China passed the U.S. as the world's leading greenhouse gas emitter back in 2006 and today produces some 17 percent of the world's total carbon dioxide output. According to the China Daily news service, air and water pollution, combined with widespread use of food additives and pesticides, make cancer the top killer in China. Meanwhile, World Bank data show that, based on the European Union's air quality standards, only one percent of the country's 560 million urban inhabitants breathe air deemed safe. But many Chinese insist that all this environmental trouble is part of the cost of developing into a world superpower, and government leaders there are hesitant to impose restrictions on economic development.
Nevertheless, the Chinese are starting to take action. In December 2009 at the Copenhagen global climate talks, China announced plans to slow greenhouse gas emission increases relative to economic growth by 40 percent to 50 percent between 2005 and 2020, and use renewable fuels for 15 percent of its energy. China also committed to increasing forest cover by 40 million hectares by 2020 (forests absorb carbon dioxide).
But even with such measures, analysts say China's carbon dioxide output will still increase a staggering 90 percent in the next decade, assuming eight percent economic growth. While international negotiators were pleased to finally secure a commitment from the Chinese, it was a far cry from the fast and binding emissions cuts many scientists say are necessary to stave off potentially cataclysmic climate change.
Regarding other pollution, China is a signatory to the Stockholm Convention, which governs the control and phase-out of major persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including many pesticides, PCBs and other chemicals. China has committed to eliminating the production, import and use of pollutants covered under the treaty, and will establish an inventory of POP contaminated sites and remediation plans by 2015.
Other green strides China has made include 2008's nationwide ban on plastic shopping bags. Before the ban, China was using 37 million barrels of crude oil annually to make the bags that would no doubt come back to haunt people, wildlife, land and water bodies as litter. China has also signed on to an international effort sponsored by the United Nations and the Global Environment Facility to phase out incandescent light bulbs over the next decade in favor of more efficient varieties. China makes 70 percent of the world's supply of light bulbs, so the switch could have a big impact on energy usage for lighting around the world.
China also is no slouch when it comes to manufacturing green technologies and now produces more solar panels and wind turbines than any other country. And the Chinese government recently committed $216 billion in subsidies to further develop the nation's green technology sector. A recent report by the non-profit Pew Environment Group found that in 2009 China spent two times as much as the U.S. to fund so-called "green markets," and close to 50 percent of world expenditures overall.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/13/1971136/earthtalk-what-is-china-doing.html#ixzz181ubjrwf
Monday, December 13, 2010
Global Warming to turn clouds into heat traps
London, Dec 12 (IANS)
Global warming will turn clouds into heat traps, worsening the greenhouse gas effects, and chances that clouds will save us from climate change are low, an expert says.
Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences at the Texas A&M University, said that this process was known as the 'cloud feedback', which was likely to account for a significant portion of the warming over the next century.
Dessler used measurements from the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System instrument onboard NASA's Terra satellite to calculate the amount of energy trapped by clouds as the climate varied over the last decade, Science journal reported.
He also used meteorological analyses provided by NASA's Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Applications and by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
'It's a vicious cycle -- warmer temperatures mean clouds trap more heat, which in turn leads to even more warming,' Dessler explained, according to a Texas statement.
While climate models had long predicted that the cloud feedback would amplify warming from human activities, until recently it was impossible to test the models using observations.
'This work suggests that climate models are doing a pretty decent job simulating how clouds respond to changing climates,' Dessler said.
Some prominent climate skeptics have recently been arguing that clouds would act to stabilize the climate, thereby preventing greenhouse gases from causing significant warming.
'Based on my results, I think the chances that clouds will save us from dramatic climate change are pretty low,' he explained.
A Green view from the COP16 UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun www.stopclimatechange.net/
Global warming will turn clouds into heat traps, worsening the greenhouse gas effects, and chances that clouds will save us from climate change are low, an expert says.
Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences at the Texas A&M University, said that this process was known as the 'cloud feedback', which was likely to account for a significant portion of the warming over the next century.
Dessler used measurements from the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System instrument onboard NASA's Terra satellite to calculate the amount of energy trapped by clouds as the climate varied over the last decade, Science journal reported.
He also used meteorological analyses provided by NASA's Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Applications and by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
'It's a vicious cycle -- warmer temperatures mean clouds trap more heat, which in turn leads to even more warming,' Dessler explained, according to a Texas statement.
While climate models had long predicted that the cloud feedback would amplify warming from human activities, until recently it was impossible to test the models using observations.
'This work suggests that climate models are doing a pretty decent job simulating how clouds respond to changing climates,' Dessler said.
Some prominent climate skeptics have recently been arguing that clouds would act to stabilize the climate, thereby preventing greenhouse gases from causing significant warming.
'Based on my results, I think the chances that clouds will save us from dramatic climate change are pretty low,' he explained.
A Green view from the COP16 UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun www.stopclimatechange.net/
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Danger - Mercury can alter the sexual behavior of some birds
A study on the effects of methylmercury in a group of birds, the ibis white, showed that males exposed to this element had more relationships with individuals of the same sex, the less offspring born in the colony studied.
Mercury is one of the most toxics elements. The European Union will ban its use and sale on March 2011, since different studies have shown harmful effects on human and animal health.
A new research by scientists at the University of Florida (USA) and Peradeniya (Sri Lanka) holds that the mercury not only affects the health of animals but can also affect the sexual behavior of some birds. The study, published this week in Proceedings of the Royal Society B (PNAS), was conducted on samples of white ibis (Eudocimus albus) from southern Florida, a wading bird that has about half a meter tall.
Males exposed to mercury in their diet, even with low doses, have prefered to have sex with other animals of the same sex, instead of females. The consequence is the birth of fewer offspring in this colony. Specifically, the laying of eggs was reduced by 30%. According to Peter Frederick Nilmini Jayasena and the authors of this research, this is the first time it shows that a toxic agent can change the sexual preferences of an animal. So far, other studies had found that certain chemicals could "feminize" males or reduce their fertility, but they prefered females when mating.
The experiment was conducted over three years with about 200 white ibis in Florida newborns who were divided into four groups in a circular enclosure with 1200 square meters. This is a species accustomed to living in the community that the provision of the birds was an attempt to replicate their natural habitat to encourage breeding.
Three groups were fed diets containing different doses of methylmercury (MeHg), a toxic compound that concentrates in the body and the food chain. Foods containing mercury were administered when the birds reached 90 days. The fourth group was not exposed to this toxic substance.
Scientists have proven that the three groups who consumed methylmercury had homosexual behavior much more often than the birds that were not exposed to this element. The highest percentage of relationships with individuals of the same sex (55%) occurred in the group that consumed a higher dose. The research warns that methylmercury contamination can reduce the population of these animals.
The authors believe that other birds likely to react similarly to the white ibis, but do not believe that these effects may occur in other animal species. According explained to the magazine New Scientist, have conducted several studies on long-term effects on humans, and none of them found evidence that mercury can affect the sexual behavior of people.
* http://naturlink.sapo.pt/article.aspx?menuid=20&cid=27694&bl=1 *
Number of species decreased from one million to 400 000
Lisbon - U.S. and Britain scientists have found that more than half of the plants are repeatedly ranked in the "Dictionary of Life '.
For three years the researchers studied plants and concluded that many had been classified more than once with different names, which meant that more than half of plant species known to date have been taken off the list which lists all species .
Instead of one million, the number of existing species on Earth change to 400 000. Any repetition was already a suspicion of scientists. According to the curator-assistant in the herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Alan Paton, “on average, a plant can have two or three different names”.
The repetitions are so common that the tomato, for example, has 790 different names, there are 600 different names for the oak and its varieties.
The overall results should not be published before the end of the year. So far, the team of scientists has identified 301 000 species accepted, validated 480 000 aliases and has a value around 240 000. “The list is far from perfect, but it is the right one that exists", said Eimear Nic Lughadha, member of the team of scientists.
One-fifth of the world's plants is at risk of extinction
Lisbon - One-fifth of the world's plants is at risk of extinction, a study released on Wednesday.
The study, which was conducted by the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Natural History Museum and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), reveals that one in five plants species is under threat. Plants, like animals, are threatened with extinction and the major cause is “the loss of habitat by human hands", Stephen Hopper, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens.
The group that is the most endangered is of Gymnosperms, which include pine trees, and habitat that most worries the scientists is the rainforest, because is in the tropics that focuses the most endangered species.
The research team studied a sample of 7000 species of major groups of plants representing the 380 000 currently known, and concluded that "at a time increases the loss of biodiversity, it is entirely appropriate to intensify our efforts" to preserving . The project will be reviewed periodically, to "monitor the fate of plants."
The report will be discussed during the UN Summit devoted to biodiversity, in mid-October in Nagoya, Japan "The goal for biodiversity in 2020 which will be discussed in Nagoya is ambitious," said Hopper.
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