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segunda-feira, 30 de junho de 2014

THE WAY THINGS ARE, WE'LL DIE DROWNED BEFORE THE PENGUINS DISAPPEAR!!!

[Reproduced from New Scientist - Life]

Melting ice puts emperor penguins on a slippery slope

29 June 2014 by Andy Coghlan

Antarctica's iconic emperor penguins are predicted to go into decline this century. Rising temperatures will melt the sea ice on which they live and breed, and as a result two-thirds of the colonies could halve in size by 2100. The question now is whether the penguins can survive by moving to new breeding grounds.

These predictions are from the first study to investigate how global warming will affect all the world's 600,000 emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri). They live in 45 colonies spread around Antarctica.

So far only one colony, at Adélie Land in east Antarctica, has been studied in detail. It is expected to decline as the climate warms. The others have been spotted from space – thanks to the huge black guano stains the penguins leave on the ice – but have never been visited by humans.

Hal Caswell of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and his colleagues used data from Adélie Land to extrapolate what would happen to all emperors. They projected how global warming this century will affect the sea ice near each colony.

The sea ice is key to the penguins' survival, says Caswell. Too much ice forces them to travel great distances to find food for their young, but too little means there is less food, as the krill they eat also rely on sea ice.

Where's my ice?

Most colonies will grow until around 2040, but then the accelerating retreat of the sea ice will cause them all to decline. Overall, it looks like the total population will fall 19 per cent by 2100. And two-thirds of the colonies are projected to halve in population – for instance those at Queen Maud Land and Enderby Land facing the Indian Ocean – because they will lose more sea ice than others.

"If emperor penguin colonies were bank accounts, they would all be showing negative returns by the end of the century," says Caswell.

Other researchers agree that global warming will be bad news for the emperors. But the decline may be slower than Caswell's model suggests, because penguins are adaptable.

Caswell's model assumes that individual penguins always return to the same breeding grounds, so they will perish if their site deteriorates. "[Their] model assumes each colony is a closed population, with no immigration or emigration elsewhere," says David Ainley of Penguin Science, an educational programme based in the US.

Moving home

But if the penguins can move to new breeding grounds, they may have a better chance. And according to Michelle LaRue at the University of Minnesota at St Paul, they can.

LaRue tracked the colonies using satellites and found six instances in three years when emperor penguins didn't return to the same location to breed. She says the colonies were "blinking in and out" from year to year, so the birds must have gone somewhere else. She also identified a new colony on the Antarctic Peninsula, to which they may have relocated.

"It appears that the emperors have the ability to move among colonies," says LaRue. That means some colonies, assumed to have been wiped out, may have simply relocated. LaRue presented her results at the Ideacity conferencein Toronto, Canada, last week. They will be published soon in Ecography.

Journal reference: Nature Climate Change, DOI: 10.1038/nclimate2280

domingo, 29 de junho de 2014

INDONESIA WORSE THAN BRAZIL, IN TERMS OF DEFORESTATION

 Indonesia Overtakes Brazil for Worst Deforestation Title (via http://bit.ly/-iGeeky)

Complete repport in:

http://mashable.com/2014/06/29/indonesia-worst-deforestation/?utm_campaign=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&utm_cid=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&


terça-feira, 24 de junho de 2014

DESPITE THE CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE OF DAMAGE TO BEES, SOME RESEARCHERS, MAINLY MANUFACTURERS, DENY THIS FACT! (OF COURSE!!!)

Pesticide toll 'impossible to deny'

By Matt McGrath

[Reproduced from Environment correspondent, BBC News]

Neonicotinoid pesticides are causing significant damage to a wide range of beneficial species and are a key factor in the decline of bees, say scientists.

Researchers, who have carried out a four-year review of the literature, say the evidence of damage is now "conclusive".

The scientists say the threat to nature is the same as that once posed by the notorious chemical DDT.

Manufacturers say the pesticides are not harming bees or other species.

Neonicotinoids were introduced in the early 1990s as a replacement for older, more damaging chemicals.

They are a systemic insecticide, meaning that they are absorbed into every cell in a plant, making all parts poisonous to pests.

But some scientists have been concerned about their impact, almost since the moment they were introduced.

Much of the worry has surrounded their effects on bees.

There's been a well documented, global decline in these critical pollinators.

Many researchers believe that exposure to neonicotinoids has been an important destabilising factor for the species.

'Worldwide impacts'

In 2011, environmental campaigners, the IUCN, established an international scientific taskforce on systemic pesticides to look into the impacts of these chemicals.

The members have reviewed over 800 peer reviewed papers that have been published in the past 20 years.


Their assessment of the global impact says the threat posed goes far beyond bees.

In their report, to be published next month, they argue that neonicotinoids and another chemical called fipronil are poisoning the earth, the air and the water.

The pesticides accumulate in the soil and leach into water, and pose a significant problem for earthworms, freshwater snails, butterflies and birds.

The researchers say that the classic measurements used to assess the toxicity of a pesticide are not effective for these systemic varieties and conceal their true impact.

They point to one of the studies in the review carried out in the Netherlands.

It found that higher levels of neonicotinoids in water reduced the levels of aquatic invertebrates, which are the main prey for a whole range of species including wading birds, trout and salmon.

"There is so much evidence, going far beyond bees," Prof Dave Goulson from the University of Sussex told BBC News.

"They accumulate in soils, they are commonly turning up in waterways at levels that exceed the lethal dose for things that live in streams.

"It is impossible to deny that these things are having major environmental impacts."

DDT comparison

The scientists are very worried about the prophylactic use of neonicotinoids, where seeds are coated in the chemicals and the plant grows up with the ability to destroy pests already built in.

"It is a bit like taking antibiotics to avoid getting ill," said Prof Goulson, one of a team of 29 scientists involved in the research.

"The more they are used, the stronger the selective pressure you place on pest insects to become resistant to them. Using them as prophylactics is absolute madness in that sense."

The task force argues that with neonicotinoids and fipronil making up around a third of the world market in insecticides, farmers are over-relying on them in the same way as they once became over reliant on chemicals like DDT.

"We have forgotten those lessons and we're back to where we were in the 1960s," said Prof Goulson.

"We are relying almost exclusively on these insecticides, calendar spraying 20 times or more onto a single field, it's a completely bonkers way."

While neonicotinoids don't accumulate in human or animal tissue in the way that DDT once did, the modern pesticides are more lethal, about 6,000 time as toxic compared to the older spray.

Representatives of manufacturers say that there is nothing new in the task force study.

"There is very little credible evidence that these things are causing untoward damage because we would have seen them over 20 years of use," said Dr Julian Little from Bayer, one of the manufacturers of neonicotinoids.

"If you look at the tree bumblebee, it is eating the same food as the other bees, and is being exposed to the same pesticide load and weather conditions and yet it is flourishing, whereas some other bees are not.

"If it were pesticides causing the mass destruction of our fauna, surely you would see effects on all bees?"

The European Crop Protection Association said the task force was being selective in their evidence, pointing to recent studies carried out by industry showing that the declines in bee populations have been overstated.

"We respect the scientists who have produced this research, but it appears that they are part of a movement that brings together some academics and NGOs whose only objective is to restrict or ban the use of neonicotinoid technology regardless of what the evidence may show," a spokesperson said.

Europe already has a two-year moratorium in place meaning that neonicotinoids can't be used on flowering crops such as oilseed rape.

Last week, President Obama announced the creation of a pollinator health task force to look at the impact of pesticide exposure on bees and other insects.

Prof Goulson says that he isn't in favour of a ban.

"We have been using these things for 20 years and there's not a single study that shows they increase yield," he said.

"I'm not personally in favour of an outright ban but I think we should use them much more judiciously - if they don't benefit yield we should stop using them."

Follow Matt on Twitter.

BBC © 2014

domingo, 22 de junho de 2014

IT'S NOT JUST THE WORLD CUP BRAZILIANS ARE PROTESTING ABOUT

Brazilians have far more to protest about than the World Cup


It may all be over for England, but for Brazil, the battle is only just beginning. Anger over the vast cost of the World Cup - well over $10 billion - and its huge social impacts, is spilling over into a wider fury at massive mega-projects than enrich elites, trash the environment, and leave the poor poorer.




domingo, 15 de junho de 2014

WHERE JAGUARS LIVE DURING FLOOD OF RIVERS IN THE AMAZON

[Reproduced from www.amazonia.org.br]

Study proves that Jaguars live in treetops during the flooding of the rivers




Survey by the Mamirauá Institute proved scientifically that flooded forests of the Amazon, during the period of the flood, Jaguars (Panthera onca) remain on the trees for approximately three months of the year. Since last week, Jaguars are being seen daily in the treetops of the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, in Amazonas State. There are no records of this kind of behavior from occurring in other parts of the world.

"This is a new behavior for big cats, which need large amounts of food every day to survive and that until now were considered terrestrial," said researcher Emiliano Esterci Ramalho, responsible for the Iauaretê Project, developed since 2004 by the Mamirauá Institute, with the goal of studying the ecology and to promote the conservation of the Jaguar in the floodplain Amazonica.

In 2013, the researchers had already spotted the specimens in the trees, even a female with her puppy: "following the GPS track of one of our Jaguars with a collar, a female, she was found with her six month baby  living in a tree, 12 km away from the nearest dry soil. The pup slept in front of us. This implies that female Jaguars that live in the trees, swim  daily for other trees  to hunt prey "reported Emiliano.

The environment of the Valley of Mamirauá Reserve has very specific features, such as the water level variation, ranging annually an average of 10 meters. According to the researcher, the common would be that these land animals entered flooded areas. "But Mamirauá is an island, so a species that lives here, will have to necessarily cross the Amazon River every time it floods, which isn't the best idea! The alternative is to climb trees.  Common sense says that "cat doesn't like water", which is not the case of jaguars, that is in theory,  how they can live in Mamirauá.

In the view of the researcher, the discovery has serious implications for the conservation of the Jaguar and raises other questions about the behavior and ecology of large carnivores. "Floodplain forests, which have been neglected in conservation proposals for the Jaguar in the past, are extremely important areas for the Jaguar in the Amazon because they are home to a large number of Jaguars; they are areas of reproduction of the species, and also because the animals living in this region of the Amazon has a unique ecology. Increase the number of protected areas on floodplains can be crucial to the survival of Jaguars in the Amazon, "he said.

sábado, 14 de junho de 2014

NO FOREST NO FISH FOOD: SIMPLE LIKE THAT!!!

Deforestation leaves fish hungry

Last updated 14/06/2014 00:16 BRT

By Mark Kinver

Environment reporter, BBC News


Researchers found the amount of food available affected the size of young fish and influenced the number that went on to reach adulthood.
Deforestation is reducing the amount of leaf litter falling into rivers and lakes, resulting in less food being available to fish, a study suggests.


The team said the results illustrated a link between watershed protection and healthy freshwater fish populations.

The findings have been published in Nature Communications.

"We found fish that had almost 70% of their biomass made from carbon that came from trees and leaves instead of aquatic food chain sources," explained lead author Andrew Tanentzap from the University of Cambridge's Department of Plant Sciences.

"While plankton raised on algal carbon is more nutritious, organic carbon from trees washed into lakes is a hugely important food source for freshwater fish, bolstering their diet to ensure good size and strength," he added.

Size matters

Dr Tanentzap observed: "Where you have more dissolved forest matter you have more bacteria, more bacteria equals more zooplankton.

"Areas with the most zooplankton had the largest, fattest fish," he added, referring to the study's results.

The team of scientists from Canada and the UK collected data from eight locations with varying levels of tree cover around Daisy Lake, Canada, which forms part of the boreal ecosystem.



The data revealed that where there was more forest cover, the fish were fatter than fish found in areas with few or no trees.
They focused on young-of-the-year (YOY) (individuals born within the past 12 months) yellow perch (Perca flavescen), a widely distributed species, because it was "an important sport and commercial species throughout North America".

generally, the more forest cover around the edge the lake, the fish in that area were larger than young fish found in area with little or no forest cover.

The researchers added: "Our results also have consequences beyond YOY fish because recruitment into adult fish stocks and subsequent population dynamics are strongly size-dependent in perch and other species."

Dr Tanentzap added that the findings could also have implications for human food security.

"It's estimated that freshwater fishes make up more than 6% of the world's annual animal protein supplies for humans - and the major and often only source of animal protein for low income families across Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines.

"While we've only studied boreal regions, these results are likely to bear out globally.

"Forest loss is damaging aquatic food chains of which many humans are a part."

BBC © 2014

sexta-feira, 13 de junho de 2014

DEVIL'S CLAW LOOMS OVER WORLD CUP'S ARMADILLO MASCOT

[Reproduced from NEW SCIENTIST]

They may be the cutest World Cup mascots ever. But three-banded armadillos (Tolypeutes tricinctus) from Caatinga in north-east Brazil are being crowded out of their habitat by an invasive weed. The armadillo was today described as "vulnerable" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which has updated its Red List of endangered species.


The rubbervine weed (Cryptostegia madagascariensis), also known as devil's claw, was originally imported from Madagascar as an ornamental plant. It has swept through the armadillo's shrub-land home, killing native trees and smothering vast areas. Control of the weeds is doubly difficult because it rapidly forms dense thickets of vegetation, and exudes toxic sap.

The IUCN says the armadillo has declined by more than a third over the past 10 to 15 years, because its shrub-land habitat has shrunk by 50 per cent.

To combat the weed, a research group called CABI based in Wallingford, UK, has joined forces with Brazilian partners to develop a biological programme to control the weed, possibly using a fungus. In a similar project in Queensland, Australia, CABI successfully controlled a closely related rubbervine weed using a rust fungus.

Dick Shaw of CABI says that the Brazilian invasion has not yet reached its full extent, so there is still time to act. "If no action is taken, a valuable resource and unique ecosystem will be lost to Brazil and the world," he says.

domingo, 8 de junho de 2014

IT'S WORTH THE MONEY: U$1 TRILLION FOR WATER

An Israeli Black Hawk helicopter lands in the well-watered Golan Heights. Photo: Sgt. Ori Shifrin / Israel Defense Forces via Flickr.

It's about the water! An Israeli Black Hawk helicopter lands in the well-watered Golan Heights, annexed by Israel from Syria in 1981. Photo: Sgt. Ori Shifrin / Israel Defense Forces via Flickr.


    [Reproduced from www.theecologist.org]


    Water wars in the Middle East - $1 trillion is at stake

    Garikai Chengdu

    4th June 2014

    Water is to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th ... the commodity that determines the wealth and stability of nations, writes Garikai Chengdu. Welcome to a new age of hydro-imperialism that is upon us right now in Syria, Israel, Iraq, Libya ...

    Western nations stand to make up to a US$1 trillion from privatizing, purifying and distributing water in a region where water often sells for far more than oil.

    People who think that the West's interventions in Iraq, Libya and Syria are only about oil are mistaken. Broadly speaking, Western interest in the Middle East is becoming increasingly about a commodity more precious than oil, namely water.

    According to the US-based Center for Public Integrity, Western nations stand to make up to a US$1 trillion from privatizing, purifying and distributing water in a region where water often sells for far more than oil.

    Although over two thirds of our planet is water, we face an acute shortage. This scarcity flies in the face of our natural assumptions. The problem is that 97% is salt water. Great for fish, not so good for humans.

    Demand outstripping supply ...

    Of the world's fresh water, only 1% is available for drinking, with the remaining 2% trapped in glaciers and ice. Put differently: if all the water on earth was represented by an 11-litre jug, the freshwater would fill a single cup, and we can only access the last drop.

    Nature has decreed that the supply of water is fixed. All the while, demand is rising as the world's population increases and enriches itself. By 2030, climate change, population growth, pollution and urbanization will compound, such that the demand for water globally is estimated to outstrip supply by 40%.

    Increasingly, for water to be useful, it needs to be mined, processed, packaged, and transported, just like gold, coal, gas or oil. Unlike oil, there are no substitutes, alternatives or stopgaps for water.

    First gold. Then oil. And now, it's water ...

    There have been three waves of resource-driven imperialism in the modern era.

    A quest for gold fueled the first wave. Old-fashioned colonialists, regal and unembarrassed, rode in on horseback, brutally took control of American territories, sent in ostrich-plumed governors, minted coins with the Queen's head on them, and gazed proudly over natives toiling away in perilous mine-shafts.

    An unprecedented kidnapping of millions of Africans ensued, so as to replace the indigenous Americans that had initially been exterminated by their European conquerors. This coincided with white pioneers brutally conquering Southern Africa, also in search of gold.

    The second wave of imperialism has been driven by an unquenchable, post-industrial thirst for oil.

    Modern petro-imperialism, the key aspect of which is the US military's transformation into a global oil-protection armed force, puts up a democratic facade, emphasizes freedom of the seas (or pipeline routes), and seeks to secure, protect, drill, and ship oil, not to administer everyday affairs.

    Nevertheless, the means by which the US is centering its foreign policy around oil is hardly new in spirit, albeit unprecedented in scope.

    A third stage of imperialism

    The third wave of imperialist wars is currently being fought over nature's most valuable commodity: water. Prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, CIA analysts reported on a prediction of a new theater of war: hydrological warfare, "in which rivers, lakes and aquifers become national security assets to be fought over, or controlled".

    These predictions became realized in quick succession, beginning with the recent wars in Iraq, Libya and Syria. It is now clear that the age of hydro-imperialism is upon us.

    Iraq, Bechtel, and the $100 billion water contract

    On April 17, 2003, in Iraq, the American company Bechtel received a no-bid reconstruction contract from US Agency for International Development (USAID) for US$100 billion; thus, making it the largest Iraq reconstruction contract.

    Therefore, the most lucrative Iraq reconstruction contract was not used to repair oil facilities, build schools and hospitals, or to repair bombarded infrastructure: it was used to source, process, and distribute water.

    The secretive, opaque and no-bid nature of the water contract award process is made even worse by one incredible fact. Bechtel has botched many of its previous projects.

    In California, Bechtel installed one of the nuclear power plant reactors backwards. In Boston, what promised to be a US$2.5 billion job for an infamous 'Big Dig' project became the most expensive in US history, costing US$14.6 billion. The tunnel project was plagued by charges of poor execution, corruption, criminal arrests, and even four deaths.

    In Bolivia, Bechtel's record is one of privatizing water by inflating prices by 35%. The inflation caused public riots, in which several people died. Bechtel was ousted from the country and tried to sue the Bolivian government for canceling their contract.

    Libya and the Nubian Aquifer

    Since the turn of the century, Iraq was the first casualty of hydro-imperialism, and Colonel Gaddafi's assassination marked the second. Libya sits atop a natural resource more valuable than oil: the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer, which is a vast underground reserve of fresh water, estimated to be the largest in the world.

    Col. Gaddafi had invested $25 billion into the aquifer, which had the potential to turn a country that is 95% desert into an arable oasis. As it now stands, France's global mega-water companies: Suez, Ondeo, and Saur, control almost half of the world's $400 billion water market.

    They are poised to rake in billions of dollars from Libya's eighth wonder of the world.

    Mr. Gaddafi had intended the scheme to be designed by Libyans, constructed by Libyans, for the benefit of the Libyan population.

    Now it is being redesigned by Frenchmen and women at inflated costs, constructed by French contractors, largely for the benefit of French shareholders. Libyan taxpayers will undoubtably be stuck with the bill and higher water bills.

    Syria's 'existential threat' to Israel

    The most recent case of hydro-imperialism is the war in Syria. Israel has been leading a Western campaign to support Syrian rebels - in part, because its leaders assert that the Syrian President, Bashar Al-Assad, poses an existential threat to Israel on the issue of water.

    Mr. Assad has vowed to reclaim the Golan Heights - a strip of land that Israel captured from Syria in the Six Day War of 1967. The Golan Heights provides a staggering 40% of Israel's fresh water.

    "Syrian control of half of our water poses more of a threat than Iran with one bomb",once remarked ex-Israeli intelligence head, Meir Dagan.

    Mr. Assad has also been reticent to privatize the water industry and expose the population to predatory pricing, thereby preventing the West from tapping into a multi-billion dollar revenue stream.

    Mr. Assad's refusal to play ball on water privatization and his choice to play hardball over the Golan Heights meant that the Syrian President, like Mr. Hussein and Colonel Gaddafi before him, is an obstacle to the West's hydro-imperialist agenda.

    Control of nature's most precious and increasingly valuable commodity will, for any nation, spell the difference between greatness and decline. Mr. Hussein, Colonel Gaddafi and a defiant Mr. Assad know that all too well.

     


     

    Garikai Chengu is a scholar at Harvard University.

    This article originally appeared on CounterPunch.

     

     

    sexta-feira, 6 de junho de 2014

    THE WORLD-FAMOUS YASUNI NATIONAL PARK IN AMAZONIAN ECUADOR UNDER THREAT


    Ecuador's state oil company PetroAmazonas has, in secret, built a road deep into the heart of the world-famous Yasuni National Park in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest, writes David Hill - violating promises and threatening uncontacted indigenous tribes.



    The existence of the 'secret road' into Yasuni, leading directly to an oil production platform, has been confirmed by high resolution satellite images just released in a new report.

    Plans previously approved by Ecuador's Environment Ministry in the project's environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) provided for a "cutting-edge, roadless helicopter-enabled design".




    UN URGES ACTION ON FOREST DIVERSITY




    [Reproduced from BBC, on line]

    Forest species are coming under increasing pressure from human activities and climate change, and face the risk of extinction, the UN warns.

    The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has published a global action plan to improve management of the world's forest genetic resources. It describes forest ecosystems as "essential refuges for biodiversity".
    The call for action comes ahead of a key UN forestry meeting, which is being held in Rome at the end of June.
    "Data from 86 countries illustrate that insufficient awareness of the importance of forest genetic resources... often translate into national policies that are partial, ineffective or non-existent," explained Linda Collette, secretary of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA).

    "Only about 3% of the world's tree species are actively managed," she added.

    "Governments need to act and implement the global plan of action."

    The action plan describes forest genetic resources (FGR) as the "heritable materials maintained within and among tree and other woody plant species that are of actual or potential economic, environmental, scientific or societal value".

    The document identifies 27 priorities, which have been grouped into four areas:

    • Improving the availability of, and access to, information on FGR

    • Conservation of FGR

    • Sustainable use, development and management of FGR

    • Policies, institutions and capacity-building

    It say genetic diversity forms the "mainstay of biological diversity", enabling species to adapt to changing environments, such as climate change and emerging diseases.

    The plan adds: "FGR provide a direct food source for human and animals, even at times when annual crops fail."

    Food and nutrition security

    The release of the global action plan coincided with the publication of another report, The State of the World's Forest Genetic Resources, described as the first of its kind.

    Building on data from 86 national reports, the FAO document covers 8,000 woody species (trees, shrubs, palms and bamboo) that are among the most utilised by humans

    It found that a third of these species, about 2,400, were actively managed specifically for their products and/or services.

    The report concluded: "The high number of species used and their multiplicity and services indicates the enormous value of FGR.

    "It suggests their great potential to support agriculture, forestry and environmental sustainability, as well as food and nutrition security, if better evaluated and developed."

    FAO assistant director-general for forestry Eduardo Rojas-Briales observed: "Forests provide food, goods and services which are essential to the survival and well-being of all humanity.

    "This report constitutes a major step in building the information and knowledge based required for action towards better conservation and better management of the planet's precious forest genetic resources," he added.

    BBC © 2014

    quarta-feira, 4 de junho de 2014

    Koalas hug trees to lose heat

    By Victoria Gill

    Science reporter, BBC News

    Hugging trees helps koalas to keep cool, a study has revealed.

    In a study published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, scientists used thermal cameras to reveal that, in hotter weather, the animals moved to the lower, cooler parts of the trees.

    They also pressed their bodies even closer to the trunks.


    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27684863