Melt from Andes to Arctic may spur U.N. climate pact

A fast melt of ice from the Andes to the Arctic should be a wake-up call for governments to work out a strong new United Nations treaty this year to fight climate change, Norway said on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, starting two-day talks of the eight Arctic nations and scientists in the northern city of Tromsoe, said ice was vanishing from land around the planet as temperatures increase, raising sea levels.

"It is a global phenomenon reflecting global warming," he told a news conference, referring to a thaw in places such as "the Himalayas, the Alps, the Andes, Kilimanjaro, Greenland, the South Pole or the North Pole."

Stoere said he and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, also attending the Tromsoe talks, planned to set up a task force of experts to study the melt and report to a U.N. conference in Copenhagen in December that is due to agree a new climate pact.

Latest evidence of the melt would be a "clarion call, a real wake-up message to Copenhagen," he said.

Many glaciers are retreating but until now, he said the links between a thaw on mountains in the tropics and the Arctic have not been highlighted enough, he said.

Vanishing ice "is not in the grey zone of probabilities, it is about to happen. It is serious, we have to deal with it," he said.

The U.N. Climate Panel projected in 2007 world sea levels would rise by between 18 and 59 cms (7-23 inches) this century. Some scientists have said the rate is likely to be closer to a meter.

IRRIGATION

And that can impact irrigation. A melt of the Himalayas (below right) could disrupt farming for hundreds of millions of people in Asia.

The U.N. has projected up to a quarter of global food production could be lost by 2050 due to a combination of climate change, water scarcity, degradation and species infestation, as the world's population is forecast to top 9 billion.

"The Arctic continues to warm," according to a report by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, grouping scientists in the region.

It said several indicators since a major 2005 report "show further and extensive climate change at rates faster than previously anticipated."

Sea ice in summer shrank to a record low in 2007.

Stoere will hold talks about melting ice on Tuesday before a formal meeting of Arctic Council foreign ministers or deputies on Wednesday in the Arctic city of Tromsoe (left), ringed by snow-capped mountains.

The Council groups the United States, Russia, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

He said there were chances for cooperation in the Arctic, saying he hoped it would be "high north, low tension."

Countries could act regionally to reduce pollution that accelerates the melt, he added. Soot from industrial pollution or from forest fires, for instance, can blacken snow and make it melt faster.

Source:
Reuters, "Melt from Andes to Arctic may spur U.N. climate pact", accessed April 29, 2009

U.S. Interior revokes Bush endangered species rule

The Obama administration said on Tuesday it rolled back a Bush-era rule excusing oil and gas companies in polar bear habitat from special reviews designed to ensure they are not harming the animals.

The Alaska energy industry said the move could slow exploration and production activity in the state. Environmental groups applauded the decision as an important step protecting threatened species.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said they rescinded the Endangered Species Act regulation issued in December by the Bush administration, which eliminated the long-standing "Section 7 consultation" requirement for special scrutiny of any proposed activities that might harm a listed species.

"By rolling back this 11th hour regulation, we are ensuring that threatened and endangered species continue to receive the full protection of the law," Salazar said.

"Because science must serve as the foundation for decisions we make, federal agencies proposing to take actions that might affect threatened and endangered species will once again have to consult with biologists at the two departments," he said.

For polar bears, the reversal means any oil and gas development in their habitat must be cleared through consultation with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Polar bears, highly dependent on Arctic sea ice, were listed last year as threatened after federal biologists determined they were especially vulnerable to the rapidly warming climate in the far north.

A decision on a separate special Bush administration rule limiting federal polar bear protections is due by May 10, according to Bruce Woods, spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska.

Tuesday's reversal of the consultation exemption also affects energy development elsewhere in the United States, where permitting agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management and Minerals Management Service had been allowed to rely on their own internal reviews about potential impacts to endangered or threatened species.

Environmental groups applauded the move.

"Restoring these core protections of the Endangered Species Act signals a renewal of America's conservation ethic," John Kostyack, the National Wildlife Federation's executive director of wildlife conservation and global warming, said in a statement. "Permanently reinstating independent scientific review puts the teeth back into the law that saved the bald eagle and Yellowstone grizzly bear."(right)

But a representative of Alaska's oil industry said withdrawal of the Bush administration regulation could eventually slow permits for development because the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service -- the agencies with authority over all Endangered Species Act listed populations -- are overburdened.

"Adding this additional huge layer of evaluation on them when they're already stretched thin is troubling and certainly will not do anything to speed up the necessary development of the nation's resources," said Marilyn Crockett, executive director of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association.

Source:
Reuters, "U.S. Interior revokes Bush endangered species rule", accessed April 29, 2009

Death knell sounds for Europe's beekeepers

Europe's beekeeping industry could be wiped out in less than a decade as bees fall victim to disease, insecticides and intensive farming, international beekeeping body Apimondia said on Monday.

"With this level of mortality, European beekeepers can only survive another 8 to 10 years," Gilles Ratia, president of Apimondia, told Reuters.

"We have had big problems in southwest France for many years, but also now in Italy and Germany."

Last year, about 30 percent of Europe's 13.6 million hives died, according to Apimondia figures. Losses reached 50 percent in Slovenia and as high as 80 percent in southwest Germany.

With 35 percent of European food crops relying on bees to pollinate them, it poses a big threat for farmers, said Ratia.

"It is a complete crisis," said Francesco Panella, who tends about 1,000 hives in Piedmont, northern Italy. "Last year, I lost about half my production. I can't survive more than 2 or 3 more years like this. My son won't be able to continue my trade."

Mystery has surrounded the recent decline of bee numbers, but most keepers blame modern farming methods and the powerful new pesticides used on crops like sunflower, maize and rapeseed.

Two main factors were responsible for weakening bee colonies: insecticides and the parasitic mite Varroa, says Apimondia's scientific coordinator Gerard Arnold. Once weakened, the hives are then decimated by viruses and other diseases.

Evidence of farming's impact comes from the fact French honey output has suffered in intensive sunflower farming areas but has remained steady in mountains and chestnut forests, said Henri Clement, president of the French beekeeping union.

Beekeepers are perplexed about why so little attention is given to an industry that supplies 58 percent of Europe's appetite of 340,000 tons of honey a year.

"If cattle were producing 30 percent less milk each year, it would not be acceptable. But that is what we have had to put up with," said Josef Stich, who keeps 200 hives near Vienna.

Earlier this year, the European Union voted to phase out the most toxic pesticides after years of wrangling, but many bee-keepers feel ignored by politicians.

The honey industry's concerns are drowned out by the interests of the giant corporations that produce the pesticides, said Apimondia's Ratia.

"Politicians are more susceptible to the big lobbying of the chemical industry," he said. "We beekeepers can talk and talk, but we don't receive much consideration."

Source:
Reuters, "Death knell sounds for Europe's beekeepers", accessed April 29, 2009

Obama seeks reversal of mountaintop mining rule

The Obama administration is taking steps to reverse a last-minute Bush-era rule that allows mountaintop mining waste to be dumped near streams.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday the administration will ask a federal court to abandon the rule that made it easier for coal mining companies to dump waste near streams. If the court agrees, the Obama administration could start drafting a new regulation that better protects waterways and communities sooner than if it sought to rewrite the measure itself.

Salazar said the rule, finalized with a little more than a month before President George W. Bush left office, was bad policy. Two lawsuits pending in federal court sought to block or overturn the rule. The Obama administration's decision puts the federal government in the rare position of siding with the parties that filed the lawsuits.

"The responsible development of our coal supplies is important to America's energy security," Salazar said in a conference call with reporters. "But as we develop these reserves we must also protect our treasured landscapes, our land, our water and our wildlife."
Earthjustice, which represents the plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits, accused Salazar of attempting to spike the litigation.

"This came out of the blue," spokeswoman Joan Mulhern said, adding that no one in the administration talked with Earthjustice before Monday's announcement.

Mulhern also complained that reverting to the status quo is not enough because it won't prevent coal companies from filling valleys with mine waste. "That's not helping the communities concerned with mountaintop removal."

Prior to the change, regulations in place since 1983 have barred mining companies from dumping waste within 100 feet of streams if the disposal would diminish water quality or quantity.

"The Secretary of the Interior's move to undo a seven year rulemaking process is precipitous and will only add to the uncertainty that is delaying mining operations and jeopardizing jobs," National Mining Association Chief Executive Hal Quinn said in a statement. "We trust the Secretary of the Interior does not plan on engaging in a de facto rulemaking, thereby avoiding the transparency integral to a fair and legal regulation."

The action is the latest by the Obama administration to address mountaintop removal for coal, a process in which mining companies remove vast areas to expose coal. While they are required to restore much of the land, the removal creates many tons of rocks, debris and other waste that are trucked away and then dumped into valley areas, where streams flow.

Using a proposed mine in Kentucky and one in West Virginia as examples, the federal Environmental Protection Agency signaled Tuesday that it is cracking down on mountaintop removal coal mining, taking a closer look at 150 to 200 permits.

The agency released letters it had sent the day before to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that challenged permits requested by the mines.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said she had "considerable concern regarding the environmental impact these projects would have on fragile habitats and streams."

She also said the EPA will review other mining permits, using "the best science" and following "the letter of the law." That could delay and cause revisions to those permits, but would not affect existing mines. After erroneous news reports that EPA was "halting" permits, the agency issued a statement late Tuesday that said it anticipated most pending permits would not raise environmental concerns, and promised to work quickly to resolve those that did.

The EPA's primary concern is "valley fills," where mountain streams are covered with rock and dirt that have been blasted away to reach seams of coal. In the case of Central Appalachian Mining's Big Branch Surface Mine in Pike County, the EPA said, covering nearly 19,000 feet of those occasional waterways could harm permanent streams below.

Tom FitzGerald, executive director of the Kentucky Resources Council, said the EPA's actions were a clear indication of a policy change. "The days of just shearing the top of mountains and filling valleys are definitely over," FitzGerald said.

Environmentalists hailed the action as a move toward better protections for streams and people in the coalfields, and a sharp break from the eight years of the Bush administration.

"I think it's very positive — just the kind of thing the EPA should have been saying," said Joe Lovett, executive director for the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment.

"I'm really glad the Obama administration is sticking by his campaign promise and basing its decisions on sound science," said Teri Blanton of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.

Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Caylor says it's unclear what the administration's action will mean for the industry. A primary reason for the Bush administration's changes was to clarify whether the 1983 rules covered ephemeral streams that occasionally carry water.

"The original rule was clear that it did not apply to these little, small, dry ditches," Caylor said. "It helped by clarifying it because there was starting to be litigation."

Salazar said he talked to West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin before Monday's announcement. Manchin spokesman Matt Turner said the governor invited Salazar to the state to visit a mountaintop removal mine.

"There has to be a balance and that is what he (Manchin) is looking for," Turner said. "There has to be a realistic understanding of how much energy comes from coal. We just can't instantly wean ourselves from this energy source."

Manchin complained to the administration after the EPA announced it wanted to review permits the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was considering for mountaintop removal mines in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia.

Source:
Associated Press, "Obama seeks reversal of mountaintop mining rule"., accessed April 27, 2009
The News Observor, "EPA moves to halt 'mountaintop removal' coal mining", accessed April 27, 2008
Kentucky.Com, "EPA signals mining crackdown", accessed April 27, 2009

From the Inbox - Highlights and campaign successes

Without a doubt, the first four months of 2009 have been a rewarding period for people like you and me who are fighting to protect the mountains we love.

With so much going on, I wanted to send you a quick round up of recent stories from the movement to protect our mountains that you may have missed:

Last month, we wrote to tell you about the EPA's bold stance to deny permits to two mountaintop removal coal mining projects -- and the EPA's determination to toughen review standards for hundreds of other permits sought by Big Coal. Earlier this month, the EPA followed through on its pledge by denying permits to three more mountaintop removal coal mining projects, including the massive Ison Rock Ridge mountaintop removal coal mine in Southwest Virginia. Read more.

We're pleased to announce that our friend and fellow supporter of the mountains, Maria Gunnoe, has won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. Each year, the Goldman Environmental Prize honors grassroots environmental heroes from around the globe. Maria, a native of Boone County, West Virginia, won the award for her courageous and ongoing stand against mountaintop removal coal mining in the heart of coal country. Read more about Maria and her award.

On Monday, the Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced his determination that the mountaintop removal coal mining "stream buffer zone rule" issued by the Bush Administration is legally defective. Salazar directed the United States Department of Justice to file a pleading with the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. requesting that the rule be vacated due to this deficiency and remanded to the Department of the Interior for further action. Read more.

In North Carolina, a proposal by Duke Energy to build a new 800 MegaWatt coal-fired power plant that would emit more than 6 million tons of carbon dioxide per year is encountering strong local opposition. More than 300 people turned out in Charlotte last Monday for a rally to stop the proposed Cliffside plant. Learn more.

Blair Mountain in West Virginia - the site of the historic 1921 coal-mining labor battle - has been named to the National Register of Historic Places. The designation marks a major victory in the effort to recognize the role of labor in the cultural history of Appalachia. Learn more.

If you like music and mountains, then you'll want to attend the First Annual Mountain Aid concert in Pittsboro, NC on June 20th. Proceeds from the concert, featuring Kathy Mattea, Donna the Buffalo and Ben Sollee, will go to stopping mountaintop removal coal mining. For ticket information, click here.

Our efforts to permanently stop mountaintop removal coal mining continue to gain momentum. If you haven't yet contacted your Senators and asked them to support the Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696) -- the Senate companion bill to the Clean Water Protection Act -- please take just a moment to do so today:

http://www.ilovemountains.org/action/write-your-officials

Thank you for everything you do.---

Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org

From the Inbox - Deadline looms for Protections for Polar Bears, Other Wildlife

The Clock Is Ticking The Obama administration only has until May 9th to reverse Bush/Cheney changes that threaten vital protections for polar bears and other vulnerable wildlife. Urge Interior Secretary Salazar and Commerce Secretary Locke to reverse the Bush/Cheney assault on Endangered Species Act protections for our wildlife. Help send a loud, clear message to the Obama administration. Forward this message to a friend and help us send 40,000 messages in support of our imperiled wildlife before the May 9th deadline. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke have little more than one week to set right one of the Bush/Cheney administration’s most disastrous decisions on wildlife -- and we need your help to ensure that they do the right thing and restore key protections for polar bears, wolves and other imperiled wildlife. Please send Interior Secretary Salazar and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke a message right now urging them to reverse the Bush/Cheney administration’s last-minute assault on Endangered Species Act protections for polar bears, wolves and other imperiled wildlife. Before leaving office, the Bush administration rammed through regulatory changes to the Endangered Species Act that threaten efforts to save polar bears, wolves, manatees and more than 1,300 other species from extinction. If left in place, these changes will... Prevent the Endangered Species Act from protecting our vanishing polar bears from global warming, which would effectively allow America's threatened polar bears to drown in a sea of inaction; and Let federal agencies in charge of building highways, dams and other projects decide whether those projects might drive rare plants and animals toward extinction, without ever checking with the expert biologists in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service. Defenders of Wildlife -- and caring wildlife supporters like you -- fought hard in Congress for legislation that gives Secretaries Salazar and Locke the authority to overturn these rules. Now it’s up to Secretaries Salazar and Locke to use this hard-fought authority before it expires on May 9th. Only 12 days remain to reverse the Bush/Cheney assault on Endangered Species Act protections for our wildlife. Please send your message right now! More than 200,000 comments opposing the changes were submitted to the Interior Department in the 60 days that the Bush/Cheney administration allowed for the public to respond to its changes. And newspapers across the country have editorialized overwhelmingly against the Bush/Cheney administration’s gutting of Endangered Species Act protections. Nonetheless, these regulations are now in place, and each day they remain in effect our polar bears and other vulnerable species are being placed at greater risk of extinction. The good news is that a stroke of the pen by Secretary Salazar and Secretary Locke can restore Endangered Species Act protections for the polar bear and other endangered wildlife. The bad news is that neither secretary has taken action yet. Use your voice to restore protections for our vulnerable wildlife. Encourage Secretaries Salazar and Locke to use the power that Congress gave them to protect the lives of our imperiled wildlife. For the Wild Ones, Rodger Schlickeisen President Defenders of Wildlife P.S. Congress gave Interior Secretary Salazar and Commerce Secretary Locke until May 9th to undo the damage the Bush/Cheney administration inflicted on polar bears and other endangered wildlife. Please send your message today.

Baby Gorilla Rescued from Traffickers in Goma

A baby gorilla has been seized from animal traffickers by ICCN following a 3-month undercover investigation to bust an international wildlife smuggling ring. This operation was led by Emmanuel with the participation of a key group of Rangers and Pierre. (Left: Baby Gorilla Rescued with Faustin)

The Gorilla Doctors have overseen her care so far. She has a puncture wound on her right leg and has sustained other injuries. Plus she is really weak, dehydrated, and malnourished. Dr Eddy has been tending to her and she is responding to treatment, which is the good news. These next few days are crucial however.

This is what Emmanuel said in the press release:

“Our work has revealed a significant upsurge in the trafficking of baby gorillas in recent months, possibly as a result of the war last year. Investigations have yet to reveal where these animals are being sent and who is buying them, but on the ground sources tell us that a baby gorilla can fetch up to $20,000,” said Emmanuel de Merode, Director of Virunga National Park. “We must remember that for each trafficked baby gorilla, several gorillas have probably been killed in the wild. If we want to preserve our gorillas - and other wildlife - significant resources must be invested to put a stop to these trafficking rings.”

Dr Eddy evaluates the gorilla’s health. You can see the blue bag she traveled in - it is made of that thick plastic that you get quite commonly now in stores (for re-usable bags). You will also be happy to hear Andre is involved in her care (he is the main carer for Ndeze and Ndakasi).

One suspected trafficker was caught and arrested at Goma International Airport on Sunday while disembarking from a flight from Walikale (in the interior of the country and close to gorilla habitat) with an eastern lowland gorilla (remember these animals are only found in DR Congo). The gorilla was found concealed under clothes at the bottom of a bag and was suffering from over-heating and dehydration after spending over 6 hours in transit.

Source:
Gorilla.cd, "Baby Gorilla Seized in Trafficking Ring Bust", accessed April 29, 2009

Poachers Leaving Elephant Orphans

CBS: This story was first broadcast on Dec. 21, 2008. It was updated on April 23, 2009.

Can you imagine an orphanage that's a happy place? 60 Minutes couldn't, but then we found one. The kids don't arrive here smiling. Like orphans all over the world, they've been abandoned. They're hungry, sad and desperate. But after a few years, they're healthy, well-fed and happy.

As correspondent Bob Simon reports, this orphanage is for elephants, located outside Nairobi, Kenya. They've been orphaned because their parents - their mothers mainly - have died, or more likely, been killed in the bush.

Poachers kill large elephants for their ivory. A young elephant can only survive a day or two without milk. So, the orphanage's first job is to find the orphans, fly them to the orphanage, and, before anything else, feed them.

The principal of the orphanage, head mistress, head nurse and CEO, is Dame Daphne Sheldrick. She founded the place and has been working with elephants for 50 years.

"This is little Saguta. This is the one that was in a coma," she told Simon. "When she arrived, was on a drip for 24 hours. We never thought she'd be alive in the morning. So she's our little miracle, this one."

But Daphne's problem is that she is caring for too many miracles: poachers are killing more and more elephants for their tusks, and in the process creating more and more orphans.

There are a record number of orphans at the orphanage right now because Daphne says the sale of ivory has been legalized for the first time in ten years. A few African countries have been given the right to sell their stockpiles - more than 100 tons of tusks to China and Japan - and conservationists point out that this is yet another blow to the elephants.

Asked if she sees any correlation between the decision to auction off the ivory and the number of orphans, Daphne said, "We do. Every time ivory is auctioned legally, there's a rise in poaching. And we also see the correlation in the price that's paid to the poacher for illegal ivory."

And that price has gone up. "It's gone from 300 shillings a kilo to 5,000," she explained.

That's about $1,000 a tusk here in Kenya, where the sale of any ivory is still prohibited. Yet the number of elephants killed by poachers this year has increased by 45 percent.

Watch CBS Videos Online

To read more of Scott's report......


Source:
60 Minutes, "Poachers Leaving Elephant Orphans", accessed April 27, 2009

Levees can't save New Orleans from floods: report

Bigger, higher and stronger levees cannot save New Orleans from the worst floods and the city remains vulnerable to a repeat of Hurricane Katrina, the National Academy of Sciences said on Friday.

New Orleans had the flood protection of a 350-mile network of levees, I-walls and T-walls ringing the city when Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore on August 29, 2005. The levees broke, flooding 80 percent of the city.

The hurricane killed about 1,500 people along the U.S. Gulf Coast and caused $80 billion in damages, making it the costliest U.S. natural disaster.

As Katrina demonstrated, "the risks of inundation and flooding never can be fully eliminated by protective structures no matter how large or sturdy those structures may be," said the report by the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council.

"Substantial risks" of living in flood-prone areas were never clearly communicated to residents before Katrina, it said, and simply rebuilding New Orleans and its hurricane-protection system back to pre-Katrina levels would leave the city vulnerable to another flooding disaster.

The first floor of buildings in flood-prone parts of the city should be raised at least to the 100-year flood level, which the report called a "crucial flood insurance standard." But for heavily populated cities like New Orleans, that standard is inadequate, said the report, part of a five-part study by the academies in the wake of Katrina.

The 100-year standard basically stipulates protection based on the assumed worst damage of the worst flood in the last 100 years. It determines insurance rates for the National Flood Insurance Program administered by the federal government.

But structures in New Orleans' most flood-prone areas have a 26 percent chance of flooding over the term of a 30-year mortgage, and the 100-year standard is "far too risky" to rely on, the report said.

Authorities should discourage settlement in flood-prone areas and encourage voluntary relocation away from them, the report said. They should also shore up electricity supplies that are key to running giant pumps that route floodwaters away from the city, the report said.

Large portions of New Orleans are below sea level, which makes it vulnerable to floods and storm surges from hurricanes. Located at the mouth of the Mississippi River delta, New Orleans is in close proximity to Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne.

The city's levee system was tested again in September 2008, when a surge from Hurricane Gustav nearly overtopped a protective T-wall along New Orleans' Inner Navigation Canal.

Source:
Reuters, "Levees can't save New Orleans from floods: report", accessed April 27, 2009

From the Inbox - Tell Secretary Salazar to reverse Bush administration attacks on endangered species

April 27, 2009

Tell Interior Secretary Salazar to reverse Bush administration attacks on endangered species

Just before leaving office, the Bush administration issued sweeping changes to the Endangered Species Act to weaken protections for imperiled wildlife, including polar bears, wolves and whales. These changes decrease scientific review for activities that could harm threatened and endangered species and prohibit the government from considering the impact of global warming pollution on polar bears and other wildlife.

Interior Secretary Salazar now has the opportunity to help reverse these destructive changes. In March President Obama signed a spending bill that allows Secretary Salazar to overturn President Bush's last-minute changes to the Endangered Species Act regulations as well as a separate rule that weakens Endangered Species Act protections for polar bears. But the Obama administration must act by May 10th, and opponents of the Endangered Species Act are working hard to convince Secretary Salazar that he should not withdraw these rules.

What to do

Send a message right away urging Secretary Salazar to withdraw the Bush administration's last-minute Endangered Species Act regulations and polar bear rule under the authority granted by President Obama and Congress.

Central Asian leaders to gather for water summit

The five leaders of Central Asian nations will hold a summit this week to try to end a bitter row over water use in one of the world's driest regions.

The dispute over cross-border water sharing in the vast region north of Afghanistan is a worry for its leaders who know how much stability in their ethnically diverse and potentially volatile nations depends on the scarce commodity.

On April 28, the presidents of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan will meet to discuss water use -- the summit's official agenda -- and other pressing issues such as energy security and cooperation with the United States on cargo transit for troops fighting in Afghanistan.

Central Asian leaders, despite their geographical proximity, meet infrequently and usually on the sidelines of other regional summits -- making this week's summit in Kazakhstan a rare event.

"Expectations are high, even though no one expects them to sit down and solve everything in one day," said Eduard Poletayev, an independent analyst in Kazakhstan.

"It's a step in the right direction, toward more integration. ... It will make people realize further that water is one of the most important issues in Central Asia."

Uzbek President Islam Karimov, one of the region's most reclusive and longest-serving leaders, will also be a focus.

All Central Asian nations are criticized in the West over human rights abuses, but Uzbekistan has been at the center of particular attention since troops fired on protesters in 2005 to quell a riot, killing hundreds, according to witnesses.

Karimov, who usually limits his visits to other former Soviet countries, has not traveled much abroad since then. His latest official foreign visit was to the Caspian nation of Azerbaijan in late 2008.

DRY LAND

Central Asia is one of the world's driest places and, due to 70 years of Soviet agricultural policy, water-guzzling crops such as cotton remain the main livelihood for most of its 58 million people.

A communist-era legacy of decaying pipe networks is also hampering sustainable distribution, analysts say.

The most emphatic symbol of the problem is the Aral Sea -- lying between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and once the world's fourth largest lake -- which has shrunk by 70 percent as Moscow planners siphoned off water for cotton irrigation projects in Uzbekistan.

Other big problems are between upstream countries such as Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous nation with massive hydro resources, and downstream consumers such as Uzbekistan which has aggressively opposed construction of new hydro stations in the upstream nations.

The region's most populous country, Uzbekistan is worried that the upstream states will gain political leverage over it by regulating water flows through new hydro plants.

Central Asian glaciers: Tian Shan and Pamir and other high mountain regions of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan serve as water towers by providing a continuous supply of fresh water to the lowlands, thereby allowing economic activity to take place. Their recession over the past few decades in response to global climate change is striking.

Several studies show that glaciers in the region are melting very rapidly, losing about 1.0% of their volume per year between 1955-2000. Over this time the glaciers’ total surface area declined from 70,000 to 45,000 square kilometers.

"The deficit of water resources that may in the future be in greater demand than petroleum and natural gas has already become a reality for many districts of the inner Eurasia," Global Research, a Canadian-based think tank, said an April 23 note.

"The difference of interests of the 'upstream' and 'downstream' Central Asian countries that poses a threat of ending in an inter-state conflict is both a diplomatic and geopolitical challenge to Russia."

Russia, which sees the region as part of its traditional sphere of interest, wants to invest in new hydro projects there and has sought to play a role in regional water talks, has not been invited to the summit.

Source:
Reuters, "Central Asian leaders to gather for water summit", accessed April 26, 2009

Rising seas threaten renowned French coast

France's Aquitaine coast stretches north from the Spanish border to the Gironde river estuary, encompassing rocky bluffs, giant lagoons, deltas, beaches and Europe's largest dune.

Now climate change has laid siege to this natural oasis, dramatically speeding up the erosion of the 270 kilometer-long Atlantic coastline and threatening local communities.

A study published in 2006 by the European LIFE program identified 13 coastal communities as erosion "hot spots".

"There is a lack of sand on the beaches, because of a period of warming -- climate change," confirmed Cyril Mallet, geological engineer and project manager for the French geology and mining research agency BRGM.

Climate change means rising sea levels, more violent storms and increasing rainfall in a region already suffering from its location on the Bay of Biscay, where ocean waves carry 500 000 cubic metres (17.6 million cubic feet) -- about 200 Olympic swimming pools -- of sand southward every year.

Cliffs are sliding into the sea, beaches are disappearing, dunes that protect forests, towns and roads are in danger, and the tourism trade is in jeopardy, local experts said.

Only 10 percent of the coast is populated, but that population is growing, and between May and September, visitors spend more than €1,4 billion ($1,8-billion) in surfing beaches, spa towns, ocean side campsites and quaint villages.

The pristine beaches are the first casualty of coastal erosion.

"Tourism is our economy," said Albery Larrousset, Mayor of Guethary, a Basque town of 1 300 whose population swells to 5 000 in the summer months. "And without beaches, we won't have tourists."

Parking lots, businesses, roads and homes are planned with the notion that beaches remain in one place.

Traditional defences like seawalls increase erosion in neighboring areas, denying the towns easy remedies. Solutions are as varied as the communities involved, but nearly all require moving sand from one place to another.

Near the northern tip of the coast, Soulac-sur-Mer is a popular beach and camping area. A year-around population of 2 800 expands to 40 000 in summer.

The town, roads and campgrounds are in danger from erosion, and one campground clings precariously to the beachside location.

Locals do not want to hear about retreat, but the damage forces a town employee to redistribute sand over an 800-meter section every day.

Farther south, Arcachon Bay has taken a different approach.

"For over 60 years, all waterfront property owners on Arcachon Bay have been required to belong to and pay dues to an association called SIBA, which manages the bay," said Louis Gaume, head of his family's property development firm.

SIBA combines both public and private financing, and involves a diverse waterfront community, including oyster farmers, retirees, luxury villa owners and small businesses.

In 2002, SIBA dumped 1 000 000 cubic meters of sand on the disastrously eroded beaches at Pyla.

But the complicated dynamics within the bay, including shifting sandbars, powerful tidal currents, waves and wind -- all heightened by climate change -- mean the work never ends.

Recent maintenance required a barge to spray 100,000 cubic metres of sand, taken from a sandbar 200 meters from the beach, in an operation that lasted two days and cost 200 000 euros.

While the Arcachonais win honours for community involvement, Capbreton takes the prize for ingenuity with its €4,5-million sand bypass system, the only of its kind in Europe.

With a year-around population of 8 500, and a summer population of 65 000, the city found itself hauling 3 000 truck loads of sand each year to maintain its beaches. The trucks created traffic jams, pollution and tore up the roads.

"We had two major things at stake," explained city engineer Eric Cufay.

"First, offering dry beaches during the tourist season, and supporting the economy that goes with them; and second, protecting construction, including roads" and a sewage treatment plant.

The new hydraulic system, largely underground, sucks up sand from a beach a kilometer to the north, and sends it south, spraying four beaches at a rate of 270 cubic meters per hour, triple the amount that was moved by trucks.

Farther south, the Basque country is caught between an encroaching sea and crumbling cliffs.

It's here that the town of Guethary clings to its patch of coastline. The bluffs are made partially of clay, and with the double onslaught of the sea below and the rain on top, landslides occur.

"Above all else, this is about the safety of people," explained Mayor Larrousset. Guethary spent 70,000 euros last year to stabilise a 300-meter stretch by inserting tubes into the cliffs to drain off the water.

Meanwhile, every spring, this 12th century former whaling village retrieves 500 cubic meters of sand that migrated during the winter. Even this does not provide a long-term solution to the rising sea.

"We used to have large beaches with parasols and beach chairs," reminisced Larrousset. "But now we barely have room for towels and we're nearly on top of one another." With rocky bluffs at their backs, they have nowhere to go.

Retreat is the less popular option, but in the case of the inhabitants of the Aquitaine coast, it may be their only sustainable option.

Source:
New Zealand News, "Rising seas threaten renowned French coast", accessed April 26, 2009