-tailed kite, red-headed woodpecker, wood thrush and Bachman's sparrow.
"Whether you have heard of these birds or not, all of them perform vital roles in sustaining South Carolina's natural ecosystems," said Jeff Mollenhauer, director of bird conservation at Audubon South Carolina, in a release. "The time to act is now, while there is still time left."
____________
We get Red-headed Woodpeckers where we live now and they are probably my favorite bird. I had never seen them anywhere else where I had lived.____________
Map of Red-headed-woodpecker range.
________________________________________
The Audubon watchlist.
________________________________________
"A Free-for-All on Science and Religion"
......Carolyn Porco, a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., called, half in jest, for the establishment of an alternative church, with Dr. Tyson, whose powerful celebration of scientific discovery had the force and cadence of a good sermon, as its first minister.
She was not entirely kidding. “We should let the success of the religious formula guide us,” Dr. Porco said. “Let’s teach our children from a very young age about the story of the universe and its incredible richness and beauty. It is already so much more glorious and awesome — and even comforting — than anything offered by any scripture or God concept I know.”
She displayed a picture taken by the Cassini spacecraft of Saturn and its glowing rings eclipsing the Sun, revealing in the shadow a barely noticeable speck called Earth.
There has been no shortage of conferences in recent years, commonly organized by the Templeton Foundation, seeking to smooth over the differences between science and religion and ending in a metaphysical draw. Sponsored instead by the Science Network, an educational organization based in California, and underwritten by a San Diego investor, Robert Zeps (who acknowledged his role as a kind of “anti-Templeton”), the La Jolla meeting, “Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival,” rapidly escalated into an invigorating intellectual free-for-all. (Unedited video of the proceedings will be posted on the Web at tsntv.org.)
A presentation by Joan Roughgarden, a Stanford University biologist, on using biblical metaphor to ease her fellow Christians into accepting evolution (a mutation is “a mustard seed of DNA”) was dismissed by Dr. Dawkins as “bad poetry,” while his own take-no-prisoners approach (religious education is “brainwashing” and “child abuse”) was condemned by the anthropologist Melvin J. Konner, who said he had “not a flicker” of religious faith, as simplistic and uninformed....
Dr. Weinberg, who famously wrote toward the end of his 1977 book on cosmology, “The First Three Minutes,” that “the more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless,” went a step further: “Anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done and may in the end be our greatest contribution to civilization.”
...“I am utterly fed up with the respect that we — all of us, including the secular among us — are brainwashed into bestowing on religion,” (Dawkins) said. “Children are systematically taught that there is a higher kind of knowledge which comes from faith, which comes from revelation, which comes from scripture, which comes from tradition, and that it is the equal if not the superior of knowledge that comes from real evidence.”
“Persuasion isn’t always ‘Here are the facts — you’re an idiot or you are not,’ ”(Tyson) said. “I worry that your methods” — he turned toward Dr. Dawkins — “how articulately barbed you can be, end up simply being ineffective, when you have much more power of influence.”
...“What concerns me now is that even if you’re as brilliant as Newton, you reach a point where you start basking in the majesty of God and then your discovery stops — it just stops,” Dr. Tyson said. “You’re no good anymore for advancing that frontier, waiting for somebody else to come behind you who doesn’t have God on the brain and who says: ‘That’s a really cool problem. I want to solve it.’ ”
“Science is a philosophy of discovery; intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance,” he said. “Something fundamental is going on in people’s minds when they confront things they don’t understand.”
_____________
My response:
It is an interesting conversation. I think that Harris and Dawkins and their followers become SOooo anti-religion that they are offensive and people shut them out.
I thought it was interesting that some of the people who were so anti-religion would go to the UU church. While UU's do not necessarily believe in God (it can be more like that "alternative church" that Porco mentions) - and while people can think/believe a variety of things- I still think of it as a religion. And just as people who do go to Christian churches actually believe a variety of things also - like whether they believe the virgin birth and such to all sorts of things in the Bible that some think are important/true and others do not.
I think that the Bush Administration, etc. anti-science stance has been part of what has fueled that anti-religion stance. I think that a lot of people could tolerate the Christian "role" or whatever in society as long as it didn't step on the toes of science. But with them becoming SOoo anti-science - whether for economic reasons (like if the oil industry
wants people to disbelieve global warming so they keep consuming) or whatever - it's just too much.
On the other hand - I think that science without an appreciation and love, even, of nature - is a very empty thing and can also lead to bad choices. Like some people who seem so people-centered that they would do anything to improve the comfort-level of people while destroying the planet - as if we don't need it. I think that that is really short sighted/wrong-minded. There is the necessity for values and priorities in science as in any endeavor..
Mostly it's the profit-centered, greedy people (who tend to be focused on the "business model") who are the biggest problem - that are out of touch with the consequences of their actions - the consequences of over-consumption by an over-populated planet.
I think that more than whether people attibute unknown forces to a God or Goddess - that the important thing is a respect for life - however it came about. Including a repsect for life in the future. And there is this new thing that people in the past didn't have to worry about so much - and that is life as whole - the earth as ecosystem and how we and our lifestyles affect it. If I were to start an "alternative church" - it would be focused on that.
She was not entirely kidding. “We should let the success of the religious formula guide us,” Dr. Porco said. “Let’s teach our children from a very young age about the story of the universe and its incredible richness and beauty. It is already so much more glorious and awesome — and even comforting — than anything offered by any scripture or God concept I know.”
She displayed a picture taken by the Cassini spacecraft of Saturn and its glowing rings eclipsing the Sun, revealing in the shadow a barely noticeable speck called Earth.
There has been no shortage of conferences in recent years, commonly organized by the Templeton Foundation, seeking to smooth over the differences between science and religion and ending in a metaphysical draw. Sponsored instead by the Science Network, an educational organization based in California, and underwritten by a San Diego investor, Robert Zeps (who acknowledged his role as a kind of “anti-Templeton”), the La Jolla meeting, “Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival,” rapidly escalated into an invigorating intellectual free-for-all. (Unedited video of the proceedings will be posted on the Web at tsntv.org.)
A presentation by Joan Roughgarden, a Stanford University biologist, on using biblical metaphor to ease her fellow Christians into accepting evolution (a mutation is “a mustard seed of DNA”) was dismissed by Dr. Dawkins as “bad poetry,” while his own take-no-prisoners approach (religious education is “brainwashing” and “child abuse”) was condemned by the anthropologist Melvin J. Konner, who said he had “not a flicker” of religious faith, as simplistic and uninformed....
Dr. Weinberg, who famously wrote toward the end of his 1977 book on cosmology, “The First Three Minutes,” that “the more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless,” went a step further: “Anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done and may in the end be our greatest contribution to civilization.”
...“I am utterly fed up with the respect that we — all of us, including the secular among us — are brainwashed into bestowing on religion,” (Dawkins) said. “Children are systematically taught that there is a higher kind of knowledge which comes from faith, which comes from revelation, which comes from scripture, which comes from tradition, and that it is the equal if not the superior of knowledge that comes from real evidence.”
“Persuasion isn’t always ‘Here are the facts — you’re an idiot or you are not,’ ”(Tyson) said. “I worry that your methods” — he turned toward Dr. Dawkins — “how articulately barbed you can be, end up simply being ineffective, when you have much more power of influence.”
...“What concerns me now is that even if you’re as brilliant as Newton, you reach a point where you start basking in the majesty of God and then your discovery stops — it just stops,” Dr. Tyson said. “You’re no good anymore for advancing that frontier, waiting for somebody else to come behind you who doesn’t have God on the brain and who says: ‘That’s a really cool problem. I want to solve it.’ ”
“Science is a philosophy of discovery; intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance,” he said. “Something fundamental is going on in people’s minds when they confront things they don’t understand.”
_____________
My response:
It is an interesting conversation. I think that Harris and Dawkins and their followers become SOooo anti-religion that they are offensive and people shut them out.
I thought it was interesting that some of the people who were so anti-religion would go to the UU church. While UU's do not necessarily believe in God (it can be more like that "alternative church" that Porco mentions) - and while people can think/believe a variety of things- I still think of it as a religion. And just as people who do go to Christian churches actually believe a variety of things also - like whether they believe the virgin birth and such to all sorts of things in the Bible that some think are important/true and others do not.
I think that the Bush Administration, etc. anti-science stance has been part of what has fueled that anti-religion stance. I think that a lot of people could tolerate the Christian "role" or whatever in society as long as it didn't step on the toes of science. But with them becoming SOoo anti-science - whether for economic reasons (like if the oil industry
wants people to disbelieve global warming so they keep consuming) or whatever - it's just too much.
On the other hand - I think that science without an appreciation and love, even, of nature - is a very empty thing and can also lead to bad choices. Like some people who seem so people-centered that they would do anything to improve the comfort-level of people while destroying the planet - as if we don't need it. I think that that is really short sighted/wrong-minded. There is the necessity for values and priorities in science as in any endeavor..
Mostly it's the profit-centered, greedy people (who tend to be focused on the "business model") who are the biggest problem - that are out of touch with the consequences of their actions - the consequences of over-consumption by an over-populated planet.
I think that more than whether people attibute unknown forces to a God or Goddess - that the important thing is a respect for life - however it came about. Including a repsect for life in the future. And there is this new thing that people in the past didn't have to worry about so much - and that is life as whole - the earth as ecosystem and how we and our lifestyles affect it. If I were to start an "alternative church" - it would be focused on that.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
'The Sea Was Red With Jellyfish'
More than 100,000 salmon worth over £1m ($2illion) have been killed in a freak jellyfish attack.
It has wiped out Northern Ireland's only salmon farm and owners are now facing ruin.
The massive invasion happened at Glenarm Bay and Red Bay, Cushendun, off the Co Antrim coast.
Billions of small jellyfish called Mauve Stingers were involved - they stung and then stressed the salmon which were being kept in cages about a mile out into the Irish Sea.
The attack lasted for nearly seven hours with the jellyfish covering a sea area of up to 10 square miles and 35ft deep.
Staff in three boats tried to reach the cages, but such was the density of the jellyfish they struggled to get through and when they did it was too late to save the salmon.
The fish is sold to some of London's leading restaurants and the Queen had salmon on her 80th birthday cooked by top Irish chef Richard Corrigan.
It was also exported to hotels and restaurants in France, Belgium, Germany and the United States.
John Russell, managing director of Northern Salmon Co.Ltd, said "We are still assessing the full extent, but it's a disaster.
"In 30 years, I've never seen anything like it. It was unprecedented, absolutely amazing.
"The sea was red with these jelly fish and there was nothing we could do about, it, absolutely nothing."
Fish farms around Britain and the west coast of Ireland have been attacked before by jellyfish.
But the type blown towards the Co Antrim coast by northern winds have never been recorded in that area.
Autumn Rain Down 90% in China Rice Belt
Large areas of south China are suffering from serious drought, with water levels on two major rivers in rice-growing provinces dropping to historic lows, state media said on Tuesday.
Rainfall since the beginning of October had dropped by 90 percent in Jiangxi and 86 percent in neighbouring Hunan, the country's largest rice-growing province, from average figures, Xinhua news agency said.
Rice is a staple for most Chinese and a crop which needs a constant supply of water
The Gan and Xiang rivers running through the two provinces had seen their lowest water levels in history, Xinhua said. The shallow water has caused a jam of barges in some sections of the Gan.
Authorities had rushed to ensure drinking water supplies in big cities along the rivers and irrigation of fields by diverting water from reservoirs and installing pumps, Xinhua said.
Water levels on China's longest river, the Yangtze, and on the Pearl River in the southern province of Guangdong had also dropped, Xinhua said.
Drought and floods are perennial problems in China where meteorologists have complained about the increased extreme weather, partly blaming it on climate change.
More than 1,100 Chinese were killed during summer floods this year.
But some parts of the south were hit by weeks of scorching heat and drought in the summer, when as much as a third of farmland was damaged and millions of people were short of drinking water.
It was not immediately clear how much damage had been caused to the rice crop...
Rainfall since the beginning of October had dropped by 90 percent in Jiangxi and 86 percent in neighbouring Hunan, the country's largest rice-growing province, from average figures, Xinhua news agency said.
Rice is a staple for most Chinese and a crop which needs a constant supply of water
The Gan and Xiang rivers running through the two provinces had seen their lowest water levels in history, Xinhua said. The shallow water has caused a jam of barges in some sections of the Gan.
Authorities had rushed to ensure drinking water supplies in big cities along the rivers and irrigation of fields by diverting water from reservoirs and installing pumps, Xinhua said.
Water levels on China's longest river, the Yangtze, and on the Pearl River in the southern province of Guangdong had also dropped, Xinhua said.
Drought and floods are perennial problems in China where meteorologists have complained about the increased extreme weather, partly blaming it on climate change.
More than 1,100 Chinese were killed during summer floods this year.
But some parts of the south were hit by weeks of scorching heat and drought in the summer, when as much as a third of farmland was damaged and millions of people were short of drinking water.
It was not immediately clear how much damage had been caused to the rice crop...
"Congo to Form Nature Reserve for Bonobos"
Congo is setting aside more than 11,000 square miles of rain forest to help protect the endangered bonobo, a great ape that is the most closely related to humans and is found only in this Central African country.
U.S. agencies, conservation groups and the Congolese government have come together to set aside 11,803 square miles of tropical rain forest, the U.S.-based Bonobo Conservation Initiative said in a statement issued this week.
The area amounts to just over 1 percent of vast Congo — but that means a park larger than the state of Massachusetts.
Environment Minister Didace Pembe said the area was denoted as a protected reserve last week as part of the administration's goal of setting aside 15 percent of its forest as protected area. The Sankuru announcement increased the amount of protected land in Congo to 10 percent from 8 percent, he said.
The Sankuru Nature Reserve aims to protect a section of Africa's largest rain forest from the commercial bushmeat trade and from deforestation by industrial logging operations in the central part of the country known as the Congo Basin.
Sally Jewell Coxe, president of the Washington-based Bonobo Conservation Initiation, said the group has been working to establish the reserve since 2005, when it started meeting with leaders in villagers that ring the area to persuade them to stop hunting the ape.
Though local lore holds that washing a baby with the ashy remains of a bonobo will make the child strong, Coxe said many area villages have committed to ending the practice.
"We have agreements with many of the local villages that are on the edges of the park, and they will be the managers and be very involved in it," she said.
Bonobos — often lauded as the "peaceful ape" — are known for their matriarchal society in which female leaders work to avoid conflict, and their sex-loving lifestyle.
The bonobo population is believed to have declined sharply in the last 30 years, though surveys have been hard to carry out in war-ravaged central Congo. Estimates range from 60,000 to fewer than 5,000 living, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Bridge Ladies Against Bush
by Stephanie Strom
In the genteel world of bridge, disputes are usually handled quietly and rarely involve issues of national policy. But in a fight reminiscent of the brouhaha over an anti-Bush statement by Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks in 2003, a team of women who represented the United States at the world bridge championships in Shanghai last month is facing sanctions, including a yearlong ban from competition, for a spur-of-the-moment protest.
At issue is a crudely lettered sign, scribbled on the back of a menu, that was held up at an awards dinner and read, “We did not vote for Bush.”
"...the United States Bridge Federation was not amused. Its president, Jan Martel, and executive board are pushing for tough sanctions against the entire team--a one-year suspension, plus a one-year probation, 200 hours of bridge-related community service and a formal apology. Bridge Federation lawyer Alan Falk threatened team members with "greater sanction" if they reject the Federation's offer."
By e-mail, angry bridge players have accused the women of “treason” and “sedition.”
“This isn’t a free-speech issue,” said Jan Martel, president of the United States Bridge Federation, the nonprofit group that selects teams for international tournaments. “There isn’t any question that private organizations can control the speech of people who represent them.”
Not so, said Danny Kleinman, a professional bridge player, teacher and columnist. “If the U.S.B.F. wants to impose conditions of membership that involve curtailment of free speech, then it cannot claim to represent our country in international competition,” he said by e-mail.
Ms. Martel said the action by the team, which had won the Venice Cup, the women’s title, at the Shanghai event, could cost the federation corporate sponsors.
The players have been stunned by the reaction to what they saw as a spontaneous gesture, “a moment of levity,” said Gail Greenberg, the team’s nonplaying captain and winner of 11 world championships.
“What we were trying to say, not to Americans but to our friends from other countries, was that we understand that they are questioning and critical of what our country is doing these days, and we want you to know that we, too, are critical,” Ms. Greenberg said, stressing that she was speaking for herself and not her six teammates.
The controversy has gone global, with the French team offering support for its American counterparts.
“By trying to address these issues in a nonviolent, nonthreatening and lighthearted manner,” the French team wrote in by e-mail to the federation’s board and others, “you were doing only what women of the world have always tried to do when opposing the folly of men who have lost their perspective of reality.”...
Oasis country dying of thirst
SITTING where Australia's two greatest rivers meet, Wentworth lies at the symbolic heart of the Murray-Darling Basin food bowl.
There has been an irrigation industry there for more than a century, and the Wentworth Shire calls itself "oasis country" - a place where the brown waters of the Darling and the green waters of the Murray have enabled people to turn the desert into a garden.
The Perry sandhills outside town are a brilliant red, but the citrus and wine grapes are usually a brilliant green. Generations have grown up knowing nothing but full water allocations, and the most famous monument in Wentworth features a Massey Ferguson tractor.
The tractors are honoured for the epic role they played building levee banks to stop Wentworth disappearing under the mighty flood of 1956.
But no tractor will be able to drag the south-western NSW district out of the drought disaster it finds itself in today. For the first time, Wentworth irrigators are enduring the huge shock of a zero water allocation this year.
The irrigation districts of Curlwaa, Buronga and Coomealla are dotted with citrus trees under stress and vineyards that have already died of thirst. There are numerous for-sale signs. Some farmers are about to run out of water, some have avoided that fate by buying water at record prices.
Some have cut their citrus trees back to their stumps so they can get through the summer on survival rations. Some have chosen to sacrifice parts of their vineyard using chainsaws so there is enough water to maintain production elsewhere. It is a scenario locals admit they had never envisaged in their worst nightmares.
This summer, Wentworth irrigators have been given just half of the 52 per cent of their water allocation they had suspended last year when the severity of the drought was realised. They have also got critical water on a per-hectare basis until the end of March - just enough to keep plantings alive but not enough to produce a crop and an income.
Therefore, water that would normally sell for less than $100 a megalitre is now commanding more than $1000. The 430 Western Murray irrigators usually only use half the district's 61,000 megalitres of entitlement and sell water to other areas, but this summer $5 million worth has already been bought in.
About 25 per cent have bought water, but Cheryl Rix, the general manager of Western Murray Irrigation, said: "A lot of people haven't been able to borrow money to buy water. A lot of people are going to let 30 per cent of their farm go [to get enough water for production on the rest]. At the end of the day you have got to have a farm income."
The average farmer had about 35 per cent of their normal water entitlement, Mrs Rix said.
Dennis Mills has bulldozed eight hectares of citrus and chainsawed through four hectares of shiraz vines to get the water he needs to produce crops on the rest of his land....
Kevin Watson, a wine grape grower, has bought himself expensive peace of mind this summer. "I have spent $150,000 on water this year. I bought $75,000 worth of water last year."...
There has been an irrigation industry there for more than a century, and the Wentworth Shire calls itself "oasis country" - a place where the brown waters of the Darling and the green waters of the Murray have enabled people to turn the desert into a garden.
The Perry sandhills outside town are a brilliant red, but the citrus and wine grapes are usually a brilliant green. Generations have grown up knowing nothing but full water allocations, and the most famous monument in Wentworth features a Massey Ferguson tractor.
The tractors are honoured for the epic role they played building levee banks to stop Wentworth disappearing under the mighty flood of 1956.
But no tractor will be able to drag the south-western NSW district out of the drought disaster it finds itself in today. For the first time, Wentworth irrigators are enduring the huge shock of a zero water allocation this year.
The irrigation districts of Curlwaa, Buronga and Coomealla are dotted with citrus trees under stress and vineyards that have already died of thirst. There are numerous for-sale signs. Some farmers are about to run out of water, some have avoided that fate by buying water at record prices.
Some have cut their citrus trees back to their stumps so they can get through the summer on survival rations. Some have chosen to sacrifice parts of their vineyard using chainsaws so there is enough water to maintain production elsewhere. It is a scenario locals admit they had never envisaged in their worst nightmares.
This summer, Wentworth irrigators have been given just half of the 52 per cent of their water allocation they had suspended last year when the severity of the drought was realised. They have also got critical water on a per-hectare basis until the end of March - just enough to keep plantings alive but not enough to produce a crop and an income.
Therefore, water that would normally sell for less than $100 a megalitre is now commanding more than $1000. The 430 Western Murray irrigators usually only use half the district's 61,000 megalitres of entitlement and sell water to other areas, but this summer $5 million worth has already been bought in.
About 25 per cent have bought water, but Cheryl Rix, the general manager of Western Murray Irrigation, said: "A lot of people haven't been able to borrow money to buy water. A lot of people are going to let 30 per cent of their farm go [to get enough water for production on the rest]. At the end of the day you have got to have a farm income."
The average farmer had about 35 per cent of their normal water entitlement, Mrs Rix said.
Dennis Mills has bulldozed eight hectares of citrus and chainsawed through four hectares of shiraz vines to get the water he needs to produce crops on the rest of his land....
Kevin Watson, a wine grape grower, has bought himself expensive peace of mind this summer. "I have spent $150,000 on water this year. I bought $75,000 worth of water last year."...
Cyprus’s Largest Reservoir Drying Up
- A jetty lies on a dry reservoir bed at Kouris dam in Limassol district, Cyprus. The sun-baked earth in the empty pit at Kouris is a sign of the unprecedented water crisis facing the Mediterranean island -
A small pool of water at the bottom of Cyprus’s largest reservoir is shrinking by the day: without rain, the main source of surface water for most of the island will dry up by the end of the year.
The sun-baked earth in the empty pit at Kouris is a sign of the unprecedented water crisis facing the Mediterranean island. As climate change takes effect, authorities face the dilemma of how much to use energy-intensive desalination to beat the shortage.
“It’s bad. Very bad,” says Vlassis Partassides, head of water management at Cyprus’s water development department.
“If the drought continues for a fourth year, the consequences will be very severe,” he told Reuters.
Reservoirs are less than 9% full and residents – accustomed to treating water as a precious commodity – are braced for another dry winter.
Cypriots’ water bills come with graphs showing monthly consumption, and authorities are swift to alert households to abnormal spikes in use.
“I water my garden with water I have used for mopping up, and think twice about putting on the washing machine if I don’t have a full load. It is something that worries us all,” said Eleni Ioannou, 43, a resident of the Cypriot capital Nicosia.
Two desalination plants running at full capacity are not enough. Plans include emergency drilling to tap precious underground water deposits, further cuts to agriculture and a new desalination unit to come on stream next July.
With one of the highest concentrations of reservoirs in the world, Cyprus is no stranger to water shortages. While hydrologists can factor in inevitable periods of drought, the island can do little to arrest climate change.
Partassiades said that since 1972, rainfall had fallen by 20% but the run-off – the inflow into reservoirs – had declined by 40%, because of rising temperatures and the resulting increase in evaporation.
“Climate change is clearly evidenced in Cyprus,” said Costas Papastavros, head of the island’s national climate change unit...
Ultimately, he said, Cyprus would need to get used to life under global warming: “This is what happens when natural cycles are broken by human influence.
Monday, November 19, 2007
"Restoration push failing Chesapeake crabs"
The Chesapeake Bay's famous blue crabs - feisty crustaceans that are both a regional symbol and a multimillion-dollar catch - are hovering at historically low population levels, scientists say, as pollution, climate change, and overfishing threaten the bay's ultimate survivor.
This fall, a committee of federal and state scientists found that the crab's population was at its second-lowest level in 17 years, having fallen to about one-third the population of 1993. They forecast that the current crabbing season, which ends Dec. 15 in Maryland, will produce one of the lowest harvests since 1945.
This year's numbers are particularly distressing, scientists say, because they signal that a baywide effort to save the crab begun in 2001 is falling short.
Governments promised to clean the Chesapeake's waters by 2010. But that effort is far off track, leaving "dead zones" where crabs can't breathe.
Maryland and Virginia have changed their laws to cut back the bay's crab harvest. But watermen have repeatedly been allowed to take too many of the valuable shellfish, scientists say. The watermen, meanwhile, say they're being unfairly blamed.
"Now it appears that even the hardy blue crab is approaching its breaking point," said Howard Ernst, a professor at the US Naval Academy and a critic of government efforts to protect the Chesapeake. If the crab's population drops further, Ernst said, "what we ultimately lose is not only a resource, but a unique and irreplaceable cultural heritage."
In the 1990s, the crab's population began to fall off rapidly. Since 2000, it has been at a historically low ebb.
There were about 852 million crabs in the bay in 1993, but there are now about 273 million, according to the committee of federal and state scientists, which issued a report in September....
And the immediate future doesn't look much better. The number of crabs less than a year old, a crucial indicator of how the population will look in the next year or two, fell last winter to its lowest level in 15 years.
The reasons for the decline probably include climate change, because the water now is often too warm for a grass species the crabs use as shelter.
But the causes also include two problems that governments have promised - and failed - to fix.
One is the water. Rain washes down manure, treated sewage, and suburban fertilizer, which cause algae blooms that remove oxygen from the bay's water. Low-oxygen "dead zones" can kill crabs or push them out of their preferred habitat.
State and federal governments promised to clean up the pollution by 2010. Now officials say the effort, led by the Environmental Protection Agency, is far behind schedule....
Maryland and Virginia, which share the bay, sought to limit the catch in 2001, with rules about what days watermen could work and the minimum size of crabs they could keep.
But, though the harvest went down, crabbers were still able to catch what scientists say is an unhealthy number of crabs in 2001, 2002, and 2004. And they're on pace to do it again this year, according to a recent estimate. The reason: Crab catches have declined, but the total number of crabs has dropped even faster...
Sunday, November 18, 2007
The birds are back - along the Pacific Coast Flyway
From SFGate.com
..."In the late 1970s and 1980s, we were witnessing steep declines in birds, and it was very frightening," Chisholm said. "But the habitat restoration programs we've seen in the past 20 years have made a tremendous difference. It's not just the number of programs - it's the scale."
Right now, said Chisholm, Audubon California is participating in a project near Colusa in the Sacramento Valley that will turn 7,000 to 9,000 acres of former rice land into floodplain wetland.
"At Owens Lake, 50,000 acre feet of water that used to go to Los Angeles each year is now restoring the lake, creating fantastic shorebird habitat," Chisholm said. "Huge restoration projects are coming together at Tule Lake and Goose Lake in northeastern California, the Tulare Basin in the southern San Joaquin Valley, even the Colorado River Delta in southern California and Mexico. To a very significant degree, we're changing the face of the landscape in a way that benefits wildlife."
Chisholm also credits the decomposition rice program - which involves flooding fields in winter to decompose rice stubble instead of burning it - with a major role in improving flyway conditions.
"That change came out of clean air regulations, because burning rice straw was a serious air quality problem for the Sacramento Valley," Chisholm said. "But the program also has been a tremendous boon for waterfowl, shorebirds and wading birds. It has essentially created hundreds of thousands of acres of seasonal wetlands where birds can feed and rest through the winter and early spring."
...The new habitats have not only made birds more numerous - but they've also made them healthier. Throughout much of the late 20th century, wintering Central Valley waterfowl periodically suffered massive die-offs from botulism and avian cholera - the result of too many birds squeezing into too few places, contaminating their resting and feeding areas with fecal waste.
"There were times when we lost tens of thousands of ducks," recalls Greg Mensik, the deputy refuge manager of the Sacramento Valley National Refuge Complex. "I remember one day before the opening day of duck season when I picked up 125 carcasses. It was extremely depressing."
Today, said Mensik, such plagues are a memory....
"It's been at least 10 years since we've had a major incident," he said. "In large part, that's due to both the enhanced public and private marshlands and the expanded decomposition rice program. We've gone from 60,000 to 70,000 acres of flooded rice to 200,000 to 300,000 acres. The birds aren't packed together anymore, and it's harder for disease to spread."...
"Around 1980, we had a valley-wide population of about 125 ibis," Mensik said. "Today, there are between 50,000 to 100,000. No one really expected it."
To keep the birds burgeoning on the Pacific Flyway, the money will have to keep flowing - not just for restorations, but to manage the wetlands that have been restored. To stay productive, wetlands must be meticulously maintained, say wildlife managers.
"If you establish a wetland and then walk away, you'll see successional ecological changes over time that will eventually turn it into grassland and forest," said Dan Yparraguirre, a waterfowl coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Game. "We need to manage our wetlands for the species we want to benefit. That can involve any number of practices - land leveling or dredging, planting or removing vegetation, adjusting water levels. It's an active, ongoing process."
So despite the good news, the Flyway's birds are by no means home free. The pressures that winnowed their numbers in the 1980s - urban development and conversion of habitat to intensive agriculture - remain. Chemical contamination and oil pollution at critical habitats remain a chronic problem, as evidenced by the recent spill of 58,000 gallons of bunker oil in San Francisco Bay from a container ship that bumped a piling on the Bay Bridge. The bay and the contiguous Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta comprise some of the most important wintering, staging and breeding grounds on the Flyway. And while the impact of new threats - most notably global warming and climate change - have yet to be fully felt, they are likely to be profound.
That said, the fact that we still have multitudes of birds that can darken the skies, the fact that we have rebuilt their numbers against all odds, the fact that they remain with us - well, some celebration is in order...
..."In the late 1970s and 1980s, we were witnessing steep declines in birds, and it was very frightening," Chisholm said. "But the habitat restoration programs we've seen in the past 20 years have made a tremendous difference. It's not just the number of programs - it's the scale."
Right now, said Chisholm, Audubon California is participating in a project near Colusa in the Sacramento Valley that will turn 7,000 to 9,000 acres of former rice land into floodplain wetland.
"At Owens Lake, 50,000 acre feet of water that used to go to Los Angeles each year is now restoring the lake, creating fantastic shorebird habitat," Chisholm said. "Huge restoration projects are coming together at Tule Lake and Goose Lake in northeastern California, the Tulare Basin in the southern San Joaquin Valley, even the Colorado River Delta in southern California and Mexico. To a very significant degree, we're changing the face of the landscape in a way that benefits wildlife."
Chisholm also credits the decomposition rice program - which involves flooding fields in winter to decompose rice stubble instead of burning it - with a major role in improving flyway conditions.
"That change came out of clean air regulations, because burning rice straw was a serious air quality problem for the Sacramento Valley," Chisholm said. "But the program also has been a tremendous boon for waterfowl, shorebirds and wading birds. It has essentially created hundreds of thousands of acres of seasonal wetlands where birds can feed and rest through the winter and early spring."
...The new habitats have not only made birds more numerous - but they've also made them healthier. Throughout much of the late 20th century, wintering Central Valley waterfowl periodically suffered massive die-offs from botulism and avian cholera - the result of too many birds squeezing into too few places, contaminating their resting and feeding areas with fecal waste.
"There were times when we lost tens of thousands of ducks," recalls Greg Mensik, the deputy refuge manager of the Sacramento Valley National Refuge Complex. "I remember one day before the opening day of duck season when I picked up 125 carcasses. It was extremely depressing."
Today, said Mensik, such plagues are a memory....
"It's been at least 10 years since we've had a major incident," he said. "In large part, that's due to both the enhanced public and private marshlands and the expanded decomposition rice program. We've gone from 60,000 to 70,000 acres of flooded rice to 200,000 to 300,000 acres. The birds aren't packed together anymore, and it's harder for disease to spread."...
"Around 1980, we had a valley-wide population of about 125 ibis," Mensik said. "Today, there are between 50,000 to 100,000. No one really expected it."
To keep the birds burgeoning on the Pacific Flyway, the money will have to keep flowing - not just for restorations, but to manage the wetlands that have been restored. To stay productive, wetlands must be meticulously maintained, say wildlife managers.
"If you establish a wetland and then walk away, you'll see successional ecological changes over time that will eventually turn it into grassland and forest," said Dan Yparraguirre, a waterfowl coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Game. "We need to manage our wetlands for the species we want to benefit. That can involve any number of practices - land leveling or dredging, planting or removing vegetation, adjusting water levels. It's an active, ongoing process."
So despite the good news, the Flyway's birds are by no means home free. The pressures that winnowed their numbers in the 1980s - urban development and conversion of habitat to intensive agriculture - remain. Chemical contamination and oil pollution at critical habitats remain a chronic problem, as evidenced by the recent spill of 58,000 gallons of bunker oil in San Francisco Bay from a container ship that bumped a piling on the Bay Bridge. The bay and the contiguous Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta comprise some of the most important wintering, staging and breeding grounds on the Flyway. And while the impact of new threats - most notably global warming and climate change - have yet to be fully felt, they are likely to be profound.
That said, the fact that we still have multitudes of birds that can darken the skies, the fact that we have rebuilt their numbers against all odds, the fact that they remain with us - well, some celebration is in order...
"Noah's Ark" flood spurred European farming
An ancient flood some say could be the origin of the story of Noah's Ark may have helped the spread of agriculture in Europe 8,300 years ago by scattering the continent's earliest farmers, researchers said on Sunday.
Using radiocarbon dating and archaeological evidence, a British team showed the collapse of the North American ice sheet, which raised global sea levels by as much as 1.4 meters, displaced tens of thousands of people in southeastern Europe who carried farming skills to their new homes.
The researchers said in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews their study provides direct evidence linking the flood that breached a ridge keeping the Mediterranean apart from the Black Sea to the rise of farming in Europe.
"The flooding of the Black Sea was not well dated but we got it down to about 50 years," said Chris Turney, a geologist at the University of Exeter, who led the study. "As soon as the flooding is done, farming goes crazy across Europe."
The researchers created reconstructions of the Mediterranean and Black Sea shoreline before and after the rise in sea levels. They estimated the flood covered some 73,000 square kilometers over a 34-year period, causing mass displacement of people.
Previous archaeological evidence has shown communities in the region were already farming when the flood hit. The Exeter team suggests the mass migration caused a sudden expansion of farming and pottery production across the continent.
"We looked at all the earliest data on farming in Europe and we found a little bit of farming in Greece and the Balkans just before the flood," Turney said in a telephone interview. "When the flood happened, farming seemed to stop but it was re-established a generation later across Europe."
The researchers believe these people took their skills to new areas previously populated by hunters and gatherers where there had been no evidence of farming, Turney said...
"When the Black Sea flooded at end of last ice age some people have suggested it was the origins of the Noah's Ark myth," he said. "If you lived in that basin it would have seemed like the whole world had flooded."
Using radiocarbon dating and archaeological evidence, a British team showed the collapse of the North American ice sheet, which raised global sea levels by as much as 1.4 meters, displaced tens of thousands of people in southeastern Europe who carried farming skills to their new homes.
The researchers said in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews their study provides direct evidence linking the flood that breached a ridge keeping the Mediterranean apart from the Black Sea to the rise of farming in Europe.
"The flooding of the Black Sea was not well dated but we got it down to about 50 years," said Chris Turney, a geologist at the University of Exeter, who led the study. "As soon as the flooding is done, farming goes crazy across Europe."
The researchers created reconstructions of the Mediterranean and Black Sea shoreline before and after the rise in sea levels. They estimated the flood covered some 73,000 square kilometers over a 34-year period, causing mass displacement of people.
Previous archaeological evidence has shown communities in the region were already farming when the flood hit. The Exeter team suggests the mass migration caused a sudden expansion of farming and pottery production across the continent.
"We looked at all the earliest data on farming in Europe and we found a little bit of farming in Greece and the Balkans just before the flood," Turney said in a telephone interview. "When the flood happened, farming seemed to stop but it was re-established a generation later across Europe."
The researchers believe these people took their skills to new areas previously populated by hunters and gatherers where there had been no evidence of farming, Turney said...
"When the Black Sea flooded at end of last ice age some people have suggested it was the origins of the Noah's Ark myth," he said. "If you lived in that basin it would have seemed like the whole world had flooded."
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Groundwater lost to rising sea levels could be greater than thought
Rising sea levels could swallow up to 40 percent more potable groundwater than previously thought because of tricks of topography, a new study has found.
Many current predictions about the impact of global warming look at how much land would be lost to rising sea levels.
But researchers at Ohio State University have found that in many coastal regions sea water will leach into the water table and contaminate groundwater well beyond the shoreline.
The degree to which groundwater is contaminated depends on shoreline structure: sandy beaches allow for much greater subsurface mixing than solid cliffs.
"The complex structure of the soil can enhance mixing between salt water and fresh water and that area can extend more than the distance that the coastal line recedes," said hydrology professor Motomu Ibaraki, who designed the study.
"In most studies, people say if the coastline recedes 100 meters then freshwater recedes 100 meters. Well, our study shows that it's going to be extended (up to 40 percent) more by the mixing process."
Ibaraki and a graduate student built a computer simulation to study how different coastal soil structures would affect subsurface mixing of salt water and fresh water.
The next step is to take the model and apply it to specific geographical locations to determine how much freshwater would be lost as sea levels rise.
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that global mean sea levels will rise by 14 to 44 centimeters (5.5-17 inches) by 2100 as a result of global warming. The impact would be far greater in low-lying coastal areas.
Since it takes relatively small amounts of salt water to render fresh water undrinkable, even nominal increases in sea levels can have dramatic effects on fresh water resources, Ibaraki said.
"The amount of water we have on the earth is constant. However, the amount of fresh water we can use is decreasing," Ibaraki said in a telephone interview.
"Only two percent of the earth's water is fresh water and most of it is contained in glaciers. We are losing glaciers but we don't know how much and because we have more demand for water, groundwater is also diminishing."...
Many current predictions about the impact of global warming look at how much land would be lost to rising sea levels.
But researchers at Ohio State University have found that in many coastal regions sea water will leach into the water table and contaminate groundwater well beyond the shoreline.
The degree to which groundwater is contaminated depends on shoreline structure: sandy beaches allow for much greater subsurface mixing than solid cliffs.
"The complex structure of the soil can enhance mixing between salt water and fresh water and that area can extend more than the distance that the coastal line recedes," said hydrology professor Motomu Ibaraki, who designed the study.
"In most studies, people say if the coastline recedes 100 meters then freshwater recedes 100 meters. Well, our study shows that it's going to be extended (up to 40 percent) more by the mixing process."
Ibaraki and a graduate student built a computer simulation to study how different coastal soil structures would affect subsurface mixing of salt water and fresh water.
The next step is to take the model and apply it to specific geographical locations to determine how much freshwater would be lost as sea levels rise.
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that global mean sea levels will rise by 14 to 44 centimeters (5.5-17 inches) by 2100 as a result of global warming. The impact would be far greater in low-lying coastal areas.
Since it takes relatively small amounts of salt water to render fresh water undrinkable, even nominal increases in sea levels can have dramatic effects on fresh water resources, Ibaraki said.
"The amount of water we have on the earth is constant. However, the amount of fresh water we can use is decreasing," Ibaraki said in a telephone interview.
"Only two percent of the earth's water is fresh water and most of it is contained in glaciers. We are losing glaciers but we don't know how much and because we have more demand for water, groundwater is also diminishing."...
Friday, November 16, 2007
"Overfishing and development turning the Mediterranean into a marine graveyard"
From the Independent.UK
The Mediterranean, once a playground for a vast array of species, is turning into a graveyard of natural life with more than 40 per cent of its shark and stingray population under threat.
The Mediterranean has the highest numbers of threatened sharks and rays in the world, according to a report published yesterday by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The study blamed the dramatic threat to these indigenous species on a combination of over-fishing (including accidental by-catches), degradation of habitat and human disturbances.
"From devil rays to angel sharks, Mediterranean populations of these vulnerable species are in serious trouble," said Claudine Gibson, Programme Officer for the IUCN Shark Specialist Group (SSG) and co-author of the report.
"Our analyses reveal the Mediterranean as one of the world's most dangerous places on Earth for sharks and rays. Bottom-dwelling species appear to be at greatest risk in this region, due mainly to intense fishing of the seabed."
In all, 71 species of sharks, rays and chimaeras (cartilaginous fishes) were assessed in the study, that showed 30 species threatened with extinction. Of those, 13 were classified as critically endangered, eight as endangered and nine as vulnerable.
Another 13 species were classified as near threatened, while a lack of information led to 18 species being classified as data deficient. There were only 10 species in the whole investigation deemed to be of least concern.
The report is the third in a series of regional assessments of the Mediterranean by IUCN.
At present, there are no catch limits for fished species of Mediterranean sharks and rays.
The Maltese skate is one of the species under greatest threat. Found only in the Mediterranean, it has seen population declines of 80 per cent, largely because of bottom trawl fisheries. The angular roughshark and three species of angel shark have also been termed critically endangered. The porbeagle and shortfin mako also fell into the category of critically endangered, predominantly because their meat and fins are prized delicacies...
Over 100 million tourists flock to the Med, known as the "cradle of civilisation", each year – and the figure is expected to double by 2025. The effect it has had on both the coastline and marine life has been devastating.
Modern resorts created for high-intensity tourism have replaced natural habitats, with disturbances such as the anchoring of pleasure boats on seabeds upsetting the ecosystems...
Ironically, the two elements that most attracted tourists in the first place: the fine sandy beaches and clear water, are now two of the most threatened aspects of its scenery...
The Mediterranean, once a playground for a vast array of species, is turning into a graveyard of natural life with more than 40 per cent of its shark and stingray population under threat.
The Mediterranean has the highest numbers of threatened sharks and rays in the world, according to a report published yesterday by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The study blamed the dramatic threat to these indigenous species on a combination of over-fishing (including accidental by-catches), degradation of habitat and human disturbances.
"From devil rays to angel sharks, Mediterranean populations of these vulnerable species are in serious trouble," said Claudine Gibson, Programme Officer for the IUCN Shark Specialist Group (SSG) and co-author of the report.
"Our analyses reveal the Mediterranean as one of the world's most dangerous places on Earth for sharks and rays. Bottom-dwelling species appear to be at greatest risk in this region, due mainly to intense fishing of the seabed."
In all, 71 species of sharks, rays and chimaeras (cartilaginous fishes) were assessed in the study, that showed 30 species threatened with extinction. Of those, 13 were classified as critically endangered, eight as endangered and nine as vulnerable.
Another 13 species were classified as near threatened, while a lack of information led to 18 species being classified as data deficient. There were only 10 species in the whole investigation deemed to be of least concern.
The report is the third in a series of regional assessments of the Mediterranean by IUCN.
At present, there are no catch limits for fished species of Mediterranean sharks and rays.
The Maltese skate is one of the species under greatest threat. Found only in the Mediterranean, it has seen population declines of 80 per cent, largely because of bottom trawl fisheries. The angular roughshark and three species of angel shark have also been termed critically endangered. The porbeagle and shortfin mako also fell into the category of critically endangered, predominantly because their meat and fins are prized delicacies...
Over 100 million tourists flock to the Med, known as the "cradle of civilisation", each year – and the figure is expected to double by 2025. The effect it has had on both the coastline and marine life has been devastating.
Modern resorts created for high-intensity tourism have replaced natural habitats, with disturbances such as the anchoring of pleasure boats on seabeds upsetting the ecosystems...
Ironically, the two elements that most attracted tourists in the first place: the fine sandy beaches and clear water, are now two of the most threatened aspects of its scenery...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)