Life in Small Bites Environment Blog

Sumatran elephant upgraded to critically endangered status

2012-01-30T01:52:00.008-06:00

The Sumatran elephant has been placed on the list of critically endangered species after losing half of its population in a single generation, prompting calls from conservation groups for emergency measures to halt the destruction of its habitat.

Deforestation is seen as the primary reason for the collapse in numbers in Indonesia, which until recently was seen alongside India and Sri Lanka as one of the last great refuges for elephants in Asia. The animal is now at risk of becoming extinct within decades.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) upgraded the risk assessment after tracking the loss of 69% of the animal's habitat over the past 25 years. With their home forests burned, felled or converted to plantations, the wild population has fallen to no more than 2,800.

In its latest "red list" of threatened species, the IUCN noted that many of the remaining elephant communities were likely to disappear because they do not live in protected areas and there is a high risk of conflicts with humans. It cited studies showing that at least six herds disappeared between 2007 and 2009 in Riau province - a center for the paper, pulp and palm oil industries. "That this pattern will continue seems certain," it warned.

As plantations have expanded, Sumatra has experienced some of the worst deforestation rates in the world. Conservation groups said the Indonesian island has lost more than two-thirds of its natural lowland forest - the most suitable habitat for elephants - in the past 25 years.

With the upgrading of the risk assessment, WWF called for an immediate moratorium on habitat destruction. "The Sumatran elephant joins a growing list of Indonesian species that are critically endangered, including the Sumatran orangutan (left), the Javan and Sumatran rhinos and the Sumatran tiger," said Carlos Drews, director of WWF's global species program.

"Unless urgent and effective conservation action is taken these magnificent animals are likely to go extinct within our lifetime." The organization advised the government to assess large habitat patches that could be designated as protected areas, and linked with smaller habitat through a network of conservation corridors. In the longer term, it suggested the authorities consider habitat expansion and forest restoration.

"It's very important that the government of Indonesia, conservation organizations and agro-forestry companies recognize the critical status of elephants and other wildlife in Sumatra and take effective steps to conserve them," said Asian elephant expert Ajay Desai. "Indonesia must act now before it's too late to protect Sumatra's last remaining natural forests, especially elephant habitats."

However, without more public pressure or more funds, the Indonesia authorities are likely to continue to support or turn a blind eye to the loggers and plantation owners. The threat upgrade follows a flood of grim conservation news due to poaching, habitat loss and a lack of awareness among consumers.

The Javan rhino was declared extinct in Vietnam in October after the last one was found dead with a bullet in its leg and its horn sawn off. A month later, it was followed by Africa's western black rhinoceros and warnings that the Sumatran rhino is on the brink of extinction in Indonesia.

Source:
The Guardian,"Sumatran elephant upgraded to critically endangered status", by Jonathan Watts, accessed January 25, 2012

From the Inbox - You can help stop gigantic power line in two national parks

2012-01-29T11:26:00.004-06:00

Click Here to Send Your Comments!

Dear Friend of the National Parks,

National parks are for preservation, not for siting massive power lines, right?

Unfortunately, two energy companies are seeking permits from the National Park Service (NPS) to construct a colossal 200-foot-high, 500-kilovolt power line through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, our country's eighth-most-visited national park. These power lines would also cross the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. We need your help today to stop this from happening.

What’s worse, the power line would function as a giant extension cord for electricity produced by dirty coal-fired power plants in western Pennsylvania to urban areas in New York and New Jersey.

Furthermore, while the Park Service is required by law to “conserve the scenery”, this proposal would do the opposite, and degrade the experience of future park visitors.

Take Action: Urge Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to support the preservation of park resources by selecting the “No Action” alternative that would prevent the construction of gigantic power lines through Delaware Water Gap and the Appalachian Trail.

Thank you for taking time, as always, to speak up for national parks. Our national parks are irreplaceable treasures and, thanks to supporters like you, we will ensure they are protected for generations to come!

Sincerely,

Bryan Faehner
Assoc. Director for Park Use

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NPCA | 777 6th Street, NW | Suite 700 | Washington, DC 20001 | 800.NAT.PARK npca@npca.org

From the inbox: New Ways for you to Save Wildlife and Wildlands every day

2012-01-29T01:09:00.003-06:00

Dear Supporter,

Here at NRDC, we’re finding new ways every day for you to save endangered wildlife and wildlands. That’s why I want you to be among the first to visit our newly redesigned SaveBioGems.org website. It takes one-click activism to a whole new level -- giving you more power than ever before to defend nature when and where it counts.

Best of all, our new website puts you at the heart of a BioGems community that is now one million strong. You are part of a movement that is growing more and more effective by the day. Please check out the new site -- and put it to work right away for the sake of our planet’s imperiled wildlife and wild places. And thank you for being an NRDC BioGems Defender!

Frances Beinecke, NRDC President

From the Inbox - Wingspan: Audobon News

2012-01-28T11:09:00.006-06:00

AUDUBON NETWORK NEWS | JANUARY 19, 2012

Human-Made Oasis in the Bay Area

A pile of dirt dumped in a secluded and biologically-rich corner of San Francisco Bay is becoming prime real estate for seabirds, harbor seals, and other wildlife. Volunteers at Audubon's Richardson Bay Center and Wildlife Sanctuary are transforming long-discarded fill from construction projects into ideal wildlife habitat.

From the Perch of David Yarnold: Our
Vision and Plan

What will it take to save birds and their habitats in this age of climate change, burgeoning sprawl, and other threats?

David Yarnold, Audubon's President & CEO, reveals the 'secret sauce' that goes into Audubon's master plan for the coming years.

Ingredients include a respect for the interdependence of humans and wildlife, an emphasis on the four great flyways by which migratory birds traverse our continent, and a continuing commitment to the vast network of staff, volunteers, supporters, and others who make our work possible.

A Glimpse of Florida's Primordial Swamp

Got the cold weather blues? Take a three-minute virtual Florida field trip along the boardwalk of Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

One of Audubon's crown jewels, Corkscrew is home to the largest stand of old-growth bald cypress trees on earth. Bald Eagles search for prey at the canopy's edge, while alligators and wading birds meander through the swampy understory. This is the Florida of our ancestors, in the western glades just 100 miles west of Miami.

GET INVOLVED

Great Backyard Bird Count 2012

Every February, bird lovers of all ages join forces in Audubon and Cornell Lab's Great Backyard Bird Count.

Learn how to participate in five easy steps from Zach Slavin in our Education & Nature Centers program. Hint: you can even participate in your pajamas.

TAKE ACTION
Best Chance for Gulf Coast Restoration

This is our next best chance to ensure that billions in BP fines go directly to restore the ecosystems devastated by the Deepwater Horizon blowout.

Tell Congress to do the right thing.

Photos: Black Oystercatcher - Jeff Larsen/www.jefflarsen.com; Corkscrew Swamp Boardwalk - courtesy of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary; Birdfeeder - James Jordan/Flickr Creative Commons; Pelicans - Christina Evans/cgstudios.smugmug.com

From the Inbox - Why the Everglades are not a sewer

2012-01-28T01:55:00.002-06:00

Home | About Earthjustice | Take Action | Donate |

January 2012

The Everglades—Saved By The Law

Florida's Everglades would likely be a corporate sewer today if not for the power of litigation and the Earthjustice attorneys who have wielded it for 20 years. These truths were attested to at a conference of powerful political, business and environmental leaders who paid homage to those attorneys. Read Full Story.

Check out a special report on the two-decade fight
to save the Everglades.

Support Us!

Help our legal experts fight in court to protect and restore the Everglades ecosystem. Give an urgent gift today to protect this national treasure!

Keeping Tahoe Blue
Community members and conservationists are hoping to keep the sparkle in one of America's most beautiful lakes—Lake Tahoe—by halting a large, proposed housing development along the shoreline. On their behalf, Earthjustice has filed a lawsuit challenging the environmental impact report for the Homewood development. Read More

Photo Slideshow: Images Of Lake Tahoe

A Gathering Storm In Congress
The halls of Congress are silent right now—in sharp contrast to the anti-environment uproar that dominated the last session. More is coming in this election year, but it's no reason to be gloomy, says Earthjustice President Trip Van Noppen. Read More

Thousands Comment On Fracking Plans
Just as the comment period ended this week, thousands of activists submitted comments against New York State's proposed regulations on hydrofracturing. Earthjustice activists submitted more than 5,000 letters, helping to set a new record of submitted comments to the state agency. Read More

	From Earthjustice's blog:
	The Zuke: Let's not nuke the Grand Canyon. Read Blog Post	Monday Reads: Climate change makes strange bedfellows. Read Blog Post

Earthjustice and its allies won advances—or outright victories—across a broad front:

EPA Reins In Toxic Power Plants
After a decade of legal effort by Earthjustice, the EPA has set the first limits on mercury, arsenic and other toxic air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants—the nation's worst toxic air polluters. Read More

Feature: In the Shadow of a Smokestack

Photo Slideshow: Life Under The Stacks

Salmon May Benefit From Ruling
Weak development standards in Clark County, Washington appear to violate federal clean water regulations, according to a federal court ruling obtained through Earthjustice litigation. The county's poor standards contribute to polluted storm water runoff that threatens salmon. Read More

Aviation Emissions Law Takes Off
Beginning this year, all flights using European airports will be held accountable for their carbon pollution. The new European Union law went into effect, after a decision by the EU Court of Justice affirmed that the law is fully compliant with international law. A trans-Atlantic coalition of environmental groups, including Earthjustice, were intervenor-defendants in the litigation.

Read More

Audio: Attorney Martin Wagner Comments

Fossil Fuel Power Comes Last
Under a new—landmark—clean energy policy, California utilities cannot use fossil fuel-generated electricity to meet customer demand until they first employ energy efficiency and conservation, and seek energy from such renewable sources as wind, solar and geothermal. Read More

Ruling Shines On Hawai`i Solar
Roof-top solar energy got a boost from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, which has denied proposals by utility companies to make it difficult for homes and businesses to install solar systems. Earthjustice represented Hawaii Solar Energy Association in the case. Read More

Take Action!
Protect Our Water!
The drinking water of 117 million Americans is at risk from pollution and contamination. The White House has promised to fix this, but big polluters are trying to thwart progress. Urge the White House to continue its strong efforts to restore our clean water protections. Take action now to protect our communities and our clean water for drinking, swimming, and fishing!

Connect
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Earthjustice. Because the earth needs a good lawyer. Earthjustice is the nation's leading, non-profit law firm for the environment. To learn more about our work, visit our website, http://earthjustice.org.

Large Print Version - Click to read e.Brief in large print.

Photo Credits - The Everglades—Saved By The Law: Left: Gorazd Bozic / Flickr. Right: Amir / Flickr.
Keeping Tahoe Blue: Geoff Stearns / Flickr. Thousands Comment On Fracking Plans: Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice. EPA Reins In Toxic Power Plants: Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice.

Why Britain's garden birds are staying in the country

2012-01-27T01:21:00.010-06:00

It has been a hard winter for suburban bird spotters in Great Britain. The nation's house birds have disappeared from towns and cities, leaving gardens devoid of their most familiar feathered visitors.

The absence of the birds has triggered a flurry of letters and emails to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds from anxious householders disconcerted by the absence of blue tits, greenfinches, chaffinches and house sparrows from suburban Britain.

"We have been inundated with letters over the past few weeks from homeowners who have got used to seeing house birds in their gardens over our recent harsh winters but who are perplexed by their absence this year," said Nik Shelton, an RSPB official.

The reason for the birds' disappearance is straightforward, he added. "House birds like the blue tit or the chaffinch (left, a male chaffinch) eat seeds or insects, which are easy to find in the countryside when the weather is mild, as it has been for this winter so far. When the conditions get tough, when the ground becomes hard and frosty, it is difficult to get at insects or pick up seeds. Food becomes scarce, so the birds head into towns and cities in search of sustenance. That is what happened last year and the year before when we had very hard winters. But not this year. Our blue tits (at right) and chaffinches are perfectly happy in the countryside at the moment."

The unexpectedly mild conditions have had other disconcerting effects on Britain's birds. For example, woodpeckers (at left) can be heard making their distinctive drumming noise in woods, a territorial display that is usually a prelude to nesting and which is not normally heard until later in the year. Jackdaws (at right) appear to be equally confused. "The warm weather has convinced them that spring is at hand. It will take a severe cold snap before they can reset their internal clocks and resume normal behavior for the time of year," added Shelton.

***Housesparrow***

It remains to be seen if that cold snap will occur, however. The Met Office said on Saturday that the weather would remain fairly mild for most of the coming week with temperatures hovering around the average for the time of year. For the longer term forecast, weather patterns are confused, with two very different but equally possible scenarios vying.

"The first scenario consists of changeable weather with rain at times and with temperatures noticeably above average for early February, with only occasional frosts," said a Met Office forecaster. "The alternative scenario is that much colder weather with winds mainly from an easterly or northeasterly quarter, will prevail well into February, bringing widespread frosts and snow to some areas. At present we cannot determine which will happen."

In other words, it is a 50-50 shot if the nation's house birds return to suburbia to avoid the cold of the countryside next month and the woodpeckers stop their drumming.

Source:
The Guardian,"Why Britain's garden birds are staying in the country", by Robin McKie, accessed January 24, 2012
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, credit for bird images, accessed January 24, 2012

'Extinct' monkey rediscovered in Indonesia jungle

2012-01-26T01:27:00.010-06:00

Scientists working in the jungles of Indonesia have rediscovered a large grey monkey so rare that many had believed it was extinct.

The scientists were baffled to find the Miller's grizzled langur in an area well outside its previously recorded home range.

A team of experts set up camera traps in the Wehea forest (lower right) , on the Eastern tip of Borneo island, in June, hoping to capture images of clouded leopards, orangutans and other wildlife known to congregate at several mineral salt licks. Instead, they ended up making a dramatic discovery. The Miller’s Grizzled Langur is not extinct.

The pictures that came back caught them by surprise – groups of monkeys no one had ever seen.

With virtually no photographs of the species in existence, the scientists faced a challenge to confirm their suspicions, Brent Loken, a PhD student at Simon Fraser University in Canada and one of the lead researchers, said. The only images available were museum sketches.

"We were all pretty ecstatic. The fact that, wow, this monkey still lives, and also that it's in Wehea," Loken said.

The team of local and international scientists published their findings in the American Journal of Primatology on Friday

The monkey once roamed the north-eastern part of Borneo, as well as the islands of Sumatra and Java and the Thai-Malay peninsula. Concerns were voiced several years ago that it might be extinct.

Forests in which the monkeys once lived had been destroyed by fires, human encroachment and conversion of land for agriculture and mining. An extensive field survey in 2005 found no evidence of the species.

Despite the Miller’s Grizzled Langur’s rediscovery, the team is still skeptical about its future. Loken added:

"For me, the discovery of this monkey is representative of so many species in Indonesia," Loken said. "There are so many animals we know so little about, and their home ranges are disappearing so quickly. It feels like a lot of these animals are going to quickly enter extinction."

The scientists' next step will be to return to the 38,000-hectare (90,000-acre) forest to try to find out how many grizzly langurs there are.

They appear in more than 4,000 images captured over a two-month period, Loken said, but added that it was possible one or two families had kept returning.

"It's indeed a highly enigmatic species," Erik Meijaard, a conservation scientist who spent more than eight years doing field research in the area, said.

In the past, grizzly langurs were hunted to near extinction for their meat and the bezoar "stones" that can, on occasion, be found in their guts, he said. Bezoars are believed by some to neutralize poison.

Miller's Grizzled Langur Monkey found in Wehea Forest in Borneo

Source:
The Guardian,"'Extinct' monkey rediscovered in Indonesia jungle", accessed January 24, 2012
Discovery News, "Monkey Feared Extinct Rediscovered", by Stephanie Pappas, accessed January 24, 2012

Putin's plan for former Moscow hotel site: a park

2012-01-25T01:19:00.005-06:00

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has a new plan for a huge central Moscow lot that has been vacant since a sprawling Soviet-era hotel was razed: a park.

Several ideas have been hatched for the prime piece of real estate off Red Square since the Hotel Rossiya (lower right), a white-walled warren of more than 3,000 rooms that was seen by many Muscovites as an eye sore, shut its doors in 2006. The hotel was demolished shortly thereafter.

They have included a mixed-use complex with a hotel and office and retail spaces, and an administrative center that could contain a new parliament building and government headquarters.

Putin changed those plans with a few words on Friday.

"You know what I was thinking? Practically all parkland in the heart of Moscow has been built over in the past decades," Putin told Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin as they looked over the site by the Moscow River. (At left: existing park near Kremlin)

""I have the following proposal ... maybe create a park zone here," Putin said.

The site will become central Moscow's largest park if Putin gets his way.

He usually does get his way. Putin, president from 2000-2008 and now prime minister, is expected to be back in the Kremlin again next year -- across Red Square from the former hotel site --- after a March 4 presidential vote. (right: view of the Kremlin from across the river)

Sobyanin is a loyal longtime ally of Putin. His response to the proposal?

"That would be great."

A few hours later, Moscow authorities said they would announce a competition next week seeking bids to develop the site as a park.

Source:,
Reuters,"Putin's plan for former Moscow hotel site: a park", by Steve Gutterman, accessed January 22, 2012

2011 was ninth-warmest year since 1880: NASA

2012-01-24T01:45:00.006-06:00

The global average temperature last year was the ninth-warmest in the modern meteorological record, continuing a trend linked to greenhouse gases that saw nine of the 10 hottest years occurring since the year 2000, NASA scientists said on Thursday.

A separate report from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the average temperature for the United States in 2011 as the 23rd warmest year on record.

The global average surface temperature for 2011 was 0.92 degrees F (0.51 degrees C) warmer than the mid-20th century baseline temperature, researchers at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies said in a statement. The institute's temperature record began in 1880.

The first 11 years of the new century were notably hotter than the middle and late 20th century, according to institute director James Hansen. The only year from the 20th century that was among the top 10 warmest years was 1998.

These high global temperatures come even with the cooling effects of a strong La Nina ocean temperature pattern and low solar activity for the past several years, said Hansen, who has long campaigned against human-spurred climate change. La Ninas occur every few years and generally cause global temperatures to drop, but this was the warmest La Nina year on record.

The NASA statement said the current higher temperatures are largely sustained by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is emitted by various human activities, from coal-fired power plants to fossil-fueled vehicles to human breath.

Current levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere exceed 390 parts per million, compared with 285 ppm in 1880 and 315 by 1960, NASA said.

Last year was also a year of record-breaking climate extremes in the United States, which contributed to 14 weather and climate disasters with economic impact of $1 billion or more each, according to NOAA . This number does not count a pre-Halloween snowstorm in the Northeast, which is still being analyzed.

NOAA's National Climatic Data Center said the average 2011 temperature for 2011 for the contiguous United States was 53.8 degrees F, which is 1 degree above the 20th-century average. Average precipitation across the country was near normal, but this masks record-breaking extremes of drought and precipitation, the agency said.

This marks the 35th straight year that global temperatures were warmer than normal. NOAA's records for world average temperatures date back to 1880.

Source:
Reuters,"2011 was ninth-warmest year since 1880: NASA", reported by Deborah Zabarenko, accessed January 22, 2012
Courier Journal, "World not quite as hot in 2011; ranks 11th warmest", accessed January 22, 2012

U.S. clamps ban on pythons, yellow anaconda

2012-01-23T01:33:00.005-06:00

The United States announced a ban on Burmese pythons on Tuesday, after years of unsuccessful efforts to eradicate the giant snakes from the Everglades National Park in Florida.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has championed the ban, said it would take effect within about 60 days and make it illegal to import the snakes or transport them across state lines.

Salazar announced the measure at a news conference at a flood control pumping station in a corner of the Everglades just outside Miami, where he was joined by Florida Senator Ben Nelson and two senior park and Florida Wildlife Commission officials as they held aloft a recently captured 13-foot (4-meter) python.

"The action were taking today is a milestone in the protection of the Everglades," Salazar said.

Biologists say most pythons in the Everglades are thought to have been released there by their owners once they realized that the "pets" can grow from just a foot to 12 feet long within their first two years of life.

**Yellow anaconda @Wikipedia**

In addition to the Burmese python, which has become one of the most notorious invasive species in U.S. history, the ban affects the yellow anaconda (right) and northern and southern African pythons.

Invasive species in subtropical parts of Florida include dragon-like Nile Monitor lizards and raccoon-sized African rats.

But Burmese pythons, which are native to southeast Asia, have become the stuff of legend in the Everglades since they were first sighted in the wildlife haven in the mid-1970s.

With their razor-sharp teeth, they have been known to eat practically anything that moves in the park, from small mammals to large wading birds. Last year, a 15.7-foot (4.8-meter) Burmese was found with a huge bulge from a recently consumed 76-pound (34-kg) deer.

Compounding eradication problems, however, the bone-crushing snakes have also bred in the wild in the savanna and steamy swamps of the Everglades.

One of the creatures was aggressive enough to try devouring a 6-foot (1.8 meter) alligator in the park in 2005. The alligator was believed to have been dead already and the snake also died trying to digest it.

Source:
Reuters,"U.S. clamps ban on pythons, yellow anaconda", reported by Tom Brown, accessed January 17, 2012

From the Inbox - 15 Years | 5 campaigns | 30,000 supporters | 1 common vision

2012-01-22T01:21:00.003-06:00

\ GET INVOLVED \

For as little as $10 per month you can help us reach our goals in 2012. Visit our Membership Page to make a monthly donation and invest in a better future for our mountains.

/ COMING UP IN 2012 /

Asheville Green Drinks
Jan. 18, 5:30 p.m.
Posana Cafe, Asheville, N.C.
Come meet the Red, White and Water team and learn how to fight for clean water rights!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Speakers “Fighting to Protect Our Home”
The Bridge, Charlottesville, Va.
Jan. 22, 1-5 p.m.
Appalachian Voices is sponsoring a free workshop with Larry Gibson and other speakers from The Keeper of the Mountains as part of The Unearthing project.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

VA Conservation Lobby Day
Jan. 23, 2012
Making conservation count with the Virginia General Assembly.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Red, White and Water at Church of the Servant
Feb. 9, 7:30 p.m.
Wilmington, N.C.
Meet the team and learn how to fight for clean water!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Kentucky Loves Mtns Day
February 14, 2012
9am-2pm
Join KFTC for a day of action at in Frankfurt, Ky
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

SAVE THE DATE:
End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington
Jan. 4-6
Join The Alliance for Appalachia in Washington, D.C., to lobby for an end to mountaintop removal coal mining. Check back in February for registration details.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

THIS SUMMER:
Appalachian Voices' Annual Membership Meeting
June, 2012 (date TBA)
Charlottesville, Va.
Featuring guest speaker Bobby Kennedy and more!
Stay tuned for details...
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Check out our full calendar of environmental goings-on!

Dear Supporter,

Since 1997, Appalachian Voices has advocated for the forests, streams and people of Appalachia. Our goal has been to protect a region whose richness of species is rivaled only by tropical rainforests, but is threatened by an outdated industrial mindset that also imperils the entire planet.

The outcomes of decisions made over the next few years will strongly influence whether the Southeast -- which now contributes more to climate change than most countries on the planet -- continues its heavy reliance on coal or evolves to meet the energy challenges of the future.

Continuing to augment air and water safeguards throughout the life-cycle of coal is key to maximizing our effectiveness as we pursue the broader objective of protecting the integrity of our region’s land, air, water and communities.

Only with your support can we preserve the health and prosperity of our region and break the cycle of political corruption that reinforces the region’s dependence on coal. Thank you for your generous support!

Willa

Tennessee

From our office in Nashville, our Tennessee team is working to end mountaintop removal in the state by passing the Scenic Vistas Protection Act, moving the TVA away from purchasing Central Appalachian surface-mined coal and increasing job-creating energy efficiency measures.
[ Read more about our new Tennessee campaign ]

Virginia

In our mission to provide clean energy to the Commonwealth, our Charlottesville team is focusing on defeating the largest proposed coal plant in the state, fighting to protect Ison Rock Ridge from the devastation of mountaintop removal, and working with government officials to shift away from dirty energy and promote energy efficiency and renewables.
[ Read more about our Virginia work ]

Ending Mountaintop Removal

2012 is an election year, which means that it is more important than ever that people across the nation are demanding an end to mountaintop removal; help us by hosting an event in your hometown or collecting petitions to end mountaintop removal.
[ Read more about our work to end mountaintop removal coal mining

Appalachian Water Watch

In addition to scrutinizing Clean Water Act compliance throughout Central Appalachia and continuing to support and train the citizen volunteers who monitor their local watersheds, our Water Watch team will continue to pursue Clean Water Act justice in our ongoing cases against three Kentucky coal companies.
[ Read more about Appalachian Water Watch ]

Red, White and Water

We are hard at work building a movement to ensure that our nation's clean water laws stay strong - this year, we will work to stave off Congressional attacks on these laws, push for strong guidelines on coal ash disposal and storage and ensure that Appalachian states fully implement the new Mercury and Air Toxics Rule.
[ Read more about our campaign to protect clean water ]

January 17, 2012 ~ Vol. 4, No. 1

Become our Fan on or follow us on

From the Inbox - How can you change the world on your coffee break?

2012-01-21T01:45:00.001-06:00

Explore Team Chiapas

You might not think you can change the world on your coffee break. But I promise that you can — and I've got the evidence to prove it.

How? I recently traveled with a team of photographers and filmmakers to Chiapas, Mexico — a rainforest-covered state that produces most of the country's coffee — to learn more about the work of Conservation International and our partners.

There, we watched spider monkeys ascend steep canyon walls. We listened as farmers described their personal experiences with climate change. And we learned how your choice to drink sustainably grown coffee is making a difference — not just in Chiapas, but around the world.

Today, we're sharing what we learned. You can learn more, right now, by checking out the written stories, photos and videos of our trip to Chiapas. It's all part of "Team Earth," our new storytelling project here at CI!

But by focusing on one area where we work, we can tell short stories about the many kinds of partners who work with CI — stories that offer a glimpse of who these people are, how CI works with them to get results ... and how the work we do together is relevant to you.

I hope these stories will give you a better sense of what we do, how it relates to you — and how you can get involved! Explore Team Chiapas — and be sure to give us your feedback on CI's blog or Facebook page. Thanks for everything you do for conservation!

Sincerely,

Molly Bergen
Managing Editor, Conservation International

Learn more about CI's work through Team Earth ››

Image information: Organic, shade-grown coffee in the hands of Ausencio, one of the many coffee farmers working with CI in Chiapas, Mexico.

Building upon a strong foundation of science, partnership and field demonstration, CI empowers societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature, our global biodiversity, for the well-being of humanity.

Conservation International is a 501(c)(3) non-profit.

Global Warming: ‘Revenge of the atmosphere’

2012-01-20T01:00:00.003-06:00

With Arctic sea ice shrinking fast — losing 40 percent of its mass between 1980 and 2007 — widespread effects on climate and weather are inevitable, according to Jennifer Francis, with Rutgers University Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences.

“How can it not affect the weather? It’s such a huge loss in the Earth’s system,” Francis said, speaking Jan. 13 at the Glenn Gerberg Weather and Climate Summit in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Discussing the link between rapid climate changes in the Arctic and weather patterns in mid-latitudes, Francis (at right) said her most recent research points to a direct link between changes over the Arctic and mid-latitude weather patterns driven by the jet stream.

The Arctic is warming twice as fast as other parts of the Earth and essentially, that heat is changing air pressure gradients and reducing the speed of circumpolar winds. That leads to a greater amplification of the high pressure ridges and low pressure troughs in mid-latitudes.

As those kinks in the atmospheric circulation grow more pronounced, it slows the progression of weather systems moving from west to east around the northern hemisphere, allowing weather systems to get stuck over certain regions.

Speaking to an audience of TV meteorologists, Francis called it the “revenge of the atmosphere,” then explained some of the recent changes in the Arctic.

“When the ice was thick in the good old days … the variations we saw were caused by wind, moving the ice around a bit. The winds would change, the ice didn’t respond so much … now that it’s thinner, it moves around more,” she said.

Some of the biggest shifts came during a lengthy positive phase of the Arctic Oscillation during the 1990s, when more Arctic ice was transported directly into the Arctic Ocean, leaving the high Arctic filled with younger and thinner ice, she said.

The Arctic Oscillation refers to opposing atmospheric pressure patterns in northern middle and high latitudes. The oscillation exhibits a "negative phase" with relatively high pressure over the polar region and low pressure at mid-latitudes (about 45 degrees North), and a "positive phase"(at right) in which the pattern is reversed. In the positive phase, higher pressure at mid-latitudes drives ocean storms farther north, and changes in the circulation pattern bring wetter weather to Alaska, Scotland and Scandinavia, as well as drier conditions to the western United States and the Mediterranean. In the positive phase, frigid winter air does not extend as far into the middle of North America as it would during the negative phase of the oscillation. This keeps much of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains warmer than normal, but leaves Greenland and Newfoundland colder than usual. Weather patterns in the negative phase are in general "opposite" to those of the positive phase.

Over most of the past century, the Arctic Oscillation alternated between its positive and negative phases. Starting in the 1970s, however, the oscillation has tended to stay in the positive phase, causing lower than normal arctic air pressure and higher than normal temperatures in much of the United States and northern Eurasia.

The end result of a lengthy positive phase of the Arctic Oscillation for the Arctic region is that, instead of thick, long-lasting ice reflecting incoming solar energy back into space, the heat is absorbed by the darker colored water.

“The open ocean absorbs heat. The change is sea-surface temperatures is dramatic … a lot more energy is being put into the Arctic ocean,” she said. “What happens to all that hear? It all goes back into the atmosphere. How can it not affect large-scale circulation?

“I expect to see two main effects,” she said, explaining that polar temperatures drive the jet stream, and in the past couple of decades, there’s been a 20 percent drop in the zonal wind speeds.

As that zonal flow slows down, it leads to those bigger kinks in the jet stream. That amplification is associated with persistent weather patterns that lead to “extremes” like drought, flooding and heat waves.

“Look at 20 coldest days in Tampa — you can see the patterns — A big ridge in the West, a big trough in East … It’s the same if you look at the wettest days in Chicago,” she said, explaining that a persistent trough of low pressure over the high plains brings moist air into the upper Midwest.

Those slow-moving, persistent waves of weather energy may have played a role in the big snows that hammered parts of the West last winter, as well as some of the extreme winter weather that hit Europe in the fall and early winter.

Source:
Summit County Citizens Voice,"Global Warming: ‘Revenge of the atmosphere’", by Bob Berwyn, accessed January 17, 2012
Arctic Climatology and Meteorology, "The Arctic Oscillation", accessed January 17, 2012

Mountain plants face extinction ‘in decades’

2012-01-19T01:31:00.001-06:00

Alpine plants that thrive in cool conditions are at risk of disappearing from Scottish mountains because of climate change, scientists have warned. A study, involving biologists from 13 countries, revealed that climate change was having a more serious impact on alpine vegetation than they had expected.

The first cross-Europe survey of changing mountain vegetation has showed that some could vanish within decades.

Michael Gottfried (at right), of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (Gloria) program, said: “Many cold-loving species are literally running out of mountain. In some of the lower mountains in Europe, we could see alpine meadows disappearing and dwarf shrubs taking over within the next few decades.”

867 vegetation samples above the treeline from 60 summit sites in all major European mountain systems were used to show that ongoing climate change gradually transforms mountain plant communities. The vegetation samples were from 60 different summits across Europe, including the Cairngorms in Scotland (left).

Evidence showed that the more cold-adapted species declined and the more warm-adapted species increased. At the scale of individual mountains this general trend may not be apparent, but at the larger, continental scale a significantly higher abundance of thermophilic species in 2008, compared with 2001, were observed. This pattern of mountain plant communities mirrors the degree of recent warming and is more pronounced in areas where the temperature increase has been higher. In view of the projected climate change, the observed transformation suggests a progressive decline of cold mountain habitats and their biota.

Among species at threat in Europe could be the edelweiss (at right), praised in the song of the same name in The Sound of Music. It is specially adapted to the high-life at altitudes of between 6,500ft to 9,500ft. Its snow white, star-shaped leaves are covered in woolly hairs to protect them from the cold.

“We expected to find a greater number of warm-loving plants at higher altitudes, but we did not expect to find such a significant change in such a short space of time,” said Mr Gottfried. The same effect was seen from southern countries such as Crete, to northern countries such as Scotland.

The study, published in Nature Climate Change, confirmed that there is a direct link between higher summer temperature and the shift in alpine plant composition. “While regional studies have previously made this link, this is the first time it has been shown on a continental scale,” said Mr Gottfried.

.The phenomenon whereby cold-adapted mountain plant species are gradually replaced by warm-adapted species is dubbed “thermophilisation” by the Gloria researchers.

“Our work shows that climate change affects even the outer edges of the biosphere,” said Georg Grabherr, chairman of the program. “The thermophilisation of alpine life zones can never be controlled directly. Adaptation strategies are not an option, and we must concentrate on mitigating climate change in order to preserve our bio genetic treasure.”

As long ago as 2003, the charity WWF warned even a temperature rise of 2C could place sensitive mountain plants in the Alps and other ranges at risk.

Stefan Moidle, climate expert at WWF-Austria, said at the time: “Global warming is changing natural habitats, but alpine plants cannot move to higher, cooler locations.”

Source:
Scotsman,"Mountain plants face extinction ‘in decades’", accessed January 15, 2012
Nature Climate Change, "Continent-wide response of mountain vegetation to climate change", accessed January 15, 2012

Weird weather around the world sees in 2012

2012-01-18T01:31:00.002-06:00

2012 has begun where 2011 left off with weird weather in Europe and the Americas, Arctic ice at almost its lowest extent ever recorded in midwinter, disastrous droughts and searing heat in Africa and Latin America, and one of the world's biggest insurance companies warning that climate change will increase damages.

Thousands of people in Austria, France and Germany were on January 12th still digging themselves out of some of the heaviest snowfalls seen in 30–50 years. After Europe's driest and warmest autumn for nearly 150 years, a massive storm dumped nearly 18ft of snow in two days this week, cutting off ski resorts and villages and leaving people and animals stranded. The summit of the 9,718ft Zugspitze mountain in Germany which had only 7.5 inches of snow a few weeks ago, now has 150 inches.

However, Arctic sea ice has not fully reformed after last year's massive melt when it reached its second lowest extent ever recorded. It is now at its third lowest December extent recorded since records began 30 years ago, averaging 12.38m square kilometers (4.78 million square miles).

More worryingly from a climate perspective, is data that shows its volume is now at it lowest ever recorded level at the start of a year. According to the US government-funded Polar Science Center at the University of Washington, the volume on 31 December was around 12,230 km3 – a massive 47% lower than the maximum in 1979, and 37% below the mean as depicted on this chart.

Meanwhile, South Australia has been hit by its hottest start to the year in a century, with temperatures over 40C, and Argentina (right), he world's second-biggest maize exporter, is suffering a drought and heatwave which has severely hit crops.

Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, now estimates that losses from natural disasters totaled $380bn in 2011, nearly twice as much as the previous record set in 2005.

Many of the extreme events are put down to a continuing La Niña event which sees lower than normal sea temperatures in the Pacific and frequently heralds droughts sometimes lasting several years. This is now believed to have peaked, a sign that 2012 could eventually see a return to less extreme weather. According to the Climate Prediction Center (part of NOAA), new sea-temperature data suggests La Niña "will be of weak-to-moderate strength this winter, and will continue thereafter as a weak event until it likely dissipates sometime between March and May."

Source:
The Guardian,"Weird weather around the world sees in 2012",by John Vidal, accessed January 16, 2012

'Dramatic' loss of harp seals amid warming: study

2012-01-17T01:16:00.014-06:00

Along with declining habitat for polar bears, harp seal populations in the far north are also taking a big hit from global warming, according to researchers who documented reduced winter sea ice cover in key harp seal breeding grounds.

A new scientific study suggests harp seals in the North Atlantic are dying at high rates because of warming waters and a steady decline of sea ice in their traditional breeding grounds.

The research by scientists at Duke University in North Carolina tracked the decrease of sea ice due to global warming and the mortality of harp seals from 1992 to 2010.

David Johnston (right), a marine scientist who co-wrote the report, said it's the first study to show that seasonal ice cover in the four seal breeding areas of North America has receded by as much as six per cent per decade beginning in 1979 when satellite data began.

"There has been a string of light ice years recently and we're starting to be concerned that if ice continues to decline, this might have longer-term effects on the harp seal population," Johnston said from his office in Beaufort, N.C. "I'm concerned that these animals are in for a tough road with what we're seeing with climate change."

Harp seals rely on stable winter sea ice as safe places to give birth and nurse their young until the pups can swim and hunt on their own. Female seals typically seek out the thickest, oldest ice packs in sub-Arctic waters each February and March, and have adapted to the spring melt by developing unusually short, 12-day nursing periods.

The authors warned that they could see the disappearance of a year's entire seal pup herd due to a lack of ice, where females traditionally go to give birth every February and March. Pups usually drown if born in the water or on thin, unstable ice. This has resulted in entire generations of newly born seal pups dying due to their disappearing habitat according to the study published in the open access science journal PLoS ONE. (click for original report).

"The kind of mortality we're seeing in eastern Canada is dramatic," said co-author David Johnston, a research scientist at the Duke University Marine Lab. "Entire year-classes may be disappearing from the population in low ice years -- essentially all of the pups die," he said. "It calls into question the resilience of the population."

For recent data, researchers looked at satellite images of winter ice from 1992 to 2010 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a prime breeding region off the east coast of Canada, and compared them to yearly reports of dead seal pup strandings in the region.

They compared stranding rates to records of a climate phenomenon known as the North Atlantic Oscillation (left), which controls the intensity and track of westerly winds and storms and exerts a major influence on sea ice formation. The research linked high seal death rates to a weaker North Atlantic Oscillation, or NAO, and the resulting poor ice conditions.

They found in 1969 the NAO was weak and the ice cover in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was one of the lowest on record. Thousands of seals were crushed in moving ice or were prematurely forced to vacate whelping patches during ice breakup. The researchers found that years of weaker NAO and lighter ice cover showed higher death rates among seal pups.

While harp seals have adapted to the earlier spring melts in recent years by developing shorter 12-day nursing periods, it remains unclear if their population can sustain itself against sea ices losses over time.

"As a species, they're well suited to deal with natural short-term shifts in climate, but our research suggests they may not be well adapted to absorb the effects of short-term variability combined with longer-term climate change and other human influences such as hunting and by-catch," Johnston said.

It's estimated that up to 80 per cent of the seal pups died last year as a result of meager and thin ice, according to the department.

Johnston says the department has been aware of the phenomenon and its consequences for years, factoring it into assessments and the management plan for the annual seal hunts off northern Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

He says it may be years before the true impact of bad ice is seen in the overall population, which has risen over the years and now sits at just below eight million. "The one safety that this population has is that they're relatively long-living and they pup over a number of years," he said from St. John's, N.L. "So if you have one or two bad years, you still have lots of other years that are contributing to it."

A key unanswered question, he added, is whether seals will be able to respond to the long-term trend by moving to other, more stable ice habitats.

Recent reports that some harp seals are whelping in new breeding grounds off East Greenland indicate some shifting may be taking place, but thousands still return each year to traditional breeding grounds in the Gulf of St. Lawrence or along the Front, off Newfoundland, regardless of ice conditions.

“There’s only so much ice out there, and declines in the quantity and quality of it across the region, coupled with the earlier arrival of spring ice breakup, is literally leaving these populations on thin ice,” Johnston said. “It may take years of good ice and steady population gains to make up for the heavy losses sustained during the recent string of bad ice years in eastern Canada.”

Source:
Google News,"'Dramatic' loss of harp seals amid warming: study", accessed January 15, 2012
CTV News, "Lack of ice could be causing more seal deaths: study", accessed January 12, 2012
Summit County Citizens Voice, "Global warming: Harp seal habitat vanishing fast", by Bob Berwyn, accessed January 12, 2012

Obama bans uranium mining around Grand Canyon

2012-01-16T01:22:00.004-06:00

The Obama administration banned new uranium mining claims around the Grand Canyon for the next 20 years, a move hailed by conservationists on Monday as key to the president's environmental legacy but slammed by opponents as a job-killer.

The decision puts more than 1 million acres of public lands outside the Grand Canyon National Park off limits to all hard-rock mining for two decades, the longest moratorium allowed by law. Existing mining operations would continue.

"A withdrawal is the right approach for this priceless American landscape," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement. "We have been entrusted to care for and protect our precious environmental and cultural resources and we have chosen a responsible path that makes sense for this and future generations."

The National Mining Association expressed disappointment, but stopped short of announcing an immediate challenge to the decision.

Uranium claims on public land near the national park have risen in line with soaring prices for this mineral, from fewer than 1,000 a year in 2005 to more than 8,000 in 2009, though annual claims have declined slightly since then, according to figures from the Bureau of Land Management.

"One of the things President (Barack)Obama's going to be remembered for is protecting the Grand Canyon," said Jane Danowitz of the Pew Environment Group, a non-profit organization that has pushed for the mining moratorium.

"Despite considerable pushback from the industry and even some in Congress, he didn't punt and he didn't blink and he went and issued the longest moratorium that he could under his executive authority," Danowitz said in a telephone interview.

The Pew group, the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, Earthjustice, the Center for American Progress and other environmental and progressive groups applauded the decision as protecting the Colorado River watershed, which supplies drinking water for 25 million people.

OPPONENTS CALL IT A 'POWER-GRAB'

Industry groups, typified by the Institute for Energy Research, opposed the decision as a big-government move that will hurt consumers.

"This latest power-grab by federal regulators is another example of the Obama administration's willingness to use ideologically driven energy policies as a means to control the U.S. economy," the institute said after the announcement.

Members of Congress from Western states, including Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, denounced the decision as "a devastating blow to job creation in northern Arizona."

Representative Doc Hastings, a Republican from Washington state who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, accused the administration of "putting politics above American jobs and American energy security."

The main health risk from uranium mining is water contamination.

Grand Canyon tourism generates $687 million in annual revenue, according to the Outdoor Industry Association, and creates more than 12,000 full-time jobs, the University of Northern Arizona said in a 2005 study.

"Do you want mining in the vicinity of a tourist destination that's visited by 5 million people every year?" Danowitz said. "No, I think is the answer."

Carol Raulston, a spokeswoman for the National Mining Association, took issue with the decision and said the Interior Department's own analysis did not show environmental concerns with mining beyond the boundaries of the national park.

Raulston said the association was disappointed in the decision, and said no decision has been made on whether to challenge it. Any challenge would have to be made within 90 days of Salazar's announcement.

Source:
Reuters,"Obama bans uranium mining around Grand Canyon", by Deborah Zabarenko, accessed January 10, 2012

From the Inbox - Tell Obama adminstration to finalize the 54.5 mpg

2012-01-15T01:19:00.003-06:00

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January 11, 2012

Tell the Obama administration to finalize 54.5 mpg

Strong new fuel standards are not a done deal. Take action before February 13th.

The Obama administration has proposed a historic 54.5 miles per gallon fuel efficiency standard that will deliver enormous fuel savings to American drivers -- $4,400 per vehicle!

Under this new proposal, American drivers would collectively save $80 billion a year at the pump. We would make a significant dent in carbon emissions and drastically reduce our need for foreign oil. The new standard would mean that cars and trucks would achieve roughly double the fuel economy of the average vehicle on the road today.

Good for our economy and our environment -- let's make sure this historic proposal gets finalized! Show your support for the new fuel standards before the February 13th public comment deadline.

Some cars can already meet these standards, but most do not. This is a huge opportunity for American automakers. To remain competitive in the global marketplace, our automakers must make more fuel-efficient vehicles. These new standards will encourage investments in technology and produce new jobs in our domestic auto industry.

The new standards represent a giant leap forward, but we need your help to seal this deal. The new rule should be converted to a final, enforceable regulation.

What to do

Send a message, before the February 13th public comment deadline, telling the Obama administration to finalize the 54.5 mpg standard for cars and light trucks.

From the Inbox - Amazing Wolf Journey

2012-01-14T01:51:00.003-06:00

OR-7's journey could help determine the future of wolves in a key part of the American West.

Please donate now to help build on Defenders of Wildlife's more than 35 years of successful wolf recovery -- and support our work to ensure a safe and lasting future for America's wolves and other wildlife.

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Dear Supporter,

A lone wolf has become the first of its kind in California since the last known wolf was eliminated from the state in 1924.

Known to biologists as OR-7, he has wandered a winding trail, covering hundreds of miles from his original pack in eastern Oregon. His fate could help determine the future of wolves in a key part of the American West.

Right now, Defenders' staff biologists and wildlife advocates are assessing the best ways to ensure a safer future for wolves like OR-7. Please donate now to support these vital efforts.

OR-7's pioneering journey in search of a mate has brought him hundreds of miles to a state that hasn't seen wolves in nearly 90 years. And his story encompasses the struggle of wolves as they reclaim their place in their historic range across the American West.

Help Defenders make the West a safer place for wolves through our on-the-ground work to find commonsense solutions to keep wolves out of harm's way.

As wolves continue to disperse across the American West, there are some who are understandably wary of or hostile towards a predator that has not been seen in parts of the region since the early 20th Century.

That's why Defenders is working hard to ensure wolves continue to remain safe in their historic range. Our pioneering work with ranchers and livestock producers has saved lives -- of both wolves and livestock alike -- in the Northern Rockies and Northwest.

We've worked closely with state and local officials to enact Oregon's landmark wolf compensation and coexistence law -- one of the most balanced and innovative in the nation. Thanks to the help of our supporters, a balanced wolf recovery plan in Washington has been approved that will chart a course toward long-term recovery in the state.

Now we stand ready for the hard work ahead in California to ensure that wolves can safely coexist with humans and are accepted as part of the Golden State's natural heritage -- building on our more than 35 years of successes for wolves other parts of the American West.

Please support our fight to continue the incredible journey of wolf recovery in the American West.

If OR-7 or any other wolves defy the odds and establish a pack in California, it will be a milestone in wolf recovery. But it will only be the beginning of a struggle for a safe and lasting future.

By starting now to create partnerships and greater understanding -- when wolves are just beginning to reestablish themselves in their historic range -- we can lay the groundwork for ensuring that wolves can reclaim their place as an important part of a healthy ecosystem.

For wolves, recovery will be a long and treacherous journey -- but with your help, we can ensure these amazing animals will be around for future generations.

Sincerely,

Jamie Rappaport Clark
President

P.S. Make a secure tax-deductible donation online to help wolves and other wildlife. Or call 1-800-385-9712 to donate by phone.

Drought may be causing of Colo. aspen tree die-off

2012-01-13T01:43:00.010-06:00

A mysterious malady has hit Aspen’s namesake trees hard in recent years, killing off nearly one-fifth of Colorado’s aspens, according to statistics from the U.S. Forest Service. Forest ecologists have struggled to explain the widespread die-off, known as Sudden Aspen Decline (SAD), as it’s taken hold.

Aspen is a critical ecosystem in the mountains of Colorado according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife spokesman. Elk are probably the one species that are most visible and visibly dependent on the aspen community. So as aspen stands die off there is a potential for a decline in elk reproduction in those areas.

The Aspen Daily News reports that a new study from researchers at Stanford University and the University of Utah may provide a breakthrough in understanding the decline and how it kills trees.

The research, led by Stanford Ph.D. candidate William Anderegg, found that aspens have essentially dehydrated due to a drought that took hold of Colorado from 2000 to 2004. In a delayed reaction to the drought, they found, the systems that carry water through aspen stands broke down.

The research found that aspens have essentially dehydrated due to a drought that took hold of Colorado from 2000 to 2004. In a delayed reaction to the drought, the systems that carry water through aspen stands broke down.

"If they can't transport water, they're kind of screwed," said Duncan Smith. of the University of Utah, who worked on Anderegg's project and co-authored a paper on it released this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Researchers pruned dying aspens and studied them in the lab, and listened to their inner workings with microphones as they died.

"Just as there are a number of ways people can die and you can't always pinpoint it, it's the same with trees," said Stanford Ph.D. candidate William Anderegg, who led the research.

Researchers found that in response to drought, the trees were developing embolisms — much like common human blood vessel blockages — which broke down their ability to move water.

In trees affected by the decline, an average of 70 percent of the vascular system (at right: credit: Britannica) was blocked. That's up from an average of 17 percent in healthy aspens. The trees, researchers found, fought against dehydration for a few years after the drought but lost and eventually died.

The researchers concluded that drought caused widespread failure of water transport systems in the trees. Their conclusion is a foreboding sign for Aspen's signature trees in the age of global warming.

Anderegg's team studied climate records in 51 different aspen-filled areas in Western Colorado from 1900 to 2009. The period from 2000 to 2004 marked the most severe drought in the entire period.

"For aspens, hot temperatures tend to be really stressful," Anderegg said. "Climate change and global warming will be a real problem for aspen trees anywhere."

Online: Aspen study: http://www.pnas.org/content/109/1/233

Aspen FAQ sheet from USDA Forest Service: Sudden Aspen Decline in Colorado

Source:
Chron.com,"Drought may be causing of Colo. aspen tree die-off", accessed January 9, 2012
Aspen Daily News, "Study finds cause of Sudden Aspen Decline", accessed January 9, 2012

'Frog song' may help understand climate change

2012-01-12T01:42:00.010-06:00

If not kissing the frog, at least appreciating their 'croak' may lead to some headway in to climate research . For the first time frog song is being monitored using automated sound recorders by Indian scientists to track the impact of climate change on amphibians in the forests of southern Western Ghats. The methodology for tracking their call has recently been standardized by researchers.

Principal investigators of the study were struck with the idea when three of them were 100 feet above the ground on a rainy day, sitting on a tree shelter for canopy research at Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. They heard frog song and decided to investigate how it could relate to climate.

Since frogs and toads respond to changes in atmospheric moisture and temperature, the team decided on analyzing the sound recordings of frog song and co-relate it with readings from climate data loggers.

"Amphibians have long been considered to be the barometers of the climate. Any subtle variations in the atmospheric conditions like moisture availability and temperature is likely to have profound impacts on them' said Seshadri.KS, who is heading the project and is part of the team that won the Conservation Leadership Program-Save Our Species with senior fellow at Ashoka Trust for Research and Ecology, Ganesh T.

The team is using programmable automated sound recording systems called 'Song Meter' and coupling it with an automated weather data logger device (at left: basic Song Meter SM2 unit which can be coupled with other units - such as weather gatherer - to fit one's needs) . These units are set in remote forest areas and programmed to switch on or off at specified intervals . During the South West and North East monsoons , of the past two years, they have been able to listen to the forest at day and night.

"Amphibians are facing unprecedented declines world over. This has largely been attributed to loss of habitat , fungal infections and global climate change. We are lacking the big picture in India . So long term monitoring may help," he said.

Seshadri explained that the frog song can be the unique element that will help scientists in the future. "For example, some frogs vocalize in a wide window of time while some, are active for a very short window of time, may be for a few weeks. If the climate change predictions are true, amphibians should be negatively affected. By monitoring the vocalizing activity , we can come up with an activity calendar for each of the indicator species. Using this information, we can discern the changes in observed patterns and interpret it in the context of climatic variations . This is the goal of the project," he added.

In the process of documenting various frog species in KMTR, the team consisting of Seshadri, R Ganesan and S D Biju of Delhi University recently spotted the bubble nest frog (left), which was last spotted 136 years ago. They also spotted Beddome's toad (lower right) that was seen almost a decade ago.

While the monitoring process is long-term , the methodology has been standardized and the initial results of their study were shared at the International Congress for Conservation Biology in New Zealand held in December. The results would also be published soon next year.

Source:
Times of India,"'Frog song' may help understand climate change", accessed January 7, 2012

Prehistoric bones: A cottage industry in Siberia

2012-01-11T01:06:00.011-06:00

It’s hard to imagine, looking out at the frozen expanses of Yakutia, in North Eastern Siberia, that 30,000 or so years ago, so many animal species, now extinct, roamed the Pleistocene grasslands. From 12-foot tall, five-ton wooly mammoth bulls to tiny rodents, an Ice Age hunter would have found as many as 100 animals in each square mile he tracked, at least according to Sergei Zimov, an Ice Age expert, geo-physicist and guide.

Today, Siberia’s thick icy crust, or permafrost, which has held the remains of predators and herbivores alike in an epochal deep freeze, is beginning to melt. And the bones of prehistoric rhinos, bison, reindeer, horses and mammoths are rising to Yakutia’s surface at an amazing rate.

One literally trips over bones on a short stroll along the banks of the Kolyma River. The downside, of course, is the attendant release of so much CO2, a greenhouse gas, as this melting permafrost exposes a 150-foot thick layer of plant and animal remains.

There is, however, an upside to all this: a burgeoning cottage industry in the finding and selling of prehistoric bones. Russia has recognized that the recovered tusks from wooly mammoths, now surfacing as the permafrost melts, is a good source for ivory that can be legally and ethically sold in the world market.

Elephant conservationists are hoping that the sustainable mammoth ivory trade continues to flourish and will eventually squeeze out the illegal trade in elephant tusks altogether. (At left: seized elephant ivory tusks from Africa)

''The large quantities of mammoth tusks imported into Hong Kong, which are mostly sent to the Chinese mainland for carving, probably reduce demand for elephant ivory from Africa,'' a report, in Pachyderm, a specialist journal, concluded. ''This may in the long run lower elephant ivory prices and reduce incentives to poach elephants.''

Zimov says that 30 years ago, only a handful of Russian "bone" men – serious businessmen - were attracted to the adventurous lifestyle, spending their summers combing Pleistocene beaches and valleys. Today, at least 1,000 bone hunters work throughout Russia, with several dozen focusing on Siberia’s permafrost zone, where the best prizes are to be found.

Professional hunters like Feodor Shidlovsky and Alexander Votagin are at the top of the bone chain. Shidlovsky has arguably the biggest mammoth bone collection in Russia, displaying them in his own natural history museum in Moscow. The money he makes from the sale of mammoth bones goes into his exhibitions, the funding of artists who fashion jewelry (at right: mammoth broach from ivory tusks) from the ancient bone, and scientific expeditions.

Every summer, Votagin leads his team to Dvarii Yar – or Windy Cliffs – a remote stretch of Kolyma riverbank that has given up the richest finds of prehistoric bones over the past decade. Located about 400 miles north of Zimov’s isolated science station in Cherskiy - Yakutia’s main airport and hub - the so-called New Siberian Islands (all underwater in Pleistocene times) are now a treasure trove of bones.

Local hunters collect more than 20 tons of mammoth, rhino and bison bones a year, selling most of them to local dealers in Cherskiy – presumably to sell them to tourists.

The ban on ivory-implemented since the '80s to stop poachers from killing the elephants simply for their tusks-does not apply to the fossilized mammoth tusks. Trade in dead mammoth ivory is legal and has been for 300 years because it does not threaten any living species. This ivory is found in mammoth tusks that have been preserved in ice and permafrost of Arctic regions in Siberia, North Canada or Alaska.

As the ice packs and glaciers have receded, more and more tusks have been found. Tusks have been unearthed in road construction or spotted from a plane in melting river banks. Despite the large amounts of ivory being found in Siberia recently, mammoth ivory is rare and costly because mammoths have been extinct for millennia. It is also a nonrenewable resource (There are after all only so many mammoths buried in the permafrost) and will probably be depleted in the next decade by the commercial trade.

Unlike elephant ivory which is primarily off-white, woolly mammoth ivory is unique in that it has many different colors including tan, brown and sometimes blue (see at right). The colors are a result of thousands of years of mineralization. No two tusks are the same color. So no two mammoth jewelry pieces can be exactly the same.

Mammoth ivory jewelry is experiencing a growing demand in the consumer market. Michelle Obama (at left in ivory bracelets and earrings), America's first lady, has been photographed wearing jewelery made from mammoth ivory

Why can prehistoric bones be such a very lucrative catch? While fishermen and hunters now augment their meager incomes with up to $10 per mammoth tooth or ivory shard, the more professional - and lucky – hunters can fetch more than $80,000 for a pair of mammoth tusks in good condition. Zimov keeps such a pair in the living room of his science station cum abode, but isn’t tempted to sell them.

"These are like my family," he told us. "Would you sell your brothers for $80,000?" In fact, Zimov has never sold any bones he’s collected over his decades of combing Yakutia for clues to global warming. On one such outing, he and his son Nikita collected some 1,200 bones – which he thinks is a world record - all which remained of a pack of mammoths and all within a few hundred yards of beach. For amusement, they arranged their bone hoard into the shapes of mammoths, horses and bison.

Until the mass, mysterious extinction of so many Ice Age animals took place - triggered, probably, by extreme change of climate and habitat - the so-called "Mammoth Steppe Eco-system" (left) chugged along like a glacier, both efficient and self-sustaining. Mammoths knocked over heat-absorbing trees, grasses grew, and dozens of herbivore species not only grazed on those grasses, but fertilized them too.

Though that eco-system died some 15,000 years ago, mammoths and other Pleistocene throwbacks are helping to maintain today’s human population, with a $5 prehistoric bison jaw here, a $10 wooly rhino knee bone there or $1,000 piece of wooly mammoth tusk, buried right under your feet.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source:
NBC Nightly News,"Prehistoric bones: A cottage industry in Siberia", by Jim Maceda, accessed January 6, 2012
The Age, "Finding ethical ivory proves to be a mammoth task", accessed January 6, 2012
Luxist, "The Fashion Statement: Woolly Mammoth Ivory is Huge", accessed January 6, 2012

First hybrid sharks found off Australia

2012-01-10T01:09:00.008-06:00

Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world's first hybrid sharks in Australian waters, a potential sign the predators were adapting to cope with climate change.

The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world, said lead researcher Jess Morgan.

"It's very surprising because no one's ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination," Morgan, from the University of Queensland, told AFP. "This is evolution in action."

Changing sea temperatures

Colin Simpfendorfer, a partner in Morgan's research from James Cook University, said initial studies suggested the hybrid species was relatively robust, with a number of generations

***Dr. Jess Morgan, James Cook University, Australia***

discovered across 57 specimens.

The find was made during cataloging work off Australia's east coast when Jess Morgan (right) said genetic testing showed certain sharks to be one species when physically they looked to be another.

The Australian black-tip is slightly smaller than its common cousin and can only live in tropical waters, but its hybrid offspring have been found 2,000km down the coast, in cooler seas.

Potentially, it means the Australian black-tip could be adapting to ensure its survival as sea temperatures change because of global warming.

"If it hybridizes with the common species it can effectively shift its range further south into cooler waters, so the effect of this hybridizing is a range expansion," Morgan said. "It's enabled a species restricted to the tropics to move into temperate waters."

Climate change and human fishing are some of the potential triggers being investigated by the team, with further genetic mapping also planned to examine whether it was an ancient process just discovered or a more recent phenomenon.

Survival of the fittest

If the hybrid was found to be stronger than its parent species - a literal survival of the fittest - Simpfendorfer said it may eventually outlast its so-called pure-bred predecessors.

"We don't know whether that's the case here, but certainly we know that they are viable, they reproduce and that there are multiple generations of hybrids now that we can see from the genetic road map that we've generated from these animals," he said. "Certainly it appears that they are fairly fit individuals."

The hybrids were extraordinarily abundant, accounting for up to 20% of black-tip populations in some areas, but Morgan said that didn't appear to be at the expense of their single-breed parents, adding to the mystery.

Simpfendorfer said the study, published late last month in Conservation Genetics, could challenge traditional ideas of how sharks had and were continuing to evolve.

"We thought we understood how species of sharks have separated, but what this is telling us is that in reality we probably don't fully understand the mechanisms that keep species of shark separate," he said. "And in fact, this may be happening in more species than these two."

Source:
Capetown News 24,"First hybrid sharks found off Australia", accessed January 8, 2012

Climate change in Scotland ‘to kill the curlew’

2012-01-09T01:16:00.010-06:00

New research suggests that the iconic curlew will no longer be linked to Scotland’s wild moors and that the curlew will struggle to survive the impacts of climate change.

The curlew, easily identified by its long curved bill and distinctive trill-like call, is the largest of Scotland’s wading birds and is commonly found in the southern uplands and east Highlands around moors and estuaries.

However, if predictions of a 4-degree Celsius increase in global temperature by 2080 come true, the British Trust for Ornithology has calculated the species could decline in number in the UK by two-thirds.

They have also calculated the likely impact on the meadow pipit, a small songbird common in upland areas. It would drop in numbers by more than a third according to the BTO’s study.

In contrast, two species most common in more southerly parts of the UK, although still seen in Scotland, would see numbers rocket. The green woodpecker, the largest of Britain’s woodpeckers, would see its population rise by more than 1,000 per cent from the 24,200 breeding pairs in the UK today.

Also, the nuthatch, a bird that looks like a small woodpecker and is mainly seen in the south with occasional sightings in Scotland, would see its numbers soar by 190 per cent by 2080.

James Pearce-Higgins, head of population ecology and modelling research for the BTO, said: “Climate change is already affecting our bird life. If future projections of climate change are realized, then the observed trends we have seen – of southerly distributed species tending to increase in abundance and northerly distributed species tending to decline – are likely to continue and become increasingly apparent. While for many of us this may mean we see some exciting new bird species in the countryside around us, for others it may mean the tragic loss of some of our iconic northern species.”

He added that, so far, the predictions were showing signs of coming true.

“At a European level, species which models suggest should decline in response to climate change have indeed tended to decline, while those predicted to benefit from climate change have tended to increase in abundance. These changes also seem to be occurring in the UK.”

As well as predicting changes in species of birds in the UK, the BTO is interested in measuring the impact on the abundance of each species and how this might be affected by climate change.

The green woodpecker and nuthatch (left), meadow pipit and curlew, were the first examples they looked at. The organization now plans to extend the work to cover a wider range of species.

The research shows that under a “high emissions scenario”, where global temperatures rise by 4 degrees Celsius by 2080, the curlew could drop in numbers by 66 per cent. By 2050, under this scenario, it would decline by 35 per cent. The meadow pipit would see its numbers fall by more than a third by 2080 and by 19 per cent by 2050.

Source:
Scotsman.com,"Climate change in Scotland ‘to kill the curlew’", by Jenny Fyall, accessed January 5, 2012

From the Inbox - Oil Disaster Looms for Polar Bears

2012-01-08T01:40:00.002-06:00

Now comes your first opportunity in 2012 to speak out for our wildlife and wild places. Please take action today and help protect polar bears, whales and other marine wildlife from risky offshore drilling.

Risky drilling in Arctic waters threatens America's struggling polar bears.

Urge federal officials to stop their reckless pursuit of risky offshore oil drilling.

The deadline for action is 3:00 PM (Eastern)Monday, January 9th, 2012.

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Dear Supporter,

Imagine it: Millions of gallons of oil spilled in one of the most fragile marine environments -- home to polar bears, walrus, bowhead whales and more.

What's worse, there's currently no adequate plan for cleaning up a disaster of this magnitude in the remote and treacherous Arctic waters.

So why is the Obama Administration pushing forward with risky drilling in this fragile habitat?

Take action now: Urge federal officials not to forget the Deepwater Horizon disaster -- and to stop their reckless pursuit of risky offshore oil drilling.

Right now, the Obama Administration is proposing a 5-year offshore leasing plan that puts our shores at risk of another Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster. The plan would open the door to increased drilling in remote stretches of fragile Arctic waters that America's struggling polar bears depend on for survival.

But it's not just the sensitive seas of the Arctic. In the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama Administration wants to continue to expand risky drilling before it has completely assessed the causes of the 2010 Gulf oil disaster and its effects on sea turtles, dolphins and other wildlife that live there.

Speak out now for sea turtles, polar bears and other marine wildlife. Urge the Obama Administration to stop risky and dangerous drilling off our coasts.

After millions of barrels of oil flowed into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon well -- killing thousands of birds and hundreds of sea turtles -- President Obama promised that drilling under his watch would be cleaner and safer.

But Gulf drilling continues with little meaningful environmental review -- and his administration is setting the stage for increased drilling in the fragile Arctic Ocean.

Our marine wildlife needs your voice. Please take action today before the Monday, January 9th deadline.

Sincerely,

Sierra Weaver
Staff Attorney
Defenders of Wildlife

From the Inbox - A Great Year for National Parks!

2012-01-07T01:25:00.008-06:00

Dear Friend of the National Parks,

Happy New Year! On behalf of the board and staff of NPCA, I thank you for helping protect America’s national parks in 2011.

It was a successful year for the parks because of supporters like you.

From the historic Civil War battlefields of Virginia and Pennsylvania to the vast reaches of Grand Canyon and Olympic, our national parks are better protected than they were just a year ago!

Here are our greatest park victories of 2011:

Thanks to NPCA's persistent advocacy, the biggest dam removal project in U.S. history is now underway in Olympic National Park, restoring the Elwha River and soon welcoming the return of spawning salmon.
After months of debate, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board finally denied the application for a license to open a casino within a half mile of Gettysburg National Military Park.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) agreed to phase out 18 units at dirty, coal-fired power plants and install modern pollution controls on three dozen additional units by 2018, which will improve air quality in national parks like Great Smoky Mountains and Mammoth Cave.
Although a final Record of Decision is expected soon, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that his department would protect one million acres of federal lands around Grand Canyon National Park by banning the area from new uranium mining claims for the next 20 years.
Using the Antiquities Act for the first time in his presidency, President Barack Obama proclaimed Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia, our country's newest national monument in November.
NPCA achieved another major victory for air quality by securing an agreement from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure that all 50 states reduce air pollution in our national parks. Adequate pollution reduction plans will result in healthier air for people and parks.
With pressure from more than 30,000 activists, Walmart announced that it would abandon plans to build a superstore on a privately owned portion of the Wilderness Battlefield adjacent to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
Thanks to NPCA's supporters, the Wyoming State Legislature approved plans for the U.S. Department of the Interior to purchase state trust lands located within the boundaries of Grand Teton National Park, protecting the park's iconic vistas and vital wildlife habitat.
Last April, nine representatives from local tribes and state and federal agencies finalized an agreement allowing bison from Yellowstone National Park to freely migrate onto 75,000 acres of additional habitat just north of the park.

With only four years left until the National Park Service celebrates its centennial in 2016, it is more important than ever that we continue to advocate for adequate funding and protections for our national parks. You stood with us during a prolonged funding battle this year, and 2012 is shaping up to be just as tough.

We hope you’ll continue to stand with us as we work to ensure the national parks receive the funding and protections they need to continue to tell the stories of our diverse natural and cultural history.

Rest assured that NPCA will be working hard this year to protect and enhance these awe-inspiring places. And as you know, we can’t do it without you!

You can help today by liking NPCA on Facebook and following us on Twitter so you’ll be sure to never miss a breaking opportunity to take action to help protect the parks.

Thanks for everything you do for our national parks, and all the best for the new year!

Gratefully,

Thomas C. Kiernan
President

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Global warming threatens France’s precious truffle

2012-01-06T01:28:00.006-06:00

Truffle farmers have never had to worry about demand. It is the supply side that is worrying, with global warming an ever more present threats to their success.

“You don’t market the truffle, you manage its scarcity,” said Jean-Charles Savignac, president of the French Truffle Growers Federation (FFT).

The 2010-11 season’s output was a meager 25 tons, a severe shortfall blamed on a lack of water, which is vital for the Tuber melanosporum, (right) the scientific name for the black truffle cherished by gourmets.

“If we had supplied 100 times more, it would all be sold,” Savignac said, recalling annual harvests of 200 to 300 tons in the 1960s, “sold without the slightest difficulty.”

He said a century ago output reached a “somewhat mythical 1,000 tons,” and still found takers despite a smaller world population and far more difficult delivery means.

Truffles are underground mushrooms that grow between the roots of trees. The main difference between truffles and standard mushrooms is that mushrooms grow above ground in the dark, and truffles grow underground near tree roots.

Truffles have been prized by those with discerning palates at least since Roman times. The Romans served black and white truffles as appetizers and in salads seasoned with various herbs and garum (fermented fish sauce). Then, as now, a gift of a truffle gave honor to the recipient and to the giver.

Truffles have been collected in some of the same areas for over 2000 years. Truffle spots are handed down through the generations. They have been marketed where-ever they could be shipped. Due to the limited amount produced, truffles have long been considered the domain of the rich.

Current explanations for the ever-shrinking supply begin with the rural exodus that emptied the French countryside after World War II.

The truffle’s natural habitat was affected as farmland gave way to natural reforestation or bush, according to truffle expert Pierre Sourzat, who added that “sometimes very effective competitors” — other fungi that colonize tree roots — encroached on its territory.

Weather variations are no help. “The truffle, which is very sensitive to water, is something of a marker of climatic changes,” Savignac said.

In the summer of 2003, when a devastating heatwave gripped France, “three quarters of natural truffles vanished,” Sourzat said. “In the plantations, two-thirds to three-quarters of the trees stopped producing the following years. Other mushrooms that are more adapted to drought beat out the truffle (left).”

The FFT held a seminar in 2008 on the future of the sector in the face of global warming. “We didn’t realize it right away, but the diminishing production is certainly affected by this phenomenon,” Savignac said.

But the truffle sector is fighting back.

“Every year, we plant 300,000 to 400,000 trees in France, or around 1,000 more hectares (2,500 acres)” dedicated to the truffle, Savignac said. With such a larger park to rely on, “in the worst years we can reach an output of around 20 tons instead of the 10 tons we would get if nothing were done,” he said.

The sector also benefits from regional government subsidies, for example to fund experiments on improving production techniques.

In the Midi-Pyrenees region, subsidies help truffle growers plant around 100 hectares each year of pubescent oaks, green oaks or hazelnut trees whose roots are impregnated with truffle spores, said Guy Delher, head of the regional federation of truffle growers.

However, it takes a good decade for the plantations to begin producing in significant quantities.

In Lalbenque, the town of some 1,600 souls where the main truffle wholesaler of southwestern France is located, it took only a few minutes for buyers to snap up some 60 kilograms (130 pounds) on offer by the truffle farmers, most of them landowners for whom the black diamond is a source of extra income.

Lalbenque conducts the first sale of the season, and the precious tuber went for between 400 and 600 euros per kilo wholesale, or 1,000 euros ($1,320) per kilo retail.

The region’s truffle growers hope this season will be better than last year’s, when only 500 kilos of the coveted Causses du Quercy truffles — which connoisseurs say has an “initial nose of strawberry jam” — were produced.

Source:
KhaleeJ Times,"Global warming threatens France’s precious truffle", accessed January 3, 2012
Black Diamond French Truffles, "All About Truffles", accessed January 3, 2012
Physorg.com, "Global warming threatens France's precious truffle", accessed January 3, 2012
Canterbury Truffles, "Growing Truffles", accessed January 3, 2012

Spending cuts threaten Scotland's endangered species

2012-01-05T01:44:00.023-06:00

Major projects to promote rare and endangered species such as red squirrels, sea eagles and beavers are being threatened by deep spending cuts imposed on Scotland's main nature conservation agency.

Senior executives in Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) are discussing proposals to heavily cut or even abandon some projects after Scottish ministers warned that its budget would be cut by at least 20% over several years in favor of other policy priorities.

The cuts, which led to a 10% budget cut this year alone, could also have a significant impact on programs to combat highly damaging invasive species such as signal crayfish, American mink, rhododendron (right) and Japanese knotweed.

One source said the scale of the spending cuts was deeply worrying for the agency. "If we cut back now we're genuinely not investing in the future. That would have a major negative impact on the future," he said.

Until now, SNH and other environment agencies have been largely protected from the swinging cuts imposed on Natural England and other English agencies by the UK government during the recession.

The Scottish National party government under Alex Salmond had pledged to protect Scotland's natural heritage, but John Swinney, the Scottish finance secretary, is now diverting money into other front-line services.

SNH expects to get its actual budget for next year in January but is braced for cuts of up to 10%, losing a further £6m in funding.

***Freshwater pearl mussels @BBC***

The agency fears Scotland could fail to meet its legal obligations on the environment, leading it to face court proceedings from the European commission for breaching habitat and wildlife directives.

Many final decisions on which programs will be worst hit, including the major program to protect the UK's last significant red squirrel population from a critical decline, have yet to be made. All the species affected are on SNH's species action framework of the 22 most significant and threatened animals, plants and invertebrates in Scotland.

But officials at SNH have secured two of the most crucial projects: to protect freshwater pearl mussels and an exhaustive study at Langholm in the Borders into hen harriers (left, courtesy BBC) and grouse moors.

It is understood the SNH has now decided not to fund any future expansion of the program to reintroduce sea eagles (right) across Scotland, once the current five-year project in eastern Scotland ends. The current project to release the birds on the east coast will now get only one year's extra funding, the agency confirmed.

Plans to find another site to release European beavers (left) in Scotland once the current five-year project at Knapdale in Argyll is complete – a much less remote site at Insh Marshes in the Cairngorm National Park has been identified – are also vulnerable to being shelved.

The program to combat the spread of signal crayfish, which cause significant damage to rivers, is "up for grabs", while cutting off funding to clear rhododendron and knotweed (right) choking some islands and Highland areas could mean "in the longer term we're going to lose scores of native plants", the source said.

SNH is also reviewing its funding for the major multi-agency project to protect the UK's last major strongholds of the red squirrel in southern Scotland and the Highlands, by intensively culling grey squirrels, which carry a pox fatal to reds and out-compete their smaller cousins for food.

Funding for Saving Scotland's Red Squirrels ends in April 2012. An SNH spokesman confirmed the agency was deliberating the issue: "We are currently considering how best to support red squirrel conservation in future." He added that funding for mink eradication, a project which has now spread across western Scotland and the Hebrides, was secure only until March 2013.

He confirmed its budgets were under severe pressure. "Operating with a reduced budget will of course affect the amount we can do as an organization," the spokesman said. "Like other public bodies we will need to focus on the highest priorities, where we can make the most positive difference and where we can deliver the most public benefits."

Jonny Hughes, head of policy at the Scottish Wildlife Trust, which plays a lead role in the beaver and red squirrel projects, said it would be potentially disastrous if funding for the red squirrel project were cut heavily and it needed proper funding to ensure recent gains were not lost entirely.

"We want to support SNH in making these difficult choices: if there's less money around, we want to put them into critical priorities," Hughes said.

Those included the beaver and red squirrels projects. Recent opinion polls had shown that red squirrels were now seen as a particularly iconic Scottish species, as they are largely extinct in England.

"In terms of Scotland's reputation, in terms of safeguarding its natural environment, it's crucial," Hughes said. "Both of them, in the context of the UK, Europe and globally, to give up a high profile species conservation program like red squirrels would be silly both in conservation terms and reputation terms."

Endangered and invasive species

Red squirrel

One of the most iconic and threatened British mammals, the red squirrel, is under intense pressure from grey squirrels (left), which carry a fatal disease, and habitat loss. Scotland is now home to at least 75% of the UK's 160,000 surviving reds; a major project to kill grey squirrels in the Borders and Highlands is regarded as essential to protect them. The grey squirrel is having such a profound impact on British wildlife that the IUCN have now listed it on their list of the 100 worst invasive species globally and several other conservation groups are calling for radical steps to be taken to prevent irreversible damage being done. (At right: distribution map of grey and red squirrels in UK).

Beaver

Hunted to extinction in the UK more than 300 years ago, three families of European beaver are living in the wild in Knapdale, Argyll, in the first official project of several being planned across the UK. The European beaver inhabits riparian broadleaved woodland bordering freshwater standing waters or slow-moving streams. It occurs from western Europe eastwards to the Chinese-Mongolian border region. The total world population is 634,000-732,000 animals but this is heavily weighted towards eastern Europe. A wetlands reserve in the Cairngorms (left) was earmarked for the next Scottish scheme; government funding for that is now in severe doubt.

Signal crayfish

The North American signal crayfish, (right) introduced to the UK, is regarded as one of the most destructive "alien" species. First spotted in Scotland in 1995, it has a "significant adverse impact" on rivers and native species by burrowing into banks, destroying river plants and eating native fish and invertebrates. They were first formally recorded in Scotland during 1995 and have since been recorded in 15 sites. These range from Galloway in the south to Inverness-shire in the north.

Rhododendron

Once a much admired ornamental plant for Highland estates, rhododendron have spread aggressively on many Hebridean islands and west coast areas, chocking out native plants and dominating woodland. Introduced from Spain 250 years ago, the plant has proven very expensive and hard to remove: it can regrow from suckers, seeds or root fragments.

Sea eagles

Hunted to extinction in Britain by the early 20th century and also known as white-tailed eagles, a major sea eagle (right) reintroduction program in Scotland has been extremely successful: after first being released on Rum in the inner Hebrides in 1975, there are now an estimated 57 breeding pairs across Scotland. The UK distribution is currently confined to the west coast of Scotland where it was reintroduced over a period of years, from 1975 to 1998. Most of Scotland's white-tailed eagle population is now found on Mull, Skye, Small Isles and the Outer Hebrides. It continues to spread its range with some pairs on the West Highland mainland coast and expansion more widely in the Inner Hebrides.

Source:
The Guardian, , "Spending cuts threaten Scotland's endangered species", by Severin Carrell, accessed January 2, 2012
Conservation Issues, "The Grey Squirrel in Britain", accessed January 2, 2012

Record ivory seizures point to surge in elephant poaching

2012-01-04T01:17:00.003-06:00

As the year draws to a close, TRAFFIC warns that 2011 has seen a record number of large ivory seizures globally, reflecting the sharp rise in illegal ivory trade underway since 2007. This large amount of ivory seizures point to a surge in elephant poaching in Africa to meet Asian demand for tusks for use in jewellery and ornaments, according to TRAFFIC, an international conservation group.

Although official confirmation of the volume of ivory involved in some cases has not yet been registered, what is clear is the dramatic increase in the number of large-scale seizures, over 800 kg in weight, that have taken place in 2011—at least 13 of them.

This compares to six large seizures in 2010, whose total weight was just under 10 tons. A conservative estimate of the weight of ivory seized in the 13 largest seizures in 2011 puts the figure at more than 23 tons, a figure that probably represents some 2,500 elephants, possibly more.

"A conservative estimate of the weight of ivory seized in the 13 largest seizures in 2011 puts the figure at more than 23 tons, a figure that probably represents some 2,500 elephants, possibly more," it said.

The most recent case to come to light was of 727 ivory pieces discovered on 21st December concealed inside a container at the port of Mombasa, Kenya, and destined for Asia.

Over the last 12 months, most large seizures of illicit ivory from Africa have originated from either Kenyan or Tanzanian ports.

“In 23 years of compiling ivory seizure data for ETIS, this is the worst year ever for large ivory seizures—2011 has truly been a horrible year for elephants,” said Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC’s Elephant expert.

Tom Milliken, who is based in Zimbabwe and manages Traffic's Elephant Trade Information System, said 2011 was the worst year for large seizures he had seen in the more than two decades he had been running the database.

The poaching and illegal trade were consequences of China's investment drive into Africa to secure the mineral and energy resources it needed to fuel its economic growth, he said.

"We've reached a point in Africa's history where there are more Asian nationals on the continent than ever before. They have contacts with the end-use market and now they are at the source in Africa.

"This is all adding up to an unprecedented assault on elephants and other wildlife.".

Milliken said some of the ivory that was making its way to illicit markets could be coming from African government stockpiles from previous seizures but the trade numbers and data from other wildlife monitors pointed to a rise in elephant killings.

"The trade data suggest that thousands of elephants are being killed a year … I think central Africa has been brutally affected, especially the Democratic Republic of the Congo," he said.

Milliken said elephant poaching was also taking place in Zimbabwe, Zambia, northern Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya.

A global ban that was placed on the ivory trade in 1989 was widely credited with stemming a relentless slaughter of African elephants in countries such as Kenya. Occasional auctions from African government stockpiles have since been sanctioned.

Most of the illegal African ivory ends up in China or Thailand, according to Traffic. Ivory is used to make jewellery and art carvings.

Estimates of Africa's elephant population vary widely from 400,000 to 700,000. Some southern African states such as Botswana have large and growing populations and in South Africa swelling elephant numbers have raised concerns that they are damaging the environment in enclosed reserves.

Elsewhere the situation is far more bleak. Poaching is rampant in Congo's lawless regions.

Source:
The Guardian,"Record ivory seizures point to surge in elephant poaching", accessed December 29, 2011
Traffic, "2011: "Annus horribilis" for African Elephants, says TRAFFIC", accessed December 29, 2011
Science News, "Record number of ivory seizures in 2011: WWF", accessed December 29, 2011

Girl Missing in Natural Disaster:Erosion Hits Famous German Coastal Cliffs

2012-01-03T01:49:00.001-06:00

A 10-year-old girl is missing following a landslide at the famous chalk cliffs on the German island of Rügen, a popular destination for tourists. Local officials are blaming the recent increase in cliff falls on erosion caused by fluctuating weather conditions and rising sea levels.

Forever immortalized in canvas by painter Caspar David Friedrich, the chalk cliffs on the German island of Rügen have been a major tourist draw for two centuries. In recent years, however, the cliffs have suffered from major erosion. Now, following a landslide that took down part of a cliff near the Kap Arkona cape on Monday afternoon, a 10-year-old girl is missing.

The landslide struck the girl, her mother and a sister. Emergency workers were able to rescue the seriously injured mother and lightly injured sister, who were taken to a hospital. More than 100 rescue workers continued through the night searching for the young girl, who they believe is buried beneath the chalk sludge. With low temperatures, local officials said the chances of finding the child alive were slim.

The family had been walking along the beach below the the 35-meter-high cliffs (115 feet) on Monday afternoon when the landslide happened. At the time, near gale-force winds had been reported in the area.

Rising Sea Levels, Weather Fluctuations

In recent years, several large chunks of the famous cliffs have been destroyed by landslides, including the cliff landscape painted by Friedrich, leading to the frequent closure of the popular beach below. The most recent and largest fall to date happened in August. At the time, German geologist Ingolf Stodian of the Jasmund National Park, which is responsible for the Rügen chalk cliffs, told German news agency dapd that he believed sharp fluctuations in the weather in recent years, with long dry periods and then long periods of extreme rain, had made the cliffs unstable.

However, experts also believe that a rise in the sea level could be worsening the erosion. During the past 200 years, the sea level in the Baltic Sea (map of Rügen and area at left) has risen by 28 centimeters (11 inches). This has caused the foot of the slope, which helps to support the cliffs, to diminish in size over the decades.

Source:
Spiegel Online International,"Girl Missing in Natural Disaster:Erosion Hits Famous German Coastal Cliffs ", accessed December 28, 2011
Soft.net, "Landslide Hits Famous German Coastal Cliffs - 1 missing", accessed December 28, 2011

City birders spot climate change impact

2012-01-02T01:09:00.002-06:00

A Californian hummingbird is settling down in Burnaby, likely a reflection of climate change, according to a local birdwatcher.

"This is an example of a bird that's increasing its range but also probably (in response) to climate warming," said George Clulow, local organizer for the annual Christmas Bird Count. "The winters are warm, and it's able to survive."

The species in question is Anna's hummingbird, a fuchsia-throated fowl not much larger than a ping-pong ball. According to Clulow, the species has been moving north from California for about three decades. During the past 15 years, they have been found in the Vancouver area but only close to the ocean.

"Now, they really seem to be moving away from that narrow coastal strip into areas like Burnaby," he said.

Clulow's comments came following the annual Christmas Bird Count. Every winter, volunteers conduct a census of winter birds, counting and cataloging species they spot on a designated day. Citizen scientists across the Americas participate, and conservation groups and the National Audubon Society use the results. Clulow, a retired teacher, organizes a team for the Burnaby Lake and Deer Lake area and has been involved in the count for more than two decades. He's been an avid birder for more than 40 years.
Anna's hummingbird was first spotted in Burnaby in 2008. This year's count noted only two, but the bird seems to be firmly established in Burnaby, Clulow said.

"The two we recorded this year were not found at garden feeders but away from houses in Deer Lake Park, which suggests they are now becoming well adapted to winter conditions in Burnaby," he said.

On average, there are 58 species spotted in the Burnaby Lake and Deer Lake area, but this year's count noted 64.

Numbers for the area's Northwestern crow (left) are down. Burnaby is home to what's very likely the province's largest crow roost. Every night, thousands of Lower Mainland crows cross the skies to sleep, huddled together in the trees along Still Creek in the Willingdon Business Park area. Last year's bird count listed 23,000 crows, but this year, Clulow only counted an estimated 18,000. But the drop reflected how hard they were to count, he said.

"They proved a little difficult to count this year because of the direction they took flying into the roost," he said.

The only new species added to the count was a single horned grebe found at Burnaby Lake. Some common species were noticeably absent this year: the pileated woodpecker (right), Cooper's hawk and the house sparrow.

Source:
Burnaby Now,"City birders spot climate change impact", by Jennifer Moreau, accessed December 28, 2011

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-24T01:56:00.001-06:00

And from those of us at this blog, we wish you a peaceful and happy holiday and a New Year filled with positive events.

This blog will be on vacation from December 25th until January 2nd, 2012. See you next year!

Environment How pedal power is helping Uganda's mountain gorillas

2011-12-23T01:48:00.006-06:00

In late 2009, the Great Apes Film Initiative was struggling in its efforts to bring conservation education to communities located on the edge of the Mgahinga national park, Uganda. It was a victim of its own success, all too often turning people away from screenings due to overcrowding, with some children having to walk more than 20 miles back to their homes without seeing a single image of the mountain gorillas that live unseen alongside them.

What was needed, founder and director Madeleine Westwood saw, was an affordable, sustainable and eco-friendly way of bringing film to even the smallest of villages. The solution? The Pedal-Powered Cinema Project.

Like similar initiatives popping up in cities across the UK, the technology is relatively basic, with the back wheel of a stationary bike fed into a generator, which then powers the projector and sound system. But, even by pedal-powered cinema standards, the screenings taking place across this part of east Africa are simple affairs, with just two children's mountain bikes hooked up to the system and a single guitar amp providing the sound. This means that the whole cinema can be set up and dismantled by a team of two in a matter of minutes. Moreover, it's lightweight enough to carry up to most hilltop villages, yet sufficiently robust to withstand the bumps and potholes of a typical road in rural Uganda. Its carbon footprint and running costs are minimal.

Pedal Powered Gorilla Cinema in Uganda

But it's not simply a matter of the bikes being cheaper or greener to run than a petrol generator. In fact, just as in London or New York, the success of the pedal-powered cinema is due in no small part to both its quirkiness and its ability to add an extra element of audience participation to a screening. In short: hook up a petrol-powered generator in a school in Kisoro district to screen a film on gorillas and most of the school's pupils will show up. But do the same using pedal power instead and their teachers, parents and grandparents as well as local officials will not only come along as well, but they'll even queue up for a turn on the bikes.

Since the project was launched less than 12 months ago, around 43,000 children, as well as several thousand adults, have been able to attend a screening. For many, this will have been the first time they have seen images of gorillas, despite the fact they live right alongside the national park set up to protect the great apes. According to Westwood, the screenings are not just popular, but they are effective too, not least in teaching people about the plight of the gorillas and their natural habitat, even if the mating scenes tend to be the most popular with both children and adults alike.

She adds:

"So many of the children and their teachers have never seen a film before and to add to this novelty we also have a bicycle that generated the power to show the film. Some teachers shake their heads and declare a miracle. However, when we explain the science behind the system, they learn how to teach the children about physics and it's also an ideal situation for them to talk about conservation and sustainable development, both for their own community and for Uganda as a whole."

This simple technology has the potential to transform conservation outreach, as well as public health, agricultural training and many other initiatives that use film as an educational tool, right across the developing world.

Source:
The Guardian,"How pedal power is helping Uganda's mountain gorillas", accessed December 21, 2011

Climate change threatens to make polar bears dangerous; action needed:scientist

2011-12-22T01:24:00.009-06:00

They're etched onto coins, are part of Canada's national identity and lure tourists to the Arctic every year, but the majestic Canadian polar bear could pose a significant risk to northern communities if climate change continues to wreak havoc on its natural habitat.

"It's potentially quite serious in terms of human-bear interactions," says Ian Stirling, an Edmonton-based scientist with the Canadian Wildlife Service who has studied polar bears for 41 years.

"It's a big problem in northern communities, it already is. They're killing 30, 40, 50 problem bears a year in the Canadian Arctic because they're threatening human life or property."

The adjunct professor at the University of Alberta wants to drive home the point that action is needed to combat the climate change which has the potential to turn the typically mild-mannered mammals into a risk.

As Stirling details in his new book — Polar Bears: A Natural History of a Threatened Species — the biggest threat to the bears is an increasingly warming climate which is causing earlier and more wide-spread melting of northern sea ice.

The ice is crucial to the bears because it serves as a hunting platform to access their primary food sources — particularly ringed seal pups (below left). With the ice breaking up earlier over time, bears lose precious opportunities to gather food.

"If they can't eat, they're not going to survive," says Stirling.

In startling new research, scientists are now also suggesting bears are turning on their own young in some cases to satiate their hunger as climate change hampers their feeding patterns.

"We are seeing a great deal more cannibalism and infanticide in the last 10 years more than we've seen in the last 25 or 30 all put together," says Stirling, who recently co-authored a paper documenting the issue in four cases.

While starving adult males have been known to prey on younger polar bears on occasion, what's new is the killing of small bears when the older predator is still fairly healthy.

While more study is needed, Stirling says the issue could be a case of young cubs being one of the few accessible sources of sustenance after the early break up of sea-ice.

Meanwhile, Canadian polar bears — which make up two-thirds of the global population — are being affected by climate change at such a fast rate that those living on the shores of lower Hudson Bay could disappear in just a few decades.

"The situation in Manitoba and Ontario is really pretty serious," says Stirling, who adds that sea ice is now breaking up three weeks earlier than it was 30 or 35 years ago, which leads to leaner bears and lower birth rates.

"Thirty, 40 years from now, there probably won't be many bears left in Hudson Bay."

From a wider perspective, Stirling argues that attention should be paid to the plight of the polar bears because the animals are a very real marker of effects of climate change.

"Polar bears are very representative of the kinds of things we're seeing in climate change," says the 70-year-old. "What they're also telling us is that we're not going to have the Arctic the way that we're familiar with it."

To preserve the species and the country they live in, Stirling urges the average Canuck to take any small steps they can to protect the environment and to pressure politicians to force a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

"The longer we hold off and don't do something about these things, the greater the negative effects and costs are going to be for our children and our grandchildren."

Stirling's words seem to strike a chord with those who hear him speak.
"We are on the verge of losing Canada's greatest heritage," said Robert Buchanan, CEO of Polar Bears International, which hosted a lecture by Stirling in Toronto.

"If Canada doesn't care about the Arctic and it's polar bears, why should the rest of the world care?"

Polar bears eat their own

Source:
Winnipeg Free Press,"Climate change threatens to make polar bears dangerous; action needed:scientist", accessed December 22, 2011
Mail Online, "Nature at its most savage: The shocking pictures that prove polar bears are cannibals - and will even eat bear cubs", accessed December 22, 2011