Tide turns in favour of DIY sea barrier

The Independent (UK): A pensioner won a major victory in the battle to save his house from falling into the sea after a High Court judge ruled that a conservation agency could not prevent him from maintaining his own DIY coastal sea defences. The judge ruled that a decision by Natural England to allow the fossil-bearing cliffs near his home to continue to erode "for scientific reasons" was unlawful. Peter Boggis, 77, from Easton Bavents, Suffolk, has spent years building his own coastal defences to prevent his home and more than a dozen others from falling into the sea.

The High Court gave the agency, formerly English Nature, the right to appeal against the decision. In the meantime the retired engineer is banned from resuming work to protect the homes. Gregory Jones, appearing for Mr Boggis, warned: "There is a property only 10 to 16ft away from the edge of the cliff. Justice delayed may be justice denied in this case," he said.

The judge, Mr Justice Blair, agreed: "I think it is in the interests of those whose homes are threatened that the sooner this matter is brought on the better."

Natural England wants to let the cliff erosion caused by the North Sea to occur naturally because it exposes stratas of soil and rock bearing fossils for scientific study. Two years ago it declared the area a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) but Mr Boggis – who had already built his own coastal defences – is challenging the legality of the move at a personal cost of tens of thousands of pounds....

Coastal erosion of sea cliffs at Happisburgh, Norfolk,UK. Shot by © Andrew Dunn, whose work can be found at: http://www.andrewdunnphoto.com/, Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License

Cave’s climate clues show ancient empires declined during dry spell

University of Wisconsin-Madison: The decline of the Roman and Byzantine empires in the Eastern Mediterranean more than 1,400 years ago may have been driven by unfavorable climate changes.

Growth bands are visible in a polished cross-section of a stalagmite from Soreq Cave near Jerusalem, Israel. Stalagmites form from calcite and other minerals deposited by water in caves and contain chemical signatures of the climate and other physical conditions that existed as the formation grew. Geochemical analysis of a similar stalagmite from the same cave has revealed that large climate changes in the Eastern Mediterranean 1,400 years ago, including increasingly dry weather from 100 A.D. to 700 A.D., may have contributed to the downfall of the Roman and Byzantine Empires in the region.

Based on chemical signatures in a piece of calcite from a cave near Jerusalem, a team of American and Israeli geologists pieced together a detailed record of the area's climate from roughly 200 B.C. to 1100 A.D. Their analysis, to be reported in an upcoming issue of the journal Quaternary Research, reveals increasingly dry weather from 100 A.D. to 700 A.D. that coincided with the fall of both Roman and Byzantine rule in the region.

The researchers, led by UW-Madison geology graduate student Ian Orland and professor John Valley, reconstructed the high-resolution climate record based on geochemical analysis of a stalagmite from Soreq Cave, located in the Stalactite Cave Nature Reserve near Jerusalem.

…Using oxygen isotope signatures and impurities — such as organic matter flushed into the cave by surface rain — trapped in the layered mineral deposits, Orland determined annual rainfall levels for the years the stalagmite was growing, from approximately 200 B.C. to 1100 A.D. Their detailed climate record shows that the Eastern Mediterranean became drier between 100 A.D. and 700 A.D., a time when Roman and Byzantine power in the region waned, including steep drops in precipitation around 100 A.D. and 400 A.D….

Growth bands are visible in a polished cross-section of a stalagmite from Soreq Cave near Jerusalem, Israel. Geochemical analysis of a similar stalagmite from the same cave has revealed that large climate changes in the Eastern Mediterranean 1,400 years ago, including increasingly dry weather from 100 A.D. to 700 A.D., may have contributed to the downfall of the Roman and Byzantine Empires in the region.

New US military report on global warming raises worry

Boston Globe: A new US military report has come under scrutiny for asserting that the scientific data on what is causing global warming is "contradictory" - a position one leading specialist said indicates the government still hasn't fully embraced the urgency of climate change.

The long-range planning document, published Thursday by the US Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., which is responsible for developing blueprints for future military strategy, is intended to provide a "basis for thinking about the world a quarter of a century from now."

But a section of the 56-page report on climate change and natural disasters prompted criticism yesterday from some leading specialists who said that spreading the inaccurate perception that the causes of climate change remain an open question could result in government agencies not taking the issue seriously enough.

The report, titled Joint Operating Environment 2008, states that "the impact of global warming and its potential to cause natural disasters and other harmful phenomena such as rising sea levels has become a prominent - and controversial - national and international concern. Some argue that there will be more and greater storms and natural disasters, others that there will be fewer." It adds: "In many respects, scientific conclusions about the causes and potential effects of global warming are contradictory."

…"It's very wrong," said Kerry Emanuel, a professor of atmospheric science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose work was cited in the military report. "The jury is not out" on what is causing global warming, he added. "I don't know where that statement came from, but it's pretty bizarre." Emanuel also took issue with the report's assertions about future storm intensity. "Everyone pretty much agrees that the intensity of events could go up with global warming, although we argue how much," he said in an interview….

A US Democratic presidential candidate in 1864, George Brinton McClellan, is lampooned as an incompetent military leader. The artist shows McClellan viewing the battle through a telescope from his safe perch, urging, "Fight on my brave Soldiers and push the enemy to the wall, from this spanker boom your beloved General looks down upon you."

Adaptation vs. mitigation and the perception battle

A report from Poznan by Aimee Barnes at Climate Biz, where I also have written: The word of the day today in Poland was adaptation.

This is a word that many who work on climate change have hoped to avoid, until somewhat recently. At least part of this aversion has been related to the perception that people may lose interest in the issue if they feel like it's a lost cause. In other words, if we admit climate impacts are already occurring, why not just focus entirely on preparing for the inevitable?

Unfortunately, evidence from many corners of the world is already showing impacts of our changing climate, and the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report on "Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability" documents already observed changes in natural and managed systems related to regional climate change, from changes in water resources and glaciers, to terrestrial biosystems, marine biosystems, human health, and disasters.

Acknowledging this, the Conference of Parties serving as the Meeting of Parties (CMP) focused today on the vulnerability of developing countries to climate changes. While this does not replace the need for mitigation activities, there was a recognition that much more needs to be done to understand, model, build capacity and assess the likely impact of climate change and propose suitable adaptation strategies…..

Edward Hicks, Peaceable Kingdom, 1834

It's a long goodbye for many US beaches

Steuben Courier (Bath, New York): …Unfortunately for beach lovers and owners of highpriced beach-front homes, coastal erosion in any form is usually a one-way trip. Manmade techniques such as beach nourishment—whereby sand is dredged from offshore sources and deposited along otherwise vanishing beaches—may slow the process, but nothing short of global cooling or some other major geomorphic change will stop it altogether.

According to Stephen Leatherman ("Dr. Beach") of the National Healthy Beaches Campaign, beach erosion is defined by the actual removal of sand from a beach to deeper water offshore or alongshore into inlets, tidal shoals and bays. Such erosion can result from any number of factors, including the simple inundation of the land by rising sea levels resulting from the melting of the polar ice caps.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 80 to 90 percent of the sandy beaches along America's coastlines have been eroding for decades. Individual beaches may lose only a few inches per year; others may lose much more. Of particular concern is the effect climate change, which causes sea level rises and also increases the severity and frequency of harsh storms, has on beach erosion. Of particular concern is the effect climate change, which not only causes sea levels to rise but also increases the severity and possibly the frequency of harsh storms, has on beach erosion….

Sand sculpture on the beach in San Agustin, shot by Wouter Hagens

Denmark assists Vietnam

ScandAsia: With the Copenhagen-based Danida Board having just recently approved a new $ 40 million climate change programme for Vietnam to assist the country in it climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, Danish ambassador to Vietnam Peter Lysholt Hansen explains to VIR´s Thu Ha why the Nordic government is so concerned about this burning global issue. "Given a lot of burning environmental problems facing Vietnam today, which are caused by various hazardous gases and solid substances, why does the Danish government focus on assisting Vietnam to deal with the climate change issues, which chiefly involve green house gases"?

"Denmark has for many years given support to the environment sector in Vietnam and continues to do so. Actually, Denmark is supporting a comprehensive environment program (around USD 10 million) covering pollution control in poor densely populated area, environmentally sustainable development in poor urban areas, cleaner production in industries, and development of marine protected areas". "With the future support for climate change adaptation and mitigation Denmark adds a new dimension to its development cooperation with Vietnam. Vietnam itself at present is not a significant producer of green house gases which are to a large extend responsible for climate change. However, with it long coastal line and large areas of lowland Vietnam is one of the most vulnerable countries in the World to climate change. And climate change is certainly a development issue which threatens the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Therefore it is most welcomed that the Government of Vietnam fully recognizes the importance of dealing with this issue on an urgent basis".

"Despite rich local knowledge and experience at grass root level in dealing with disasters, climate change work including research, technologies and financing is new in Vietnam. At the same time climate change is not generally well understood. Climate change is not only about traditional disaster phenomenon’s ( storms, floods and droughts) but also about abnormality of weather/climate, uncertainty of abrupt climate events ( South moving storms, changing path-ways of cyclones, extreme rainfall and temperatures) and the possible consequences for diseases and cropping patterns…".

…."Denmark is in the forefront in Vietnam when it comes to aid harmonization and effectiveness and has been moving rapidly towards aligning to Vietnamese Government system and regulations instead of creating parallel systems and norms. The new Danish support to climate change adaptation and mitigation will also be aligned to Government priorities and systems and will be sector budget support to the following two national programs: 1) National Target Programme on responding to climate change and the National Programme on Energy Efficiency. The funds will be managed by government authorities at national and local levels for serving their needs and priorities"….

Market throng on Chau Van Diep street, Binh Thanh district, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Shot by Kham Tran - www.khamtran.com, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Researchers urge shift in Canadia environment management

Globe and Mail (Toronto): British Columbia has become a last refuge for a growing number of species in North America, but if the "biodiversity ark" is to be maintained in the face of global warming, government will have to change the way it manages the environment. That's the conclusion reached by researchers at Simon Fraser University who have formed a group known as the Adaptation to Climate Change Team that is exploring the risks of global warming and proposing possible policy responses.

In its first report, released this week, the group argues the B.C. government needs to shift to a model "that integrates ecosystem management with the resource-based economy," and brings land and water management under one umbrella organization. The group's lead policy author, Jon O'Riordan, a former deputy minister of sustainable resource management in B.C., says the government has many environmental initiatives under way, but it is not moving fast enough and lacks overall co-ordination, putting the environment and the provincial economy at risk.

"Our ecosystems provide a rich array of services such as: controlling flooding, helping to clean drinking water sources, storing carbon and moderating air and water temperatures," he writes in the report. "Climate impacts will have such profound effects on these values that a significant adjustment in governance of these resources is required. ... Otherwise, the combination of habitat fragmentation by uncoordinated human activities, together with unprecedented changes in temperature and precipitation, will impact the province's economic health and impair the ability for the environment to function." Mr. O'Riordan says the situation poses "profound threats to B.C.'s unique biodiversity ark."

…Eric Kimmel, a policy analyst and author of an annex to the report, says the government should also factor into its management plans the economic value of ecological services such as carbon storage, temperature moderation and water conservation. "The costs of environmental damage, the depletion of natural capital, and the full value of indirect ecosystem services do not show up on accounting balance sheets," he writes. "As a result, natural capital is often undervalued and not accounted for in the decision-making process."

Clouds over Howe Sound, from the Plane by Stewart Butterfield (http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewart/87665/). Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under Creative Commons Attribution 1.0 license

Pessimistic outlook for Colorado River dominates conference

KSL.com (Utah): A pessimistic outlook on the long-term water supply for the desert Southwest dominated a conference in Salt Lake today. It also hinted at changes that could flow from the Democratic resurgence in the national election, possibly even involving the future of Lake Powell. The political shift is emboldening environmentalists, like many at the conference at Fort Douglas, who insist our water management policies are out of whack. With Democrats taking the White House and a firmer grip on Congress, the critics could move into the driver's seat, including a powerful congressman we spoke with today.

As Lake Powell and Lake Mead declined in the last decade, scientific studies have revealed that the dry era now is more or less normal. The previous century was abnormally wet, compared with the last thousand years. Scientists at the conference warned of long-term water shortages in the growing Southwest, which depends on the Colorado River. Gregory McCabe, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said, "We're going to be in trouble as we move into a drier period, which may be more normal than what we've experienced over the last hundred years."

"Regardless of the climate change issue, the Colorado River Basin is a basin in trouble," he said. Population growth is pushing water demand up as supplies decline. A few years or decades from now, the lines may cross. Richard Ingesbretsen of the Glen Canyon Institute said, "Somehow the system is going to break, and we're not going to be able to grow our cities, and these reservoirs are just going to go away."

It's fueling calls for reform. California Congressman George Miller will be a key player with his powerful committee assignments. "Unfortunately, over the last eight years, while we were trying to look toward the future, we had an ideological jihad going on against the scientists," he said….

Lake Powell Arizona, USA (from plane). Note the prominent "bathtub ring" made visible by low water (May 2007). Shot by PRA, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Shrinking glaciers reveal hidden forests and a warmer climate

Science Daily: Uniquely old tree remains have recently been uncovered by the thawing of the rapidly shrinking Kårsa Glacier west of Abisko in Lapland, in northernmost Sweden. The finds show that in the last 7,000 years it has probably never been so warm as during the last century. “If the area hadn’t been covered by a glacier all these thousands of years, these tree remnants would never have made it. The finds yield information indicating that the 20th century was probably the warmest century in 7,000 years. The fact that the climate is so unique during the last century means that we must question whether this could be 100 percent the result of natural mechanisms,” says Leif Kullman, professor of physical geography, who is directing the project.

Pines and birches grew on the site of the glacier during parts of or perhaps the entire period between 11,800 and 7,000 years ago. This is shown by carbon 14 dating of the remains of trees that have now been uncovered. During that period, the glacier did not continuously exist, and the climate was warmer than at any time afterward. All in all, there are four finds, parts of birch and pine trunks, that have been uncovered under the shrinking glacier in the Lapland mountains. In most cases they are well preserved, but they are degrading rapidly as they come in contact with air and water. As early as 2003, tree remnants of a similar age were found in Sylarna, in Jämtland province. They have completely crumbled into dust at this point. The warmer climate during the last century, which is the reason the tree remnants have now seen the light of day, may therefore be unique in the perspective of many millennia…

Kebnepakteglaciären, a glacier in Lapland, Sweden. Close to Tarfala and Nikkaluokta. Shot by Tobias Radeskog

Flood lessons in the UK already being forgotten

Edie.net: Like the gradually subsiding waters after a deluge, the lessons learned by those who fought the summer floods in 2007 are already seeping away. This was the concern raised by Defra's Colin Berghouse when he spoke at CIWEM's Extreme Flooding event this week.

Mr Berghouse spoke about the problem of embedding lessons into those organisations that need to learn them, lamenting the fact that it was all too common to see a flurry of action immediately following a flood but it would then drop off as the disaster became a more and more distant memory. "Once you've identified the lessons you have to go back and make sure you learn them," he said, flagging up several areas that time and time again cause authorities headaches, despite the fact the problems are well-known and well-documented.

Advance planning, the management of resources when floods do happen, public relations and leadership were often disasters themselves, he said. So if those responsible for predicting floods, minimising their impact and dealing with the aftermath are aware of these potential pitfalls, why do they keep stumbling into them? "One reason is the denial of failure, people have this fear of retribution," said Mr Berghouse before going on to outline a number of key causes for organisations getting things wrong….

Weir on River Great Ouse at Bedford and footbridge above it, with the river in flood. Shot by Simon Speed, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Flood in Venice washes away some qualms over Adriatic barrier project

Associated Press: …Monday's deluge — Venice's biggest in 22 years — has caused yet-uncalculated damage and scared away tourists who are the lifeblood of the city's economy. Francesca Bortolotto Possati, the Bauer's owner, said people around the world responded to the flood "like it was a tsunami."

While Venetians take floods in their stride, the swirling waters that burst the banks of the city's famed canals have convinced many here of the wisdom of a euro4.3 billion ($5.43 billion) project to build towering metal gates designed to protect Venice from being deluged. Moses, named after the Old Testament figure who parted the Red Sea, is nearly half finished and is expected to be operational by 2014 — two years behind schedule due to financial problems.

If the retractable gates had been working at the time of the 160 centimeter (60 inch) floods, they would have been raised from their resting place on the seafloor by 6 a.m. — "keeping the entire city dry," according to the consortium administrating Moses.

"Since the floods, people keep stopping me and asking me when the barriers will be completed. They say, 'Don't slow down, don't be late,'" Flavia Faccioli, spokeswoman for the New Venice consortium.

On Monday, with the tide forecast to reach 130 centimeters (51 inches), city officials issued a series of alarms at 6:30 a.m. that reached thousands of citizens via text message, telephone, fax and siren. New alarms came every time the forecast rose.

…St. Mark's Square floods when the tide reaches just 80 centimeters (31.5 inches). Because of the risk, city officials have ensured that Venice's artistic treasures are protected from floods up to 2 meters (6.6 feet) by keeping them above that level.

…With climate change, Venice could see an increase of these very high tides and their intensity, said Fabio Trincardi, a geologist who directs Italy's Institute of Marine Sciences.…"Once the sea starts off from an additional 50 centimeters, even a minor high tide increase becomes catastrophic," he said in a telephone interview.

Sunset at Saint Marks square in Venice, shot by http://www.laurayluis.com (I think), Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Noisy, acidic oceans harmful to whales

Environment News Service: Oceans and seas are becoming noisier with more vessels, increased seismic surveys for oil and gas, off-shore construction and recreation, and a new generation of military sonars, an alliance of wildlife groups said today. They warn that the cacophony is intensifying threats to marine mammals that use sound to communicate, forage for food and find mates.

The groups, attending the United Nations Environment Programme's Convention on Migratory Species conference in Rome, are urging governments and industry to adopt quieter engines for ships, tighter rules on the use of seismic surveys, and new, less intrusive sonar technologies by navies.

At the conference, the International Fund for Animal Welfare issued a report, "Ocean Noise: Turn it Down," showing that the distance over which blue whales can communicate is down by 90 percent as a result of intensified noise levels.

The largest animals on Earth, blue whales are vulnerable to noise and ship strikes. This blue whale died in September 2007 in the waters off Santa Barbara, California. (Photo courtesy Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History)

Ship noise in the Pacific Ocean has doubled every decade over the past 40 years and the global shipping fleet is expected to double in size by 2025, after doubling between 1965 and 2003, the report calculates.

Airguns used in seismic surveys generate "colossal" sounds peaking at up to 259 decibels and can be repeated every 10 seconds for months. These sounds travelled more than 3,000 km from the source. There are 90 seismic survey ships in the world, the report states, and a quarter of them are in use on any given day…

Engraving of a beached whale by Dutch artist Jacob Matham. Apparently made after an engraving by Hendrick Goltzius.

Climate change heralds more wildfires, rising SF Bay waters

Palo Alto Online: If greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current rate the San Francisco Bay will inundate 240 square miles of area lowlands, including East Palo Alto, San Francisco Airport and parts of Silicon Valley, by the end of the century. Intense floods that historically occurred once a century will come once a decade and Northern California will experience more and larger wildfires, as it already has.

This scenario was painted by policy planners and scientists Wednesday at a Stanford panel titled "Climate Change Hits Home." The panel honored environmental journalist Anton Caputo, who won the 2008 Risser Prize for his series on local impacts of climate change for the San Antonio Express-News.

"We're going to have to build levees — a lot of them," Will Travis, Executive Director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, said. "They're going to have to be big and strong enough to hold back rising seas and storms and do it in an earthquake."

Travis displayed a map of the bay highlighting areas of projected inundation. "We hope our maps will bring home the message that global warming isn't just a problem if you're a polar bear in Alaska," he said. "Even if we're effective at reducing greenhouse gases, it's still going to get warmer for at least 50 years and the water will continue to rise. We need a new plan for the bay that anticipates climate changes and helps us get ready to adapt.

"The cost will be huge, but the price of moving aggressively now is a fraction of what it will be if we do nothing."…

San Francisco Bay from the window of the Space Shuttle Columbia

EU says to concentrate on adaptation to climate change in vulnerable countries

Xinhua: The European Union said on Thursday the 27-member bloc will concentrate on the adaptation work in vulnerable countries to assist them to adapt to climate change. "Two hundred million euros (about 252.4 million U.S. dollars) last year has been provided on adaptation projects which can be supporting national adaptation funds," Brice Lalonde from the French delegation told an EU press conference here.

… The adaptation fund, which is designed under the Kyoto Protocol, will proveide the developing countries with money to adapt to the impact of the climate change. Experts said that at least 15 billion U.S. dollars a year is necessary for the fund. Echoing Lalonde's comments, Jurgen Lefevere of the European Commission saw adaptation as one of the key components of any Copenhagen outcome next December.

Lefevere said that necessary funding finance investment should be guaranteed in the Copenhagen deal to make sure that "we get the necessary adaptation fund," noting that the Europe is already doing a lot on adaptation.

… Bo Lim, a principal technical adviser on climate change adaptation of the UN Development Program, told Xinhua that it's absolutely possible for the conference to reach a decision on adaptation fund. "There are still a lot of issues related to the governments of developing countries, but there will be time to craft out the details, in such a way that will meet the needs of the developing countries," Lim said.

….At present, there is only tens of millions of dollars available for the adaptation fund, she said. Some worry that due to a lack of money for the fund under the UN convention, its function may not meet the high expectations from the developing countries.

Indo-Sassanian coinage. British Museum. Shot by PHGCOM

Rainforest canopy-penetrating technology gets boost for forest carbon monitoring

Mongabay: A tool for monitoring tropical deforestation has gotten a boost from the one of the world's largest supporters of Amazon conservation. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has awarded the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology with a $1.6-million grant to expand and improve its tropical forest monitoring tool known as the Carnegie Landsat Analysis System Lite (CLASLite).

The Stanford University-based group says CLASLite "will rapidly advance deforestation and degradation mapping in Latin America, and will help rain forest nations better monitor their changing carbon budgets." The technology will prove useful as the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) mechanism — currently under negotiation at international climate talks — comes online.

"About 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation and degradation of tropical forests," said Greg Asner, project leader and a researcher at Stanford. "And much of it occurs in developing nations, where monitoring capabilities are often unavailable to governments and NGOs. This grant allows us to improve and expand CLASLite, and to train many people from tropical forest nations so that they can determine where and when forest losses are occurring. Perhaps most importantly, rain forest nations will be able to better determine how much CO2 comes from deforestation and degradation—information that has been very scarce in the past. We hope that CLASLite will become a central tool for rain forest monitoring in support of global carbon crediting for REDD—the United Nations initiative on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation."…

The Capilano Bridge, North Vancouver, British Columbia. Located in a private nature preserve open to the public (for fee) it is the fifth bridge at this location and is used to access a rainforest canopy walk and other nature trails. Shot by Leonard G., Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons ShareAlike 1.0 License

European Space Agency focusing its satellites on the Arctic

Science Daily: The Arctic is undergoing rapid transformation due to climate change, pollution and human activity. ESA’s ERS and Envisat satellites have been providing satellite data of the region for the last 17 years. These long term data sets in combination with ESA’s future missions will be key in implementing the newly adopted European Commission policy called 'The European Union and the Arctic Region'.

The policy highlights new opportunities in the region such as the opening up of long-sought transportation routes due to receding ice. However, it focuses on the need to carry out these activities in a sustainable manner.

In situ research is difficult to carry out in Polar Regions because of the remoteness and harshness of the area. From their unique positions in space, Earth-observing satellites provide effective means of continuously monitoring these regions.

The Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) sensor aboard Envisat is especially suitable for monitoring the Arctic because it can acquire images through clouds and darkness – conditions often found there. ESA is devoting about half of its radar instrument resources to polar area acquisitions.

In 2007, ASAR data showed that the Arctic area covered by sea ice had shrunk to its lowest level since satellites began monitoring the area nearly 30 years ago. In 2008, ASAR data revealed that the Northern Sea Route, also known as the Northeast Passage, and the Northwest Passage were both open simultaneously for the first time since satellite measurements began….

Envisat ASAR mosaic from mid-August 2008 showing an almost ice-free Northwest Passage. The direct route through the Northwest Passage is highlighted in the picture by an orange line. The orange dotted line shows the indirect route, called the Amundsen Northwest Passage, which has been passable for almost a month. (Credit: ESA)

Failure at Bali talks haunts Poznan

Business Standard (India): The global climate change talks, the latest round of which started yesterday at Poznan in Poland under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), are already confronting first of their failures since the participating countries chalked out the Bali roadmap in December 2007. The Adaptation Fund launched by the UNFCCC following the talks at Bali is yet to be operationalised and this has been one of the criticisms raised at the conference, mainly by the 178-member Global Environment Facility, an independent group of governments, NGOs and private sector, delegates from India say.

The delegates see finances emerging as one of the key issues at the conference, especially in the context of recession. The other key issue would be whether developed countries or Annex 1 countries, which are signatories of the Kyoto Protocol, agree to bring down their emissions of six greenhouse gases by 25 per cent to 40 per cent (1990 levels) in two decades. The issue of funds for adaptation and mitigation is also on the agenda of the Indian delegation, some of whose members are already in Poznan.

According to the environment ministry, the government already spends 2 per cent of its GDP on adaptation or measures to protect people from the impact of climate change. It has said it would be pressing for additional financial assistance…

Posnania (Poznań), ca. 1617, view from north, Civitates Orbis Terrarum. Theatri praecipuarum totius mundi urbium liber sextus. tome IV

Soot causing Arctic ice to darken and melt rapidly

Red Orbit: Soot is tarnishing the ice in the Arctic and adding a swiftness to the melting that could cause the ocean in the North Pole to be without any ice well before 2050, experts announced on Tuesday. Experts stated that in order to resist the impact of global warming in the Arctic, we should re-focus and center more on stopping the industrial greenhouse gasses like soot, ozone and methane in Europe, North America and Russia.

Soot darkens the ice which causes it to absorb heat, increasing the speed of melting. Methane is produced from sources like oil, gas and agriculture, and ozone is produced by industrial pollutants. "Reductions in these pollutants would have a greater impact" in the upcoming two decades instead of stopping emissions of carbon dioxide. This information is coming from scientists at the 187-nation U.N. climate talks set in Poland.

The Arctic is growing increasingly warmer at twice the pace of the rest of the world and ice melted to an all time low in 2007, causing worries that it could eventually melt away completely.

"The Arctic sea ice may already have passed a 'tipping point'," said Pam Pearson, an Arctic pollution expert at the Climate Policy Center. "An ice-free summer Arctic is now possible well before 2050."

…The three main pollutants of soot, ozone and methane, remain in the atmosphere a shorter time than carbon dioxide, implying that decreasing emissions may have a faster impact in reducing the toxins in the air. "The question is: is all of the rapid melt of the Arctic ice in summer all due to human induced climate change or is part of it some natural cycle? We clearly have to understand it," Watson said….

A black ice growler from a melting glacier in Greenland, shot by Kim Hansen, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution license versions 2.5, 2.0, and 1.0.

Cuban coastal dweller to relocate far from the sea

IPS: She was born, grew up and lived all her life just a few steps from the sea, in the part of the city that everyone knows simply as La Playa (the beach). Although she was lucky enough to return to a home and belongings that withstood Hurricane Paloma’s mighty waves, Iramis Rodríguez has made up her mind to move inland. "If they’ll take me, I’ll go," the 30-year-old Santa Cruz resident told IPS. Rodríguez is part of the janitorial staff in a government facility located "right here in Santa Cruz," she says.

…Some 3,000 people were killed that day in 1932, "stabbed" by all sorts of objects that were hurled through the air by the powerful winds, trapped inside their homes, swallowed up by the sea as it pulled back, or scorched among the debris burnt by order of the authorities who wanted to prevent an epidemic at all costs. This time, when the families returned on Nov. 11 to this town located some 600 kilometres east of Havana, the landscape they found was both similar and different to the one left 76 years ago. Dogs with glazed eyes roamed streets that had turned alien; here and there an animal was trapped under boards. But the community had survived.

…More than 20,000 people were evacuated from Santa Cruz del Sur, a municipality of 49,900 people, as Hurricane Paloma -- the third major hurricane to hit Cuba this year -- approached. While in 1932, the entire town was left waiting for an evacuation train that never arrived, this time not a single person stayed back in the poor district of La Playa.

…Cuba has suffered an estimated 10 billion dollars in losses from the damages caused by hurricanes Gustav, Ike and Paloma, when they stormed through the island on Aug. 30, Sept. 8-9, and Nov. 9, respectively. But statistics say nothing of all the memories the hurricanes took with them: family photographs, children’s toys, books painstakingly collected by a local teacher throughout her life. "If you were given the chance to leave this place, would you go?" IPS asked more than 15 La Playa residents. The answer, in a sad but firm tone, was invariably yes.

That seems to be the only solution possible for communities like Santa Cruz del Sur, Cajío, Guanimar, or so many others, which year after year live under the threat posed by the sea. In 2002, an official report calculated that there were 244 neighbourhoods, villages or towns, home to 1.4 million people, that were vulnerable to coastal floods…

Climate change now the main driver of natural disasters

Environment News Service: Ministers from more than 40 Asia-Pacific countries gathered in Kuala Lumpur today seeking ways to reduce the social and financial impact of natural disasters in the region - many of them linked to the rising global temperature. The ministers are developing regional cooperation systems for disaster preparedness and early warning systems. The Asia-Pacific ministers are meeting as half-way across the world in Poznan, Poland some 11,000 participants in the annual UN climate conference are negotiating an agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions that will kick in when the current Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Most natural disasters today are linked to climate change, says John Holmes, UN emergency relief coordinator and head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA. OCHA today launched a campaign to raise awareness of the humanitarian implications of climate change, calling for improved disaster preparedness and response measures in countries that suffer most from extreme weather events. "This campaign highlights our huge concerns about the humanitarian impact of climate change," said Holmes. "Any credible vision of the future must recognize that humanitarian needs are increasing and that climate change is the main driver. We are already seeing its effects, in terms of the numbers of people affected and in the rising cost of response."

…From 1988 through 2007, over 75 percent of all disaster events were climate-related and accounted for 45 percent of deaths and 80 percent of the economic losses caused by natural hazards. The most vulnerable are impoverished people living in risk-prone hotspot countries, where the risks from extreme climatic events overlap with human vulnerability In 2007, OCHA issued an unprecedented 15 funding appeals for sudden natural disasters, five more than the previous annual record - all but one due to climatic events. "So welcome to the 'new normal' of extreme weather. Climate change may well exacerbate chronic hunger and malnutrition across much of the developing world," wrote Holmes in the current issue of "The Economist" magazine. "And it will almost certainly precipitate battles over resources."

…In the last 20 years, the number of recorded disasters has doubled from about 200 to more than 400 per year. Disasters caused by floods are more frequent - up from about 50 in 1985 to more than 200 in 2005 - and floods damage larger areas than they did 20 years ago.

Cylcones Nancy and Olaf get together in 2005 and make a night of it. NASA

Set up adaptation center in Dhaka

The Daily Star: Bangladesh on the second day of UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland, demanded that an International Adaptation Centre under UN framework be set up in Dhaka. The centre would research on how to adapt to climate change. Bangladesh placed its demands at the vision sharing meeting of G-77 on behalf of the least developed countries (LDCs) yesterday.

The Bangladesh delegation said climate change funding, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), must be in addition to the existing official development assistant (ODA) commitments of 0.7 percent of gross national product (GNP). Bangladesh's proposal also stated that current arrangement of responsibility-based mechanism must be revised to make contributions of developed countries mandatory.

The Bangladesh delegation also asked for developing a mechanism, with the help of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to create an index on the vulnerability of people in each country to climate change. Bangladesh demanded creation of an effective environment for climate-change adaptation, nationally, regionally and internationally with the support of appropriate institutions.

"We proposed the setting up of the head office of the International Adaptation Centre in Dhaka," said a government official representing Bangladesh. However, all parties attending the conference have to agree on this….

The Ganges River delta, ecompassing Bangladesh and India, shot by NASA

Rivers are carbon processors, not inert pipelines

European Science Foundation: Microorganisms in rivers and streams play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle that has not previously been considered. Freshwater ecologist Dr Tom Battin, of the University of Vienna, told a COST ESF Frontiers of Science conference in October that our understanding of how rivers and streams deal with organic carbon has changed radically.

Microorganisms such as bacteria and single celled algae in rivers and streams decompose organic matter as it flows downstream. They convert the carbon it contains into carbon dioxide, which is then released to the atmosphere.

Recent estimates by Battin’s team and others conclude there is a net flux, or outgassing, of carbon dioxide from the world’s rivers and streams to the atmosphere of at least two-thirds to three-quarters of a gigatonne (Gt) of carbon per year. This flux has not been taken into account in the models of the global carbon cycle used to predict climate change.

“Surface water drainage networks perfuse and integrate the landscape, across the whole planet,” says Battin, “but they are missing from all global carbon cycling, even from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports. Rivers are just considered as inert pipelines, receiving organic carbon from Earth and transporting it to the ocean.” This thinking, according to Battin, has changed radically in the last few years.

…In a disturbing development, Battin’s team lab has recently found that engineered nanoparticles can significantly compromise the freshwater microbes involved in carbon cycling. “This finding is a real challenge to science,” says Battin. “Engineered nanoparticles such as titanium dioxide are expected to increase in the environment, but it remains completely unknown how they might affect the functioning of ecosystems.”

The Rhine flows through Schaffhausen, shot by Pedro María Reyes Vizcaíno, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License

FAO: Climate change threatens food security of Pacific island countries

Xinhua: Ocean warming, frequent tropical cyclones, flash floods and droughts are likely to bring a devastating impact on food production systems in Pacific island countries, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Tuesday. Climate change-related disasters have already seriously constrained the development of these islands, the FAO said in a new report entitled "Climate Change and Food Security in Pacific Island Countries."

“Climate projections for the Pacific island countries are bleak and indicate reduced food security, especially for households," said Alexander Muller, FAO assistant director-general for Natural Resources Management and Environment Department. "It is critical to build resilience of the food systems to avoid enormous future economic losses in agriculture, fisheries and forestry," he said.

"Countries will have to assess how vulnerable their food systems are and how they can adapt agriculture, forestry and fisheries to future climate-related disasters. There is a need to act urgently," he added….

A leaf of a taro plant, an agricultural mainstay for Pacific islands. Shot by tom burke, in Hawaii, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License

Found: $50 billion for adaptation needs

Oxfam: In a new report released today, “Turning Carbon into Gold,” Oxfam said there are ways already available to raise tens of billions of dollars that are linked to emissions reduction schemes. These would ensure that those countries most responsible for emissions, and that can afford to pay, would shoulder the bulk of the obligations. At least $50 billion per year is needed to fund adaptation in developing countries, with more necessary if a new climate change deal is inadequate to keep global warming to below 2°C.

“With a global financial crisis unfolding, these mechanisms could raise enough money from polluters without governments having to dip into national treasuries,” said Heather Coleman, Oxfam’s Senior Climate Change Policy Advisor and author of the report. "Many negotiators agree this is one of the more practical approaches. Billions of dollars can be raised and invested to prevent future climate change and to help poor people adapt to the negative impacts of global warming.”

The most effective and fair approach for generating adaptation financing is to link into the emissions-reduction system that would form a core part of a post-2012 agreement, where “international emissions units” are allocated to rich countries. Oxfam says that a portion of these units must be auctioned rather than given away free to countries.

Oxfam estimates that more than $50 billion could be raised each year by 2015 by auctioning just 7.5 per cent of rich countries’ international emissions units. This money should be handed to a new multilateral adaptation-finance mechanism under the UNFCCC. Other new finance mechanisms within the aviation and shipping sectors could generate another $28 billion – $12 billion from aviation and $16.6 billion from shipping annually – just from rich countries.

“Helping vulnerable people cope with the effects of climate change is desperately needed today because they are already face increasingly severe and ever-worsening climate change impacts,” said Coleman.

Image from Oxfam's website

Most US organizations not adapting to climate change

EurekAlert: Organizations in the United States that are at the highest risk of sustaining damage from climate change are not adapting enough to the dangers posed by rising temperatures, according to a Yale report.

"Despite a half century of climate change that has already significantly affected temperature and precipitation patterns and has already had widespread ecological and hydrological impacts, and despite a near certainty that the United States will experience at least as much climate change in the coming decades just as a result of current atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, little adaptation has occurred," says Robert Repetto, author of "The Climate Crisis and the Adaptation Myth" and a senior fellow of the United Nations Foundation.

Repetto says that private- and public-sector organizations face significant obstacles to adaptation because of uncertainties over the occurrence of climate change at the regional and local levels, over the future frequency of extreme weather events, and over the ecological, economic and other impacts of climate change.…The report cites:

• New York City's 40-year-old building codes that require structures to withstand only 110 mph winds, when climate change is causing more intense hurricanes that could bring speeds of up to 135 mph, and its flood maps that are based on historical data and not on climate change modeling data. Increases in sea levels and surges associated with severe storms would likely inundate Kennedy Airport and lower Manhattan, including the subway entrances and tunnels into Manhattan.

• Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, where water supply is critical and climate change is not factored into state agencies' current water management plans.

…"To say that the United States has the technological, economic and human capacity to adapt to climate change does not imply that the United States will adapt," said Repetto. "Without national leadership and concerted efforts to remove these barriers and obstacles, adaptation to climate change is likely to continue to lag."

Antarctic more diverse than Galapagos Islands, claim British scientists

Telegraph (UK): A team from the British Antarctic Survey and University of Hamburg spent seven weeks studying life on the South Orkney Islands, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The survey - which saw experts combing the land and using trawling nets up to 1,500 metres long in waters around the island - revealed an area "rich in biodiversity".

Some 1,224 marine and land species were recorded, including sea urchins, free-swimming worms, crustaceans, molluscs, mites and birds. After checking 100 years of study data five were found to be new to science and a third new to the area, with 1,026 marine creatures, 821 of which living on the seabed.

Scientists believe the study provides an important benchmark to monitor future environmental change in the area. Antarctic ocean temperatures have risen by 1C and atmospheric temperatures by 2.5C in the last 50 years, making it one of the most rapidly warming areas on the planet.

Dr David Barnes, lead author at the Cambridge-based British Antarctic Survey (BAS), has revealed his findings in the Journal of Biogeography. He said: "If we are to understand how these animals will respond to future change, a starting point like this is really important. "This is the first time anybody has done an inventory like this in the polar regions. It's part of the Census of Marine Life (COML) an international effort to assess and explain the diversity and distribution of marine life in the world's oceans."

Stefanie Kaiser, co-author from University of Hamburg said: "We never knew there were so many different species on and around these islands. "This abundance of life was completely unexpected for a location in the polar regions, previously perceived to be poor in biodiversity."….

Scotia on Laurie Island (South Orkney Islands) during Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902-1904), from an old postcard

Biofuel plantations on tropical forestlands are bad for the climate and biodiversity, study finds

World Wildlife Fund: Keeping tropical rain forests intact is a better way to combat climate change than replacing them with biofuel plantations, a study in the journal Conservation Biology finds. The study reveals that it would take at least 75 years for the carbon emissions saved through the use of biofuels to compensate for the carbon lost through forest conversion. And if the original habitat was carbon-rich peatland, the carbon balance would take more than 600 years. On the other hand, planting biofuels on degraded Imperata grasslands instead of tropical rain forests would lead to a net removal of carbon in 10 years, the authors found.

“Biofuels are a bad deal for forests, wildlife and the climate if they replace tropical rain forests,” said co-author Dr. Neil Burgess of World Wildlife Fund. “In fact, they hasten climate change by removing one of the world’s most efficient carbon storage tools – intact tropical rain forests.” The study is the most comprehensive analysis of the impact of oil palm plantations in tropical forests on climate and biodiversity. It was undertaken by an international research team of botanists, ecologists and engineers from seven nations.

“Our analysis found that it would take 75 to 93 years to see any benefits to the climate from biofuel plantations on converted tropical forestlands,” said lead author Finn Danielsen of Denmark’s Nordic Agency for Development and Ecology (NORDECO). “Until then, we will be releasing carbon into the atmosphere by cutting tropical rain forests, in addition to losing valuable plant and animal species. It’s even worse on peatlands, which contain so much carbon that it would be 600 years before we see any benefits whatsoever.”

Biofuels have been touted as an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels, one of the major contributors to global warming. One such biofuel, palm oil, covers millions of acres in Southeast Asia, where it has directly or indirectly replaced tropical rain forests, resulting in loss of habitats for species such as rhinos and orangutans and the loss of carbon stored in trees and peatlands. The authors call for the development of common global standards for sustainable production of biofuels.

…"Comparing the flora of the rain forest with that of oil palm plantations shows the devastating effect of forest conversion on biodiversity. Major plant groups that thrive in natural rain forest, such as trees, lianas, orchids and native palms, are completely absent. The plants that do grow abundantly in plantations are mostly common fern species that like sunshine. Forest plants need shady and undisturbed habitat to survive" said botanist Hendrien Beukema of University of Groningen in the Netherlands….

Biofuel image by Steve Jurvetson, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License

Are you a VERY experienced pilot? If so, we have a job for you!

Since the 1970s, New Scientist has run a column uncovering the most exciting, bizarre or even terrifying new patented ideas. This is one of them: Each year, hurricanes or typhoons may cause billions of dollars' worth of damage and a large number of fatalities. It would be hugely significant if we could find an effective way of reducing the destructive power of these storms, which convert heat energy from warm oceans into damaging kinetic energy in the atmosphere.

Now Arkadii Leonov at the University of Akron in Ohio says that the complex air flows and other . "machinery" that produce this prodigious power are surprisingly delicate. In a patent application, Leonov and colleagues say that they can put a spanner in the atmospheric works by flying supersonic jet aircraft in concentric circles around a hurricane's eye, the calm area around which the storm rotates.

The idea is that the sonic-boom shockwave would dramatically raise air pressure in the eye, disrupting the upward flow of warm air that drives the hurricane. But how many planes would you need? Sonic booms spread out as they travel away from an aircraft, so even a small number of relatively small aircraft could do the job, say Leonov and colleagues….

An F-4 Phantom II, of the sort the hurricane-busting patent proposes to use. Shot by in Jwnabd, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Cyclone Nisha -- a selection of stories

TN rain toll rises to 86
Hindu, India - Nov 28, 2008
Chennai (PTI): The toll in the heavy rains caused by cyclone Nisha in the past three days in Tamil Nadu rose to 86 on Friday as flood waters inundated ...

Cyclone Nisha’s remnant proves a soaker Hindu Business Line, India - Nov 28, 2008 Thiruvananthapuram, Nov. 28 A remnant of Tropical Cyclone Nisha spun across the peninsula overnight and glided into the southeast Arabian Sea where it was ...

70 feared killed in Nisha cyclone Press Trust of India, India - Nov 28, 2008 Chennai, Nov 28 (PTI) At least 70 people were killed and thousands rendered homeless in incessant rains in the state as cyclone Nisha that has crossed the ...

Army airdrops food to flood-hit Cuddalore
Times of India, India - Nov 27, 2008
CUDDALORE/TIRUCHI: Cyclone Nisha, which brushed past Tamil Nadu coast near Karaikal in Puducherry brought in its wake destruction and death, taking the toll ...

Flood waters submerge historic center of Venice

New York Daily News: Venice has been hit with its worst flooding in more than 20 years, leaving much of the city canal criss-crossed submerged and forcing residents and tourists to wade through knee-high water toward dry ground. City officials reported the sea level topped 156 centimeters (61) inches on Monday. The flood mark is 110 centimeters (40 inches).

Photographs from the flooded area showed people wading through deep water covering the famed Piazza San Marco –St. Mark’s Square – which is the city’s lowest point. Other photographs showed city workers struggling to build elevated wooden walkways to aid people trying to evacuate flooded areas. The floods were sparked after heavy rains and strong winds lashed the lagoon city, pushing sea levels to their highest point in 22 years.

Ferry and water taxi services were suspended and the Venice mayor was urging people to stay indoors. The Centro Maree, which forecasts water levels, reported sea levels in the Adriatic rose 1.56 meters (5.1 ft) – a level not seen since 1986. The Piazza San Marco was under almost 3 feet of water at one point, before levels receded, the news agency ANSA reported. Previous highs include 1.58 meters in 1986 and 1.66 meters in 1979, the news agency said…

Venice from space, shot by NASA