News Archives

Week of October 17, 2004

Planet Under Pressure, part two: Water

The BBC has posted the second of it's six part feature, Planet under Pressure. This one is titled Water scarcity: a looming crisis?, and it addresses a subject I've been thinking about for a while.

This section discusses parts of the world where water is scarce due to poverty, drought, or pollution, and also covers some interesting debate about how serious the problem is, and how to resolve it. This is an issue that can be fixed, if only we're willing to take the time and energy to make it so. Be sure to read Ram's Story, and check out the map of water scarcity hotspots, in addition to reading the main article about agriculture vs. industrial water use in India.

Posted by Jennifer on Saturday, October 23 2004, 2:26 PM

The delicate balance of CITES

Recently in Bangkok there was a meeting of signatories to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, known as CITES. 166 nations have signed on to this convention, and every two or three years each country sends delegates to meetings where agreements are hashed out about whether to allow trade in animal and vegetable materials, and if so, how much and under what circumstances. It's an incredibly complicated business, and very fallible. As John Vidal explains in the Guardian, illegal wildlife trafficking is a massive business, and CITES decisions can be influenced as much by money and politics as they are by environmental science.

Within the Convention it can be hard to find a consensus, since there are two distinct approaches to wildlife trade. One side holds that managed trade can be helpful to countries seeking to protect endangered wildlife, especially when protection can be expensive for undeveloped nations. The other side believes little or no trade should be allowed in order to provide maximum protection, and to discourage poaching. CITES meetings can be contentious.

In spite of that, this year's Conference of the Parties (COP-13) managed to make progress, though some of the decisions are controversial. The conference increased protections on several species, including the great white shark and the humphead wrasse, an endangered reef fish. Both fish have enormous commercial value. The conference also turned down a request by Namibia to allow export of elephant ivory, but did agree to allow small local sales of carved ivory pieces, a decision with which preservationists strongly disagree.

The conference also set increased protection for several Asian turtles and tortoises, and for Madagascar's leaf-tail geckos, which are popular in the pet trade. But in another move towards controlled legal trade, they agreed to allow Namibia and South Africa to allow limited trophy hunting of black rhinos, a move which many conservationists feel is too early for the still-recovering populations of this beast. Population surveys and recovery plans need to be completed before any hunting will begin, but there are fears that increased poaching may be a problem once legal rhino hunts are re-introduced.

Other arguments concerned population monitoring and what exactly constitutes a threatened or endangered species. If you think about it, coming to agreement of any sort among this many nations with all their competing interests is a major accomplishment.

Photo is a mated black rhino pair.

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Posted by Jennifer on Friday, October 22 2004, 8:41 AM

Friday Cat Blogging

That's Katy on the left and Blue on the right. You might not believe that Blue is actually Jamey's sister.

Photo is © me, of course.

Posted by Jennifer on Thursday, October 21 2004, 6:05 PM

We're over budget here, people

A report from the World Wildlife Fund/WWF warns that people are using more resources than the Earth can supply, and using resources at a faster rate than ever. In a review of the ecological footprint of different nations, WWF found that humans are using 20 per cent more resources each year than the Earth can provide sustainably, and also noted that populations of terrestrial, marine, and freshwater flora and fauna fell by 40% over the 30 years of the study.

The world has some 28 billion acres of productive land and ocean to meet the needs of 6.3 billion people--an average of 4.4 acres person. At current rates of consumption, however, the global ecological footprint requires an average of 5.4 acres' productivity per person - roughly 20 percent more than what can be sustained today's levels. "We are spending nature's capital much faster than it can be regenerated. Collectively, we are bequeathing to our children the most dangerous budget deficit of all, an ecological debt of growing proportions," said Richard Mott, WWF's Vice President for International Policy. — WWF

North Americans are the largest consumers of world resources, using twice as much per capita as Europeans, and seven times as much as the average person in Africa and Asia. But Asia in particular is consuming progressively more as countries such as China, with their large human populations, become industrialized. Energy use in the developed world accounts for much of the disparity.

While this year's "ecological footprint" of 5.4 acres represents a global average, the report also documents how consumption rates vary region by region and country by country. Americans, for instance, have an ecological footprint of 23.5 because it takes that may acres of land and sea space to produce what the average American consumes in natural resources every year. The average African, by contrast, consumes less than 2.5 acres of resources per year. — WWF

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Posted by Jennifer on Thursday, October 21 2004, 10:06 AM

Japan suffers under 10th typhoon this season

This one is the deadliest typhoon in 20 years, and has killed 62 people so far. The typhoon was so damaging because of its huge size - over 300 miles in radius. Ten typhoons in a year is a new record for Japan.

Posted by Jennifer on Thursday, October 21 2004, 8:03 AM

The Monster Slash

Oh my!

Posted by Jennifer on Wednesday, October 20 2004, 3:26 PM

Planet Under Pressure

The BBC online has begun a set of six articles on environmental issues facing us today. Planet Under Pressure is the introduction, and Part One, Biodiversity: The Sixth Great Wave is the first part, considering the wave of extinctions today. The BBC does excellent environmental reporting, and you will want to catch this series, I'm sure.

Posted by Jennifer on Sunday, October 17 2004, 7:43 PM

World Turning

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