Desdemona Despair

By Matthew McDermott, New York, NY

Here's a very concrete example of how roads into rainforests can bring indigenous people into the firing line: TimesOnline reports that hundreds of men from Borneo's Penan people are blockading roads, armed with blowpipes and dressed in traditional costumes, in protest over what palm oil companies are doing to the forests:

The Penan live in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, existing for hundreds of years as hunter-gatherers.

They are protesting the palm oil plantations not the grounds of climate change and carbon emissions like many of us around the globe who are concerned about them, but on the very immediate grounds that the river which the Penan depend on are being polluted and with the dwindling amount of forest area, the future of their food supplies is in jeopardy. …

Borneo Tribesmen Armed with Blowpipes Block Roads, Stop Palm Oil Plantations

A scarcity of fresh water has left the UAE relying on desalination to quench an unprecedented thirst brought on by the country’s expansion. But the effects of the policy are threatening to destroy natural supplies and create an ecological nightmare.

By Jonathan Gornall

“Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”

Like the becalmed seamen of Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the people of the ocean-lapped UAE are in a similar dilemma when it comes to water supply.

One liquid – oil – has shaped and made possible the astonishing development of the Emirates, a country whose achievements have come despite the absence of another – fresh water.

The UAE’s demand for water, growing yearly in pace with the nation’s expansion, is insatiable and insupportable. With extremely limited natural supplies, the UAE and all its mighty ambitions and achievements – from desert golf courses to the world’s tallest building – are utterly dependent on water drawn from the sea, as are every man, woman and child who lives here.

When it comes to water, the UAE is living beyond its means, trapped in an unsustainable spiral. Its per-capita consumption is among the highest in the world. Its natural groundwater supplies, pumped in an uncontrolled manner for decades, are being drained 24 times faster than they can be replenished, leaving them increasingly polluted with salt water.

Farming, one of the smallest parts of the economy, consumes vast amounts of water. And waste from desalination leaves land and sea increasingly polluted. …

Today water, apparently unlimited, cascades in fountains, is sprayed over lush golf courses and trickles down city streets bordered by generously irrigated grass and plants – sights that would have reduced a Bedouin of the recent past to tears of wonder, or dismay. …

Worse, these countries are destroying what they have: “The volumes of water withdrawn far exceed natural recharge rates, with the result that groundwater resources, both in terms of quantity and quality, are seriously threatened”.

According to a presentation to last month’s World Water Week conference in Stockholm by Shawki Barghouti, acting director of the Arab Water Academy and director-general of the International Centre for Biosaline Culture, the UAE has the lowest renewable water resources per capita of all 18 countries across the Middle East and North Africa, from Morocco in the west to Iran in the east. …

Rubbing salt into the wounds

By Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York

Starting tomorrow, the gray wolf is about to be hunted for the first time in decades. The Obama administration removed the wolves from the endangered species list last March. And unless a federal judge decides to halt the hunt and reopen the question of whether the species is threatened, the gray wolf hunt starts tomorrow in Idaho--and hundreds of wolves will be killed.

There are now some 1,640 gray wolves in the wild, living in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. Federal officials say that number is large enough to constitute a full recovery, and that the wolves no longer need protection. Wildlife conservationists think otherwise. From the New York Times:

Wildlife advocates cite several reasons for wanting to stop the hunt. They say that the state plans do not have enough protections, that hunting will prevent the wolves from roaming the Northern Rockies freely enough to preserve genetic diversity and maintain access to the proper habitat.

They'd like to see a steady population of between 2,000-5,000 wolves before any sort of organized hunting begins. …

First Gray Wolf Hunt in Decades Begins Tomorrow

By Staff Writers, New Delhi (AFP) Aug 29, 2009

India faces a "severe" drought but the country's ample food grain stock will ensure no one goes hungry, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Saturday.

Monsoon rains, the lifeline for farms that support more that half of India's 1.1 billion population, have been scant and about 40 percent of India's districts have declared a drought.

"No one has control over drought. It's a severe drought," said Singh during a trip to the arid western state of Rajasthan to inaugurate a giant new oilfield, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

India's Meteorological Department (IMD) said Saturday the country faced a 24-percent annual rainfall deficiency, but patchy rains are expected during the end of the monsoon season.

"The last few sporadic showers could help the winter crop that is sown around October-November," director of the IMD, B.P.Yadav, told AFP.

Singh said there were sufficient food grain stocks to support the Public Distribution System, a government network that manages food distribution and the supply of grains to poor households at subsidised levels.

"We will ensure that people below the poverty line are not hit," he said. …

India faces 'severe' drought: PM

Lukla, Nepal (AFP) Aug 30, 2009 - Over two decades, Funuru Sherpa has watched the lake above his native village of Dengboche in Nepal's Himalayas grow, as the glacier that feeds it melts.

The 29-year-old, who runs a busy Internet cafe for tourists visiting the Everest region, remembers his grandfather telling him that 50 years ago the lake did not exist.

"Before, it was all ice," he told AFP in the eastern Himalayan town of Lukla, in the shadow of Mount Everest.

"This is proof that the glaciers in the high Himalayas are melting. And that must be because the temperatures have gone up."

Scientists say the Imja Glacier above Dengboche is retreating by about 70 metres (230 feet) a year, and the melting ice has formed a huge lake that could devastate villages downstream if it bursts. …

ICIMOD glaciologist Samjwal Ratna Bajracharya said this was now happening at an alarming speed, with temperatures in the Himalayas rising at a much faster rate than the global average.

"Our studies of the past 30 years show that the temperatures (in the Himalayas) are rising up to eight times faster than the global average. Melting is taking place higher and faster," Bajracharya told AFP.

"The melting of glaciers and formation of glacier lakes is a key indicator of the temperature rise. And lately, we have seen massive ice melt." …

Melting glaciers threaten 'Nepal tsunami'

Tsavo West National Park, Kenya (AFP) Aug 30, 2009 - Kenya's persistent and bruising drought is having a serious impact on the country's wildlife, one of its main tourist attractions, obliging the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to feed hippos to keep them alive.

In Tsavo West national park, a vast expanse of shrubby savannah and majestic rocky outcrops in the south east of the country, hippos are dying in large numbers and other species have been forced to change their diet.

Some 15 hippos have been found dead in the park in the past few weeks for lack of any grass to graze on around the pools where they spend their days submerged to keep out of the sun.

"For the past one month, the research team has recommended that in order to have the hippos in (good) condition... we give them four bales of hay every two days," KWS ranger Edward Njuguna told AFP.

Edward and his colleague spread out the hay on the bank of a small pool where a dozen or so hippos are splashing about, just metres (yards) away from the remains of one of their number who died a month ago. …

The drought has also brought about a massive and illegal intrusion of livestock into the country's national parks.

"What is happening now is the result of three consecutive failed rainy seasons," said Daniel Woodley who heads the KWS team at Tsavo West.

"The communities around Tsavo didn't get crops... Their reliance on other natural resources increased: timber, honey, charcoal, which is probably the main cash crop in drought period, bush meat, and illegal fishing." …

Kenya's hippos hard hit by drought

By Jeremy Hance

Oil is leaking from an offshore drilling rig in the Timor Sea near Australia's Northwest coast. Authorities say it will be weeks before the leak is plugged: they are awaiting the arrival of a drilling rig from Singapore to plug the leak.

"This is a potential disaster for turtles, whales, dolphins, sea birds and sea snakes. The oil and gas spill is still not under control and is expected to continue leaking for two months. Depending on winds, the slick could be pushed to atolls like Scott and Ashmore Reef - areas that are globally significant for their unique wildlife," warns Dr. Gilly Llewellyn, Conservation Manager with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia.

Currently measuring at least 85 kilometers, the spill is directly in the path of many migrating species, including loggerhead turtles, dolphins, and the pygmy blue whale, a subspecies of its larger relative. Tons of dispersant chemicals have been dropped in the contaminated water.

Llewellyn is especially concerned for sea turtle hatchlings. "[They] spend a huge amount of time on the surface of the water. Unfortunately, this means that recent hatchlings from the beaches and islands of North West Australia could be swimming into the slick," she says. …

Oil spill off Australia potential 'disaster' for marine wildlife

By MALCOLM BROWN

WINTER fires burning on the South Coast yesterday, threatening property and forcing residents to prepare for evacuation, sounded a grim warning for the summer, the Minister for Emergency Services, Steve Whan, said.

''People at the Fire Control Centre have told me that they have not seen this type of fire behaviour at this time of year before,'' Mr Whan said.

''Firefighters are battling gusty winds, which are creating unpredictable conditions for the crews. The early start of the fire season is a reminder that people should start preparing their homes for the upcoming season.''

An assistant commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service, Rob Rogers, said the fires on the South Coast, particularly those near Ulladulla, had been whipped up by capricious winds and fuelled by dry bushland.

Fires were also burning near Fingal Bay at Port Stephens, between Tenterfield and Inverell in the Northern Tablelands, on the Putty Road north of Sydney and in the Tilba district on the Far South Coast.

About 500 firefighters from the RFS, the Fire Brigades and the National Parks and Wildlife Service worked across the state and 90 aircraft were deployed on the South Coast.

Yesterday morning firefighters discovered one property lost to fire, a deserted hut near Burrill Lake, south of Ulladulla. As of yesterday afternoon it was the only property lost.

''We still have 65 per cent of the state drought-declared, and an El Nino effect is forecast for this spring, which will bring higher than average temperatures,'' Assistant Commissioner Rogers said.

''It is quite an interesting end to winter. With fire behaviour like this in August, there might be extreme fires in summer.'' …

Fire front fuels grim warning

By William Laurance

"THE best thing you could do for the Amazon is to bomb all the roads." That might sound like an eco-terrorist's threat, but they're actually the words of Eneas Salati, one of Brazil's most respected scientists. Thomas Lovejoy, a leading American biologist, is equally emphatic: "Roads are the seeds of tropical forest destruction."

They are quite right. Roads are rainforest killers. Without rampant road expansion, tropical forests around the world would not be vanishing at a rate of 50 football fields a minute, an assault that imperils myriad species and spews billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year. We will never devise effective strategies to slow rainforest destruction unless we confront this reality.

In our increasingly globalised world, roads are running riot. Brazil has just punched a 1200-kilometre highway (the BR-163) into the heart of the Amazon and is in the process of building another 900-kilometre road (the BR-319) through largely pristine forest. Three new highways are slicing across the Andes, from the Amazon to the Pacific. Road networks in Sumatra are opening up some of the island's last forests to loggers and hunters. A study published in Science found that 52,000 kilometres of logging roads had appeared in the Congo basin between 1976 and 2003 (vol 316, p 1451).

As my colleagues and I reveal in a forthcoming article in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, these are just a small sample of the many new road projects slicing through tropical frontiers.

Why are roads so bad for rainforests? Tropical forests have a uniquely complex structure and humid, dark microclimate that sustain a huge number of endemic species. Many of these avoid altered habitats near roads and cannot traverse even narrow road clearings. Others run the risk of being hit by vehicles or killed by people hunting near roads. This can result in diminished or fragmented wildlife populations, and can lead to local extinctions.

In remote frontier areas, where law enforcement is often weak, new roads can open a Pandora's box of other problems, such as illegal logging, colonisation and land speculation. In Brazilian Amazonia, 95 per cent of deforestation and fires occur within 50 kilometres of roads. In Suriname, most illegal gold mines are located near roads. In tropical Africa, hunting is significantly more intensive near roads. …

Roads are ruining the rainforests

By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent

SANAA (Reuters) - Gentle showers temporarily damp the dust and cool the August heat of Sanaa, but cannot remedy a grim water outlook for the Yemeni capital's 2 million people.

Some residents receive piped city water only once every nine days and others get none at all. The sinking water table means the municipality can now operate only 80 of its 180 wells, said Naji Abu Hatim, a Yemeni expert at the World Bank.

"People don't believe the magnitude of the problem. They see a little cloud and say, 'oh, God is still there, he can give us water'," he added. "But water is Yemen's number one problem."

That might seem a startling claim given that the country is also grappling with a tribal revolt in the north, violent unrest in the south, al Qaeda militancy and widespread poverty.

But water shortages in the southern city of Aden are already fuelling violence. One person was shot dead and three were wounded, two of them police, during water protests on August 24.

And fast-depleting aquifers make Yemen's plight the starkest in a desperately water-scarce region. Local disputes over water rights may turn violent, especially in tribal areas. Competition for supplies between cities and the countryside may sharpen.

"Yemen's water share per capita is under 100 cubic meters a year, compared to the water poverty line of 1,000 cubic meters," said Hosny Khordagui, Cairo-based head of the U.N. Development Program's water governance program in Arab countries. …

Water crisis threatens Yemen's swelling population

SOMEBODY was having a graph in Sandown last week after a mysterious image appeared on the beach.
A County Press reader sent this photograph of what looks like a graph with a set of dates on it, plus a 'you are here’ message.
The graph attracted lots of attention from early-morning joggers and dog walkers, before it was obliterated by the tide.

Reporter: mattw@iwcpmail.co.uk

Drawing a line in the sand

By Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News

Poachers are threatening the survival of the northern Madagascar spider tortoise, which only lives along a narrow strip of the island's coast.

The animal has disappeared from swathes of its habitat, taken by collectors to supply the exotic pet trade.

Wild numbers of the tortoise may have already fallen by 90%, say scientists who have just surveyed its population.

The problem continues to worsen due to political instability in the country, which makes it easier for smugglers.

The Madagascar spider tortoise is one of the smaller species of tortoise, and is distinguished by the intricate spider web patterning on the shells of adults. Hence its scientific name Pyxis arachnoides. …

A new survey suggests that the northern Madagascar spiny tortoise (P. a. brygooi) is now extinct across 50% of its former historical range, with huge numbers being collected to supply the international trade in exotic pets.

Trade in the species is banned, but thousands of the animals are still being smuggled out of the country illegally, says Ryan Walker, a senior wildlife biologist at Nautilus Ecology based in Greetham, Rutland, UK. …

Poachers threaten spider tortoise

By AP / JUDY LIN

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is hoping that the "Great California Garage Sale" will turn government clutter like surplus prison uniforms and office furniture into cash to bulk up the state's depleted finances.

On offer as the state clears out clutter are nearly 600 state-owned vehicles and thousands of pieces of office furniture, computers, electronics, jewelry, pianos, even a surf board, a food saver and an Xbox 360 gaming system.

State officials estimate the giant two-day yard sale being held at a state warehouse will bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition to clearing out office products, the state is also selling unclaimed property from state parks and items confiscated by law enforcement, said California Department of General Services spokesman Eric Lamoureux.

The prison department contributed dental chairs and surplus prison shirts and jeans. "This is a win-win for the state and for shoppers," Schwarzenegger said in a statement Tuesday announcing that a selection of items also would be sold on eBay and Craigslist. "Together we are eliminating waste and providing great deals in this tough economy."

Schwarzenegger also has autographed 15 car visors in an effort to fetch more money during the sale Friday and Saturday.

California sure could use the cash: the state was forced to hand out IOUs earlier this year, government workers are on the brink of revolt over a 14 percent pay cut and the state remains in an interminable state of financial morass. …

California Holds Massive Garage Sale

By Jeremy Hance

The Madagascar pochard, the world's rarest duck, was already thought to be extinct once. After a last sighting in 1991 the species was thought to have vanished until nine adults and four hatchlings were discovered in 2006. However, conservationists have begun to fear that the species will never recover after a survey this year found only six females.

In addition, the survey conducted by the Durrell Wildlife Trust, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), and The Peregrine Fund (TPF) found that no young of the Critically Endangered species had survived from the previous year.

"The window of opportunity to save the species from extinction is incredibly small, and we must all muster the energy and resources necessary to stop another species from becoming extinct," said Durrell’s Project Leader, Dr. Glyn Young. …

World's rarest duck falls closer to extinction's edge

Bhattegaun, Nepal (AFP) Aug 28, 2009 - Three years ago Naina Shahi's husband left their small village in rural Nepal to seek work in neighbouring India, leaving her to bring up their three children alone.

The dry winters and unpredictable monsoons Nepal has experienced in recent years had hit crop production on the couple's land plot in the foothills of the Himalayas, forcing them to look for other ways to feed their family.

For the past two years, their crop has failed entirely and Shahi now buys rice on credit from a local shopkeeper while she waits for her husband to return to their village with his earnings.

"My husband stopped farming because this place is not good for growing crops. We needed to earn money to feed the children," Shahi, 35, told AFP in the remote village of Bhattegaun in mid-western Nepal.

"There is not enough rainfall for the crops to grow well and we have to walk for two or three hours every day to get water." …

The residents of Bhattegaun, a settlement of around 150 mud huts deep in the forest, know little about the science behind climate change.

But they say changing weather patterns are already forcing them to change their way of life.

"These days, the weather is getting much hotter and the rains don't fall when they are supposed to," said 59-year-old Ram Bahadur Himal. …

Nepal villagers on climate change frontline

By John Letzing, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Japan issued sobering July economic data on Friday, including a record unemployment rate and the biggest decline in consumer prices in roughly 38 years.

Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said the country's unemployment rate rose to 5.7% in July from 5.4% in the previous month.

The unemployment rate was higher than the 5.5% expected by economists, according to Dow Jones Newswires, and is the highest on record since World War II.

The number of unemployed people rose 40.2% from July of last year to 3.59 million, the government said.

Meanwhile Japan's average monthly income per household fell 2.4% in nominal terms in July, while consumption expenditures fell 4.5% nominally and was down 2.0% in inflation-adjusted terms.

The grim numbers came just ahead of Sunday's general election, largely expected to result in a change of government. …

Japan reports record unemployment rate for July

ScienceDaily (Aug. 28, 2009) — Scientists have just completed an unprecedented journey into the vast and little-explored "Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch."

On the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX), researchers got the first detailed view of plastic debris floating in a remote ocean region.

It wasn't a pretty sight.

The Scripps research vessel (R/V) New Horizon left its San Diego homeport on August 2, 2009, for the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, located some 1,000 miles off California's coast, and returned on August 21, 2009.

Scientists surveyed plastic distribution and abundance, taking samples for analysis in the lab and assessing the impacts of debris on marine life.

Before this research, little was known about the size of the "garbage patch" and the threats it poses to marine life and the gyre's biological environment. …

On August 11th, the researchers encountered a large net entwined with plastic and various marine organisms; they also recovered several plastic bottles covered with ocean animals, including large barnacles. …

Scientists Find 'Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch'

By Michael Reilly, Discovery News

Aug. 27, 2009 -- Ocean "deserts" -- where tiny amounts of life subsist on a scant trickle of nutrients -- have gotten more extreme in the last 10 years, according to a new study.

Despite widespread uncertainty among scientists, these vast stretches of barren sea could affect the marine food chain, and ultimately impact global fish stocks.

There are five ocean deserts on Earth, one each in the North and South Pacific, North and South Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean. They are nearly unfathomable in size; one could easily fit the entire land area of the United States inside. And they appear to be growing more barren with each passing year.

In a study due to be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, two researchers present satellite data showing that the most empty portions of the deserts expanded some 5 million square kilometers of ocean between 1997 and 2007, an area equivalent to about half the land area of all 50 United States. …

Ocean 'Deserts' Becoming More Lifeless

A peak wildlife body has blamed stormwater pollution for the deaths of three bottlenose dolphins in three days in southeast Queensland's Moreton Bay.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday last week, an adult carcass washed up at Victoria Point, a small adult was found at Ormiston and a calf at the Port of Brisbane.

The cause of death in each case has been listed by authorities as "unknown, no obvious injuries".

Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland Simon Baltais says Moreton Bay has had a recent outbreak of algae blooms.

While some people have pointed the finger at an oil and container spill that released 62 tonnes of fertiliser into the bay earlier this year, Mr Baltais says he believes the dolphin deaths are indicative of a much wider problem.

"There is a worry out there that things are going backwards. We are seeing mangroves die off, more seagrass damage, blue-green algal blooms and now we have dolphin deaths. Things aren't looking real good," Mr Baltais told AAP on Sunday. …

Pollution killing Queensland dolphins

If it doesn't rain in the next fortnight many NSW farmers could lose crops, leading to higher food prices over Christmas, Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald says.

Mr Macdonald on Sunday released the state's latest drought figures showing 63.9 per cent of NSW is still in drought, a slight improvement on 64.6 per cent this time last year.

Nearly a quarter of the state - 24.4 per cent - is deemed satisfactory, while 11.7 per cent is seen as marginal, up from 9.7 per cent in the same period last year.

While there has been a slight improvement in the overall figure, Mr Macdonald says the situation is still critical, particularly in the state's south.

Mr Macdonald said many valuable crops were under pressure, including wheat, canola and barley.

"If we don't get some reasonable rainfall over the next fortnight or so, many of these crops will be turned out to livestock for fodder purposes," Mr Macdonald told reporters in Sydney.

"And it will mean, of course, a reduction in the total production when it's harvested later this year." …

Rainfall needed in the next fortnight to salvage crops: government

IF YOU thought it has been unseasonably warm lately, you are correct - the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed that this is almost certainly going to be the hottest August on record by a big margin.

Temperature records across NSW and Queensland were smashed by three degrees or more this week.

The winter heatwave is ''highly abnormal'', according to a special climate statement released by the bureau yesterday. …

A new NSW August record of 36.3 degrees, set at Mungindi, near Moree, on Monday, was broken in the same town the next day, when the thermometer tipped 37.8 degrees.

Abnormal weather a hot August blight

RICHMOND, Vt.- Mounting evidence that several species of bats have been all but eliminated from the Northeast due to a new disease known as white-nose syndrome prompted a conservation group to send a letter today to Sam Hamilton, the new director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, urging that action on the bat epidemic be his first priority.

In the letter, Kierán Suckling, executive director of the national, nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, wrote: "...while we suspect you are still unpacking boxes in your new office, we feel compelled to spotlight a wildlife emergency of the highest order. This crisis, the bat epidemic known as white-nose syndrome, cannot afford any delay before receiving your focused attention."

The bat disease appears to be caused by a fungus unknown to science before the outbreak was first documented two winters ago in bat caves near Albany, New York. Since then, white-nose syndrome - so named because of the fungal growth around bats' muzzles - has spread to nine states and killed an estimated 1.5 million bats. Bats from New England to West Virginia are now affected by the illness, and scientists fear that this coming winter the syndrome will show up in Kentucky and Tennessee, where some of the largest bat colonies in the world are located.

"Scientists are saying this disease could be on the West Coast in two to three years, at the rate it is spreading," said Mollie Matteson, a wildlife biologist and conservation advocate for the Center in its Richmond, Vermont office. "Some scientists are even warning that under a worst-case scenario, we may lose all bats in North America. Such a tragedy could have disastrous consequences for agriculture and ecosystems because of the role of bats in insect control and pollination."

The Center's letter was sent in response to preliminary reports from bat surveys last winter and this summer, which show many affected bat populations in New England and New York reduced to 10 percent or less of former numbers. The letter also points to the severe lack of funding for research and the absence of a nationwide plan for addressing white-nose syndrome as major impediments to stopping this wildlife crisis. …

With Bat Extinctions Looming, 1.5 Million Dead, Group Asks Feds to Prioritize Saving Bats

By Crystal Gammon and Environmental Health News

Thirty years ago, a Canadian marine biologist noticed something mysterious was happening to beluga whales in the St. Lawrence Estuary. Decades of over-hunting had decimated the population, but several years after the government put a stop to the practice, the belugas still hadn’t recovered.

Two decades and hundreds of carcasses later, he had an answer.

“They were dying of cancer,” said Daniel Martineau, now a professor of pathology at the University of Montreal.

The white whales were victims of intestinal cancers caused by industrial pollutants released into the St. Lawrence River by nearby aluminum smelters.

Now research points to environmental pollutants as the cause of deadly cancers in several wildlife populations around the world. Normally rare in wildlife, cancers in California sea lions, North Sea flounder and Great Lakes catfish seem to have been triggered or accelerated by environmental contaminants.

Other animals, including Tasmanian Devils, sea turtles, woodchucks, eels and sperm whales, also have been stricken with cancers, although they appear to stem from natural causes, including viruses, spontaneous tumors, or genetic factors.

In some cases, the survival of a species and the stability and biodiversity of an ecosystem is jeopardized. The cancers also highlight the dangers that industrial activities pose – not just to animals, but to people in the same areas, exposed to the same compounds.

“We know that toxic compounds in the environment can cause cancer in humans, so it's not a far stretch to realize that pollutants can cause cancer in animals,” says Denise McAloose, a pathologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, who recently reviewed the topic in the journal Nature Reviews Cancer. …

Cancer in Wildlife May Signal Toxic Dangers

A demonstrator was killed and three others were wounded when police fired to disperse hundreds of people protesting against water cuts in the southern city of Aden, witnesses said on Monday.

It was the third night in a row that people living in the Khor M'kassar district had rallied to protest about their lack of water, although the city authorities said they were seeking to restore supplies. …

Since late April, at least 43 people have been killed in clashes in the south.  …

Yemeni killed in protest over water cuts: witnesses

The eighth largest oil field in the world will be dead by the end of next year. Shall I repeat that, or did you get it the first time? Like the “Time to Die” speech of Rutger Hauer at the end of Blade Runner, the Cantarell complex has surely seen its share of ocean storms, human hopes, and stars since its discovery by a humble fisherman in 1976. If you’re wondering whether that fisherman has a name, the man who saw oil floating on the surface of the ocean as he gathered his nets, the answer is yes: Rudesindo Cantarell.

The days when you could find a supergiant oil field while fishing are over. Cantarell came late, in the oil age. That meant this global giant would receive all the best doctoring modern technology could provide. The result is that Cantarell was pumped out effectively and hard, especially after the technique to re-pressurize the field was adopted. This allowed for a spike high of daily production to be captured for several years, late in its life when a field would otherwise go into gentle decline. The result? Quicker monetization of the oil for the benefit of the Mexican state. But then the price: a catastrophic, fast crash. …

Mexico's Declining Oil Production: Clarion Call for Cantarell via Peak Oil Journal

By MARIA SUDEKUM FISHER (AP) 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The world's only naturally migrating whooping cranes, and the species' best chance for survival, died at about twice their normal rate last year and will likely see an overall drop in their numbers, a worrying sign for the once near-extinct bird that has been making a comeback.

The whooping crane — the tallest bird in North America at 5 1/2 feet tall — numbered just 15 in 1941 but now numbers 539 and is considered a success story by conservationists.

There are three North American flocks but only one that migrates without human help, traveling every autumn from northern Canada to the Gulf Coast in Texas. Normally, about 10 percent of the flock dies off each year, but last year about 21 percent died off. Including new births, this year's flock is expected to drop by about 20 birds from last year's 270 when counted after returning to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge this fall, said Tom Stehn, who oversees efforts to help the whooping crane for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

That would mark the first population decline for the flock since 2002.

"We're trying to figure out what's killing all these whooping cranes," Stehn said.

That flock typically grows by about six birds each year, but it dropped 19 birds between April 2008 to April 2009, as 57 of the flock's 266 birds died and were replaced by just 38 surviving hatchlings.

Hatchlings aren't counted in the total population until they have made it to Aransas, outside Corpus Christi, Texas. This year only 52 birds hatched to the flock — a six-year low — and only 22 of those survived, Stehn said.

"It's disappointing," he said. "It'll be interesting to see how it turns out this year."

The flock's population tends to dip about once each decade, but last year's spring decline was so sharp and unexpected it was "alarming," Stehn said. …

 Death rate spikes among migrating whooping cranes

By Emily Bazar, USA TODAY

More Americans are having their power shut off as the weak economy makes it harder to pay bills.

"We see record numbers of households becoming disconnected or in danger of disconnection," says Mark Bixby, energy director of Rockford, Ill. Five years ago, his office distributed federal funds annually to about 300 households that had their power cut off. Last year, it was 1,834 households, and the number is likely to go up this year, he says: "It's families that can't find work."

ComEd, which supplies electricity to 3.8 million customers in northern Illinois, says it has disconnected more this year than last but declined to provide specifics. The utility saw a 14% increase in bills 60 days late in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year, spokeswoman Kim Johnson says. …

Power is shut off as bills pile up

By Mahim Pratap Singh

Drought, increased reliance on cash crops and lack of fodder are the primary reasons

Jhabua (M.P.): A combination of drought, increased reliance on technology-intensive cash crops and lack of fodder has resulted in Jhabua farmers selling off their cattle, most of which are smuggled to Gujarat, according to sources.

The weekly cattle haat in Raipuriya block reveals a disturbing pattern of cattle sale that is actually a self-perpetuating vicious cycle involving changing agricultural practices.

These haats have been a common part of rural life in Jhabua. However, the reasons for selling cattle have changed from being primarily exchange or upgrade-based in the past to being distress-based now.

Extensive use of herbicides in this region has resulted in a steep decline in fodder cultivation alongside the main crop. This, coupled with a shift to non-fodder cash crops such as tomato and chilli, means there is nothing to feed the cattle with.

The only option is to sell them. And since most of them are largely malnourished, they fetch less than encouraging prices in the market.

Also, the current crop trends in the region require the farmers to hire tractors and threshers, often forcing them to sell off their bulls and other cattle. This means they lose out on a crucial livestock product — cow dung — which is used both as cooking fuel and organic manure.

As a result, farmers have to grow cotton (especially MCH-1) in the lean January-February season as cotton stems serve as cooking fuel to make up for the shortage of cow dung. This has further resulted in an increased BT cotton cultivation in the area. …

Distress cattle sale rampant in Jhabua

By Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica

Federal environment officials investigating drinking water contamination near the ranching town of Pavillion, Wyo., have found that at least three water wells contain a chemical used in the natural gas drilling process of hydraulic fracturing. Scientists also found traces of other contaminants, including oil, gas or metals, in 11 of 39 wells tested there since March.

The study, which is being conducted under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program, is the first time the EPA has undertaken its own water analysis in response to complaints of contamination in drilling areas, and it could be pivotal in the national debate over the role of natural gas in America’s energy policy. ...

In interviews with ProPublica and at a public meeting this month in Pavillion’s community hall, officials spoke cautiously about their preliminary findings. They were careful to say they’re investigating a broad array of sources for the contamination, including agricultural activity. They said the contaminant causing the most concern – a compound called 2-butoxyethanol, known as 2-BE – can be found in some common household cleaners, not just in fracturing fluids. ...

"It starts to finger-point stronger and stronger to the source being somehow related to the gas development, including, but not necessarily conclusively, hydraulic fracturing itself," said Nathan Wiser, an EPA scientist and hydraulic fracturing expert who oversees enforcement for the underground injection control program under the Safe Drinking Water Act in the Rocky Mountain region. The investigation "could certainly have a focusing effect on a lot of folks in the Pavillion area as a nexus between hydraulic fracturing and water contamination." ...

Siachen Glacier in Ladakh has receded by about 800 m in the last 20 years and is facing threat of climate change caused by military activities in the region, claims a UN official.

Considered most strategic in terms of defence needs of the country and manned round-the-clock at temperatures of minus 50 to 60 degrees during winters, the meltdown is a "warning bell to the health and security of Siachen," writes Bansi Lal Kaul of the UNDP India's Solutions Exchange wing in his book, Biodiversity Conservation in Himalayas.

"It is unfortunate that Siachen Glacier nowadays has receded more than 800m during 20-year period from 1988 to 2008," the 326-page book says.

With over 3,000 troops living and operating there, hundreds of machines and scores of choppers flying daily over the region, the whole of its environment and eco-system have deteriorated, former chief scientist at the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture R D Gupta writes in one of the chapters titled Global Warming and Melting of Himalayan Glaciers.

The book blames military activities for depositing tonnes of chemicals on the surface of the glacier, thereby not only polluting the headwaters of Indus river but also raising the temperatures in the area. …

Electricity supply to Nasiriyah drops by 50% as Euphrates river dries up

By Martin Chulov in Nasiriyah, Iraq

A water shortage described as the most critical since the earliest days of Iraq's civilisation is threatening to leave up to 2 million people in the south of the country without electricity and almost as many without drinking water.

An already meagre supply of electricity to Iraq's fourth-largest city of Nasiriyah has fallen by 50% during the last three weeks because of the rapidly falling levels of the Euphrates river, which has only two of four power-generating turbines left working.

If, as predicted, the river falls by a further 20cm during the next fortnight, engineers say the remaining two turbines will also close down, forcing a total blackout in the city.

Down river, where the Euphrates spills out into the Shatt al-Arab waterway at the north-eastern corner of the Persian Gulf, the lack of fresh water has raised salinity levels so high that two towns, of about 3,000 people, on the northern edge of Basra have this week evacuated. "We can no longer drink this water," said one local woman from the village of al-Fal. "Our animals are all dead and many people here are diseased."

Iraqi officials have been attempting to grapple with the magnitude of the crisis for months, which, like much else in this fractured society, has many causes, both man-made and natural. Two winters of significantly lower than normal rainfalls – half the annual average last year and one-third the year before – have followed six years of crippling instability, in which industry barely functioned and agriculture struggled to meet half of subsistence needs.

"For thousands of years Iraq's agricultural lands were rich with planted wheat, rice and barley," said Salah Aziz, director of planning in Iraq's agricultural ministry, adding that land was "100% in use".

"This year less than 50% of the land is in use and most of the yields are marginal. This year we cannot begin to cover even 40% of Iraq's fruit and vegetable demand." ...

Water shortage threatens two million people in southern Iraq

Photo taken on Aug. 23, 2009 shows the scenery of Yulong Snow Mountain in Lijiang, southwest China's Yunnan Province. Affected by the Global warming, Yulong Snow Mountain's glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate in recent 20 years. The Yulong Snow Mountain is a famous scenic spot in China. The snow-capped mountain had 13 peaks along the range, 35 kilometres in width, including 19 glaciers. The looming crisis has been highlighted by the dramatic shrinkage of the Yulong Snow Mountain glacier. Over the past two decades, its main component, the Baishui No. 1 Glacier, has receded 250 meters. (Xinhua / Qin Qing)

Yulong Snow Mountain's glaciers melting at unprecedented rate via The Oil Drum 

Changes in rainfall combined with increased potential evaporation are expected to result in reduced runoff across most of Australia. In some cases reductions could be be severe. For example, by 2050 average streamflow is projected to drop 7-35% in Melbourne, 10-25% in the Murray-Darling Basin and 31% in the Stirling catchment (WA).

These estimates of future impacts are consistent with regional observations in recent decades. In southwest WA, mean rainfall has declined dramatically from the late 1960s, in a series of steps. However reduction in river flows, and hence dam inflows, has been magnified nearly threefold from the reduction in mean rainfall. An average rainfall decline of 10-20% caused a 40-60% decline in dam inflow.

Australia's Water Resources - Impacts of climate change

By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA (Reuters) - Climate change has made history an inaccurate guide for farmers as well as energy investors who must rely on probabilities and scenarios to make decisions, the head of a United Nations agency said on Wednesday.

Michel Jarraud, director-general of the World Meteorological Organization, said that water and temperature projections have become more valuable than the historical weather data that long governed strategy in agriculture, hydro-electric power, solar technology and other fields.

"The past is no longer a good indicator of the future," the WMO chief told a press briefing, describing climate modeling and prediction as key to fisheries, forestry, transport and tourism, as well as efforts to fight diseases such as malaria.

People looking to build energy infrastructure are especially hungry for specific environmental information that can affect the long-term profitability of their projects, he argued.

"If in 100 years there is not going to be water going into the dam, it's not a brilliant investment," Jarraud said. …

History can no longer guide farmers, investors: U.N.

By TOM ODULA, Associated Press Writer

NAIROBI, Kenya – Crops have shriveled, hundreds of cattle are dead and the World Food Program said Tuesday that 3.8 million Kenyans need emergency food aid because of a prolonged drought, which is even causing electrical blackouts in the capital because there's not enough water for hydroelectric plants.

With rivers thinning to a trickle and mountaintop glaciers shrinking, authorities this month began rationing power in the capital, darkening homes and businesses at least three days a week. In Nairobi's posh, leafy neighborhoods, light bulbs flicker as generators rumble to life. Gym treadmills in luxury hotels jolt to a halt.

The slums, where roughly half the capital's 4 million residents live, are being hit the worst. Taps have run dry and residents often wait for days for trucks to deliver expensive potable water. …

Prime Minister Raila Odinga this month warned of a "catastrophe" if seasonal rains don't come in October ad November, expressing fear that inter-clan violence could ensue. Kenya's grain harvest is expected to be 28 percent lower. Food prices have jumped by as much as 130 percent. …

In the parched countryside, its even worse. In many places, the air stinks of rotting cattle carcasses.

Peruan Lesakut, a Maasai herdsman, said he had 120 cattle in July but now has only 56, all emaciated.

"I cannot sell my animals," he said. "I will stay here until they all die." …

Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist, told The Associated Press she is worried about Kenya's future.

"We see carcasses of animals everywhere," said Maathai, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work in conservation, women's rights and clean government. "You could easily see carcasses of people everywhere." …

Kenya's rural drought hurts city dwellers via The Oil Drum

ROME (Reuters) - Illegal fishing is depleting the seas and robbing poor nations in Africa and Asia of resources, but a lack of global cooperation is undermining efforts to track rogue vessels, an environmental group said on Tuesday.

The Pew Environment Group, a Washington-based think-tank, has found that a United Nations scheme to oblige ports to crack down on illegal fishing boats is handicapped by a lack of accurate information, implementation and participation.

In the five years from 2004, of 176 vessels blacklisted by regional fishing authorities, only 55 turned up on port records, Pew said in a report it presented to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome.

In some cases, ports were not checking ships' identity, using the unique vessel number on their hulls. In others, ships had found ways of avoiding detection, such as changing their names, sometimes doing so mid-voyage before entering a region where enforcement was stricter. …

Pew estimates that a fifth of all fish landed come from illegal, unregulated or unreported vessels -- and this figure rises to around half for valuable species like blue fin tuna. …

Illegal fishing evades U.N. crackdown: study

By Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News

Trees around the world are colonising new territories in response to higher temperatures.

From the US west coast to northern Siberia and south-east Asia, trees are growing at higher elevations, and at higher latitudes as the climate warms.

Of 166 sites studied, trees are advancing at more than half, while they are receding at just two sites.

The shift is revealed by the first global analysis of treelines published in the journal Ecology Letters.

However, the trees aren't responding quite how scientists expected.

Instead of advancing as summer temperatures rise, the trees' ability to colonise new areas appears to be more dependent on whether winter temperatures warm. …

Trees advance in a warming world

An index of regional summertime heat wave activity that reflects intensity, duration and spatial extent of heat waves over California and Nevada. The index is computed using nighttime (minimum) temperatures for local durations of at least one, two and three consecutive days/nights.

Deadly heat waves are becoming more frequent in California

By Jeremy Hance

Under the current legal hunting rate scientists predict that the world's largest bat, the aptly-named large flying fox or Pteropus vampyrus, faces extinction in six to 81 years. Increasing the urgency to save the large flying fox is the vital role it plays as an ecosystem engineer (a species whose behavior can shape an ecosystem); the species maintains Southeast Asian forests by dispersing a wide variety of seeds over distances farther than most birds and other mammals.

To discover if current hunting is sustainable, Dr. Johnathan Epstein, a veterinary epidemiologist with the Wildlife Trust, and his team surveyed bat populations on Peninsular Malaysia from 2003 and 2007 and compared their findings with the number of hunting licenses issued by the Malaysian Department of Wildlife and National Parks.

Their results published in the Journal of Applied Ecology found that currently 22,000 bats are hunted legally in Malaysia every year, an amount the scientists said was wholly unsustainable even under the researcher's most optimistic population estimate of half a million individuals worldwide. Using computer modeling, the scientists predicted that if current hunting practices are not changed the bat would go extinct in six to 81 years. They hasten to add that this projection doesn't even take into account the number of bats that are hunted illegally and the amount killed as pests by farmers every year. …

World's largest bat threatened with extinction due to legal hunting