Unexpected growth' in CO2 found

Power plant (Image: CSIRO)



Inefficient use of fossil fuels has been singled out
Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere have risen 35% faster than expected since 2000, says a study.International scientists found that inefficiency in the use of fossil fuels increased levels of CO2 by 17%.

The other 18% came from a decline in the natural ability of land and oceans to soak up CO2 from the atmosphere.

About half of emissions from human activity are absorbed by natural "sinks" but the efficiency of these sinks has fallen, the study suggests.

The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), was carried out by the Global Carbon Project, the University of East Anglia, UK, and the British Antarctic Survey.

It found that improvements in the carbon intensity of the global economy have stalled since 2000, leading to an unexpected jump in atmospheric CO2.

"In addition to the growth of global population and wealth, we now know that significant contributions to the growth of atmospheric CO2 arise from the slow-down of natural sinks and the halt to improvements in the carbon intensity of wealth production," said the study's lead author, Dr Pep Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project.

Global sink:The weakening of the Earth's ability to cope with greenhouse gases is thought to be a result of changing wind patterns over seas and droughts on land.

"The decline in global sink efficiency suggests that stabilisation of atmospheric CO2 is even more difficult to achieve than previously thought," said report co-author Dr Corinne Le Quere of the British Antarctic Survey.

"We found that nearly half of the decline in the efficiency of the ocean CO2 sink is due to the intensification of the winds in the Southern Ocean."

The declining power of the seas to soak up industrial pollution is not only being recorded in the southern hemisphere, however.According to a separate 10-year study published recently, the effect is also being seen in the North Atlantic.

Palm oil warning for Indonesia

Jungle in Borneo, Indonesia





Huge swathes of Indonesia's jungles are under threat.Land clearances in Indonesia to meet the growing global demand for palm oil pose a serious threat to the environment, a report has warned.

Forests are being burned and peat wetlands drained for plantations, causing huge releases of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Greenpeace said.

The environmental group warned of a potential "climate bomb" and called for the clearances to stop.

Palm oil is an ingredient in foods and a bio-fuel added to diesel for cars.

It is already controversial because it is often grown on rainforest land in South-East Asia, says the BBC's environment analyst Roger Harrabin.

But Greenpeace's "Cooking the Climate" report investigates the cultivation of the crop in Indonesian peat swamps, thought to be one of the most valuable stores of carbon in the world.

Carbon store

In normal rainforest there is much more carbon stored in microbes in the soil than in the leaves and branches of the trees.

In peat wetlands that is magnified with soils many metres deep. But these wetlands are fast being cleared and drained, causing large quantities of carbon dioxide to be emitted.

According to the report, every year 1.8bn tonnes of carbon dioxide - a major cause of climate change - are released by the destruction of Indonesia's peat wetlands.

"Unless efforts are made to halt forest and peatland destruction, emissions from these peatlands may trigger a 'climate bomb'," Greenpeace warned.

Indonesia is looking to become the world's top producer of palm oil.

But in July, environmental groups said a huge project planned for Borneo would cause irreparable harm to the territory and culture of indigenous people.

Biofuels 'crime against humanity

A United Nations expert has condemned the growing use of crops to produce biofuels as a replacement for petrol as a crime against humanity.The UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, said he feared biofuels would bring more hunger.

The growth in the production of biofuels has helped to push the price of some crops to record levels.Mr Ziegler's remarks, made at the UN headquarters in New York, are clearly designed to grab attention.

He complained of an ill-conceived dash to convert foodstuffs such as maize and sugar into fuel, which created a recipe for disaster.

Food price rises

It was, he said, a crime against humanity to divert arable land to the production of crops which are then burned for fuel.He called for a five-year ban on the practice.
Within that time, according to Mr Ziegler, technological advances would enable the use of agricultural waste, such as corn cobs and banana leaves, rather than crops themselves to produce fuel.The growth in the production of biofuels has been driven, in part, by the desire to find less environmentally-damaging alternatives to oil.

The United States is also keen to reduce its reliance on oil imported from politically unstable regions.But the trend has contributed to a sharp rise in food prices as farmers, particularly in the US, switch production from wheat and soya to corn, which is then turned into ethanol.

Mr Ziegler is not alone in warning of the problem.The IMF last week voiced concern that the increasing global reliance on grain as a source of fuel could have serious implications for the world's poor.

Cruise worry over California fire

Cruise spoke about the fires at the London premiere of Lions for Lambs
Actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta have spoken of their anguish as California fires led to a quarter of a million people being evacuated.

At least one person has died during wildfires across the Los Angeles region, home to many celebrities.

At the London premiere of movie Lions for Lambs, Cruise said: "It's unfortunate it really is. I wish everybody well back there."

Travolta said: "All I know is the people I know are safe and I'm glad."

See map of Malibu blazes and nearby celebrity homes

He added: "I flew over that today and it's always a dramatic impression you get from this."

At least 655 homes have been destroyed in fires which followed a record summer heatwave.

Fires stretch south to the Mexican border, putting homes at risk in seven counties where 200,000 acres (81,000 hectares) have been scorched.








Thousands more homes are threatened as hotter temperatures and high winds are forecast.

'Real scared'

The coastal area is home to many celebrities, including actors Mel Gibson, Barbra Streisand, Richard Gere, Pierce Brosnan, Dick Van Dyke and Ted Danson, singers Sting and Olivia Newton-John, director James Cameron and music mogul David Geffen.

Singer Britney Spears said: "I don't think it touched my house. I'm real scared."

About 1,500 National Guardsmen have been brought in to help firefighters.

After visiting charred homes in Malibu, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said it was a "tragic time" for the US state.

Rise in divers mystifies experts

A red-throated diver pictured on Shetland

The success of a wild bird in Scotland despite declining numbers in the rest of Europe has mystified experts.

RSPB Scotland said it was delighted but puzzled by breeding figures for the red-throated diver.

The rarer black-throated diver is also on the increase, possibly thanks to the anchoring of man-made rafts in lochs.

A survey of divers by the RSPB and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) found the two species had increased in the UK by 16 and 34% in the last 12 years.

Both have declined in Europe and the black-throated diver was last week made a conservation priority by the UK government because of the declines elsewhere.

In Scotland, its numbers rose from 187 pairs in 1994 to 217 pairs in 2006.

In the Highlands - their stronghold - they were declining because some nests were being drowned in floods while eggs at other sites were lost to collectors and predators.

We feared the numbers of red-throated divers might drop because the warming of the North Sea seems to be reducing stocks of the fish they feed on Dr Mark Eaton RSPB scientist

The new study shows the greatest increase in the Western Isles, but also improved figures in the Highlands.

A total of 58 rafts have been installed on remote lochs in the region. They protect the birds from flooding and animals that prey on them and their eggs.

Stuart Benn, senior conservation officer for the RSPB, said: "We can't say hand on heart that the overall increase is due to the rafts because we haven't ringed the chicks, but there is no doubt that the rafts have turned out to be very, very good at what they do."

The RSPB said it was a mystery as to why red-throated divers had done so well.

Its numbers have risen from 935 to 1,255 breeding pairs in 12 years.

'Rain goose'

However, in Shetland the population has dropped from 700 pairs to 407.

The red-throated diver is steeped in mythology and is known as the rain goose in Orkney and Shetland.

In the 19th Century, it was regarded as a foreteller of storms in many parts of the world.

Dr Mark Eaton, an RSPB scientist, said: "We feared the numbers of red-throated divers might drop because the warming of the North Sea seems to be reducing stocks of the fish they feed on.

"The black-throated diver could also be at risk in the future, despite the recent increases. If climate change causes loch temperatures to rise, the small fish the birds feed on could grow too large to eat."

Hedgehogs join 'protection' list

Hedgehogs join 'protection' list
Hedgehog (Image: Uist Hedgehog Rescue Centre)
Tidier gardens and urbanisation are blamed for hedgehogs' decline
Hedgehogs and house sparrows have been included on an updated list of species and habitats which need protection.

The new Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) has identified 1,149 species and 65 habitats in the UK as being in need of conservation and greater protection.

When the action plan was launched in 1997, it listed 577 species - half the number included in the updated version.

Wildlife experts said this was a result of wider research and not necessarily down to more habitat being destroyed.

Other animals added to the list for the first time include the grass snake and the garden tiger moth; while otters, bottlenose dolphins and red squirrels are deemed to remain in need of habitat protection.


BAP PRIORITY SPECIES
Birds - 59 species
Fish (freshwater) - 14 species
Reptiles/amphibians (herptiles) - 10 species
Lower plants and fungi - 337 species
Marine fauna and flora - 88 species
Invertebrates - 411 species
Terrestrial mammals - 18 species
Vascular plants - 212 species
(Source: UK Biodiversity Action Plan 2007)

'Tidy gardens' are hog threat
In pictures: Species at risk

But the latest BAP shows that a number of species have benefited from being featured on the original list 10 years ago. The numbers of ladybird spiders and lady's slipper orchids are at a 50-year high.

The BAP is considered to be one of the most authoritative reference sources for the state of the UK's wildlife.

The result of more than two years of research by more than 500 wildlife experts and a large number of volunteers, it brings together key scientific data on all the listed species in one document.

As well as outlining the state of British species, it also contributes to global conservation commitments, outlined in the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Biodiversity Minister Joan Ruddock said the updated action plan would help shape the government's conservation policy.

"Conserving biodiversity is essential if we are to pass on a healthy environment to the next generation," Ms Ruddock said.

"The new list will help us target our resources and efforts where they are needed, and demonstrates our commitment to publish new priorities, targets and plans for halting biodiversity loss by 2010."

'Cause for alarm'

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said that as well as the house sparrow, the starling was another familiar garden bird to feature on the BAP list of 59 bird species.

House sparrow (Picture Nigel Blake)
House sparrows are one of the new additions to the action plan

"The fact that the bird list now includes more than a fifth of all the UK's regularly occurring birds is a cause for alarm, " said Mark Avery, the RSPB's conservation director.

"We will have to act fast if we are to meet obligations of halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010."

But Dr Avery added that the BAP had focused efforts on stemming the decline in a number of vulnerable species.

"To its credit, we have seen dramatic increases in key species, like bittern, stone-curlew, corncrake, nightjar, cirl bunting and woodlark."

A separate study, also published on Tuesday, also highlighted the decline in the UK's hedgehog population.

The study by the University of London for the People's Trust for Endangered Species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society listed tidier gardens and urbanisation as key factors affecting the fall in the number of the small mammals.





Nigel Bourne, chairman of the Wildlife and Countryside Link's biodiversity working group, welcomed the updated list and called it a "major boost".

"The list will focus efforts on the real, shared conservation priorities in the UK.

"The conservation charities that make up Link... look forward to continuing to work in partnership with the government," Dr Bourne added.

"Together we can turn the list into targeted action to deliver the conservation of our very special habitats and species."

Mystery deaths hit Saudi camels
Camel train
Camels are traded for thousands of dollars
Nearly 2,000 camels have died in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia due to suspected poisoned animal feed.

So far this month 1,982 camels have died. Symptoms include sweating, excitability, vomiting and fainting.

The country's Agriculture Ministry has said tests suggested the deaths were caused by animal feed which was contaminated by insecticide.

Owners have been promised compensation by King Abdullah. Camels are big business in Saudi Arabia.

The animals began dying in the Dawasir Valley south of the capital Riyadh but other camel deaths have been recorded from Mecca to the border of Yemen.

Camels are traded by Bedouin tribes for thousands of dollars each. The animals are used for racing and are also eaten.

Agriculture Minister Fahd Bilghoneim told a news conference: "Veterinary experts say the symptoms indicate cases of poisoning and not an infectious disease, and this accords with what camel owners have said about animal feed they bought."