World 'still losing biodiversity'

An unacceptable number of species are still being lost forever despite world leaders pledging action to reverse the trend, a report has warned. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) says the commitment to reduce biodiversity loss by 2010 will not be met. It warns that a third of amphibians, a quarter of mammals and one-in-eight birds are threatened with extinction.
The analysis is based on the 44,838 species on the IUCN Red List. "The report makes for depressing reading," said co-editor Craig Hilton Taylor, manager of the IUCN's Red List Unit.
"It tells us that the extinction crisis is as bad, or even worse than we believed.
"But it also shows the trends these species are following and is therefore an essential part of decision-making processes."
The main policy mechanism to tackle the loss is the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD), which came into force in 1993 with three main aims:
• To conserve biological diversity
• Use biological diversity in a sustainable fashion
• Share the benefits of biological diversity fairly and equitably
Currently, 168 nations are signatories to the convention, which set the target "to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level".

Jean-Christophe Vie, deputy head of the IUCN's Species Programme, warned that the scale of "wildlife crisis" was far worse than the current global economic crisis.
"It is time to recognise that nature is the largest company on Earth working for the benefit of 100% of humankind," he said. "Governments should put as much effort, if not more, into saving nature as they do saving economic and financial sectors.
"When governments take action to reduce biodiversity loss, there are some conservation successes but we are still a long way from reversing that trend."
The assessment lists 869 species as Extinct or Extinct in the Wild. Overall, the report categorises at least 16,928 species as being threatened with extinction.
"All of the plants and animals that make up Earth's amazing wildlife have a specific role and contribute to essentials like food, medicine, oxygen, water," said Mr Vie. "We need them all, in large numbers. We quite literally cannot afford to lose them."

Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8130942.stm

Species' extinction threat grows

More than a third of species assessed in a major international biodiversity study are threatened with extinction, scientists have warned.
Out of the 47,677 species in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 17,291 were deemed to be at serious risk.
These included 21% of all known mammals, 30% of amphibians, 70% of plants and 35% of invertebrates.
Conservationists warned that not enough was being done to tackle the main threats, such as habitat loss.
"The scientific evidence of a serious extinction crisis is mounting," warned Jane Smart, director of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Biodiversity Conservation Group.

"The latest analysis... shows that the 2010 target to reduce biodiversity loss will not be met," she added.
"It's time for governments to start getting serious about saving species and make sure it's high on their agendas for next year, as we are rapidly running out of time."
The Red List, regarded as the most authoritative assessment of the state of the planet's species, draws on the work of thousands of scientists around the globe.
The latest update lists amphibians as the most seriously affected group of organisms on the planet, with 1,895 of the 6,285 known species listed as threatened.
Of these, it lists 39 species as either "extinct" or "extinct in the wild". A further 484 are deemed "critically endangered", 754 "endangered" and 657 "vulnerable".

The Kihansi Spray Toad (Nectophyrnoides asperginis) is one species that has seen its status change from critically endangered to extinct in the wild.
It was only found in the Kihamsi Falls area of Tanzania, but its population had crashed in recent years from a high of an estimated 17,000 individuals.
Conservationists suggest that the rapid decline was primarily the result of of a dam being constructed upstream from the toads' habitat, which resulted in a 90% reduction in the flow of water.
"In our lifetime, we have gone from having to worry about a relatively small number of highly threatened species to the collapse of entire ecosystems," observed Professor Jonathan Baillie, director of conservation programmes at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
"At what point will society truly respond to this growing crisis?"
The updated data from the 2009 Red List is being made publicly available on the IUCN website on Tuesday.

Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8338880.stm

Nepal, Japan team up for Himalayan climate research

Climate change and environmental research in the Himalayas are set to receive a boost with the announcement of a new research partnership between Japan and Nepal.

The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) — a Japanese research agency focusing on sustainable development — will work with Nepal's International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) on climate change related issues, says a joint statement issued this month (1 October).

Their work will cover the Hindu Kush-Himalayas (HKH), a swath of mountain ranges stretching from Afghanistan to Myanmar, and covering Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Pakistan and Nepal.

Megumi Kido, IGES public relations officer, says: "The two institutes will work together on four major areas: natural resources management and ecosystem services [processes and resources in the natural ecosystem that benefit humankind] like water resources, forest resources and watersheds, rewarding for ecosystem services including carbon financing, adaptation to climate change, and policy and governance."

The joint research will include adaptation and mitigation strategies to combat climate change. The agreement comes at a time when experts are pointing towards a huge lack of scientific information on various issues in the HKH region including glacier melting, and water and forest resources.

A 2009 ICIMOD report on the impact of climate change on water resources and livelihoods in the Himalayas says, "Climate change is affecting the amount of snow and ice and rainfall patterns in the Himalayan region, but there is a severe lack of data needed to understand these processes".

Pradeep Mool, a remote sensing specialist in the integrated water and hazards management division at ICIMOD, told SciDev.Net that the lack of consistent data has often confused citizens. "There is no consistency in the data on the area glaciers cover in the Himalayas. I also remember in 1997, when there was fear of the Tsho Rolpa glacier bursting in Nepal, the media published reports that it may flood Kathmandu — which was unrealistic as Kathmandu doesn't fall within its catchment."The bilateral agreement marks a major expansion in collaboration between the two agencies. Previous partnerships between the two institutes have involved the informal sharing of scientific data for analysis.

Source:http://www.scidev.net/en/news/nepal-japan-team-up-for-himalayan-climate-research.html

Weather station network to serve South Asia

Countries in South Asia are to benefit from a network of weather stations that will monitor climate variations and improve preparation for the impact of global warming.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) will first set up 50 stations across Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, India's environment minister Jairam Ramesh announced last week (20 October) at a meeting of environment ministers and officials from countries belonging to the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

A second phase will cover Afghanistan and Pakistan before a third extends the network to the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

The stations, which will focus on storm surveillance, will be part of the SAARC Meteorological Research Centre (SMRC) which covers the countries concerned.Ramesh did not specify when the weather stations would be set up, just that it will be "very soon".

He said the ministers had also agreed to hold annual South Asian workshops on climate change to discuss each country's plans for climate change mitigation, adaptation, measurement and monitoring.

At the UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen in December, SAARC countries plan to hold an event to highlight the region's concerns about the impact of global warming.

The decision to ramp up climate change activities is the second major initiative announced recently for the region.On 18 October, India announced it would set up a research centre and launch two of its own satellites to gather data on climate change.

Ramesh announced in Bangalore that the city would be home to the new National Institute on Climate and Environmental Sciences (NICES), which will help the country gather its own data on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change projections instead of relying on data from Western countries.

The institute will complement the Centre for Climate Change Research (CCCR), which was launched in August by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology to focus on basic climate science and modelling.NICES will receive an initial government grant of 400 million rupees (around US$9 million) and will be a "data hub" on climate change that will help build India's local capacity, said Ramesh. He is increasingly emphasising the need for India to develop its own models and database (see Homegrown climate models 'set India's record straight').

The Indian space department will launch the two satellites in 2010 and 2011 to monitor greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.

Source:http://www.scidev.net/en/news/weather-station-network-to-serve-south-asia.html

Attention on Himalayas at Summit

KATHMANDU, NOV 03 - Despite attention on the Polar Regions as hot-spots of climate change, the effects of global warming on the Himalayas have largely been ignored. The melting of the Himalayas, which hold about 0.77 percent of the total snow in the world, goes largely neglected, even though billions of people living in the region are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

“The effects of climate change on countries like Bangladesh and Maldives are now well known; however, there is little international awareness about the vulnerability of the Himalayas posed by the same cause,” said Deepak Bohora, Minister for Forest and Soul Conservation on Monday.

Furthering this message will be 2,000 mountaineers who have scaled Mt. Everest and will come together on Dec. 11, International Mountain Day, at the Copenhagen Climate Summit to raise awareness on impacts of climate change in the Himalayas.

The campaign, named Summiteers’ Summit and led by mountaineer Appa Sherpa, will help draw interest of world leaders on the serious impact of global warming phenomena such as faster retreat of glaciers and their bursting, along with vulnerabilities of the people living in the Himalayas.

Sherpa, who successfully climbed Everest for the record 19th time this year said, “The snow levels are decreasing significantly. I saw water at 8,000 m this year, which is very uncommon in the Everest region.”

Meanwhile, explaining another instance of climate change in the region, Appa said locals of Dingboche in Solukhumbu district are not interested in building any new infrastructure including schools, hospitals and houses, due to fears of glacial lake outbursts.

Summiteer Pemba Dorje Sherpa, record-holder for the fastest ascent of Everest, said, climbing Everest was much easier this year compared with previous years. “We can climb comfortably with normal shoes up to 7,000 m. There are more rocky parts compared with snow-covered areas on the way to the summit,” he said.

Pemba agreed with Apa about the presence of water at higher altitudes than before. “Earlier, we had to melt the ice to drink water. However, water is now easily found without having to heat the ice,” he said.

The government has said it will lead the role to draw global attention about climate change impacts in the Himalayas especially towards Mt. Everest in the 15th Conference of Parties of United Nation’s Framework of Climate Change (UNFCC) to be held at Copenhagen, Denmark, this December.

Minister Bohora also said that the government will invite Bill Clinton and Al Gore, former U.S. president and vice-president, among other world leaders to lead the summiteers in Copenhagen.This year’s Copenhagen summit of climate change is viewed as a crucial meeting of all the meetings of the UNFCC. The summit has been billed as a final opportunity for the world to seal a deal to prevent climate change’s catastrophic impacts and help poor countries like Nepal to adapt to the phenomenon.

Source:http://www.ekantipur.com/news/news-detail.php?news_id=302408

Nepal: A Top Tourist Destination

Lonely Planet, the largest travel guide-book and digital media publisher, has included Nepal in its 'Best in Travel 2010' list released Monday.

Nepal features sixth on the list of top ten countries to visit in 2010 as recommended by Lonely Planet. El Salvador, Germany, Greece, Malaysia, Morocco, New Zealand, Portugal, Suriname, and the United States are the other countries in the list.

They'll take you from the familiar to the far away, both geographically and culturally, and more than likely have you reaching for your travel bag, says Lonely Planet about the destinations mentioned.

Source:nepalnews.com

Global Warming and Climate Change as Opportunities

How must society adapt to rapid climate change to minimise severe upheaval?

The question makes two explicit assumptions, both of which are controversial and disputed: that climate change is rapid and that it will result in severe upheaval. Similarly, it is not clear whether the best reaction to global warming should be societal, or individual (or, perhaps, global).

That global warming is happening has now been established. Yet, such a forcing is likely to take centuries to induce any discernible climate change on the planetary level. Moreover: self-interested and well-paying hype aside, we know close to nothing about the hypercomplex set of interactions between various greenhouse gases, the atmosphere, the oceans, the Earth's orbit, volcanic eruptions, human activities, the unforeseen outcomes and by-products of well-meaning regulation and technologies (such as biofuels), solar dynamics, plate tectonics, and thousands of other factors, the vast majority of which are yet to be discovered.

Environmentalism is, therefore, poor science or pseudo-science: it is a pernicious and venal form of faddish hubris. In our current state of ignorance, the more ambitious variants of "solutions" such as geoengineering are far more dangerous than the threats of global warming. Two things are clear, though: (a) Climate change had happened frequently and repeatedly, long before and ever since humans strode the scene; and (b) Some regions of Earth will greatly benefit economically from global warming.

Others, inevitably, will suffer and will have to adapt. None of this sounds like a "severe upheaval", let alone life-threatening as the more rabid and sensationalist environmentalists will have us believe.

We should take an inventory of what we know and act upon it resolutely (mitigation): emissions from fossil fuel combustion should be tamed, captured, stored, sunk, and sequestered (aerosols to be further studied in conjunction with global dimming and ozone depletion); measures for population control and family planning enhanced; alternative and renewable fuels should be studied and incentives provided to energy-efficient, clean and green technologies; cement manufacture should be tweaked; cap and trade (or tax) schemes implemented on the national, corporate, and individual levels; weather-resistant, energy-conserving, and green construction technologies pioneered; the diets of livestock should be adapted to restrict biological emissions; deforestation and reforestation should be rationalized as should be land use; drought-related indigenous agricultural and water management knowledge and crop varieties should be preserved; flood defenses erected or strengthened; and weather-monitoring capacity should be extended and modernized. These measures make good sense, whatever the urgency of the problem facing us.

But, we should invest the bulk of our scarce resources in research and innovation. We should accept that climate change is inevitable and work out ways of harnessing it to our benefit. We should come up with new agricultural methods and strains; new types of tourism; new irrigation techniques; water desalination, diversion, transport, and allocation schemes; ways of sustaining biological diversity and of helping the human body adapt and cope; and global plans to cope with energy production problems, poverty, and disease triggered by global warming.

For the next few centuries, global warming is inexorable and largely irreversible (as the IPCC essentially admits). To think otherwise is completely delusional. Better to re-imagine our existence on this planet (adaptation). As temperatures rise in certain locales (and drop in others!), new economic activities and routes of commerce would be made possible or rendered feasible; new types of produce and forests will flourish; new technologies will be developed to cater to a novel and growing set of needs.

We would do well to not consider global warming as a crisis, but as a massive change. And even if we insist on regarding it as a cataclysm, as the Chinese saying goes, there are opportunities in every predicament. The initial costs of every transformation and transition in human history have been steep (recall the Industrial Revolution and, more recently, the transition from Communism to Capitalism). Climate change is not likely to be the only exception. Such a massive realignment implies severe disruption and great distress. But, invariably, tectonic shifts are followed by an extended period of creativity and growth. This time will be no different.

Source:http://globalpolitician.com/25981-climate-change-global-warming-environment