I recently worked up a "see one year ago, two years ago" gizmo for the news story database underlying our "humoring the horror of environmental collapse" website.
What's perhaps most alarming is how much hasn't changed.
One year ago, 365 days:
Thu, Jul 2, 2009 from BBC:
World 'still losing biodiversity'
An unacceptable number of species are still being lost forever despite world leaders pledging action to reverse the trend, a report has warned.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) says the commitment to reduce biodiversity loss by 2010 will not be met.
It warns that a third of amphibians, a quarter of mammals and one-in-eight birds are threatened with extinction.
The analysis is based on the 44,838 species on the IUCN Red List.
"The report makes for depressing reading," said co-editor Craig Hilton Taylor, manager of the IUCN's Red List Unit.
"It tells us that the extinction crisis is as bad, or even worse than we believed.
"Still being lost"? Heck, we're just getting started!
Fri, Jul 3, 2009
from New Scientist:
Meadows of the sea in 'shocking' decline
Seagrass meadows are disappearing at an accelerating pace, according to a new report, which is the first to look at the problem on a global scale.
Seagrass meadows, along with coral reefs, mangrove forests, and salt-marshes, provide valuable ecosystem services like nutrient cycling. They also protect edible crustaceans, like shrimps and crabs, and juvenile fish such as salmon. In addition, seagrass meadows provide habitats for endangered species like dugongs, manatees, and sea turtles.
While marine ecologists have been measuring localized seagrass loss for decades, they had never before pooled their information to get a global perspective. So a team led by Michelle Waycott of James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland, Australia pooled data from 215 regional studies, from 1879 to 2006.
They found that the total area of known seagrass meadow had decreased by 29 per cent over the 127 years. They also found that the rate of loss had accelerated, from less than 1 per cent per year in the 1940s to 7 per cent per year since the 1990s.... Overall, the rate of loss is comparable to that for tropical rainforests and coral reefs.
Those meadows are probably still having problems because we're not mowing them often enough.
Fri, Jul 3, 2009
from BusinessGreen:
China plans dramatic increase in solar capacity to 2GW by 2011
China is set to raise its target for installed solar capacity to 2GW by 2011, a fifteen-fold increase on the 140MW goal it set only last year.
The state-run China Daily newspaper reported today that the National Energy Administration, the government office responsible for energy development plans, has decided to increase capacity over the next two years by providing increased subsidies for solar generators worth $0.16 (10p) per kWh.
Chinese solar panel makers, including Suntech Power Holdings, Yingli Green Energy and LDK Solar, are expected to enjoy significant increases in sales as a result of the revised goal, said the newspaper.
Isn't it sad that the Commies are more committed to solar than we are? It's time for an EnergyRace™!
Fri, Jul 3, 2009
from IRIN News (UN):
Rwanda: Water rationing warning as drought bites
Electrogaz, Rwanda's public utility, is considering water rationing due to shortages caused by a prolonged drought in parts of the country, officials said.
Yves Muyange, the acting chief executive, said the country was now facing a deficit of up to 22,000 cubic metres of water every day and had no alternative until supplies had been boosted.
"Starting this month, we are going to conduct rationing tests across major towns in the country to find out how to implement the programme," he said.
Muyange said efforts were under way to increase water production across the densely populated country of nine million people.
Environmental specialists blame the drought on climate change, with erratic rainfall and frequent dry spells combining to increase water shortages.
Climate chaos is a gift that just keeps on giving.
From 2008, 730 days ago:
Wed, Jul 2, 2008
from University of Washington, via ScienceDaily:
Penguins Setting Off Sirens Over Health Of World's Oceans
[T]he culprit isn't only climate change, says a University of Washington conservation biologist. Oil pollution, depletion of fisheries and rampant coastline development that threatens breeding habitat for many penguin species, along with Earth's warming climate, are leading to rapid population declines among penguins, said Dee Boersma, a University of Washington biology professor and an authority on the flightless birds.
"Penguins are among those species that show us that we are making fundamental changes to our world," she said.
The "Lurch of the Penguins."
Thu, Jul 3, 2008
from Great Ape Trust:
Orangutans 'declining more sharply' than previously estimated
Endangered wild orangutan (Pongo spp.) populations are declining more sharply in Sumatra and Borneo than previously estimated, according to new findings published this month by Great Ape Trust of Iowa scientist Dr. Serge Wich and other orangutan conservation experts in Oryx – The International Journal of Conservation.
Conservation action essential to survival of orangutans, found only on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, must be region-specific to address the different ecological threats to each species, said Wich and his co-authors, a pre-eminent group of scientists, conservationists, and representatives of governmental and non-governmental groups. The experts' revised estimates put the number of Sumatran orangutans (P. abelii) around 6,600 in 2004. This is lower than previous estimates of 7,501 as a result of new findings that indicate that a large area in Aceh that was previously thought to contain orangutans actually does not.
In the Primate Cage Match, Homo sapiens are kicking butt.
And today, just like yesteryear, we continue to kick the planet's ass:
Fri, Jul 2, 2010
from Times of Malta:
Ships' ballast water adds a new alien species to the Mediterranean every nine days
Mediterranean states have started discussing measures to control the discharging of ship's ballast after scientists found that one alien species enters the Med every nine days, mostly with the water which the ships discharge after arriving from other regions.
"The Mediterranean Sea is a world's major shipping area with more than 300,000 port calls per annum and more than 10,000 ships transiting this busy highway every year. Ballast water discharges by ships can have a negative impact on the marine environment," said Fréderic Hébert, Director of the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre (REMPEC).
"Large tankers and bulk cargo carriers, commonly operating in the Mediterranean, use a large amount of ballast water, which is often taken on in the coastal waters in one region after ships discharge wastewater or unload cargo, and discharged at the next port of call, wherever more cargo is loaded".
There are hundreds of organisms carried in ballast water, including plants, animals, viruses and bacteria. These materials often include non-native, nuisance, exotic species that can cause extensive ecological and economic damage to the aquatic ecosystem - generally referred to as alien or invasive species.
Man o man we're good at this.
And this morning, oddly, I was most saddened by the International Energy Agency's $43 trillion, 40-year plan to halve carbon emissions.
IEA: $46 Trillion Roadmap for Halving Global Emissions a "Bargain"
Memo to the planet from the International Energy Agency: Buckle down and speed up the nascent low-carbon revolution.
Top thinkers from the energy watchdog presented an ambitious 40-year pathway to halve the world's carbon emissions during a Thursday rollout at the National Press Club.
Indeed, weaning the globe of its fossil fuel dependency will require ingenuity, cooperation and tens of trillions of dollars. But IEA maintains that bumping up investments in renewables, nuclear power and a smart electric grid, and perfecting technologies such as carbon sequestration are the most reasonable and reachable course available to keep Earth's temperature stable and arrest the severe impacts climate scientists agree are imminent--and already occurring.... In addition, the plan counts on the rather rapid maturation of a technology still in the test phases--carbon capture and sequestration.
The catch is that IEA's proposal calls for constructing 30 new nuclear plants and outfitting 35 coal-fired plants with the technology to capture carbon emissions and bury them underground every year through 2050.
Some days these "all it would take to save the world is..." stories -- because we've seen them for years -- are the saddest of all.