New photos highlight rainforest devastation

The rainforests in Borneo, Southeast Asia are being swept aside to make way for palm oil

A series of photographic exhibitions have been organized in Europe and North America this autumn to highlight a campaign by Britain's Prince Charles to combat tropical deforestation. (Left: The rainforests in Borneo, Southeast Asia are being swept aside to make way for palm oil).

The photographs were taken by world-renowned environment photographer Daniel Beltra who was this year's winner of the Prince's Rainforest Project Award at the Sony World Photography Awards earlier this year.

The images graphically depict the effects of climate change on the

Aerial view of part of the Amazon Basin

rainforests in the South America, Africa and Indonesia.

Beltra compiled a library of around 40,000 images during month long trips to the Amazon Basin, the Congolese Forest and Borneo and Sumatra in Southeast Asia.

When he returned home Beltra produced a shortlist of around 1000 images from which the final exhibition photos were selected.

"I shoot a lot when I'm in the air," Beltra said. "Trying to concentrate on a small detail on the ground when your flying at a speed of 150 knots is difficult."

And that's not the only problem Beltra encountered. The very acts of

Man made fire clears rainforest in the Congo near Mbandkan

destruction he was documenting often got in the way of his work.

"When you are photographing deforestation, you are taking a lot of pictures of logging and fires and the smoke can make it very difficult to shoot."

Beltra was born in Spain but is now based in the United States. His work, which includes freelancing for the international environmental group Greenpeace, has taken him to over 50 countries and he is a fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers.

HRH Prince Charles has long been a passionate defender of the environment and he founded the Prince's Rainforest Project (PRP) in 2007.

Aerial view of log sorting yard on Congo river near Kanshasa

The PRP works alongside governments, international businesses, non-profit organizations and rainforest nations to find a solution to the deforestation and degradation of the rainforests.

Speaking at the Sony Awards in Cannes, France earlier this year the Prince said: "Photographic images can tell a compelling story about the truth of the situation, and the truth is that if we lose the fight against tropical deforestation, then we lose the fight against

Coal mining operation as seen from air near Palangkaraya

climate change."

Beltra hopes that his pictures will raise further awareness of the perils that humans face in the wake of continued rainforest destruction.

"I think we are all getting more aware but we really need to get our act together because at the moment we are destroying more than we are protecting," he said.

The Meratus Mountains in Borneo

The multimedia exhibitions organized by Sony are taking place at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew in London, the Hotel de Ville, Paris, the Alexa Center, Berlin and the Mercy Corps Action Center, New York. To see more of the pictures please click here.

Source:
Cable News Network, "New photos highlight rainforest devastation", accessed September 30, 2009

China coal addiction tough to crack

China's president has vowed his country will reduce its carbon emissions over the next decade, but how the nation will break itself of its massive dependency on coal remains to be seen.

Source:
Reuters, "China coal addiction tough to crack", accessed September 30, 2009

From the Inbox - Indonesian Ground Zero for Rainforest and Climate Destruction

The fashion industry has a dirty secret they would prefer you didn't know: Many of the disposable bags and other designer packaging used by the fashion industry come from one of Indonesia's leading rainforest destroyers. This is unacceptable. In the last month, we sent more than 100 letters to some of fashion's most recognizable brands, asking them to cancel their contracts with companies like Pak 2000, an affiliate of Indonesia's leading forest destroyer, Asia Pulp and Paper (APP). I'm pleased to inform you that with your help we are having an impact. Companies like H&M, Osborne & Little, OKA and a number of others have announced they are severing their connection with companies linked to rainforest destruction. But we're only getting started. Please make a donation today to help us reach our goal of $15,000 to shine a spotlight on those responsible for the destruction of Indonesia's tropical forests. With your support, we will launch a strategic Internet campaign this holiday season targeting those companies who refuse to end their connection with paper suppliers who are responsible for destroying millions of acres of Indonesian rainforest. When top fashion brands buy their disposable packaging from Indonesia's leading rainforest destroyer, they are supporting the destruction of some of the planet's most biologically diverse ecosystems. We're asking them to help save rainforests instead. The carbon emissions resulting from Indonesia's rapid deforestation account for around eight percent of global greenhouse gas emissions: more than the combined emissions from all the cars, planes, trucks, buses and trains in the United States. This has made Indonesia the third largest global greenhouse gas emitter, just behind the U.S. and China. Please make a donation today to help us reach our goal of $15,000 to shine a spotlight on those responsible for the destruction of Indonesia's tropical forests. Together we will save these precious tropical forests and defend the rights of the people who depend on them from the expansion of pulp and paper plantations. Help us as we steer the fashion industry away from business as usual and toward rainforest protection. I hope I can count on your support. For the rainforests, Lafcadio Cortesi Forest Campaign Director Rainforest Action Network

East Africa drought leaves millions hungry

Drought for a fifth year running is driving more than 23 million east Africans in seven countries toward severe hunger and destitution, international aid agency Oxfam said on Tuesday.

Launching a 9.5 million pound appeal, it said the situation was being worsened by high food prices and conflict. The most badly hit nations are Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda.

Malnutrition is now above emergency levels in some areas and hundreds of thousands of valuable cattle are dying.

"This is the worst humanitarian crisis Oxfam has seen in east Africa for over ten years," Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam's East Africa Director, said in a statement.

He said failed and unpredictable rains were ever more common in the region, and that broader climate change meant wet seasons were becoming shorter. Droughts have increased from once a decade to every two or three years.

"In Wajir, northern Kenya, almost 200 dead animals were recently found around one dried-up water source," Lomas said.

"People are surviving on two liters of water a day in some places -- less water than a toilet flush. The conditions have never been so harsh or so inhospitable, and people desperately need our help to survive."

Some 3.8 million Kenyans, a tenth of the population, need emergency aid, Oxfam said, partly because food prices have risen to 180 percent above average.

One in six children are acutely malnourished in Somalia, the charity said, while conflict meant people were less able to grow food and drought is ravaging areas where people have fled. Half the population -- more than 3.8 million people -- are affected.

In Ethiopia, 13.7 million people are at risk of severe hunger and need help, Oxfam said. Many are selling cattle to buy food. Farmers in northern Uganda have lost half their crops.

Other countries hard hit are Sudan, Djibouti and Tanzania.

Rains are due next month, but are likely to bring scant relief or even deluges that could dramatically worsen matters.

Oxfam said there were fears that east Africa could be hit by floods that would destroy crops and homes, as well as increasing the spread of water-borne diseases.

"The aid response to the crisis needs to rapidly expand, but it is desperately short of funds," the charity said, adding that the U.N.'s World Food Program was facing a $977 million donor shortfall for its Horn of Africa work over the next six months.

"Even with normal rain, the harvest will not arrive until early 2010. People will still need aid to get them through a long hunger season," it said.

Source:
Reuters, "East Africa drought leaves millions hungry", accessed September 30, 2009
Cable Network News, "U.N. seeks $230M to fight Kenya hunger", accessed September 30, 2009

Killing the wolf at the door

With the wolf population exploding, hunters are setting their sights on the symbol of America's conservation movement.

Earlier this month a judge cleared the way for wolf hunting in Idaho and Montana, ruling it would not irreparably harm wolf populations. On the surface, the ruling seems hardly controversial. Wolf populations have exploded since the animal's reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park and Idaho – prompting the Obama administration to remove Rocky Mountain gray wolves from the endangered species list. The current wolf population in the region – about 1,800 – exceeds the targets set by scientists in the mid 1990s.

But many conservationists oppose the hunt, citing the wolf's lack of genetic diversity. While the wolf population does exceed the recovery program's original goal, that number was arbitrarily set, largely out of political concerns. "Common sense tells us," writes Ken Fischman, a contributor to Writers on the Range, "that a few hundred wolves in each state can't be defended as a biologically viable population … that the full recovery of these … populations requires not hundreds, but thousands of animals."

This controversy is another chapter in the long battle over wolves, the purpose and spirit of the Endangered Species Act and the very idea of wilderness.

In the 19th century the US government, to protect frontier livestock, sponsored the hunting of wolves and nearly eradicated them from the lower 48 states. The wolf population declined to a few hundred animals from an estimated pre-colonial population of a quarter million. But killing off wolves had unforeseen consequences. Without predators, elk numbers soared, which had devastating consequences on the local vegetation. The elk suffered then, too, their numbers thinned by disease and starvation, and the government was forced to actively manage them.

The wolf, if anything, has been the victim of its own reputation. "We have doomed the wolf not for what it is," wrote Farley Mowatt, "but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be – the mythologised epitome of a savage, ruthless killer." Wolf recovery plans were dogged from the start by political concerns, as ranchers were riled up by stories of wolves slipping across the border from Canada and killing livestock, and a plan for reintroduction wasn't accepted until 1995. Reintroduction only intensified the controversy, especially after Yellowstone wolves preyed on local livestock.

But environmentalists, too, have their own image of the wolf. Arguably it was the wolf that kicked off the nation's conservation ethic, as the protagonist in Aldo Leopold's 1949 essay Thinking Like a Mountain, in which the author recounts shooting a wolf as a young man and comes to understand that the animal and its mountain are interrelated – the mountain suffers when its wolves are killed and the elk are left unchecked. "Too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run," muses Leopold. "Perhaps this is the hidden meaning in the howl of the wolf."

Today, the gray wolf is now a calendar model on the walls of children's bedrooms and a star in the fundraising pitches of environmentalists. The wolf has become – along with the polar bear, the tiger and the whale – the symbol of longing for a return to the wilderness.

The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone has already caused positive change in the local ecosystem, as willow and aspen trees are returning after years of absence. The presence of wolves also benefits scavengers, such as cougars and grizzly bears. In short, if anything, the benefits of the wolf to its ecosystem were underestimated.

On the other hand, despite the headlines, wolves are not hurting local livelihoods, as only about 2% of all livestock deaths are negligible – even as conservation groups and state governments compensate local ranchers for livestock taken by wolves. Rumors of depleted elk herds are also exaggerated. The elk in both Idaho and Montana remain high. According to an Idaho fish and game official: "Wolves have had an impact on our herds in some parts of the state, but they've not been decimated as publicized."

And so the hunt goes on – but for how long? While Idaho and Montana hunt for wolves, the animal still remains on the endangered species list in Wyoming, and conservationists are continuing to press their case in court. They may have a good argument, Judge Molloy hinted in his recent decision. "The [US fish and wildlife] service has distinguished a natural population of wolves based on a political line," wrote Molloy, "not the best available science. That, by definition, seems arbitrary and capricious."

The story of the gray wolf is far from over.

Source:
The Guardian, "Killing the wolf at the door", accessed September 29, 2009

From the Inbox - Don't Let Them Kill the 3 Legged Wolves

Save the Three-Legged Wolves The Middle Fork pack’s alpha female (pictured above as a pup with her litter) and male have each lost legs to human traps. Yet they survive to raise wolf pups -- the future of the most endangered wolves in the world. According to the most recent official count, there are just 52 lobos left in the wild. The wolves of the New Mexico’s Middle Fork pack are some of the most endangered animals on the planet. The mother and father of the pack have both lost a leg to painful human-made traps -- leaving each with just three legs. A punishing drought in the Middle Fork pack’s home range makes the search for food to feed their four pups more and more challenging. And anti-wolf forces are working to once again eradicate their entire species in the wild. Please donate today to help Defenders protect these most endangered animals. The Middle Fork wolves really are extremely important. As one of just two breeding pairs in New Mexico for the nearly extinct Mexican gray wolf (the lobo), the Middle Fork pack’s alpha male (AM871) and female (AF861) are critical to the future of the wolf in the Southwest. Will you help us protect the Middle Fork wolves? Your tax-deductible donation today will help us… Demand that the federal government not cave into the pressure of local wolf-haters to kill these wolves. Use proven on-the-ground techniques to keep these wolves away from livestock and away from the guns of those who would shoot them. Post rewards to bring poachers who kill endangered lobos to justice. Twice this summer, state agencies have threatened to remove the Middle Fork wolves from the wild -- a move would see these wolves either killed or consigned to captivity for the rest of their lives and would wreck efforts to rescue lobos from a second extinction in the wild. So far, Defenders of Wildlife and our allies have been able to convince officials to keep the Middle Fork wolves where they belong -- in the wild. But ensuring the safety of these wolves -- and saving lobos as a species from extinction in the wild -- is a daily fight that we need your help to win. Please donate whatever you can afford today to help save these amazing animals. The Middle Fork wolves are some of the most important wolves in the country, but we need your help to save them. Please donate today to help us save this pack and the species whose survival in the wild may well depend on their fate. For the Wild Ones, Rodger Schlickeisen President Defenders of Wildlife P.S. It’s truly an amazing story that two three-legged endangered wolves are surviving in the wild. Together we can prevent humans from taking their lives. Please make a secure donation online today or call 1-800-385-9712 to help us reach these important goals.

Court restores safeguards for grizzly bears

A federal judge overturns a George W. Bush administration finding that resulted in the animals being removed from protections in the Endangered Species Act.

A federal judge on Monday September 21st restored protections for grizzly bears near Yellowstone National Park, overturning a George W. Bush administration finding that the animals had made an "amazing" and sustainable recovery.

In a strongly worded order, U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy said that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's conclusion that the bears would find adequate food and protected habitat in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho was not supported by the government's own science, and that protections put into place for the grizzlies were not enforceable.

The ruling largely supported conservationists' assertion that the predators faced devastating losses to one of their most important food sources as a result of climate change. It ordered the government to put the bears back under the protection of the Endangered Species Act until long-term strategies to assure their survival were in place.

"Much of the science [cited by the government] directly contradicts the service's conclusions," the judge wrote in his 46-page decision. "Where the agency's conclusions contradict the science, the conclusions are not reasonable, and the court need not defer to the agency's decision."

The judge agreed with the environmentalists that the recovery of the grizzly, whose numbers had climbed from some 200 at their lowest to around 600 at the time of delisting, had been remarkable. But the decision to delist had provided only vague plans for maintaining bear populations and no specific responses in case they began to decline. It also relied too heavily on flawed state plans in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

Matt Kales, a spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said officials could not comment on the ruling until they had a chance to review it in detail. "Obviously, we're going to take a long, hard look at the judge's ruling to try to discern both what it means for daily management of the bear and also look at it from a policy and legal standpoint and determine what our options are," he said.

There are about 580 bears in the three-state area near Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

Molloy's decision reverses the federal government's 2007 conclusion that grizzly bears, which had been wiped out of more than 98% of their historic range across the continental U.S. by the 1950s, were "thriving" in the Yellowstone area after 32 years of protection.

"There is no way to overstate what an amazing accomplishment this is," former Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett said at the time.

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition led a lawsuit challenging the delisting. The conservation group argued, among other things, that the government had failed to consider the loss of white bark pine nuts because of climate change. The nuts are a vital food source for the grizzlies, and the trees that produce them have died off as warmer winter temperatures have allowed the beetles that feast on them to flourish.

"With global warming, the beetles are able to survive the winter. And also because the warm season is longer, instead of getting one reproductive cycle, you get two or even three," said Doug Honnold, who argued the case for the Earthjustice legal defense fund.

Bears wandering out of the wilderness in search of food have been killed by hunters and wildlife control officials trying to protect neighborhoods.

"A record 79 bears died last year, or 13% of the population," Louisa Willcox, senior wildlife advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. "The judge recognized what we have been saying all along: Protecting grizzlies requires enforceable, science-based standards to protect habitat."

Molloy did find that the government had adequately defined the expanse of the bears' present-day ranges, and also upheld the Fish and Wildlife Service's finding that the bears -- though isolated from grizzly populations elsewhere in Montana and Canada -- will be able to maintain their genetic diversity.

Judge Molloy’s ruling makes it clear that saving a species like the grizzly isn’t just a matter of counting bears. It is also a matter of saving habitat. And where habitat has been degraded as rapidly as it has for the grizzly, extraordinary measures are required. Setting aside more habitat may be one of them. Whatever the answers, restoring the bears to the endangered species list is the essential first step to saving them — again.

Source:
LA Times, "Court restores safeguards for grizzly bears", accessed September 22, 2009
LA Times, "Judge renews protected status for Yellowstone's grizzly bears", accessed September 22, 2009
New York Times, "Grizzlies, Back on the List", accessed September 28, 2009

Climate illiterate" U.S. seen risking warming inaction

U.S. wavering on climate commitment could undermine action to save the planet, the director of Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said on the sidelines of a conference on Monday.

Preserving the Greenland ice cap was the defining action needed to prevent several meters of sea level rise and warming which would threaten the world's food and water supplies, Hans Schellnhuber (right) told reporters.

The doubts of many Republican U.S. senators over the practicality of a draft, domestic carbon-cutting law undermined the chances of strong global action soon, he said.

"It's a deeper problem in the United States, if you look at global polls about what the public knows about climate change, even in Brazil, China you have more people who know the problem, who think that deep cuts in emissions are needed," he said.

"The United States is in a sense climate illiterate still. If you look at what people in the Republican party think about this problem it's very unlikely you come up with something."

Democrat senators are due to unveil on September 30 a new draft climate bill for the Senate to vote on.

Most analysts doubt Congress will back that bill before countries meet in Copenhagen in December to try to clinch a new global climate pact.

Schellnhuber described that as "the most important meeting in the history of the human species." "We're simply talking about the very life support system of this planet."

The United States is the world's biggest contributor to climate change and many other countries demand it takes a big step before they follow in cutting emissions.

A U.N. panel of climate experts in 2007 outlined cuts of between 25 and 40 percent by 2020 -- compared with 1990 levels -- required by rich nations to avoid the worst climate effects.

Pledges so far would take overall reductions by all industrialized nations to a maximum of 15 percent, Reuters calculations show. President Barack Obama aims to return U.S. emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

"We are not even near the reductions that are necessary," said Schellnhuber.

Delegates from about 190 nations were meeting in Bangkok on Monday to try to speed up the U.N.-led negotiations to replace the Kyoto Protocol after 2012.

Schellnhuber did not expect individual countries to sign up to ambitious targets in Copenhagen but hoped for agreement on an ambitious long-term framework, for later negotiation.

Schellnhuber was speaking on the sidelines of a conference at Oxford University where scientists detailed how a 4 degrees Celsius hotter planet might look.

He expected most or all coral reefs to disappear in a 2 degrees hotter world, and the

(Graphic courtesy Geophysical Research Letters.)

Greenland ice sheet to melt more rapidly at 4 degrees, potentially fueling further warming and disrupting water supplies to more than 1 billion people. If Greenland's ice melts at moderate to high rates, ocean circulation by 2100 may shift and cause sea levels off the northeast coast of North America to rise by about 12 to 20 inches more than in other coastal areas.

"If we save Greenland we save the planet."

Source:
Reuters, "Climate illiterate" U.S. seen risking warming inaction", accessed September 28, 2009

Old sunken vessel leaks fuel in Gulf: USCG

A vessel that sank long ago has sprung a fuel leak in the Gulf of Mexico near Port Arthur, Texas, and the U.S. Coast Guard was leading efforts to empty its tanks and clean up the spill, a spokeswoman said Friday.

The vessel was outside shipping lanes and not interfering with vessel traffic, the Coast Guard said.

A "very light sheen" that triggered a check for a pipeline leak turned out to be coming from a 417-foot-long ship found nearly buried in mud under 36 feet of water 6 miles off Texas Point in the Gulf of Mexico, the spokeswoman said.

A team including divers was on scene to recover the estimated 16,000 gallons of fuel oil still on board the unidentified vessel, thought to be a World War II "Liberty" ship (right), the spokeswoman said.

Source:
Reuters, "Old sunken vessel leaks fuel in Gulf: USCG", accessed September 28, 2009

Climate change threatens rare species in Mekong: WWF

Climate change is threatening 163 rare species discovered only last year in the Greater Mekong region, conservation group WWF said Friday.

Events such as frequent droughts and floods plus a rise in sea levels spell danger for species in what WWF called in a report "one of the world's last biological frontiers," a region spanning Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and China's Yunnan province.

"Forecasts for the Greater Mekong region show that climate change will dramatically alter ecosystems," according to Geoffrey Blate, WWF's regional climate change coordinator.

"Species most at risk are those with the least physiological tolerance to changes in temperature and precipitation, and those species with narrow or very restricted habitats."

The Close Encounters report is the second new species report on this region. The initial report First Contact was launched in December 2008 and revealed over 1,000 new species discoveries in the Greater Mekong between 1997 and 2007.

This report for the Greater Mekong Region spotlights species newly identified by science in 2008, including 100 plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, 2 mammals and a bird.

Among the rare new species identified as vulnerable in the "Close Encounters" report a bird-eating fanged frog, a leopard-striped gecko with orange eyes that looks like it’s from another planet and a bird that would rather walk than fly, are among the 163 new species discovered in the Greater Mekong region last year that are now at risk of extinction due to climate change, says a new report launched by WWF ahead of UN climate talks in Bangkok.

Their habitats and the food they need for survival are often already restricted and climate change is expected to worsen the situation, according to the WWF.

It said many would not be able to adapt to climate change, "potentially resulting in massive extinctions."

With a diverse geography and climate zones, the Mekong is home to over 320 million people and numerous rare species, including the deer-like saola (below right) and the world's largest huntsman spider (left) with a leg span of 30 cm (12 inches).

The extraordinary new species discoveries of 2008 cements the Greater Mekong’s place as one of the world’s last biological frontiers, but it also highlights what could be lost as a result of the increasing impact of climate change.

Recent studies show the climate of the Greater Mekong region is already changing. Models suggest continued warming, increased variability and more frequent and damaging extreme climate events.

Rising seas and saltwater intrusion will cause major coastal impacts – especially in the Mekong River delta – which is one of the three most vulnerable deltas on Earth, according to the most recent International Panel on Climate Change report.

Source:
Reuters, "Climate change threatens rare species in Mekong: WWF", accessed September 27, 2009
WWF, "New species discovered in the Greater Mekong at risk of extinction due to climate change", accessed September 27, 2009

Everest "memento" for Obama to show climate change impact

Nepal's sherpa community is sending a piece of rock from Mount Everest to U.S. President Barack Obama to underscore the impact of global warming on the Himalayas.

Environmental group WWF said Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal had promised to carry the "memento" and give it to Obama when world leaders meet in New York as "a symbol of the melting Himalayas in the wake of climate change."

Heads of state will attend a U.N. General Assembly meeting as well as hold talks on climate change in New York.

The rock was collected from the 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) Mount Everest by Apa Sherpa, who climbed the mountain for a record 19th time in May.

Sherpas, mainly living in Nepal's Solukhumbhu district, home to the world's tallest peak, are known for their climbing skills.

A WWF-Nepal statement said more than 200,000 youth had also signed a petition to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left)demanding action on global warming ahead of crucial climate talks in Copenhagen.

Negotiations on an accord to replace the Kyoto Protocol are scheduled to conclude at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in the Danish capital in December.

Experts say mountainous Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 tallest peaks, including Mount Everest, is vulnerable to climate change despite being responsible for only 0.025 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, among the world's lowest.

Average global temperatures are rising faster in the Himalayas compared to most other parts of the world, according to the Kathmandu-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

Source:
Reuters, "Everest "memento" for Obama to show climate change impact", accessed September 24, 2009