Our recent report “Plant-Based Diets: A solution to our public health crisis”, with foreword by Shadow Economic Secretary Kerry McCarthy, MP, gives a qualified overview of how a switch to a diet free of meat and dairy products will dramatically reduce the incidence, and therefore costs, of some of the most prevalent illnesses currently impinging upon public health in the UK. The report asserts, “There is much value in considering proven nutrition science on the benefits of a wholesome plant-based diet, thus avoiding the rising demand and higher costs of treatments. Merely promoting the intake of more fruit and vegetables is not sufficiently clear advice. Recommending or promoting a wholly vegan or vegetarian lifestyle as a preventative measure and a proven solution to preventing and reversing chronic disease offers the NHS, [the UK] economy and public health a win-win solution.”

In this regard, the WPF has outlined steps, which can be taken by the UK Government and health professionals to improve public health and substantially reduce rising costs through taking advantage of the numerous health benefits of plant-based diets. We aim to serve the Government in the successful planning and implementation of these measures. Through such projects and initiatives, the UK will take the international lead in the advocacy, promotion and implementation of plant-based policies and incentives, setting a benchmark in healthcare, environmental protection and policy innovation.

Recommendations include: introducing higher taxes on meat and dairy products reflecting their environmental and health costs, in line with taxation of other prod­ucts impacting adversely on health, such as tobacco; establishing of a task force or other specific body to develop and assess best-outcome strategies for encouraging a societal shift towards more plant-based nutrition; further training of health professionals on the benefits of plant-based diets and the prevention of chronic disease, and more substantial curricula on nutrition in student medical courses; establishing Nutritional Information Centres to provide advice and support for patients and public as well as information on address­ing causes of dietary-related illness; council/regional ‘meat free days’; increasing subsidies for vegetable, fruit, grain and pulse farming; dialogue with food producers and retailers to increase number and availability of meat- and dairy-free options; introducing wholesome plant-based menu options in hospitals, etc, with animal prod­ucts replaced with meat-substitute products.

Furthermore, such a switch can also help mitigate climate change while providing various environmental benefits to augment personal, public and ecological health, globally.

Some related studies referenced in the report
(Full references given at http://www.worldpreservationfoundation.org/references)

Dr Caldwell Esselstyn who directs the Cardiovascular Prevention and Reversal Program of the Cleveland  Wellness Clinic, Ohio, USA,  has carried out a 20 year study (the longest of its kind) in successfully reversing heart disease for many patients with severe heart conditions.  He has scientifically proven that a healthy plant based diet can prevent and reverse heart disease. His work has been published in the American J of Cardiology, Surgery, Preventive Cardiology, Journal of Family Practice and other peer reviewed medical journals. http://www.heartattackproof.com/

Other physicians such as Dr Marc Katz (cardiothoracic surgeon), Dr Malcolm Baxter, Dr Dean Ornish and others have similarly arrested and reversed either heart disease and/or diabetes.

Dr Neal Bernard is the founder and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and also president of the Cancer Project, a non-profit organization showing the link between cancer and nutrition,  cancer prevention and survival through healthy plant-based nutrition    http://www.cancerproject.org/diet_cancer/index.php, http://www.cancerproject.org/diet_cancer/facts/major_killers.php

His work has been published in peer reviewed medical journals such as the American J of Clinical Nutrition,  American Journal of Cardiology, The Lancet, Annals of Nutrition & Metabolism,  Journal of the American Dietetic Assoc, Nutrition & Cancer, Diabetes Care, Paediatrics, Canadian Journal of dietetic Practice & Research & others.

The following are a few studies citing the effectiveness of a plant based diet in managing and preventing Type II Diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Diabetes

1.   Ann Nutr Metab. 2008;52(2):96-104. Epub 2008 Mar 18.

Meats, processed meats, obesity, weight gain and occurrence of diabetes among adults: findings from Adventist Health Studies.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18349528

2.  Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 May;89(5):1588S-1596S. Epub 2009 Apr 1.

A low-fat vegan diet and a conventional diabetes diet in the treatment of type 2 diabetes: a randomized, controlled, 74-wk clinical trial.   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19339401

3.  American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 78, No. 3, 610S-616S, September 2003

Type 2 diabetes and the vegetarian diet,   http://www.ajcn.org/content/78/3/610S.full

Heart Disease

4.  Esselstyn CB Jr, Ellis SG, Medendorp SV, Crowe TD. A strategy to arrest and reverse coronary artery disease: a 5-year longitudinal study of a single physician’s practice. J Fam Pract 1995;41:560 –568.

5.  Campbell TC, Parpia B, Chen J. Diet, lifestyle, and the etiology of coronary artery disease: the Cornell China study. Am J Cardiol 1998; 82:18T–21T.

Cancer

6.  Key TJ, Fraser GE, Thorogood M, Appleby PN, Beral V, Reeves G, Burr ML, Chang- Claude J, Frentzel-Beyme R, Kuzma JW, Mann J, McPherson K. Mortality. Vegetarians and nonvegetarians: detailed findings from a collaborative analysis of 5 prospective studies. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 Sep;70(3 Suppl):516S-524S.

7.  Dos Santos Silva I, Mangtani P, McCormack V, Bhakta D, Sevak L, McMichael AJ. Lifelong vegetarianism and risk of breast cancer: a population-based case-control study among South Asian migrant women living in England. Int J Cancer. 2002 May 10;99(2):238-44.

7 September 2011

CONTACT:  Kian Tavakkoli

Email:  kian@worldpreservationfoundation.org

Phone:  0044 (0)7985 503906

PLANT-BASED LIFESTYLE COULD SAVE THE NHS BILLIONS OF POUNDS 

NGO calls upon UK Government to proactively promote and recommend  a plant-based diet as a solution to rising healthcare costs and rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type II diabetes 

7 September 2011, London, United Kingdom – In a paper distributed to all MPs in the House Magazine entitled, “Plant-Based Diets: A solution to our public health crisis”, leading physicians reveal that a switch to a diet free of meat and dairy products will dramatically reduce the incidence (and therefore the costs) of the most menacing maladies currently threatening public health, such as obesity, cancer, heart disease and diabetes.  London-based NGO, World Preservation Foundation, stated in a letter to the Prime Minister that the Government can take the international lead in the advocacy and implementation of healthier plant-based policies and incentives, setting a benchmark in healthcare, environmental protection and policy innovation.  Acknowledging the challenge of  protecting and improving public health, whilst managing escalating costs in the NHS, WPF has set out proposed measures it believes the Government can implement to meet this challenge.

Chronic diseases are skyrocketing in the UK as insufficient consideration is given to dietary choices and the main cause of these diseases.  Current data shows over 60% of the population is overweight or obese.  Cardiovascular disease alone kills nearly 200,000 people in the UK every year and costs over £30 billion.  The paper details how these chronic diseases can be treated with a simple change in diet.

Leading physician and researcher, Dr Caldwell Esselstyn, who directs the cardiovascular prevention and reversal program in Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute, USA, stated:    “We are potentially on the cusp of what could be a seismic revolution in health.  This will never come about from another pill, another procedure, another operation, or construction of another cardiac cathedral.  It will come about when we are able to show the public the lifestyle that will halt and eliminate 75% of these common, chronic killing diseases.   The most essential component of this lifestyle is whole food plant-based nutrition.” 

Dr Esselstyn’s paper states:

“I initiated a long term study that treated seriously ill patients with coronary artery disease  with plant-based nutrition and succeeded in the arrest and reversal of their disease …  Patients lose weight, blood pressure normalizes, and type 2 diabetes improves or resolves, as do angina, erectile dysfunction, and peripheral vascular and carotid disease.“  Dr Esselstyn goes on to say:. “Sadly, today our adolescents are but a decade or 2 away from compounding this epidemic.  It is time to tell the truth. Family history and genetic background do not cause this illness. It is not the luck of the draw. It is a matter of personal action and responsibility. Genes load the gun, but lifestyle pulls the trigger.”

While politicians struggle with mounting NHS costs, a solution to these chronic public health threats is easily at hand.  If the Government were to provide public education on the direct link between the disease epidemic and a diet heavy in meat and dairy products, the cost burden would be reduced automatically with lifestyle changes.  Dr. Neal Barnard, founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine sums it up nicely, “Many people still have no idea that food choices make such an enormous difference. Not only can healthier choices tackle the obesity epidemic; they also help us reverse heart disease, prevent cancer, and reduce the risk of other major health problems. Now is the time to spread the word far and wide.”

Also featured in the paper is Dr Joel Fuhrman, Director of Research for Nutritional Research Project for the National Health Association, New Jersey, who states that “The cure for type II diabetes is already known – removing the cause can reverse the disease, and the chief cause is excess weight from the Western diet and inactivity. The best and safest “medicine” for a diabetic is a high-nutrient density (HND) diet: focused on low-calorie, nutrient-rich plant foods and exercise.  Weight loss is effective in itself, but the goal of lifestyle intervention must be to improve pancreatic function and lower insulin resistance over and above what could be accomplished with weight loss alone. An HND diet can accomplish this; by emphasizing micronutrient adequacy, cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure are lowered as weight is lost and blood glucose drops. We have extensive experience treating overweight diabetics with superior nutrition and the results are impressive. The majority are able to restore their glucose levels to the normal range without any further need for medications. They have essentially become non-diabetic again.”

Dr Fuhrman highlighted: “New dietary guidelines emphasizing nutrient-rich plant foods can enable modern populations to dramatically improve their health, dramatically reduce healthcare costs, while at the same time save millions of needless deaths from heart disease, strokes, cancer and diabetes.  It is time for an evolution in healthcare where prevention via proper diet, not drugs, becomes the foundation of modern healthcare.”

World Preservation Foundation is calling for more than just mild suggestions to eat more fruits and vegetables.  With definitive evidence that a plant-based diet can be a direct and cost effective solution to chronic disease, WPF is asking the Government to lead by example and to initiate nationwide incentives and campaigns for a societal shift towards more plant-based nutrition.  According to Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop, WPF Executive Director, “Advanced nutrition science has provided us with the simple and cost effective solution of a wholesome plant-based diet for preventing and even reversing these diet related diseases.  People can make an informed choice when they know the full facts and that needless suffering and loss of loved ones can be avoided to a large extent.”

He added “Bill Clinton made the change to a plant-based diet after having stint surgery.  He knew about the advantages of plant-based diets, but made the change for his daughter Chelsea’s wedding – he wanted to be alive and healthy for his grandchildren.”

Notes to the Editor:

WPF assimilates, documents and presents scientific data relating to climate change; including deforestation, disease, drought and global hunger.  It serves as an access-point for information to assist media and concerned parties to engage these topics and to encourage governments, public bodies and other institutions to introduce beneficial legislation and policies resulting in the subsequent mitigation of climate change and minimization of associated human, planetary and economic costs; also safeguarding water supplies, preserving forests, minimizing environmental degradation, improving health and alleviating global food shortages.

The WPF paper, ‘Plant-based Diets: A Solution to Our Public Health Crisis’ can be accessed here:  http://www.worldpreservationfoundation.org/references

In this video presentation, Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop, World Preservation Foundation Senior Scientist, puts forward the case for how, with the devastating effects of climate change being felt ever-more quickly and with increasing intensity, the importance of embracing fast-acting solutions to mitigate climate change has increased dramatically.

In recent years, greater understanding of climate science has advanced considerably, and scientists and even policy makers now recognise that climate change in the short term is being driven by extremely potent, shorter-lived climate forcers. By reducing these climate forcers — namely black carbon, methane and tropospheric ozone — cooling begins rapidly.

Globally, the production of meat and dairy are significant contributors of these fast warming agents with far reaching consequences on planetary warming and environmental devastation. These include the major effects of black carbon due to biomass burning, on West Antarctica as well as the tropical monsoons; deforestation; soil carbon loss; and, food and water security. It’s estimated that 47% to 60% of the black carbon reaching West Antarctica and causing rapid melting is due to biomass burning resulting from livestock pasture management.

CO₂ from pasture maintenance fires, reforestation of pastures and soil carbon uptake on relief of grazing pressure may also play a part in a fast-acting solution to the climate crisis.

This video is a synopsis of the paper Gerard wrote that examines the contributions of agriculture, namely livestock farming, to planetary warming through the shorter-lived climate forcers, and the effect of animal agriculture abatement on alleviating global warming and environmental collapse. We also propose four policy measures to immediately reduce the shorter-lived warming agents.

(By: Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop: Senior Scientist, World Preservation Foundation )

Furthermore, while he conventional management system generates about $1,750 per acre when the crop is sold, the ARS certified-organic-management system can gross $5,290 per acre.

Source: US Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Pecan Trial (J. Bradford, Integrated Farming and Natural Resources Research Unit) (ARS News Article)

Date: November 4, 2008

Source: Ecology and Farming ~ The magazine of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (Nov 2009, No.46, P 27) (Article)

Date: Nov 2009

Afforestation is being encouraged under the UN’s Kyoto Protocol climate-change treaty under the theory that forests are “sinks” that soak up carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air through photosynthesis.

But environmental researchers, in a new probe, said that even massive conversion of land to forestry would have only a slender benefit against the greenhouse-gas problem.

This is partly because forests take decades to mature and CO2 is a long-lasting molecule, able to lurk for centuries in the atmosphere.

But another reason is that forests, even as they absorb greenhouse gas, are darker than croplands and thus absorb more solar heat — and in high latitudes, this may even result in net warming.

Vivek Arora of the University of Victoria in British Columbia and Alvaro Montenegro of St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia modelled five scenarios in which afforestation was carried out over 50 years, from 2011 to 2060.

They used a Canadian programme called CanESM1 that simulated the impacts on land, sea and air if Earth’s surface temperature rose by some 3.0 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100 compared to 1850.

Even if all the cropland in the world were afforested, this would reduce the warming by only 0.45 C (0.81 F) by a timescale of 2081-2100, according to the study, which appears in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Fifty-percent afforestation would brake it by an even tinier 0.25 C (0.45 F).

Both scenarios are, of course, wildly unrealistic because of the need to grow food.

Fifty-percent afforestation would require at least a doubling in crop yield to feed the human population because half of the crop area would be taken out of use.

The other three scenarios found that afforestation in the tropics was three times more efficient at “avoided warming” than in northerly latitudes and temperate regions.

The study said that afforestation does have other benefits, for the economy and the ecoystem.

“There’s nothing wrong with afforestation, it is positive, but our findings say that it’s not a response to temperature control if we are going to be emitting (greenhouse gases) this way,” Montenegro told AFP.

The study said bluntly, “Afforestation is not a substitute for reduced greenhouse-gas emissions.”

In forest programmes, policymakers would be advised to focus afforestation efforts in the tropics but also push hard against deforestation, which accounts for 10 to 20 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions globally.

Avoiding deforestation is under discussion for post-2012 climate action under the UN flag.

Source: Afforestation will hardly dent warming problem: study – Physorg

Date: 19 June 2011

Queensland University of Technology professor Richard Conant was part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore.

Professor Conant’s latest research suggests the best way to reduce greenhouse emissions is to improve the way nitrogen fertiliser, which releases nitrous oxide, is applied to crops throughout the world.

Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture come from two main sources: 38 per cent from nitrous oxide from poor soil fertilisation and 34 per cent from methane from stock.

Professor Conant said the nitrous oxide could be better controlled than methane-emitting pigs and cattle.

“The three greenhouse gases related to agriculture are carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane,” he said.

“They have different impacts on the atmosphere. Now if we say carbon dioxide has an impact of one, methane has an impact of say 21 times.

“Nitrous oxide has an even bigger impact, something like 300 times the impact of CO2.”

The figures represent the ability of a molecule to absorb the long wave energy radiation from the earth.

Nitrous oxide was, per molecule, a bigger destroyer of the cushioning greenhouse environment surrounding the earth, Professor Conant said.

“Nitrous oxide is not the main greenhouse gas, it is just that for every molecule of greenhouse gas, it just absorbs a lot more of the energy from the earth,” he said.

Professor Conant’s latest research suggests it is possible to produce more food and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving the way nitrogen fertiliser is applied in developing countries.

Professor Conant, who now works at QUT’s Institute of Sustainable Resources, has used computer modelling to analyse the way nitrogen is applied throughout the world to cereal crops, like maize, rice, wheat, millet and sorghum.

Collectively, these cereals make up about 70 per cent of the world’s food production.

“Literature in this field implies that with greater (nitrogen) fertilisation we can expect that we are going to be less efficient at growing food,” Professor Conant said.

“So there is this fear out there that we are seeing diminishing marginal returns on our nitrogen inputs to the system.”

However, Professor Conant’s research into international cereal crop farming shows that is not the case.

“I think that while in some countries the nitrogen inputs are increasing, the benefits from those nitrogen are not increasing as much in the developing world as they are in the rich world,” he said.

If better food yields could come from improved nitrogen fertilising, Professor Conant said more food could be produced with a lower greenhouse impact.

“By bridging this gap, food production in developing countries can grow more quickly than nitrogen inputs grow in those countries,” he said.

Professor Conant’s research will be housed at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and used by all member nations.

Source: Forget carbon, this is worse: researcher – Brisbane Times AU

Date: 16 June 2011

Curbing these pollutants could also boost global food output and save millions of lives lost to heart and lung disease, said the report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

Even as climate talks remain deadlocked on how to share out the task of cutting CO2, parallel action on “black carbon” particles and ground-level ozone would buy precious time in the quest to limit global temperature rise to 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), it said.

Record output in 2010 of carbon from energy use and unprecedented CO2 levels in the atmosphere suggest that efforts to maintain the 2.0 C cap, widely seen as a threshold for dangerous warming, may already be doomed, say scientists.

On current trajectories, temperatures are set to go up 1.3 C (2.3 F) — on top of the 0.9 C (1.6 F) jump since human-induced warming kicked in — by 2050, bringing the total compared to preindustrial levels to 2.2 C (4.0 F).

But quickly tackling black carbon and smog-related ozone could slash 0.5 C (0.9 F) off the temperature increase projected for 2030, putting the two-degree target back on track, the new findings suggest.

“There are clear and concrete measures that can be undertaken to help protect the global climate in the short and medium term,” said Drew Shindell, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of the 50 scientists behind the new assessment.

“The win-win here for limiting climate change and improving air quality is self-evident and the ways to achieve it have become far clearer.”

The report was unveiled in Bonn as delegates from more than 190 nations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) struggle to make headway in the deeply stymied negotiations.

Black carbon, found in soot, is a byproduct of incomplete burning of fossil fuels, wood and biomass, such as animal waste. The most common sources are car and truck emissions, primitive cook stoves, forest fires and industry.

Soot suspended in the air accelerates global warming by absorbing sunlight. When it covers snow and ice, white surfaces that normally reflect the Sun’s radiative force back into space soak up heat instead, speeding up the melting of mountain glaciers, ice sheets, and the Arctic ice cap.

The tiny particles have also been linked to premature death from heart disease and lung cancer.

Ground-level, or tropospheric, ozone — a major ingredient of urban smog — is both a powerful greenhouse gas and a noxious air pollutant. It is formed from other gases including methane, itself a potent driver of global warming.

A threefold increase in concentrations in the northern hemisphere over the last century has made it the third most important greenhouse gas.

Unlike carbon dioxide, which lingers in the atmosphere for centuries once emitted, black carbon and ozone disappear quickly when emissions taper off.

“The science of short-lived climate forcers has evolved to a level of maturity that now requires … a robust policy response by nations,” said Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP.

Measures recommended for reducing black carbon include mandatory use of diesel filters on vehicles, phasing out wood-burning stoves in rich countries, use of clean-burning biomass stoves for cooking and heating in developing nations, and a ban on the open burning of agricultural waste.

For ozone, the report calls for policies that curb organic waste, require water treatment facilities to recover gas, reduce methane emissions from coal and oil industries, and promote anaerobic digestion of manure from cattle and pigs, both major sources of methane.

The report estimates that nearly 2.5 million deaths from outdoor pollution, mainly in Africa and Asia, could be avoided every year by 2030 if black carbon levels dropped significantly.

Far less ground-level ozone could also avoid important losses in global maize, rice, soybean and wheat production, it said.

Source: Curb soot and smog to keep Earth cool, says UN – PHYSORG

Date: 14 June 2011

As Food Safety News reports, the USDA’s attempts to force the meat industry to test for other strains of E. coli are being held up by the White House Office of Budget and Management. This is in part because of the efforts of the American Meat Institute, which represents 95 percent of red-meat processors. The AMI, like any other industry group, has powerful lobbyists, and those lobbyists have an undue amount of influence in the way governmental decisions are made, or not made.

The AMI has quite an illustrious history of resisting government regulation. When, in the aftermath of the 1994 Jack in the Box E. coli scare that killed four children and sickened hundreds, the USDA declared E. coli 1057:H7 an adulterant (a legal term meaning that a food product does not meet state or federal standards), the AMI insisted there was no emergency and sued the government for its meddlesome behavior.

Five years later, the AMI sued again when the USDA attempted to shut down a beef plant due to salmonella contamination, and the courts ruled in the group’s favor. In March, AMI executives met with OMB officials to try to persuade them that additional E. coli testing would be an “unnecessary burden.”

There is no mention of the current E. coli scare on the AMI’s website, but there is a press release trumpeting new CDC data identifying 442 cases of E. coli in 2010, which achieves the public health goal of one case per 100,000 people. There’s also a press release for the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council’s first-ever hot-dog photo contest. The reward is “the ultimate summer barbecue”; if the AMI gets its way, bloody diarrhea and renal failure may be on the menu.

Source: Basically, the American Meat Institute Wants Us to Eat Shit and Die – The Village Voice Blogs

Date: 08 June 2011

The additional investment “could halve deforestation rates by 2030, increase rates of tree planting by around 140 per cent by 2050,” said the report published by the Nairobi-based United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

“Carefully planned investments would also contribute to increased employment from 25 million today to 30 million by 2050,” it also added.

The cost of ensuring a green transition would equal $40 billion a year or around 0.034 per cent of global GDP, the report said.

Such an investment, equivalent to about two-thirds more than what is currently spent on the sector, would also remove an extra 28 per cent of carbon from the atmosphere, the Nairobi-based UNEP said.

Earlier this week the UNEP warned that fires, felling and agriculture are whittling Europe’s forests down into isolated patches, threatening to speed up desertification and deplete wildlife.

The UN Environment Programme is working with scientists to draw up maps of areas that need to be replanted to help reconnect fragmented forests. The maps will submitted at a June 14-16 ministerial meeting in Oslo.

Source: World ‘must invest $40bn a year in forests’: UN – France 24 International News

Date: 05 June 2011

“Their fate dramatically illustrates how social development, economic growth and environmental sustainability are inextricably intertwined,” noted Sumavia. “The un-sustainability of the prevailing model of growth has been increasingly laid bare – economically, environmentally, socially and politically.”

Environmental degradation is one manifestation of the imbalances produced by this inefficient model of growth. Another is its failure to yield sufficient opportunities for the decent work that people need.

“The economic crisis which it did produce has forced millions of people out of work and pushed many more back into poverty. Globally, there were 27.6 million more unemployed people in 2010 than before the crisis. The number of workers in extreme poverty in 2009 is estimated to have been over 40 million more than it would have been without the crisis. And the pre-crisis situation was already unacceptable”, he explained.

Environmental degradation and misuse of the forest resource and the deep-seated crisis of jobs and decent work are interconnected.

In an inefficient growth model with a marked deficit of decent jobs, the quest for survival along with the unbridled exploitation of resources fuels unsustainable use of forests with loss of jobs and livelihoods. It also and fosters intolerable labour practices such as forced labour.

Yet forests are at the service of job creation. We must also take steps to ensure that they are at the service of decent job creation.

Tens of millions depend directly on forests for their living. For 60 million indigenous and tribal peoples, forests are not only the economic basis of their survival but also the very foundation of their cultural and spiritual identity. Some 14 million are employed in the formal forestry sector. And the survival of a much larger number depends on informal and often subsistence use of forests.
ILO research has shown that there are significant sustainable employment and income opportunities in Amazon forests. Another study in collaboration with China suggests that reforestation can create several hundred thousand temporary and permanent rural job opportunities.

Under the Green Jobs Initiative involving the United Nations Environment Programme, the International Trade Union Confederation, the International Organisation of Employers and the ILO, “our recent global study “Skills for Green Jobs” highlights the role of training in controlling deforestation (Brazil), job creation for low income and unemployed youth (Republic of Korea), and contributing to poverty reduction (Uganda),” he pointed out.

Brazil is building decent work standards into forest management in the Amazon region. Similarly, programmes for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD+) increasingly recognize that the co-benefits of employment, income and local governance are critical for the success of these schemes.

“We must use the opportunity of the Rio UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012 to make progress towards an inclusive growth model with policies that are efficient for people, for productive investment and for nature,” concluded Samuvia.

Source: People destroy forests at peril – ILO chief – Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)

Date: 05 June 2011

• Forest density can complicate U.N.-led carbon market

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

Rising forest density in many countries is helping to offset climate change caused by deforestation from the Amazon basin to Indonesia, a study showed on Sunday.

The report indicated that the size of trees in a forest — rather than just the area covered — needed to be taken into account more in U.N.-led efforts to put a price on forests as part of a nascent market to slow global warming.

“Higher density means world forests are capturing more carbon,” experts in Finland and the United States said of the study in the online journal PLoS One, issued on June 5 which is World Environment Day in the U.N. calendar.

Trees soak up carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, as they grow and release it when they burn or rot. Deforestation in places from the Congo basin to Papua New Guinea is blamed for perhaps 12 to 20 percent of all emissions by human activities.

The report, based on a survey of 68 nations, found that the amount of carbon stored in forests increased in Europe and North America from 2000-10 despite little change in forest area.

And in Africa and South America, the total amount of carbon stored in forests fell at a slower rate than the loss of area, indicating that they had grown denser. [ID:nLDE75407A]. Forests in Asia became less dense over the same period.

And some countries still had big losses of carbon, including Indonesia and Argentina. The study did not try to estimate the overall trend, saying there was not yet enough data.

Greater density in some countries, including China, was probably linked to past forest plantings, lead author Aapo Rautiainen of the University of Helsinki told Reuters.

“Forests that were established in China a few decades ago are now starting to reach their fast-growing phase. That is a reason for rising density now,” he said.

WARMER

Global warming, blamed by the U.N. panel of climate experts mainly on human use of fossil fuels, might itself be improving growth conditions for trees in some regions. Warming is projected to cause heatwaves, droughts and rising sea levels.

The United States has had among the most striking shifts — timberland area expanded by just one percent between 1953 and 2007 but the volume of growing stock surged by 51 percent.

A shift towards farming in the Midwestern United States meant that forests in the east had been left to grow, and get denser.

The report also suggested that forest managers might rotate fellings less frequently since trees kept thickening.

But it could complicate efforts to design market mechanisms to encourage developing nations to safeguard tropical forests. Under the U.N.-led effort, people would get tradeable credits for slowing the rate of deforestation.

Measuring the density of a forest requires more complex monitoring than just measuring the extent of a forest by photographing it from a plane or by satellite.

“There does need to be a greater sampling to be able to come to a legitimate and credible number for the carbon,” said Iddo Wernick, a co-author at the Rockefeller University in New York.

Negotiators from about 180 nations will meet in Bonn, Germany, from June 6-17 to discuss measures to slow global wraming, including the protection of tropical forests. (Editing by David Cowell)

Source: Rising forest density offsets climate change-study – Thompson Reuters Foundation AlertNet

Date: 05 June 2011

“We are putting ourselves in a scenario where we will have to develop more powerful technologies to capture emissions out of the atmosphere,” said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. “We are getting into very risky territory,” she added, stressing that time was running out.

The UN climate talks starting on Monday in Bonn, which run for the next two weeks, will try to revive the negotiations before the next climate conference, taking place in Durban, South Africa, in December. But little progress is expected, as the negotiating time is likely to be taken up with details such as rules on monitoring emissions.

Figueres tried to inject a greater sense of urgency into the proceedings by pointing to research from the International Energy Agency that found that emissions had soared last year by a record amount. The strong rise means it will take more effort by governments to curb emissions.

Figueres told the Guardian in an interview that governments should act now to save money: “We add $1 trillion to the cost [of tackling climate change] with every year of delay.”

However, as the latest talks begin, the world’s leading climate change official has upset governments by insisting that the aim of the negotiations ought to be to hold warming to less than 1.5C. That would be a much tougher goal than that set by governments last year, which seeks to limit the temperature rise to no more than 2C – the safety threshold, scientists say, beyond which warming becomes catastrophic and irreversible.

“In my book, there is no way we can stick to the goal that we know is completely unacceptable to the most exposed [countries],” Figueres said.

The difference between the two goals may not seem great, but since it has taken more than 20 years of talks for countries to agree on the 2C limit, many are unwilling to reopen the debate. Delegates are conscious that wrangling over whether to stick to 1.5C or 2C was one of the main sources of conflict at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009; the hope has been that talks can move on to other issues such as how to pay for emissions curbs in poorer countries.

“This is an extraordinary intervention,” said one official involved in the climate talks, who could not be named.

Figueres said that she had the support of the world’s least developed countries, most of Africa, and small island states.

Another factor casting a pall over this year’s talks, which are intended to forge a new global treaty on climate change, is criticism of the South African government, which will host the Durban talks. No interim meetings have yet been set up, and countries have complained of disorganisation and a lack of enthusiasm. But Figueres said: “South Africa has been very carefully listening, trying to understand where there are commonalities and where the weaknesses are.”

She also predicted the US would play a strong role in the talks, despite the Obama administration facing Republican opposition in Congress to action on emissions. “It’s very evident that the legislative body in the US has disengaged, but … the administration continues to be engaged.” she said.

But Todd Stern, chief negotiator for the US, called for participants in the talks to “roll up their sleeves and be constructive.”

Source: Global warming crisis may mean world has to suck greenhouse gases from air – The Guardian UK

Date: 05 June 2011

Why will nearly one in seven people go to bed hungry tonight? After all, the world currently produces enough food for everyone. Today’s major problems in the food system are not fundamentally about supply keeping up with demand, but more about how food gets from fields and on to forks.

Hunger – along with obesity, obscene waste and appalling environmental degradation – is an outcome of our broken food system. And the challenge of producing enough food to meet demand looks set to increase. With the world’s population expected to grow from around 7 billion today to more than 9 billion in 2050 – an increase of nearly one-third – there will certainly be a lot more stomachs to fill. The UN has forecast that, on current trends, demand may increase by 70% over the same period, and that’s without even tackling current levels of hunger.

But population growth, per se, is not the primary problem. By 2050 an estimated seven out of 10 people will live in poor countries reliant on food imports. The quantities of food eaten by each of these people every day is likely to be an unjustifiable fraction of what anyone reading this blog has already eaten today.

Instead, the real crunch is likely to come from the changing dietary preferences from people in some large emerging countries. Economic growth, urbanisation and rising affluence are increasingly bringing with them higher demand for convenient, processed foods, for meat, and for dairy products – in short, a more western diet.

This change in demand has significant environmental consequences. Feeding livestock is much less resource-efficient than growing grains for human consumption. Already, one-third of the world’s cereal harvest and more than nine-tenths of the world’s soya is used for animal feed. Soy-derived feed may be produced on, or indirectly contribute to expansion on to, cleared rainforest land. Rainforests are very important natural carbon sinks and therefore their clearance accelerates climate change, which is already challenging food production the world over.

The production of 1kg of beef uses 12 times the amount of water needed to produce 1kg of wheat, and more than five times the amount of land.

Changing diets bring significant social challenges. Malnourishment in the form of over-eating as well as under-eating will increasingly clog up healthcare systems and arteries in the developing world. In the rich world, obesity afflicts the poorer segments of society, because healthy foods are frequently more expensive. In the US, seven of the 10 states with the highest poverty levels are also among the 10 states with the highest rates of obesity. But in emerging countries obesity tends to be concentrated in the middle classes – those who lead more sedentary lifestyles and consume more processed foods. Countries such as Mexico and South Africa are having to increasingly deal with problems of the over-fed at the same time as those of the under-fed.

But before we point the finger at emerging economies for their rising consumption, let’s keep things in perspective. In 2007, the average American ate more than twice as much meat as the average Chinese resident. At the same time, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food as the entire food production of sub-Saharan Africa. So while rising affluence and changing diets are certainly set to pose some challenges over the coming years, we should perhaps start by looking long and hard at the contents of own fridges and dustbins.

• Richard King is economic justice policy adviser at Oxfam GB

Source: Global food crisis: The challenge of changing diets – The Guardian UK

Date: 01 Jun 2011

There are many contributing factors behind this food crisis, which is already a tragic reality in poorer countries and a looming threat for wealthier ones. One of the scandals of our global food system is that nearly 1 billion people suffer from hunger and malnutrition.

Compassion in World Farming believes a significant factor is the massive global growth in meat production and consumption. As Oxfam’s report points out, “higher incomes and increasing urbanization leads people to eat less grains and more meat, dairy, fish, fruit, and vegetables. Such a ‘Western’ diet uses far more scarce resources: land, water, atmospheric space.”

We use 67 billion animals a year for meat, milk and eggs, and of these, three quarters have to endure miserable lives in barren factory farms. Animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to dangerous climate change – and as we see above, climate change is predicted to double the price of some foodstuffs. So there is clearly an urgent need to address growth in global meat consumption:

• Over 30 percent of global grains (including wheat and maize) and 90 percent of soya are used to feed farm animals, of whom the majority are in factory farms.

• Converting plant protein into animal products is wasteful. It takes 20 kilos of feed to produce one kilo of edible beef, 7.5 kilos of feed for a kilo of edible pork and 4.5 kilos for a kilo of edible chicken.

• If global demand for animal products continues to escalate, ever-increasing amounts of precious grains, and water to irrigate those crops, would be needed to fatten up ever-increasing numbers of factory farmed animals. Such a system is clearly unsustainable for animals, people and the planet.

Compassion believes that one of the easiest solutions to help remedy the situation is for those in high meat-eating populations to reduce their intake of meat and milk overall, and to choose animal products only from higher welfare systems which have paid more regard to environmental protection and animal welfare.

This would help farm animals, as reduced demand would enable a much-needed rise in animal welfare standards across the board. It would benefit human health; the World Cancer Research Funds advises a mainly plant-based diet with an upper limit of 70g of meat per person per day. It would benefit the environment too, as factory farms are highly polluting of air, land and water. And it should benefit the hungry, allowing a more equitable food supply for everyone on the planet.

Read more

Eating the Planet: Feeding and fuelling the world sustainably, fairly and humanely
This research, specially commissioned by Compassion in World Farming and Friends of the Earth, shows that we can indeed feed the world using humane and sustainable agriculture without further deforestation, without massive land use change – and without factory farming. But our options for doing so are greatly increased if high meat-eating populations reduce their consumption.

Beyond Factory Farming
This report examines the impacts of the massive global scale of livestock production. Each year we use 67 billion farm globally for meat, milk and eggs, the majority in industrial-scale farms. At the same time, the livestock population is set to double in the face of growing demand for meat and dairy products, particularly from developing countries such as China and India. The report presents solutions for a humane and sustainable farming system and provides policy recommendations for achieving this change.

The Meat Crisis: Developing more sustainable production and consumption edited by Joyce D’Silva (Director of Public Affairs, Compassion in World Farming) and John Webster (Professor Emeritus, Bristol University Vet School), Earthscan, 2010

The Meat Crisis brings together chapters from global experts to address the major issues around industrial animal farming. In brief, these are:

• industrial animal farming’s contribution to anthropogenic climate change and the pollution of land and of rivers, lakes and seas

• industrial animal farming’s demands on precious global resources of water, grains and soya, risking increased food insecurity for the hungry

• the suffering imposed on the animals themselves

• the impacts on human health of a diet high in animal products

• the predicted doubling of demand for meat and dairy by 2050, which could mean roughly a doubling of the number of farm animals used for meat, milk and eggs per year to 120 billion, the majority of whom would be reared in confinement systems.

Interviews with some of the authors at www.ciwf.org/meatcrisis also help bring these issues to life.

Source: The food crisis and too much meat – Compassion in World Farming UK

Date: 01 June 2011

The shock rise means the goal of preventing a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius – which scientists say is the threshold for potentially “dangerous climate change” – is likely to be just “a nice Utopia”, according to Fatih Birol, chief economist of the IEA. It also shows the most serious global recession for 80 years has had only a minimal effect on emissions, contrary to some predictions.

Last year, a record 30.6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide poured into the atmosphere, mainly from burning fossil fuel – a rise of 1.6Gt on 2009, according to estimates from the IEA regarded as the gold standard for emissions data.

“I am very worried. This is the worst news on emissions,” Birol told the Guardian. “It is becoming extremely challenging to remain below 2 degrees. The prospect is getting bleaker. That is what the numbers say.”

Professor Lord Stern of the London School of Economics, the author of the influential Stern Report into the economics of climate change for the Treasury in 2006, warned that if the pattern continued, the results would be dire. “These figures indicate that [emissions] are now close to being back on a ‘business as usual’ path. According to the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's] projections, such a path … would mean around a 50% chance of a rise in global average temperature of more than 4C by 2100,” he said.

“Such warming would disrupt the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people across the planet, leading to widespread mass migration and conflict. That is a risk any sane person would seek to drastically reduce.”

Birol said disaster could yet be averted, if governments heed the warning. “If we have bold, decisive and urgent action, very soon, we still have a chance of succeeding,” he said.

The IEA has calculated that if the world is to escape the most damaging effects of global warming, annual energy-related emissions should be no more than 32Gt by 2020. If this year’s emissions rise by as much as they did in 2010, that limit will be exceeded nine years ahead of schedule, making it all but impossible to hold warming to a manageable degree.

Emissions from energy fell slightly between 2008 and 2009, from 29.3Gt to 29Gt, due to the financial crisis. A small rise was predicted for 2010 as economies recovered, but the scale of the increase has shocked the IEA. “I was expecting a rebound, but not such a strong one,” said Birol, who is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts on emissions.

John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace UK, said time was running out. “This news should shock the world. Yet even now politicians in each of the great powers are eyeing up extraordinary and risky ways to extract the world’s last remaining reserves of fossil fuels – even from under the melting ice of the Arctic. You don’t put out a fire with gasoline. It will now be up to us to stop them.”

Most of the rise – about three-quarters – has come from developing countries, as rapidly emerging economies have weathered the financial crisis and the recession that has gripped most of the developed world.

But he added that, while the emissions data was bad enough news, there were other factors that made it even less likely that the world would meet its greenhouse gas targets.

• About 80% of the power stations likely to be in use in 2020 are either already built or under construction, the IEA found. Most of these are fossil fuel power stations unlikely to be taken out of service early, so they will continue to pour out carbon – possibly into the mid-century. The emissions from these stations amount to about 11.2Gt, out of a total of 13.7Gt from the electricity sector. These “locked-in” emissions mean savings must be found elsewhere.

“It means the room for manoeuvre is shrinking,” warned Birol.

• Another factor that suggests emissions will continue their climb is the crisis in the nuclear power industry. Following the tsunami damage at Fukushima, Japan and Germany have called a halt to their reactor programmes, and other countries are reconsidering nuclear power.

“People may not like nuclear, but it is one of the major technologies for generating electricity without carbon dioxide,” said Birol. The gap left by scaling back the world’s nuclear ambitions is unlikely to be filled entirely by renewable energy, meaning an increased reliance on fossil fuels.

• Added to that, the United Nations-led negotiations on a new global treaty on climate change have stalled. “The significance of climate change in international policy debates is much less pronounced than it was a few years ago,” said Birol.

He urged governments to take action urgently. “This should be a wake-up call. A chance [of staying below 2 degrees] would be if we had a legally binding international agreement or major moves on clean energy technologies, energy efficiency and other technologies.”

Governments are to meet next week in Bonn for the next round of the UN talks, but little progress is expected.

Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, said the global emissions figures showed that the link between rising GDP and rising emissions had not been broken. “The only people who will be surprised by this are people who have not been reading the situation properly,” he said.

Forthcoming research led by Sir David will show the west has only managed to reduce emissions by relying on imports from countries such as China.

Another telling message from the IEA’s estimates is the relatively small effect that the recession – the worst since the 1930s – had on emissions. Initially, the agency had hoped the resulting reduction in emissions could be maintained, helping to give the world a “breathing space” and set countries on a low-carbon path. The new estimates suggest that opportunity may have been missed.

Source: Worst ever carbon emissions leave climate on the brink – The Guardian UK

Date: 29 May 2011

The first study in the world to calculate the total costs of nitrogen pollution across a whole continent found that the problem is costing each person in Europe up to £650 every year because of health and environmental damage.

The main cause of the pollution is agriculture through the manure of animals and the nitrogen fertilisers spread on crops. Around half of nitrogen added to farm fields in Europe leaks into the surrounding environment rather than feeding plants. This causes algae slimes to grow in water and on trees, suffocating wildlife and disturbing delicate ecosystems.

Also nitrogen ‘smog’ released into the air by burning fossil fuels in power stations and cars cause breathing or heart problems that take six months off the life of all Europeans, as well as being a greenhouse gas.

The ground-breaking European Nitrogen Assessment by more than 200 scientists from 21 countries concludes that nitrogen pollution poses an even greater threat to humankind than carbon. The cost is greater than the benefits gained by using nitrogen fertiliser to grow food and therefore it is in the EU’s interest to take action.

Dr Mark Sutton, the UK lead author, said the best way to control the problem is through eating less meat.

He explained that most of the nitrogen used in agriculture is used to grow feed crops for animals or comes from manure.

Therefore cutting down on animal protein, would significantly reduce the amount of pollution.

“The largest challenges are to manage nitrogen better in agriculture and to moderate Europeans’ consumption of animal protein,” he said. “Amazingly, livestock consume around 85 per cent of the 14 million tonnes of nitrogen in crops harvested or imported into the EU; only 15 per cent is used to feed humans directly. European nitrogen use is therefore not primarily an issue of food security, but one of luxury consumption.”

Already celebrities like Sir Paul McCartney and Joanna Lumley have urged people to give up meat at least once a week for ‘Meat Free Mondays’. The United Nations and well known academics like Lord Stern also advocate cutting down on meat to help the environment.

Dr Sutton, from the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology, and the other scientists involved in the project have signed an agreement pledging to be ‘demitarians’ or eat half as much meat.

He also said people can switch to public transport and use less energy in order to cut nitrogen use.

However he ruled out a tax on nitrogen fertiliser because of the threat to food security.

Source: Cut out meat to stop nitrogen pollution say scientists – The Telegraph UK

Date: 11 April 2011

The governing council of the UN Environment Programme (Unep) in Nairobi will hear that reducing these short-lived emissions could reduce warming by half a degree.

And it would be more easily achieved than reducing emissions of the gas principally implicated in long-term climate change, CO2.

It would also have spin-off benefits because soot and ground-level ozone harm human health – and ozone damages crops.

Loss adjustment

The assessment comes from Unep and World Meteorological Organization, in collaboration with a global team of scientists.

Its authors insist that nations must continue to strive to reduce CO2 emissions, which will continue to warm the atmosphere for more than 100 years from the time they are produced.

But it says that using existing technologies and institutions to cut ozone and black carbon (soot) can halve regional warming for 30 to 60 years whilst averting millions of premature deaths and avoiding tens of billions of dollars of crop losses annually.

Black carbon comes from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, mostly through diesel engines and biomass burning – including in cook stoves and brick kilns.

It heats the atmosphere directly and also increases warming when particles fall on to snow and ice and reduce their reflectivity.

Ozone in the upper atmosphere protects us from harmful rays. At ground level it is a serious pollutant formed by the action of sunlight on methane, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and oxides of nitrogen.

Methane recovery
The report says: “A small number of emission reduction measures targeting black carbon and ozone precursors could immediately begin to protect climate, public health, water and food security, and ecosystems.

“They include the recovery of methane from coal, oil and gas extraction and transport, methane capture in waste management, use of clean-burning stoves for residential cooking, diesel particulate filters for vehicles and the banning of field burning of agricultural waste.”

It says the task of reducing these gases needs strategic investment and institutional plans and continues: “The identified measures complement but do not replace anticipated carbon dioxide reduction measures.

“Major CO2 reduction strategies mainly target the energy and large industrial sectors and therefore would not necessarily result in significant reductions in emissions of black carbon or the ozone precursors methane and carbon monoxide.

“Significant reduction of the short-lived climate forcers requires a specific strategy, as many are emitted from a large number of small sources.

It has been known for several years that non-CO2 gases are important short-term climate forcers but the impetus to control them was boosted by a paper in Nature Geoscience in April 2009.

A model by Drew Shindell from Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies suggested that 45% or more of the Arctic warming over the past 30 years was likely to have been caused by changes in black carbon and sulphate aerosol particles.

International strategy

There have been attempts to include short-lived forcing agents into the on-going UN climate talks but although methane is included in the basket of gases to be controlled by rich nations, other ozone precursors and black carbon have been kept out of the talks on the grounds that negotiations are quite complicated enough.

Unep envisages that strategies to tackle the short-lived forcers could be possibly tackled under regional pollution agreements without the need for a global deal.

But some experts still argue that including these pollutants in UN talks would be a benefit.

Dr Mike McCracken, chief scientist for the US NGO The Climate Institute told BBC News: “Most of the emissions on these short-term warming agents are coming from developing countries.

“Most governments want to cut the emissions anyway because of the health of their people and their crops. But because the pollutants aren’t included in the climate talks, the developing countries can’t get any credit for cutting them.

“We have to credit them in the climate talks for creating a global benefit as well as a regional benefit.”

Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development said: “We also have to start now with aggressive cuts in CO2 if we want to win the longer term climate battle. But it’s not one or the other – we need to cut both CO2 and the other climate forcing agents.

“This assessment makes clear that cutting CO2 now will not reduce warming in the next 20-30 years.  This means passing the 2C level several decades earlier if we don’t reduce these local air pollutants.”

The latest UNEP initiative runs in parallel with another initiative to use the Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting substances to phase down hydrofluorocarbons, which are also other powerful climate forcers.

Professor David Fowler from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Midlothian told BBC News that the role of ground level ozone was particularly pernicious as ozone pollution was slowing the growth of plants which would otherwise be absorbing CO2 emissions.

“Many countries have introduced controls for the ozone precursors. These have helped knock the peaks off ozone concentrations in the UK, but during the last 20 years the tropospheric background ozone has been growing steadily…and is often in the UK spring close to or in excess of values which effect vegetation.”

In other words, people and crops in the UK are suffering from ground-level ozone pollution provoked by the emission of gases somewhere else in the northern hemisphere.

“The effects of tropospheric ozone on the carbon cycle are similar in magnitude (in radiative terms) to its effects as a greenhouse gas,” Professor Fowler said.

“This background pollution requires hemispheric scale control measures.”

Source: Benefit to cutting ‘black carbon’ – BBC News UK

Date: 22 Feb 2011

If we continue to sap Earth’s natural resources, “civilizational collapse is no longer a matter of whether but when,” Brown, the founder of Worldwatch and the Earth Policy Institute, which both seek to create a sustainable society, told AFP.

What distinguishes “World on the Edge” from his dozens of other books is “the sense of urgency,” Brown told AFP. “Things could start unraveling at any time now and it’s likely to start on the food front.”

“We’ve got to get our act together quickly. We don’t have generations or even decades — we’re one poor harvest away from chaos,” he said.

“We have been talking for decades about saving the planet, but the question now is, can we save civilization?”

In “World on the Edge”, Brown points to warning signs and lays out arguments for why he believes the cause of the chaos will be the unsustainable way that mankind is going about producing more and more food.

Resources are already beginning to be depleted, and that could cause a global “food bubble” created by overusing land and water to meet the exponential growth in demand for food — grain, in particular — to burst.

Two huge dustbowls have formed in the world, one in Africa and the other in China and Mongolia, because of soil erosion caused by overplowing.

In Lesotho, the grain harvest has dropped by more than half over the last decade or two because of soil erosion, Brown said.

In Saudi Arabia, grain supplies are shrinking as a fossil aquifer drilled in in the 1970s to sustain domestic grain production is running dry after years of “overpumping” to meet the needs of a population that wants to consume more meat and poultry.

Global warming is also impacting the global supply of grain, which Brown calls the foundation of the world food economy.

Every one-degree-Celsius rise above the normal temperature results in a 10 percent fall in grain yields, something that was painfully visible in Russia last year, where a seven-week heatwave killed tens of thousands and caused the grain harvest to shrink by 40 percent.

Food prices soared in Russia as a result of the poor harvest, and Russia — which is one of the top wheat exporters in the world — cut off grain exports.

Different grains are staple foods in most of the world, and foods like meat and dairy products are “grain-intensive.”

It takes seven pounds (3.2 kilograms) of grain fed to a cow to produce a pound of beef, and around four pounds (1.8 kilograms) of grain to produce a pound of cheese, Brown told AFP.

In “World on the Edge”, Brown paints a grim picture of how a failed harvest could spark a grain shortage that would send food prices sky-rocketing, cause hunger to spread, governments to collapse and states to fail.

Food riots would erupt in low-income countries and “with confidence in the world grain market shattered, the global economy could start to unravel,” Brown warned.

But Brown still believes civilizational collapse can be averted, if there is a mass effort to confront threats such as global warming, soil erosion and falling water tables, not military superpowers.

“World on the Edge” can be downloaded free-of-charge at www.earth-policy.org/books/wote.

Source: World is ‘one poor harvest’ from chaos, new book warns – France 24

Date: 17 Jan 2011

The results of these tests are challenging some long-held notions about the daily life of prehistoric people, particularly on the importance of meat in the ancient diet. According to one study, early man was neither so carnivorous nor so herbivorous as some previous studies have indicated, but instead had a more balanced diet. When Did Meat Enter the Diet?

Reports on the new tests were present ed at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which ended today, at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Glynn L. Isaac, an anthropologist at the University of Californi a at Berkeley, said the session was aimed at stimulating interest in this neglected aspect ofhuman evolution. Until now, research has been limited because the evidence was fragmentary and because direct e xperimental tests were not available.

Since today’s primitive people who depend on hunting and gathering consume four to five times as much meat as nonhuman primates, a major question is when and how meat became a substantial part of the human diet.

One school of thought has held that early manlike creatures that flourished in Africa two million years ago were carnivores with males playing the key role in food gathering; the other has held that the diet was based more on vegetation, with females playing a dominant role.

Neither view is correct, according to Professor Isaac and two associates, Richard B. Potts, a lecturer at Yale University, and Henry T. Bunn, a doctoral student at Berkeley. Th e team has been examining the tools and food refuse in early hominid sites in Kenya and Tanzania. Microscopic examination of animal bones and stone toolsshowed signs of butchering and scraping of meat.

”We have direct evidence that early hominids did leave stone cuts on a variety of animals,” Mr. Bunn said. But while this indicated meat eating was important, he said that the team advocated a ”balanced view,” stating that the evidence did not suggest meat was used to the exclusion of plants. ”There is no reason to jump to the conclusion that early hominids, with half our brains, could successfully hunt and kill large animals,” he said.

”Most of us who study early prehistory,” Professor Isaac said, ”are firmly convinced that fruits, nuts and perhaps tubers, dug up with simple tools, were the mainstay of life.”

”The interest in confirming that meat, too, had become more important than it was for monkeys and apes is that this may have helped produce a situation in which collective social acquisition of food was more advantageous than the individualistic feeding characteristic of our primate relatives. Strontium Levels Examined”

”Collective acquisition of food may in turn have stimulated the development of language ability and of intricate social patterns.” Other new techniques involve examining fossil teeth under an electron microscope for ”microwear” clues to the type of food chewed and how it was obtained, and making chemical and carbon isotope analyses of skeletal remains for indications of lifetime diet.

For example, Margaret Schoeninger of the Johns Hopkins University and Andrew Sillen of the Smithsonian Institution have seized on new techniques of geochemistry to indicate that carnivores could be expected to have much lower levels of strontium in their bones than herbivores. Strontium, a major component in the earth’s crust, is retained at different rates by animals and plants.

The two scientists theorized that fossil humans, as omnivores, would show strontium levels between those of carnivores and herbivores. This is exactly what was found when Dr. Sillen analyzed 10,000-year-old remains of humans and animals found in a cave in the western Galilee section of Israel. However, the strontium analysis was useless when attempted on 20,000-year-old specimens.

Dr. Schoeninger suggested that the technique might help answer the question of whether agriculture was developed by humans as a source of additional food or as an economic alternative. If economic, she said, no dietary changes would be expected after the advent of agriculture. The strontium studies found a major shift to grain use occurred in the ancient Middle East between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago. But agriculture emerged well afterward, from 7,000 to 9,000 years ago, suggesting that agriculture was indeed an economic phenomenon rather than a subsistence one.

Another approach that is generating excitement is the electron microscope study of tooth wear by Kathleen D. Gordon and Alan C. Walker of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. They are trying to correlate the microscopic pits and scratches on the teeth of living animals with their diets and then to compare tooth wear in extinct ancient species in an effort to deduce their diets.

The work is complex, they said, but the method does show how the teeth are worn down by such different feeding habits as grazing, fruit eating, browsing and bone chewing. They have already found that the teeth of modern man, Homo erectus, show much coarser wear than those of his extinct primate predecessors, Australopithecus and Ramapithecus, whose fossil teeth suggest they ate mainly fruits.

Richard F. Kay, a professor of anatomy at Duke University, described his theories on ancient diet based on what he called the changing ”shearing quotient” of teeth. He suggested that the teeth of R amapithecines, who originally ate a main diet of fruit and derived what protein they needed from leafy m aterials, became duller when their primary diet switched to nuts. Whe n that happened, their teeth were too dull to chew leaves so they tu rned to meat as a sourceof protein.

Source: NEW TESTING ON FOSSIL REMAINS INDICATES PREHISTORIC MAN ATE BALANCED DIET – NYTimes

Date: 09 Jan 2011

The UN’s index of food prices – an international basket comprising wheat, corn, dairy produce, meat and sugar – stands at its highest since the index started in 1990, surpassing even the peaks seen during the 2008 food crisis, which prompted civil disturbances from Mexico to Indonesia.

“We are entering danger territory,” said the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s chief economist, Abdolreza Abbassian.

Global food prices have risen for the sixth month in succession. Wheat has almost doubled since June, sugar is at a 30-year high, and pork is up by a quarter since the beginning of 2010.

The trends have already affected the UK where the jump in food prices in November was the highest since 1976. Meat and poultry were up 1 per cent and fruit by 7.5 per cent in one month.

Food producers have been told to expect the wheat price to jump again this month, hitting bakers and the makers of everything from pasta to biscuits.

More is sure to follow and that in turn will add to pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates to control rising prices. Higher mortgage bills by the end of the year will add to the unpleasantness facing “middle England” from a year of tax hikes and below-inflation pay rises.

However, the biggest impact of the food price shock will be felt in countries in the developing world where staple items command a much larger share of household incomes.

Economists warn that “soft commodity” food prices show little sign of stabilising, and that cereals and sugar in particular may surge even higher in coming months. In addition, long-term trends associated with growth in population and climate change may mean higher food costs become a permanent feature of economic life, even though the current spike may end in due course. Speculation, too, may be part of the crisis, as investors climb on to the rising food-price bandwagon.

Mr Abbassian said the UN agency is concerned by the unpredictability of weather activity, which many experts link to climate change. He said: “There is still room for prices to go up much higher, if for example the dry conditions in Argentina tend to become a drought, and if we start having problems with winterkill in the northern hemisphere for the wheat crops.”

One concern, especially in Ukraine and Russia, is that the cold winter, following disastrous droughts and summer fires, will have damaged the seeds for next year’s crops, leading to an even more acute crisis than seen last year. Government policies, especially the export bans imposed by nervous Indian and Russian governments, have exacerbated such problems in world markets.

Meanwhile, burgeoning consumption in the booming economies of east Asia and the pressure exerted by the demand for crops for biofuels rather than food, especially in the US, is adding to the unprecedented squeeze on world food supplies.

The latest surge in crude oil prices adds to the risk of turmoil. Many experts say oil prices show few signs of abating, and the price of a barrel is set to breach the $100 barrier again soon. Opec officials yesterday said they were happy with such a level. Oil peaked at just under $150 a barrel in 2008; any sign of renewed tension in Iran would see the price exceed that. Higher oil prices add to food price inflation by increasing transportation costs.

The interplay of rising fuel prices, the growing use of biofuels, bad weather and soaring futures markets drove up the price of food dramatically in 2008, prompting violent protests in Mexico, Indonesia, Egypt, Cameroon and Haiti. Last year’s spike was provoked mainly by the freakish weather conditions in Russia and Ukraine, but one of the underlying trends is the growing and changing appetites of east Asia.

As more Chinese enter the middle classes they tend to consume more poultry and meat, just as Westerners did at a similar stage in their economic progress. However, meat and poultry husbandry consumes at least three times the resources that grains do, while the drift towards the cities in China is reducing the yields of its farms. Similar trends are visible in the other fast-growing, populous nations such as Brazil, India and Indonesia.

Countries that are poor and produce relatively little of their own food are most vulnerable to the food price shock – Bangladesh, Morocco and Nigeria top the “at risk” list, according to research by Nomura economists, who also identify growing shortages of water as a critical factor restraining any growth in agricultural productivity.

Owen Job, strategist at Nomura, said: “The economists’ model of increasing supply as demand grows may be breaking down. Supply cannot keep up with factors such as biofuels and the urbanisation of China. Some 30 per cent of all water used in agriculture comes from unsustainable sources.”

* David Cameron has disclosed that the Treasury was considering introducing a “fuel stabiliser”. Under the move, tax paid by motorists would be cut when the cost of oil surged worldwide and rise when it dropped. He said: “We are looking at it. It’s not simple but I would like to try and find some way of sharing the risk of higher fuel prices with the consumer.”

Source: The coming hunger: Record food prices put world ‘in danger’, says UN – The Independent

Date: 6 January 2011

The warning by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation adds to fears about rising inflation in emerging countries from China to India.

“Prices are dangerously close to the levels of 2007-08,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, an economist at the FAO.

The FAO painted a worrying outlook in its twice-yearly Food Outlook on Wednesday, warning that the world should “be prepared” for even higher prices next year. It said it was crucial for farmers to “expand substantially” production, particularly of corn and wheat in 2011-12 to meet expected demand and rebuild world reserves

Source: Fears of new food crisis as prices soar – FT.com

Date: 17 November 2010

The Clean Air Task Force blog post on the conference is included below for reference:

One long day down, and one to go at a global meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, where climate scientists, fire experts, farmers, regulators and NGOs have been discussing the role of springtime fires on climate change in the Arctic and what must be done to reduce the occurrence of set fires in northern latitudes.

The Arctic is warming at an alarming rate, threatening not just regional ecosystems but coastal areas around the world that are vulnerable to sea level rise.

Carbon dioxide is the main pollutant responsible for this warming, but recent research shows that black carbon, or soot, from incomplete combustion may also be responsible for much of the Arctic’s warming.

Samples from snow indicate that most of the black carbon in Arctic snow comes from burning biomass, and much of that is from burning crops and grasslands in northern Eurasia.

These crop and grass fires have local impacts too, of course.  These fires often get out of control and spread into forests and peatlands. In fact, many of the deadly fires that plagued Russia this past summer began with fires set on grasslands or croplands.

In response to the growing threat, Clean Air Task Force and Bellona Russia have organized this event to:

1. 1 Examine the range of health, safety, and climate impacts associated with open burning.

 

2. 2 Elevate the issue of black carbon emissions from open burning, and its Arctic impacts, among researchers, governmental bodies, and NGOs in Russia and elsewhere.

 

3. 3 Increase coordination between different organizations (governmental, research, and NGOs) in the USA, Europe, and Russia, and within those countries, working on short-lived climate forcers.

 

4. 4 Survey indigenous practices and motivations for burning.

 

5. 5 Explore alternatives to burning and strategies to reduce emissions from burns, including the practical, economic, cultural, and environmental implications of these alternatives.

We’re not exactly sure where we’ll end up tomorrow, but conversations have been flying and we expect some useful closure by the end of the conference. More information about the meeting is available at http://www.fires-and-the-arctic.org.

After the meeting we’ll post presentations, meeting reports, and any other outcomes on that site.

To those of you who tuned in on one of our many web and TV streams we hope you received valuable information that will befit your better understanding in moving forward to tackling the urgent environmental challeges we face.

We would appreciate and value any constructive feedback and ideas you have in relation to the topics discussed. You can either leave comments to this post or you can email us at info@worldpreservationfoundation.org

All the speaker videos will be uploaded to the website soon for you to watch and download. Dr. Fuhrman’s video should be available before the end of the week.

The Insight Paper highlighting the need to reduce short term climate forcers is already available for download right now in the reports section. It is also available for viewing online on the ‘Leaders Preserving the Future’ Insights Paper page, and is also available at the end of this post. The powerpoints of the speeches are available right now on the speakers page.

Thanks again to everyone and we look forward to hearing from you about the positive outcome that this event helped to bring about.

Scientific evidence shows that the strong bias of current mitigation efforts toward carbon dioxide emissions reduction will not produce results sufficient to halt global warming in time to stop irreversible tipping points being passed.

This conference seeks to bring to the forefront the crucial role of reducing shorter lived non CO2 climate forcers – methane, black carbon and tropospheric ozone – as an urgently needed solution at this point in time to help halt further rises in temperatures and climate change.

Renowned scientists, environmentalists and high level dignitaries will present evidence on how the accelerated rate of climate change is having devastating impacts now around the world, covering such topics as global food and water security, sinking islands, the global biodiversity crisis, the melting of glaciers worldwide and the destruction of our oceans.

In the run up to the COP16 UN climate change conference taking place just 4 weeks later in Mexico, this conference seeks to increase awareness about shorter-lived non-CO2 climate forcers and their pivotal role for an effective near term solution to climate change.

Best of British and International Eco-Tec and Initiatives

An eco exhibition will be running throughout the day featuring some of the leading initiatives in green technology and sustainability, demonstrating their importance and tangible ways in which they can be more widely adopted.

Delegates will include members of parliament, NGOs, members of media, local government, celebrities and a cross section of civil society from different sectors.

World Preservation Foundation is thus underlining the immediate need for governments, industry, NGOs and the public to take action now to prevent any further damage to our ecosystems and our planetary life support system.

Researchers compiled a composite index of “water threats” that includes issues such as scarcity and pollution.

The most severe threat category encompasses 3.4 billion people.

Writing in the journal Nature, they say that in western countries, conserving water for people through reservoirs and dams works for people, but not nature.

They urge developing countries not to follow the same path.

Instead, they say governments should to invest in water management strategies that combine infrastructure with “natural” options such as safeguarding watersheds, wetlands and flood plains.

The analysis is a global snapshot, and the research team suggests more people are likely to encounter more severe stress on their water supply in the coming decades, as the climate changes and the human population continues to grow.

They have taken data on a variety of different threats, used models of threats where data is scarce, and used expert assessment to combine the various individual threats into a composite index.

The result is a map that plots the composite threat to human water security and to biodiversity in squares 50km by 50km (30 miles by 30 miles) across the world.

“What we’ve done is to take a very dispassionate look at the facts on the ground – what is going on with respect to humanity’s water security and what the infrastructure that’s been thrown at this problem does to the natural world,” said study leader Charles Vorosmarty from the City College of New York.

“What we’re able to outline is a planet-wide pattern of threat, despite the trillions of dollars worth of engineering palliatives that have totally reconfigured the threat landscape.”

Those “trillions of dollars” are represented by the dams, canals, aqueducts, and pipelines that have been used throughout the developed world to safeguard drinking water supplies.

Their impact on the global picture is striking.

Looking at the “raw threats” to people’s water security – the “natural” picture – much of western Europe and North America appears to be under high stress.

However, when the impact of the infrastructure that distributes and conserves water is added in – the “managed” picture – most of the serious threat disappears from these regions.

Africa, however, moves in the opposite direction.

“The problem is, we know that a large proportion of the world’s population cannot afford these investments,” said Peter McIntyre from the University of Wisconsin, another of the researchers involved.  “In fact we show them benefiting less than a billion people, so we’re already excluding a large majority of the world’s population,” he told BBC News.  “But even in rich parts of the world, it’s not a sensible way to proceed. We could continue to build more dams and exploit deeper and deeper aquifers; but even if you can afford it, it’s not a cost-effective way of doing things.”

According to this analysis, and others, the way water has been managed in the west has left a significant legacy of issues for nature.

Whereas Western Europe and the US emerge from this analysis with good scores on water stress facing their citizens, wildlife there that depends on water is much less secure, it concludes.

One concept advocated by development organisations nowadays is integrated water management, where the needs of all users are taken into account and where natural features are integrated with human engineering.

One widely-cited example concerns the watersheds that supply New York, in the Catskill Mountains and elsewhere around the city.

Water from these areas historically needed no filtering.

That threatened to change in the 1990s, due to agricultural pollution and other issues.

The city invested in a programme of land protection and conservation; this has maintained quality, and is calculated to have been cheaper than the alternative of building treatment works.

Mark Smith, head of the water programme at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) who was not involved in the current study, said this sort of approach was beginning to take hold in the developing world, though “the concrete and steel model remains the default”.

“One example is the Barotse Floodplain in Zambia, where there was a proposal for draining the wetland and developing an irrigation scheme to replace the wetlands,” he related. “Some analysis was then done that showed the economic benefits of the irrigation scheme would have been less than the benefits currently delivered by the wetland in terms of agriculture around the flood plain, water supply, water quality and so on.  So it’s not a question of saying ‘No we don’t need any concrete infrastructure’ – what we need are portfolios of built infrastructure and natural environment that can address the needs of development, and the ecosystem needs of people and biodiversity.”

This analysis is likely to come in for some scrutiny, not least because it does contain an element of subjectivity in terms of how the various threats to water security are weighted and combined.

Nevertheless, Mark Smith hailed it as a “potentially powerful synthesis” of existing knowledge; while Gary Jones, chief executive of the eWater Co-operative Research Centre in Canberra, commented:

“It’s a very important and timely global analysis of the joint threats of declining water security for humans and biodiversity loss for rivers.  This study, for the first time, brings all our knowledge together under one global model of water security and aquatic biodiversity loss.”

For the team itself, it is a first attempt – a “placeholder”, or baseline – and they anticipate improvements as more accurate data emerges, not least from regions such as Africa that are traditionally data-scarce.

Already, they say, it provides a powerful indicator that governments and international institutions need to take water issues more seriously.

For developed countries and the Bric group – Brazil, Russia, India and China – alone, “$800bn per year will be required by 2015 to cover investments in water infrastructure, a target likely to go unmet,” they conclude.

For poorer countries, the outlook is considerably more bleak, they say.

“In reality this is a snapshot of the world about five or 10 years ago, because that’s the data that’s coming on line now,” said Dr McIntyre. “It’s not about the future, but we would argue people should be even more worried if you start to account for climate change and population growth. Climate change is going to affect the amount of water that comes in as precipitation; and if you overlay that on an already stressed population, we’re rolling the dice.”

Source: Water map shows billions at risk of ‘water insecurity’ – BBC News

Date: 29 September 2010

Fungi were the first life forms to inhabit the land 1.3 billion years ago; 600 million years before plants evolved. After asteroid impacts darkened the skies, de-greened the Earth and caused mass extinctions 65 million years back, the only organisms to survive were the ones that ‘paired up’ with fungi and learnt how to
be co-dependent.

“It’s time for another re-greening,” Paul thinks, “as Earth recoils from the on-going catastrophes inflicted by our species.” And cleaning up after oil spills, pollution, storm damage, floods and volcanic clouds is just another day at the office for fungi. It’s a process he has called mycoremediation and here’s how it works.

Beneath the fruit – or mushroom as we call it – fungal roots, known as Mycelia, spread outwards to create a vast mat of underground cells that permeate the soil. Now known to be the largest biological entities on the planet, a single colony can cover an area equal to 1,665 football fields and travel several inches a day. A massive network of whispering spaghetti, these ‘neurological’ tendrils intersect with neighbouring colonies and even fuse with the roots of other species to share water, food and communicate vital information.

Paul explains:

“Mycelia are the Earth’s natural internet – the essential wiring of the Gaian consciousness. The creation of the computer internet is merely an extension of a successful biological model that has evolved over billions of years.”

Once the Mycelium has taken root, it gets to work as a super-filter, producing enzymes and acids that break down the components of woody plants. But importantly, these same enzymes are excellent at disintegrating hydrocarbons – the base structure of all oils, petroleum products, pesticides and pollutants.

Through a series of trials, Paul’s team at Battelle Laboratories, in the US, made some astonishing findings. Soil that had been heavily contaminated with oil and hydrocarbons was inoculated with Oyster mushroom spawn. After four weeks, it was bursting with fruit, while 99% of the hydrocarbons had been destroyed. Only non-toxic components remained and even the mushrooms themselves revealed no traces
of petroleum.

“And then came another startling revelation,” Paul says. “As the mushrooms rotted, flies arrived. The flies laid eggs, which became larvae. The larvae, in turn, attracted birds, who apparently brought in seeds. Soon it was an oasis, teeming with life!”

Amazingly, Paul’s team also found that Oyster mushrooms are tolerant to salt water. Mixed with straw, which will also absorb oil, and encased in biodegradable hemp-socks that are called MycoBooms, the Mycelium is able to colonize and get to work underwater. Myceliated straw and woodchip tubes could also be placed at the shoreline to capture and break down the incoming hydrocarbons. Meanwhile, the mushrooms sprout to create floating gardens; gnats and flies gather, and fish, birds, bats and insects benefit from the emerging food source.

Ahead of the game, back in 1994, Paul proposed that world governments set up Mycological Response Teams who could be deployed after events, such as hurricanes and oil spills.

Mycoremediation centres could be hubs of learning; places to cross-educate others and build central bodies of knowledge for our future generations. In time, world leaders, policy makers, scientists, students and citizens would have all of the Mycoremediation tools necessary to address every single environmental event.

During his 30 years working with fungi, Paul has also made other significant discoveries. Mycelium can protect human blood cells from major infections, such as smallpox, hepatitis B, influenza, HIV and various strains of cancer. Another type of fungi consumes and effectively eliminates the bacteria E. coli, while one species – and the research is currently classified by the Department of Defence – will destroy biological and chemical warfare agents; especially VX, the same deadly nerve gas that Saddam Hussein was accused of using in the Gulf War.

“The time to act is now,” Paul says. “Waiting for science and society to wake up to the importance of these ancient old growth fungi is perilously slow and also narrow in vision… But an unfortunate circumstance we face,” he continues, “is that mycology is poorly funded in a time of intense need. We need to educate our friends, family and policy makers about these solutions and bring local leaders up to speed.”

In order to appreciate the many benefits of mycotechnology, including the ones not yet discovered, Paul believes we need to adopt a ‘mycelial perspective’ of the world and wholly understand how it is  interconnected with every living being on the planet.

“Your job,” he tells us, “is to become embedded into the mind-set of Mycelium and to run with it… Earth is calling out to us, and we need to listen.”

Source: Positive News UK

Date: 14 September 2010

Summer grain output stood at 123.1 million tons this year, down 0.3 percent, or 390,000 tons, from a year ago, NBS said in a statement on its website.

The drop was due mainly to drought in China’s southwestern regions earlier in the year, which brought output in Guizhou and Yunnan provinces down by 1.69 million tons, according to the statement.

Agriculture Minister Han Changfu warned last month that severe drought in the southwest and the extremely cold weather in the north earlier this year had damaged the country’s summer grain harvest.

In April, the government unveiled funding plans worth more than 2.4 billion yuan to support the summer grain harvests, which account for about one quarter of China’s annual food yield, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Summer grain output rose six years in a row to top 123 million tons last year, 2.6 million tons more than the previous year.

Despite a slight expansion of the planting area, which rose 0.1 percent to 27.42 million hectares, the yield per hectare this year dropped 0.4 percent year on year to 4,48 tons per hectare, NBS said.

Source: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-07/13/content_10097379.htm

Date: 13 July 2010

The aid supply, packed in two containers and three small trucks, includes personal hygiene equipment, bottled water, tinned food, rice, beans, medicine, nappies, sanitary pads, milk powders, tin openers, disposable plates and cutlery, according to the mayor’s office.

The shipment was given a formal send-off at the city center by Mayor Marcelo Ebrard and head of the city’s Civil Protection Department, Elias Miguel Moreno Brizuela.

Ebrard told reporters at the scene that later this week the capital city will send a second shipment of 80-tons of food, clothing and medicine to the above states.

He added that the city is collecting emergency aid contributed by residents at one fire station at the main city square and 14 other fire stations elsewhere.

Hurricane Alex struck Tamaulipas on June 30 as a category two storm, and dumped most of its rain on Nuevo Leon, killing 17 people.

In total, the storm killed 27 people in Mexico and 10 others in Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador which were on the storm’s path to Mexico.

Source: Mexico City sends 89 tons of aid to hurricane-ravaged North – news.xinhuanet.com

Date: 13 July 2010

Moscow birds suffer in heat wave

Moscow’s bird populations are suffering from the severe heat wave, which settled in the city in mid-June, a representative of the Russian Bird Conservation Union (RBCU) said on Tuesday.

“Birds…find it very difficult to live in such heat. Members of the crow family are the worst affected as their black feathers heat up very fast from the sun,”

Meteorologist say temperatures will reach 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit) this week.

The conservationist said it was difficult to help the suffering bird populations.

“We don’t have many options available for helping the birds… The only thing we can do is put bird baths on our balconies and render first aid to heat-affected birds,”

According to an animal census held in Moscow from February 13 – March 5, 2010, more than 200 bird species live in Moscow. Of these, 66 are listed in the Moscow Red Data Book of endangered species.

Source: Moscow birds suffer in heat wave – en.rian.ru

Date: 13 July 2010

A rarely high summer temperature of 33.9 degrees Celsius was recorded at Puumala in eastern Finland on Monday. The temperature was the highest measured in 76 years in Finland.

Many places in southern Finland on Monday have been scorched by temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius. Temperatures over 25 degrees have been recorded as far north as Oulu.

Finland’s all-time highest temperature in summer dates back to 1914, when a peak temperature of 35.9 degrees was recorded in Turku.

The Finnish Meteorological Institute forecasts the current heat wave will continue at least this week and probably beyond. Temperatures early this week in southern and central areas could top 35 degrees Celsius.

Weather forecasters have also warned the current hot temperatures combined with high humidity could cause problems for people at risk of serious illness. Next year, the Finnish Meteorological Institute is planning to introduce a new extreme weather warning system to notify the public of either extremely hot or cold conditions.

Source: Rare summer high temperature seen in Finland – news.xinhuanet.com

Date: 13 July 2010

A heatwave is sweeping large parts of Europe and causing discomfort. Temperatures have been hovering around 40 degrees Celsius in many capital cities.

In the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, a temperature of 44 degrees Celsius broke all records.

The city’s fountains have become the place to cool down for local residents.

Streets in the city are quiet after authorities warned residents not to go outside.

The hot weather is expected to continue in Georgia for the next few days.

Other cities in Russia and Poland continue to be gripped by a heatwave. In some areas, temperatures soared to 35 degrees Celsius.

The most popular seaside resorts in Poland saw an influx of tourists.

Local government has warned the very young and old of the danger. It’s advised people to drink plenty of water, and stay out of the sun.

Source: Europe suffers in sweltering heat - english.cntv.cn

Date: 13 July 2010

With temperatures up to 35 degrees Celsius, Croats are being warned to take care.

The hottest areas will be Knin and Slavonia where even higher temperatures are expected.

The Adriatic will be slightly more bearable, the Croatian daily Jutarnji List writes.

UV radiation is also expected to be high, so residents are warned to layer on the sun cream. Experts recommend staying out of the sun between hours of 10am and 5pm, and remind people to drink a lot of liquids.

Source: Heat wave warnings for all Croatia - croatiantimes.com

Date: 13 July 2010

Heavy rains after weeks of drought turned the streets of Vietnamese capital Hanoi Tuesday into rivers up to half a metre deep.

A heavy downpour that lasted for more than two hours forced motorbike commuters to push their machines through the dirty water and trees were down.

Police said on state radio that scores of locations in the city of several million people were flooded or snarled by traffic jams.

A meteorologist said the city centre was hardest hit, with about 120 millimetres of rain falling in the rush-hour period.

Hanoi had been suffering for weeks from a drought which meteorologists said was the worst in decades.

It worsened power shortages and led to blackouts in the country, which gets more than one-third of its electricity from hydropower.

Source: Vietnam capital hit by floods – straitstimes

Date: 13 July 2010

Large swathes of agriculture land were inundated and nearly a dozen villages submerged in flood waters in Haryana’s Sirsa and Fatehabad districts due to breaches in the Ghaggar river, officials said Tuesday.

The water level in the Ghaggar river in Sirsa district was flowing above the danger mark, posing a threat to many villages.

According to officials, 33 people have died due to floods in Haryana and Punjab.

In Punjab, the water level in most of the affected districts has receded and no fresh breach in the Ghaggar was reported.

The weather office has predicted moderate to heavy rain in most parts of Punjab and some places in Haryana till Wednesday.

Source: Dozen villages inundated in Haryana floods – Thaindian

Date: 13 July 2010

But instead, they’re pointing to a more scientific measurement: The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies now reports that the first six months of 2010 are the warmest on record, both in terms of atmospheric data and in combined atmospheric/ocean readings.

In some cases the atmospheric readings for some of the first six months of the year are between 1.8 and 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above what they were in previous years.

And on top of that, last week Arctic sea ice extent hit the lowest level ever for June.

A senior fellow, Rafe Pomerance, at Clean Air Cool Planet said:

“The 2010 temperature data is evidence that the planet is continuing to warm,”

“The absolute numbers indicate that the earth’s climate is moving into uncharted territory, as reflected by the massive retreat of Arctic sea ice.”

Source: First half of 2010 sets heat records – views.washingtonpost

Date: 12 July 2010

WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) — Coastal mangrove forests could substantially reduce the damage from tsunamis like the 2004 disaster that struck Indonesia, researchers say.

A study of an Indonesian coastline ravaged by the December 2004 tsunami has estimated the buffering capacity of intact mangrove forests, which could protect homes and buildings, ScienceNews.org reported Friday.

Forests of mangroves, with their dense, broad networks of thick roots that prop up the trees’ trunks, can absorb the coast-battering energy in tsunamis of various heights, the study says.

Shunichi Koshimura, a civil engineer at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, and his colleagues estimate that a 500-yard-wide forest of 10-year-old mangroves would reduce the force of flowing water in a 10-foot tsunami by 70 percent.

Koshimura said:

• Mangroves make an effective bioshield against tsunamis,
• It is not possible to build concrete walls along all the coasts.

They reported their findings in the Journal of Geophysical Research–Oceans.

Source: Mangrove forests could combat tsunamis – upi.com

Date: 12 July 2010

GM cotton was approved for cultivation in India in 2002, and now covers 80 percent of the country’s cotton farmlands.

In October 2009, the country’s Genetic Engineering Approval Committee gave approval for the planting of a GM eggplant produced by Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Co., in partnership with Monsanto. The brinjal-variety eggplant had been engineered with genes from the bacteria Bacillus thuringniensis (Bt) to produce pesticide in its tissues.

The approval of the country’s first GM food crop sparked an uproar among farmers, environmentalists, health advocates and other GM critics across India. Critics objected to the unknown health effects of consuming or working near GM foods, as well as the risks that the plants could produce “genetic pollution” by crossing with non-GM varieties.

GM advocates claim that engineered foods are needed to address global food shortages, an assertion that critics reject.

Source: Victory against Frankenfoods: India blocks harvesting of GM crops – naturalnews

Date: 12 July 2010

A single, huge, violent storm that swept across the whole Amazon forest in 2005 killed half a billion trees, a new study shows.

While storms have long been recognized as a cause of Amazon tree loss, this study is the first to produce an actual body count. And, the losses are much greater than previously suspected.  This suggests that storms may play a larger role in the dynamics of Amazon forests than previously recognized.

The new study says that a single squall line had an important role in the tree demise. This type of storm might become more frequent in the future in the Amazon due to climate change.

Tropical thunderstorms have long been suspected to wreak havoc in the Amazon,

The storm’s associated strong vertical winds, with speeds of up to 145 km/hour (90 mi/hour), uprooted or snapped in half trees that were in their path. In many cases, the stricken trees took down some of their neighbors when they fell.

In the most affected plots, near the centers of large blowdowns, up to 80 percent of the trees had been killed by the storm.

The researchers estimate that between 441 and 663 million trees were destroyed across the whole basin. This represents a loss equivalent to 23 percent of the estimated mean annual carbon accumulation of the Amazon forest.

Source: Staggering tree loss from 2005 Amazon storm - physorg

Date: 12 July 2010

Vehicles are immersed in the floodwater at a bus terminal in Youyang County of Chongqing Municipality, southwest China, July 9, 2010. The electricity supply was interrupted by a heavy rainfall in Youyang on Friday and vehicles were immersed in the ensuing flood.

Rain-triggered floods are affecting millions of people in regions along China’s longest river, the Yangtze, China’s flood control authority said Friday.

The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters (SFDH) said on Friday that:

• Provinces including eastern Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Anhui and Chongqing Municipality were all affected by swelling rivers after heavy rain in these regions,
• More than 2.48 million people were affected, with some areas in Hubei and Chongqing completely flooded.
• At least 15 people were dead from rain-triggered disasters, with 5 others still missing.
• 176,000 people had so far been evacuated from flood-hit areas.
• An emergency flood response and ordered local bureaus to closely monitor the weather and issue alerts promptly.

Source: Millions affected by floods in regions along Yangtze River – news.xinhuanet.com

Date: 09 July 2010

Local authorities in central and southwest China are on alert to respond to emergencies caused by severe storms and floods.

Local authorities in central and southwest China are on alert to respond to emergencies caused by severe storms and floods. It comes just days after the regions sweltered through a record breaking heat wave.

The National Meteorological Center has raised the storm alert level to “orange,” that’s one step below the highest rating on a four-color scale. Heavy rains are already pounding central Hubei and eastern Anhui provinces. In Hubei, one person was killed after floods hit three counties and a city in the province’s north, affecting half a million residents.

The Hubei Provincial Civil Affairs Department says more than 10,000 residents have been evacuated from their homes, 242 homes have collapsed and over 27,000 hectares of farmland flooded.

Source: Storms and floods hit central, SW. China – english.cntv.cn

Date: 09 July 2010

China’s National Meteorological Center has raised the nation’s storm alert to “orange”, one step below the highest rating.

Heavy rainfall has been forecast in at least ten provinces and regions, in central and southwest China.  It began to ravage Chongqing Municipality on Thursday, causing mud flows and landslides in many parts of the region.

At a coal mine in Yongzhou district, flood-triggered disasters have damaged nearly 100 nearby homes.

A national highway was cut off by the downpours.  Most flights to and from Jiangbei International Airport have been delayed.

East China’s Jiangxi Province issued a yellow storm alert on Friday. Fuzhou county, along with many its surrounding areas that were pounded by floods last month, are once again experiencing heavy downpours. Roads, bridges and farmland have been submerged.

A rainstorm alarm sounded in the mountainous Dabieshan areas in central China’s Hubei Province. Local weather officials forecast more rainfall in eastern parts of Hubei province.

In neighboring Anhui, authorities launched a level II emergency response on Friday, and raised the storm alert to “orange”.

The provincial government has called an emergency meeting to discuss plans to counter the damage from what officials said might be the worst storm to hit parts of Anhui in a decade.

Source: Torrential rains hit China – english.cntv.cn

Date: 09 July 2010

Abulgheit, accompanied by Minister of International Cooperation Faiza Abunaga, held talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin in Addis Ababa on Wednesday.

Ethiopia’s plans for hydropower projects using the river will not affect the Nile’s flow if the projects are implemented within a framework of agreement amongst the eastern countries of the basin – Sudan, Egypt, and Ethiopia, Abulgheit said in a press statement.

Egypt has been exerting diplomatic efforts against a treaty signed by Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Tanzania in May. The treaty increased the share of Nile water of these countries for irrigation and hydropower projects.

Egypt and Sudan strongly oppose the agreement, fearing that their historic majority share of the water supply would be severely reduced.

Cairo wants all the Nile basin countries to return to the negotiating table.

Egypt, which depends mainly on the Nile for its water consumption, has vowed to take legal action to maintain its current water rights that it has described as a “red line” not to be crossed.

The Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC), a government think tank, warned last year that the country’s water needs would surpass its resources by the year 2017.

Egypt is allocated 55.5 billion cubic metres of water from the Nile each year, under a 1959 agreement with Sudan that was based on 1929 promises from Britain that it will not undertake projects in its East African colonies that would interfere with Egypt’s water supply.

Source: Egypt and Ethiopia discuss need for Nile water consensus – en.trend.az

Date: 08 July 2010

As the planet warms, floods, storms, rising seas and drought will uproot millions of people, and with dire wider consequences. Barack Obama, collecting his Nobel peace prize, said that climate change “will fuel more conflict for decades.”

He took the analysis not from environmental scaremongers but from a group of American generals.

The forecast is close to becoming received wisdom. A flurry of new books with titles such as “Global Warring” and “Climate Conflict”.  Predicts that floods, storms, the failure of the Indian monsoon and agricultural collapse will bring “enormous, and specific, geopolitical, economic, and security consequences for all of us…the world of tomorrow looks chaotic and violent.”

Jeffrey Mazo, calls climate change an “existential threat” and fears it could usher in “state failure and internal conflict”.

Scientists preparing the fifth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, due in 2013, are for the first time including a chapter on threats to human security.

Marshall Burke of the University of California, found that rising temperatures are indeed associated with crop failure, economic decline and a sharp rise in the likelihood of war.

Take the widely cited case of the war in Darfur, the UN secretary-general, described it as “an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change”. Darfur repeatedly suffered droughts. Clashes over grazing and then displacement of villagers were followed, by horrific war.

Between Kenya and Somalia in the past 60 years when grazing was abundant and fell during droughts. Hungry people were too busy staying alive, or too exhausted, to fight . . . .

A study of the short-term impact of hurricanes on Haiti and the Dominican Republic, suggests that the storms have grown more intense, and natural disasters usually produced short-term economic pain but no sign of increased political violence.

Earthquakes, too, tend to produce mixed outcomes. A Mexican quake in 1985 may have stoked an insurgency. But the tsunami of 2005 offered a moment for secessionists in Aceh and the central Indonesian government to co-operate. Climate change could indeed cause woes aplenty. That is all the more reason to be precise about them.

Source: Climate wars - economist

Date: 08 July 2010

The 66,776 pounds of ground and tenderized bison steak products were recalled because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

Yesterday, FSIS disclosed that ten major retail chains were believed to be selling the E. coli-contaminated buffalo meat at the time the recall. Among the retailers were: Albertson’s, Giant Foods, Hannaford’s, King Sooper’s, Kroger’s, Market Basket, Price Chopper’s, Stop & Shop Supermarkets, Super Valu, and Whole Foods.

Source of the recalled bison meat is Rocky Mountain National Meats, based in Henderson, CO.

A five person cluster of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses, with onset dates between June 4 and 9, 2010, in Colorado and one case in New York State led FSIS to suspect the bison was making people sick.

FSIS said the New York case had “an indistinguishable” PFGE pattern.

“FSIS determined there is an association between ground bison products and the cluster of illnesses in the state of Colorado,” the agency said in a press release.

Here the specific list of recalled bison products from Rocky Mountain Natural Meats:

16-ounce packages of “GREAT RANGE BRAND ALL NATURAL GROUND BISON.” These products have a “sell or freeze by” date of June 21, June 22 or June 24, 2010.

16-ounce packages of “NATURE’S RANCHER GROUND BUFFALO.” These products have a “sell or freeze by” date of June 22, 2010.

16-ounce packages of “THE BUFFALO GUYS ALL NATURAL GROUND BUFFALO 90% LEAN.” These products have a lot number of 0147.

12-ounce packages of “GREAT RANGE BRAND ALL NATURAL BISON STEAK MEDALLIONS.” These products have a “sell or freeze by” date of June 23 and June 24, 2010.

12-ounce packages of “GREAT RANGE BRAND ALL NATURAL BISON SIRLOIN STEAKS.” These products have a “sell or freeze by” date of June 20, June 23 and June 24, 2010.

15-pound boxes of “ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATURAL MEATS, INC. BISON 10 OZ SIRLOIN STEAK.” These products went to restaurants and bear a Julian Code of 0141.

Various weight boxes of “BISON B TRIM.” These products bear a production date of May 21, 2010 and a Julian Code of 14110. The boxes also state “KEEP REFRIGERATED.”

E. coli O157:H7 is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration, and in the most severe cases, kidney failure. The very young, seniors and persons with weak immune systems are the most susceptible to foodborne illness. Individuals concerned about an illness should contact a physician.

Source: Bison E. coli Recall Grows; Retailers Named – foodsafetynews

Date: 08 July 2010

Government report insists country could decarbonise electricity supplies by 2050

Germany has become the latest country to signal that it could decarbonise its electricity network with the release of a major new report arguing that it could switch to an entirely renewable energy supply by 2050.

Germany’s Federal Environment Agency, says the country could phase out fossil fuel power plants and replace them with existing renewable energy technologies such as wind turbines and solar panels.

Germany’s transition towards renewable energy is already under way, with the country well established as the world’s largest generator of solar energy and second-largest producer of wind energy after the US.

According to figures from the German government, the country already generates 16 per cent of its energy from renewable sources

A number of countries such as the Maldives, Norway, New Zealand and Costa Rica have set a target of becoming carbon neutral.

Source: Germany sets out zero-carbon road map - businessgreen

Date: 08 July 2010

An Uruguayan expert warns that the unrelenting extraction of natural resources in Latin America fails to take into account the environmental damage, with the pretext that the wealth generated will sustain social programs.

The Latin American economy based on exploitation of natural resources does not create social well-being and is unsustainable in the context of climate change, says Uruguayan Eduardo Gudynas, lead researcher at the Latin American Center for Social Ecology (CLAES).

Gudynas, who was in Lima to lead a workshop with the Peruvian Network for Equitable Globalization, is one of the contributors to the new report Global Environmental Outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean (GEO-ALC), produced by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), to be officially presented later this year.

TIERRAMÉRICA: You assert that there is an imbalance in Latin America between the exploitation of resources and protection of the environment. How serious is the problem?

EDUARDO GUDYNAS: Latin America is faced with an environmental emergency, because the pace of establishing new protected areas and setting up environmental regulations, for example in the industrial sector, is much slower than the increased pace of negative impacts from resource extraction.

TIERRAMÉRICA: In the context of climate change, is the threat any greater?

EG: Much more, not only because of the vulnerability of developing countries, but also because Latin America isn’t taking responsibility.

Always left in the margins is the fact that the region’s principal source of greenhouse gas emissions is deforestation, followed by changes in land use and agriculture. As such, discussing climate change means talking about rural development, agricultural policies and land ownership.

But there are economic and political interests that stand in the way. It is simpler to propose using energy efficient light bulbs than talk about these issues.

In the international sphere the focus is on the historic responsibility of the countries of the North for emissions, and requiring compensation from them, but there is little action in this region to confront climate change and preserve our ecological heritage.

TIERRAMÉRICA: How did we arrive at such a state?

EG: Historically it has been argued that the road to development for South America is the appropriation and extraction of natural resources. Attention went to how to do it most efficiently and we missed the opportunity to diversify the economies in the years of high prices for basic commodities.

That accentuated the focus on raw materials, to the detriment of the environment, even in countries with strong industry, like Brazil.

TIERRAMÉRICA: Which countries in the region are worst off?

EG: Brazil is in a critical state because of its nearly complete appropriation of resources and their impacts. It is followed by the Andean countries, like Peru (with big mining projects) and Ecuador (extensive petroleum exploitation).

Brazil is already a major mining country, mostly iron and aluminum, and has a policy to increase that production through low taxation in order to continue attracting foreign investment. Most worrisome is that the strategy includes flexibilizing its environmental policies. Also of concern is the search for “cheap energy” through hydroelectric dams in the Amazon.

TIERRAMÉRICA: Is “extractivism” bad in and of itself, or is the problem that the environmental and social costs are not included?

EG: There is global overconsumption of raw materials. The economic impact of the social and environmental damages should be taken into account to evaluate the costs of the productive process, as well as the contribution to climate change.

But these assessments are not done, because if they were the extractive projects would never be approved.

The impacts in the areas where the resources are extracted are ignored, and that explains why there are conflicts. It’s the paradox of macroeconomic well-being at the cost of local harm.

TIERRAMÉRICA: Does this happen in countries governed by political parties of the center and right, and of the left?

EG: It does. Although there are substantial differences in the role that the government plays in the extractivist sector. In the countries governed by the left, like Bolivia or Brazil, a portion of the wealth generated by that sector is used for social programs as a way to legitimize the policy in order to continue exploiting the resources.

At this point, extractivism, in addition to being a political problem, is a cultural problem. It is deeply rooted in the idea that mining and petroleum are sources of wealth and that they should be exploited as soon as possible.

The governments of the left have used that idea to say that they are more efficient in using the Earth’s resources. But being a cultural problem, it is reproduced in different political currents.

TIERRAMÉRICA: So how can other alternatives for sustainable development be generated?

EG: That is the problem. Because the idea of extractivism is so widespread, other possibilities are seen with mistrust or are rejected. And that is a serious situation because there are sectors like petroleum that are going to disappear. Survival lies on the “post-extractivist” path.

TIERRAMÉRICA: What role does regional integration play in that path?

EG: It plays a fundamental role. To escape the old approach requires economic and social coordination among neighboring countries, even if those alternatives do not aim to annul the mining or petroleum industries, but rather to reformulate them.

TIERRAMÉRICA: How can anyone negotiate integration with Brazil without losing? The energy agreement between Brazil and Peru has undertones of inequality.

EG: A prime objective is to reduce the asymmetries among the nations so that the smallest can have relatively the same level of development as the largest.

Peru shouldn’t just sell electricity to Brazil and be left with the environmental and social damages as well as having to buy Brazilian cars. They have to find other ways so that the neighbor advances as well.

Source: “Latin America Faces an Environmental Emergency” - tierramerica

Date: 08 July 2010

An innovative approach to water resource management in Syria is estimated to be helping 18,000 people hit by a three-year long drought.

UNDP and its partners are upgrading a network of ancient water sources under the barren terrain of the country’s northeast, where water shortages have led to large-scale population displacement in recent years.

More than one million people, have been affected by the drought which has driven tens of thousands of families to urban settlements such as Aleppo, Damascus and Deir ez Zour.

Beginning in 2009, the Government of Syria, Spanish Development Agency and UNDP began rehabilitation of Roman- and Arab-built wells that were constructed some 2000 years ago.

Well rehabilitation involves cleaning and pumping out stagnant water, widening and deepening wells to increase water capacity, analyzing water quality, and finally handing over to local authorities and communities. The upgraded wells provide access to safe drinking water and undoubtedly improve quality of life.

These wells also contribute to sustainable and environmentally-friendly local development, protect traditional ways of life and reduce pressure on rural residents to migrate to urban centres, a move that can have devastating social and economic impacts.

Water scarcity is one of the most pressing issues facing the world today, particularly in the Middle East where populations are expanding and fresh water supplies are diminishing fast.

Source: Water well upgrades offer solution for Syria’s drought-hit northeast – Reliefweb

Date: 08 July 2010

A lead author of the next international climate change assessment says his ice research supports predictions of a doubling in the rate of sea-level rise over the next century.

Professor Tim Naish, director of New Zealand’s Antarctic Research Centre, has been appointed a lead author of the next assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

He says rock cores drilled from the Antarctic coastline reveal how the Earth coped with a hotter climate 4 million years ago.

• The Greenland ice sheet had melted contributing another seven metres.
• The West Antarctic ice sheet had melted – [that] contributed five metres of sea level rise.
• In fact the earth was a very similar looking place to what it is today.
• It sounds a long time ago but it was the last time that the Earth had a climate that’s very similar to the climate that we are heading towards in the next century with global warming.

Professor Naish’s findings will be presented at the Australian Earth Sciences Convention in Canberra.

He says some researchers have forecast a two-metre increase in sea levels within the next century but his studies support only a one-metre increase.

Source: Expert issues sea level warning – abc.net.au

Date: 07 July 2010

The giant carnivorous plant, Nepenthes attenboroughii, is under threat of extinction - along with 25% of all others on earth

Scientists say human activity could spell end for a quarter of all flowering plants, with huge impact on food chain

More than one-in-four of all flowering plants are under threat of extinction according to the latest report to confirm the ongoing destruction of much of the natural world by human activity.

As a result, many of nature’s most colourful specimens could be lost to the world before scientists even discover them.

One-in-five of all mammals, nearly one-in-three amphibians and one-in-eight birds are vulnerable to being wiped out completely.

The researchers started by carrying out an independent review of how many flowering plants – which make up most of the plant kingdom – exist. The team calculated that there is another 10-20%, which has still to be officially discovered.

The second stage was to assess the level of threats from habitat loss due to clearing land for planting crops or trees, development, or indirect causes such as falling groundwater levels and pollution.

A study published in the journal Endangered Species Research in 2008, which estimated that one-in-five known species were vulnerable to extinction.

The warning comes as there is growing international recognition of the value of the natural world to humans in providing ecosystem services, from flood protection and medicines to spiritual spaces and enjoyment.

“Plants are the basis for much of life on earth with virtually all other species depending on them; if you get rid of those you get rid of a lot of the things above them,” David Roberts, at the University of Kent added.

Source: Over 25% of flowers face extinction – many before they are even discovered - guardian.co.uk

Date: 07 July 2010

Cooling off: A man jumps through the spray from a fire hydrant in Times Square, New York, as temperatures topped 100 degrees

The U.S. East Coast has been hit by power blackouts as major cities swelter in record high temperatures.

Temperatures in New York hit 103 degrees (39.4C) yesterday, while Philadelphia reported readings of 102(38.8C).

The extreme heat has forced transport officials to cut the speed of commuter trains in Washington DC and New York after welded rails began to bend.

Energy companies are urging consumers to cut back on power use to relieve the high demand during the heat wave.

Forecasts have shown that power demand is approaching the record highs set during the heat wave in 2006, which saw several black outs in U.S. cities.

The massive demand has seen homes along the east coast without electricity. More than 3,000 homes and businesses were left without power yesterday as consumers switched on air conditioning units to battle the sweltering temperatures.

Businesses and officers are being urged to switch off non-essential lighting, elevators and escalators and to turn off ornamental fountains.

Thousands of people cooled off by turning on fire hydrants or splashing through fountains.

Meterologists forecast the heatwave could start to ease off later this week, but much of the north east coast of the U.S. has seen temperatures topping 100 degrees (37.7C).

The deaths of a 92-year-old Philadelphia woman and a homeless woman found next to a car in Detroit have been blamed on the heat.

The Suffolk County Red Cross, on New York’s Long Island, said it planned to hand out bottles of water to day labourers working on rooftops or in fields and yards.

Workers at the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, New Jersey, used tubs of ice cubes to help keep four sick seals cool.

Source: Record temperatures cause blackouts in New York as heatwave bakes U.S. East Coast - dailymail.co.uk

Date: 07 July 2010