The effects of air pollution have manifested in various ways, one of them the expansion of the tropics northwards, creating a drier sub-tropic region. This has been attributed to black carbon particles and ozone emitted by human activities, writes Michael Richardson. And The Economist, in a landmark report, draws attention to the shrinking of the summer Arctic ice. While potentially opening up the Arctic sea to major economic ventures, but could also be ecologically catastrophic for the world at large. Read more

By Michael Richardson for The Straits Times (21 May 2012):

The tropics are expanding. The zone of heat and wetness, where Singapore is anchored by geography, has widened by approximately 0.7 degrees of latitude per decade in recent years, or more than two degrees since 1979.

Ozone depletion in the stratosphere, caused partly by global warming gas emissions from human activity, is known to be the primary driver of tropical expansion in the southern hemisphere.  (The stratosphere is the second major layer of Earth’s atmosphere, just above the troposphere that rises from ground and sea level to a height of between 10 and 15 kilometres.)

However, reasons for the extension of the tropics into the northern hemisphere, where the bulk of the world’s population lives, have been a mystery – until last week. Researchers in the United States and Australia now say tropospheric ozone and tiny black carbon aerosol particles, a major component of soot, are most likely to be pushing the boundary of the tropics polewards in the northern hemisphere.

Robert J. Allen, Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of California, Riverside, who led the study, summarised its findings and consequences: “Both black carbon and tropospheric ozone warm the tropics by absorbing solar radiation. If the tropics are moving poleward, then the sub-tropics will become even drier.”

His team’s findings highlight the increasing attention being given to the role in climate change of so-called short-lived pollutants – black carbon, methane and hydrofluorocarbons, which are used in refrigerants.

Ozone is not directly released into the atmosphere. It is formed by the action of sunlight on other gases, including methane and carbon dioxide. In the stratosphere, ozone is considered to be beneficial as it protects life on Earth from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation.

But at ground level, tropospheric ozone is an air pollutant harmful to human health and ecosystems. It is a big component of urban smog and “haze”, the mixture of smog and smoke from forest fires that periodically cast a pall over Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia.

A threefold rise in ozone concentration in the northern hemisphere in the past 100 years has made it the third most important contributor to the human enhancement of the global greenhouse effect, after carbon dioxide and methane.

So cuts in these two greenhouse gases have the potential to substantially reduce both tropospheric ozone concentrations and global warming.

The expansion of the tropics also highlights the role in global warming of the Asian growth belt. There, a combination of some of the world’s most populous nations, such as China, India, Bangledesh and Indonesia, and rapid economic development are generating climate-altering substances that are less well-known than carbon dioxide, the main long-lasting greenhouse gas.

In 2011, a team of scientists from the US space agency, NASA, working with UNEP, the United Nations Environment Program, sorted through more than 2,000 soot and methane control measures. They found that just 14 practical steps would deliver nearly 90 per cent of the potential benefits, including restraining global warming by about 0.5 degrees Celsius by 2050, while avoiding as many as 4.7 million premature deaths caused by smog and haze pollution.

They also concluded that application of these steps would raise crop yields by as much as 135 million tonnes due to cuts in ground-level ozone, which blights crops in China, India, Brazil, the US and elsewhere.

In addition, stopping soot emissions could help maintain monsoon patterns and protect endangered ecosystems, such as Asian mountain glaciers and Arctic Sea ice where soot carried by winds from the Asian growth belt has been deposited, absorbing heat from the sun and hastening melting.

Soot results from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, wood and other biomass. It can be reduced by measures like installing filters on diesel engines, replacing traditional cooking stoves with more efficient models, modernising brick kilns, and banning the open burning of agricultural waste.

Methane, the main component of natural gas, can be captured from oil and gas wells, leaky pipelines, coal mines, municipal landfills, wastewater treatment plants, farm manure piles and wet rice fields.

All 14 measures selected by the scientists can be applied using existing technologies, and in most cases existing air pollution laws and existing institutions at both national and regional levels. Economic analysis indicates that many of these steps provide more value in benefits than they cost to implement, though the benefits do not necessarily accrue to those who have to apply them.

Another key characteristic of short-lived global warming gases and aerosol particles is that they remain in the atmosphere for only a relatively short time, from several days to three decades. So emission reductions yield a short-term benefit for the climate, health and food production. By contrast, carbon dioxide can stay in the atmosphere for thousands of years.

As a result of this and other research, the US and 12 partners have formed a Climate and Clean Air Coalition. The grouping held its first meeting last month and will meet again in July.

The aim is to increase funding and support for cutting short-lived climate pollutants. But it will only be really effective if India, China, Indonesia and more Asian nations that produce much of the pollution participate in the program.

This will now happen. Leaders of the G-20 leading economies announced at the end of their summit at Camp David in the US at the weekend that those of them not already part of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition had agreed to join.

 The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of South East Asian Studies.

Source: http://web1.iseas.edu.sg

By The Economist (16 June 2012):

NOW that summer is here, the Arctic is crowded with life. Phytoplankton are blooming in its chilly seas. Fish, birds and whales are gorging on them. Millions of migratory geese are in their northern breeding grounds. And the area is teeming with scientists, performing a new Arctic ritual.

Between now and early September, when the polar pack ice shrivels to its summer minimum, they will pore over the daily sea ice reports of America’s National Snow and Ice Data Centre. Its satellite data will show that the ice has shrunk far below the long-term average. This is no anomaly: since the 1970s the sea ice has retreated by around 12% each decade. Last year the summer minimum was 4.33m square km (1.67m square miles)—almost half the average for the 1960s.

The Arctic’s glaciers, including those of Greenland’s vast ice cap, are retreating. The land is thawing: the area covered by snow in June is roughly a fifth less than in the 1960s. The permafrost is shrinking. Alien plants, birds, fish and animals are creeping north: Atlantic mackerel, haddock and cod are coming up in Arctic nets. Some Arctic species will probably die out.

Perhaps not since the 19th-century clearance of America’s forests has the world seen such a spectacular environmental change. It is a stunning illustration of global warming, the cause of the melt. It also contains grave warnings of its dangers. The world would be mad to ignore them.

Less feedback, please

As our special report shows in detail, the Arctic is warming roughly twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Since the 1950s the lower atmosphere has warmed by a global average of 0.7 degrees Celsius; Greenland’s air has warmed by 1.5 degrees. The main reason appears to be a catalytic warming effect, triggered by global warming. When snow or ice melt, they are replaced by darker melt-water pools, land or sea. As a result, the Arctic surface absorbs more solar heat. This causes local warming, therefore more melting, which causes more warming, and so on. This positive feedback shows how even a small change to the Earth’s systems can trigger much greater ones.

Some scientists also see a tipping-point—another feared term in the climatology lexicon—in the accelerating diminution of the sea ice. The term describes the moment at which the planet shifts from one environmental state to another: in this case, from an Arctic with summer sea ice to one without it. By the end of this century—perhaps much sooner—there will probably be frequent summers with no sea ice at all.

Arctic peoples have also noticed what is going on. Inuit hunters are finding the sea ice too thin to bear their sleds. Arctic governments are starting to see a bonanza in the melt. The Arctic is stocked with minerals that were hitherto largely inaccessible, including an estimated 30% of undiscovered reserves of natural gas and 13% of undiscovered oil reserves. A combination of high commodity prices, proactive governments, technological progress and melting ice will help bring these to market. Encouraged by Arctic governments and dwindling reserves elsewhere, oil companies are flocking north like migrating geese to explore the continental shelves of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway and Russia. Canada and Russia also hope to develop their Arctic shipping-lanes, which the melt is making accessible. Russia’s Northern Sea Route, hugging the Siberian coast, cuts the normal distance between Europe and Asia by more than a third. It will help ferry Russia’s Arctic resources to Asian markets, and could one day be a wider boost to world trade.

These exciting developments carry risks, however. Many fear for Arctic cultures—a Canadian Inuit argues despairingly for her “right to be cold”. Others foresee conflict between Arctic countries scrambling for the region’s resources. Greens warn of environmental risks in developing them: a big oil spill would be disastrous for fragile Arctic ecosystems.

The igloos have gone

Such fears are reasonable, but often exaggerated. Traditional Arctic peoples have been changed far more by Westernisation than they will be by melting ice. None lives in an igloo these days. And everywhere except Russia their rights have been recognised. Nor is conflict much of a worry. The Arctic is no terra nullius. Most of it is demarcated, and Arctic countries have a commercial incentive to keep the peace. Last year Russia and Norway settled an old dispute over their maritime border; soon they will open the border region to oil firms.

The risks of pollution from bilge water, mining effluent and spilt oil are real. Yet the Arctic is not unprotected: it is, by and large, among the most regulated oil provinces. Its development will also be slower and more cautious than greens fear. Even with little sea ice, the Arctic will remain forbiddingly cold, remote, stormy and therefore expensive to operate in.

The worry that needs to be taken most seriously is climate change itself. The impact of the melting Arctic may have a calamitous effect on the planet. It is likely to disrupt oceanic circulation—the mixing of warm tropical and cold polar waters, of which the Gulf Stream is a part—and thawing permafrost will lead to the emission of masses of carbon dioxide and methane, and thus further warming. It is also raising sea levels. The Greenland ice sheet has recently shed around 200 gigatonnes of ice a year, a fourfold increase on a decade ago. If the warming continues, it could eventually disintegrate, raising the sea level by seven metres. Many of the world’s biggest cities would be inundated long before that happened.

Some scientists argue that the perils are so immediate that mankind should consider geoengineering the atmosphere to avert them (see article). They may turn out to be right, but there could be enormous risks involved. A slower but safer approach would be to price greenhouse-gas emissions, preferably through a carbon tax, which would encourage the adoption of cleaner technologies (see article). That shift would be costly, but the costs of inaction are likely to be larger.

In the end, the world is likely to get a grip on global warming. The survival instinct demands it. But it is likely to lose a lot of the unique Arctic first. That would be a terrible pity.

Go to the economist.com for the Special Report on The Artic by James Astill, who says:

“The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. The retreating ice offers access to precious minerals and new sea lanes—but also carries grave dangers.”

http://www.economist.com/node/21556921

Electric and electric-hybrid vehicles have been touted as the more sound choice for commuters seeking to reduce their impact on the environment. All is not smooth sailing, as evidenced by the recent troubles of China electric car maker BYD, who saw their stocks plummet due to safety concerns and increasing competition. But nothing is stopping the the German car maker, BMW, with its new electric driven, zero emission vehicles, to meet the demand for sustainability and mobility. Read more

By Keith Bradsher for International Herald Tribune (31 May 2012):

HONG KONG — Four years ago, the BYD Company promoted the electric battery technology it was developing as a way to help China transform the automobile. No less an investor than Warren E. Buffett, one of the world’s richest men, boasted about the company’s prospects and bought a 10 percent stake.

But recently, nothing has gone right. BYD’s stock is down 43 percent from its high on Feb. 8 as investors and analysts have questioned whether the company has the technology or the manufacturing quality to be an enduring competitor in the Chinese market.

BYD’s sales of gasoline-powered cars, the company’s commercial mainstay, have wilted this spring as Chinese buyers have moved toward more expensive but better-quality cars from its rivals. At the same time, BYD now accepts that the future of the auto industry is more likely to lie in hybrid gasoline-electric cars, a technology in which it lags Japanese manufacturers, and not in all-electric cars, which still face issues of battery range and recharging time.

And on Sunday, new questions arose about the company’s battery technology when a Nissan GT-R sports car traveling at more than 110 miles an hour slammed into the back of one of BYD’s electric taxis in southern China and set the vehicle aflame.

The taxi, an e6 battery-electric sedan, spun across three lanes of traffic, hit a tree and turned into an inferno, killing all three occupants. Photos of the blazing wreck quickly spread on the Internet in China and sent the stock down sharply on Monday, prompting BYD to issue a long statement on Tuesday emphasizing that no car, electric or otherwise, would have been likely to survive such an impact.

“We don’t know what happened — the battery pack burned or the high-voltage gear burned or the fabric was lit or maybe some other reason,” said Paul Lin, the company’s marketing director, adding that neither the police nor the company had determined yet whether the high-speed impact or the ensuing fire caused the deaths.

Chinese news media reported that the sports car driver was a drunken man accompanied by three women. The occupants of the sports car were not seriously hurt and the driver fled.

Although BYD’s shares bounced back on Tuesday as investors appeared to accept the company’s explanation, BYD’s longer-term challenges remain.

When Mr. Buffett bought 10 percent of the company in September 2008, using a subsidiary of his main company, Berkshire Hathaway, BYD had plans to start exporting electric cars to the United States within two years. Those plans quickly stalled, partly because of the global economic slowdown, but also because BYD, like many automakers, has since concluded that gasoline-electric hybrids are more promising.

“More and more companies are certainly going to do it like this,” Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s founder and chairman, said in an interview last autumn at his company’s headquarters in Shenzhen, while not ruling out a future for electric cars in China.

BYD’s biggest troubles in the last few months have been in the market for gasoline-powered cars. The company had grown rapidly over the last five years as a manufacturer of cheap, very basic cars for China’s rapidly expanding middle class.

But over the last year, middle-class car buyers in China have become a lot more discerning — and more prone to choose multinationals’ offerings than locally designed cars. Although other Chinese automakers are also struggling, BYD has been among the hardest hit.

BYD’s car sales fell 8 percent in the first four months of this year even as the overall Chinese car market grew 6 percent. In April alone, the company’s sales slid 19 percent as the market grew 18 percent.

Part of the problem is a sharp shift in government policies.

The city of Beijing, which had been the country’s largest municipal car market, cut by two-thirds last year the number of license plates it issues annually and created a lottery for distributing them. With license plates in short supply, buyers have tended to put them on expensive foreign-brand cars instead of locally manufactured economy cars.

The national government, in December 2010, ended two separate programs that had stimulated sales in 2009 and 2010. One policy had sharply reduced the sales tax on cars with very small engines, while the other had subsidized vehicle purchases by residents of rural areas.

Chinese manufacturers, particularly BYD, tend to make cars with small engines, and sell them disproportionately to rural buyers and other customers with relatively low incomes.

The Chinese government hinted on Monday that it might help the auto industry with a “cash for clunkers” program, providing government subsidies for people who trade in used cars for new cars, as part of a broader move by Beijing officials to stimulate the country’s faltering economy.

Source: www.nytimes.com

BMW i Born Electric Tour makes first stop in Rome

22 June 2012

Rome. The BMW Group inaugurated the BMW i Born Electric Tour at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni located at Via Nazionale 194 in Rome. The worldwide tour will go on to visit six other major cities over the next 12 months: Dusseldorf, Tokyo, New York, London, Paris, and Shanghai.

BMW i was introduced by the BMW Group last year and is now in the process of preparing for the launch of vehicles under the brand in coming years. The models will be characterized by extremely low environmental impact and designed for the express purpose of reconciling the demands for individual mobility and sustainability.

Two prototypes are being presented at the event: the BMW i3 Concept and the BMW i8 Concept. With its zero-emissions all-electric engine and a range of about 150 km, the BMW i3 Concept was designed expressly for city use. True to BMW, it also offers a dynamic driving experience.

“We are very proud,” stated Franz Jung, President and Managing Director of BMW Italia S.p.A., “that this world tour is starting out from Italy and from the city of Rome. This major urban city is predestined for innovative solutions and we wanted to confirm our commitment to sustainable mobility. Furthermore, we believe that the automobile represents an asset for society in terms of contributing to the creation of value, and at the same time, represents an irreplaceable means of individual mobility.”

The presentation in Rome is designed to demonstrate the BMW Group’s holistic approach to future mobility, not only in terms of products displayed, but also in terms of networking information, technologies, and transportation systems. The initiative also benefits from collaboration with the Italian architect and designer, Fabio Novembre. Through collaboration with the Officina Design and Driade, he will create his interpretation of the city and be the first of seven major world-class artists engaged to offer their visions of the urban context.

To underline the integrated approach of the event, other local designers and businesses working in the field of sustainable luxury goods, were selected to develop products representing “Next Premium”.  For example the high-fashion eyeglass frames W-eye™, the Etcetera-Design furniture brand, jewellery designer Alice Visin, and the Italian Catellani & Smith brand of lamps.

The event in Rome is scheduled to cover four days from the 20th to 24th June. Yesterday, a series of workshops open to public provided a platform to exchange views with international experts including Jessica Scorpio (Getaround), Benoit Jacob (BMW i), Oriana Persico (AOS), Andrea Granelli (kanso.it), Federico Ferrazza (WIRED), Carlo Ratti (MIT), Francesco Lipari (OFL Architecture), Fabio Novembre and Joseph Grima (DOMUS). On 22 and 23 June, the exhibit will be open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The detailed program of meetings can be found at www.bmw-i.it.

With BMW i, the BMW Group is consolidating its position as the most innovative and sustainable automobile manufacturer in the world and is responding to the challenges of the future in terms of eco-sustainable mobility. Together with its premium electric vehicles, BMW also offers a range of services for mobility. These are services aimed at optimizing the use of parking spaces, the utilization of navigation systems that can access local information, intermodal road maps, and car-sharing schemes such as DriveNow.

BMW i recently acquired an interest in MyCityWay and ParkatmyHouse web portals. ParkatmyHouse makes it possible for private persons to rent their personal parking space when it is not in use, via the internet or a specific smartphone application.

For further information please contact:

BMW Group Italia

Roberto Olivi

Corporate Communications Manager

Roberto.Olivi@bmw.it

BMW Group Corporate Communications

Cypselus von Frankenberg

Technology Communications, Spokesperson BMW i

Cypselus.von-Frankenberg@bmw.de

Source: www.press.bmwgroup.com and http://bmw.lulop.com

The BMW Group

The BMW Group is one of the most successful manufacturers of automobiles and motorcycles in the world with its BMW, MINI, Husqvarna Motorcycles  and Rolls-Royce brands. As a global company, the BMW Group operates 29 production and assembly facilities in 14 countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries.

In 2011, the BMW Group sold about 1.67 million cars and more than 113,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax for the financial year 2011 was euro 7.38 billion on revenues amounting to euro 68.82 billion. At 31 December 2011, the BMW Group had a workforce of approximately 100,000 employees.

The success of the BMW Group has always been built on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain, comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy. As a result of its efforts, the BMW Group has been ranked industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for the last seven years.

Source: www.bmwgroup.com

Is it a sign that environmental news is finally making the mainstream and getting the TV treatment that it deserves?  When you see the quality and extent of ecological and green programming on the likes of BBC and CNN – on top of the on-going good work of Discovery channel – you can only assume that it must be worthwhile. Companies are coming on board as sponsors and advertisers because the viewer numbers are there. So it is encouraging – heartening even – to see a new development from Australia with EcoTV now going out to a global audience. Read More

Carbon Market Pty Ltd, owners of EcoTV, EcoNews, EcoVoice and Eco Daily Deals, has signed an exclusive licensing agreement with ASX-listed GoConnect to provide environmental news and eco-lifestyle content to its Uctv.fm IPTV network.

GoConnect is a global media communications company, based in Melbourne, Australia.

Established in1999, GoConnect is a forward thinking organisation, whose core business is focussed on the online delivery of interactive audio/video content through its unique and proprietary technologies.

GoConnect will enable environmental news and current affairs show, Eco TV together with the full stable of Carbon Market news offerings, to be available to a global audience via smartphones, connected TVs using the Sony BRAVIA Internet Video Service and LG Smart TV worldwide.

Carbon Market’s publications are the media partners of The Banksia Foundation, Conservation Volunteers Australia, Keep Australia Beautiful, Environs Australia, as well as many other high profile and credible environmental organisations.

Tim Landgon, co-founder of Carbon Market said that he was delighted to join forces with GoConnect and the access it provides to its large audience.

Environmental groups in, particular, will benefit enormously from this global licensing agreement.

“Never before have environmental groups such as Keep Australia Beautiful and The Banksia Foundation had a global platform,” Mr Langdon said.

“Now through the arrangements Carbon Market has been able to negotiate these organisations can spread their conservation and environmental messages to a global audience in a way that will make a real difference.

“Whether you are in Australia, China, Japan, South Korea or elsewhere in the world, you will be able to access our publications via the rapidly growing market for these smart devices.

“Smart devices are also the perfect platform for showcasing clever green solutions.

“We encourage anyone working in this space to get in contact with us so that we can help to deliver their message and create a truly collaborative ‘voice of many’ to enhance our natural environment.” Mr Langdon added.

Richard Li, Executive Chairman, GoConnect said, “GoConnect is currently restructuring and expanding the program mix of uctv.fm to include a much wider range of program types and genres including subscription services.

“Eco TV provides a useful addition of not just unique and compelling content but also help to attract for uctv.fm, a new global audience and commercial sponsors.

“In a world that has been affected by global warming, climate change, and all kinds of environmental disasters, the addition of Eco TV to our program lineup provides essential and compelling infotainment to our audience.

“Eco TV will join the new uctv.fm within the next few weeks,” Mr Li added.

GoConnect distributes Content via its IPTV network including the web on www.uctv.fm, www.undercover.fm, smartphones on m.uctv.fm, and major brands of internet connected TVs.

GoConnect has entered into global distribution agreements to distribute its content on uctv.fm via connected TVs of Sony BRAVIA Internet Video Service, and LG Smart TV worldwide.

Discussions at different stages are currently being held to expand the distribution of uctv.fm to other major Smart TV brands and to expand the audience reach globally.

Carbon Market Pty Ltd manages and operates five business units including: Eco TV, EcoNews, Eco Voice, Eco Daily and Carbon Market.

Source: www.ecoTV.com.au

Providing viewers with the latest environmental news headlines, sustainable lifestyle tips and interviews with industry thought leaders and eco-minded celebrities. Eco TV aims to engage, educate and entertain viewers on all things green.

Eco Voice – www.ecovoice.com.au

One of the leading environmental news platforms in Australia, with tens of thousands of subscribers receiving the monthly newsletter. It is free to subscribe.

Eco News – www.econews.com.au

Eco News is a major source of “as it happens” news articles, from an Australian perspective. It also distributes a daily newsletter to more than 13,000 subscribers. Make it your daily source of environmental information. It is free to subscribe.

Eco Daily – www.ecodaily.com.au

Provides ‘clever green savings’ via a daily deals platform.

Carbon Market – www.carbonmarket.com.au

Provides an online platform for suppliers of environmentally friendly goods and services to promote and sell their products using ANZ’s secure e-gate facility.

http://econews.com.au

Twenty years from the first Rio Earth Conference – and 50 years since Rachel Carson’s landmark environmental exposure – is the earth any better for it? Do we have the “Wonderful world” that Louis Armstrong so gloriously expressed? We have to ask ourselves: is there progress to report and are there lessons to be learnt? This column and this issue have words of hope and reports of enterprise and sustainability. Mostly about good deeds and words of wisdom. Along with some of the usual culprits of the not so encouraging acts or misdeeds. – Ken Hickson     Read More

What a Wonderful World!

Twenty years from the first Rio Earth Conference – and 50 years since Rachel Carson’s landmark environmental exposure – is the earth any better for it? Do we have the “Wonderful world” that Louis Armstrong so gloriously expressed? We have to ask ourselves: is there progress to report and are their lessons to be learnt? Genuinely, there has been some significant changes for the better and certainly greater awareness of the value of the environment, but it is more likely a case of two steps forward and one step back – or even worse than that in some minds. But we must take time to celebrate the v environment. Celebrate the achievements of so many who have worked tirelessly for a better place, often fielding criticism and even hate. Let’s mark this year as a stocktaking one. Weigh up the losses and the gains. Has the earth and the environment profited from human’s at work and play? The greatest lesson over the past 50 years is that we cannot leave it to nature. Man and his machines have such a major impact on all things. The environment and the atmosphere can be destroyed by humans or saved by humans. It is over to us. No longer can be attribute disasters to Acts of God. More and more are directly attributable to the dirty deeds of people on earth. So the future is in our hands. The environment begs us to be responsible caretakers. Nothing more and nothing less. This issue have words of hope and enterprise. Good deeds and words of wisdom.

Showing how everything in the natural world was linked, Rachel Carson showed how humans were part of it too, and how human interference could wreck it, could wreck the balance of nature built up over billions of years. It is appropriate to recall on the eve of Rio+20, that 50 years ago this week a book appeared which profoundly altered the way we view the Earth and our place on it: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Read More

Rachel Carson: The green revolutionary

Fifty years ago, few people cared about pollution, deforestation or whaling. Then a remarkable book came along.

Michael McCarthy  in The Independent  (11 June 2012 ):

50 years on and the DDT debates continue

The book that changed the world is a cliché often used but rarely true, yet 50 years ago this week a book appeared which profoundly altered the way we view the Earth and our place on it: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

This impassioned and angry account of how America’s wildlife was being devastated by a new generation of chemical pesticides began the modern environment movement: it awoke the general consciousness that we, as humans, are part of the natural world, not separate from it, yet we can destroy it by our actions.

A middle-aged marine biologist, Carson was not the first to perceive this, to see how intimately we are bound up with the fate of our planet; but her beautifully-written book, and the violent controversy it generated, brought this perception for the first time to millions, in the US, in Britain and around the world.

Down the centuries many people had expressed their love for nature, but Silent Spring and the furore it created gave birth to something more: the widespread, specific awareness that the planet was threatened and needed defending; and the past half-century of environmentalism, the age of Green, the age of Save The Whale and Stop Global Warming, has followed as a natural consequence.

When it began serialisation in The New Yorker on 16 June 1962 (it was published in full the following September) Silent Spring revealed to a horrified America – or at least, to those who did not know already – that its wildlife was being wiped out on a staggering scale by use of the new generation of synthetic pesticides, compounds made in the laboratory rather than from naturally occurring substances, which had followed on from the forerunner of them all, the chlorinated hydrocarbon DDT.

In particular, the songbirds of America’s countryside and small towns were everywhere falling silent. They had been killed by colossal pesticide spraying programmes, usually from the air, sanctioned in the 1950s by the US Department of Agriculture, individual states and local authorities, and aimed at insect pest threats which turned out to be largely illusory.

There was no need for them; their real driver was the American chemical industry which had managed to convince US agriculture that its bright new range of deadly super-poisons, organochlorines such as aldrin and dieldrin, organophosphates such as parathion and malathion, were just the wonder drugs that farming needed – in huge doses.

Even now, it is hard to read Rachel Carson’s account of these mass sprayings without incredulity, like the 131,000 acres in Sheldon, Illinois, sprayed with dieldrin to get rid of the Japanese beetle. “It was a rare farm in the Sheldon area that was blessed by the presence of a cat after the war on beetles was begun,” she wrote.

Tens of millions of acres were covered in poison in campaigns against the spruce budworm, the gypsy moth and the fire ant, none of which succeeded in eradicating their targets, but all of which exterminated countless other wild creatures – the American robins on suburban lawns, the trout in forest streams – to the bewildered dismay of the local people watching it happen around them.

Carson’s achievement was to bring the situation to national notice in a remarkable synthesis of dramatic reportage and deep scientific knowledge, explaining exactly what the new pesticides were, how their catastrophic side effects were occurring, and how senseless were the mass spraying campaigns (although she recognised that agricultural pesticides were necessary and did not advocate banning them all). To a reader today, her account is compelling and entirely convincing.

Yet it produced an explosion. The US chemical industry, and parts of the US scientific establishment, lashed out in frenzy against this presumptuous upstart holding them to account, with a long and bitter campaign of criticism and personal denigration; and it seemed as if what aroused their ire more than anything was the fact that their opponent was a woman – “An hysterical woman”.

A professional biologist from Pennsylvania who had worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, she was 55 when Silent Spring appeared. Unmarried and childless after a life spent looking after her mother and her young nephew, she had found emotional solace in a deep friendship with a neighbour at her Maine holiday home, Dorothy Freeman, about which there has inevitably been speculation; certainly, they were very close. Yet Carson was more than a scientist, she was also an acclaimed author, having written a trilogy of highly-praised books on the marine environment, one of which,The Sea Around Us of 1951, had been a best-seller.

Thus when Silent Spring appeared, she already had a substantial audience, and the furore stirred up by the US chemical industry only served to boost it a thousandfold; by the end of 1962, three months after full publication, the book had sold half a million copies, and public opinion was solidly behind her. (It did nothing to hinder her cause that President John F Kennedy took her side and referred Silent Spring to his Science Advisory Committee, which the following year vindicated her stance.)

So the madness of the mass poison sprayings came to an end, and the robins and their song returned to America’s spring; DDT was banned for agriculture in 1972 (although it remained in use for malaria prevention), and bans on dieldrin, aldrin and other substances followed.

Rachel Carson did not live to see it: she died of cancer in 1964. But her achievement was much more than to end a crazy and murderous assault upon nature, enormous though it was.

What she introduced to a mass audience for the first time, in explaining how the catastrophe was happening, was the idea of ecology, of the interconnectedness of all living things, of the connectedness between species and their habitats.

The pesticide falls on the leaf, and the leaf falls to the ground where it is consumed by worms, who also consume the pesticide; and robins consume the worms and consume the pesticide too, and so they die.

In showing how everything in the natural world was linked, she showed how humans were part of it too, and how human interference could wreck it, could wreck the balance of nature built up over billions of years.

That is a commonplace insight now, but in 1962 it was a new one. It was truly radical, because it implied – for the first time ever – that scientific advance and economic growth, closely linked as they were in America, might not be endlessly a good thing. There was the Earth itself to consider. And that perception has been at the heart of the movement that Silent Spring inspired, which is 50 years old on Saturday.

Spreading death: the new pesticides

Insecticides made from natural products, such as pyrethrum from chrysanthemum flowers and naturally occurring arsenic, had been known and used for centuries, before the more powerful effects of synthetic lab-produced pesticides became apparent during the Second World War.

The first was dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane – DDT – synthesised in the 19th century but whose insect-killing properties were only discovered in 1939. DDT was used with success in disease prevention during the war and was followed during the 1940s and 1950s by a family of similar organic chemicals.

However, the new organochlorines and organophosphates were not just more deadly, they built up in body fat and the accumulated dose could be passed on. “One of the most sinister features of DDT and related chemicals is the way they are passed on from one organism to another through all the links of the food chains,” Rachel Carson wrote.

The deadliest of these chemicals have now largely been banned, but controversy over pesticide use and its effect on wildlife has not gone away. It now focuses on the neonicotinoids, one of which, thiamethoxam, was banned by the French government last week after research showed it affected the homing ability of bees.

Source: www.independent.co.uk

The world’s air has reached what scientists call a troubling new milestone for carbon dioxide, the main global warming pollutant. Monitoring stations across the Arctic this spring are measuring more than 400 parts per million of the heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere. Years ago, it passed the 350ppm mark that many scientists say is the highest safe level for carbon dioxide. Read more

By The Guardian (1 June 2012):

The world’s air has reached what scientists call a troubling new milestone for carbon dioxide, the main global warming pollutant.

Monitoring stations across the Arctic this spring are measuring more than 400 parts per million of the heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere. The number isn’t quite a surprise, because it’s been rising at an accelerating pace.

Years ago, it passed the 350ppm mark that many scientists say is the highest safe level for carbon dioxide. It now stands globally at 395.

So far, only the Arctic has reached that 400 level, but the rest of the world will follow soon.

“The fact that it’s 400 is significant,” said Jim Butler, the global monitoring director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Lab. “It’s just a reminder to everybody that we haven’t fixed this, and we’re still in trouble.”

“The news today, that some stations have measured concentrations above 400ppm in the atmosphere, is further evidence that the world’s political leaders – with a few honourable exceptions – are failing catastrophically to address the climate crisis,” former vice president Al Gore, the highest-profile campaigner against global warming, said in an email. “History will not understand or forgive them.”

Carbon dioxide is the chief greenhouse gas and stays in the atmosphere for 100 years. Some carbon dioxide is natural, mainly from decomposing dead plants and animals. Before the industrial age, levels were around 275 parts per million.

For more than 60 years, readings have been in the 300s, except in urban areas, where levels are skewed. The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal for electricity and oil for gasoline, has caused the overwhelming bulk of the man-made increase in carbon in the air, scientists say.

It’s been at least 800,000 years – probably more – since Earth saw carbon dioxide levels in the 400s, Butler and other climate scientists said.

Readings are coming in at 400 and higher all over the Arctic. They’ve been recorded in Alaska, Greenland, Norway, Iceland and even Mongolia. But levels change with the seasons and will drop a bit in the summer, when plants suck up carbon dioxide, NOAA scientists said.

So the yearly average for those northern stations likely will be lower and so will the global number.

“It’s an important threshold,” said the Carnegie Institution ecologist Chris Field, a scientist who helps lead the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “It is an indication that we’re in a different world.”

Ronald Prinn, an atmospheric sciences professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said 400 is more a psychological milestone than a scientific one. We think in hundreds, and “we’re poking our heads above 400,” he said.

Tans said the readings show how much the Earth’s atmosphere and its climate are being affected by humans. Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels hit a record high of 34.8 billion tonnes in 2011, up 3.2%, the International Energy Agency announced last week.

The agency said it’s becoming unlikely that the world can achieve the European goal of limiting global warming to just 2 degrees based on increasing pollution and greenhouse gas levels.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Warmer water and reduced river flows will cause more power disruptions for nuclear and coal-fired power plants, as coal, nuclear and gas plants turn large amounts of water into steam to spin a turbine. A study by a team of European and U.S. scientists focused on projections of rising temperatures and lower river levels in summer. Read More

By David Fogarty for Reuters (4 June 2012)

Warmer water and reduced river flows will cause more power disruptions for nuclear and coal-fired power plants in the United States and Europe in future, scientists say, and lead to a rethink on how best to cool power stations in a hotter world.

In a study published on Monday, a team of European and U.S. scientists focused on projections of rising temperatures and lower river levels in summer and how these impacts would affect power plants dependent on river water for cooling.

The authors predict that coal and nuclear power generating capacity between 2031 and 2060 will decrease by between 4 and 16 percent in the United States and a 6 to 19 percent decline in Europe due to lack of cooling water.

The likelihood of extreme drops in power generation, either complete or almost-total shutdowns, was projected to almost triple.

“This study suggests that our reliance on thermal cooling is something that we’re going to have to revisit,” co-author Dennis Lettenmaier, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, said in a statement.

Thermoelectric power plants supply more than 90 percent of electricity in the United States and account for 40 percent of the nation’s freshwater usage, says the study published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

In Europe, such plants supply three-quarters of the electricity and account for about half of the freshwater use.

Coal, nuclear and gas plants turn large amounts of water into steam to spin a turbine. They also rely on water at consistent temperatures to cool the turbines and any spike in river water temperatures can affect a plant’s operation.

Disruptions to power supplies were already occurring, the authors noted.

During warm, dry summers in 2003, 2006 and 2009 several power plants in Europe cut production because of restricted availability of cooling water, driving up power prices.

A similar event in 2007-2008 in the United States caused several power plants to reduce production, or shut down for several days because of a lack of water for cooling and environmental restrictions on warm water discharges back into rivers, the study said.

In the past few months, large parts of the United States have suffered record heat, with March being the warmest on record for the contiguous 48 states, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The study projects the most significant U.S. impacts at power plants inland along major rivers in the Southeast.

“Considering the increase in future electricity demand, there is a strong need for improved climate adaptation strategies in the thermoelectric power sector to assure future energy security,” the authors say in the study.

They also point to U.S and European laws enshrining strict environmental standards for the volume of water withdrawn by plants and the temperature of the water discharged.

Adaptation strategies include placing new plants near the sea or building more gas-fired power plants, which are more efficient and use less water.

Source: www.reuters.com

Recent UNEP report warns that the earth’s environmental systems are being pushed to the brink of their limits and catastrophe may soon follow. Despite the multitude of agreed upon goals and objectives for sustainable management of the environment, little or no progress has been made in recent years to meeting them. Read more

CBS News (6 June 2012):

Humanity speeding down “unsustainable path”

RIO DE JANEIRO – A United Nations report warns that the earth’s environmental systems “are being pushed towards their biophysical limits” and that sudden, irreversible and potentially catastrophic changes are looming.

The UN’s Environment Program says that climate change, the depletion of the ozone layer, plummeting fish stocks and the mass extinction of animals are among the most worrisome environmental threats.

“The world continues to speed down an unsustainable path despite over 500 internationally agreed goals and objectives to support the sustainable management of the environment and improve human wellbeing,” a press release for the report states.

The 525-page report released Wednesday said little or no progress has been made in recent years toward meeting international targets for reducing environmental destruction.

The report calls on policymakers to take urgent action. Achim Steiner is the UN program’s head and he says the UN’s mega-conference on sustainable development to be held in Rio de Janeiro this month would be the ideal forum to take the steps needed to prevent an environmental catastrophe.

“If humanity does not urgently change its ways, several critical thresholds may be exceeded, beyond which abrupt and generally irreversible changes to the life-support functions of the planet could occur,” a press release on the report states.

Some key facts and figures from the report:

Under current models, greenhouse gas emissions could double over the next 50 years, leading to rise in global temperature of 3 degrees Celsius or more by the end of the century.

Indoor air pollution from particulate matter is responsible for nearly 2 million premature deaths annually – including 900,000 deaths in children under the age of five.

Outdoor particulate matter may be responsible for around 3.7 million deaths annually.

Ground-level ozone is responsible for 700,000 respiratory deaths, over 75 per cent of which occur in Asia.

Global economic losses due to reduced agricultural yields caused by air pollution are estimated at US $14-26 billion annually.

The extinction risk is increasing faster for corals than for any other group of living organisms, with the condition of coral reefs declining by 38 per cent since 1980. Rapid contraction is projected by 2050.

Though catches more than quadrupled from the early 1950s to the mid-1990s, they have stabilized or diminished since then – despite increased fishing. In 2000, catches could have been 7-36 percent higher were it not for stock depletion. This translated into economic losses to the value of $4-36 billion.

Water quality in at least parts of most major river systems still fails to meet World Health Organization (standards.

More than 600 million people are expected to lack access to safe drinking water by 2015, while more than 2.5 billion people will lack access to basic sanitation.

By 2030, an estimated $9-11 billion will be spent annually on additional infrastructure to provide sufficient quantities of water, especially in developing countries.

The number of flood and drought disasters rose by 230 per cent and 38 per cent respectively between the 1980s and 2000s, while the number of people exposed to floods rose by 114 per cent.

The cost of coastal adaptation to climate change is estimated to reach between US $26 billion and US $89 billion by the 2040s, depending on the magnitude of sea-level rise.

Source: www.cbsnews.com

The United States National Research Council has come to the disturbing conclusion that the nation’s system of Earth-observing satellites has been deteriorating, with drastic consequences on its ability to produce accurate weather forecasts. With weather pattern becoming more unpredictable due to climate change, the nation will be inadequately prepared to face weather related crises, leading to severe economic and life losses. Read more

Clouded Forecast

By Heidi Cullen in New York Times (31 May 2012):

Our ability to forecast the weather is in big trouble.

Last month, the National Research Council concluded that the nation’s system of Earth-observing satellites is in a state of “precipitous decline” and warned of a “slowing or even reversal of the steady gains in weather forecast accuracy over many years.”

This worrisome development puts all of us in harm’s way and should particularly trouble us as the annual six-month hurricane season begins today.

Gathering timely and accurate weather data is, of course, vital to saving lives. The deadliest hurricane ever to strike the United States hit Galveston, Tex., on Sept. 8, 1900, killing as many as 8,000 people. Scientists had lacked the tools to predict the storm’s severity.

We have made tremendous progress in the accuracy of our hurricane forecasting (and overall weather forecasting) since then, much of it a result of government-owned satellites that were first launched in the 1960s and now provide about 90 percent of the data used by the National Weather Service in its forecasting models. Satellite and radar data and the powerful computers that crunch this information are the foundation of the weather information and images we get. Thanks to these instruments, for instance, the five-day hurricane track forecast we get today is more accurate than the three-day forecast from just 10 years ago.

These satellites also monitor volcanic eruptions, rising sea levels, melting ice sheets, the depletion of stratospheric ozone and ocean surface temperatures. Emergency beacons from aviators and mariners in distress can also be pinpointed by these satellites. Scientists who study the atmosphere and the ocean need continuous weather data to track large-scale climate variations (like El Niño) and long-term environmental trends like global warming.

Weather observations even bear on national security. Accurate wind and temperature forecasts are critical in deciding whether to launch an aircraft that will require midflight refueling.

But those capabilities, and our overall ability to monitor the planet, are slipping. The causes identified by the research council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, are many: technological failures, cost increases, changes in Congressional and administration priorities and — above all — the failure to devote adequate resources. For example, the annual budget for NASA’s Earth Science Division has fallen to below $1.5 billion from about $2 billion a decade ago, far below what scientists agree is needed.

The new report found that the number of actual and planned satellite missions could decline from 23 this year to only 6 in 2020, reducing the number of Earth-observing instruments in space from 90 now to about 20 in 2020.

To make matters worse, in the last three years, two Earth-observing satellites costing more than $700 million failed to reach orbit and crashed into the ocean.

In its May report, the council warned of a “coming crisis” in which “our ability to observe and understand the Earth system will decline.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service, expects a data gap of at least 12 months, beginning in 2017, between the time one satellite crucial for accurate weather forecasts and warnings stops functioning and its replacement is up and running. Without such data, the Weather Service would have been at a serious disadvantage sizing up the dangerous snowmaggedon blizzard of 2010 that paralyzed the East Coast. Forecasters would have underestimated the snowfall by 10 inches, according to the Weather Service.

We live on a small planet with increasingly big problems. Extreme weather, climate change, population pressure and the depletion of our natural resources are all expected to worsen in our lifetimes. This is not the time to take our eyes off the planet we call home.

Heidi Cullen is a scientist at Climate Central, which communicates scientific findings to the public.

Source: www.nytimes.com

With recent report finding that up to 60 million additional jobs can be generated over the next two decades by shifting to a greener economy, United Nations agencies and trade unions are urging governments to turn this potential into reality. This will have the effect of reversing recent job loss trends as well as lifting millions out of poverty while promoting a more sustainable growth. Read more

By Business Green Staff(4 June 2012):

Shifting to a greener economy could generate up to 60 million additional jobs over the next two decades and lift millions of people out of poverty, UN agencies and trade unions said recently, urging governments to use the Rio+20 summit to turn this potential into reality.

A new report finds the transformation of key sectors such as agriculture, energy, construction and transport has already created tens of millions of jobs and will eventually affect at least half of the global workforce, equivalent to around 1.5 billion people.

It says the renewable energy sector now employs close to five million workers, more than doubling the number of jobs from 2006 to 2010, while energy efficiency is an important source of green jobs in the construction industry, which is among the hardest hit by the economic crisis.

Three million people are employed in the US environmental goods and services sector, while government figures show the equivalent figure in the UK is just under one million.

In the EU alone, 14.6 million direct and indirect jobs exist in the protection of biodiversity and rehabilitation of natural resources and forests, says the paper, published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Trade Union Congress (ITUC).

Net gains of 0.5 to two per cent of total employment are possible in developed countries with a shift to low carbon technologies and practices, but these are dwarfed by the potential in emerging economies and developing countries, which can leapfrog to green technology rather than replace obsolete resource-intensive infrastructure. Brazil has already created just under three million jobs, accounting for some seven per cent of all formal employment.

The shift is also likely to benefit women as well as the poorest and most marginalised people, the report says, adding employment gains will more than offset job losses in carbon-intense industries.

It notes only around eight per cent of the workforce in industrialised countries is employed in the 10 to 15 industries that generate between 70 and 80 per cent of CO2 emissions, so only a fraction are likely to lose their jobs if policies are adopted to green existing enterprises and to promote employment.

“Environmental sustainability is not a job killer, as it is sometimes claimed,” said Juan Somavia, ILO director-general. “On the contrary, if properly managed, it can lead to more and better jobs, poverty reduction and social inclusion.”

However, the report stresses getting the right mix of policies is crucial. It recommends governments promote and implement sustainable production processes, particularly among small-and-medium-sized enterprises, as well as expanding skills training and facilitating effective social dialogue between employers and trade unions.

The forthcoming Rio+20 summit will see countries gather to discuss how best to incorporate sustainable development into growth plans, and Somavia urged nations to seize this “crucial moment” for progress.

“The current development model has proven to be inefficient and unsustainable, not only for the environment, but for economies and societies as well,” he said.

“We urgently need to move to a sustainable development path with a coherent set of policies with people and the planet at the centre.”

Source: www.greenbiz.com