Desdemona Despair

By Michael Perry

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Mounting loss of seagrass in the world's oceans, vital for the survival of endangered marine life, commercial fisheries and the fight against climate change, reveals a major crisis in coastal ecosystems, a report says.

A global study of seagrass, which can absorb large amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide, found that 29 percent of the world's known seagrass had disappeared since 1879 and the losses were accelerating.

Seagrasses are flowering plants found in shallow waters. They were vanishing at the rate of about 110 sq km (42 sq miles) a year since 1980, said the study to be published in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study by Australian and American scientists found seagrass meadows were "among the most threatened ecosystems on earth" due to population growth, development, climate change and ecological degradation.

It said there were only about 177,000 sq km left globally.

"Seagrass meadows are negatively affected by impacts accruing from the billion or more people who live within 50 km (30 miles) of them," said the report received by Reuters on Tuesday.

The study said the loss of seagrass was comparable to losses in coral reefs, tropical rainforests and mangroves.

"Seagrasses are sentinels of change" and the loss of seagrass was an indicator of a deteriorating global marine ecosystem. "Mounting seagrass loss reveals a major global environmental crisis in coastal ecosystems," it said.

It is estimated that 70 percent of all marine life in the ocean is directly dependent upon seagrass, according to U.S.-based Seagrass Recovery (www.seagrassrecovery.com). …

Seagrass losses reveal global coastal crisis

By Matthew McDermott

Hopefully you already are aware of the plight of orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra as logging and palm oil plantations continue to rapidly destroy their habitat. The rate of deforestation and habitat loss is so great that some scientists are predicting that the orangutan will be the first great ape to go extinct in modern times. Yale Environment 360 is running a piece on one interesting twist on efforts to help orangutans. There are now so many orphaned babies that there may not be enough remaining habitat to reintroduce them to the wild:

Half as Much Habitat Available Compared to 20 Years Ago

The figures for habitat loss are staggering. In the past 20 years suitable habitat for orangutan reintroduction has been cut by more than 50%, encompassing less than 27,000 square miles today. Perhaps even more startling is that in Sumatra (where about 6,500 orangutan remain in the wild) since 1975 about 90% of original forest cover has been chopped down.

Rhett Butler of Mongabay.com points out that there are currently more than 2,000 orangutans in various rehabilitation centers, but for every one of these at least six more have been killed or captured for the pet trade. …

Palm Oil Plantations Orphan Baby Orangutans & Leave Them Nowhere to Call Home

By Mark Schleifstein

Even under best-case scenarios of building massive engineering projects to restore Louisiana's dying coastline, the Mississippi River cannot possibly feed enough sediment into the marshes to prevent ongoing catastrophic land loss, two Louisiana State University geologists conclude in a scientific paper being published today.

The result: The state will lose another 4,054 to 5,212 square miles of coastline by 2100, an area roughly the size of Connecticut.

The reason: The Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers today carry only half the sediment they did a century ago -- between 400 million and 500 million tons a year then, compared with just 205 million tons today. The rest is now captured by more than 40,000 dams and reservoirs that have been built on rivers and streams that flow into the main channels.

Yet even if those dams were to be torn down and the river's full sediment load employed in restoration efforts -- a politically impossible scenario -- it would not be enough to turn back the tide of coastal erosion, write authors Michael Blum, a former LSU geologist now working for ExxonMobil Upstream Research Co. in Houston, and LSU geology professor Harry Roberts.

"We conclude that significant drowning is inevitable, even if sediment loads are restored, because sea level is now rising at least three times faster than during delta-plain construction," according to the paper published in the "Letters" section of Nature Geoscience magazine. …

At a loss: Even the mighty Mississippi's sediment won't be enough to save our vanishing coast.

By David Fogarty, Climate Change Correspondent, Asia

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Staples such as cassava on which millions of people depend become more toxic and produce much smaller yields in a world with higher carbon dioxide levels and more drought, Australian scientists say.

The findings, presented on Monday at a conference in Glasgow, Scotland, underscored the need to develop climate-change-resistant cultivars to feed rapidly growing human populations, said Ros Gleadow of the Monash University in Melbourne.

Gleadow's team tested cassava and sorghum under a series of climate change scenarios, with particular focus on different CO2 levels, to study the effect on plant nutritional quality and yield.

Both species belong to a group of plants that produce chemicals called cyanogenic glycosides, which break down to release poisonous cyanide gas if the leaves are crushed or chewed.

Around 10 percent of all plants and 60 percent of crop species produce cyanogenic glycosides.

The team grew cassava and sorghum at three different levels of CO2; just below today's current levels at about 360 parts per million in the atmosphere, at about 550 ppm and about double at 710 pm.

Current levels in the air are just under 390 ppm, around the highest in at least 800,000 years and up by about a third since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

"What we found was the amount of cyanide relative to the amount of protein increases," Gleadow told Reuters from Glasgow, referring to cassava. …

Crops face toxic timebomb in warmer world: study.

Increased melting of the large polar ice sheets contributes to the observed increase in sea level. Observations of the area of the Greenland ice sheet that has been at the melting point temperature at least one day during the summer period shows a 50% increase during the period 1979 to 20086 (see figure). The Greenland region experienced an extremely warm summer in 2007. The whole area of south Greenland reached the melting temperatures during that summer, and the melt season began 10-20 days earlier and lasted up to 60 days longer in south Greenland.

Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions

By Tim Hirsch

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has approved a controversial bill allowing Amazon farmers to acquire an area of public land larger than France.

But the president vetoed some of the most contentious clauses that would have enabled absentee landlords and companies to benefit from the measure.

Smaller parcels of public land will be handed over for free, and larger ones at reduced or market rates.

Critics say it will amount to an amnesty for illegal land-grabbers. … 

Environmental groups fear that could lead to a heating up of land speculation in the Amazon and encourage occupation of new forest areas.

Among the critics of the measure have been federal prosecutors in the Amazon, who claim it is unconstitutional because it enables land to be given to people who have acquired it illegally, and because it could infringe the rights of traditional and indigenous communities. 

Brazil's Lula signs Amazon bill

By Matt Walker

People and giant pandas are still coming into conflict.

So concludes a report into the firewood collecting habits of people living in one of China's largest panda reserves.

It found that over the past 30 years, people living in rural communities have ventured ever deeper into prime panda habitat to collect wood to burn.

Unless more is done to meet the needs of these rural households, the report says, they may continue to cut down prime forest, putting pandas at risk.

Collecting wood to use as fuel is extremely common around the developing world, with some reports suggesting that up to three billion people still rely on wood as a main source of energy to cook with and heat their homes. …

Guangming He of the Michigan State University in East Lansing, US led a team that examined how the collection of firewood has impacted panda habitat in the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province, China. …

"Collectors were travelling longer distances to physically challenging areas," says He. "In our case, to areas of high quality panda habitat." …

But "the most surprising result would be that many households were aware of fuelwood collection regulations and understood their importance to panda conservation, but many of them did not comply," He says. …

Wood harvest puts pandas at risk

By Richard Black

Mexico's twin crises - swine flu and the economy - may derail a plan to save the world's most endangered cetacean.

Only about 150 vaquita are left, and about 30 are dying each year through becoming entangled in fishing nets.

The government has cut funding aimed at taking fishing boats out of service or adopting vaquita-friendly equipment.

The vaquita, which is also the world's smallest cetacean, is emblematic of the plight of other dolphins and porpoises around the world, say campaigners.

As government delegates, scientists, whale-hunters and environmentalists discuss the large ocean-traversing cetaceans at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting here, green group WWF's new report, The Forgotten Whales, concludes that some of the leviathans' smaller brethren are more at risk.

Earlier this year the baiji or Yangtse River Dolphin was declared probably extinct, and the Critically Endangered vaquita (Phocoena sinus) - another species restricted to a small, specific habitat - will follow suit without swift action, conservationists believe.

"The estimated mortality comes to more than 30 animals per year, and having a population that is only 150 - you can imagine that the population will not survive if nothing is done," said Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, Mexico's IWC commissioner and the head of the national marine mammal research and conservation programme.

"The situation is so critical, you can't kill more than one vaquita per year of you want to save it for future generations." …

Swine flu puts porpoise on brink

By Jeremy Hance

The first global study of open ocean (pelagic) sharks and rays found that 32 percent of the species are threatened with extinction largely due to overfishing and bycatch, making pelagic sharks and rays more threatened than birds (12 percent), mammals (20 percent), and even amphibians (31 percent), which are considered to be undergoing an extinction crisis. The situation worsens when only sharks taken in high-seas fisheries are considered: 52 percent of these species are threatened.

“The completion of this global assessment of pelagic sharks and rays will provide an important baseline for monitoring the status of these keystone species in our oceans,” says Roger McManus, Vice-President for Marine Programs at Conservation International.

Long killed by fisheries as bycatch, sharks have recently become targets of many high seas fisheries due to an increased demand for shark meat and fins. Shark fins are used in the Asian delicacy shark fin soup. When caught sharks often undergo ‘finning’, where the fins are sliced off the shark before its body is tossed overboard. While, finning has been banned in most international waters, there is currently little enforcement. Due to slow maturation and few offspring, sharks are particularly vulnerable to fishing.

“Despite mounting threats, sharks remain virtually unprotected on the high seas,” says Sonja Fordham, Deputy Chair of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group and Policy Director for the Shark Alliance. “The vulnerability and lengthy migrations of most open ocean sharks call for coordinated, international conservation plans. Our report documents serious overfishing of these species, in national and international waters, and demonstrates a clear need for immediate action on a global scale.” …

Over 30 percent of open ocean sharks and rays face extinction

From Calculated Risk:

The graph shows New Home Sales vs. recessions for the last 45 years. New Home sales have fallen off a cliff. …

New Home Sales: Record Low for May

A Scottish firm has been implicated in funding a plan that would destroy the rainforest habitat of critically endangered orangutans in Sumatra.

Jardine Matheson Holdings is the majority shareholder of Astra Agro Lestar, a palm oil company that plans to develop the peatland forests of Tripa in Aceh Province for oil palm plantations. Environmentalists say conversion of the forest would destroy a biologically rich ecosystem that serves as a buffer against natural disasters in a region that bore the brunt of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 225,000 people. Draining of the carbon-dense peat soils would also accelerate climate change by releasing vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. 

In a series of statements, members of the coalition blasted Jardine and its chairman Sir Henry Keswick, who was knighted this month in the Queen’s birthday honors list.

"It's scandalous that a British company is bankrolling the destruction of this vital part of Indonesian rainforest," said Greenpeace forest campaigner James Turner. "If the executives at Jardines don't stop this they will be rightly accused of speeding up climate change, destroying a vital tsunami buffer zone and driving the Sumatran orangutan to the brink of extinction."

"It is frankly shocking that the Chairman of Jardine Matheson has been knighted for services to British business interests overseas, while his company is actively contributing to the demise of the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan," said Helen Buckland, UK Director, Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS). "British businesses must be held accountable for their part in the destruction of this globally important area of forest."

UK firm plans to log habitat of critically endangered orangutan for palm oil production

By Phyllis Xu and Lucy Hornby

GAOJIAGOU, China (Reuters) - Ten-year old Yilong is already a statistic.

Born at the center of China's coal industry, the boy is mentally handicapped and is unable to speak. He is one of many such children in Shanxi province, where coal has brought riches to a few, jobs for many, and environmental pollution that experts say has led to a high number of babies born with birth defects.

Experts say coal mining and processing has given Shanxi a rate of birth defects six times higher than China's national average, which is already high by global standards.

"They looked normal when they were born. But they were still unable to talk or walk over a year later," said farmer Hu Yongliang, 38, whose two older children are mentally handicapped.

"They learnt to walk at the age of six or seven. They are very weak. Nobody knows what the problem is."

Hu's thirteen-year-old daughter Yimei can only say one word, while her brother Yilong is unable to talk at all. The two spend most of the day playing in their small courtyard, where their mother Wang Caiying tends to their every need and tries to shield them from the neighbors' prejudice.

"I never let them go out, I don't want people to laugh at my children. They stay in this courtyard every day," said Wang, who looks older than her 36 years.

"I am especially worried about my son. He doesn't know how to take care of himself. I have to do everything for him."

The number of birth defects in Chinese infants soared nearly 40 percent from 2001 to 2006, China's National Population and Family Planning Commission said in a 2007 report.

Birth defects show human price of coal

ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's glaciers shrank by 12 percent over the past decade, melting at their fastest rate due to rising temperatures and lighter snowfalls, a study by the Swiss university ETH showed Monday.

"The last decade was the worst decade that we have had in the last 150 years. We lost a lot of water," said Daniel Farinotti, research assistant at the ETH.

"The trend is definitely that glaciers are melting faster now. Since the end of the 1980s, they have lost more and more mass more quickly," he said.

It was still too early to tell how 2009 will develop for glaciers, which are a key source of water for hydro-electric plants as well as an important tourist attraction, Farinotti said. Up to 6,000 tourists visit the Jungfraujoch glacier every day.

"This year depends on the summer. We had a lot of snow in the winter of 2008/09. But the spring was very warm so I doubt that this year will be a positive year for the glaciers," Farinotti said. …

Swiss glaciers melting faster than ever before: study

Beijing (AFP) June 20, 2009 - A drought in Tibet has intensified into the region's worst in three decades, leaving thousands of hectares parched and killing more than 13,000 head of cattle, China's state media said Saturday.

The report by Xinhua news agency follows a warning by China's top weather official last month that the Himalayan region faced a growing threat of drought and floods as global warming melts its glaciers.

Drought conditions have hit five of Tibet's six prefectures since last year, affecting 15.3 percent of the remote plateau, Xinhua said, quoting the regional drought relief and flood control headquarters.

It also said 13,601 head of cattle had died, but did not say over what time frame the deaths occurred.

Some weather stations had not received significant rainfall in 226 days, the report said.

"The drought has also been worsened by higher than normal temperatures. Tibet has experienced temperatures 0.4 to 2.3 degrees Celsius (0.7 to 4.1 Fahrenheit) higher than normal years," it said, quoting a top Tibetan weather official. …

Tibet drought worst in 30 years: Chinese state media

From The Oil Drum:

By David Murphy

Cutler Cleveland of Boston University has reported that the EROI of oil and gas extraction in the U.S. has decreased from 100:1 in the 1930’s to 30:1 in the 1970’s to roughly 11:1 as of 2000 (Figure 1). But beyond the fact that society receives currently around 11 barrels of oil for every 1 barrel that it spends getting that oil, What does this mean?

First, it means that, if the trend of declining EROI continues, society will be spending an increasingly larger chunk of its remaining energy to get more energy. This cycle is positively reinforcing:

Declining EROI means that the net energy contained in each unit of energy delivered to society is decreasing over time, requiring the extraction of increasingly greater quantities just to meet societal demand → decreases the quantity of energy remaining in the ground for future society → makes it more difficult to find and develop the remaining bit of energy. …

The Net Hubbert Curve: What Does It Mean?

By JANET ZIMMERMAN, The Press-Enterprise

A breeze stirs the silence at Joshua Tree National Park as a red-tailed hawk takes flight from the spiky arm of one of the namesake plants in search of breakfast.

It's a scene that national parks protector Mike Cipra has witnessed many times. Still, he can't contain his enthusiasm on this early morning outing, despite the gloomy topic he's discussing with a visitor -- the probable extinction of the Joshua tree in the park that bears its name.

The ancient plants are dying in the park, the southern-most boundary of their limited growing region, scientists say. Already finicky reproducers, Joshua trees are the victim of global warming and its symptoms -- including fire and drought -- plus pollution and the proliferation of non-native plants. Experts expect the Joshuas to vanish entirely from the southern half of the state within a century. …

Predictions for the fate of the Joshua trees, and the web of life they support, are based on six models of climate change developed by Ken Cole, a biologist and geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz., and plant ecologist Kirsten Ironside of Northern Arizona University.

In all of the climate models that looked ahead 100 years, there were no new trees in Joshua Tree National Park, and significant death of existing trees.

"With the Joshua tree, it's like a worst-case scenario. Maybe 80 percent of the current populations will be unable to persist," he said. …

Desert icon Joshua trees are vanishing, scientists say

By SOLOMON MOORE

LOS ANGELES — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made an unusual request Friday, asking President Obama to declare Fresno County a federal disaster area because of a three-year drought that is straining California’s agricultural industry and worsening unemployment in the hard-hit Central Valley.

Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, announced his request on a visit to the county, the state’s breadbasket, where unemployment is near 17 percent.

Tough new environmental regulations to protect endangered freshwater fish are also hindering California’s huge agricultural industry, which provides about half of the nation’s fresh produce.

Government statistics released Friday showed California’s unemployment rate at 11.5 percent in May, the highest since World War II, compared with 11.1 percent in April, representing a loss of 68,900 nonfarm jobs.

Requests for a presidential disaster declaration are rarer for droughts than for other natural disasters. In 2007, the governor of Georgia requested a declaration because of a prolonged drought, but President George W. Bush declined to make one.

The White House did not respond immediately to Mr. Schwarzenegger’s request. …

The governor also signed an executive order to provide about $3 million a month in food assistance and unemployment insurance in the Fresno area.

“These are dire circumstances,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said at a stop in Mendota. “Here in the Central Valley, no water means no work. And no work means people cannot feed their families.”

About 450,000 acres across California are fallow this year because of water shortages, state officials say. Fewer planted acres means fewer jobs in agriculture and higher prices at supermarkets across the country, said Victoria Bradshaw, the governor’s deputy chief of staff.

“Last month, agriculture lost 29,000 jobs” in the state, Ms. Bradshaw said.

“That has huge impact not only on California’s economy but on the nation’s food supply,” she said. “If we can’t keep our agricultural communities together, then we’re going to be more dependent on foreign food supplies.” …

Disaster Request for a Drought-Hit County in California

While long and severe drought in the US state of Georgia is officially "over", and water restrictions going "off" across the US Southeast, the Canadian prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as pictured) are suffering an historic drought that may have serious impacts on farmers and food production. The Globe & Mail reports that "In portions of the hardest-hit region, which stretches in a triangle pattern from Saskatoon to Edmonton and Calgary, 2009 marks the driest spring Agriculture Canada has seen in the 70 years records have been kept in the area." They quote a farmer who said he's never before seen a spring with out the grass turning green. Can you imagine? …

Canada's Prairie Provinces: Drought; And A Spring Without Green

Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer

Fluctuating ocean conditions may be depleting the food supply of young sea lions that are turning up skinny and ill on California beaches, mirroring the fate of Brandt's cormorants earlier this spring.

The animal strandings are so numerous that the newly expanded Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito can't keep up. Only those young sea lions most in need of help are being brought in for treatment - up to 20 a day - leaving others to try to make it on their own, center representatives say.

Scientists agree that the youngsters, born nearly a year ago on the Channel Islands off Southern California, aren't getting enough food. But they're at a loss to determine whether the sea lions' favorite foods - northern anchovies and sardines - are hard to find because they're moving south in response to falling and rising ocean temperatures. That's the suspected scenario for the Brandt's cormorants. More than 500 of the birds, which also eat the anchovies and sardines, were picked up starving or dead in April and May by the Farallones Beach Watch program.

Or scientists wonder whether a U.S. record number of pups born last year on the Channel Islands means there are more around to fail during the sensitive transition from nursing to hunting for food on their own.

Drawing global interest is yet another theory: that the marine mammals and the seabirds are signaling an early warning of an El Niño, the warm-water current from the tropical Pacific. …

As of Thursday, the Marine Mammal Center had 136 patients in its new $32 million center, which opened to the public Monday.

Of the patient load, 85 were sea lions receiving nourishment through feeding tubes and treatment for organ failure and other problems. By comparison, there were 53 sea lions under care two weeks ago.

"They're just too weak to try to forage. You can see their bones," said center spokesman Jim Oswald. So many beach reports are coming in that the center has to choose where to respond. There aren't enough trained rescue crews or vehicles to bring in - or even check on - every animal, he said. …

Sick sea lions present a mystery

By Adam Morton

The ocean is warming about 50 per cent faster than reported two years ago, according to an update of the latest climate science.

A report compiling research presented at a science congress in Copenhagen in March says recent observations are near the worst-case predictions of the 2007 report by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In the case of sea-level rise, it is happening at an even greater rate than projected - largely due to rising ocean temperatures causing thermal expansion of seawater.

Released last night at the European Policy Centre in Brussels, the report says ocean temperatures are a better indicator of global warming than air temperature as the ocean stores more heat and responds more slowly to change.

Report co-author Will Steffen, executive director of the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute, said the top 700 metres of the ocean had warmed by about 0.1 degrees over the past half-century.

"While that looks like a modest figure, that would correspond to something like 15 to 20 times more heat going into the ocean than has gone into the atmosphere," Professor Steffen said.

"Well over half of the increase in ocean temperature occurred in the last 10 years, so the system is accelerating."

The report, titled Climate change: Global risks, challenges & decisions, says greenhouse gas emissions needed to peak within the next six years for the world to give a chance of limiting global warming above pre-industrial levels to about two degrees. …

Rising ocean temperatures near worst-case predictions

ANCHORAGE, Alaska— Today, responding to a court-ordered deadline, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released long-overdue reports documenting the status of polar bears and Pacific walrus in Alaska. The reports confirm that polar bears in Alaska are declining and that Pacific walrus are under threat. Both species are imperiled due to the loss of their sea-ice habitat due to global warming, oil and gas development, and unsustainable harvest.

“Polar bears and walrus are under severe threat, and unless we act rapidly to reduce greenhouse pollution and protect their habitat from oil development, we stand to lose both of these icons of the Arctic,” said Brendan Cumming, oceans program director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Today’s reports, issued pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, summarize information on population abundance and trends of polar bears and walrus, threats to the species, and include calculations of human-caused mortality and whether that mortality is sustainable. …

“These reports publicly confirm what scientists have known for several years: Polar bear and walrus populations in Alaska are in trouble,” added Cummings. “And even if the population numbers are not precise, we know that without their sea-ice habitat they are likely doomed.” …

Polar Bear, Walrus Populations in Trouble: Federal Studies Show Tenuous Future for Arctic Icons

(NOAA Headquarters) NOAA-supported scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Louisiana State University, and the University of Michigan are forecasting that the "dead zone" off the coast of Louisiana and Texas in the Gulf of Mexico this summer could be one of the largest on record. Scientists are predicting the area could measure between 7,450 and 8,456 square miles, or an area roughly the size of New Jersey. However, additional flooding of the Mississippi River since May may result in a larger dead zone.

Scientists are predicting the area could measure between 7,450 and 8,456 square miles, or an area roughly the size of New Jersey. However, additional flooding of the Mississippi River since May may result in a larger dead zone. The largest one on record occurred in 2002, measuring 8,484 square miles.

Dead zones are caused by nutrient runoff, principally from agricultural activity, which stimulates an overgrowth of algae that sinks, decomposes, and consumes most of the life-giving oxygen supply in the water.

The dead zone size was predicted after researchers observed large amounts of nitrogen feeding into the Gulf from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers. The rivers experienced heavy water flows in April and May that were 11 percent above average.

"The high water volume flows coupled with nearly triple the nitrogen concentrations in these rivers over the past 50 years from human activities has led to a dramatic increase in the size of the dead zone," said Gene Turner, Ph.D., a lead forecast modeler from Louisiana State University. …

NOAA forecast predicts large 'dead zone' for Gulf of Mexico this summer

Pollution in the Mekong river has pushed freshwater dolphins in Cambodia and Laos to the brink of extinction, the conservation group WWF has said.

Only 64 to 76 Irrawaddy dolphins remain in the Mekong, it says, and calls for a cross-border plan to help the dolphins.

Toxic levels of pesticides, mercury and other pollutants have been found in more than 50 calves that have died since 2003.

The Mekong flows from China through Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.

"These pollutants are widely distributed in the environment and so the source of this pollution may involve several countries through which the Mekong river flows," said WWF veterinary surgeon Verne Dove in a press statement.

The group said it was investigating how contamination had entered the Mekong river.

Since 2003, the dolphin population has suffered 88 deaths, of which more than 60% were calves under two weeks old, it said.

"Necropsy analysis identified a bacterial disease as the cause of the calf deaths," Dr Dove said in the WWF report.

"This disease would not be fatal unless the dolphin's immune systems were suppressed, as they were in these cases, by environmental contaminants," he said. …

Mekong dolphins 'almost extinct'

By Karen Kidd

For the first time, the popular antibacterial agent triclosan is found in the blood of a marine mammal.

A bacteria-killing chemical widely used in an array of consumer products has made its way down kitchen and bathroom sinks and into dolphins living in US coastal waters.

Researchers report for the first time that a marine mammal – the bottlenose dolphin – is accumulating triclosan from water bodies where treated sewage is released. The study examined animals from rivers, an estuary, a harbor and a lagoon in South Carolina and Florida.

Triclosan is a common additive in soaps, deodorants, toothpastes and other personal care products that is included to help control bacteria and their related illnesses.  It is also put into consumer products like socks, cutting boards and garbage bags to curb the growth of bacteria.

The antibacterial enters wastewater mainly from home sinks. Even though most (up to 95 percent) of it is removed when these waters are treated, it is one of the most commonly found contaminants in rivers and estuaries downstream of treated water outfalls.

Triclosan can persist in waterways, affect natural communities of bacteria and algae, and also concentrate in fish and other aquatic organisms. It has also been found in the urine, breast milk and blood of humans. …

Antibacterial found in dolphins. via Apocadocs

Edmonton—University of Alberta researchers conducting a water study in the Mackenzie River Delta have found a dramatically higher delivery of mercury from the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean than determined in previous studies.

Researcher Jennifer Graydon analyzed water in the Mackenzie River as it flowed north into the Beaufort Sea. She collected samples for three months and discovered the total amount of mercury exported from the river during that three-month period was equal to an entire year's worth of mercury calculated in previous studies.

Graydon's research and previous studies measured export of all chemical forms of mercury in water including methyl mercury.

"Methyl mercury is a neurotoxin and it's primarily passed on to humans through contaminated fish muscle," Graydon said. "This leaves northern communities vulnerable, because a large part of their diet is Arctic fish species and Beluga whales." Gradyon says existing studies already show Beluga whales in the western Arctic have higher mercury levels in their flesh than Belugas in the eastern Arctic. The Mackenzie River empties in the Beaufort Sea at the western edge of the Northwest Territories. …

Mercury in Mackenzie River delta dramatically higher than previously believed

Dmitry Orlov brings his A-game:

This talk was presented at The New Emergency Conference in Dublin, on June 11, 2009.

Good morning. The title of this talk is a bit of a mouthful, but what I want to say can be summed up in simpler words: we all have to prepare for life without much money, where imported goods are scarce, and where people have to provide for their own needs, and those of their immediate neighbours. I will take as my point of departure the unfolding collapse of the global economy, and discuss what might come next. It started with the collapse of the financial markets last year, and is now resulting in unprecedented decreases in the volumes of international trade. These developments are also starting to affect the political stability of various countries around the world. A few governments have already collapsed, others may be on their way, and before too long we may find our maps redrawn in dramatic ways. …

Definancialisation, Deglobalisation, Relocalisation

An unprecedented fall in the water levels of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers has left the rural population at the mercy of heat, drought – and displaced wildlife. Patrick Cockburn reports

Swarms of snakes are attacking people and cattle in southern Iraq as the Euphrates and Tigris rivers dry up and the reptiles lose their natural habitat among the reed beds.

"People are terrified and are leaving their homes," says Jabar Mustafa, a medical administrator, who works in a hospital in the southern province of Dhi Qar. "We knew these snakes before, but now they are coming in huge numbers. They are attacking buffalo and cattle as well as people." Doctors in the area say six people have been killed and 13 poisoned.

In Chabaysh, a town on the Euphrates close to the southern marshland of Hawr al-Hammar, farmers have set up an overnight operations room to prevent the snakes attacking their cattle.

"We have been surprised in recent days by the unprecedented number of snakes that have fled their habitat because of the dryness and heat," Wissam al-Assadi, one of the town's vets said. "We saw some on roads, near houses and cowsheds. Farmers have come to us for vaccines, but we don't have any."

The plague of snakes is the latest result of an unprecedented fall in the level of the water in the Euphrates and the Tigris, the two great rivers which for thousands of years have made life possible in the sun-baked plains of Mesopotamia, the very name of which means "between the rivers" in Greek. The rivers that made Iraq's dry soil so fertile are drying up because the supply of water, which once flowed south into Iraq from Turkey, Syria and Iran, is now held back by dams and used for irrigation. On the Euphrates alone, Turkey has five large dams upriver from Iraq, and Syria has two.

The diversion of water from the rivers has already destroyed a large swathe of Iraqi agriculture and the result of Iraq being starved of water may be one of the world's greatest natural disasters, akin to the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest. Already the advance of the desert has led to frequent dust storms in Baghdad which close the airport. Yet this dramatic climatic change has attracted little attention outside Iraq, overshadowed by the violence following the US-led invasion in 2003 and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

The collapse in the water levels of the rivers has been swift, the amount of water in the Euphrates falling by three-quarters in less than a decade. In 2000, the flow speed of the water in the river was 950 cubic metres per second, but by this year it had dropped to 230 cubic metres per second. ...

 As Iraq runs dry, a plague of snakes is unleashed

From Calculated Risk:

This graph shows Capacity Utilization. This series is at another record low (the series starts in 1967).

In addition to the weakness in industrial production, there is little reason for investment in new production facilities until capacity utilization recovers. …

Industrial Production Declines, Capacity Utilization at Record Low

By Linda Lombardi, Associated Press

In parts of the world where firefly populations have been monitored for a long time, such as Japan, their numbers are down. And scientists think the same might be true in the United States.

“You hear people saying, growing up I saw fireflies all the time, now I don’t see them anymore,” says Christopher Cratsley, a professor at Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts who studies them.

Are fireflies disappearing? Answering that question is part of the goal of Firefly Watch, based at the Museum of Science in Boston. In the first year of the program last year, more than 1,400 people provided their own observations from as far away from Boston as Texas, Kansas and even India.

Contributing to Firefly Watch takes just a few minutes a week, but there’s a lot to learn about these creatures. Start with the fact that they’re not flies, they’re beetles. …

In places where firefly populations have dwindled, it seems increasing development is to blame. Some species with aquatic larvae in southeast Asia have declined by 70 percent in the last three years due to water pollution ...

Fireflies are sensitive to habitat disturbance and to moisture levels in the soil, and other human activities may affect them as well. For example, researchers suspect that artificial light, like streetlights, has an impact on their ability to find each other and mate, which may affect either total numbers or the diversity of species. …

Are fireflies leaving? via Apocadocs

By Ben Simon

BUNDIBUGYO, Uganda (AFP) — In 1906, Mount Speke, one the highest peaks of Uganda's Rwenzori Mountains was covered with 217 hectares (536 acres) of ice, according to the Climate Change Unit at Uganda?s ministry of water and environment. In 2006, only 18.5 hectares remained.

Satellite images taken in 1987 and again in 2005 show that much of the thaw has occurred over the past two decades.

When Yasamu Maate was a younger man, he could stand in his garden on a clear, cloudless morning and stare at the ice caps on the range.

But on a recent Friday the 87-year-old lamented the loss of those ice caps, which have all but disappeared, as the world around him has gotten warmer.

"We used to use the snow and ice as our guide," he said, sitting on a roadside chair in Bundibugyo, a village in western Uganda at the base of the Rwenzoris, which run roughly 100 kilometres (60 miles) along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"We would say if there was a lot of snow on the mountains the rain was coming, but these days we are not seeing it. The coldness has disappeared."

"The ice is literally disappearing. In some cases it has disappeared, and I am more than certain that this is a result of global warming," said Philip Gagwe, who heads the Climate Change Unit.

"Man-made global warming is here. We are smelling it and we are touching it." …

Goretti Kitutu, a climate change specialist at NEMA, said people might soon be competing for water as well.

The snow cap provides a steady trickle of water to the neighbouring communities and feeds the Nile river basin, which includes Lake George and Lake Albert.

"Once this ice disappears we shall have serious problems in the hydrology of the area. We will see reduced water in the lakes and that will impact the Nile basin," Kitutu explained. …

Lifestyle melts away with Uganda peak snow cap.

Oyster larvae have been dying by the billions. Scientists suspect it's a sign that carbon dioxide is dramatically affecting the ocean.

By Craig Welch, Seattle Times environment reporter

WILLAPA BAY, Pacific County — The collapse began rather unspectacularly.

In 2005, when most of the millions of Pacific oysters in this tree-lined estuary failed to reproduce, Washington's shellfish growers largely shrugged it off.

In a region that provides one-sixth of the nation's oysters — the epicenter of the West Coast's $111 million oyster industry — everyone knows nature can be fickle.

But then the failure was repeated in 2006, 2007 and 2008. It spread to an Oregon hatchery that supplies baby oysters to shellfish nurseries from Puget Sound to Los Angeles. Eighty percent of that hatchery's oyster larvae died, too.

Now, as the oyster industry heads into the fifth summer of its most unnerving crisis in decades, scientists are pondering a disturbing theory. They suspect water that rises from deep in the Pacific Ocean — icy seawater that surges into Willapa Bay and gets pumped into seaside hatcheries — may be corrosive enough to kill baby oysters.

If true, that could mean shifts in ocean chemistry associated with carbon-dioxide emissions from fossil fuels may be impairing sea life faster and more dramatically than expected. …

Oysters in deep trouble: Is Pacific Ocean's chemistry killing sea life?.

People are calling it the Inconvenient Truth of ocean overfishing. Rotten Tomatoes currently has it at 88%.

Synopsis: The End of the Line is the first feature length doc to explore the dire state of overfishing which, if not severely curtailed, will mean the end of most seafood as an eating consideration within forty years. Director Rupert Murray combines mesmerizing photography above and below water with the story of the indefatigable investigative reporter Charles Clover as he confronts politicians and celebrity restaurateurs. The near extinction of cod is examined and the now imminent extinction of bluefin tuna – brought on by the increasing western demand for sushi, governments unwilling to follow the scientists suggestions of catch limits and a flourishing illegal trade. The impact on marine life from the overfishing of large fish species results in a huge overpopulation of algae and jellyfish as well as mass poverty in rural areas where fish is running out yet large commercial boats equipped with radar still impinge on local fishermen’s livelihoods. The myth of farmed fishing as a solution is also exploded.

Filmed across the world – from the Straits of Gibraltar to the coasts of Senegal and Alaska to the Tokyo fish market – featuring top scientists, indigenous fishermen and fisheries enforcement officials, The End of the Line is a wake-up call to the world offering real solutions that all consumers can take part in. --© Official Site

“After watching this you may think twice before consuming another mouthful of tuna.” -- Allan Hunter, Daily Express

The End of the Line (2009)

By JEFF DONN -- Video

Pollution experts on Tuesday pressed a congressional panel for stronger action to keep pharmaceuticals and other contaminants out of the water, saying they are hurting fish and may threaten human health.

Thomas P. Fote, a New Jersey conservationist who sits on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, said the pollutants are damaging commercial fisheries. He told congressmen not to "study a problem to death and never do anything."

Fote appeared in a lineup of witnesses Tuesday before the subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife of the House Natural Resources Committee. The witnesses pointed to research showing damage to fish and other aquatic species from pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other industrial chemicals, especially those that alter growth-regulating endocrine systems. Some scientists worry about the potential of similar harm to humans.

"Hundreds of peer-reviewed publications ... demonstrate that numerous ubiquitous chemicals in the environment can interfere with development via the endocrine system, but there appears to be no will or authority to remove those chemicals from the supply chain," said zoologist Theo Colborn, a professor emeritus at the University of Florida, who founded the nonprofit Endocrine Disruption Exchange.

The witnesses appealed for Congress to promote consumer take-back programs for unused drugs, to encourage industry financing of disposal, and to do more to keep discards from waterways and landfills.

The hearing comes on the heels of an Associated Press investigation that reported pharmaceutical traces in drinking water supplies of at least 51 million Americans and in many waterways. The drugs range from antibiotics to psychiatric drugs to endocrine-disrupting sex hormones. …

EPA finds high levels of lead at Raritan Bay sites

by Aliyah Shahid/For The Star-Ledger

OLD BRIDGE -- Tests on mussels, clams and foraging fish near the Laurence Harbor Sea Wall in Old Bridge, have revealed high levels of lead, the Environmental Protection Agency reported today.

The amount of lead found in ribbed mussels ranged from 3 to 8.6 parts per million. In softshell clams the amount ranged from 3.4 to 17 parts per million and hardshell clams from 1.7 to 3.1 parts per million. In foraging fish or bait fish the amount of lead found ranged from 0.49 to 0.92 parts per million.

Currently, there is no standard for safe levels of lead in these marine animals, said Calliope C. Alexander an environmental scientist for New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services.

However, Sharon Kubiak, a program specialist from the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, said there is no safe level of lead in a child's body.

"This is very dangerous," said Peter Defur, a biologist and environmental consultant for Environmental Stewardship Concepts based in Richmond, Va., who works on contaminated sites. "I've never seen such high numbers in the 30 years I've been doing this."

Robert Spiegel, executive director of the Edison Wetlands Association, a nonprofit environmental organization said the numbers are alarming. "This is just the tip of the iceberg. We don't know how far up the food chain this goes." …

In the earlier tests, the EPA said the western jetty near Cheesequake Creek revealed lead levels of 198,000 parts per million-nearly 500 times the residential limit of 400 parts per million. Average lead levels in the area were 52,399 parts per million. At the Laurence Harbor sea wall area, the range of lead found was as high as 142,000 parts per million. At the half-acre beach area in Sayreville, just north of the Cheesequake Creek jetty, lead was also 142,000 parts per million. …

EPA finds high levels of lead at Raritan Bay sites via Apocadocs

Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.

By Tom Leonard in Flint, Michigan

The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.

Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.

The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint.

Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.

Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes.

Most are former industrial cities in the "rust belt" of America's Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis.

In Detroit, shattered by the woes of the US car industry, there are already plans to split it into a collection of small urban centres separated from each other by countryside.

"The real question is not whether these cities shrink – we're all shrinking – but whether we let it happen in a destructive or sustainable way," said Mr Kildee. "Decline is a fact of life in Flint. Resisting it is like resisting gravity."

Karina Pallagst, director of the Shrinking Cities in a Global Perspective programme at the University of California, Berkeley, said there was "both a cultural and political taboo" about admitting decline in America.

"Places like Flint have hit rock bottom. They're at the point where it's better to start knocking a lot of buildings down," she said.

Flint, sixty miles north of Detroit, was the original home of General Motors. The car giant once employed 79,000 local people but that figure has shrunk to around 8,000.

Unemployment is now approaching 20 per cent and the total population has almost halved to 110,000.

The exodus – particularly of young people – coupled with the consequent collapse in property prices, has left street after street in sections of the city almost entirely abandoned. …

"Much of the land will be given back to nature. People will enjoy living near a forest or meadow," he said. …

US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive  via Calculated Risk

By Silvia Aloisi

ROME (Reuters) - High food prices have pushed another 105 million people into hunger in the first half of 2009, the head of the U.N. World Food Programme said on Friday, raising the total number of hungry people to over 1 billion.

Urging rich nations at a meeting of G8 development ministers not to cut back on aid, Josette Sheeran said the world faced a human catastrophe as more people struggle to eat a decent meal.

"This year we are clocking in on average four million new hungry people a week, urgently hungry," Sheeran told Reuters.

"For the first six months of this year, 105 million people have been added," she said, citing figures to be released by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization next week that will raise the total number of undernourished people to over 1 billion.

In 2008, FAO said the world's hungry numbered 963 million.

The WFP needs $6.4 billion this year for food aid, but donors' contributions have fallen way behind that level -- it had around $1.5 billion at the end of last week.

The agency says it has had to cut food aid rations and shut some operations in eastern Africa and North Korea because of the credit crunch.

"I know it seems a big figure, but if you compare it with the global stimulus package, it means that for less than 1 percent of that we could help meet the urgent human crisis that is unfolding, and that is just as essential to the stability of the world," Sheeran said. …

U.N. warns of catastrophe as hungry people top one billion

From Calculated Risk:

This graph shows weekly claims and continued claims since 1971.

Continued claims increased to 6.82 million. This is 5.1% of covered employment. …

Unemployment Claims: Record 6.8 Million Continued Claims

By CARLA SALAZAR

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Riot police used tear gas to turn student protesters away from Peru's Congress on Thursday as thousands marched to back Amazon Indians resisting oil and natural gas exploration on their land.

At least 20,000 students, labor union members and indigenous Peruvians from the country's Andean highlands to its jungle lowlands joined the mostly peaceful nationwide protests.

In Lima, riot police fended off several hundred students, some of whom threw rocks and Molotov cocktails, with tear gas and mounted officers. No injuries were immediately reported. Associated Press journalists witnessed several people being detained but police did not issue arrest figures.

Marchers chanted "The jungle isn't for sale" during Thursday's protests, which were organized in response to a bloody police assault on an Indian roadblock on June 5 in the northern state of Amazonas. It was Peru's worst political violence in more than a decade, with 23 police killed, many with spears. Indian leaders reported at least 30 dead civilians. …

Police fire tear gas in Peru protests