COLLAPSE OF HONEY-BEE COLONIES: OUR LOSSES WILL BE FAR GREATER THAN THEIRS

[Reproduced from the Independent, London]

Decline of honey bees now a global phenomenon, says United Nations

 The mysterious collapse of honey-bee colonies is becoming a global phenomenon, scientists working for the United Nations have revealed.

Declines in managed bee colonies, seen increasingly in Europe and the US in the past decade, are also now being observed in China and Japan and there are the first signs of African collapses from Egypt, according to the report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The authors, who include some of the world's leading honey-bee experts, issue a stark warning about the disappearance of bees, which are increasingly important as crop pollinators around the globe. Without profound changes to the way human beings manage the planet, they say, declines in pollinators needed to feed a growing global population are likely to continue. The scientists warn that a number of factors may now be coming together to hit bee colonies around the world, ranging from declines in flowering plants and the use of damaging insecticides, to the worldwide spread of pests and air pollution. They call for farmers and landowners to be offered incentives to restore pollinator-friendly habitats, including key flowering plants near crop-producing fields and stress that more care needs to be taken in the choice, timing and application of insecticides and other chemicals. While managed hives can be moved out of harm's way, "wild populations (of pollinators) are completely vulnerable", says the report.

"The way humanity manages or mismanages its nature-based assets, including pollinators, will in part define our collective future in the 21st century," said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director.

"The fact is that of the 100 crop species that provide 90 per cent of the world's food, over 70 are pollinated by bees.

"Human beings have fabricated the illusion that in the 21st century they have the technological prowess to be independent of nature.

"Bees underline the reality that we are more, not less, dependent on nature's services in a world of close to seven billion people."

Declines in bee colonies date back to the mid 1960s in Europe, but have accelerated since 1998, while in North America, losses of colonies since 2004 have left the continent with fewer managed pollinators than at any time in the past 50 years, says the report.

Now Chinese beekeepers have recently "faced several inexplicable and complex symptoms of colony losses in both species", the report says. And it has been reported elsewhere that some Chinese farmers have had to resort to pollinating fruit trees by hand because of the lack of insects.

Furthermore, a quarter of beekeepers in Japan "have recently been confronted with sudden losses of their bee colonies", while in Africa, beekeepers along the Egyptian Nile have been reporting signs of "colony collapse disorder" – although to date there are no other confirmed reports from the rest of the continent.

The report lists a number of factors which may be coming together to cause the decline and they include:

* Habitat degradation, including the loss of flowering plant species that provide food for bees;

* Some insecticides, including the so-called "systemic" insecticides which can migrate to the entire plant as it grows and be taken in by bees in nectar and pollen;

* Parasites and pests, such as the well-known Varroa mite;

* Air pollution, which may be interfering with the ability of bees to find flowering plants and thus food – scents that could travel more than 800 metres in the 1800s now reach less than 200 metres from a plant.

"The transformation of the countryside and rural areas in the past half-century or so has triggered a decline in wild-living bees and other pollinators," said one of the lead authors, Dr Peter Neumann of the Swiss Bee Research Centre.

"Society is increasingly investing in 'industrial-scale' hives and managed colonies to make up the shortfall and going so far as to truck bees around to farms and fields in order to maintain our food supplies.

"A variety of factors are making these man-made colonies vulnerable to decline and collapse. We need to get smarter about how we manage these hives, but perhaps more importantly, we need to better manage the landscape beyond, in order to recover wild bee populations."

BRAZILIAN MINING CODE "IMPROVING" FOR THE BENEFIT OF POLITICIANS

The veins of Brazil remain open and politicians "keep one eye on them".

[Reproduced from 

http://www.oeco.org.br/reportagens/27640-codigo-de-mineracao-teia-liga-politicos-a-mineradoras]

Unlike agribusiness lobby, lawmakers linked to mining code modifications orbit around PMDB (the strongest political party that support the government party, the PT).

Owner of a mining company, Vale do Sol, one of the Senators of the "mining code business" is Edison Lobão Filho (PMDB-MA), the son of Edson Lobão of "Minas and Energia"  Ministry and strongly linked to  Senator José Sarney (PMDB),  one of the most influential politicians of the mining bench in Congress.

Senator José Sarney, former president of Congress, and permanent chieftain of PMDB. A very rich man of Maranhão state, northeastern Brazil

Another Senator, Romero Jucá,  author of the law project that authorizes mining on indigenous lands, is investigated by the Attorney General's Office, charged with benefit for Vale SA, the world's largest mining company of Brazil, second in the world.

Deputy members responsible for the discussion of the new Mining Code indicate the political bureaus of the National Department of Mineral production (DNPM), which  is an organ responsible for permits and inspections in the mining industry. Generates royalties that exceed R$ 1 billion (U$ 1.00 = R$2.30) per year.

The same parliamentarians who participate in Special Committee to discuss the subject on Camera have their campaigns financed by some of the largest corporations in the mineral sector.

Many of these politicians are of the PMDB. Meanwhile, the most influential parliamentary enrich during the exercise of their positions. One of these members, Leonardo Quintão (PMDB), Rapporteur of the new code, it is an example of successful parliamentary. Between 2002 and 2010, the lawyer and economist had his personal wealth multiplied from R$314,000 to R$2.6 millions. He  enriched 8 times in eight years. He is connected to Eduardo Cunha, the leader of the PMDB.

INSECTICIDES THAT DECLINE BEE POPULATIONS MAY AFFECT THE HUMAN NERVOUS SYSTEM

Human Exposure to Possibly Neurotoxic Pesticides Should Be Reduced, E.U. Safety Agency Recommends

Two neonicotinoids, a class of insecticide linked to bee declines and to disruptions to rat neurons, "may affect the developing human nervous system," the safety agency states

By Daniel Cressey and Nature magazine

[Reproduced from  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=human-exposure-to-possibly-neurotoxic-pesticides-should-be-reduced-eu-safety-agency-recommends&WT.mc_id=SA_Facebook]

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TOXIC INSECTICIDES: Research suggests that two neonicotinoids--acetamiprid and imidacloprid--used in insecticides are not only responsible for declining bee populations but may affect the human nervous system.Image: utahpests.usu.edu/ipm

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Europe should slash the acceptable human exposure limits on two neonicotinoids — a class of insecticide previously linked to bee declines — says a key European Union safety agency.

In a report released today, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), based in Parma, Italy, says that recent research suggests that acetamiprid and imidacloprid “may affect the developing human nervous system”.

The European Commission — which requested that the EFSA look at a potential link to human health in the first place — now has to decide what action to take on the basis of the agency’s recommendation.

Neonicotinoid chemicals have been a controversial subject this year, after the EFSA in January linked imidacloprid and two other ‘neo-nics’ to declines in bee health. Debate over the chemicals’ role in declines in insect pollinators that had been on-going in the scientific literature jumped into the mainstream (see ‘Europe debates risk to bees’).

That January assessment relating to bee health was of three neonicotinoids deemed a priority: thiamethoxam, clothianidin and imidacloprid. Assessment of the impact on bees of two other compounds — acetamiprid and thiacloprid — is currently on hold while that work continues.

But the EFSA is also looking at the impact of neonicotinoids on humans. These chemicals work as agonists of insect nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, but their effect on mammals has been unclear. The EFSA explicitly cites a paper from last year by a Tokyo-based team as shaping its thinking.

That paper, published in PLoS ONE by Junko Kimura-Kuroda of the Toyko Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, and colleagues, found that both acetamiprid and imidacloprid triggered similar effects in cultures of rat neurons as are seen with nicotine. The authors point out that as nicotine may disrupt brain development in humans, so neonicotinoids “may adversely affect human health, especially the developing brain”.

After reviewing this and other evidence, the EFSA recommends that various acceptable exposure levels to these two chemicals be substantially lowered. Although it notes that the evidence available “has limitations” and recommending further research, the agency says that all neonicotinoids should now be assessed for their potential developmental neurotoxicity.

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazineNature. The article was first published on December 17, 2013.

BUBONIC PLAGUE HAS NOT DISAPPEARED FROM EARTH

[Reproduced from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/11/bubonic-plague-killed-villagers-madagascar]

Bubonic plague killed 20 villagers in Madagascar, health experts confirm

Announcement of one of worst outbreaks in years raises fears that disease could spread to towns and cities

 Wednesday 11 December 2013 13.18 GMT60comments

Bacteria that cause bubonic plague. The disease is spread by Xenopsylla cheopis fleas, whose main host is the black rat. Photograph: Rocky Mountain Laboratories/AP

Peter Beaumont

Once feared as the Black Death – the rodent-borne disease that wiped out a third of the world's population in the Middle Ages – bubonic plague has killed 20 villagers in Madagascar in one of the worst outbreaks globally in recent years, health experts have confirmed.

The confirmation that bubonic plague was responsible for the deaths last week near the north-western town of Mandritsara follows a warning in October from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that the island nation was at risk of a plague epidemic.

The Pasteur Institute of Madagascar revealed on Tuesday that tests taken from bodies in the village last week showed that they had died of bubonic plague. The institute added it was concerned the disease could spread to towns and cities where living standards have declined since a coup in 2009.

The deaths are doubly concerning because the outbreak occurred both outside the island's normal plague season, which runs from July to October, and apparently at a far lower elevation than usual – suggesting it might be spreading.

Bubonic plague, which has disappeared from Europe and large parts of the globe, is spread by bites from plague-carrying rat fleas –Xenopsylla cheopis – whose main host is the black rat. In Europe the threat of the Black Death pandemic, which appeared with black rats brought by merchant ships from Asia, eventually died out as black rats were displaced by brown rats and health and hygiene improved.

Victims often develop painful swelling in the lymph nodes called buboes, flu-like symptoms and gangrene. Although the disease is treatable with antibiotics, without treatment the mortality rate is almost two-thirds of those infected, according to the US Centres for Disease Control.

Last year about 60 people died of plague in Madagascar – the highest number globally. The disease is prevalent in the island's central highlands, where between 200 and 400 confirmed cases are reported each year to the World Health Organisation – between a third and a fifth of globally reported cases.

The disease first appeared in Madagascar in 1898 and was responsible for successive outbreaks until the 1920s, largely confined to the island's ports. While it disappeared from coastal areas it spread to inland areas above an altitude of 800 metres. However, there was no serious outbreak for 60 years until 1991, when it appeared again around the coastal town of Mahajanga.

After a series of outbreaks that lasted until 1998, health experts warned almost 10 years ago that plague appeared to be spreading again to lower altitudes with men and children most susceptible.

The risk of the disease has increased, say experts, amid increasing poverty and insanitary conditions on the island, not least in its overcrowded prisons. Prisoners are usually most affected by outbreaks.

Following the warning from the ICRC in October, the organisation and Madagascan prison authorities launched a campaign against rodents in Antanimora prison in the capital, Antananarivo, where 3,000 people are behind bars, to reduce the risk of the disease spreading.

Christoph Vogt, head of the ICRC delegation in Madagascar, told the Guardian then: "The chronic overcrowding and the unhygienic conditions in prisons can bring on new cases of the disease. That's dangerous not only for the inmates but also for the population in general.

"Rat control is essential for preventing the plague, because rodents spread the bacillus to fleas that can then infect humans. So the relatives of a detainee can pick up the disease on a visit to the prison, and a released detainee returning to his community without having been treated can also spread the disease."

BELIEVE IT: TROPICAL DISEASES AFFECT MILLIONS OF PEOPLE IN US

[Reproduced from http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22029473.200-americas-hidden-epidemic-of-tropical-diseases.html?utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=SOC&utm_campaign=hoot&cmpid=SOC%7CNSNS%7C2013-GLOBAL-hoot#.UqpBsKi5fGV]

Millions of US citizens suffer from neglected tropical diseases that most doctors there have barely heard of, linked to both poverty and the warming climate

Editorial: "Want to fix US inequality? Begin with worming tablets"

WHEN the letter arrives, it must come as a shock. Would-be blood donors are politely rejected because they've tested positive for a deadly tropical infection – and their doctors aren't much help. Kristy Murray at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, recalls one doctor telling a patient: "The test is wrong. That disease doesn't exist in the US!"

But an estimated 330,000 US citizens, and possibly as many as a million, carry the parasite that causes Chagas disease. It is a chronic, silent infection that leads to lethal heart or gut damage in 40 per cent of cases. It is the most common parasitic disease in the Americas, and it can be treated – if the doctor is aware of it. Most US doctors aren't.

Then there are intestinal worms, a chronic infestation that spreads in faeces and drains energy and nutrients from children across Africa. Cases aren't supposed to occur in rich countries. Yet Toxocara canis, an intestinal worm that can cause asthma and epilepsy, is carried by 21 per cent of black people in the US – compared with 31 per cent of people in central Nigeria.

"It's so sad," says Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine, who founded the US's first dedicated school of tropical medicine in 2011. He estimates that Chagas, worms and other diseases typically associated with the developing world could afflict some 14 million impoverished people in the US (see "Under the radar", below).

"They are called neglected tropical diseases," says Hotez. "But in reality, this is about poverty, not climate." Worryingly, both situations are getting worse (see "A climate of disease").

In recent years the world has begun to take notice. In 2000, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals highlighted the impact of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) on economic development, and last year member countries of the World Health Organization pledged to eliminate or control 17 of the worst of them.

NEW GREENHOUSE GAS: 7,000 TIMES MORE POWERFUL THAN CO2

NEWLY DISCOVERED GREENHOUSE GAS 7,000 TIMES MORE POWERFUL THAN CO2


[Reproduced from "the guardian - environment"]

A new greenhouse gas that is 7,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the Earth has been discovered by researchers in Toronto.
The newly discovered gas, perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA), has been in use by the electrical industry since the mid-20th century.
The chemical, that does not occur naturally, breaks all records for potential impacts on the climate, said the researchers at the University of Toronto's department of chemistry.
"We claim that PFTBA has the highest radiative efficiency of any molecule detected in the atmosphere to date," said Angela Hong, one of the co-authors.
The study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, found PFTBA was 7,100 times more powerful at warming the Earth over a 100-year time span than CO2.

Concentrations of PFTBA in the atmosphere are low – 0.18 parts per trillion in the Toronto area – compared to 400 parts per million for carbon dioxide. So PFTBA does not in any way displace the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal as the main drivers of climate change.
Dr Drew Shindell, a climatologist at Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said:
"This is a warning to us that this gas could have a very very large impact on climate change – if there were a lot of it. Since there is not a lot of it now, we don't have to worry about it at present, but we have to make sure it doesn't grow and become a very large contributor to global warming.".
He said a number of recent studies had drawn attention to other potential new greenhouse gases which, like PFTBA, pack a lot of warming potential in each molecule but are not very prevalent in the atmosphere.
Such studies were a warning against increasing uses of such compounds without first understanding their impact on climate change, he added.
"From a climate change perspective, individually, PFTBA's atmospheric concentration does not significantly alert the phenomenon of climate change," Hong said. "Still the biggest culprit is CO2 from fossil fuel emissions."
But PFTBA is long-lived. The Toronto researchers estimated PFTBA remains in the atmosphere for about 500 years, and unlike carbon dioxide, that is taken up by forests and oceans, there are no known natural "sinks" on Earth to absorb it.
"It is so much less than carbon dioxide, but the important thing is on a per molecule basis, it is very very effective in interacting with heat from the Earth," she said. "Individually each molecule is able to affect the climate potentially and because its lifetime is so long it also has a long-lasting effect."
Hong said the discovery of PFTBA and its warming potential raises questions about the climate impacts of other chemicals used in industrial processes.
PFTBA has been in use since the mid-20th century for various applications in electrical equipment, such as transistors and capacitors. The researchers said it was unclear how widespread its use was today.
It belongs to an entire class of chemicals used for industrial applications whose effects on the atmosphere remain unknown.
"PFTBA is just one example of an industrial chemical that is produced but there are no policies that control its production, use or emission," Hong said. "It is not being regulated by any type of climate policy."

ECONOMIC POWER AGAINST INDIGENOUS RIGHTS IN BRAZIL

[Reproduced from http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/9797]

Breaking news: Guarani leader and film-star murdered 3 December 2013

In 2008 Ambrósio attended the premiere of 'Birdwatchers' at the Venice Film Festival.

© Survival

Guarani Indian leader and film-star Ambrósio Vilhalva was murdered on Sunday night, after decades of campaigning for his tribe’s right to live on their ancestral land.

Ambrósio was reportedly stabbed at the entrance to his community, known as Guyra Roká, in Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul state. He was found dead in his hut, with multiple knife wounds. He had been repeatedly threatened in recent months.

Ambrósio starred as the main character in the award-winning feature film Birdwatchers, which portrays the Guarani’s desperate struggle for their land. He traveled internationally to speak out about the tribe’s plight, and to push the Brazilian government into protecting Guarani land, as it is legally obliged to do.

Police officials examine Ambrósio's body inside his hut.

© Osvaldo Duarte

He said, ‘This is what I most hope for: land and justice… We will live on our ancestral land; we will not give up’.

The Guarani of Guyra Roká were evicted from their land decades ago by ranchers. For years they lived destitute on the roadside. In 2007 they re-occupied part of their ancestral land, and now live on a fraction of their territory, but most has been cleared for enormous sugar cane plantations. One of the principal landowners involved ispowerful local politician José Teixeira. The Guarani are left with almost nothing.

Ambrósio spoke out passionately against the planting of sugar cane on his community’s land, and against Raízen, a joint venture between Shell and Cosan which used the sugar cane for biofuel production. His community’s campaign with Survival International forced Raízen not to use sugar cane grown on Guarani land.

[See the whole report and watch video on link shown on top]