Desdemona Despair

By Hana Namrouqa

(MENAFN - Jordan Times) With people in over 17 Arab countries living well below the water poverty line of 500 cubic metres annually, Arab decision makers on Monday called for coordinated efforts to address the impact of climate change on the limited resource.

Experts said more than 75 per cent of the surface water in the Arab world, most of which is made up of semi-arid or arid land, originates from outside its borders, thus necessitating measures to protect water security and curb future political crises erupting from water shortages.

Speaking at a scientific forum on Arab water security, organised by the Arab Administrative Development Organisation in cooperation with the Dubai police, Arab experts and officials stressed the need to draw up joint strategies to address the gap between supply and demand and improve water management. …

During the opening session yesterday, participants also discussed the role of integrated water management in coping with water scarcity and reviewed agreements, conventions and international laws regulating the exploitation of joint surface and underground water resources.

They said climate change is the key threat to the region's already scant water supply, calling for programmes to alleviate the impact of the phenomenon.

According to environment experts, Arab states face several threats due to increased drought and desertification, scarcity of water resources, increased salinity of groundwater and the spread of pest epidemics and diseases caused by the phenomenon.

So far, climate change has caused a 30 per cent reduction in the Kingdom's surface water resources, as well as a decrease in the volume of rainfall and agricultural production, both of which the country and the Arab world heavily rely on.

If climate change continues at its current pace, Jordan is expected to witness a 1-2C increase in temperatures by 2030-2050, diminished aquifers and oases, reduced green cover and the transformation of semi-arid lands, some 80 per cent of the country's total area, into arid deserts, according to environment experts. …

The 2009 short rains season is underway across most areas of the country. Above‐normal rains have been reported in most of the eastern half of the country, while rains have picked up in some areas reporting lower than average cumulative October rainfall.

Food insecurity remains high for severely drought–affected pastoral and marginal agricultural households (Figure 1) and is likely to persist through most of the year as the impacts of improved rains on crop and livestock production will not immediately manifest.

Significant livestock mortalities in pastoral areas, at the onset of the short rains, compounded by additional livestock mortalities arising from the prolonged drought, are expected to significantly slow the recovery process.

In spite of ongoing maize harvests in key growing areas, maize prices remain over 80 percent higher than normal in urban, pastoral, and marginal agricultural areas, accentuating the erosion of household purchasing capacities.

The extent to which proposed food and non‐food interventions are expected to mitigate heightened food insecurity is tempered by significant funding gaps for both food and non‐food interventions. The most critical needs include mitigation of rising malnutrition and upsurge in diseases in the health and nutrition sector; provision of planting seed and other production inputs in the agricultural sector; prevention and control of livestock diseases in the livestock sector; rehabilitation and purification of water sources in the water sector; and provision of relief food, protection rations and supplementary feeds through the food sector.

Kenya Food Security [pdf]

Interview by Nozlee Samadzadeh

Landscaping overgrows, walls develop mildew, ceilings cave in—a building can be shut down, but that doesn’t make it go away. Brian Ulrich’s photographs of closed-down malls and big-box retail stores reveal the potential ghost towns lying inside successful shopping complexes all across America.

Photographer Brian Ulrich lives and works in Chicago. His work has been shown in Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Photography; Galerie f5.6 in Munich, among others. He is a 2009 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellow. All images copyright the artist, all rights reserved.

* * *

Why closed-down stores?

The idea went back to 2005 when I drove weekly past a large closed supermarket on the North Side of Chicago. At night the space really transformed from one of neglect and misuse to something incredibly visual that described a Rothko-esque painting space divided in three parts (parking lot, building, and sky). I spent a few nights making some photographs to try and replicate what I saw. I had been working on a larger project dealing with American consumerism, and it was no surprise to me that these spaces would fail and dwindle as fast they arise. I was in the midst of a deeper project, photographing in thrift stores and recycling shops as part of my “Copia” series, so I shelved the idea.

At the end of 2007 with many rumblings of recession, I thought of those pictures and began the project in earnest in May of 2008. In many senses it was a vindication of what I had been talking about in my earlier work. How can an economy sustain a lifestyle based on exponential growth and the leisure and wealth to support it? It’s not rocket science to expect these kind of illusions to fail. What’s strange is how ingrained the brands and spaces are to us that so many were not only surprised to see major retailers and malls sink but were saddened. Many of these ideas were set in motion decades ago.

Where in America are these empty stores?

Everywhere! What’s nice about photography is it can transform your perception of your experiences. By making these photographs it puts the spotlight of the massive amount of space not only dedicated to retail across the country, but the massive amount of neglect by those spaces. …

Ghosts of Shopping Past

SAN FRANCISCO- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized new stock assessments for manatees that puts the population of Florida manatees at about 3,800 and a Puerto Rico population at 72. The stock-assessment reports resulted from settlement of a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity that sought updated assessments, since the Service had flouted its duty under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to publish yearly reports for more than a decade.

"The Fish and Wildlife Service's population assessment shows that boats are carelessly killing manatees," said Miyoko Sakashita, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Clearly, far too little is being done to protect these endangered manatees in Florida."

According to the Service's stock-assessment report on the Florida manatee population, each year about 87 manatees are killed by humans in the state. This is more than seven times the number of manatees that the Service estimates can be killed without impairing the species' recovery. Boats are the primary threat to manatees, which are frequently struck and killed, or seriously injured, by speeding vessels. Almost 90 percent of the manatees killed by humans were a result of such boat strikes. Manatees are also threatened by water-diversion structures such as dams and entanglement in marine debris, including derelict fishing gear.

"The one thing everyone should be able to agree on is that manatees in Florida and Puerto Rico need more protection from boat collisions to allow them to survive and recover," said Sakashita. …

Federal Study: Manatee Death Rate Seven Times Sustainable Level Boat Strikes Preventing Species' Recovery

By Kipchumba Kemei

The Government will next month embark on the second phase of the controversial Mau Forest evictions.

Kenya Forest Service sources say the exercise will kick off shortly after President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga tour the forest for a tree planting ceremony along Narok North-Molo districts borders.

The first exercise ended late last month with eviction of more than 2,000 families from South West of the complex. The Government said the families had no title deeds.

The second phase targets settlers of Kiptagich and Olengurone extension schemes where more than Sh2 billion has been reportedly offered as compensation to the beneficiaries in Likia, Mauche and adjacent areas.

Beneficiaries and supporters of those who were allocated land in the named areas have dared Raila, who is spearheading the exercise to reclaim the 400,000-hectare complex to make good his promise, threatening that the eviction would be resisted.

A source privy to the intended eviction to clear all settlements in the 21 forest blocks that form the complex said after the second phase, the eviction squad will move to the 146,000 hectare Maasai Mau forest where most settlers have either title deeds or land sale agreements. …

Phase two of Mau evictions to begin

Here is the monthly Fannie Mae hockey stick graph.

Fannie Mae reported today that the rate of serious delinquencies - at least 90 days behind - for conventional loans in its single-family guarantee business increased to 4.98% in October, up from 4.72% in September - and up from 1.89% in October 2008.

"Includes seriously delinquent conventional single-family loans as a percent of the total number of conventional single-family loans. These rates are based on conventional single-family mortgage loans and exclude reverse mortgages and non-Fannie Mae mortgage securities held in our portfolio. …

Fannie Mae: Delinquencies Increase Sharply in October

By Matt Weiser
mweiser@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
Last Modified: Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009 - 1:31 am

Lake Tahoe, Clear Lake and four other large lakes in Northern California and Nevada are warming faster than the surrounding atmosphere, suggesting climate change may affect aquatic environments faster and sooner.

The findings are reported in a new study led by researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

They used 18 years of temperature data from satellite sensors. It is believed to be the first time data have been dissected to reveal lake surface temperature over a period that long.

The other lakes in the study are Lake Almanor and Mono Lake in California, and Pyramid Lake and Walker Lake in Nevada.

Results show that the surface water temperature of the lakes rose two times faster, on average, than the regional air temperature.

"It was a big surprise to see that," said Philipp Schneider, the study's lead author and a post-doctoral research scientist at the NASA lab.

"If it turns out they're actually changing faster than the air temperature, then there's a whole new phenomenon going on here," he said. "The lake ecosystems are going to be very much affected, especially because the trend we observed seems to be quite rapid."

The study was published in the November issue of Geophysical Research Letters, a peer-reviewed science journal. …

For this study, that comparison was done at Lake Tahoe. For the rest of the lakes, results were compared with regional air temperatures across the California-Nevada study area.

Tahoe's surface waters warmed 3.7 degrees Fahrenheit from 1992 to 2008 – a mean annual increase of 0.23 degrees. During the same period, air temperature recorded at Tahoe City increased 0.10 degrees annually. …

Regional lake study points to faster warming

The China Post News desk
Publication Date: 29-12-2009

The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) on Tuesday published a study on weather changes in Taiwan over the past century, which showed that local temperatures had risen by an average of 0.8 degrees Celsius. The average temperature rose by 1.2 degrees in plains areas and 1.4 degrees in metropolitan areas, according to the study, which compiled weather change statistics between 1897 and 2008.

One noteworthy finding was that the minimum temperature increased by 2.1 degrees while the maximum temperature rose by 0.7 degrees on average in metropolitan areas.

"The gap shows that the increase in temperatures at night was greater than in the daytime," a CWB official said.

The survey also found that affected by global warming, Taiwan's isotherms have been pushed northwards by around 150 kilometers.

The warming trend also has affected mountain areas, with the average temperature in mountainous areas rising by around 0.6 degrees, and has also lifted the critical altitude for living animals by about 100 meters from a century ago.

The CWB also confirmed the general feelings of many local residents: winters are not quite as cold as they have been in the past and the rest of the year is getting warmer.

Over the past five decades, the number of days with temperature lows falling below 10 degrees Celsius fell by 19 days in mountainous areas but only one day in low-lying areas.

But the number of days with temperatures rising to more than 30 degrees Celsius increased by 28 days in Taiwan proper, though only two days in mountainous areas, and 41 days in its outlying islands.

Though temperatures were up, the amount of sun most parts of Taiwan have received has been on the decline, which the CWB attributed to air pollution and suspended particles that had blocked the sunshine. …

Taiwan feels global warming, say report via The Oil Drum

By Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, December 27, 2009

State scientists on Monday will cull mussels from the waters around Treasure Island as part of a national study of so-called "emerging contaminants" - certain compounds found in everyday items like shampoo, bedding and birth control pills.

California and federal officials say such chemicals are on the rise and potentially threaten human health and the environment.

"We're at the very, very beginning of trying to understand these trends," said Darrin Polhemus, deputy director of the California State Water Resources Control Board's division of water quality. …

Mussels, because they filter large volumes of water as they feed on microscopic plankton, are considered a kind of biological archive of the particles in any given waterway. …

But with mounting evidence that myriad pharmaceuticals and other chemicals are washing through wastewater systems and storm drains and into the drinking water of millions of Americans, regulators are taking a harder look at a range of compounds.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in recent weeks named a dozen drugs as possible pollutants subject to regulatory oversight and announced a widespread study of drinking water that will look for 200 contaminants. …

Already, researchers in Maryland, Seattle and Southern California have found that synthetic hormones contained in birthcontrol pills and hormone replacement therapies may be triggering reproductive mayhem in some fish species, causing male fish to grow female sex organs.

Other chemicals that scientists will look for with Monday's study are surfactants, a wetting agent present in shampoos and paints, and triclosan, an antibacterial found in many soaps. …

E-mail Kelly Zito at kzito@sfchronicle.com.

From shampoo to the sea

By John Platt

The last Indochinese tiger in China was killed and eaten by a man who has now been sentenced to 12 years in prison for his crime.

The Indochinese tiger (also known as Corbett's tiger or Panthera tigris corbetti) is an endangered tiger subspecies that used to live in China, but now only exists in Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam, where it remains under heavy threat from poachers.

Kang Wannian, the villager from Mengla, Yunnan Province, claims he killed the tiger last February in self-defense. But that didn't stop him and four others from butchering and eating the animal. His dining mates were also convicted and will spend three to four years in jail for "covering up and concealing criminal gains," according to a Tuesday report in the China National News. …

Man convicted for killing and eating China's last Indochinese tiger

By Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) Dec 25, 2009

South Korea's weather service Friday issued a warning against airborne pollution known as "yellow dust", advising residents in western areas to avoid outdoor activities.

"Yellow dust which originated in Mongolia reached South Korea, blanketing most of the western parts of the country," the National Meteorological Administration said in a statement.

"As the effect of the dust storm can spread to the nation, it is desirable to refrain from outdoor activities."

The warning covered the capital Seoul and adjacent areas as well as South Chungcheong and Jeolla provinces.

Weather officials quoted by Yonhap news agency said it was the first time yellow dust had been spotted on Christmas Day in South Korea. The dust storms usually hit the country in spring.

Yellow dust -- fine sand blown from China and Mongolia which sometimes includes toxic chemical smog emitted by Chinese factories -- can cause respiratory disorders. …

S.Korea issues warning against 'yellow dust'

KATHMANDU, Nepal, December 28, 2009 (ENS) - To mark 2010 as Year of the Tiger, the government of Nepal has announced the expansion of Bardia National Park in the Terai Arc landscape by 900 square kilometers (347 square miles), which will increase critical habitat for wild tigers.

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal says the government will establish a National Tiger Conservation Authority as well as a Wildlife Crime Control Committee.

"The solutions will be area specific, but the future of conservation will depend upon how we act now and how we make tiger conservation and overall biodiversity much more valuable to the livelihoods of local communities," the Prime Minister said.

"This is indeed a great conservation initiative, which will certainly help in curbing illegal wildlife trade and poaching in Nepal," said Anil Manandhar, country representative of WWF Nepal. "We are confident that by embracing innovative conservation strategies Nepal will succeed in doubling its number of endangered tigers."

Earlier this year, the first ever nationwide estimate of Nepal's tiger population revealed the presence of 121 breeding tigers in the wild within four protected areas of Nepal.

In the early 1900s, tigers roamed throughout Asia and numbered over 100,000, according to the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which points to current estimates indicating that less than 3,500 of these tigers remain in the wild.

Tigers are today primarily poached for their skins but almost every part of a tiger's body can be used for decorative or traditional medicinal purposes. Most tigers are now restricted to small pockets of habitat, with several geographical populations literally teetering on the brink of extinction. …

Year of the Tiger Dawns With Just 3,200 Wild Tigers Left

By Steve Gorman, Wed Dec 23, 2009 8:14pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Earth's various ecosystems, with all their plants and animals, will need to shift about a quarter-mile per year on average to keep pace with global climate change, scientists said in a study released on Wednesday.

How well particular species can survive rising worldwide temperatures attributed to excess levels of heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases emitted by human activity hinges on those species' ability to migrate or adapt in place.

The farther individual species -- from shrubs and trees to insects, birds and mammals -- need to move to stay within their preferred climate, the greater their chance of extinction.

The study suggests that scientists and governments should update habitat conservation strategies that have long emphasized drawing boundaries around environmentally sensitive areas and restricting development within those borders.

A more "dynamic" focus should be placed on establishing wildlife corridors and pathways linking fragmented habitats, said research co-author Healy Hamilton of the California Academy of Sciences.

"Things are on the move, faster than we anticipated," she told Reuters. "This rate of projected climate change is just about the same as a slow-motion meteorite in terms of the speed at which it's asking a species to respond." …

Ecosystems strain to keep pace with climate

By WALTER MENYA, Posted Thursday, December 17 2009 at 21:20

Kenya’s food stocks will run out in April, resulting in more people going hungry, a new study warns.

The Kenya Food Security report blames the failed or poor rains, high food prices and environmental degradation for the crisis.

The report also warns of increased inter-ethnic conflict over land and water.

The failure of El Nino rains expected at the beginning of September, has spawned fears of poor harvests that will not meet demand after March.

As a result of the insufficient February to August 2009 long rains, humanitarian agencies have forecast a 2010 main maize harvest of 1.9 million metric tonnes, about 25 per cent below the four-year average. … 

The short rains from September to date, the report says, though moderately improving water and pasture availability in some pastoral areas, cannot help the country attain rapid or long-term food security.

“Consecutive seasons of sufficient rainfall are required for pastoral populations to replace livestock.” …

The situation has not been helped by the freak floods that have been reported in Coast, North Eastern, and Eastern regions following the enhanced rains between October and November.

As the rains continue to pound some parts of the country, the report states that the government and humanitarian agencies expect more floods and mudslides, potentially affecting 750,000 people and contributing to increased incidence of disease among humans and animals. …

Kenya's food stocks to run out in April via The Oil Drum

LAHORE: Water level at Tarbela and Mangla dams has been declining while water level at the Mangla dam was recorded only 40 feet higher than the dead level.

According to IRSA, water inflow at Tarbela dam was recorded at 17,400 cusecs while outflow remained at 28,000 cusecs.

On the other hand, water inflow at Mangla dam was recorded at 4,920 cusecs while outflow remained at 23,000 cusecs.

As per IRSA details, the water level at Manga dam was recorded only 40 feet higher than the dead level, however, at Tarbela it was recorded 45 feet higher than the dead level.

Water sliding to dead level in reservoirs via Opit’s LinkFest

Radioactive Material Isn't Disappearing From the Environment as Quickly as Predicted

By ALEXIS MADRIGAL
Dec. 20, 2009

Chernobyl, the worst nuclear accident in history, created an inadvertent laboratory to study the impacts of radiation — and more than twenty years later, the site still holds surprises.

Reinhabiting the large dead zone around the accident site may have to wait longer than expected. Radioactive cesium isn't disappearing from the environment as quickly as predicted, according to new research presented here Monday at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

Cesium 137's half-life — the time it takes for half of a given amount of material to decay — is 30 years, but the amount of cesium in soil near Chernobyl isn't decreasing nearly that fast. And scientists don't know why.

It stands to reason that at some point the Ukrainian government would like to be able to use that land again, but the scientists have calculated that what they call cesium's "ecological half-life" — the time for half the cesium to disappear from the local environment — is between 180 and 320 years.

"Normally you'd say that every 30 years, it's half as bad as it was. But it's not," said Tim Jannick, nuclear scientist at Savannah River National Laboratory and a collaborator on the work. "It's going to be longer before they repopulate the area." …

The results of this study came as a surprise. Scientists expected the ecological half-lives of radioactive isotopes to be shorter than their physical half-life as natural dispersion helped reduce the amount of material in any given soil sample. For strontium, that idea has held up. But for cesium the the opposite appears to be true.

The physical properties of cesium haven't changed, so scientists think there must be an environmental explanation. It could be that new cesium is blowing over the soil sites from closer to the Chernobyl site. Or perhaps cesium is migrating up through the soil from deeper in the ground. Jannik hopes more research will uncover the truth.

"There are a lot of unknowns that are probably causing this phenomenon," he said. …

Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Radioactive Longer Than Expected

By GARANCE BURKE, DOS PALOS, Calif. (AP) — The government is spending $40 million in federal stimulus funds to pull water from underground aquifers in drought-stricken California, even as evidence is growing that the well-drilling boom could degrade the quality of water delivered to millions of residents.

Farmers, conservationists and engineers are criticizing the Interior Department's plan to spend taxpayer money on digging more wells, saying the approach risks marring the environment. Canals buckle, aquifers collapse and drinking water turns saltier due to so much pumping, and studies show that the state's water supplies are dwindling.

"We don't need any more straws going down there 'cause we're already doing a pretty good job of sucking it dry," said farmer Dan Errotabere, who has dug three wells as deep as 1,200 feet to irrigate his tomatoes, almonds and garlic in recent years. "We're using this water as a last resort, but pretty soon we're going to need a policy to protect ourselves from ourselves."

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says the government is targeting its well-drilling effort to serve remote communities and prop up California's agricultural economy, a $36 billion industry that grows nearly half the country's fruits, nuts and vegetables.

"The role of the federal government is to provide a helping hand. But the federal government can't solve the water problems," Salazar said as he sampled sliced cantaloupe with local farmers several weeks ago. "California water issues are a big mess and have been a big mess for a long time."

Since the drought began in 2006, hundreds of new wells have been drilled and are pumping around the clock in the state, tapping aquifers that date to the days of the dinosaurs.

In the last six years alone, the amount of water that has been lost from the aquifers coursing beneath the parched Central Valley would be nearly enough to fill the nation's largest reservoir, Nevada's Lake Mead, NASA researchers said Monday. …

Stimulus funds drill wells as Calif water vanishes

By Anisa Kadri

A lack of rainfall has contributed to the ongoing food crisis in East Africa, Oxfam said on Thursday.

It was hoped that rains expected in November would provide relief for those struck by famine in this region.

However, areas including Ogaden in Ethiopia and Turkana in Kenya received below five per cent of normal rainfall in November. Meanwhile, Somalia is experiencing its most severe drought of the last 20 years.

Consequently, starvation is becoming more common in the region.

Statistics show that one in three people are now malnourished in Turkana, while a clinic in Tanzania has revealed that cases of malnourishment dealt with by the practice have increased by 400 per cent.

Oxfam's deputy humanitarian director Jeremy Loveless said: "In many areas this is the fourth, fifth or sixth season of poor rains in a row. More must be done to invest in helping these communities cope with the dry years – through long term rural development and investing in national agriculture. But in the short-term lives are at stake and emergency aid is needed now."

An Oxfam spokesperson told inthenews.co.uk the charity hopes to buy livestock from pastoralist communities at above market prices and use the meat to feed them.

Somali herders estimate that 70 to 80 per cent of their livestock has died. In Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, more than 1.5 million animals have perished, worth over £220 million to these economies. In Ngorongoro, Tanzania, people are selling their cattle for $4 per cow, $196 less than their usual price and only sufficient to buy a family enough maize to last five days.

In Uganda, the prices of foodstuffs constituting a staple diet have doubled and food stocks are expected to run out in January. …

Poor rains worsen east Africa famine

Water-level changes in the High Plains aquifer, predevelopment to 2007 (modified from Gutentag and others, 1984; Lowry and others, 1967; Luckey and others, 1981; and Burbach, 2007).

The High Plains aquifer underlies 111.6 million acres (174,000 square miles) in parts of eight States—Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Water-level declines began in parts of the High Plains aquifer soon after the beginning of substantial irrigation with ground water in the aquifer area. This report presents water-level changes in the High Plains aquifer from the time before substantial ground-water irrigation development had occurred (about 1950 and termed “predevelopment” in this report) to 2007, from 2005–06, and from 2006–07. The report also presents the percentage change in saturated thickness of the aquifer, from predevelopment to 2007.

Measured water-level changes from predevelopment to 2007 ranged from a rise of 84 feet in Nebraska to a decline of 234 feet in Texas. The area-weighted, average water-level changes in the aquifer were a decline of 14.0 feet from predevelopment to 2007, a decline of 0.4 foot during 2005–06, and a decline of 0.6 foot during 2006–07. Total water in storage in the aquifer in 2007 was about 2.9 billion acre-feet, which was a decline of about 270 million acre-feet since predevelopment.

McGuire, V.L., 2009, Water-Level Changes in the High Plains Aquifer, Predevelopment to 2007, 2005–06, and 2006–07: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2009–5019 [pdf]

ScienceDaily (Dec. 21, 2009) — All insect-eating migratory birds who winter in Africa and breed in the Dutch woods have decreased in numbers since 1984. This has been revealed by research conducted by the University of Groningen, the SOVON Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology, Statistics Netherlands (CBS), Radboud University Nijmegen and Alterra, published on 16 December in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

This decline is dramatic for certain species: nightingales have declined by 37 percent, wood warblers by 73 percent and Ictarine warblers by 85 percent.

Due to climate change, spring is starting earlier and earlier in the year. On average, trees are in leaf two weeks earlier than 25 years ago, and the caterpillars who eat the young leaves are also appearing two weeks earlier. The eggs of many birds hatch at the moment when there are lots of caterpillars in the woods so that their young have enough to eat.

The researchers already knew that two of the woodland bird species have not been able to adapt their breeding periods sufficiently to the warming climate. Great tits and pied flycatchers now breed too late for the caterpillar peak. However, nothing certain was known about the exact consequences in terms of numbers for these and other bird species. …

Fewer migratory birds in Dutch woods due to climate change

By Christine Dell'Amore in Copenhagen
National Geographic News
December 18, 2009

The Amazon's "flying rivers"—humid air currents that deliver water to the vast rain forest—may be ebbing, which could have dire consequences for the region's ability to help curb global warming, an expert said this week at the Copenhagen climate conference.

Rising temperatures in the Amazon region, in large part due to climate change, are creating more arid savannas, which disrupt the water cycle vital to Brazil's farming and energy industries.

Deforestation also plays a role. As more of Brazil's rain forests fall to logging and agriculture, there are fewer trees to release the water vapor that creates these flying rivers.

Until recently, Amazon forest loss has been primarily linked to the trees' role in trapping greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), which are a root cause of global warming.

"Most people look at the Amazon as the lungs of the world, or as a solution to capture CO2," said Gérard Moss, an engineer and founder of the Flying Rivers Project, an ongoing effort to document the humid air currents and their effects.

"But I'd like people to realize that the Amazon Basin is a huge water pump—rain is [our] most valuable asset," he said by phone Wednesday in Copenhagen, where he gave a press briefing on the project earlier this week.

Flying rivers may transport as much water as the Amazon River itself, he added. "This huge rain machine needs to be preserved." …

Farmers in the Amazon's fertile Matto Grosso state are highly dependent on Amazon rain to grow their crops, for example. The agriculture industry in the region is extremely profitable because so little irrigation is needed. …

Amazon Losing 'Flying Rivers,' Ability to Curb Warming

Due to the current El Niño event, above‐average rainfall was forecast for the areas of East Africa that receive October to December rains. These rains were expected to contribute to a reduction in the high to extreme levels of food insecurity that have affected many parts of the region following several consecutive failed rainy seasons. However, while October rainfall was above normal and generated some moderate improvements in pastoral conditions, little rain fell during November in pastoral and southeastern marginal cropping areas of Kenya; southern and southeastern pastoral areas of Ethiopia; and northern pastoral and central rainfed cropping areas of Somalia (Figure 1). This extended dry spell raises serious concerns about the prospects for recovery in pastoral areas and the performance of the short‐rains harvest. The performance of the December rains will be critical to food security outcomes in the region over the coming months, though even with average rains, food security conditions are expected to be poorer than initially forecast.

In pastoral areas, abundant precipitation during October across most of the region led to modest improvements in pasture and browse, increased water availability, and reduced trekking distances between water points. These improvements were curtailed by several weeks of dry conditions during November, which have reduced available drinking water and retarded pasture regeneration, causing early outmigration among pastoralists in some areas. The most affected pastoral areas include the northwestern districts of Turkana, West Pokot, Samburu, and Marsabit and the southeastern districts of Narok and Kajiado in Kenya; parts of Degahabour, Warder, Korahe, Afder, and Liben zones of Somali region and Borena zone of Oromia region in Ethiopia; and the northern pastoral and agropastoral areas of the northwest, and agropastoral areas of Hiran and Bakool in Somalia.

East Africa Food Security Alert, December 10, 2009: November rainfall deficits raise concerns in parts of East Africa [pdf]

Some Fish Stock Decline as Jumbo Squid Migrate to New Waters

By MOISES VELASQUEZ-MANOFF
Dec. 19, 2009

When large numbers of jumbo squid first showed up in California's Monterey Bay in 1997, scientists weren't sure what had brought the cephalopod that far north. An unusually strong El Niño event had warmed the eastern Pacific. But the squid, dubbed el diablo rojo – the red devil – in its native waters off the coast of Mexico, didn't typically venture farther north than Baja California.

And indeed, within two years, the Humboldt squid – Dosidicus gigas – had disappeared from central California waters.

But in 2002 – another El Niño year – they reappeared. This time, they took up permanent residence and pushed even farther north – past Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, until, by 2004, fishermen near Sitka, Alaska, were hauling them in.

When scientists dug through historical records, they discovered that the squid's northward advance wasn't entirely unprecedented. There were accounts from the 1930s of the creatures in Monterey Bay. But never in numbers comparable to what scientists observed now – schools many hundreds strong. And no one had ever seen them as far north as Alaska.

"This occurrence has gotten weird enough to not really make it into the realm of 'normal,' " says John Field, a fisheries biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Santa Cruz, California.

Fishermen worry that the squid, a voracious predator weighing up to 110 pounds and reaching more than six feet in length, will diminish valuable fish stocks.

Hake, for example, a major Pacific fishery, has declined since the squid arrived. …

Squid Invasions Signal Changes in the Pacific Ocean

As efforts falter to save North America's largest freshwater fish - a toothless beast leftover from the days of dinosaurs - officials hope to stave off extinction by sending more water hurtling down a river so the fish can spawn in the wild.

By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press Writer

BILLINGS, Mont. — As efforts falter to save North America's largest freshwater fish - a toothless beast leftover from the days of dinosaurs - officials hope to stave off extinction by sending more water hurtling down a river so the fish can spawn in the wild.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday issued a report saying attempts over the past two years to save the endangered Kootenai River white sturgeon had failed.

The prehistoric fish, characterized by a long snout and armor-like scales, can reach 19 feet long and top 1,000 pounds.

They live along a stretch of the Kootenai that passes through Montana, northern Idaho and southern British Columbia. Fewer than 500 of the bottom-feeding behemoths survive - and it's been 35 years since they successfully spawned. …

N. America's biggest fish slips toward extinction

In the early morning hours of December 22, 2008, the earthen wall of a containment pond at Tennessee’s Kingston Fossil Plant gave way. The breach released 1.3 million cubic meters (1.7 million cubic yards) of fly ash—a coal-combustion waste product captured and stored in wet form. As fly ash dries, it is typically moved to new containment areas to continue drying, and it was one of these areas, housing dredge cells that facilitate further drying, where the containment wall broke. Some of the sludge traveled north through a valley, and some flowed to the east, where it damaged dozens of homes. The spill infiltrated the Emory River, buried some 120 hectares (300 acres) in sludge, and even knocked a nearby home completely off its foundation.  NASA Earth Observatory

Emory River before the coal ash spill

Emory River after the coal ash spill

The Thematic Mapper on NASA’s Landsat 5 satellite captured these images of the Kingston Fossil Plant and its surroundings on November 20, 2008, a month before the spill (bottom), and December 22, 2008, immediately after the spill (top). In these false-color images, water appears blue, and sediment-laden water appears light blue. Vegetation appears green, and bare ground and urbanized areas appear pinkish-brown.

In the November image, walls visibly contain two adjacent slurry ponds at the plant—one in the northwest and one in the southeast—but in the December image, the walls of the northwestern slurry pond have given way. In this image, light blue slurry covers the ground to the north and east of the plant. Sediment also clogs the nearby Emory River, evident from the waterway’s relatively light blue color. NASA Earth Observatory

20 November 2008

22 December 2008

 2008

23 December 2008

8 October 2009

 Video of the spill aftermath

By BILL POOVEY

KINGSTON, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Valley Authority's top executive says changing the way waste is stored at its power plants should reduce the risk of another disastrous coal ash spill like the one that tarnished a riverside community a year ago. But he isn't offering any guarantees.

Tom Kilgore said eliminating all wet ash and gypsum storage and converting all of TVA's coal-fired plants to dry storage is part of a plan "to help prevent anything like the Kingston spill from ever happening again." …

 

The Environmental Protection Agency this week called the spill at TVA's Kingston plant "one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind in history."

While the spill of ash from burned coal contains arsenic and potentially carcinogenic heavy metals, it is not regulated as hazardous waste. Some environmental groups want EPA to change that. TVA owns nearly 3,000 acres of ash ponds at its other coal plants in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama. …

Kilgore said the utility is "making good progress" on the projected $1.2 billion cleanup that could cause possible rate increases. He declined to speculate about the amount.

 

Retiree Gary Topmiller, his wife, Pam, and more than a hundred others who live in the picturesque riverfront community about 40 miles west of Knoxville have been feeling the pain along with TVA.

For a year, the Topmillers have been scraping black muck from air filters in their Emory River home where they watch and listen to TVA dredging, sprinkling and loading the metals-laden dirt in more than 100 train cars each day. …

Some of Topmiller's neighbors have moved away. The EPA and Tennessee environmental officials say tests show that TVA has adequately contained any health hazard, and they commend the utility's cleanup. No penalties have been assessed against TVA and while some people are suing, TVA contends the utility cannot be held liable for punitive damages. …

Topmiller said both he and his wife have been victims of "coal ash flu" -- the moniker locals give a variety of respiratory problems -- and she at times has awakened with her eyes stuck shut. He said their children, due to health fears, no longer bring their grandchildren to visit their 3-year-old home that includes an upstairs apartment that he added for the visits.

"I won't let my kids swim there again," said Topmiller's daughter, 40-year-old Ann Smith of Cincinnati. "He (Topmiller) spent his whole life working for that house. Now we can't even go there." …

A year later, TVA chief says ash spill `painful'  via The Oil Drum

Reuters:

Climate change and the fast diminishing glaciers in the Andes are posing a serious threat to water supplies in the Bolivian highlands.

The rapid pace at which glaciers are melting in the Andes mountain range is posing a serious threat to the water supply of many Andean countries, and particularly Bolivia.

Scientists expect that global warming will melt most Andean glaciers in the next 30 years, an event that will threaten the livelihood of millions of people who depend on them for drinking water, farming and power generation. …

I couldn’t find any shots of the Milluni Valley before 2008, but clearly the situation has not improved.

2008

2009

(Reuters) FOR CENTURIES a monastic fortress in Bhutan’s Himalayas has sheltered ancient Buddhist relics and scriptures from earthquakes, fires and Tibetan invasions. Now the lamas here may have met their match – global warming.

At least 53 million cubic metres of glacier melt is threatening to break the banks of a lake upstream in the Himalayan peaks and provoke a “mountain tsunami” in Punakha valley. The government is pressing the lamas, so far unsuccessfully, to transport relics to a nearby hilltop for safekeeping. Massive flooding could inundate these valleys, which hold about a tenth of Bhutan’s population, by 2015.

“Pollution has disturbed our deities,” Leki Dorji, a red-robed lama, said in a courtyard as monks chanted mantras. “It’s for that that the rains have not come on time, that we have not had snow for five years.” …

The government has identified 26 glacier lakes in Bhutan at risk of what is called Glacier Lake Outburst Floods, when accumulated melt breaks its moraine banks. Scientists say that glaciers in Bhutan are retreating by about 30m a year. …

The monastery was damaged by a similar glacier outburst in 1994. Then monks gathered to pray for the safety of their treasures, especially the most precious relic – the Rangjung Kharsapani, an image of the deity of compassion. At least 20 people in the valley were killed then. The next torrent of water would be three times greater.

“We hope to convince the monks to move the relics. If the next lake bursts, you can imagine what it would trigger,” Thinley said. “Our valley, settlements, or farms would be swept away.” …

Glacier melt is threat to sacred treasures

COPENHAGEN—The Altiplano, or high plain, of Bolivia and Peru is getting a new climate. In the past 60 years temperatures have risen, rainfall patterns have changed and soils have begun to dry out even further. As a result, farmers move their crops further up the mountainsides, like endangered species seeking refuge at cooler elevations. Floods and frosts remain the biggest threats but when the entire water system of your area changes, how do you adapt?

That is the question residents from the Andes to the Himalayas are asking as the climate changes. Water streams off the Pastoruri Glacier in Peru year-round now, even in July, which is the middle of their winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Some call it an "ice blanket" now, rather than a glacier, thanks to its steady retreat. And much like their Incan ancestors, the residents must build weirs to hold some of the water and save it for their daily lives.

Local farmers have also seized control of hydroelectric dams in the region, due to concerns that power producers, such as U.S.-based Duke Energy, might be holding back water needed for their crops. "The farmers felt shortages," says John Furlow, a climate change specialist at USAID who is attending the United Nations' climate summit here. "There's a realization of impacts getting ahead of where the science is."

At the same time, local residents rely on the governments of Peru or Bolivia for protection from avalanches and floods kicked off by newly formed lakes of glacial meltwater or thawing permafrost. "There's a fair amount of mistrust of the government and a reliance on it to protect people," Furlow adds. …

Climate change is ridding the world's tropical mountain ranges of ice