Question and Answer.
How much do you really know about the environment and would you be prepared to take a quiz? Filipino students have won an Ozone contest organized by UNEP. Will china clear the pollution smog covering the city before the Olympics? Should the ‘rich’ pay the ‘poor’ to cover up their dirty work? Or put in other terms, should the ‘rich’ pay the ‘poor’ for carbon emissions? Does flying harm the planet? The Big Question is: Are there more hurricanes, and are they the result of global warming?
9 of the rarest mountain gorillas are dead in the DRC? Who is killing them and for what motive? There are only 370 left in the world and now the mystery unfolds as the remains of another gorilla are discovered. Are littered plastic bags now a symbol of Africa’s landscape?
Is Kenya prepared to handle and earthquake disaster or is there no need to fear one at all, even if tremors continue to take place more frequently? Are Zimbabwe’s problems exaggerated? How then would you classify someone loosing an eye in a food fight – desperate or not? Enock Chinyenze, TVE Regional Coordinator - Africa
The Nation. 22 August 2007. The Independent: Conservation in a conflict zone: Mystery of the murdered gorillas
They are the latest victims of the chaos in Congo: nine mountain gorillas slaughtered in an apparently motiveless crime. Now the UN is trying to uncover the truth behind the massacre. Michael McCarthy and David Lewis report
Here it comes again, in an acute form, one of the most agonising questions for anyone who cares about the natural world: can Africa's wonderful wildlife ever be effectively protected? It is being thrown into sharp relief by the killing this year, in four separate incidents, of nine mountain gorillas in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Mountain gorillas are among the world's rarest animals; there are only about 700 left, in two populations, one in the Virunga region, and one in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda.
But they're not only very rare, they're very special. Although all creatures surely have equal worth, it remains the case that some appeal to us more than others - the ones that serious zoologists sometimes lump together and label, with a sarcastic suggestion of the celebrity culture invading even natural history, charismatic megafauna. Tigers, giant pandas, golden eagles, dolphins, orchids - you couldn't really argue that most of us aren't drawn to them more than we are to rats and goldfish, spiders and lichens. And in that megafauna list, few creatures have more charismatic appeal than Gorilla berengei berengei.
It is nearly 30 years since the largest of all the great apes burst onto our consciousness, in the close encounters with David Attenborough, filmed for the twelfth episode of his series Life On Earth. In those magical 1978 meetings, when Attenborough patiently sat and waited for the Virunga animals to get used to him, and then actually played with them, we saw at first-hand what magnificent creatures they were - especially the huge, older males, known as silverbacks for the grizzled coat they develop. And we also saw the surprising truth about this beast which had been demonised as a skyscraper-toppling monster in King Kong: it is the gentlest of all the apes.
Five years later the American primatologist Dian Fossey published her own remarkable account of life with the Virunga animals, Gorillas in the Mist, which gave them a romantic, almost mythical status, enhanced by Fossey's own murder as she worked to protect them, in 1985. Ever since, they have been among the world's most cherished animals - at least in the rich west. Yet they live at the heart of a region which exemplifies all that is increasingly tragic about Africa, in human terms, for the last three decades: the combination of poverty, unsustainable development, and war.
The Virunga region, the forested slopes of a range of extinct volcanoes, actually stretches over three countries: Rwanda and Uganda, as well as the DRC. All are very poor; all have been ravaged by conflict. Rwanda saw the genocidal war between Hutus and Tutsis in 1994; earlier, Uganda saw thousands die under the dictatorial regimes of Idi Amin and Milton Obote. But it is the DRC, one of Africa's biggest (and potentially richest) countries, which has suffered on the widest basis. In 1998 the regime of President Laurent Kabila was challenged by rebels backed by both Rwanda and Uganda; Kabila in turn brought in troops from Angola, Chad, Namibia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. It was one of Africa's worst civil wars. Though it was officially brought to an end by Kabila's son Joseph, after his assassination, various rebel bands roamed at will, with Virunga one of the worst affected regions. When the people are desperately poor and civil order is in tatters, where is the funding for conservation? Where is the priority?
The Congolese have tried to make a fist of it, in spite of all the difficulties, through the Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN), the DRC's wildlife and protected areas authority. But the cost has been huge. In the last 10 years, no fewer than 120 rangers from the Virunga National park have been killed by rebels and poachers. Yet despite all this - or perhaps because of the heroic effort these fatalities represent - Virunga's mountain gorillas have been doing well, and the population has increased from 330 to about 380. Which is why the recent killings have been do disturbing.
In January, two lone males were shot in separate incidents, it is thought by militiamen loyal to a rebel warlord, General Laurent Nkunda. In June, an adult female was shot in another incident, but her baby was saved and taken into care. The most distressing incident of all occurred in late July, when four members of a well-known, 12-strong gorilla band in the Mikeno sector were found executed - there doesn't really seem any other word for it.
They included the silverback and leader of the group, named by the rangers Rugendo, and three females: Neeza, Mburanumwe, who was pregnant, and Safari, whose baby Ndeze was brought to the town of Goma to be cared for by vets. (Another female gorilla and her baby are missing). The pictures of the group of four slaughtered animals, which went round the world, were wretched in the extreme.
Although there is a growing African trade in "bushmeat", (the hunting of forest animals, including primates, for human consumption) the gorillas' potentially valuable carcasses had been left lying where they were shot. Nor were they shot for trophies: the bodies had been burnt and slashed with machetes.
"It seems the people who did this were making a point," said Dr Noelle Kumpel, Bushmeats and Forests Conservation Programme Manager for the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which is one of the western groups actively trying to help with gorilla conservation. "There are a lot of problems within the park, a lot of people living and trying to work inside the park." The main suspect at the moment is the local charcoal industry. Illegal charcoal traders have been cutting down trees in the gorillas' habitat and see the national park as a direct rival. It is an industry thought to be worth about 30 million dollars a year, as charcoal is in heavy demand in the mushrooming town of Goma - a village 10 years ago, now with a population of 400,000 - and also in neighbouring Rwanda, where there are heavy demands for charcoal but there are stict laws on producing it.
"There is a lot of pressure on the park to fuel the charcoal industry," said Samantha Newport, a spokeswoman for WildlifeDirect, a group supporting conservationists in Africa working in dangerous situations. "The killings are being interpreted as an attack on the park itself. There is no reason to suspect it is anything but sabotage. It is a way to exert pressure on the park to try and ensure it doesn't exist." Two major responses to the killings have been made by conservationists. The first is a three-month emergency action plan, which includes round-the-clock monitoring for the six remaining gorilla families in the Mikeno sector. Teams of park rangers are working in relay to ensure that the remaining families are protected from attacks 24 hours a day. Furthermore, there will be increased patrols of critical areas by 30 guards mobilised from other parts of the park, and a census of the remaining gorillas by the endof August, to ensure an accurate, up-to-date understanding of the current situation.
The second has been a formal investigation into the killings by Unesco, the United Nations cultural organisation, which maintains the list of World Heritage Sites, of which the Virunga National Park was one of the first to be declared, in 1978.
A team including representatives from Unesco, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the United Nations Environment Programme and the DRC's conservation body, the ICCN, have spent the last week trying to find out the truth about the massacre of the Rugendo band. The leader of the team, Yvette Kaboza, gets back to Unesco's Paris headquarters today and the report should be ready within 10 days.
It is hoped that its conclusions will feed into the emergency protection plan. But the scheme, which has been put together by the five main western-based conservation groups supporting the gorillas, including the ZSL, only has funds for three months and more money is urgently required. The protection is a tough task. "Each month we go out for 10 days and monitor the families. This is very dangerous - there are armed groups in the park," said Innocent Mburanumwe, a ranger in charge of monitoring the gorilla families in the park's southern sector. "We face all sorts of problems, from the armed groups and the charcoal traders to the corruption. But if we risk death, we will fight to protect nature and the gorillas from being wiped out. It is our job."
"It's an example of the difficulties that face conservation in so many parts of Africa," said the ZSL's Dr Kumpel. And that determination to try, against such great odds, gives hope that conservation may succeed. But it isn't all a hopeful picture. At the weekend, the missing female from Rugendo's band was found - and she too, had been killed, and her baby must be presumed dead along with her. The Zoological Society of London is appealing for funds to maintain the emergency gorilla protection programme in Virunga beyond its three-month initial phase. Donations to the fund can be made by sending cheques payable to the Zoological Society of London to Dr Noelle Kumpel, Bushmeat and Forests Conservation Programme, Outer Circle, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4RY. Donations can also be made via the ZSL website: www.zsl.org
Brunei Times. 21 August, 2007. Africa wages war on plague of plastic bags. Nairobi
They’ve become as much a symbol of Africa's landscape as the stereotypical lions and plains. Discarded plastic bags _ in the billions _ flutter from thorn-bushes across the continent, and clog up cities from Cape Town to Casablanca.South Africa was once producing 7 billion bags a year; Somaliland residents became so used to them they re-named them "flowers of Hargeisa" after their capital; and Kenya not so long ago churned out about 4,000 tonnes of polythene bags a month.” They’re an eyesore across Africa, but there are damaging health and environment ... too," said the UN Environment Programme's (UNEP) Africa industry officer Desta Mebratu.
Produced _ and then strewn _ en masse in most countries, the flimsy bags block drains and sewage systems and can kill livestock who nibble and digest them. They spread malaria by holding mini-pools of warm water for mosquitoes to breed in. They choke soil and plants, and leak colour additives into food. The phenomenon began in the late 1990s when new technology made production cheap and easy. The consequent throw-away culture meant plastic bags quickly became an ugly but integral part of the African landscape. Now UNEP and other concerned bodies are spearheading a fast-growing campaign to contain the menace.
Their emphasis is not just on curbing production, but also promoting re-use of bags, and recycling of plastic waste. "The plastic problem is now on the agenda of almost every African country," Mebratu, an Ethiopian, said at his office in a UN compound in Nairobi. "The major focus is to promote rational use and disposal of plastic bags." Rwanda and Eritrea have already banned the bags outright, the United Nations says. "Go to the airport in Kigali and if you have a plastic bag, they will confiscate it," Mebratu said. Somaliland, an autonomous and self-declared independent region of Somalia, has taken a similarly draconian measure.
Larger countries such as South Africa, Uganda and Kenya have introduced minimum thickness rules, while Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho and Tanzania are considering such measures too. Some nations are also slapping levies on plastic bag production to ensure consumers re-use rather than trash them. Senegal and Egypt get high marks for their recycling initiatives, Mebratu said. "We are very much encouraged by what is happening, but there is a long way to go still. Anyone can see that." Not surprisingly, African manufacturers do not believe in drastic measures or high taxes on plastic bags, but rather a culture change among consumers.
Instead of punishing producers, they say, users should be better educated on disposal, re-use and recycling to prevent mass dumping of plastic bags. "Manufacturers want to help clean the environment," Bimal Kantaria, a board member of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, told Reuters. "But we want to do so effectively and target the problem, which is irresponsible disposal. We in the industry understand there is a problem with plastic bags polluting the environment."
Reuters. 21 August, 2007. Earthquakes Jolt East Africa – USGS. Nairobi
A strong earthquake hit East Africa on Monday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, the second quake since Saturday. The USGS said on its Web site a magnitude 5.2 quake struck northern Tanzania, 85 km (55 miles) northwest of Arusha. The tremors could be felt up to 180 km (110 miles) away in the Kenyan capital Nairobi where residential and high rise buildings shook gently for several minutes. "There was a small one, then half an hour later there was a big one. The bed and the walls were shaking," a Reuters witness said of the early morning quake.
According to the USGS another magnitude 5.2 quake hit the region on Saturday.
The last time a major quake struck the region was December 2005.
Mail & Guardian. 18 August 2007. Zim's problems 'exaggerated.' Mariette le Roux
Southern African leaders failed on Friday to heed calls for strong action against the embattled Zimbabwean government, saying the ailing country's problems are "exaggerated". "We ... feel that the problems in Zimbabwe have been exaggerated. We feel they will solve their economic problems," the Zambian President and chairperson of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), Levy Mwanawasa, told journalists at the end of a two-day heads-of-state summit in Lusaka, Zambia. "We are quite satisfied with the report from South African President Thabo Mbeki on the crisis in Zimbabwe," said the Zambian leader, who recently likened neighbouring Zimbabwe to a "sinking Titanic".
Zimbabwe is in the throes of an economic crisis with inflation well past the 5 000% mark, four in five people jobless and 80% of the population living below the poverty threshold. The SADC mandated Mbeki in March to mediate between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Mbeki reported on progress to the summit, while SADC secretariat executive chairperson Tomaz Salomao briefed heads of state on Zimbabwe's dire economic straits.
'Work in progress'
Mbeki told a news conference later the rival Zimbabwean parties remain engaged in talks on the basis of a mutually agreed agenda, describing it as "work in progress". "They ... are making progress in these discussions," said the president, adding any breakthrough would be reported to SADC. "Everybody is interested that when the presidential and parliamentary elections take place in March next year in Zimbabwe, they should be held in an atmosphere that will result in free and fair elections without controversies and so on." But Mbeki said no conditions or deadlines have been set. "Nobody has talked about conditionalities of anything."
Mwanawasa said SADC is satisfied that Zimbabwe's existing electoral laws are conducive to free and fair polls. Mugabe has blamed his country's woes on drought and Western sanctions, but critics say problems started with a controversial government land-reform programme that saw thousands of white-owned commercial farms seized and redistributed to landless blacks and government cronies. Mugabe is also criticised for stifling democracy and overseeing a violent government clampdown on the opposition.
Economic problems
Mbeki said Zimbabwe's economic problems will be looked into urgently, on the basis of Salomao's report, by a committee of finance ministers. The ministers will discuss the matter with the Zimbabwean government "to pin down in some detail what indeed the region can do with regard to economic recovery". "There is urgency for us to get into this matter [of Zimbabwe's failing economy]," said Mbeki. Before the summit opened, Mugabe's Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, said on Thursday that no political reforms are necessary in his country. "We have a democracy like any other democracy in this world ... I cannot see how a system can be any fairer or more transparent [than it is in Zimbabwe]," he told journalists.
"You have a situation where issues are being portrayed, exaggerated. People portray Zimbabwe as a country that has become ungovernable. Nothing is further from the truth," the minister said. Zanu-PF has been the ruling political party in Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980. Mbeki and the SADC are accused by critics in the West and civic bodies around the world of treating Mugabe with kid gloves. Global watchdog Human Rights Watch had urged SADC to use the summit to put pressure on Mugabe's government to "end its broadscale attack on human rights".
Mugabe was absent from Friday's closing ceremony for the summit. He told Zambia's state ZNBC television on Friday that sanctions, comprising a travel ban and a freeze on the European accounts of top Zimbabwean officials, are to blame for his country's economic woes, adding things are getting better. "It is going well, relatively," he said. "We are trying to use our resources to bring about a turn-around." The defiant, 83-year-old Zimbabwean leader was given a rousing welcome to the summit on Thursday, despite mounting global criticism of the crisis in his country.
Support
Meanwhile, the United States said on Friday it supports efforts by Southern African leaders to resolve a political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe. US State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said in a statement that such engagement shows "the region considers the situation an increasing threat to stability and is committed to a democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe". "We regret that the Mugabe regime has not expressed a similar commitment," McCormack said. The US, the statement said, deplores "the Mugabe regime's continued acts of oppression against all segments of society".
22 Aug 2007. Ex-soldier loses eye in wholesale fracas. Zimbabwe. Caroline Murapa. Chitungwiza
Disaster reared its head again at Irvines’ Wholesale Center on the margins of Harare South when an army deserter lost an eye and four teeth in an ugly fracas that erupted at the center Tuesday morning as shortages of basic commodities continue unabated. A lance corporal in the Zimbabwe National Army Solomon Goremusandu sustained a ruptured left eye and lost four front teeth when he was brutally attacked by a group of armed riot and military police who were maintaining law and order at the busy wholesale center.
Sources say disaster struck when Goremusandu tried to run away from military police officers who were pursuing the soldier intending to interrogate him over his suspicious activities at the egg and chicken wholesale center. Goremusandu had arrived at the wholesale center Tuesday morning clad in army fatigue and pretending to be a soldier on duty. The soldier, sources say, tried to take advantage of the situation to get to the front of the queue ahead of thousands of buyers who had thronged the chicken producing wholesale center some as early as 5 AM.
Eye witnesses said when other military policemen noticed the confusion that Goremusandu was causing in the front section of the massive queue at the main entrance into Irvines’, they charged towards him intending to interrogate him.
Goremusandu immediately noticed that a group riot and military policemen were charging towards him prompting him to bolt away towards the perimeter fence of the wholesale premises. Eye witnesses say Goremusandu fell down head first when he tried to hurriedly scale the perimeter fence around the complex as he tried to run away from the armed riot policemen who were in hot pursuit.
“The riot police did not give him the chance to resurrect but started attacking him with booted feet and baton sticks. There was a piercing wail when one of the riot police officers used the butt of his gun to hit the hapless soldier hard on the temple”, said one eye witness. It later emerged that Goremusandu who had to be rushed to hospital in police truck had crushed the socket of his left eye resulting in his eye rupturing instantly. Goremusandu who was bleeding profusely from the mouth also lost four of his front teeth during the fracas as he failed to escape the snare of his brutal attackers.
Realising the real prospect of being discovered and arrested by fellow state security officers Goremusandu had decided to run away. Investigations by ZimDaily revealed that Goremusandu is infact an army deserter who went Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) 14 months ago in June 2006. Chitungwiza police confirmed the incident at Irvines’ saying they had arrested Goremusandu who was masquerading as an army officer when in fact he deserted the force in June last year. Officer commanding Chitungwiza District Chief Inspector Alex Titus Chagwedera revealed that the arrested army deserter had been admitted into a private hospital in Chitungwiza under police guard.
“The police arrested one Solomon Goremusandu during a patrol at Irvines’ Wholesale Center in Harare South District this (Tuesday) morning. Our investigations show that he is an army deserter who left the army in June 2006 but continued to use the army fatigue while on personal errands”, said Inspector Chagwedera. The lance corporal who was using his army camouflage to create the impression of an officer on duty was using this trick to get easy access to basic commodities where ever they were being sold in order to resell them on the black market for profit.
Apparently the army deserter had turned to buying and selling of chickens and eggs from Irvines’ to earn a living after failing to make ends meet with the paltry salary he earned as a soldier. On average a soldier in the Zimbabwe National Army earns $3 million a month not enough to buy 10 liters of petrol. Thousands of buyers including vendors and small scale retailers from Harare and Chitungwiza now throng Irvines’ Wholesale Center on the outskirts of Harare South along the Highfields-Chitungwiza road daily to buy scarce chicken meat and eggs.
In an country were four out of every five people are not employed many have turned to vending and buying and selling of scarce basic commodities on the illegal black market to make ends meet. Chicken meat and eggs which have vanished from all butcheries and supermarket shelves since the Zanu PF government introduced price controls all basic commodities early July have ready buyers on the thriving black market where they fetch treble the official price.
Last month the minister of Trade and Commerce Obert Mpofu ordered businesses to freeze price increases and reduce prices to the pre June 18 levels or alternatively cut prices by 50 percent. The price blitz has now backfired with basic goods disappearing from shop shelves and butcheries closing down as abattoirs fail to provide cheap meat. Manufacturers, wholesalers, supermarkets, and other retailers now say they are failing to restock as they have operated at a loss since the introduction of price controls by government in July.
Over 7000 business executives were arrested for flouting government regulations during the price blitz with most of them being convicted and performing community service. President Robert Mugabe’s government insists that the price controls will continue as the Zanu PF government says it is protecting the ordinary people against greedy and unscrupulous businessmen who are bent on making super profits while over charging poor people. But millions of Zimbabweans now face imminent starvation as basic foodstuffs such as bread, sugar, maize-meal, beef and cooking oil have completely vanished from the market.
Worldwide Environment News
The Nation. 22 August, 2007. Big quiz win for Filipino students: Two Filipino students won the first prize at an environmental quiz in Bangkok held by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Pongphon Sarnsamak
Lawrence Medina and Paulo Manzanilla, fourth-year students at Philippine Science High School, received US$1,500 (Bt51,500) as a grant to initiate an environmental project in school and will attend celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Protocol in Canada next month. "I was very surprised to be the winner because most of the questions were unexpected, even though we did prepare ourselves very well," said Paulo. He said the competition had provided him with knowledge about the ozone layer and its importance in protecting the environment.
The pair will disseminate this information to their school and society to raise more awareness about environmental problems, particularly air pollution in Manila
A team from Sri Lanka was second in the competition, with Thailand and Malaysia taking the third and fourth places. Apinut Wongkietkachorn and Ajaree Sattaratnamai, of Triam Udomsuksa School, represented Thailand. Apinut said it was a good chance for Thai students to share knowledge with students from other countries. "I did not feel that other students were rivals because we were aiming to help each other," he said.
The Regional Ozone Quiz Competition was organised by UNEP in cooperation with Bangkok's Ruamrudee International School, where the semi-finals and final were held. Most questions tested scientific and historical knowledge of the Montreal Protocol. Thanavat Junchaya, regional network coordinator for UNEP, said the competition aimed to make students more aware about environmental problems in this region and around the world.
The Guardian. 21 August, 2007. China prays for Olympic wind as car bans fail to shift Beijing smog. Jonathan Watts, Beijing
Prayers for strong winds look set to become a major component of Beijing's Olympic preparations after a traffic-reduction trial failed to shift the smog that hangs over the city. More than a million cars were taken off the roads for the four-day test period, but there was no improvement in the air quality, according to city officials. Yesterday the skies above Beijing were the same dirty grey shade as when the test started on Friday. As of Sunday the air quality ranking had not budged from level two on China's five-tier scale, in which level one represents clear unpolluted skies.
Nonetheless, the city's Olympic organisers declared the test, which ends today, a success. Because there was no wind, they argued, pollution would have grown thicker without the special restrictions. "Level two is a good enough standard for athletic competition," said Yu Xianoxuan, environmental director of the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee. "If we had not had the traffic controls we could not have maintained this level because the temperature and humidity were very high. So we can see the restrictions worked."
Whether this will reassure the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is another matter. Earlier this month the IOC president, Jacques Rogge, warned that events might be postponed if pollution levels threatened the performance of athletes. To minimise that risk and the damage to the city's international reputation, Beijing plans to ban more than a third of the city's 3m cars for the two-week period of the games. During the four-day trial cars with odd- and even-numbered plates were supposed to stay off the roads on alternate days. Violaters were liable to fines of 100 yuan (£6.60). Although the measures did not make much of an impact on the environment, the traffic that usually jams the city was noticeably better in many areas.
BBC. Rich 'can pay poor to cut carbon.' Roger Harrabin, BBC News
Rich nations should be absolved from the need to cut emissions if they pay developing countries to do it on their behalf, a senior UN official has said. The controversial suggestion from Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has angered environmental groups. They say climate change will not be solved unless rich and poor nations both cut emissions together.
But Mr de Boer said the challenge was so great that action was needed now.
Carbon credits
The UN's binding global climate agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, currently requires industrialised nations to reduce the majority of emissions themselves. But Mr de Boer said this was illogical, adding that the scale of the problem facing the world meant that countries should be allowed to invest in emission cuts wherever in the world it was cheapest. "We have been reducing emissions and making energy use more efficient in industrialised countries for a long time," he told BBC News.
"So it is quite expensive in these nations to reduce emissions any more. "But in developing nations, less has been done to reduce emissions and less has been done to address energy efficiency," Mr de Boer observed.
"So it actually becomes economically quite attractive for a company, for example in the UK, that has a target to achieve this goal by reducing emissions in China." He said rich nations should be able to buy their way out of 100% of their responsibilities - though he doubted that any country would want to do so. Green groups said the proposal was against the spirit of the UN, which agreed that wealthy countries - who were responsible for climate change - should do most to cure it. Mike Childs from Friends of the Earth said: "This proposal simply won't deliver the cuts we need in time. The scientists are telling us that we need to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) by 50-80% by 2050.
"Unless rich countries start to wean themselves off fossil fuels right away this won't happen." Doug Parr of Greenpeace was equally critical of Mr de Boer's suggestion.
"The current trading system is not delivering emissions reductions as it is," he said. "Expanding it like this to give rich countries a completely free hand will simply not work."
The Time. 20 August, 2007. Does Flying Harm the Planet? Brian Walsh
A protestor is subdued by riot police after a blockade of the British Airports Authority headquarters near Heathrow on August 19, 2007 in London. Given the rage that air travel can provoke in even the most tranquil among us these days, it may be surprising that riot police aren't a more regular feature at airports. But Sunday's pitched battle between roughly 500 environmental activists and a phalanx of baton-wielding police at London's Heathrow airport wasn't about long lines, delays, lost luggage or missed connections. Instead, the protesters — who had demonstrated outside Heathrow all of last week — were trying to draw travelers' attention to the impact on climate change of the carbon gases emitted by the aircraft in which they fly. A placard from one activist at Heathrow expressed it thus:
"You Fly, They Die."
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Airplanes operate on petroleum fuel, which means they release large amounts of carbon dioxide when they fly. Commercial air travel is currently responsible for a relatively tiny part of the global carbon footprint —just 3.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But the unique chemistry of high-altitude jet emissions may produce an additional warming effect, while the explosive growth in air travel makes it one of the fastest-growing sources of carbon gases in the atmosphere. And unlike energy or automobiles, where carbon-free or lower-carbon alternatives already exist, even if they have yet to be widely adopted, there is no low-carbon way to fly, and there likely won't be for decades.
"It's not so much where we are now, but where we'll be in 30 years time," says Peter Lockley, head of policy development at the Aviation Environment Federation in London. "We need to bring global carbon emissions down rapidly, but this sector is just going to grow." And grow. The Airports Council International estimates that the number of airline tickets sold per year will double to more than 9 billion by 2025. Much of the growth will come in rapidly developing Asia, where passenger numbers are increasing by 10-15% annually. The already badly overburdened Heathrow — the busiest airport in Europe — is pushing to open up a third runway by 2020, a move that touched off last week's protests.
Airplane manufacturers and airlines are working on ways to cut carbon emissions by raising fuel efficiency — building lighter and more aerodynamic planes, towing jets on the ground, and improving engine capacity. Designers are looking at running planes on biofuel, and Virgin Atlantic head Richard Branson has promised to build a biofuelled jet by next year. But industry experts believe such incremental changes could improve efficiency by 1% or 2% a year at most, while passenger miles are set to grow at 5% to 6% annually. "We're left with a sustainability gap," says Roger Gardner, chief executive of OMEGA, a British study group looking at aviation and the environment.
Even as carbon emissions from air travel grow rapidly, scientists are investigating claims that they may double the warming effect because of the altitude at which they're emitted. As jets soar they leave behind contrails, vapor threads of condensation that can persist for hours, especially in colder areas, and behave like high-altitude cirrus clouds. Those clouds seem to have a net warming effect, trapping heat in the atmosphere. Planes also create ozone, a greenhouse gas that has a stronger warming effect at high altitudes than low. The science is still being nailed down, but the side effects of high-altitude emissions could double air travel's contributions to global warming, says Dan Lashof, science director for the Natural Resource Defense Council's Climate Center.
Though there's no technological silver bullet, there are policy options available to manage air travel emissions such as carbon cap and trade schemes. But those won't be simple: Air travel was left out of the Kyoto Protocol on curbing emissions in part due to the complexity of assigning national responsibility for gases spewed by international flights. Just getting governments to share air space more freely, which would allow planes to fly more direct routes and cut fuel consumption, has proven to be an ongoing headache.
So what's the solution? Perhaps that there is no solution, or at least no simple one — aside from just flying less, as the Heathrow activists demanded. And there's little sign of that happening, as air passenger numbers rose 6.3% globally through the first half of 2007. So, expect similar protests in the future. The activists at Heathrow threw out a moral challenge to those well-off on a global scale (anyone who can afford a JetBlue ticket) to stop flying in order to save the poor from the effects of climate change. It's not quite that simple, but until technology and policy catch up — which still seems a long way off — carbon emissions will only slow if consumers choose to use less energy, live more modestly, and fly less. In other words, stay at home to save the world.
The Independent. 21 August, 2007. The Big Question: Are there more hurricanes, and are they the result of global warming? Michael Mccarthy.
Why are we asking this now?
Because hurricanes like the one which has careered across the Caribbean and was last night striking Mexico are only formed when the surface temperature of the ocean exceeds a specific point, which is 26C. As the oceans warm globally with climate change, much larger areas of water will exceed the threshold, and more energy will be available to power a given storm. On the face of it, therefore, the connection might seem a reasonable, even a natural one.
So is it happening already?
Some scientists have put forward fairly dramatic evidence that it may be, and this has been seized on by the environmental community as another piece of the global warming jigsaw, to impress on governments the need to act to cut back on the carbon emissions causing the climate to heat up. But other scientists resolutely dispute the proposition, and say it cannot be proved.
What is the dramatic evidence?
It came in two peer-reviewed scientific papers published within a short time of each other in the summer of 2005. They kicked off the whole hurricane-global warming argument. In fact, they caused a sensation. The first, in the journal Nature, was by Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the world's leading hurricane researchers. Dr Emmanuel devised a new way of measuring hurricane intensity which he called the power dissipation index, and he said he could detect an increase in this which could be related to increases in sea surface temperatures over recent decades.
The second paper was by Greg Holland of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and Peter Webster of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society). Holland and Webster said they had discovered a rise in the number of Atlantic hurricanes that tracked the increase in sea surface temperature related to climate change over the last century, and taking the conventional measure of hurricane strength, the Saffir-Simpson scale, they said that the number of storms that were reaching the top categories of 4 and 5 had doubled in recent decades.
And these papers caused a sensation?
They sure did. A worldwide one.
Not least because they were published in 2005, in the middle of the worst season of Atlantic hurricanes on record, which culminated in the disaster of Hurricane Katrina which hammered New Orleans so terribly in August. The 2005 season included a record 26 named storms, of which 13 grew big enough to be classified as hurricanes (so many that for the first time since 1953, when scientists started give tropical Atlantic storms names, letters of the Greek alphabet had to be used, as meteorologists had run through the original list of 21 alphabetically-ordered names. The final 2005 tropical storm was christened Epsilon.) For the environmental community the two papers were yet another devastating indictment of the lack of action on climate change, especially by the US government of George W Bush.
So is the connection proved?
Not at all. It is hotly disputed. The difficulty lies in how we use and interpret the database of records of previous storms. Before the late-Sixties and early-Seventies, there was no global satellite coverage and measurement of tropical cyclones (which is the generic term for circular tropical storms - they're hurricanes in the Atlantic, typhoons in the west Pacific and cyclones in the Indian Ocean). So the strength of some early recorded storms may have been misinterpreted - they may actually have been much stronger than we think, and thus a general increase in intensity may be an illusion. Some storms may well have not been observed at all.
Furthermore, an increase may be part of a natural cycle, rather than being caused by human activities. The leading proponent of the no-link theory, Christopher Landsea, a senior American hurricane researcher and forecaster based at the National Hurricane Centre in Miami, has published research contending that the historical hurricane database simply cannot support the claims made by Emanuel, and by Holland and Webster, in their respective papers.
Has the argument become politicised?
'Fraid so. For example, the Bush administration put forward Landsea to assert that there was no connection between Hurricane Katrina and climate change, and he is often attacked by environmentalists. But he is a serious and respected scientist and he is by no means alone in his concern that the record does not show an increase in hurricane power and strength. One of Britain's leading experts on tropical cyclones, Julian Heming of the UK Met Office, says: "I am of the view that this issue of the historical database is a significant one, and I think we need to be cautious about deriving too many definitive conclusion from the historical records."
Is there no consensus?
Well, there is much more of a consensus between scientists about what is likely to happen in future, than about what has happened in the past or what is happening now. The supercomputer models used for climate change prediction tend to show an increase in future hurricane wind speed and rainfall if the climate continues to warm (though not in hurricane frequency). This is not generally disputed. However, it is a smaller increase than that which the two papers from 2005 claim to have detected already.
Where is the argument now?
We can give you chapter and verse on that. Last November, the World Meteorological Organisation held an International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones in Costa Rica, and at its conclusion, it issued a one-page document entitled "Summary Statement on Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change". Its first paragraph states: "Though there is evidence both for and against the existence of a detectable anthropogenic signal [signs of a human cause such as man-made global warming] in the tropical cyclone climate record to date, no firm conclusion can be made on this point."
So the jury's out?
Not quite. The fourth assessment report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published in February this year, gives a table showing recent climatic trends. It suggests that intense tropical cyclone activity has probably increased in some regions since 1970, and under the heading "Likelihood of a human contribution to observed trend" it observes succinctly: "More likely than not."
So is climate change to blame?
Yes...
* The historical database shows a definite increase in frequency and intensity (one view)
* Supercomputer climate models unanimously predict that climate change will make hurricanes worse
* Warmer oceans contain more energy for storms
No...
* The historical database cannot be trusted to prove an increase in frequency and intensity (the other view)
* Any increase may be part of a natural cycle
Even in a warming world, various climatic mechanisms may act to reduce increases
Other Environment News
Nigeria: Govt Spends N34m On Flood Victims
This Day (Lagos): Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State, has spent N34 million to provide succour to flood disaster victims in the state. Jang said this in his office when officials of the Zenith Bank, North central zone, led by Abbas Andrew Dayilim, paid him a condolence visit over the recent flood, which ravaged southern part of the state. He said several lives were lost to the flood, which rendered many homeless, broke down bridges that cut off some from Jos, the state capital. He called on the Federal Government to come to the state's aid, saying more dead bodies were still being discovered from the affected villages in the five local councils in the southern part of the state. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708170172.html
South Africa: Guide to Help NPA With 'Green' Crimes
Business Day (Johannesburg): Environment and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk yesterday launched a "prosecutor's guide" to help the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in processing environmental crimes in courts throughout SA. Van Schalkwyk said at the designation ceremony of 20 new environmental management inspectors, or Green Scorpions, that the guide would support prosecutors in taking on the cases prepared by the Green Scorpions. The guide was compiled by legal experts Phil Snijman and Clarissa Molteno. Snijman said that the guide was the culmination of years of development and networking between many "dedicated and overworked" prosecutors and enforcement officials, and the disappointments and successes in courts all over the country and in other parts of the world. Van Schalkwyk said the guide would be made available to the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions and all its offices countrywide. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708170292.html
Ghana: Ghana Poised for CDM
Accra Mail (Accra): The Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, Mr. Kwadwo Adjei Darko has said the threat of global climate change to sustainable development is one of the major environmental concerns of the world. The impact of climate change continues to attract the attention of most national governments. He said the solution is to reduce the levels of greenhouse gases being emitted presently. Speaking at a seminar on 'Clean Development Mechanism and Carbon Trading' in Accra he said reducing greenhouse gas emissions without stifling economic growth and development calls for the use of innovative mechanisms. The Minister said the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is one such mechanism that ensures socio economic development and minimizes environmental degradation. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708170996.html
Experts mull regional oil spill control plan
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - About 40 experts in marine science from 16 West African countries have began meeting in Accra to fine-tune a draft sub-regional oil spill contingency plan. The plan, which comes in the wake of more oil discoveries along the African coast stretching from Guinea Bissau in the north to Angola in the south, is to help participating nations to intervene jointly in cases of major spills either in territorial waters of a single nation or in a trans-boundary case. The meeting, which began Monday, is being organized under the auspices of the Interim Guinea Current Commission in cooperation with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA). It is being supported by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Ghana’s minister for Harbors and railways, Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, said the meeting was being held at a time when maritime safety and the protection of the marine environment were receiving renewed attention and active support from all countries. He said the plan would help all the partners share their limited resources in joint efforts to address incidences of pollution as well as provide a synergy that would lead to rapid response. IMO technical officer, Malamine Thiam, said the region was currently susceptible to major pollution from the petroleum exploration taking place offshore, hence the need for the contingency plan. "This meeting would enable us to formalize the project to be presented to the governments.
Kenya: Radioactive Waste Site Planned
The Nation (Nairobi): Newspaper readers barely noticed it. Indeed, few gave the notice in the local press placed by the Radiation Protection Board about a month ago a passing glance. In the notice, the board was inviting applications from consultants to provide architectural, quantity and land surveying, electrical/mechanical, structural and civil engineering services for the design and construction of a radioactive waste processing (RAWP) facility. The project, worth over Sh100 million, is to be put up at the Karen-based Institute of Primate Research and is scheduled to be complete by the end of next year. It is expected to handle all liquid and solid radioactive materials produced by hospitals and other research institutions around the country. The proposed facility is to be located in a gazetted forest (Ololua, Bp No. 180/15 of Legal Notice 174 of 1964), an area served by roads that are unable to handle the traffic of domestic intensity. It is to the northeast of Karen southeast of the informal Kataka settlement. Although Karen residents have expressed concern over the location of the facility in a residential area, the Radiation Protection Board insists that the country desperately needs a facility to handle highly radioactive material. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708200457.html
Namibia: Government to Act Against Plant Pirates
The Namibian (Windhoek): Government will set up a special committee to combat unlawful exploitation and trade of biological products, which include plants like hoodia, devil's claw and marula nuts. Namibia needs to guard against unlawful exploitation and bio-piracy, but has no such policies and laws in place, Cabinet noted during its latest meeting. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism is drafting a law on Access to Biological Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, which Cabinet expects to be finalised before the end of this year. Trading in these products, which often means exploitation for financial gain without including indigenous people, who have centuries-old knowledge of the use of such plants, requires regulation to avoid exploitation, Cabinet noted. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708200554.html
Nigeria: AEPB Establishes Mobile Courts in Karu, Nyanya
Daily Trust (Abuja): The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) has established mobile courts in Karu, Nyanya and their environs to prosecute environmental law defaulters. An environmental health officer in Karu, Mr Samuel Uwuota, last Friday said the decision by the board's director, Dr Engr Kosamat Bolaji Anibilowo, to establish the mobile courts was a result of the rising number of environmental law violators in the areas. He said the development would save the board's taskforce the stress of conveying violators to city centres like Wuse and Garki for prosecution on a weekly basis, and would as well reduce the workload on those mobile courts in the city. "Because of the number of persons we take to Garki and Wuse for trial, prosecutions are always delayed. With the establishment of our own courts here, cases would be given accelerated hearing, and quick prosecution would be assured," he said. He said mobile courts would make residents in the area take environmental issues seriously because prosecution was being brought to their doorsteps. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708201436.html
Nigeria: Akwa/Ibom Assembly to Sanction Shell
Daily Trust (Abuja): The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has vowed to sanction Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited if the company fails to appear before it to explain oil spillages at Ikot Abasi local government of the state. The house gave the oil company until Wednesday to appear before it. The Speaker of the House, Engr. Ignatius Edet made this known in Uyo when the company defied its invitation to appear before an executive session of the House last week. The oil company had written to the house giving excuse that they were not ready to appear before it. Infuriated by Shell's response, the speaker promised to sanction the multinational company, adding that it was irresponsible of the company not to be sensitive to the plight of the people living in Ikot Abasi who have suffered hardship due to oil spillage in the last few weeks. Engr. Edet condemned the nonchalant attitude of the company and urged them to have a re-think. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708201510.html
Uganda: 50 Indigenous Tree Species Restored in Mabira Forest
The Monitor (Kampala): About 50 indigenous tree species that had diminished in some parts of Mabira Central Forest Reserve due to encroachment have been restored, a new study has shown. The study, carried out early this year by the former Commissioner in the Ministry of Environment, Mr Peter Karani, shows that even a host of birds and wild animals that had abandoned the area have began returning. This was revealed to the State Minister for Environment, Ms Jessica Eriyo, last week during her tour of Mabira Forest. The Lakeshore Range Manager - where Mabira falls, Mr Reuben Arinaitwe, told the minister that the forest fog which had also disappeared has been regained. Mabira Forest Reserve (at over 30,000 hectares) is said to be home to 30 per cent of all the bird species in the country. Over 300 bird species, including the endangered Naban's Francolin (Francolinus nabani) are found in Mabira. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708201538.html
