Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Sept. 25 President Obama speech to UN

President Obama's speech to the UN general assembly – full transcript
Delivered to the UN in New York on 25 September 2012
Nothing in regard to the environment.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Arctic expert: Final collapse of sea ice imminent

Why is the sea ice in the Arctic melting?

Arctic expert predicts final collapse of sea ice within four years

As sea ice shrinks to record lows, Prof Peter Wadhams warns a 'global disaster' is now unfolding in northern latitudes
John Vidal, Arctic Sunrise, 81N guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 September 2012 06.14 EDT

Photograph: John Mcconnico/AP
 
 
One of the world's leading ice experts has predicted the final collapse of Arctic sea ice in summer months within four years. In what he calls a "global disaster" now unfolding in northern latitudes as the sea area that freezes and melts each year shrinks to its lowest extent ever recorded, Prof Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University calls for "urgent" consideration of new ideas to reduce global temperatures.
....Wadhams has spent many years collecting ice thickness data from submarines passing below the arctic ocean. He predicted the imminent break-up of sea ice in summer months in 2007, when the previous lowest extent of 4.17 million square kilometres was set. This year, it has unexpectedly plunged a further 500,000 sq km to less than 3.5m sq km. "I have been predicting [the collapse of sea ice in summer months] for many years. The main cause is simply global warming: as the climate has warmed there has been less ice growth during the winter and more ice melt during the summer."

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Arctic sea ice at record seasonal minimum

National Snow and Ice Data Center

Arctic sea ice extent settles at record seasonal minimum

On September 16, 2012 sea ice extent dropped to 3.41 million square kilometers (1.32 million square miles). This appears to have been the lowest extent of the year. In response to the setting sun and falling temperatures, ice extent will now climb through autumn and winter. However, a shift in wind patterns or a period of late season melt could still push the ice extent lower. The minimum extent was reached three days later than the 1979 to 2000 average minimum date of September 13.
This year’s minimum was 760,000 square kilometers (293,000 square miles) below the previous record minimum extent in the satellite record, which occurred on September 18, 2007.  This is an area about the size of the state of Texas. The September 2012 minimum was in turn 3.29 million square kilometers (1.27 million square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average minimum, representing an area nearly twice the size of the state of Alaska. This year’s minimum is 18% below 2007 and 49% below the 1979 to 2000 average.
Overall there was a loss of 11.83 million square kilometers (4.57 million square miles) of ice since the maximum extent occurred on March 20, 2012, which is the largest summer ice extent loss in the satellite record, more than one million square kilometers greater than in any previous year.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Candidates' Speeches at the Conventions & the Environment

The Candidates Speeches at the Conventions & the Environment

Paul Ryan’s speech at the Republican National Convention.
Nothing on the environment.
Transcript of Paul Ryan's speech at the RNC Published August 29, 2012, FoxNews.com

Mitt Romney's Acceptance Speech
One statement on environment: “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. MY promise...is to help you and your family.”


Jo Biden’s speech at the Democratic National Convention
No mention of environment
Transcript of Joe Biden's speech at the DNC. Published September 06, 2012, FoxNews.com

President Obama's Convention Speech
Transcript of President Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, as delivered. September 6, 2012. Source: Federal News Service:
But unlike my opponent, I will not let oil companies write this country's energy plan or endanger our coastlines or collect another $4 billion in corporate welfare from our taxpayers. We're offering a better path.
         We're offering a better path where we — a future where we keep investing in wind and solar and clean coal, where farmers and scientists harness new biofuels to power our cars and trucks, where construction workers build homes and factories that waste less energy, where — where we develop a hundred-year supply of natural gas that's right beneath our feet. If you choose this path, we can cut our oil imports in half by 2020 and support more than 600,000 new jobs in natural gas alone. And yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet, because climate change is not a hoax. More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They are a threat to our children's future.

Over and over, we've been told by our opponents that bigger tax cuts and fewer regulations are the only way, that since government can't do everything, it should do almost nothing. If you can't afford health insurance, hope that you don't get sick. If a company releases toxic pollution into the air your children breathe, well, that's the price of progress.


Democratic Party Platform & the Environment

2012 Democratic National Platform: Moving America Forward

As in all cases, care is taken to avoid misrepresenting the views expressed by the candidates and their Parties by taking them out of context. The purpose of this study is to present the relevant information fairly and clearly. That is,
1) At this particular moment in history, what did the candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency of the United States have to say about the environment? and
2) What was occurring in the environment at this time?
General statements expressing general concern are generally omitted.
Statements regarding the environment appear on pp. 20-21, 25. They are excerpted here.

Environment.
President Obama has taken the most significant strides in decades to cut pollution and advance public health – protecting our children and communities from harmful pollution by restoring and advancing safeguards for clean air and water and by working to reduce carbon pollution. ….
We know that global climate change is one of the biggest threats of this generation – an economic, environmental, and national security catastrophe in the making. We affirm the science of climate change, commit to significantly reducing the pollution that causes climate change, and know we have to meet this challenge by driving smart policies that lead to greater growth in clean energy generation and result in a range of economic and social benefits.
            President Obama has been a leader on this issue. We have developed historic fuel efficiency standards that will limit greenhouse gas emissions from our vehicles for the first time in history, made unprecedented investments in clean energy, and proposed the first-ever carbon pollution limits for new fossil-fuel-fired power plants. As we move towards lower carbon emissions, we will continue to support smart, energy efficient manufacturing. Democrats pledge to continue showing international leadership on climate change, working toward an agreement to set emission limits in unison with other emerging powers. Democrats will continue pursuing efforts to combat climate change at home as well, because reducing our emissions domestically – through regulation and market solutions – is necessary to continue being an international leader on this issue. We understand that global climate change may disproportionately affect the poor, and we are committed to environmental justice.
            We are restoring treasured landscapes like the Great Lakes, the Florida Everglades, and local wilderness areas. We are working with Gulf Coast states to restore the Gulf and hold BP and other responsible parties accountable. Democrats will continue to work with local communities to conserve our publicly-owned lands and dramatically expand investments in conserving and restoring forests, grasslands, and wetlands across America for generations to come. We will ensure that our National Parks are protected while expanding opportunities for Americans to visit and experience these national treasures. Democrats will continue working to ensure the integrity of the waters Americans rely on every day for drinking, swimming, and fishing, by supporting initiatives that restore our rivers, oceans, coasts, and watersheds. We will preserve landscapes and ecosystems and open more lands and waters for hunting, fishing, and recreation. This will bolster local economies and is good for communities today and for generations to come.
            Our opponents have moved so far to the right as to doubt the science of climate change, advocate the selling of our federal lands, and threaten to roll back environmental protections that safeguard public health. Their leaders deny the benefits of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts – benefits like job creation, health, and the prevention of tens of thousands of premature deaths each year. They ignore the jobs that are created by promoting outdoor recreation, cleaning up our air, and promoting a healthy environment. pp. 20- 21

Climate Change. The national security threat from climate change is real, urgent, and severe. The change wrought by a warming planet will lead to new conflicts over refugees and resources; new suffering from drought and famine; catastrophic natural disasters; and the degradation of vital ecosystems across the globe. That is why, in addition to undertaking measures to enhance energy independence and promote efficiency, clean energy, and renewable sources of power here at home, the President and the Democratic Party have steadily worked to build an international framework to combat climate change. We will seek to implement agreements and build on the progress made during climate talks in Copenhagen, Cancun, and Durban, working to ensure a response to climate change policy that draws upon decisive action by all nations. Our goal is an effective, international effort in which all major economies commit to reduce their emissions, nations meet their commitments in a transparent manner, and the necessary financing is mobilized so that developing countries can mitigate the effects of climate change and invest in clean energy technologies. That is why the Obama administration has taken a leadership role in ongoing climate negotiations, working to ensure that other major economies like China and India commit to taking meaningful action. It is also why we have worked regionally to build clean energy partnerships in Asia, the Americas, and Africa. p. 25

Republican Party Platform & the Environment

The 2012 Republican Party Platform and the Environment

As in all cases, care is taken to avoid misrepresenting the views expressed by the candidates and their Parties by taking them out of context. The purpose of this study is to present the relevant information fairly and clearly. That is,
1) At this particular moment in history, what did the candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency of the United States have to say about the environment? and
2) What was occurring in the environment at this time?
General statements expressing general concern are generally omitted.


2012 Republican Platform: We Believe in America[1]
Statements regarding the environment appear on pp. 15, 16,17, 18-19. They are excerpted here.

Summary statement from the Platform regarding the environment (pp. 18-19):
We also call on Congress to take quick action to prohibit the EPA from moving forward with new greenhouse gas regulations that will harm the nation’s economy and threaten millions of jobs over the next quarter century. The most powerful environmental policy is liberty, the central organizing principle of the American Republic and its people. Liberty alone fosters scientific inquiry, technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and information exchange. Liberty must remain the core energy behind America’s environmental improvement.

The Republican Party will encourage and ensure diversified domestic sources of energy, from research and development, exploration, production, transportation, transmission, and consumption in a way that is economically viable and job-producing, as well as environmentally sound. p.15

The current Administration—with a President who publicly threatened to bankrupt anyone who builds a coal-powered plant—seems determined to shut down coal production in the United States p. 15
We will end the EPA’s war on coal and encourage the increased safe development in all regions of the nation’s coal resources, the jobs it produces, and the affordable, reliable energy that it provides for America. Further, we oppose any and all cap and trade legislation. p. 16

The current President personally blocked one of the most important energy and jobs projects in years. The Keystone XL Pipeline—which would have brought much needed Canadian and American oil to U.S. refineries—would create thousands of jobs. The current President’s job-killing combination of extremism and ineptitude threatens to create a permanent energy shortage. We are committed to approving the Keystone XL Pipeline and to streamlining permitting for the development of other oil and natural gas pipelines. pp. 15-16
Nuclear energy, now generating about 20 percent of our electricity through 104 power plants, must be expanded. No new nuclear generating plants have been licensed and constructed for thirty years. We call for timely processing of new reactor applications currently pending at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. p. 16

We encourage the cost effective development of renewable energy, but the taxpayers should not serve as venture capitalists for risky endeavors. It is important to create a pathway toward a market-based approach for renewable energy sources and to aggressively develop alternative sources for electricity generation such as wind, hydro, solar, biomass, geothermal, and tidal energy. Partnerships between traditional energy industries and emerging renewable industries can be a central component in meeting the nation’s long-term needs. Alternative forms of energy are part of our action agenda to power the homes and workplaces of the nation. p. 16

The current President has done nothing to disavow the scare campaign against hydraulic fracturing. We will respect the States’ proven ability to regulate the use of hydraulic fracturing, continue developmentof oil and gas resources in places like theBakken formation and Marcellus Shale, and review the environmental laws that often thwart new energy exploration and production. We salute the Republican Members of the House of Representatives for passing the Domestic Energy and Jobs Act, a vital piece of pro-growth legislation now introduced by Republicans in the Senate. pp. 16-17

Protecting Our Environment
The environment is getting cleaner and healthier. The nation’s air and waterways, as a whole, are much healthier than they were just a few decades ago. Efforts to reduce pollution, encourage recycling, educate the public, and avoid ecological degradation have been a success. To ensure their continued support by the American people, however, we need a dramatic change in the attitude of officials in Washington, a shift from a job-killing punitive mentality to a spirit of cooperation with producers, landowners, and the public. An important factor is full transparency in development of the data and modeling that drive regulations. Legislation to restore the authority of States in environmental protection is essential. We encourage the use of agricultural best management practices among the States to reduce pollution.
Our Republican Party’s Commitment to Conservation
Conservation is a conservative value. As the pioneer of conservation over a century ago, the Republican Party believes in the moral obligation of the people to be good stewards of the God-given natural beauty and resources of our country and bases environmental policy on several common-sense principles.
For example, we believe people are the most valuable resource, and human health and safety are the most important measurements of success. A policy protecting these objectives, however, must balance economic development and private property rights in the short run with conservation goals over the long run. Also, public access to public lands for recreational activities such as hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting should be permitted on all appropriate federal lands.
            Moreover, the advance of science and technology advances environmentalism as well. Science allows us to weigh the costs and benefits of a policy so that we can prudently deal with our resources. This is especially important when the causes and long-range effects of a  phenomenon are uncertain. We must restore scientific integrity to our public research institutions and remove political incentives from publicly funded research.
Private Stewardship of the Environment
Experience has shown that, in caring for the land and water, private ownership has been our best guarantee of conscientious stewardship, while the worst instances of environmental degradation have occurred under government control. By the same token, the most economically advanced countries–those that respect and protect private property rights—also have the strongest environmental protections, because their economic progress makes possible the conservation of natural resources. In this context, Congress should reconsider whether parts of the federal government’s enormous landholdings and control of water in the West could be better used for ranching, mining, or forestry through private ownership. Timber is a renewable natural resource, which provides jobs to thousands of Americans. All efforts should be made to make federal lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service available for harvesting. The enduring truth is that people best protect what they own. It makes sense that those closest to a situation are best able to determine its remedy. That is why a site- and situation-specific approach to an environmental problem is more likely to solve it, instead of a national rule based on the ideological concerns of politicized central planning. We therefore endorse legislation to require congressional approval before any rule projected to cost in excess of $100 million to American consumers can go into effect.
            The Republican Party supports appointing public officials to federal agencies who will properly and correctly apply environmental laws and regulations, always in support of economic development, job creation, and American prosperity and leadership. Federal agencies charged with enforcing environmental laws must stop regulating beyond their authority. There is no place in regulatory agencies for activist regulators.
Reining in the EPA
            Since 2009, the EPA has moved forward with expansive regulations that will impose tens of billions of dollars in new costs on American businesses and consumers. Many of these new rules are creating regulatory uncertainty, preventing new projects from going forward, discouraging new investment, and stifling job creation.
            We demand an end to the EPA’s participation in “sue and settle” lawsuits, sweetheart litigation brought by environmental groups to expand the Agency’s regulatory activities against the wishes of Congress and the public. We will require full transparency in litigation under the nation’s environmental laws, including advance notice to all State and local governments, tribes, businesses, landowners, and the public who could be adversely affected. We likewise support pending legislation to ensure cumulative analysis of EPA regulations, and to require full transparency in all EPA decisions, so that the public will know in advance their full impact on jobs and the economy. We oppose the EPA’s unwarranted revocation of existing permits. We also call on Congress to take quick action to prohibit the EPA from moving forward with new greenhouse gas regulations that will harm the nation’s economy and threaten millions of jobs over the next quarter century. The most powerful environmental policy is liberty, the central organizing principle of the American Republic and its people. Liberty alone fosters scientific inquiry, technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and information exchange. Liberty must remain the core energy behind America’s environmental improvement. pp. 18-19

[1] Paid for by the Committee on Arrangements for the 2012 Republican National Convention
Not Authorized By Any Candidate Or Candidate’s Committee. www.gopconvention2012.com

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Research Guidelines

The “As the World Burns” blog will report
a) notable events in the environment during the 2012 US Presidential campaign, from the opening of the Republican Convention, August 27, to the election November 6.
b) positions put forward and statements made about the environment by the presidential and vice-presidential candidates (including Party Platforms) during this period.
c) statements of the experts regarding the environmental issues that are reported.

Hypothesis. The hypothesis is that there will be a vast gulf between the gravity of what is happening regarding the environment and the positions of the US presidential candidates and their running mates.
         The larger hypothesis is that the United States government is incapable of responding responsibly to threats of the greatest magnitude. But validation or falsification of this hypothesis will require a more extended study. The current research can be taken as a sort of a “core drilling” into a particularly telling moment of the American character.

Method:
The method followed is data collection and organization. The data will be gathered from authoritative news or scientific sources such as the official websites of the candidates, The Guardian online, Science News, The New York Times, governmental and United Nations’ websites.
The stories or statements themselves, or an abbridgment, will be posted with references.
A document containing the statements of each candidate will be maintained.
A summary of events and a separate statements, with discussion (including limitations of the study) and implications for future research will be made and published after the election.

Complexities:
There are three particular complexities that can be kept in mind:
First, the candidates are prevented by practical considerations from being forthright regarding such bad news as environmental issues invariably end up focused on. Thus, adapting the principle of charity, their position should be appreciated.
         This is, nonetheless, irrelevant to this study. This study is a report regarding the environmental issues facing the world in 2012, and what the candidates for the presidency of the United States of America had to say about the environment at that time.  
Second, talk is cheap. It is easier to say something than to mean it or to act.

Third, the issues themselves have a long history;  their appearance during the 70 days of the campaign is like the appearance of symptoms. Thus, neither the statements of the candidates nor the events themselves are taking place in isolation from the larger context.

Before closing this report, statements of experts regarding the issues will be included.
The final report will be presented November 15, 2012.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Arctic Ice half that of 40 years ago

Arctic sea ice shrinks to smallest extent ever recorded.
Rate of summer ice melt smashes two previous record lows and prompts warnings of accelerated climate change. John Vidal and Adam Vaughan guardian.co.uk

In a related article, "Is there even less Arctic sea ice than the satellites show?"  Vidal reports that "Only 350 miles from the north pole, possibly 50% of the sea is covered in ice, yet data says there is ice cover at this latitude."
  For the complete articles, see the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/14/arctic-sea-ice-smallest-extent

The candidates & the hypothesis

As the World Burned: The Campaign and the Environment.
Reporting on major environmental dangers and disasters occurring during the 2012 US presidential campaign and what the candidates state.

September 2012  marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the research she had done establishing a link between DDT and harms to the environment. Some of us may remember that this was one of the founding documents (and more than a document) of the environmental movement. In that spirit, we will conduct our own little study, following the environmental news and the candidates' responses. This is simple scientific study, and aims to report the data fairly: that which is favorable to the hypothesis, and that which is unfavorable.

Here is the hypothesis: While major environmental problems are appearing and worsening daily, with enormous implications for the immediate present and the future of the Earth, both candidates will fail to acknowledge the problems, much less present a response that could approach wisdom.

Should the hypothesis be verified, the conclusion follows that the US political system is incapable of responding to threats that science states are quite grave. What follows from this is for you to decide.

The data itself will no doubt make amusing reading for future readers during the Endless Summer.
 
Our story begins with the Republican National Convention, which had to be cut from four to three days because of Hurricane Isaac--the photo was taken Aug 28, the opening day of the Convention.

August 29, 2012

The day the world went mad

As record sea ice melt scarcely makes the news while the third runway grabs headlines, is there a form of reactive denial at work?
                Yesterday was August 28th 2012. Remember that date. It marks the day when the world went raving mad.
Three things of note happened. The first is that a record Arctic ice melt had just been announced by the scientists studying the region. The 2012 figure has not only beaten the previous record, established in 2007. It has beaten it three weeks before the sea ice is likely to reach its minimum extent. It reveals that global climate breakdown is proceeding more rapidly than most climate scientists expected. But you could be forgiven for missing it, as it scarcely made the news at all. . . .
               The third event was that the Republican party in the United States began its national convention in Tampa, Florida – a day late. Why? Because of the anticipated severity of hurricane Isaac, which reached the US last night. As Kevin Trenberth of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research, noted earlier this year:
"Basic theory, climate model simulations, and empirical evidence all confirm that warmer climates, owing to increased water vapor, lead to more intense precipitation events even when the total annual precipitation is reduced slightly … all weather events are affected by climate change because the environment in which they occur is warmer and moister than it used to be." (h/t: Joe Romm at Climate Progress)
                The Republican party's leading lights either deny climate change altogether, or argue that people can adapt to whatever a changed climate may bring, so there's nothing to worry about. The deluge of reality has had no impact on the party's determination to wish the physical world away. As Salon.com points out, most of the major figures lined up to speak at the convention deny that man-made climate change is happening.
                When your children ask how and why it all went so wrong, point them to yesterday's date, and explain that the world is not led by rational people.
 
This was followed by 3 amusing stories on the collapse of the Caribbean coral reefs, further reports on Arctic ice loss, and the threat of global hunger due to this summer's drought in the US and Russia. Two from The Guardian, one from the NY Times.

September 4, 2012 Experts Issue a Warning as Food Prices Shoot Up By ANNIE LOWREY WASHINGTON — With the worst drought in half a century withering corn across the Midwest, agricultural experts on Tuesday urged international action to prevent the global spike in food prices from causing global hunger.
The directors of three major United Nations food and agriculture programs sounded the alarm both on the immediate problem of high food prices and the ―long-term issue of how we produce, trade and consume food in an age of increasing population, demand and climate change.‖
Agricultural production has fallen in a number of major crop exporters this summer. Sweltering heat and a severe drought have damaged the corn crop in the United States. Droughts have also hit Russia and Ukraine, hurting the wheat harvest, as well as Brazil, affecting soybean production.
Low yields have translated into high prices. Last week, the World Bank reported that food prices climbed 10 percent from June to July, with the price of both corn and wheat jumping 25 percent to records. Soybean prices climbed 17 percent over the same period, and rice prices declined moderately, the Washington-based institution said.
"We cannot allow these historic price hikes to turn into a lifetime of perils as families take their children out of school and eat less nutritious food," Dr. Jim Yong Kim, who became president of the World Bank in July, said in a statement. "Countries must strengthen their targeted programs to ease the pressure on the most vulnerable population."
To that end, the World Bank and the United Nations food agencies — along with other development and aid groups — have urged countries to prepare for what seems likely to become the third food price shock in five years. Low-income countries that rely on agricultural imports should invest in safety-net programs for the poor, they recommended. They also urged countries to bolster local production.
Groups including the World Bank and the United Nations have also warned against trade protectionist policies in light of climbing food prices.
....
International groups increasingly see inconsistent yields and drastic swings in food prices as a problem driven by climate change — and a global challenge that is not intermittent, but here to stay. Since the food crisis in 2007 and 2008, they have bolstered international cooperation to help foster more stable food supplies and keep the most vulnerable countries prepared.
Oxfam, the international nonprofit, issued a report on Tuesday estimating how extreme weather events might affect food prices in the coming decades — forecasting that the prices of a number of food staples could surge far beyond the projected increases.
―We will all feel the impact as prices spike but the poorest people will be hit hardest because they often spend up to 75 percent of their income on food,‖ said Heather Coleman, climate change policy adviser for Oxfam America, in a statement.
The United Nations agencies warned that too few countries were producing too large a proportion of staple crops — leaving the world more vulnerable to droughts and floods. September 10, 2012 Arctic Ice, Coral reefs, World food crisis
2

Fiona Harvey, 2012.
Caribbean coral reefs face collapse. guardian.co.uk, Sunday 9 September 2012
Caribbean coral reefs are in danger of disappearing, depriving the world of one of its most beautiful and productive ecosystems
Fiona Harvey in Jeju, South Korea
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 9 September 2012 22.00 EDT
Caribbean coral reefs – which make up one of the world's most colourful, vivid and productive ecosystems – are on the verge of collapse, with less than 10% of the reef area showing live coral cover.
With so little growth left, the reefs are in danger of utter devastation unless urgent action is taken, conservationists warned. They said the drastic loss was the result of severe environmental problems, including over-exploitation, pollution from agricultural run-off and other sources, and climate change.
The decline of the reefs has been rapid: in the 1970s, more than 50% showed live coral cover, compared with 8% in the newly completed survey. The scientists who carried it out warned there was no sign of the rate of coral death slowing.
Coral reefs are a particularly valuable part of the marine ecosystem because they act as nurseries for younger fish, providing food sources and protection from predators until the fish have grown large enough to fend better for themselves. They are also a source of revenue from tourism and leisure.
Carl Gustaf Lundin, director of the global marine and polar programme at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which published the research, said: "The major causes of coral decline are well known and include overfishing, pollution, disease and bleaching caused by rising temperatures resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. Looking forward, there is an urgent need to immediately and drastically reduce all human impacts [in the area] if coral reefs and the vitally important fisheries that depend on them are to survive in the decades to come."
Warnings over the poor state of the world's coral reefs have become more frequent in the past decades as pollution, increasing pressure on fish stocks, and the effects of global warming on the marine environment – in the form of higher sea temperatures and slightly elevated levels of acidity in the ocean – have taken their toll. September 10, 2012 Arctic Ice, Coral reefs, World food crisis
3 Last year, scientists estimated that 75% of the Caribbean's coral reefs were in danger, along with 95% of those in south-east Asia. That research, from the World Resources Institute, predicted that by 2050 virtually all of the world's coral reefs would be in danger.
This decline is likely to have severe impacts on coastal villages, particularly in developing countries, where many people depend on the reefs for fishing and tourism. Globally, about 275 million people live within 19 miles of a reef.
IUCN, which is holding its quadrennial World Conservation Congress on Jeju island in South Korea this week, said swift action was vital. The organisation called for catch quotas to limit fishing, more marine-protected areas where fishing would be banned, and measures that would halt the run-off of fertilisers from farmland around the coast. To save reefs around the world, moves to stave off global warming would also be needed, the group said.
On a few of the more remote Caribbean reefs, the situation is less dire. In the Netherlands Antilles, Cayman Islands and a few other places, the die-off has been slower, with up to 30% coverage of live coral still remaining. The scientists noted that these reefs were in areas less exposed to human impact from fishing and pollution, as well as to natural disasters such as hurricanes.
The report – compiled by 36 scientists from 18 countries – was the work of the IUCN-coordinated Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.


'A great silence is spreading over the natural world'
Bernie Krause has spent 40 years recording nature's sounds. But such is the rate of species and habitat loss that his tapes may become our only record of the original diversity of life
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/sep/10/arctic-sunrise-polar-ice-cap?intcmp=122 Further north than expected, the Arctic Sunrise reaches the edge of the ice cap Posted by John Vidal Monday 10 September 2012 06.50 EDT guardian.co.uk
The Greenpeace ship must press deeper into the ice to allow the scientists to find the right ice floe to begin their research
After setting out from northern Norway last week to witness this year's record sea melt in the Arctic, we reached the edge of the Arctic polar ice cap this morning. It's far further north than expected, at around 82 deg N, but the annual sea ice retreat here has been nowhere near as great as on the Alaskan side of the ice cap, where it has dramatically pulled back hundreds of miles further than usual.
.... We are now less than 500 miles from the north pole and the temperature is dropping fast. The plan is to press deeper into the ice to find a good-sized floe where the three scientists, based in Cambridge, Scotland and the US, can set up their instruments to measure ice thickness, wave action and how the waves change as they penetrate the ice.
Nick Toberg from the University of Cambridge is working with Ettiore Pedretti, an engineer from the Scottish Marine Institute in Oban, to see how waves get under the pack ice and break it up. The impact of the waves on the rapid acceleration of ice loss in the Arctic is a little understood area and they have brought a buoy full of instruments which they will test. Next year they want to return with 25 more buoys to monitor wave action over many kilometres. The data could be vital to understanding how waves expose more water to solar radiation and allow the ice to melt from below.
Julienne Stroeve, from the National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, is here to track and "characterise" the ice we pass though. She mostly works from satellite data, but they can't tell the quality or age of the ice or the way it is moving.


September 14, 2012
NY Times, September 14, 2012 A17
Jess Bidgood and Kirk Johnson 

U.S. Declares a Disaster for Fishery in Northeast

BOSTON — The Commerce Department on Thursday issued a formal disaster declaration for the Northeastern commercial groundfish fishery, paving the way for financial relief for the battered industry and the communities that depend on it.
         To many here, the declaration underscored the urgency of a groundfish depletion that has become apparent to many scientists and some fishermen who work in New England’s waters. “Fishermen in the Northeast are facing financial hardships because of the unexpectedly slow rebuilding of fish stocks,” Rebecca Blank, the acting secretary of commerce, said in a statement.
         The declaration, which allows Congress to appropriate financial relief for the industry but does not guarantee any funds, comes after an assessment last year by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that found that the population of Gulf of Maine cod — a critical commercial species here — was about 20 percent of its rebuilding target.
         Those findings increased the likelihood that federal catch-limits will be cut significantly in 2013 (regulators say cuts for some species could be higher than 70 percent), which some fishermen feel could further cripple an industry already suffering from withering stocks.
         “This year has been the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said John Our, who has caught only 500 of the 180,000 pounds of cod he was allotted this year and has shifted his focus to dogfish instead. “It is a disaster, I’ll give them that. I just don’t see any fish being landed.”
         Fishery disaster declarations are not novel for the agency — it often makes at least several per year — but are unusual for a fishery that has been actively managed for decades, according to Peter Shelley, senior counsel at the Conservation Law Foundation, which supported this declaration despite opposing previous calls for such an action.
         “The problem wasn’t that fishermen were overfishing,” Mr. Shelley said, “but that their limits were set too high — because of a failure to understand how the system has been changing.”
The declaration comes as fishery management takes a prominent role in some of the region’s political campaigns. Senator Scott P. Brown, Republican of Massachusetts, recently released an advertisement featuring fishermen in Gloucester, Mass.; Representative John F. Tierney, a Democrat fighting a tough re-election battle in the state’s coastal Sixth Congressional District, and Representative William Keating, a Democrat who is running in the Ninth Congressional District, which includes Cape Cod, have both pushed federal regulators for the declaration.
The Commerce Department also declared commercial fishery disaster relief for three regions in Alaska where Chinook salmon catches have plummeted — on the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers, both of which flow into the Bering Sea off Alaska’s west coast, and in the Cook Inlet southwest of Anchorage.
         In asking for federal help this summer, Gov. Sean Parnell, a Republican, described a ripple effect through an outdoor economy, and the simultaneous challenges for the deeply rural communities where subsistence fishing is an element of culture and survival.
         The numbers indicate a sudden, stunning decline in recent years, about which scientists have not settled on an explanation. On the Yukon, for example, 1,488 pounds of salmon were harvested in 2011, down from more than 859,000 pounds in 2006, a state study found.
Jess Bidgood reported from Boston, and Kirk Johnson from Seattle. A version of this article appeared in print on September 14, 2012, on page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Declares A Disaster For Fishery In Northeast.