sexta-feira, 31 de outubro de 2014
quinta-feira, 30 de outubro de 2014
OUR PROBLEMS WITH HYDROELECTRIC POWER IN AMAZONIAN REGION WILL LAST FOR YEARS!!!
[Reproduced from The Ecologist]
Brazil's giant dam programme is a climate disaster
Helle Abelvik-Lawson / Greenpeace
28th October 2014
Brazil's newly elected Dilma Roussef is committed to completing the disastrous Belo Monte dam, writes Helle Abelvik-Lawson. Worse, she looks certain to press ahead with the industrialisation of the Amazon, with 61 hydroprojects in the pipeline. And new scientific findings about the massive climate impacts of tropical forest dams are not about to stop her.
Large hydroelectric power projects may be contributing to global warming - rather than helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - due to grossly underestimated methane emissions from dam-created reservoirs flooding forests, according recent research.
This could have serious ramifications for countries such as Brazil - which is in the process of building 12 dams on tributaries of the Amazon and has another 218 proposed.
The controversial Belo Monte dam, under construction, is the best-known of these - and the newly re-elected president Dilma Rousseff is determined to see it through. She even posed at the construction site with workers during the election campaign.
As her predecessor Lula Inacio de Silva declared, the project would go ahead "na lei ou na marra" - "by fair means or foul".
Rousseff, who won the electoral run off for Brazil's presidency on 26 October - looks certain to continue championing the development of dams and other infrastructure projects.
Rousseff, who won the electoral run off for Brazil's presidency on 26 October - looks certain to continue championing the development of dams and other infrastructure projects.
Large hydroelectric power projects may be contributing to global warming - rather than helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - due to grossly underestimated methane emissions from dam-created reservoirs flooding forests, according recent research.
This could have serious ramifications for countries such as Brazil - which is in the process of building 12 dams on tributaries of the Amazon and has another 218 proposed.
The controversial Belo Monte dam, under construction, is the best-known of these - and the newly re-elected president Dilma Rousseff is determined to see it through. She even posed at the construction site with workers during the election campaign.
As her predecessor Lula Inacio de Silva declared, the project would go ahead "na lei ou na marra" - "by fair means or foul".
Rousseff, who won the electoral run off for Brazil's presidency on 26 October - looks certain to continue championing the development of dams and other infrastructure projects.
During her first term She implemented more infrastructure projects than at any time in Brazil's history. And her party, the PT, have promoted a model of developmentalism that has been less focused on environmental sustainability than large taxpayer-funded industrial projects - of which Belo Monte is the biggest.
The problem is that until recently the emissions linked to dam projects - which largely come from methane - haven't been properly measured.
Methane emissions from tropical 'drowned forests' higher than expected
The first study to quantify methane released from dam reservoirs, published in Biogeosciences in August, concluded the amount of methane emitted from tropical reservoirs during their first years of operation "has most certainly been underestimated until now".
The researchers monitored emissions from the NamTheun 2 reservoir in Laos -the largest in southeast Asia - finding a type of methane emission called 'ebullition' was not fully accounted for.
Ebullition happens when bacteria break down organic matter in areas of flooded vegetation, which gives rise to large methane bubbles that rise up from the bottom and burst at the water surface.
The study showed that ebullition accounted for 60% to 80% of total methane emissions from the reservoir in the first few years following filling.
Filling reservoirs in tropical areas of Asia, South America and Africa can create 'drowned forests', which could be emitting over 10% of man-made methane around the world, say the researchers from French National Centre for Scientific Research - though in areas of low vegetation such as Iceland, hydro is a net benefit to climate change.
Methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas, 84 times more warming than CO2 over 20 years, according to the IPCC. That means if Brazil goes ahead with its programme of building large hydro dams, this could create a massive impact on the climate.
Brazil's hydropower dams are 'methane factories'
The research won't come as a complete surprise to the Brazilian government.
A 2007 study undertaken by their National Institute for Space Research looked at ways to extract the methane from the process of generating hydropower.
There has also been research into the 250MW Balbina dam, which has been branded a 'methane factory'. The research found that downstream (ie non-reservoir) methane emissions account for 3% of all methane released from the central Amazon floodplain, according to a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters.
A study by Philip Fearnside of the National Institute for Amazonian Research found that proportionate to output the hydro dam emits far more greenhouse gases than the most inefficient coal plant.
And yet Brazil continues apace with its programme of dam-building in the tropics - 61 are planned to be built in the next five years - despite significant opposition.
The Belo Monte - a mega operation that will be the third-largest dam when it is fully completed - continues although an appeals court judge that the dam was unconstitutional in a 2012 ruling because of lack of consultation with the public - though this was overturned. Its construction has displaced 20,000 indigenous villagers.
The dam could now also be an imminent threat to the climate. The reservoir has now been filled and the water is at 97 metres above sea level, flooding 250 square miles of the Amazon forest - the world's largest and arguably most precious carbon sink.
One concern is that because of the seasonal variation in water levels in the Amazon region, Belo Monte could be the most inefficient dam ever built hitting 10% of its theoretical maxiumum output of 11,233MW during the dry season and an average of only 39% of its nominal capacity throughout the year.
At a total cost running to over $14.4 billion, majority funded by the Brazilian Development Bank BNDES through loans to the public-private partnership known as the NESA (North Energy plc) Consortium, Belo Monte is looking economically risky.
No viable political opposition
Political support for the dam project remains - with little apparent interest in stopping emissions.
Marina Silva, former environment minister and Green candidate, dropped out the presidential election. In spite of Silva's work in bringing environmentalism - and an understanding of the ecological dangers of large reservoirs in the Amazon - into the heart of Brazilian politics, she lacks the clout to force any policy rethink.
Without the political will in Brazil to fund and implement mitigation strategies immediately, it seems increasingly likely that the continued industrialisation of the Amazon for hydroelectric dam building may become an unexpectedly devastating contributor to climate change.
Helle Abelvik-Lawson is community manager for GreenPeace UK's Energydesk.
This article was originally published by Greenpeace UK. This version includes some additional reporting by The Ecologist.
quarta-feira, 29 de outubro de 2014
"AS YOU SOW SO SHALL YOU REAP". BAD MANAGEMENT...NO HARVEST!
About 2,000 hectares of fertile land are lost each day due to damage caused by salt, according to a UN analysis.
The total area now affected is equivalent to the size of France - 62 million hectares - which has increased from 45 million 20 years ago.
Salt degradation occurs in areas of dry irrigated land with little rainfall and where there is no natural drainage.
The report is published in UN journal Natural Resources Forum.
It suggests tree planting, deep ploughing and the production of salt-tolerant crops. It also proposes digging drains or ditches around the affected land.
Salt destroying fertile land - UN
Reproduced from BBC News
These methods would be expensive but the authors say the cost of inaction would be worse. They estimate the global cost to be $27.3bn (£16.9bn).
"To feed the world's anticipated nine billion people by 2050, and with little new productive land available, it's a case of all lands needed on deck," said lead author Manzoor Qadir from the UN University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).
"We can't afford not to restore the productivity of salt-affected lands," he added.
Growing food needs
Many regions across 75 countries are affected, including the Aral Sea Basin in Central Asia, the Indo-Gangetic Basin in India and the Yellow River Basin in China, causing an impact on many important crop yields.
In India, for example, wheat, rice, sugar-cane and cotton production are all at risk - crops that are vital for livelihoods. In the Colorado River Basin reports have shown that damage from salt could cost the US up to $750m (£465m) per year.
Co-author of the work, Zafar Adeel, also of UNU-INWEH, said: "A large portion of the affected areas in developing countries have seen investments made in irrigation and drainage, but the infrastructure is not properly maintained or managed.
"Efforts to restore those lands to full productivity are essential as world population and food needs grow, especially in the developing world."
The authors estimate that food production will need to increase by 70% by 2050 to feed the world's growing population.
One of the methods proposed to combat the damage has already been developed by a Dutch farmer. Marc van Rijsselberghe said he had produced potatoes which can be irrigated with salt water.
He told the BBC's Farming today programme that his crops could reduce pressure on fresh-water resources and said he had already harvested 50 tonnes of saline-tolerant potatoes this year.
He said his potatoes could now be grown on 300 million hectares of land all over the world.
Follow Melissa on Twitter
segunda-feira, 27 de outubro de 2014
quinta-feira, 23 de outubro de 2014
NO EBOLA IN GHANA DESPITE 100,000 FRUIT BATS EATEN PER YEAR AS BUSHMEAT
DO NOT BLAME THE BATS!!!
In Ghana, where fruit bats have tested positive for antibodies to henipaviruses and Ebola virus, the status of bats as bushmeat was essentially unknown until we began our investigation five years ago.
AUTHORS
Alexandra Kamins
Research Analyst at the Colorado Hospital Association at Colorado Hospital Association
Marcus Rowcliffe
Research Fellow at Zoological Society of London
Olivier Restif
Royal Society University Research Fellow at University of Cambridge
The original article can be read in
http://theconversation.com/ebola-bats-get-a-bad-rap-when-it-comes-to-spreading-diseases-32785
Bats serve as a natural reservoir for the Ebola - but we cannot blame them for the epidemic. In Ghana alone people eat over 100,000 fruit bats a year as 'bushmeat', yet the country has escaped the epidemic. Much more research is needed to discover the mechanisms of transmission, and to devise effective, appropriate interventions.
Of all wildlife species, bats in particular pose complex questions. The second most diverse group of mammals after rodents, they host more than 65 known human pathogens, including Ebola virus, coronavirus (the cause of SARS), henipaviruses (which can cause deadly encephalitis in humans) and rabies.
But they are also one of the mammalian groups most vulnerable to overhunting and habitat destruction, while providing indispensable ecological functions such as pest control by bats that eat insects, pollination and seed dispersal.
But they are also one of the mammalian groups most vulnerable to overhunting and habitat destruction, while providing indispensable ecological functions such as pest control by bats that eat insects, pollination and seed dispersal.
The loss of bats, whether from hunting or for disease control almost certainly would have far-reaching and long-lasting ecological and economic consequences.
This much we know, and yet the details of how zoonoses spill over from bats into people are vastly understudied. Understanding how humans and bats interact had, until recently, never been examined in West Africa, and only peripherally probed elsewhere in the world. Uncovering behaviour that brings humans into contact with bats and other wildlife, and exposes people to zoonoses, could provide invaluable clues for preventing zoonotic outbreaks. To address these questions, we put together an international network of collaborators, led in the UK by the Zoological Society of London and the University of Cambridge.
From Malaysia to Ghana, from Australia to Peru, bats are coming into contact with humans more and more frequently as people are expanding into previously virgin territories.
Fruit bats are also often attracted to orchards and gardens planted on the edge of their territories. But another human behaviour contributes significantly to the risk of zoonotic spillover from all wildlife species: hunting. The consumption of bushmeat, or wild animal meat, is a global phenomenon on a massive scale – estimates of the combined bushmeat consumption in Central Africa and the Amazon Basin exceed 1 billion kilograms annually.
[...read the full article by accessing the link above]
domingo, 19 de outubro de 2014
DEFORESTATION IN THE AMAZON: ACTUAL DATA ONLY AFTER THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Now we understand why the Government of Dilma Roussef postponed to after the election the partial data from deforestation occurred in August and September 2014: the rates went up.
In last month's confrontation with August 2013 the increase was of 290%.
Comparing the quarter of 2013, August and September, with the 2014, the increment was 191% (from 288 square km to 838 square km).
The information is of Imazon-Institute of Man and the Environment of Amazon, an NGO from Belém, State of Pará.
The figure above shows:
"Desmatamento em alta" = deforestation on high.
..."mais corte raso em relação ao ano passado" = more clear cut over the past year
"Devastação por estado" = Devastation by State.
"Desmate mês a mês" = Deforestation month by month.
quarta-feira, 15 de outubro de 2014
UK's 'GREATEST GEOSITES ANNOUNCED': WONDERFUL!!!
Reproduced from BBC News
Science reporter, BBC News
The Geological Society of London has named its top 100 geological sites in the UK and Ireland, including 10 "people's favourites".
domingo, 5 de outubro de 2014
POVERTY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES ATTRACTS THE 'KISSING BUG' AND CHAGAS DISEASE WHICH SPREADS OVER THE WORLD WITH MIGRANTS
BBC Health Check
Watch a video by accessing: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29343210
Chagas disease - inheriting a silent killer
A silent killer once confined to Latin America now has gone global. The "assassin bug" - which spreads Chagas disease - thrives in countries like Bolivia. But up to 80,000 migrants from Latin America are now living with the illness in Spain - and no one can predict who will get serious health complications.
Every time Briggitte Jordan remembers the first time she heard of Chagas she becomes tearful. When she was a teenager living in Bolivia, Briggitte's mother told her that she'd tested positive for Chagas.
"The doctors didn't give her much information, only that she was another statistic, and what was going to happen was that my mother might die young," she recalls now living in Madrid, nearly 20 years later.
Chagas is spread by the bite of an insect - the "assassin bug" - which infects people with a parasite. If untreated, this can cause organ damage and lead to premature death.
But in the early stages there are few or no symptoms, so getting the word out about the disease is essential.
Football is like a magnet for most Latin Americans, so today Briggitte is at a match at Villaverde sports centre in Madrid. She and her colleagues from Mundo Sano (Healthy World) give out balloons and ribbons to spectators.
As the whistle blows for half time, traditional Bolivian dance is performed on the pitch, while the talk on the touchline is all about Chagas. They hope myth-busting and accurate information will encourage people to get tested.
And so they should: the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi that causes the disease hides inside the muscle fibres of the heart, the digestive system or peripheral nervous system, gradually damaging organs.
By the time they notice symptoms, patients may have developed serious complications in the heart or digestive system.
Briggitte thought her mother would only live until her 40s or 50s. "That's what you hear in our country."
Dreaded result
The nocturnal insect that spreads Chagas is widespread in the Americas. Officially called Triatoma infestans, its habit of biting humans around the mouth gave it another nickname - 'the kissing bug'.
Like another 2.3m Latin Americans who have moved abroad, Briggitte and her mother migrated to Spain, where they found out that treatment was available.
They also discovered there was a chance Briggitte could have Chagas, since a mother can pass it onto her child before birth.
In parts of the world where the kissing bug doesn't exist, the parasite can still be spread by infected people via blood transfusions, organ transplants, or in the womb.
Outside Latin America, the United States has the highest number of cases, followed by Spain. It is estimated that between 40,000 and 80,000 Latin Americans in Spain - mainly from Bolivia - have either the disease or the parasite. And around 90% of those do not know they have it.
It took Briggitte more than a year to overcome her fears and finally get tested.
"To be honest, I was afraid. I missed one or two appointments and I think it was at the third one that I finally decided to get screened."
After two weeks she got the news that she dreaded: she had tested positive.
Preventing transmission
Even though 70% of people with the Chagas parasite will never develop symptoms, they can still pass it on.
That's why preventing transmission from mother to child is a key challenge, according to Dr Miriam Navarro, a researcher from Mundo Sano, an organisation in Spain that helps to control and eliminate neglected diseases.
"It is compulsory to check blood transfusions and organ transplants, but we don't have a protocol to screen all pregnant women who are from Latin America.
As the whistle blows for half time, traditional Bolivian dance is performed on the pitch, while the talk on the touchline is all about Chagas. They hope myth-busting and accurate information will encourage people to get tested.
And so they should: the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi that causes the disease hides inside the muscle fibres of the heart, the digestive system or peripheral nervous system, gradually damaging organs.
By the time they notice symptoms, patients may have developed serious complications in the heart or digestive system.
Briggitte thought her mother would only live until her 40s or 50s. "That's what you hear in our country."
"Even though at the moment many doctors are aware of Chagas disease, there is still a lack of information."
Altagracia Prieto is another Bolivian woman who tested positive. She saw three specialists before the test was offered to her.
"I've always suspected that I had Chagas. We had the insect at home [in Bolivia], but because I never developed symptoms I wanted to believe I didn't have it."
Dr Navarro runs the awareness campaign Madres comprometidas con la enfermedad de Chagas (Mothers against Chagas disease), to get as many people diagnosed as possible.
"The main difficulty that we face is the lack of information from migrants coming from endemic areas."
"We have to let people know that a treatment is available for Chagas disease, a treatment that in many patients works well," adds Navarro.
There are just two drugs available to treat the parasite that causes the illness, benznidazole and nifurtimox.
Both medicines were developed in the 1970s. They have to be taken for two months and each can have strong side effects - such as allergic dermatitis with benznidazole and polyneuropathy - a disease affecting peripheral nerves - with nifurtimox.
"Relief"
"However, this is what we currently have and they are effective," says Navarro, who also explains that the latest research shows that treatment before pregnancy prevents transmission to the child.
That is what motivated Briggitte to make up her mind to be treated. She was 25 and wanted to have a family, but didn't want to pass the parasite on to her future offspring.
Her body rejected benznidazole and she had to go for the second drug option. Five years after the treatment, the levels of antibodies show a significant reduction in the level of parasite infection in her body.
Currently there is no specific test for Chagas, so the only way to detect its presence is by checking the levels of specific antibodies. After the treatment, the patient has to be tested regularly for those levels.
Together with Altagracia and two other Bolivian mothers who have Chagas, Briggitte now takes every opportunity to talk to people in Spain - especially mothers or young women - about this silent killer.
They go to churches, football matches and pubs. They have a free help-line for people to call and even accompany them to hospital to get screened - because they know how difficult that first step can be for those fearing the worst.
As for her own condition, Briggitte has learned to be positive about it.
"I'm very calm, because watching my daughter and knowing that she doesn't have it is a relief."
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