Imagine a World Without Seafood for Supper -- It's Nearer Than You Think
By Andrew Purvis, The Observer UK
April 29, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/environment/138874/imagine_a_world_without_seafood_for_supper_--_it%27s_nearer_than_you_think/
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/138874
http://www.alternet.org/story/138874/
As I step off the train at Heysel, the vast art deco structure of the Palais du Centenaire rises like a cathedral. With its four soaring buttresses topped by statues, the Palais forms the centrepiece of the Parc des Expositions in Brussels, Belgium - a trade-fair complex built in the 1930s to commemorate a century of independence from the Netherlands. This is the temporary home of thousands of fish products from around the world as 23,000 delegates descend from 80 countries for the annual European Seafood Exposition - the world's largest seafood trade show and a grim reminder of man's dominion over the oceans.
"If I wanted people to understand the global fishing crisis, I would bring them here," says Sally Bailey, a marine program officer with the World Wide Fund for Nature, one of the more moderate NGOs combating the exploitation of the seas. Last year, one of the more militant groups - Greenpeace - managed to "close down" five exhibitors trading in critically endangered bluefin tuna, by deploying 80 activists to drape their stands in fishing nets, chain themselves to fixtures and put up banners that read: "Time and tuna are running out".
To read the full article: http://www.alternet.org/story/138874/
Showing posts with label issue: animals dying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label issue: animals dying. Show all posts
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Mercury levels rising in caribou
Mercury levels rising in caribou, contaminants program finds
Monday, February 2, 2009
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/02/02/north-caribou.html
Caribou in Canada's North are showing increasing levels of mercury, a contaminant that has drifted into the Arctic from other parts of the world, researchers have found.
Mercury is one of two contaminants found in northern environments that are of great concern to scientists, said Mary Gamberg, project co-ordinator with federal Northern Contaminants Program in the Yukon.
Gamberg said mercury "seems to be increasing in some [wildlife] populations all across the Arctic," she told CBC News in an interview Monday.
"In marine mammals, in some populations, it's increasing. And in caribou, in some populations — and particularly in female caribou — it seems to be increasing, which is really interesting," she added.
The contaminants program also monitors the amounts of cadmium in the North, but Gamberg said cadmium occurring in wildlife is due to natural sources and levels in animals are currently stable.
Mercury, however, is a major concern not just in the Arctic ecosystem, but also around the world, Gamberg said.
"The mercury is emitted down south, it comes up into the North, it falls out of the air because it's very cold here," she said.
"So we get a lot of mercury that isn't originated in the Arctic, but we get it. So it's in the environment and it's in the wildlife."
This year marks the 15th year that the Northern Contaminants Program has been annually testing the livers, kidneys and other body parts of caribou, moose and other northern animals.
Gamberg said the program has recently expanded to accept animal samples from the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Researchers even received samples from Greenland last year, she added.
The contaminants program was set up in 1991, in response to northerners' concerns about eating traditional game animals that have been exposed to toxic substances drifting into the Arctic from industrialized regions elsewhere.
Health Canada recommends that people not eat more than 25 caribou kidneys a year from the Porcupine caribou herd, Gamberg said.
As for current research, Gamberg said scientists are studying why mercury levels in caribou are rising, particularly in female caribou.
Researchers will look at what caribou eat, including lichen, cotton grass and willows, to see where the elevated amounts of mercury are coming from.
This year's research will focus on the Porcupine caribou herd, Gamberg said. Researchers hope to study the Bathurst herd in the Northwest Territories next year.
Other studies are ongoing into mercury levels in other northern animals, she added.
Monday, February 2, 2009
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/02/02/north-caribou.html
Caribou in Canada's North are showing increasing levels of mercury, a contaminant that has drifted into the Arctic from other parts of the world, researchers have found.
Mercury is one of two contaminants found in northern environments that are of great concern to scientists, said Mary Gamberg, project co-ordinator with federal Northern Contaminants Program in the Yukon.
Gamberg said mercury "seems to be increasing in some [wildlife] populations all across the Arctic," she told CBC News in an interview Monday.
"In marine mammals, in some populations, it's increasing. And in caribou, in some populations — and particularly in female caribou — it seems to be increasing, which is really interesting," she added.
The contaminants program also monitors the amounts of cadmium in the North, but Gamberg said cadmium occurring in wildlife is due to natural sources and levels in animals are currently stable.
Mercury, however, is a major concern not just in the Arctic ecosystem, but also around the world, Gamberg said.
"The mercury is emitted down south, it comes up into the North, it falls out of the air because it's very cold here," she said.
"So we get a lot of mercury that isn't originated in the Arctic, but we get it. So it's in the environment and it's in the wildlife."
This year marks the 15th year that the Northern Contaminants Program has been annually testing the livers, kidneys and other body parts of caribou, moose and other northern animals.
Gamberg said the program has recently expanded to accept animal samples from the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Researchers even received samples from Greenland last year, she added.
The contaminants program was set up in 1991, in response to northerners' concerns about eating traditional game animals that have been exposed to toxic substances drifting into the Arctic from industrialized regions elsewhere.
Health Canada recommends that people not eat more than 25 caribou kidneys a year from the Porcupine caribou herd, Gamberg said.
As for current research, Gamberg said scientists are studying why mercury levels in caribou are rising, particularly in female caribou.
Researchers will look at what caribou eat, including lichen, cotton grass and willows, to see where the elevated amounts of mercury are coming from.
This year's research will focus on the Porcupine caribou herd, Gamberg said. Researchers hope to study the Bathurst herd in the Northwest Territories next year.
Other studies are ongoing into mercury levels in other northern animals, she added.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Fall Fish Count in Delta is Dismal
Fall fish count in Delta is dismal
By Matt Weiser
mweiser@sacbee.com
(916) 321-1264
Friday, Jan. 23, 2009 | Page 6B
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1567091.html
[Read comments:
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1567091.html#Comments_Container ]
Delta fish continue to hover at the brink of extinction, and conditions could worsen for the estuary and the economy unless winter gets a lot wetter, according to a new state survey.
Native Delta smelt, a threatened fish, is at its lowest point in 42 years of record-keeping. Two nonnative fish, the American shad and threadfin shad, also set record lows.
The findings were in the state Department of Fish and Game's latest fall population survey of Delta fish species, which concluded in December.
Three other species showed slight gains over 2007, but remain well below historical averages: the native longfin smelt and Sacramento splittail, and the nonnative striped bass. Even though the survey found no splittails last fall, and just one in 2007, officials say the fish isn't often found in the areas netted and that some previous counts likewise have not detected them.
"When the uncommon ones like Delta smelt and the common ones like threadfin shad both take a nosedive, there's something really wrong," said Bruce Herbold, a biologist who monitors the Delta for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "We're really seeing a massive change."
The health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is of concern because it is a freshwater source for two-thirds of California's population and millions of acres of farmland.
Last year, Delta water diversions were slashed about 30 percent to protect fish, bringing a hit of at least $300 million to the economy, according to an estimate by the state Department of Water Resources.
It could get worse this year.
In December, DWR warned water contractors they might get only 15 percent of average Delta water deliveries due to the ongoing drought.
On Wednesday, a DWR planning committee reported the delivery forecast may shrink further, perhaps as low as 5 percent to 9 percent of average.
It is rare to see that forecast shrink mid-winter. It usually grows as storms deepen the Sierra Nevada snowpack.
But as DWR Deputy Director Ralph Torres noted, California has seen little precipitation since December, and needs a deluge to refill reservoirs.
The report was obtained by The Bee prior to its official release. Torres said a new delivery forecast has not been made, but he confirmed it will likely be less than 15 percent.
"Originally we had planned on doing that (new forecast) by Feb. 15," Torres said. "But we may move that date up, because we don't think any precipitation between now and then is going to change anything."
The water content of the statewide snowpack stood at 57 percent of normal on Thursday. Oroville Reservoir, the main supply for the State Water Project, has nearly reached a record low level.
The report suggests California's water supply is on a path to match the two worst droughts in state history: 1923-24 and 1976-77.
Could things get that bad?
"It's probably a scenario we have to consider," Torres said.
This could worsen conditions for struggling Delta fish species, and for water quality.
Biologists warn that the Delta is in the midst of a human-caused shift – to a different kind of aquatic habitat, one that holds risks for human and environmental health.
The estuary is changing, they say, into a warmer and more stagnant water body where toxic algae blooms are common. Seasonal shifts in temperature and salinity that once defined and cleansed the estuary are disappearing.
Causes are many, experts say, including urban and agricultural pollution and the introduction of thousands of foreign wildlife species. The Delta has also been managed for decades as a freshwater delivery tool serving the world's eighth-largest economy, ahead of the needs of wildlife and water quality.
"You put them together and you get what I'm calling a train wreck," said Bill Bennett, a UC Davis fisheries ecologist and and Delta smelt expert.
By Matt Weiser
mweiser@sacbee.com
(916) 321-1264
Friday, Jan. 23, 2009 | Page 6B
http://www.sacbee.com/
[Read comments:
http://www.sacbee.com/
Delta fish continue to hover at the brink of extinction, and conditions could worsen for the estuary and the economy unless winter gets a lot wetter, according to a new state survey.
Native Delta smelt, a threatened fish, is at its lowest point in 42 years of record-keeping. Two nonnative fish, the American shad and threadfin shad, also set record lows.
The findings were in the state Department of Fish and Game's latest fall population survey of Delta fish species, which concluded in December.
Three other species showed slight gains over 2007, but remain well below historical averages: the native longfin smelt and Sacramento splittail, and the nonnative striped bass. Even though the survey found no splittails last fall, and just one in 2007, officials say the fish isn't often found in the areas netted and that some previous counts likewise have not detected them.
"When the uncommon ones like Delta smelt and the common ones like threadfin shad both take a nosedive, there's something really wrong," said Bruce Herbold, a biologist who monitors the Delta for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "We're really seeing a massive change."
The health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is of concern because it is a freshwater source for two-thirds of California's population and millions of acres of farmland.
Last year, Delta water diversions were slashed about 30 percent to protect fish, bringing a hit of at least $300 million to the economy, according to an estimate by the state Department of Water Resources.
It could get worse this year.
In December, DWR warned water contractors they might get only 15 percent of average Delta water deliveries due to the ongoing drought.
On Wednesday, a DWR planning committee reported the delivery forecast may shrink further, perhaps as low as 5 percent to 9 percent of average.
It is rare to see that forecast shrink mid-winter. It usually grows as storms deepen the Sierra Nevada snowpack.
But as DWR Deputy Director Ralph Torres noted, California has seen little precipitation since December, and needs a deluge to refill reservoirs.
The report was obtained by The Bee prior to its official release. Torres said a new delivery forecast has not been made, but he confirmed it will likely be less than 15 percent.
"Originally we had planned on doing that (new forecast) by Feb. 15," Torres said. "But we may move that date up, because we don't think any precipitation between now and then is going to change anything."
The water content of the statewide snowpack stood at 57 percent of normal on Thursday. Oroville Reservoir, the main supply for the State Water Project, has nearly reached a record low level.
The report suggests California's water supply is on a path to match the two worst droughts in state history: 1923-24 and 1976-77.
Could things get that bad?
"It's probably a scenario we have to consider," Torres said.
This could worsen conditions for struggling Delta fish species, and for water quality.
Biologists warn that the Delta is in the midst of a human-caused shift – to a different kind of aquatic habitat, one that holds risks for human and environmental health.
The estuary is changing, they say, into a warmer and more stagnant water body where toxic algae blooms are common. Seasonal shifts in temperature and salinity that once defined and cleansed the estuary are disappearing.
Causes are many, experts say, including urban and agricultural pollution and the introduction of thousands of foreign wildlife species. The Delta has also been managed for decades as a freshwater delivery tool serving the world's eighth-largest economy, ahead of the needs of wildlife and water quality.
"You put them together and you get what I'm calling a train wreck," said Bill Bennett, a UC Davis fisheries ecologist and and Delta smelt expert.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
WTF - Palin Fights Endangered Listing for Belugas
Palin Fights Endangered Listing for Belugas
by Roddy Scheer
January 18, 2009
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4532&printview&imagesoff
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4532
Stepping back into the national spotlight for the first time since the presidential election, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announced last week that the state would be filing suit against the federal government to overturn the recent inclusion of the Cook Inlet beluga whale on the U.S. list of endangered species. The population of the whales, which marine biologists consider genetically distinct and geographically isolated from Alaska’s other four beluga sub-species, has plummeted in recent decades—in the 1980s, some 1,300 of the whales lived in Cook Inlet, while today only 375 or so of the animals are there.
The forthcoming lawsuit marks the second time that the Palin administration, which environmentalists accuse of being too cozy with the oil companies that dominate the state’s economy, has fought a federal endangered species listing. In August 2008, Alaska filed suit to overturn federal protection for the polar bear.
“Once again Governor Palin has demonstrated either a complete lack of understanding or lack of concern over the plight of endangered species,” says Brendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups which originally proposed federal protection for both the polar bear and the Cook Inlet belugas. “Governor Palin seems more than willing to sacrifice endangered whales on the altar of oil company profits.”
Source: Center for Biological Diversity
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2009/beluga-01-14-2009.html
by Roddy Scheer
January 18, 2009
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4532&printview&imagesoff
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4532
Stepping back into the national spotlight for the first time since the presidential election, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announced last week that the state would be filing suit against the federal government to overturn the recent inclusion of the Cook Inlet beluga whale on the U.S. list of endangered species. The population of the whales, which marine biologists consider genetically distinct and geographically isolated from Alaska’s other four beluga sub-species, has plummeted in recent decades—in the 1980s, some 1,300 of the whales lived in Cook Inlet, while today only 375 or so of the animals are there.
The forthcoming lawsuit marks the second time that the Palin administration, which environmentalists accuse of being too cozy with the oil companies that dominate the state’s economy, has fought a federal endangered species listing. In August 2008, Alaska filed suit to overturn federal protection for the polar bear.
“Once again Governor Palin has demonstrated either a complete lack of understanding or lack of concern over the plight of endangered species,” says Brendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups which originally proposed federal protection for both the polar bear and the Cook Inlet belugas. “Governor Palin seems more than willing to sacrifice endangered whales on the altar of oil company profits.”
Source: Center for Biological Diversity
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2009/beluga-01-14-2009.html
Friday, January 9, 2009
WWF: Focus on the enemy we don't see
WWF: Focus on the enemy we don’t see
December 23, 2008
http://www.supermarketguru.com/index.cfm/go/sg.viewArticle/articleId/196
All the ways retailers, suppliers and consumers demonstrate their green-ness are painting America with a fresh layer of environmental protectiveness. Trouble is, neither our nation’s activity nor our vision goes far enough, suggests the World Wildlife Fund in a position paper it calls “Leading the World Toward a Safer and Sustainable Future: Greenprint for a New Administration.”
The 17-page document, along with its 48-page Living Planet Report, serves as an urgent calling card to the incoming Obama presidency. “U.S. foreign policy has paid too little attention to the social, economic and environmental causes underlying many current conflicts [which] unchecked may pose a greater threat to global security in the future than terrorism does today,” the paper compels.
WWF cites climate change, natural resource exhaustion and ecosystem collapse as being “among the most profound and long-term threats to peace and security in the 21st century. The conflict imperiling the planet in the coming millennium is less likely to be between nations than between man and nature.”
The environment, says WWF, is “already stressed by unsustainable development, climate change and pollution….Consumptive demands are rising….Riots erupting as a result of soaring food prices may only be a taste of things to come if we fail to address this growing imbalance between what humanity consumes and what nature, in its declining state, can provide.”
To head off this potential devastation, WWF proposes a four-step plan to President-elect Obama:
1. Confront the challenge of climate change. Secure a new treaty, curb deforestation, lower greenhouse gas emissions and create a low-carbon economy.
2. Ensure food for all. Reconsider ethanol, help develop performance standards, do more to assist poor countries agriculturally, reform fisheries management.
3. Secure water for life. Make freshwater availability a strategic priority, establish water security through science and policies.
4. Protect nature and manage resources sustainably. Include conservation and sustainability in our foreign assistance programs, invest in our natural assets, engage China on green issues.
The essence of the plan is for the United States to lead the world in confronting critical environmental challenges, and restore the integrity of science to our policy and decisionmaking. “We still have time to meet the challenge of climate change, time to manage our resources sustainably, time to preserve nature for both the wonders that inspire us and the services that sustain us…but not all that much of it,” states WWF.
To SupermarketGuru.com, it looks as if we’re in for a period of accountability for so many decades of humanity disrespecting the planet, living beyond sustainable means, and using resources to nationalistic advantage rather than managing conservatively on a global scale so all could benefit. Our world is out of sorts and needs to be given a chance to heal. These issues are tough, but timely, and sooner we address them, the better we and future generations will all be.
December 23, 2008
http://www.supermarketguru.
All the ways retailers, suppliers and consumers demonstrate their green-ness are painting America with a fresh layer of environmental protectiveness. Trouble is, neither our nation’s activity nor our vision goes far enough, suggests the World Wildlife Fund in a position paper it calls “Leading the World Toward a Safer and Sustainable Future: Greenprint for a New Administration.”
The 17-page document, along with its 48-page Living Planet Report, serves as an urgent calling card to the incoming Obama presidency. “U.S. foreign policy has paid too little attention to the social, economic and environmental causes underlying many current conflicts [which] unchecked may pose a greater threat to global security in the future than terrorism does today,” the paper compels.
WWF cites climate change, natural resource exhaustion and ecosystem collapse as being “among the most profound and long-term threats to peace and security in the 21st century. The conflict imperiling the planet in the coming millennium is less likely to be between nations than between man and nature.”
The environment, says WWF, is “already stressed by unsustainable development, climate change and pollution….Consumptive demands are rising….Riots erupting as a result of soaring food prices may only be a taste of things to come if we fail to address this growing imbalance between what humanity consumes and what nature, in its declining state, can provide.”
To head off this potential devastation, WWF proposes a four-step plan to President-elect Obama:
1. Confront the challenge of climate change. Secure a new treaty, curb deforestation, lower greenhouse gas emissions and create a low-carbon economy.
2. Ensure food for all. Reconsider ethanol, help develop performance standards, do more to assist poor countries agriculturally, reform fisheries management.
3. Secure water for life. Make freshwater availability a strategic priority, establish water security through science and policies.
4. Protect nature and manage resources sustainably. Include conservation and sustainability in our foreign assistance programs, invest in our natural assets, engage China on green issues.
The essence of the plan is for the United States to lead the world in confronting critical environmental challenges, and restore the integrity of science to our policy and decisionmaking. “We still have time to meet the challenge of climate change, time to manage our resources sustainably, time to preserve nature for both the wonders that inspire us and the services that sustain us…but not all that much of it,” states WWF.
To SupermarketGuru.com, it looks as if we’re in for a period of accountability for so many decades of humanity disrespecting the planet, living beyond sustainable means, and using resources to nationalistic advantage rather than managing conservatively on a global scale so all could benefit. Our world is out of sorts and needs to be given a chance to heal. These issues are tough, but timely, and sooner we address them, the better we and future generations will all be.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Wendell Berry, from "The Unsettling of America"
“By now the [commercial] revolution has deprived the mass of consumers of any independent access to the staples of life: clothing, shelter, food, even water,” Wendell Berry wrote in “The Unsettling of America.” “Air remains the only necessity that the average user can still get for himself, and the revolution had imposed a heavy tax on that by way of pollution. Commercial conquest is far more thorough and final than military defeat.”
~Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture
~Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture
Friday, November 14, 2008
Bush rushes through harmful environment laws
Bush rushes through 'harmful' environment laws
New Scientist staff and Reuters
03 November 2008
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn15105-bush-rushes-through-harmful-environm\
ent-laws.html?full=true&print=true
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn15105-bush-rushes-through-harmful-environm\
ent-laws.html?feedId=online-news_rss20
As the US presidential candidates sprint toward the finish line, the Bush
administration is also sprinting to enact environmental policy changes before
leaving power.
The rule changes include getting wolves off the Endangered Species List,
allowing power plants to operate near national parks, relaxing regulations for
factory farm waste and making it easier for mountaintop coal-mining operations.
None have found much favour with environmental groups.
Even some free-market organisations have joined conservation groups to urge a
moratorium on last-minute rules proposed by the Interior Department and the
Environmental Protection Agency, among others.
"The Bush administration has had eight years in office and has issued more
regulations than any administration in history," says Eli Lehrer of the
Competitive Enterprise Institute. "At this point, in the current economic
climate, it would be especially harmful to push through ill-considered
regulations."
The Bush team has urged that regulations be issued no later than Saturday, so
they can be put in effect by the time George W. Bush leaves office on 20 January
2009.
Hard to undo
If they are in effect then, it will be hard for the next administration to undo
them, and in any case, this may not be the top priority for a new president,
says Matt Madia of OMB Watch, which monitors the White House Office of
Management and Budget through which these proposed regulations must pass.
"This is typical," Madia says of the administration's welter of eleventh-hour
rules. "It's a natural reaction to knowing that you're almost out of power."
According to Madia, industry is likely to benefit if Bush's rules on the
environment become effective. "Whether it's the electricity industry or the
mining industry or the agriculture industry, this is going to remove government
restrictions on their activity and in turn they're going to be allowed to
pollute more and that ends up harming the public."
What is unusual is the speedy trip some of these environmental measures are
taking through the process.
For example, one Interior Department rule that would erode protections for
endangered species in favour of mining interests drew more than 300,000 comments
from the public, which officials said they planned to review in a week, a pace
that Madia calls "pretty ludicrous."
Rules only go into effect 30 to 60 days after they are finalised, and if they
are not in effect when the next president takes office, that chief executive can
decline to put them into practice - as Bush did with many rules finalised at the
end of the Clinton administration.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto denied the Bush team was cramming these
regulations through in a hasty push.
New Scientist staff and Reuters
03 November 2008
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn15105-bush-rushes-through-harmful-environm\
ent-laws.html?full=true&print=true
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn15105-bush-rushes-through-harmful-environm\
ent-laws.html?feedId=online-news_rss20
As the US presidential candidates sprint toward the finish line, the Bush
administration is also sprinting to enact environmental policy changes before
leaving power.
The rule changes include getting wolves off the Endangered Species List,
allowing power plants to operate near national parks, relaxing regulations for
factory farm waste and making it easier for mountaintop coal-mining operations.
None have found much favour with environmental groups.
Even some free-market organisations have joined conservation groups to urge a
moratorium on last-minute rules proposed by the Interior Department and the
Environmental Protection Agency, among others.
"The Bush administration has had eight years in office and has issued more
regulations than any administration in history," says Eli Lehrer of the
Competitive Enterprise Institute. "At this point, in the current economic
climate, it would be especially harmful to push through ill-considered
regulations."
The Bush team has urged that regulations be issued no later than Saturday, so
they can be put in effect by the time George W. Bush leaves office on 20 January
2009.
Hard to undo
If they are in effect then, it will be hard for the next administration to undo
them, and in any case, this may not be the top priority for a new president,
says Matt Madia of OMB Watch, which monitors the White House Office of
Management and Budget through which these proposed regulations must pass.
"This is typical," Madia says of the administration's welter of eleventh-hour
rules. "It's a natural reaction to knowing that you're almost out of power."
According to Madia, industry is likely to benefit if Bush's rules on the
environment become effective. "Whether it's the electricity industry or the
mining industry or the agriculture industry, this is going to remove government
restrictions on their activity and in turn they're going to be allowed to
pollute more and that ends up harming the public."
What is unusual is the speedy trip some of these environmental measures are
taking through the process.
For example, one Interior Department rule that would erode protections for
endangered species in favour of mining interests drew more than 300,000 comments
from the public, which officials said they planned to review in a week, a pace
that Madia calls "pretty ludicrous."
Rules only go into effect 30 to 60 days after they are finalised, and if they
are not in effect when the next president takes office, that chief executive can
decline to put them into practice - as Bush did with many rules finalised at the
end of the Clinton administration.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto denied the Bush team was cramming these
regulations through in a hasty push.
Bush's Parting Shots at the Environment are Major
Bush's Parting Shots at the Environment Are Major
By Amanda Paulson, Christian Science Monitor
November 12, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/106444
http://www.alternet.org/water/106444/
http://www.alternet.org/story/106444/
[Read comments:
http://www.alternet.org/water/106444/#comments ]
The changes seem minor: clarifications of regulations, revisions to rules, updated land-management proposals.
But some recent proposals from the Interior Department - many likely to be finalized in the waning months of the Bush administration and pushed through with a shortened comment period - are seen by critics as an assault on America's environmental resources and an attempt to solidify industry-friendly policy.
The proposals include changes to the Endangered Species Act, new management plans for 11 million acres in Utah, an effort to revoke congressional committees' emergency powers to protect public lands, and a rule change for mountaintop mining regulations.
The Interior Department says the changes are common-sense ones that balance the needs of conservation with those of national energy policy. Environmentalists counter that the actions represent the final efforts of an administration that has been hostile to the environment since Day 1.
"Overall, it certainly is consistent with the approach this administration has taken for the past eight years," says Sharon Buccino, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's land program. "It's one final push before they go out the door to really open up public resources for private and industry gain."
Mr. Bush is not the first lame-duck president to change environmental rules. Bill Clinton, in the last few days of his presidency, pushed through regulations to protect vast areas of the West.
The proposals include the following:
A change to the Endangered Species Act to disallow the ESA from being used to regulate global climate change even if a species, like the polar bear, is suffering as a result of it. The change also reduces the number of scientific reviews of projects performed by the US Fish & Wildlife Service.
Six new resource management plans for 11 million acres of federal land in Utah that critics say would open more roads and trails, make nearly 9 million acres available for oil and gas development, and reduce the areas managed primarily for environmental value. Five of the plans were finished on Friday.
A rule change eliminating one of the few regulations governing mountaintop mining, a common practice in Appalachia in which a mountain's top is blown off to get access to the rich coal beds beneath. Currently, a largely ignored "buffer zone" rule bars mining companies from dumping debris within 100 feet of any stream. The new rule would require them to either avoid the buffer zone or show why that is not possible, and to minimize harming the streams "to the extent possible" if they must dump there.
A proposal to remove an "emergency powers" provision that allows the Interior Department or two congressional committees to protect public lands. The rule gained prominence this summer when the House Natural Resources Committee declared 1 million acres next to the Grand Canyon off limits to uranium mining.
These proposals have been portrayed incorrectly, says Chris Paolino, a spokesman for the Interior Department.
The proposed changes to the ESA, Mr. Paolino says, would clarify the Interior secretary's belief that the ESA is not the right mechanism for regulating climate change. "Science at this point cannot make the link between the specific greenhouse-gas emissions from, say, Kansas, and link it to the effect on a subset of polar bears or an individual polar bear in the Arctic region," he says. As for the reduced number of federal scientific reviews of projects, he believes it will allow the Fish & Wildlife scientists to give more time to projects that are more likely to affect listed species.
Environmental groups counter that allowing different agencies to determine whether a project needs independent scientific review hasn't worked in the past and could lead to a scattershot approach in which potential hazards to species are overlooked. "They won't have good sense of the cumulative impacts if they're not tracking projects across species and agencies," says Noah Greenwald, science director for the Center for Biodiversity in Tucson, Ariz.
As for the ESA's role in climate change, Mr. Greenwald argues that it provides a focus for assessing the impact of greenhouse-gas emissions. He notes that even in the past, when the ESA was used to regulate DDT because of its impact on the bald eagle, officials did not tie one use of DDT to the death of one particular eagle.
Some of the harshest criticism is reserved for the land-management proposals in Utah and the easing of restrictions on drilling and oil-shale exploration, in part because they would be difficult for a future administration to overturn.
"Defaulting to providing more and more routes for oil and gas and more land for oil and gas development effectively prohibits other uses of these lands," says Nada Culver, senior counsel for The Wilderness Society. Encouraging oil-shale development and geothermal leasing, and creating new "energy corridors" in the West, could lead to an "industrialization of the landscape," she adds.
The Bureau of Land Management, for its part, says most of the lands were already open to potential drilling and off-road vehicles. The new plans would get rid of some of the unrestricted vehicle use, they say, and put designated routes in play. "There seems to be a perception ... that these plans would throw open vast new acreage to development and use," says Don Ogaard, planning lead for Utah's BLM. "The land is open to that use now."
Amanda Paulson is a staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor.
By Amanda Paulson, Christian Science Monitor
November 12, 2008
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The changes seem minor: clarifications of regulations, revisions to rules, updated land-management proposals.
But some recent proposals from the Interior Department - many likely to be finalized in the waning months of the Bush administration and pushed through with a shortened comment period - are seen by critics as an assault on America's environmental resources and an attempt to solidify industry-friendly policy.
The proposals include changes to the Endangered Species Act, new management plans for 11 million acres in Utah, an effort to revoke congressional committees' emergency powers to protect public lands, and a rule change for mountaintop mining regulations.
The Interior Department says the changes are common-sense ones that balance the needs of conservation with those of national energy policy. Environmentalists counter that the actions represent the final efforts of an administration that has been hostile to the environment since Day 1.
"Overall, it certainly is consistent with the approach this administration has taken for the past eight years," says Sharon Buccino, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's land program. "It's one final push before they go out the door to really open up public resources for private and industry gain."
Mr. Bush is not the first lame-duck president to change environmental rules. Bill Clinton, in the last few days of his presidency, pushed through regulations to protect vast areas of the West.
The proposals include the following:
A change to the Endangered Species Act to disallow the ESA from being used to regulate global climate change even if a species, like the polar bear, is suffering as a result of it. The change also reduces the number of scientific reviews of projects performed by the US Fish & Wildlife Service.
Six new resource management plans for 11 million acres of federal land in Utah that critics say would open more roads and trails, make nearly 9 million acres available for oil and gas development, and reduce the areas managed primarily for environmental value. Five of the plans were finished on Friday.
A rule change eliminating one of the few regulations governing mountaintop mining, a common practice in Appalachia in which a mountain's top is blown off to get access to the rich coal beds beneath. Currently, a largely ignored "buffer zone" rule bars mining companies from dumping debris within 100 feet of any stream. The new rule would require them to either avoid the buffer zone or show why that is not possible, and to minimize harming the streams "to the extent possible" if they must dump there.
A proposal to remove an "emergency powers" provision that allows the Interior Department or two congressional committees to protect public lands. The rule gained prominence this summer when the House Natural Resources Committee declared 1 million acres next to the Grand Canyon off limits to uranium mining.
These proposals have been portrayed incorrectly, says Chris Paolino, a spokesman for the Interior Department.
The proposed changes to the ESA, Mr. Paolino says, would clarify the Interior secretary's belief that the ESA is not the right mechanism for regulating climate change. "Science at this point cannot make the link between the specific greenhouse-gas emissions from, say, Kansas, and link it to the effect on a subset of polar bears or an individual polar bear in the Arctic region," he says. As for the reduced number of federal scientific reviews of projects, he believes it will allow the Fish & Wildlife scientists to give more time to projects that are more likely to affect listed species.
Environmental groups counter that allowing different agencies to determine whether a project needs independent scientific review hasn't worked in the past and could lead to a scattershot approach in which potential hazards to species are overlooked. "They won't have good sense of the cumulative impacts if they're not tracking projects across species and agencies," says Noah Greenwald, science director for the Center for Biodiversity in Tucson, Ariz.
As for the ESA's role in climate change, Mr. Greenwald argues that it provides a focus for assessing the impact of greenhouse-gas emissions. He notes that even in the past, when the ESA was used to regulate DDT because of its impact on the bald eagle, officials did not tie one use of DDT to the death of one particular eagle.
Some of the harshest criticism is reserved for the land-management proposals in Utah and the easing of restrictions on drilling and oil-shale exploration, in part because they would be difficult for a future administration to overturn.
"Defaulting to providing more and more routes for oil and gas and more land for oil and gas development effectively prohibits other uses of these lands," says Nada Culver, senior counsel for The Wilderness Society. Encouraging oil-shale development and geothermal leasing, and creating new "energy corridors" in the West, could lead to an "industrialization of the landscape," she adds.
The Bureau of Land Management, for its part, says most of the lands were already open to potential drilling and off-road vehicles. The new plans would get rid of some of the unrestricted vehicle use, they say, and put designated routes in play. "There seems to be a perception ... that these plans would throw open vast new acreage to development and use," says Don Ogaard, planning lead for Utah's BLM. "The land is open to that use now."
Amanda Paulson is a staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Half of all Mammals Face Extinction/Severe Decline
Experts: Half of mammals in decline
Experts compile data for new 'Red List of Threatened Species'
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 11:14 a.m. ET, Mon., Oct. 6, 2008
BARCELONA, Spain - One in two mammal species on Earth are in decline and at least one in four are at risk of disappearing forever, according to a scientific survey released Monday and whose sponsors described the trend as an "extinction crisis" in the making.
"Mammals are declining faster than we thought," said Jan Schipper, lead author of a companion study being published this week in the journal Science.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature released the data compiled by 1,700 experts in 130 countries, adding that the numbers could be even worse given that data was lacking for hundreds of mammal species.
"The reality is that the number of threatened mammals could be as high as 36 percent," Schipper said in a statement released by the IUCN at a gathering in Barcelona.
"Our results paint a bleak picture of the global status of mammals worldwide," Schipper and his co-authors said in the study. "We estimate that one in four species is threatened with extinction and that the population of one in two is declining."
"The situation is particularly serious for land mammals in Asia, through the combined effects of overharvesting and habitat loss," the experts wrote in their study, "and for marine species, victims of our increasingly intensive use of the oceans."
Mammals range in size from blue whales to Thailand's insect-sized bumblebee bat.
"I think the bottom line is, what kind of a world do you want to leave for your children," said Andrew Smith, a professor in the Arizona State University School of Life Sciences. "How impoverished we would be if we lost 25 percent of the world's mammals," said Smith, one of more than 100 co-authors of the companion study.
In South and Southeast Asia, 79 percent of primate species are threatened with extinction, the IUCN noted.
Habitat loss and degradation affect 40 percent of the world’s mammals, the IUCN added. "It is most extreme in Central and South America, West, East and Central Africa, Madagascar, and in South and Southeast Asia."
'A frightening sign'
More than half of the 1,141 threatened mammal species fall under "critically endangered" (188) or "endangered" (450) categories used for the 2008 "IUCN Red List of Threatened Species."
"Within our lifetime hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions, a frightening sign of what is happening to the ecosystems where they live," IUCN Director Julia Marton-Lefevre said in the statement.
The Iberian lynx, with an adult population estimated at no more than 143, is among the critically endangered mammals. Its numbers have continued to decline due to earlier efforts by humans to eliminate its primary prey, the European rabbit.
Endangered mammals include the Tasmanian devil. The largest carnivorous marsupial in the world, it is the size of a small dog and found only on the Australian island state of Tasmania. It was moved from the "least concern" category after its numbers declined by more than 60 percent in 10 years due to a cancer that causes tumors around the mouth, eventually leading to death by starvation.
The fishing cat, found in Southeast Asia, moved from "vulnerable" to "endangered" due to habitat loss in wetlands.
"Over 45 percent of protected wetlands in Southeast Asia are considered threatened, including those that are home to this species," IUCN stated. "Clearance of coastal mangroves over the past decade has been rapid. The depletion of fish stocks from overfishing is likely to be a significant threat to this species which relies heavily on fish for its survival."
The Caspian seal also saw a downward trend — its numbers have declined by 90 percent in the last century due to unsustainable hunting and habitat degradation. "Since 2005 the number of pups born has plummeted by a catastrophic 60 percent to just 6,000-7,000," IUCN stated. "A low survival rate among pups has led researchers to fear there are barely enough breeding females to keep the population viable."
In addition, 29 species have been flagged as "critically endangered/possibly extinct."
Hopeful sign with African elephants
The IUCN noted that at least 76 mammals had gone extinct since 1500. "But the results also show conservation can bring species back from the brink of extinction, with five percent of currently threatened mammals showing signs of recovery in the wild," it added.
The study's authors urged governments and conservation groups to redouble protective efforts by using the Red List.
"More than simply reporting on the depressing status of the world's mammals, these Red List data can and should be used to inform strategies for addressing this crisis, for example to identify priority species and areas for conservation," the researchers concluded. "Despite a general deterioration in the status of mammals, our data also show that species recoveries are possible through targeted conservation efforts."
The 2008 Red List — which includes 44,838 species of wild fauna and flora, not just mammals — saw minor updates in recent years, but the version released Monday is the biggest revision since a 1996 Red List and includes marine mammals and many other species for the first time.
Under the new Red List, 16,928 species are considered threatened with extinction. Of these, 3,246 are in the highest category of threat, critically endangered; 4,770 are endangered; and 8,912 are vulnerable to extinction.
Even though most of the world has been explored, new mammal species continue to be discovered. This year's species total of 5,487 is up 19 percent since 1992.
While the new report estimated that one-in-four mammals is threatened with extinction, the actual numbers listed were 1,141 out of 5,487 species. That comes out to 20.8 percent, closer to one in five.
However, the researchers noted that there were several hundred species about which they don't have enough data to classify. They believe that the lack of information about those animals indicates that they exist in such small numbers that many could be endangered, raising the total to 25 percent or higher, Smith explained.
The IUCN describes itself as the world's oldest and largest global environmental network. It is made up of more than 1,000 government and nongovernment organizations and almost 11,000 volunteer scientists in more than 160 countries.
Hopeful sign with African elephants
One hopeful story is that of the African elephant. Poaching for ivory and meat has long been a major threat, and populations across the continent declined by 25 percent from 1979 to 2007.
But the species actually improved on the Red List, going from "vulnerable" to "near threatened," because of recent conservation efforts — and population increases — in southern and eastern Africa.
Those efforts, the IUCN said, "have been of sufficient magnitude to outweigh any decreases that may be taking place elsewhere across their vast range."
In addition to raising concern about mammals, the IUCN highlighted the threats to other wildlife, including:
# Indian tarantulas, sought by collectors and threatened by the international pet trade.
# The Rameshwaram parachute spider, listed as critically endangered due to habitat loss.
# The squaretail coral grouper from the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific, listed as vulnerable because it has become a luxury food.
# In Costa Rica, Holdridge's toad moved from critically endangered to extinct, as it has not been seen since 1986 despite intensive surveys.
# La Palma giant lizard, found on the Canary Island of La Palma and thought to have become extinct in the last 500 years, was rediscovered last year and is now listed as critically endangered.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26979274/
Experts compile data for new 'Red List of Threatened Species'
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 11:14 a.m. ET, Mon., Oct. 6, 2008
BARCELONA, Spain - One in two mammal species on Earth are in decline and at least one in four are at risk of disappearing forever, according to a scientific survey released Monday and whose sponsors described the trend as an "extinction crisis" in the making.
"Mammals are declining faster than we thought," said Jan Schipper, lead author of a companion study being published this week in the journal Science.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature released the data compiled by 1,700 experts in 130 countries, adding that the numbers could be even worse given that data was lacking for hundreds of mammal species.
"The reality is that the number of threatened mammals could be as high as 36 percent," Schipper said in a statement released by the IUCN at a gathering in Barcelona.
"Our results paint a bleak picture of the global status of mammals worldwide," Schipper and his co-authors said in the study. "We estimate that one in four species is threatened with extinction and that the population of one in two is declining."
"The situation is particularly serious for land mammals in Asia, through the combined effects of overharvesting and habitat loss," the experts wrote in their study, "and for marine species, victims of our increasingly intensive use of the oceans."
Mammals range in size from blue whales to Thailand's insect-sized bumblebee bat.
"I think the bottom line is, what kind of a world do you want to leave for your children," said Andrew Smith, a professor in the Arizona State University School of Life Sciences. "How impoverished we would be if we lost 25 percent of the world's mammals," said Smith, one of more than 100 co-authors of the companion study.
In South and Southeast Asia, 79 percent of primate species are threatened with extinction, the IUCN noted.
Habitat loss and degradation affect 40 percent of the world’s mammals, the IUCN added. "It is most extreme in Central and South America, West, East and Central Africa, Madagascar, and in South and Southeast Asia."
'A frightening sign'
More than half of the 1,141 threatened mammal species fall under "critically endangered" (188) or "endangered" (450) categories used for the 2008 "IUCN Red List of Threatened Species."
"Within our lifetime hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions, a frightening sign of what is happening to the ecosystems where they live," IUCN Director Julia Marton-Lefevre said in the statement.
The Iberian lynx, with an adult population estimated at no more than 143, is among the critically endangered mammals. Its numbers have continued to decline due to earlier efforts by humans to eliminate its primary prey, the European rabbit.
Endangered mammals include the Tasmanian devil. The largest carnivorous marsupial in the world, it is the size of a small dog and found only on the Australian island state of Tasmania. It was moved from the "least concern" category after its numbers declined by more than 60 percent in 10 years due to a cancer that causes tumors around the mouth, eventually leading to death by starvation.
The fishing cat, found in Southeast Asia, moved from "vulnerable" to "endangered" due to habitat loss in wetlands.
"Over 45 percent of protected wetlands in Southeast Asia are considered threatened, including those that are home to this species," IUCN stated. "Clearance of coastal mangroves over the past decade has been rapid. The depletion of fish stocks from overfishing is likely to be a significant threat to this species which relies heavily on fish for its survival."
The Caspian seal also saw a downward trend — its numbers have declined by 90 percent in the last century due to unsustainable hunting and habitat degradation. "Since 2005 the number of pups born has plummeted by a catastrophic 60 percent to just 6,000-7,000," IUCN stated. "A low survival rate among pups has led researchers to fear there are barely enough breeding females to keep the population viable."
In addition, 29 species have been flagged as "critically endangered/possibly extinct."
Hopeful sign with African elephants
The IUCN noted that at least 76 mammals had gone extinct since 1500. "But the results also show conservation can bring species back from the brink of extinction, with five percent of currently threatened mammals showing signs of recovery in the wild," it added.
The study's authors urged governments and conservation groups to redouble protective efforts by using the Red List.
"More than simply reporting on the depressing status of the world's mammals, these Red List data can and should be used to inform strategies for addressing this crisis, for example to identify priority species and areas for conservation," the researchers concluded. "Despite a general deterioration in the status of mammals, our data also show that species recoveries are possible through targeted conservation efforts."
The 2008 Red List — which includes 44,838 species of wild fauna and flora, not just mammals — saw minor updates in recent years, but the version released Monday is the biggest revision since a 1996 Red List and includes marine mammals and many other species for the first time.
Under the new Red List, 16,928 species are considered threatened with extinction. Of these, 3,246 are in the highest category of threat, critically endangered; 4,770 are endangered; and 8,912 are vulnerable to extinction.
Even though most of the world has been explored, new mammal species continue to be discovered. This year's species total of 5,487 is up 19 percent since 1992.
While the new report estimated that one-in-four mammals is threatened with extinction, the actual numbers listed were 1,141 out of 5,487 species. That comes out to 20.8 percent, closer to one in five.
However, the researchers noted that there were several hundred species about which they don't have enough data to classify. They believe that the lack of information about those animals indicates that they exist in such small numbers that many could be endangered, raising the total to 25 percent or higher, Smith explained.
The IUCN describes itself as the world's oldest and largest global environmental network. It is made up of more than 1,000 government and nongovernment organizations and almost 11,000 volunteer scientists in more than 160 countries.
Hopeful sign with African elephants
One hopeful story is that of the African elephant. Poaching for ivory and meat has long been a major threat, and populations across the continent declined by 25 percent from 1979 to 2007.
But the species actually improved on the Red List, going from "vulnerable" to "near threatened," because of recent conservation efforts — and population increases — in southern and eastern Africa.
Those efforts, the IUCN said, "have been of sufficient magnitude to outweigh any decreases that may be taking place elsewhere across their vast range."
In addition to raising concern about mammals, the IUCN highlighted the threats to other wildlife, including:
# Indian tarantulas, sought by collectors and threatened by the international pet trade.
# The Rameshwaram parachute spider, listed as critically endangered due to habitat loss.
# The squaretail coral grouper from the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific, listed as vulnerable because it has become a luxury food.
# In Costa Rica, Holdridge's toad moved from critically endangered to extinct, as it has not been seen since 1986 despite intensive surveys.
# La Palma giant lizard, found on the Canary Island of La Palma and thought to have become extinct in the last 500 years, was rediscovered last year and is now listed as critically endangered.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26979274/
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thousands of Sea Turtles Dead in Baja
Source: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/thousands_of_se.php
3,000 sea turtles have washed up dead on the shores of Baja, California in the last five years according to a report published by UC Santa Cruz last week. More below the fold.
The UC Santa Cruz report concluded that the North Pacific loggerhead turtles washing up in Baja are dying due to fishing activity. Turtles are accidentally caught in nets, hooks and other fishing gear. The Baja turtles are experiencing the highest stranding rates related to fishery activity in the world.
The North Pacific loggerhead travels 7,000 miles from Japan to Baja's Big Sur to feed for as many as thirty years before returning to Japan. In the past 10 years, the number of female turtles nesting in Japan has dropped by fifty to eighty percent.
Local fishermen are working with the Mexican government to protect the turtles. Together they plan to create a refuge for them in a designated "hot spot" area where most are harmed.
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