Everest sherpa: Global warming makes climbing hard

The Jakarta Post, Binaj Gurubacharya, Associated Press, Katmandu, Nepal | Tue, 05/25/2010 2:54 PM

A Nepalese Sherpa who climbed Mount Everest for a record 20th time said Tuesday that the melting of glacier ice along its slopes due to global warming is making it increasingly difficult to climb the peak.

"The rising temperature on the mountains has melted much ice and snow on the trail to the summit. It is difficult for climbers to use their crampons on the rocky surfaces," Apa told reporters after flying to Katmandu on Tuesday.

Apa, who uses only one name, reached the 29,035-foot (8,850-meter) summit on Saturday for the 20th time, beating his own previous record.

The 49-year-old first climbed Everest in 1989 and has repeated the feat almost every year since. His closest rival is fellow Sherpa guide Chhewang Nima, who has made 16 trips to the summit.

Apa said when he first began climbing Everest, there was hardly any rocky surface on the trail to the summit. Now, he says, the trail is dotted with bare rocks.

The melting ice has also exposed deep crevasses, making it dangerous for climbers.

Apa has been campaigning on global warming's negative effect on the Himalayan peaks for the past three years. In a separate environmental campaign to clean up the mountain, his Eco-Everest Expedition team has been collecting garbage from the slopes of Everest. This year the team collected 7,630 pounds (4,770 kilograms) of garbage.

Apa grew up in the foothills of Everest and began carrying equipment and supplies for trekkers and mountaineers at age 12. He moved to the United States in 2006 and lives in the Salt Lake City suburb of Draper.

Sherpas were mostly yak herders and traders living in the Himalayas until Nepal opened its borders to tourists in 1950. Their stamina and knowledge of the mountains makes them expert guides and porters.

A total of 233 climbers in 25 expedition teams from various nations have been permitted by the Nepalese government to climb Everest during the spring season from the southern face of the peak.

New species celebrated amid warnings of biodiversity loss

CNN, May 22, 2010 -- Updated 1643 GMT (0043 HKT)

(histiophryne psychedelica) Psychedelic Frogfish: It has an unusual psychedelic pattern and is unique frogfishes for its flat face.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Top 10 new species list includes frogfish, golden orb spider, bug-eating slugs
• Coincides with International Day of Biodiversity being marked in 11 countries
• United Nations says not enough is being done to reduce rate of biodiversity loss
• UNEP report found animal populations have dropped 30 percent since 1970

RELATED TOPICS

• Nature and the Environment
• Endangered Species

(CNN) -- A flat-faced frogfish, bug-eating slug and carnivorous sea sponge are some of the top new species named by scientists.

They appear on a "top 10" list of new species released Saturday amid warnings from the United Nations that the world is not doing enough to protect vulnerable eco-systems.

"Biodiversity loss is moving ecological systems ever closer to tipping point beyond which they will no longer be able to fulfill their vital functions," said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the International Day for Biological Diversity, which is being marked in 11 countries.

A report released in late April by researchers from the United Nations Environment Program showed that world leaders had failed on a 2002 commitment to reduce the global rate of biodiversity loss by 2010.

It found that since 1970 animal populations had dropped 30 percent, the area covered by mangroves and sea grasses was down 20 percent and the coverage of living corals had fallen 40 percent.

"The deadline has arrived, yet the deterioration of our natural resources continues apace," the secretary-general said in a statement.

He warned that communities everywhere would "reap the negative consequences," but that the "poorest people and most vulnerable communities will suffer most."

A number of events were held around the world Saturday to mark the International Day of Biodiversity. A garden was created along Paris' Champs-Elysees, children in Brazil were encouraged to dress up as animals, and the European Environment Agency unveiled a "living wall" at its headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The release of a top 10 list species for 2009 continues an annual tradition that marks the anniversary of the birth of Carolus Linnaeus, who initiated the modern system of classifying plants and animals.

The new list, issued by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University, was chosen from 18,225 species new to science in 2008, the most recent year for which data has been compiled. They come from Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, the U.S. and Uruguay.

The new discoveries include a golden orb spider able to spin webs of more than a meter in diameter. It is the first of its species named since 1879.

A minnow with fangs found in Myanmar is the first example of oral teeth-like structure found in the largest family of freshwater fishes. And, the sea slug that eats bugs was an unusual find in Pak Phanang Bay in the Gulf of Thailand as nearly all sacoglossans, or sea slugs, eat algae.

"Most people do not realize just how incomplete our knowledge of Earth's species is or the steady rate at which taxonomists are exploring that diversity," said Quentin Wheeler, director of the International Institute of Species Exploration.

As US Drowns in Oil, German Architects Harvest Sun and Wind

Jakarta Globe, James S Russell, May 21, 2010

The translucent exterior wrapping of Unilever’s headquarters in Hamburg cuts wind gusts so occupants can naturally ventilate their offices.  (Bloomberg Photo/Adam Mork)

At the edge of the Elbe River in Hamburg, Germany, I approached a seven-story building that appeared to be covered in bubble wrap stretched tight by cables and turnbuckles.

As a great oil slick spreads over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening expanded coastal oil drilling, Germany’s approach to conservation and renewable energy urgently deserves a closer look.

The eye-catching building is the headquarters for the Swiss, German and Austrian operations of Unilever, the world’s second-largest consumer-goods company after Procter & Gamble.

Architect Stefan Behnisch, of Behnisch Architekten in Stuttgart, borrowed from sailboat technology as one way to replace mechanical heating and cooling with natural ventilation. His next step was to replace electric lights with daylight.

The Unilever project embodies Germany’s keen focus on conservation and renewable energy.

Unilever’s transparent wrapping is called ETFE, and the yacht hardware holds it in place about a meter outside the building’s glass exterior. It cuts the chill North Sea winds so that windows can be opened for ventilation, rather than relying on air-conditioning. It also protects external blinds that moderate heat and glare.

Inside, the offices wrap around an atrium crisscrossed by bridges and stairways, and lined with balconies where marketers and product managers drink coffee while plotting world domination for Wisk.

The area’s big hula-hoop light fixtures are hardly needed since the sun beams through angled skylights overhead. Those fixtures use LEDs, the low-energy light source that is fast vanquishing those dingy compact fluorescents Americans are exhorted to use. As the heat of people and machines warms the air, it flows naturally into the atrium and up through heat-recovery devices that harvest the warmth and send it back into the building where needed.

The Unilever building requires almost no conventional heating and cooling, which lowers its energy use to 100 kilowatt hours per square meter per year. Remember this mouthful, as it is fast becoming the new lingo of low-energy buildings.

By comparison, an average U.S. commercial building requires about three times that amount.

In Frankfurt, the KfW bank, established by the United States as a development bank to rebuild Germany after World War II, funds green projects nationally and worldwide.

Berlin architects Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton shaped the building like an airplane wing turned on its side. The leading edge points toward the prevailing wind. From that direction, the glass exterior bristles with serrations in a rainbow of colors. These are flaps that pivot open to harvest breezes. The air flows along the building between the exterior glass and a separate window system inside.

The double-layer wall cools in summer and insulates in winter. In any season, the expanses of clear floor-to-ceiling glass light the office space, so electric lights generally aren’t needed.

A geothermal system borrows the earth’s steady temperature for free heating and cooling. This building also aims for consumption of just 100 kilowatt hours per square meter per year.

Did I mention that the 15-story Westarkade is the best thing to happen to Frankfurt’s skyline in years? It glows like a curving, faceted stained-glass window.

Both these buildings go beyond Germany’s stringent existing energy codes, yet they weren’t expensive.

KfW cost $115 million for the 421,000-square-foot building. Unilever leases, but owner/developer Hochtief just sold the building for $129 million. They sip energy not through wholesale change but by refined deployment of tactics long used in Europe.

The natural ventilation and day-lighting are almost unknown in the United States’ real-estate development culture of short-term investment horizons, fear of innovation and the presumption that energy will always be cheap.

Germany benefits from refining green technologies and pushing them into the market. Americans are left to pray that global warming is a fraud, energy prices won’t skyrocket and drilling — as in the Gulf of Mexico — will be the answer. 

Bloomberg

Uh-Oh! Katla Volcano Just Rumbled

ModernSurvivalBlog.com, Contributed by Modern Survival Blog (Reporter), Mon May 17 2010 18:41

Is the sleeping Katla waking up?

On May 17, 2010 08:32 UTC, The Iceland Met office indicates that a small earthquake has occurred at the Katla location. In what could be an early indication of the event that is expected to occur (an eruption of Katla), a small earthquake is reported at the site. Although a single earthquake is not a precursor of an eminent eruption, it could be the first ’sigh’ of the awakening powerful giant.

Historically, Katla has erupted after the eruption of it’s close neighbor, Eyjafjallajokull, which first erupted on April 14, 2010 and is ongoing at this moment. Magma channels beneath the two volcanoes are thought to be interconnected. A Katla eruption would likely be about ten times as powerful at the Eyjafjallajokull eruption and could cause worldwide disruption while expelling huge volumes of volcanic ash into the stratosphere which would circle the globe potentially for years, depending upon the magnitude of the eruption.

Not to be alarmist, but have you started your food storage plan? Basic survival preparedness is a personal responsibility that was simply a way of life of our ancestors. Let’s not forget how.

Nature loss 'to damage economies'

BBC News, by Richard Black, Environment correspondent, 7:27 GMT, Monday, 10 May 2010 8:27 UK

The abundance of mammals, birds, reptiles and other creatures is falling rapidly

The Earth's ongoing nature losses may soon begin to hit national economies, a major UN report has warned.

The third Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3) says that some ecosystems may soon reach "tipping points" where they rapidly become less useful to humanity.

Such tipping points could include rapid dieback of forest, algal takeover of watercourses and mass coral reef death.

Last month, scientists confirmed that governments would not meet their target of curbing biodiversity loss by 2010.

"The news is not good," said Ahmed Djoglaf, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

"We continue to lose biodiversity at a rate never before seen in history - extinction rates may be up to 1,000 times higher than the historical background rate."

The global abundance of vertebrates - the group that includes mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians and fish - fell by about one-third between 1970 and 2006, the UN says.

Seeing red

The 2010 target of significantly curbing the global rate of biodiversity loss was agreed at the Johannesburg summit in 2002.

It has been clear for a while that it would not be met.

But GBO-3 concludes that none of the 21 subsidiary targets set at the same time are being met either, at least not on a global basis.

These include measures such as curbing the rate of habitat loss and degradation, protecting at least 10% of the Earth's ecological regions, controlling the spread of invasive species and making sure that international trade does not take any species towards extinction.

No government submitting reports to the convention on biodiversity group claims to have completely met the 2010 target.

While progress is being made in some regions, the global failure means an ever-growing number of species are on the Red List of Threatened Species.

"Twenty-one percent of all known mammals, 30% of all known amphibians, 12% of all known birds (and)... 27% of reef-building corals assessed... are threatened with extinction," said Bill Jackson, deputy director general of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which maintains the Red List.

"If the world made equivalent losses in share prices, there would be a rapid response and widespread panic."

Costing the Earth

The relationship between nature loss and economic harm is much more than just figurative, the UN believes.

An ongoing project known as The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is attempting to quantify the monetary value of various services that nature provides for us, such as purifying water and air, protecting coasts from storms and maintaining wildlife for ecotourism.

Loss of coral reefs will reduce humanity's supply of seafood

The rationale is that when such services disappear or are degraded, they have to be replaced out of society's coffers.

TEEB has already calculated the annual loss of forests at $2-5 trillion, dwarfing costs of the banking crisis.

"Many economies remain blind to the huge value of the diversity of animals, plants and other lifeforms and their role in healthy and functioning ecosystems," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (Unep).

"Humanity has fabricated the illusion that somehow we can get by without biodiversity, or that it is somehow peripheral to our contemporary world: the truth is we need it more than ever on a planet of six billion heading to over nine billion people by 2050."

The more that ecosystems become degraded, the UN says, the greater the risk that they will be pushed "over the edge" into a new stable state of much less utility to humankind.

For example, freshwater systems polluted with excess agricultural fertiliser will suffocate with algae, killing off fish and making water unfit for human consumption.

The launch of GBO-3 comes as governments begin two weeks of talks in Nairobi aimed at formulating new measures to tackle global biodiversity loss that can be adopted at October's Convention on Biological Diversity summit in Japan.

WHAT IS BIODIVERSITY?

• UN defines biodiversity as "the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems"
• Considered to provide value to humanity in four ways:
• Provisioning - providing timber, fish, etc
• Regulating - disposing of pollutants, regulating rainfall
• Cultural - sacred sites, tourism, enjoyment of countryside
• Supporting - maintaining soils and plant growth

Africa's Mineral-Rich Countries Get Tough With Trade Partners

African mining: Will mineral-rich countries start a cartel like OPEC?

ABC News, by DREW HINSHAW, DAKAR, Senegal, May 8, 2010

Gold miners form a human chain while digging an open pit at the Chudja mine in the Kilomoto concession near the village of Kobu, 100 km (62 miles) from Bunia in north-eastern Congo, February 23, 2009. As countries such as China grow increasingly dependent on minerals such as copper and cobalt, Africa mining firms are wondering how far the continent's leaders will go to extract better terms. Some are now talking about a cartel like OPEC. (Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters)

African leaders are pushing for tougher terms on mining concessions after 25 years of structural adjustment – when countries cut red tape and offered generous tax holidays to foreign prospectors.

The new dynamic was on display at a recent mining conference in Senegal. The chief executive officer of a multinational Africa mining firm was speaking, but Senegal's president didn't appear to be listening.

Across the hall from President Abdoulaye Wade sat 500 delegates from foreign mining firms. They had come in March to see which new holes were worth digging in this continent whose riches are in demand from booming economies like China's.

When the CEO's presentation ended, Mr. Wade treated his visitors to a rhyme: "I never said, enrichissez-vous." [Enrich yourselves]. "I said enrichissons-nous." (Let's enrich one another.)

A cheer rose up from the African delegates.

European satellite spots 'impossibly' huge star

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 6 May 2010 - 5:13pm | By Willemien Groot

A cloud of gas and dust called RCW120 as seen by Herschel. The large blue bubble is being blown out by a massive star (unseen) in the centre. This creates the conditions for a giant young star to form on the bubble's bottom edge (white blob) (BBC) - (photo: ESA)

A European telescope has discovered a star nearly ten times the size of the sun, which defies current scientific views, the European Space Agency (ESA) says.

ESA announced the news at a space conference held in the Dutch town of Noordwijk, where the agency is based.

Though it is still being formed, the newly discovered star is already eight to ten times bigger than the sun. According to current scientific views, stars cannot become bigger than eight times the size of the sun. Vast quantities of gas and dust surrounding the young star mean it could become hundreds of times bigger, forming one of the brightest objects in the Milky Way.

The star is 4,200 lightyears - some 40 billion kilometres - away from Earth. The Herschel telescope, launched a year ago, is the biggest ever sent into space and is orbiting at a distance of 1.5 million kilometres from Earth.

The telescope's infrared technology allows scientists to see galaxies and other objects that were previously hidden from scientists' view by cosmic dust clouds. Other space-based telescopes, including the American Hubble telescope, are not able to do so.

Intense Solar Storm Spins Satellite Out of Control

Jasonjeffrey.wordpress.com

The Galaxy 15 satellite is seen before its 2005 launch to geostationary orbit nearly 36,000 kilometers over the Earth's equator.

Straight from Fox News: “Galaxy 15 stopped responding to ground controllers on April 5. The satellite’s manufacturer, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Virginia, has said an intense solar storm in early April may be to blame.

An adrift Intelsat satellite that stopped communicating with its ground controllers last month remains out of control and has begun moving eastward along the geostationary arc, raising the threat of interference with other satellites in its path, Intelsat and other industry officials said.

In what industry officials called an unprecedented event, Intelsat’s Galaxy 15 communications satellite has remained fully “on,” with its C-band telecommunications payload still functioning even as it has left its assigned orbital slot of 133 degrees west longitude 36,000 kilometers over the equator.

Galaxy 15 stopped responding to ground controllers on April 5. The satellite’s manufacturer, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Virginia, has said an intense solar storm in early April may be to blame. It was launched into space in 2005.

The first satellite likely to face signal interference problems from the adrift Galaxy 15 is the AMC-11 C-band satellite owned by SES of Luxembourg and stationed at 131 degrees west, just two degrees away from Galaxy 15′s starting position.

Rob Bednarek, chief executive of the SES World Skies division, which operates AMC-11, said Intelsat and SES have been meeting since April 5 to coordinate how to minimize the Galaxy 15 impact on AMC-11′s media customers. [Spot satellites from Earth.]

Adrift in space

In an interview Friday, Bednarek said that while it remains unclear whether SES World Skies will be able to avoid a signal interference problem as Galaxy 15 enters the AMC-11 orbital territory, the company has benefited from full disclosure on the part of Intelsat, SES’s biggest competitor.

“The cooperation with them really has been very good,” Bednarek said. “We all realize that we could be in the same position tomorrow. We are neighbors in space.”

Alan Young, chief technology officer at SES World Skies, said the company’s best estimate is that Galaxy 15 will enter AMC-11′s neighborhood — meaning one-half of one degree distant — May 23. It will continue traveling at its own pace through the AMC-11 slot, exiting on the east around June 7.

Young said the period of May 31 to June 1 is going to be the riskiest time for AMC-11 customers as SES World Skies seeks to maneuver AMC-11 to the maximum extent possible out of the Galaxy 15 track while at the same time maintaining links with the company’s AMC-11 customers.

Tobias Nassif, Intelsat’s vice president for satellite operations and engineering, said Friday that the company, in concert with Galaxy 15 manufacturer Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., has sent between 150,000 and 200,000 commands to the satellite in the nearly four weeks since the satellite stopped sending or responding to commands.

These communication attempts, the equivalent of mild wake-up calls to return Galaxy 15 to service, have had no effect. As it moved all Galaxy 15 customers onto Galaxy 12, which was pulled into service from another orbital location, Intelsat at first focused on recovering Galaxy 15 to regular service.

Zombie satellites in space

On May 3, Intelsat will play what as of Friday appeared to be its last card by blasting Galaxy 15 with a more powerful signal intended not to salvage the satellite, but to force it into a complete shutdown.

That attempt will last about 30 minutes. It will not be repeated, both because a second attempt is viewed as unnecessary — the treatment works or it does not — and because sending out powerful radio frequency signals carries the risk of interfering with other satellites in the area.

Even if the May 3 action succeeds, Galaxy 15 will remain a problem as it continues to wander the geostationary arc. But it is a problem that satellite operators know how to deal with. Industry experts say there are several dozen spacecraft, sometimes called “zombiesats,” that for various reasons were not removed from the geostationary highway before failing completely.

Depending on their position at the time of failure, these satellites tend to migrate toward one of two libration points, at 105 degrees west and 75 degrees east. Figures compiled by XL Insurance of New York, an underwriter of space risks, say that more than 160 satellites are gathered at these two points, which Bednarek described as the orbital equivalent of valleys.

“Unfortunately for us, we were downhill from Galaxy 15 as it rolls toward” the 105 degrees west libration point, Bednarek said.

Satellite signal stealer

Satellites like Galaxy 15 and AMC-11 are so-called “bent-pipe” designs that receive signals from the ground, amplify them on board and redistribute them to customers’ ground antennas. Emptied of its customers — except one, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which uses an L-band payload on Galaxy 15 to guide aircraft landings — Galaxy 15 is no longer broadcasting. But its electronics payload is ready to capture and rebroadcast signals it receives that are intended for other spacecraft.

Young said that both SES and Intelsat are fortunate in this case because their two satellites’ customers are mainly media companies using fairly large antennas to communicate with the satellites. During the period of maximum danger for AMC-11, SES expects to be able to reroute customer signals to SES-operated teleports with still-larger antennas to maintain communications links.

Nassif said Intelsat and Orbital Sciences have solicited outside opinions from other satellite manufacturers on possible maneuvers that might return Galaxy 15 to control or force it to shut down.

“The fact is that this is the first major anomaly on an Orbital-built satellite,” Nassif said. “Other manufacturers have been through problems and might have something to suggest to us.”

Because nothing like this has happened before, Intelsat remains uncertain as to when Galaxy 15, as its Earth sensor realizes it is no longer in the desired position, might lose its Earth-pointing capability. That would lead to its solar arrays losing their lock on the sun. Within hours, the satellite’s batteries would discharge and the spacecraft would shut down on its own.

While cautioning that the company is revising its most-likely-scenario thinking almost on a daily basis as it gets input from Orbital Sciences and others, Nassif said the current estimate is that Galaxy 15 will lose Earth pointing by late July or early August.

As luck would have it, that timetable would mean the only other satellites in Galaxy 15′s C-band frequency that face interference issues are owned by Intelsat.

After it leaves the vicinity of AMC-11, Galaxy 15 is expected to approach Intelsat’s Galaxy 13 satellite, at 127 degrees west, around July 13. On July 30, it will enter into the Galaxy 14 satellite’s orbital territory at 125 degrees west before heading toward Galaxy 18 at 123 degrees in mid-August.

“We are in regular contact with all our customers of these satellites to keep them apprised of the situation,” Nassif said.”

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Solar Storm Could Zap Power Grid in 2013 : NASA

(Solar and Heliospheric Observatory - website)

Lawrence Solomon: Arctic ice sets records in April, could augur global cooling

nationalpost, by Lawrence Solomon, May 03, 2010, 10:37 PM

The Arctic ice set 30 records in April, one for each day. According to satellite data received by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the Arctic was more ice bound each day of April than it had been any other corresponding day in April since its sensors began tracking the extent of Arctic Ice in mid 2002. Click here to see this tracking on the Japan Aerospace website, run jointly with the International Arctic Research Center.

While Arctic ice has always varied greatly, expanding and contracting during the course of a year and also from year to year and decade to decade, the expansion of the Arctic ice this decade is significant in one respect: It acts to disprove the models that had predicted that the Arctic ice in this century would not recover as it had in previous centuries.

The expansion of the Arctic ice also acts to support a growing number of reports that Earth could be in for a period of global cooling. In one recent example, on April 14 New Scientist in an article entitled “Quiet Sun Puts Europe on Ice” warned its readers as follows: “BRACE yourself for more winters like the last one, northern Europe. Freezing conditions could become more likely: winter temperatures may even plummet to depths last seen at the end of the 17th century, a time known as the Little Ice Age. That's the message from a new study that identifies a compelling link between solar activity and winter temperatures in northern Europe.”

New Scientist, a widely respected magazine that until recently had blamed human activity for the global warming, is now advising its readers that climate scientists may have had their blinders on in ignoring a dominant role for the Sun. New research, the article explains, “is helping to overcome a long-standing reticence among climate scientists to tackle the influence of solar cycles on the climate and weather.”

The new study that New Scientist refers to, which appears in Environmental Research Letters, a journal of the Institute of Physics, is entitled “Are cold winters in Europe associated with low solar activity?”

LawrenceSolomon@nextcity.com

Lawrence Solomon is executive director of Energy Probe and Urban Renaissance Institute and author of The Deniers: The world-renowned scientists who stood up against global warming hysteria, political persecution, and fraud.

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Humankind's failure to protect the planet

Pravda.Ru, 04.05.2010

A report supported by UNEP provides alarming evidence on the complete failure of humankind to protect the planet and guarantee biodiversity as a brutal assault on natural habitats coupled with a total disregard and disrespect for ecosystems has wiped countless species off the face of the planet, drastically reduced populations and destroyed their living areas.

The United Nations Environment Program sponsored the report*. Its findings are as appalling a comment on mankind as they are shocking. Joseph Alcamo, UNEP’s Chief Scientist, claims “Since 1970, we have reduced animal populations by 30 per cent, the area of mangroves and sea grasses by 20 per cent and the coverage of living corals by 40 per cent”.

He adds that “These losses are clearly unsustainable, since biodiversity makes a key contribution to human well-bring and sustainable development, as recognised by the UN Millennium Development Goals”.

The lead author of the report, Stuart Butchart, claims that “Governments have failed to deliver on the commitments they made in 2002: biodiversity is still being lost as fast as ever and we have made little headway in reducing the pressure on species, habitats and ecosystems”.

The report is based on over 30 indicators which measure the various aspects of biodiversity. Taking into consideration the populations of species and their risk of extinction, extent of habitat and composition of the communities, it was revealed that there has been no significant change in the rate of decline of biodiversity.

The study, the first assessment of the targets established by the 2002 Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), reveals that the 2010 goals for biodiversity have not been reached. Para Stuard Butchart, “the policies to slow biodiversity have been woefully inadequate and the gap between the pressures on biodiversity and the responses is getting even wider”.

Success stories

The report does refer to the significant efforts being made by some nations which have brought some species back from the brink of extinction and which have recovered certain areas. Among these projects is the setting up of the Juruena National Park in Brazil, the recovery of the European bison in Eastern Europe and Russia and the protection of the black stilt (a wading bird) in New Zealand.

The way forward

The report indicates that efforts to address the loss of biodiversity need to be substantially strengthened and sustained investment in coherent global biodiversity monitoring and indicators is essential to track and improve the effectiveness of these responses”.

For Ahmed Djoghlaf, the Executive Secretary of the CBD, “While many responses have been in the right direction, the relevant policies have been inadequately targeted, implemented and funded.” He added that the only way to address the problem is to integrate approaches “across all parts of government and business” and to account for the economic value of biodiversity in decision-making processes.

In other words, when Mankind discovers how much he will gain from protecting the environment, only then will he act. How sickeningly typical.

Related Article:

We only have one earth

Mt. Baru in West Nusa Tenggara erupts

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 05/02/2010 9:41 AM

In the middle of the lake formed a Little Mountain named Mount Baru Jari at 2376 meters above sea level. (Discovery Indonesia)

Mount Baru, also known as Child of Rinjani, in West Nusa Tenggara erupted again last week, forcing authorities to continue the ban on climbing activities on the Rinjani peak and Segara Anak Lake.

On Friday, the 2,376-meter-high mountain erupted four times, spewing gases up to 1,600 meters to the north.

On Sunday, there was an earthquake near the mountain, kompas.com reported.

Authorities are still allowing climbing activities near Pelawangan.

Assam tea estate goes organic

BBC News, Gossainbarie, Assam, By Subir Bhaumik

Production at Gossainbarie tea estate has gone up since it started using organic manure

Visitors making their way along the muddy track leading to the Gossainbarie tea estate in India's north-eastern Assam state will be greeted by huge mounds of cow dung, rotting water hyacinth, as well as and fish and meat waste.

But this is no cause for alarm - the tea-estate has gone organic and is following the principles of India's ancient plant medicine Vriksh Ayurveda.

"This is our fertiliser because we don't use any chemical ones in our gardens," says Gossainbarie's owner Binod Saharia.

He has enlisted the help of a hermit-like bearded figure - former management consultant Swami Valmiki Iyengara.

Mr Iyengara says he has studied Vriksh Ayurveda, a system of traditional medicine, and evolved a concept of organic farming that is both sustainable and profitable.

"All pollutants are useful wastes and we can convert most of them into organic manure," he says.

"The ancient Indian plant medicine details processes for creating organic fertiliser from virtually anything.

"Much as poisons like mercury are used in traditional Indian medicine, pollutants diluted with other materials produce the best fertiliser," he adds.

Half of India's tea output comes from Assam

Water hyacinth, cow dung and cow urine have long been used as manure.

But Mr Iyengara has also developed organic manure from fish waste, "charasuda" (butcher house waste), "indsafari" (small fish) and the "bhasmas" (made from herbs and metals).

"We have enough organic fertilisers for a few planting seasons," he says.

Mr Iyengara and Mr Saharia say they have almost perfected the practice of organic farming.

They believe this could clean up India's - and Assam's - rural environment, which has been polluted by high use of insecticides, pest repellent and highly toxic chemical fertilisers.

Environmentalists argue these are penetrating the food chain and threatening the health of millions.

'Ailing estate' rescued

Going organic can also boost the market price of Indian tea and open up new niche markets.

These are factors that can help the country's tea industry overcome the high production costs caused by rising wages and expensive chemical fertilisers.

When Mr Saharia took over the ailing Gossainbarie tea estate from Assamese planter Mohammed Arfanulla early last year, the 140-year-old tea estate was waiting for someone to turn it around.

Locally available water hyacinth is also used to make manure

The estate's annual output had plummeted from its peak 900,000 kg of green leaves to 355,000 kg a year.

One year on and things are looking up - the estate is poised to produce 600,000 kg.

Mr Saharia says he now wants other Indian tea planters to adopt his technology.

"We have no trade secrets. We want the whole of Indian tea industry to go organic all the way.

"In many estates, lazy managers routinely use chemical fertilisers even after the soil has gone dead. We want them to be creative."

'Unique experience'

Inderjit Singh Oberoi, a retired soldier-turned-manager, has worked for estates much bigger than Gossainbarie, but he joined up six months ago to gain experience.

"The concept being tried out here is unique and I want to be part of it," he says. "This could save Indian tea and get it niche buyers."

India's tea industry is burdened with rising costs of production and falling prices.

Cows are a useful income supplement for the labourers

Rampant use of chemical fertilisers and adulteration have denied Indian tea access to health conscious European markets.

India produced 981m kg of tea in 2009 - almost a quarter of the world's total tea output. Nearly 200m kg were exported.

Half of India's tea output - nearly 450m kg - comes from Assam's 800-odd tea estates.

Mr Saharia and Mr Iyengara say they encourage labourers at the estate to keep cows and collect waste.

That way, they are never short of raw material for organic fertiliser and also "it is an income supplement for the poor labourers".

Some Indian tea planters, such as Swaraj Banerji of the famous Makaibari tea estate, in the Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal state, turned organic long ago.

The Makaibari estate pioneered the practice of motivating tea labourer families to keep cows and supply the dung and urine to the estate.

"But we have shown the way for all tea planters to go organic on a sustainable basis because we can develop organic fertilisers from virtually all kinds of locally available material," Mr Saharia says.

'Reservations'

Mr Iyengara has also used his knowledge of modern management to develop a system by which fewer labourers are needed to apply the organic manure, over a wider area and in less time.

"Labour costs are the biggest overhead in Indian tea production and they make our teas less competitive in global markets," he says.

"But we have found a way to cut down hugely on labour costs by saving up on manure application time."

Mr Oberoi says he had "reservations" about the organic tea cultivation until he joined Gossainbarie.

"Now I know that the ancient plant medicine and the modern management concepts can work magic," he says.

Second Brazil rancher jailed over US nun's murder

BBC News

Dorothy Stang was shot six times and left lying in the mud

A court in Brazil has convicted a second rancher for ordering the murder in 2005 of US nun and environmental activist Dorothy Stang.

Regivaldo Galvao was sentenced to 30 years in prison by the court in Belem.

Prosecutors said Galvao and his accomplice Vitalmiro Moura had hired gunmen to kill the 73-year-old nun.

Prosecutors said she was murdered because she had blocked Galvao and Moura from seizing land the government had given to Amazonian farmers.

Galvao's defence lawyers are still to decide whether to appeal.

Moura was also sentenced to 30 years in prison earlier this month.

The killing in Para state caused an outcry in Brazil and internationally.

Dorothy Stang had worked in the Amazon for 30 years to preserve the rainforest and protect the rights of rural workers against large-scale farmers to take their land.

She was shot dead as she walked along a muddy rainforest track in the town of Anapu in Para, a northern frontier state where loggers and ranchers have deforested huge tracts of rainforest.