Italian environmental officials are warning of an ecological disaster in Italy caused by an oil spill flowing down the Po River. They say water and bird species are at risk, as well as a fertile agricultural area. The say the oill spill has already caused significant damage and the scale of the problem is dramatic.
Italian authorities say it is a race against time to stop a massive oil slick flowing down Italys longest river. The black tide continues down the Po River and is expected to reach the Adriatic by the weekend. Recent heavy rains have swollen the river allowing the oil to move quickly despite efforts to contain it.
In an urgent report to parliament on Thursday, environment undersecretary Roberto Menia said the oil slick would reach the Adriatic within a maximum of 70 hours.
The official said three-and-a-half million liters of oil have already poured into the river and the environmental devastation is there for everyone to see. The oil has already killed hundreds of birds and fish. Residents have been told to avoid drinking tap water. They say there is a terrible stench.
This woman says they are not only concerned but also angry. What is the point of stopping cars for pollution, she asks, and then these kinds of things are done.
Efforts have been underway using at least five floating barriers to trap the oil on the waterways surface. But it is proving to be a difficult task for civil protection officials and fire-fighting teams dispatched to the area.
Two Italian regions, Lombardy and Emilia Romagna, have already requested that a state of emergency be declared. Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo flew over the entire affected area by helicopter on Thursday.
The oil spill began Tuesday following what environmental authorities are calling a true act of environmental terrorism. The oil stored in tanks in a former refinery was sabotaged when someone opened the main valve.
Police say the saboteur must have had a working familiarity with the refinery to be able to open the tanks main valve and send tons of oil pouring out.
Officials say the act was intentional and an investigation has been opened into the spill, which is already more than 100 kilometers long.
Damiano di Simine, Lombardy president for the Legambiente environmental group, said immediate action should have been taken to avoid such a disaster.
The criminal act itself is extremely serious, he says, but even more serious is the fact that the oil was allowed to pour out for hours without anyone intervening or even realizing what was happening.
Meanwhile the oil spill has reached Italys important food-producing province of Parma. But farm groups were quick to reassure that the food chain is safe because farm production is low at this time of the year
The Po river valley is the most important agricultural region in Italy, producing a third of Italys agricultural output.
A high level task force aimed at helping poor, vulnerable countries adapt to climate change has kicked off in Geneva. The 14-member task force, which was set up during the September 2009 World Climate Conference, says information is power and can help countries better overcome climate change related hazards.
Scientists report extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity. They say hundreds of millions of people are at risk of losing their lives and livelihoods from natural disasters. They say these dangers will rise as climate change becomes more pronounced.
But, they note advances in science and technology, advances in long-range seasonal forecasting can blunt these dangers and allow communities to prepare and adapt to changing weather patterns.
Statistics presented at the meeting here in Geneva show that fewer people now are dying from natural climate-caused disasters than before. This is because of better disaster preparedness and prevention.
Former U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator and Co-Chair of the task force, Jan Egeland says these gains are mainly occurring in rich countries.
However, tens of millions of livelihoods are lost because of the information not reaching those who need it most, he said. I remember if I may from my time as Emergency Relief Coordinator how heartbreaking it was to be able to know that nomadic people in the Sahel were going to see their herds die. But, they did not know. We knew because we had access to information they did not, said Egeland.
If the nomads had had this information, Egeland says they would have been able to sell their cattle beforehand. And, this would have given them the means to restock when the crisis was over.
He says it is crucial to provide people in poor countries with the scientific know-how and information they need to help their communities to adapt to climate change.
He says the task force will be working on how to provide small island States, African countries and other vulnerable communities with the information they need to help them survive future disasters.
Our report should come with a number of recommendations, which are the gaps, where do we need to invest, what kind of information and observations do we need that we do not have. And, how can this be tailor made so that there will be the best possible predictions for those who need it the most, he said.
Egeland says science has made great progress. He says there is no reason why people should be dying and losing their livelihoods on the scale that they are worldwide.
He says it is unfair that people in rich countries have more information than people in poor countries to ward off disasters. He says the so-called Haitis of the world must be in a better position to respond to the hazards they face.
The task force plans to publish its recommendations for adapting to climate change early next year.
Climate change has become a tool used by Australian planners. Officials say the residential plan at Port Fairy in Victoria will not go ahead because of safety concerns about storm surges and possible inundation from rising ocean levels.
Victorias state government has rejected plans to build homes on sand dunes at Port Fairy, 300 kilometers west of Melbourne, because of threats posed by climate change. The decision was based on a projection that sea levels will rise by 80 centimeters, in the next century.
Officials have said the area is also at risk from erosion and storm surges. State authorities have set up a multi-million dollar fund to help coastal regions in southern Australia adapt to the challenges that could lie ahead.
Port Fairy Mayor James Purcell says allowing houses and apartments to be built on such a vulnerable strip of land would have been irresponsible
It could certainly be an issue where you could consider that there may be some loss of life or certainly a difficulty in saving people, Purcell said. So that would be the main concern from a safety point of view, because this piece of land has two issues. One is that it backs onto an area which is the Moyne River, which could be subject to flooding and also on the other side of it is actually the ocean which could be subject to inundation.
Mayor Purcell believes the decision to reject the coastal development is likely to shape the way applications for other seaside projects are handled around Australia.
In another council area, southeast of Melbourne, officials have put on hold all requests to build on land that could be threatened by rising sea levels.
Further north, on Queenslands Gold Coast, a company constructing a new apartment block on low-lying ground was ordered to install emergency moorings for rescue boats on the buildings first floor because of concerns about the possible impact of climate change.
The issue of global warming has divided society in Australia, one of the worlds worst per capita emitters of greenhouses gases, which some scientists blame for rising temperatures and sea levels.
Skeptics doubt that man-made pollution is capable of significantly destabilizing the Earths climate, while conservationists insist that mans excessive use of fossil fuels is making the planet warmer.
Researchers have warned that the Australian continent will suffer the effects of climate change, with more severe droughts, storms and floods as well as experiencing sea level rises in decades to come.
Parched areas of New South Wales, Australias most populous state, have received their best rains in more than a decade, fueling hope the continents worst drought in memory may finally be easing. Vast tracts of land have been turned into inland lakes and dry rivers have begun to flow for the first time in years.
Three months ago, this part of New South Wales was dry and barren. The recent downpours have resuscitated land that was dying. Out here near Forbes, on either side of the road heading to farm owned by Gary Johnston, there are green fields as far as you can see - a welcome boost to a beleaguered community.
There are kids here that are eight-ten years old that have never seen rain of any consequence, he said. They have seen showers of rain but they have never seen any puddle or large water ponding. That tells you how dry it is. So farmers are pretty resilient generally and they have toughed it out for a long time but I think everyone was at breaking point and still are. There is a lot of people in a lot of trouble. We need to have significant follow-up rain to keep the whole thing moving along is a positive way.
The rains have brought renewed vigor to this corner of the outback and the lawn mowers have been out in force. Even the lake in the middle of Forbes is overflowing for the first time in years. The ducks and kayakers have not had it so good in a long time and the sight of so much water is doing wonders for morale.
At the Forbes High School, teachers say the wet conditions have improved the behavior and performance of students -- almost as if the rain has revitalized their minds.
Nicole Buttress and her 17-year-old classmate, Clayton Clarke, are enjoying the new green landscape.
Seeing the children down at the lake with the water flowing over the road, it was kind of like a dream. It was hard to believe with all the dryness and now it is just the waters flowing over the road. The lakes are full, the dams are full and people are happy, said Nicole Buttress.
I was traveling home from Sydney the other day also and the distance that I traveled and the amount of green there is from Sydney to Forbes is quite lovely to see. Yeah, it has put everyones spirits on a bit of a high, says Clayton Clarke.
Its just the lift this hard-pressed farming region has been crying out for. Rates of depression have soared as the drought intensified. Church groups say despite the gloom, the community has responded well to the challenges.
Things like the drought really tests the mettle of individuals and communities. But it also highlights, I think, the strengths and nobility of the human spirit, where people really do care about one another at the end of the day, says Kel Hodge, a chaplain for Australias Uniting Church.
Much more rain is needed if Australias worst drought in 100 years is finally to be banished. Trevor Smith, a livestock farmer near Forbes, has studied the areas climate records that date back to 1874.
He believes history shows that the recent downpours are a very good sign.
Going on that pattern, what has happened so far it looks as though it might be the beginning of the end but we need a flood. We are not out of this drought until we have a flood, he said.
Does he think its likely to happen this year?
I think so, yeah. I said that also probably four years ago too, I dont know. When you are a farmer you live in, you now, hope. You expect the next one to be a big one otherwise you wouldnt do it, he said.
Other farmers, like Gary Johnston, are more cautious about the future.
I am planning for on-going drought because you dont have continual disappointment if you expect it to stay dry, which has been the case for ten years. If you get rain, Ill deal with that at the time and wed be happy to receive it but Im not preoccupied with it. I think it is part of our job as farmers is to deal with what we actually have and we are doing the best we can, he said.
After the driest decade in memory, the recent drenching has given farmers near Forbes a glorious taste of what life could be like when the Big Dry is finally over.
However, other drought-hit regions in southeastern Australia missed out on the recent rainstorms. The federal government has extended emergency financial aid to struggling farmers in parts of New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.
Opposition is growing to government plans to build Australias first nuclear waste dump, on Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory. Indigenous groups are gathering at a public meeting to debate the controversial proposals. The federal government has identified a remote cattle station north of Tennant Creek as a likely site. The plan has caused serious divisions within the local indigenous community.
In the next six years, nuclear waste that Australia sent to Europe for reprocessing will be returned when contracts with facilities in France and Scotland expire. Government officials in Canberra have yet to decide where to put it.
Muckaty Station, an isolated property 120 kilometers from Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, has been identified as a possible site. Local Aborigines have offered to sell the land for $11 million, a move that has infuriated other indigenous groups in the area, who object to the plan on health and environmental grounds.
Those conflicting views are expected to collide at a public meeting in Tennant Creek, an old gold mining town south of Darwin.
Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam says the plan to build a radioactive waste dump in the region has become extremely divisive.
It already risks setting families against families and the government has not bothered to try to and bring the whole community along. They have picked off a handful of people, got some signatures and now they are going to try and force it through, he said. We have had a small ten-megawatt research reactor operating in Australia since the late 50s. The industry and the government never bothered to investigate waste storage scenarios. So now, in 2010, they are now desperately casting around for an Aboriginal community who will take that legacy waste from the last few decades.
Australias government has said that Muckaty Station would be subject to thorough scientific and environmental assessments. Ministers have indicated that the nuclear dump would not be built if landowners opposed it.
Critics believe that recent earthquakes in that part of the Northern Territory have raised serious questions about the safety of the site.
The Australian Greens have said that radioactive waste should be stored at the countrys only nuclear facility, on the outskirts of Sydney.
Australias fledgling atomic industry is pushing for the country to build 10 nuclear power stations by 2030, in response to concerns about climate change and the nations reliance on cheap supplies of coal for electricity generation.
About 400 nuclear reactors are in use around the world. In Asia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Pakistan and Taiwan have embraced the technology, while Indonesia and Thailand have ambitions to join them.
Conditions in the worlds grain markets today are similar to those during the food price crisis of 2007-2008, according to the head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
FAO chief Jacques Diouf tells VOA another food price crisis is possible.
Riots broke out in Kenya and more than 30 other countries in 2007 and 2008 because people could not afford to buy food.
Price crisis
Experts say record high energy prices, growing demand for bio-fuels, low grain reserves and bad weather in producing countries helped push up prices beginning in 2007.
Record high energy prices, growing demand for bio-fuels, low grain reserves and bad weather helped push up prices beginning in 2007. Responding to the high prices, major global exporters have ramped up production. But Diouf says farmers in some of the worlds most vulnerable countries have lagged behind. And these were the countries where we had riots and other problems, he says.
Food prices remain high in many developing countries. And Diouf says the threat of another global price hike persists. Energy prices have not fallen to pre-crisis levels, and crops are still being diverted for bio-fuels. In fact, he says, except for larger grain reserves, not much has changed since 2007.
All the other factors that led to the price crisis are all here. They have not changed, he says. So, I think that, if we have -- and I pray that we dont have it -- serious problems of flood and drought in major exporting countries, were back to square one.
Experts say floods, drought and other extreme weather are becoming more frequent, brought on by climate change.
And the worlds population is expected to grow by nearly 50 percent, to 9 billion by 2050. Developing countries will grow the most.
More investment needed
Diouf says many nations are still not investing enough in agriculture.
Last summer in Italy, the G-8 group of industrialized nations pledged $20 billion to help farmers in the developing world expand food supplies.
All those commitments are not met yet, he says. So this is where we are.
Diouf says what farmers in many developing countries need is simple: irrigation, improved storage facilities, help with fertilizers and high-quality seeds to improve yields.
Without those investments, he says, the world risks another food crisis, and the hunger and instability that go along with it.
A species of frog has been found alive on a farm in Australia more than 30 years after it was thought to have become extinct. Environment officials have said a thriving population of yellow-spotted bell frogs has been found in a remote creek in New South Wales.
The yellow-spotted bell frog is back from the dead. It was thought to have become extinct but has now been seen for the first time since 1973.
Dr. David Hunter, a threatened species officer at the New South Wales Environment Department, was there when about 100 frogs were found in a remote stream, the location of which is being kept secret.
This was definitely the most exciting moment of my career and Id be surprised if Ill repeat it, he said. We really dont want anyone going to the site, trying to see the bell frog or capture the bell frog, because theres always the possibility that that could actually introduce an unknown pathogen into the population and cause a problem.
The yellow-spotted bell frogs disappearance is likely to have been caused by a range of factors, including disease, a loss of habitat and pollution.
Experts believe that exposure to a deadly fungus that arrived in Australia from Africa in the 1970s decimated frog numbers.
A collection of tadpoles has been established at Taronga Zoo in Sydney as part of a plan to re-populate rivers and streams
The zoos Michael McFadden says the breeding program should help this vulnerable species survive.
We need to get an insurance population so that if something bad does happen over the next year and they are totally gone, we have at least not lost that species and we can work at re-introducing them back into their natural habitat, McFadden said.
Scientists have warned there are more than 40 threatened frog species fighting for survival in Australia.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has said that one-third of the worlds 6,000 species of amphibians are under threat of extinction.
The New South Wales Environment Minister, Frank Sartor, said the discovery of yellow-spotted bell frogs was the amphibian equivalent of discovering the Tasmanian Tiger, a carnivorous Australian marsupial that died out in the 1930s.
Emily Pilloton was set on her path in life early on, by her entrepreneur father and a business-oriented mother who stressed the importance of helping others
I somehow ended up as a sort of perfect cross-section of the two of them, she says, wanting to be an entrepreneur but also having a sort of humanitarian spirit.
With degrees in architecture and product design, Pilloton started to make green furniture in Chicago. She soon recognized that she wouldnt be able to make much of a living doing that, so she moved back home to the San Francisco Bay area.
Life-changing epiphany
A retail clothing company hired Pilloton as a store designer. But three weeks into the job, after a lengthy, heated group discussion about doorknobs, Pilloton realized how misdirected her design skills had become
She recalls that was the moment she made a promise to herself, that from that day forward, I was only going to work on design projects that mattered, to really apply my skill set to address the social, humanitarian issues.
So Pilloton went to work as managing editor of a website devoted to the future of design and its use in a socially responsible way. With Inhabitat.com, Pilloton had a forum where she could articulate her principles and values. As she did so, she gathered a network of like-minded colleagues.
New design focus
In 2008, Pilloton started her own organization, Product Design Initiatives for Humanity, Habitats, Health and Happiness, better known as Project H. Its a collaboration of designers, architects and builders who want to use design to make the world a better place.
It was really, honestly, a way for me personally to just put a stake in the ground and say, This is the moment when were going to turn our criticism into action, Pilloton says.
With a relatively tiny budget, Project H has gone from an idea in Pillotons head to an organization with hundreds of members around the world, nine local chapters and 20 completed projects, with 25 more in the works
An early project was a book of inventions Pilloton compiled called, Design Revolution: One Hundred Products That Empower People.
Adjustable eyeglasses and rolling water barrels
Pillotons choices for the book include such devices as adaptive eye care. The affordable eyeglasses have a syringe on each earpiece, filled with a special fluid. The wearer can twist a knob to control the amount of liquid in each lens
So as you adjust the amount of liquid in that lens, says Pilloton. It changes the concavity of the lens and thats the prescription. Literally, you can set your own prescription in 15 seconds.
Another Pilloton favorite is the hippo roller, which Project H helped distribute in South Africa. The water transport barrel is designed to cut down on trips to a water source that may be as far away as 10 kilometers.
Instead of carrying water on your head, which is not just inefficient but taxing on the human body, you can push along the ground, says Pilloton. She says the hippo roller makes bringing up to 83 liters of water back to a village safer and more efficient.
Taking her mission on the road
Pillotons Design Revolution was released in August. But instead of going on a traditional book tour, she decided to do something different to promote her book and her belief that good design can change the world
She packed up a vintage Airstream travel trailer with 40 inventions featured in the book, and set off on a 75-day cross-country tour. At each stop, she shows off the products and what they can do.
She says it helps to be traveling in a hard-to-miss silver trailer with a bright pink stripe. We wanted to use it as a way to bring some fun and accessibility to the content, she says, to show up in places all around the country, primarily at design schools and high schools, to really catalyze the next generation of design thinkers and creative problem solvers.
Creative problem solving will continue even after the Design Revolution Road Show ends in mid-April. The trailer will be parked in a poor rural community in North Carolina, where Project H volunteers are already working with teachers, artists, builders and architects.
Emily Pilloton is making the state her organizations home for the next couple years, to focus on creating innovative designs to improve education.
In the 1970s, Carl Safina fished off the U.S. Atlantic coast for bluefin tuna, a majestic warm-blooded predator that travels at highway speeds and can weigh as much as 650 kilograms
Ive seen acres and acres of bluefin tuna at the surface, exploding through the surface and chasing prey fish. Safina says it wasnt a question of whether the fishermen would catch one. When the fishing was good, we just assumed we would be going out and catching tuna.
Diminishing species
Over the last 40 years, though, the global adult bluefin tuna population has declined by more than 80 percent. The trend has been driven by industrial overfishing, coupled with surging demand, largely from Japan, which consumes 80 percent of the worlds supply. The prized bluefin tuna is usually served as sashimi or sushi.
In 1969, the International Commission for Conservation of Atlantic Tunas was charged with setting quotas and managing healthy tuna populations. Theyve failed in that mission, says Safina, now president of the conservation group, Blue Ocean Institute.
In the last ten years, with the fish on the western side of the Atlantic pretty much demolished, a lot of the focus of the fishing has intensified on the eastern side of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and that population is now falling apart, says Safina. And the Tuna Commission has demonstrated on an annual basis its complete inability to control the fishing.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species or CITES is a global treaty that protects 30,000 species of animals and plants. The CITES Conference in Doha, Qatar March 13-25 will consider the proposed commercial trade ban on bluefin tuna.
Game changer
The Obama administration recently announced support for the measure.
Susan Lieberman, director of International Policy at the Pew Environment Group, applauds the decision which she says could be a game changer for the species.
She expects the 27-member European Community to vote as a bloc in support of the ban. As the worlds leading consumer, Japan opposes the measure, and could take a reservation or opt out of the treaty in order to continue fishing. However, since Japan depends largely on tuna imports, Lieberman says the focus will be on ensuring other countries dont opt out as well in order to supply the Japanese market
If Japan, unfortunately, takes a reservation they still have to have a country they can import from because they can only then import from another CITES country that has a reservation. The U.S. will not take one. The EU will not take one. And we believe that the EU will exert sufficient pressure on the North African countries to do the same.
Rebound
The Blue Ocean Institutes Safina says he expects the species to eventually recover should a commercial bluefin fishery ban go into effect. You would see something right away and then probably that growth will begin to increase at an accelerated rate, and in a decade you would see very substantial recoveries, says Safina.
The ban would not affect the popular albacore or yellowfin tuna that end up in cans.
In addition to the bluefin tuna ban, delegates at the Doha meeting will consider proposals to put trade controls on eight threatened species of shark and red and pink corals.
France is among the worlds top users and exporters of nuclear power. Roughly two-thirds of French electricity is derived from it. So it may not be surprising that French President Nicolas Sarkozy made a strong pitch for the use of nuclear energy at an international conference in Paris
Mr. Sarkozy said energy demand will increase 40 percent by 2030, and countries must balance this increase with the fight against climate change. He said nuclear power, which does not contribute significantly to global warming, is essential to meet these two goals
Representatives from some 60 nations are gathered at the Paris nuclear energy conference, which continues through Tuesday. Iran, whose nuclear program is the target of international concern, was not invited to the talks. But Syria, whose nuclear interests have also raised questions, was present
Mr. Sarkozy said it is critical that poorer nations gain access to nuclear energy.
The French president said the solution to the worlds growing energy needs was not reducing growth and keeping the poor mired in poverty. He said doing so would close the door to progress and a better life to those who have nothing
A number of countries, including the United States, are embracing nuclear power as a key element in the energy equation. But nuclear power is highly controversial, and Mr. Sarkozys remarks were criticized by groups that want France and other nations to abandon nuclear power
Critics are concerned about the hazards of nuclear-waste disposal and of chances that deadly nuclear technology could end up in the wrong hands.
Anti-whaling activists in Australia say their recent campaign in the Southern Ocean against Japanese whaling ships was the most successful ever. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says it stopped the Japanese fleet from hunting for about a third of the season.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Societys boats have tailed Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean for the past six annual hunts.
They aim to stop what they consider the illegal slaughter of humpback and minke whales in the icy waters of Antarctica.
This whaling season three Sea Shepherd vessels harassed the fleet, including a super-fast speed boat, the Ady Gil, which sank after a collision with a Japanese ship.
Despite the loss, conservationists say they had their most successful campaign ever, and claim to have cut the whalers activities by a third, costing them an estimated $70 million in lost revenue.
Paul Wilson captain of one of the Sea Shepherd boats. He says his organizations tactics are increasingly troubling to the whalers.
The Japanese are becoming clearly more frustrated and aggressive because they are losing a lot of money and this year they took that frustration out by deliberately turning in and ramming the Ady Gil and taking out a $2 million dollar ship, he said.
It is not known how many whales the Japanese caught during the southern hemisphere summer, although in the past Tokyo has set a quota of around 1,000 animals.
Two Sea Shepherd boats are docked in Tasmania after several weeks tracking the whalers. The Australian Federal Police searched both vessels at the request of Japanese authorities, who accuse the group of piracy and violence. So far, the groups members have not been charged with any offense.
Japan says the fleet takes whales for scientific research, although the meat is later sold. Critics, including the Australian and New Zealand governments, think the annual hunt is an attempt to circumvent international laws that bar commercial whaling.
The United Nations has asked a leading international scientific organization to review the work of the U.N. climate change panel after critics accused the body of misrepresenting data to make the case that global warming is more serious than it is.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, known as the IPCC, had a very small number of errors in its 2007 report. Among them, the study incorrectly warned that global warming would melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035. But Mr. Ban said he has seen no credible evidence that challenges the main conclusions of the 3,000 page report that human activities are contributing significantly to the planets warming.
Let me be clear: the threat posed by climate change is real, said Ban Ki-moon. Nothing that has been alleged or revealed in the media recently alters the fundamental scientific consensus on climate change. Nor does it diminish the unique importance of the IPCCs work.
Mr. Ban said he is initiating, in conjunction with IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri, a comprehensive, independent review of the Nobel prize winning-panels procedures and processes because he wants to act on the best possible science. He also wants to minimize the potential for any errors in future, especially as the IPCC is embarking on a new climate change report.
IPCC Chair, Rajendra Pachauri, has also faced conflict of interest accusations in the international press, over consulting work his New Delhi-based institute has done for big polluters and major corporations. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Speaking alongside the secretary-general at the announcement of the review on Wednesday, Pachauri defended the panels 2007 report, saying its major conclusions were beyond any reasonable doubt. But he said he expects the independent review will help strengthen the process of how the IPCC compiles future reports.
It is critically important that the science we bring into our reports and that we disseminate on a large scale is accepted by communities across the globe, by governments, by business, by civil society, so this challenge, which the Secretary-General has rightly described as defining challenge of our time, can be met effectively, said Rajendra Pachauri.
The Amsterdam-based InterAcademy Council will assemble the review panel and publish their results by the end of August
Robbert Dijkgraaf, the IACs co-chairman, told reporters that the panel would recommend measures to ensure the quality of IPCC reports in the future, including how data is used and conclusions are drawn; guidelines for types of literature appropriate for including in IPCC reports; and procedures for correcting errors in reports. They will also look at the management and administration of the IPCC.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is calling for rich nations to contribute more to fighting deforestation, particularly in the Congo and Amazon River basins in Africa and Latin America. The French government hosted an international forest conference in Paris.
President Nicolas Sarkozy is proposing that 20 percent of the $30 billion in climate change funds pledged by rich countries during the next three years go to fighting deforestation
Opening a day-long forest meeting that gathered ministers from about 40 countries, the French president said forests are a world heritage and that all nations must contribute to financing their survival. He outlined a goal to reduce deforestation by a quarter by 2015, and altogether by 2030
Forests play a key role in fighting climate change and in conserving a rich diversity of species. Andrei Muggiati is Amazon campaigner for Greenpeace International, in Amsterdam. The tropical forests store large amounts of carbon and are huge biodiversity spots, so they have a crucial role in [keeping] the planets climate stable. And also for our future in terms of developing new medicines, new cosmetics, new uses of biodiversity, he said.
Muggiati says burning and clearing the Amazon for ranching and farming is responsible for 80 percent of the greenhouse gasses that Brazil, the worlds fourth-largest carbon emitter, sends into the atmosphere. In the vast Congo forest basin in central Africa, he says irresponsible logging is a prime culprit of deforestation
But Muggiati says the international community is beginning to recognize the value of saving our forests.In [recent] years 20 percent of all carbon emissions in the world, aound five percent, come from forest destruction. Second, that stopping forest destruction is one of the most effective and fastest ways to address climate change right now, he said.
The United States and France count among six wealthy nations who have pledged $3.5 billion to fight deforestation during the next three years. Mr. Sarkozy said he wanted more countries to join the initiative, and for the private sector to play a bigger role.
The United Nations Environment Program warns Haitis recovery process will be greatly constrained if the environmental degradation suffered during the catastrophic earthquake is not adequately taken care of. UNEP says cleaning up Haitis environmental mess will be long, difficult, and expensive
The program says Haiti was the poorest and most environmentally degraded country in the Caribbean before the earthquake struck in mid-January.
It says Haitis rural environment was largely destroyed, making it difficult to fully feed its population. It says the damaged water collecting devices made the country vulnerable to flooding and other natural disasters. It says there is extensive soil erosion in Haiti and only three percent of the countrys original forest cover is left.
UNEP Program Manager for Haiti, Andrew Morton, says the earthquake has brought with it a great many new environmental problems. Well, as you all know, there are literally millions of tons of debris from fallen buildings, which is not just concrete, but everything that is contained in a building, as you see here - wood, plastic, metal, clothing, everything. We have a major increase in municipal and health care waste. A burst of medical activity means we have probably tripled the volume of health care waste and, of course, as we clean up, the volume of municipal waste goes up. And, I have to say, as the relief effort comes in with its several hundred millions of dollars of aid, it is adding to the waste burden as well.
Morton has been in Haiti since the earthquake hit and he will be going back to the country next week to supervise the work that needs to be done. He describes the challenges ahead as huge.
For instance, he notes, prior to the earthquake health care waste was disposed of by burning or by trucking it to a landfill site. He says it then was torn apart by scavengers who make a living by recycling waste.
So, what we do not want is for health care waste to go that way. So, what we needed, of course, was some way of separating the waste and also treating it in a hygienic manner. So, the actual practical measures which were put in place, we imported a large number of containers for the segregation of the waste and we looked at buying fuel for the incinerators that are already there, so that they can start up again. That is just a small example of a practical problem and a practical solution, he said.
Morton says a bigger problem for which UNEP has not yet found a solution is transitional shelter. This, he says, is designed to shelter half a million people for up to two years. He says they will be made out of tin and timber.
However, the problem is there is no timber in Haiti. Morton says the solution to this is the bulk importation of timber. But, this is very expensive and will only be possible if the aid community decides to support this project.