Posts Tagged: Climate Change

Sustainable lifestyles — No Comments
7
Jan 10

A green glossary

February, 2009

Alternative energy

Power generation without fossil fuels. Typically wind, wave, solar and geothermal. Plants, algae, human sewage and cow poo are being tested. But it’s not like we’re desperate or anything.

Biodynamic agriculture

Emphasises compost and lunar planting calendars, instead of chemical sprays and fertilisers. Practitioners stuff a cow horn full of cow poo and bury it to create super-powered fertiliser, honestly.

Bioaccumulation

Toxic substances which build up in plants, animals and us. The odd bit of pesticide may not harm you directly, but eventually Kiwi blokes may develop man-boobs and a fondness for Abba records.

Carbon footprint

The total greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organisation, event or product, roughly equivalent to how guilty you are supposed to feel about it.

Carbon Offsets

A credit bought to negate part of a carbon footprint. Should cover the cost of additional measures to reduce worldwide carbon emissions, which come into effect as soon as possible. Described by author George Monbiot as akin to medieval religious ‘indulgences’ payments to atone for sins the sinner has no intention of giving up.

Carcinogen

Any cancer producing substance. So many are discovered each week it is increasingly likely that life gives you cancer the same way rain and time give rust to a bicycle.

Climate change

Long-term significant changes in expected patterns of average weather on Earth. Sometimes called global warming, although some places could get colder. Increasingly termed ‘Global Weirding’ as no one has much of a clue what’s happening.

Eco-tourism

A hotel with recycling bins. Rapidly becoming extinction tourism, as we race round the globe taking photos of things our children will never see because of all the pollution caused by international travel.

Eco-worrier

What we become when it takes 15 minutes for us to analyse the global ecological and humanitarian impact of buying a tin of spaghetti.

Emissions trading

Buying and selling the supposedly limited rights to emit greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming. The modern, adult version of shuffling Brussel’s sprouts around your plate, or giving them to your little brother because you can’t face eating them yourself.

Extinction

Dead as a dodo. If the animal is cuddly or cute enough, humans will leave just enough of whatever it is for David Attenborough to whisper at. If it’s an insect – no chance.

Freecycle

Online jumble sale at www.freecycle.org, without the sale. Give away stuff you don’t need; claim free stuff you may or may not, on reflection, discover you need. If you are lucky, this may indeed include a free bicycle.

Fossil fuels

The P-pipe of the industrialised world. Coal, oil and gas, formed from the fossilised remains of plants and animals over hundreds of millions of years. Burning them has made life so easy we struggle to leave them alone, even though they keep us divorced from reality and wreck our health and relationships. (see greenhouse gases and climate change).

Greenhouse gases

Gases which trap the heat in the Earth’s atmosphere like a fart under a duvet.  Human activities are releasing more into the atmosphere than ever before – and our duvet is getting very stinky indeed. (see climate change)

Recycle (incorporating downcycle)

The separation and collection of materials for processing, remanufacturing and use as new products. What normally happens is ‘downcycling’, where the resulting product is less valuable than the one you started with. Upcycling, on the other hand, is about making more valuable products from less valuable pre-used materials.

Self-sufficiency

The ability to provide all of your needs yourself, without the help of others. Unlikely in a civilisation breakdown scenario: you have potatoes, your neighbours don’t have potatoes, they steal your potatoes when you’re not looking.

Sustainable

An activity which can be continued indefinitely at its current rate and scale. These days this is taken to mean without irreparable environmental harm or compromising opportunities for future generations. You can have your cake and eat it, provided you are growing all the ingredients to make another cake without polluting the garden.

Toxin

A poisonous substance produced by living cells or organisms capable of causing disease. Some commentators on Radio Live qualify. (see also Bioaccumulation)

Conservation — No Comments
7
Jan 10

Troubled Waters

February, 2009

Global warming may be creating the conditions for more frequent and severe hurricanes. In Belize, meanwhile, WWF is fighting to preserve nature’s best defence – the magnificent Mesoamerican reef.

The Mesoamerican reef is a sanctuary for iconic and endangered Loggerhead, Hawksbill and Green sea turtles, and the vulnerable Caribbean manatee. Its warm sapphire waters harbour more than 500 species of fish, 60 species of coral and 350 molluscs.

The mangroves roots bind the shoreline together, protecting the land from erosion, and act as a filter system which helps to protect the ocean from pollution. Here, too, is the nursery for many of the region’s fish.

A recent report from WWF and The World Resources Institute showed the extent to which the reef and the mangroves sustain local people and the national economy.

The study found that the estimated monetary value of coral reef and mangrove-associated tourism in Belize was between US$150 million and US$196 million a year. That’s between 12% and 15% of the Caribbean nation’s entire Gross Domestic Product. Benefits from reef and mangrove-dependent fisheries contribute another US$14 million to US$16 million to the economy.

The reef and the mangrove also form the mainland’s first and second lines of defence against tropical storms and hurricanes. The reef’s defensive effect is estimated to be worth US$120 million to US$180 million in avoided damages each year. The mangroves protect the coastline from both waves and storm surge, providing an additional US$111 million to US$167 million in protection annually.

Storms and hurricanes regularly batter this coastline and there is increasing evidence that climate change is making events like this more common. Warm water helps create the conditions for hurricanes, and the fact that the water at the Mesoamerican reef is getting warmer is obvious to those who live and work there.

When seawater over the reef warms, the corals which make it up suffer stress and expel the tiny micro-organisms they are host to. The resulting loss of colour is evident as ‘coral bleaching’. Whole areas of coral become pale white and lifeless.

At the same time that the reef is being affected by these changes, development, some of it for hotels, is causing whole areas of mangrove to be removed from the coastline.

In response, WWF, The Nature Conservancy, the Healthy Mesoamerican Reef Ecosystem Initiative (HMREI) and other local partners have together studied, assessed and mapped the state of coral at more than 300 sites on the reef.

And WWF is working on a Meso American Reef adaptation project, in partnership with the UK Department for International Development (DFID). One of the ambitions of this is to ensure the network of marine reserves protecting the region’s varied habitats, including the coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass, includes areas better able to cope under climate-stressed conditions.

These may become refuges provided climate change effects do not become so severe as to destroy the coral reefs completely.

The team has identified locations, currently unprotected, that were less affected or better able to recover from the last bleaching episode, and that are therefore areas that may be more resilient to future bleaching events.

In the meantime, thousands of mangrove trees have been replanted by teams of local people, working in partnership with WWF, some of them installed specifically to help filter waste from local shrimp farms.

WWF is also working to promote more sensitive shoreline development. This has included helping to re-start proper coastal planning for the island of San Pedro and a ‘Mangrove‑Friendly Shoreline Development Contest’.

The contest celebrates docks, homes, piers, and other structures that have done their best to retain the ecosystem services of mangrove shorelines will be featured in local and international publications.

And we are trying to eliminate destructive fishing practices and overfishing by making local communities more aware.

Through the Climate Witness programme and related lobbying activities local people will get the chance to bring this global issue to the attention of local, regional, national and international authorities.

It’s an outstanding case of local conservation helping local people of Belize – and at the same time helping all of us.

Conservation — No Comments
6
Jan 10

Sails on a far horizon

The success of two WWF-sponsored sailing voyages crossing the polar bear’s entire Arctic habitat has brought mixed feelings. Without climate change, they would have been much harder to complete.

Last summer the sailing ship Silent Sound left from Victoria, in British Colombia, for the fabled North West Passage across the top of the American continent. At the same time the Explorer of Sweden left Stockholm to take on the equally notorious North East passage, which hugs the northern coastlines of Scandinavia and Russia.

WWF supported the expeditions to highlight the dramatic decreases in Arctic sea ice triggered by the onset of climate change. In the early 1980’s the ice at summer’s lowest expanse covered about eight million square kilometers. It reached a historical low point in 2007, covering just over half that area. If left unchecked this will disrupt the entire Arctic ecosystem and completely destroy the habitat of the polar bear.

The two voyages described a route right around the top of the Earth that has been extremely difficult and dangerous for non-icebreaking ships throughout recent history. The first confirmed sea crossing through the North West Passage was not until 1906. The North East passage has been explored by many European nations down the centuries as a shortcut from Europe to Asia. But it was only completely navigated from west to east in 1878.

Both modern day expeditions experienced relatively little difficulty and only took about four months to complete their journeys. The fear is that increased commercial shipping and oil exploration activity, made possible by the receding ice, could put further pressure on Arctic wildlife.

The expeditions witnessed more stark evidence of climate change effects on the region. The Explorer came across tens of thousands of walruses marooned onshore because of a lack of sea ice and had a close encounter with an inquisitive polar bear that nearly climbed on board the ship.

Geoff York, WWF’s Arctic Program’s polar bear expert said: “The lack of summer sea ice which made our trip possible makes life for polar bears much more difficult. As the ice recedes, bears are forced to travel far offshore in search of prey or to gamble and risk spending a summer on land.”

In order to preserve polar bear habitat it is now imperative for us to combat climate change by reducing worldwide carbon dioxide emissions. This has now become a key focus for WWF’s global activities.