Earth, Environment & Endangered Species 02 (Apr 11 - Sep 15)

[winston]

Pamela Anderson pleads to China on seal meat

Former "Baywatch" star and animal activist Pamela Anderson has called on China to join other countries in banning imports of seal meat and oil from her native Canada, calling seal-hunting inhumane.

Anderson sent a letter to China's minister of land and resources, Xu Shaoshi, inviting him to accompany her to Canada to witness the "cruelty of the annual seal slaughter".

"Please don't allow China to become a dumping ground for seal meat and oil products that even Canadians don't want," the letter said.

Canada and China reached an agreement earlier this year on Chinese imports of seal meat and oil after the European Union banned seal products following an activist outcry over commercial seal-hunting.

Dozens of Chinese animal rights groups hit out at Canada in January over that deal, accusing it of turning China into a "dumping ground" for seal products.

In her letter to Xu, released Tuesday by the animal rights group PETA, Anderson said many of the seals, some just months old and unable to escape, were bludgeoned to death with clubs that have sharp spikes mounted on them.

"If you witnessed this massacre, I'm sure that you'd have a change of heart about importing seal products into China," the letter said.

The Canadian government maintains that the 350-year-old commercial seal hunt is humane and crucial for some 6,000 North Atlantic fishermen who rely on it for up to 35 percent of their total annual income.

Animal rights groups, however, say it is barbaric, and have waged an aggressive campaign in recent years to stop it.

Anderson, a buxom Canadian sex symbol who gained fame as a Playboy magazine "playmate" and then on the US beach-rescue TV series "Baywatch", is a prominent animal rights activist.

Earlier this year she appealed, though PETA, to India's top medical institute to retire old monkeys used in scientific research, and last year called on Israel's ultra-orthodox Jews to abandon their traditional fur hats.

China is the third-largest importer of Canadian fish and seafood, behind the United States and European Union.

By authorising seal meat and oil imports, it joined Japan and South Korea as new markets for Canadian seal products.

China's government had no immediate response to Anderson's appeal.

Source: AFP Global Edition

[winston]

Hong Kongers back weddings without shark fin soup

HONG KONG, April 12, 2011 (AFP) - Almost 80 percent of Hong Kongers now consider it socially acceptable to leave shark fin soup off the menu for a wedding banquet, a survey by a shark conservation group said Tuesday.

Some 78 percent in the south Chinese financial hub believe it is allowable not to offer the coveted fins at a wedding, a survey by the nonprofit group BLOOM said -- a small sign of hope in efforts to protect the endangered fish.

But the survey also showed more than 70 percent of people in Hong Kong consumed shark fin soup, viewed by many Asians as a rare delicacy and traditionally served at wedding feasts, at least once a year.

"Our research shows that, whilst tradition is important to Hong Kong people, in reality shark fin soup won't be much missed from wedding banquets," Claire Nouvian, founder and president of BLOOM, said in a statement.

The survey, which interviewed 1,000 people between 2009 and 2010, found about two-thirds of interviewees said they were uncomfortable with eating endangered fish, while 85 percent supported banning shark fin imports -- despite the majority of respondents having eaten the soup.

Almost all shark fin soup, or 87 percent, was consumed as part of a set menu rather than ordered individually, the survey found.

Scientists blame the practice of shark-finning -- slicing off the fins of live animals and then throwing them back in the water to die -- for a worldwide collapse in shark populations.

Hong Kong was the largest importer of shark fin globally in 2007, buying about 277 million US dollars' worth of fins, according to UN figures. One kilogram (2.2 pounds) from certain species can sell for 120 US dollars or more in the city.


http://www.mysinchew.com/node/56040

[winston]

[winston]

No need to worry then. Your reclaimed land is safe

Sea levels set to rise by up to a metre: report by Madeleine Coorey

Sea levels are set to rise by up to a metre within a century due to global warming, a new Australian report said Monday as it warned this could make "once-a-century" coastal flooding much more common.

The government's first Climate Commission report said the evidence that the Earth's surface was warming rapidly was beyond doubt.

Drawn from the most up-to-date climate science from around the world, the report said greenhouse gas emissions created by human industry was the likely culprit behind rising temperatures, warming oceans, and rising sea levels.

Its author Will Steffen said while the report had been reviewed by climate scientists from Australian science body the CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology and academics, some judgments, including on sea levels, were his own.

"I expect the magnitude of global average sea-level rise in 2100 compared to 1990 to be in the range of 0.5 to 1.0 metre," Steffen said in his preface to "The Critical Decade".

He said while this assessment was higher than that of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change in 2007, which was under 0.8m, it was not inconsistent with the UN body which had said higher values were possible.

"We're five years down the track now, we know more about how those big ice sheets are behaving," Steffen told reporters.

"In part we have some very good information about the Greenland icesheet. We know it's losing mass and we know it's losing mass at an increasing rate.

"So that's telling us that we need to extend that upper range a bit towards a metre. Now there are commentators who say it should be even higher than that."

The report said a sea-level rise of 0.5m would lead to surprisingly large impacts, with the risk of extreme events such as inundations in coastal areas around Australia's largest cities of Sydney and Melbourne hugely increased.

Steffen said in some instances, a one-in-a-hundred year event could happen every year.

"The critical point is we have to get emissions turned from the upward trajectory to the downward trajectory by the end of this decade at the very latest," he said.

"We have to make investment decisions this decade to put us on that long-term trajectory that minimises the cost to our economy."

The report found that Australia, prone to bushfires, drought and cyclones, had also likely felt the impact of rising temperatures in recent years.

In the last five decades the number of record hot days in Australia had more than doubled, increasing the risk of heatwaves and bush fire weather, it said.

Chair of the Climate Commission Tim Flannery said the evidence was becoming more convincing year by year that humans were changing the climate.

"In Australia we are seeing the impacts more clearly, we've seen the sea level rise that was predicted, we've seen the decline in rainfall continue particularly in the southwest of Western Australia, we've seen impacts on the Great Barrier Reef and so forth," he told reporters.

"This is the decade we have to act."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who is struggling in the polls as she seeks to introduce a carbon tax to place a price on industry's production of greenhouse gas emissions, seized on the report.

"We don't have time for false claims in this debate. The science is in, climate change is real," she said.

Source: AFP Global Edition

[winston]

Hong Kong bans trawling to save fish stocks

Hong Kong has banned trawl fishing in its waters, a decision welcomed by conservationists Friday as a crucial move to save fish stocks and revive the city's depleted marine environment.

The measure, which is expected to come into effect in late 2012, comes after a long campaign by environmental groups who say the method is extremely damaging to the seabed and fish stocks.

WWF said that countries such as Australia, Brazil, Canada and Malaysia have established no-trawl zones in inshore waters to protect marine resources while Indonesia has banned trawling across the entire country.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-hon ... tocks.html

[winston]

Butterflies

I went to see the boats just now. Next to the broadwalk is a small park and I noticed a lot of white butterflies there.

I never have really noticed butterlies in my life, other than a large Black Moth that was present at my grandfather's funeral.

What are the functions of butterflies in nature ? What do they eat ? Who eats them ? What's the symbolism of butterflies in Feng Shui and Metaphysics ?




The butterflies I saw has black spots on them so they must be females.

Butterflies feed primarily on nectar from flowers. Some also derive nourishment from pollen,[19] tree sap, rotting fruit, dung, decaying flesh, and dissolved minerals in wet sand or dirt. Butterflies are important as pollinators for some species of plants although in general they do not carry as much pollen load as bees. They are however capable of moving pollen over greater distances.[20] Flower constancy has been observed for at least one species of butterfly.[21]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly


Symbolism

According to Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, by Lafcadio Hearn, a butterfly was seen in Japan as the personification of a person's soul; whether they be living, dying, or already dead. One Japanese superstition says that if a butterfly enters your guestroom and perches behind the bamboo screen, the person whom you most love is coming to see you.

However, large numbers of butterflies are viewed as bad omens. When Taira no Masakado was secretly preparing for his famous revolt, there appeared in Kyoto so vast a swarm of butterflies that the people were frightened — thinking the apparition to be a portent of coming evil.[45]

In Chinese culture two butterflies flying together are a symbol of love. Also a famous Chinese folk story called Butterfly Lovers. The Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi once had a dream of being a butterfly flying without care about humanity, however when he woke up and realized it was just a dream, he thought to himself "Was I before a man who dreamt about being a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly who dreams about being a man?"

In some old cultures, butterflies also symbolize rebirth into a new life after being inside a cocoon for a period of time.


Feng Shui Butterfly Symbol

In feng shui applications, the use of butterflies is in many ways similar to the feng shui use of birds symbol. Both birds and butterflies are flying free, which speaks to the deep human longing for a joyful and free life close to heavens/sky.

The most common feng shui use of the butterfly symbol is as a feng shui cure for love and romance, probably because love is the most transformative feeling that makes you feel like flying.

The additional element of using the feng shui symbol of butterflies as a love feng shui cure is the element of freedom to choose among a number of suitors. Butterfly symbol is one of the best feng shui love cures for single people (when used in the Love and Marriage area of the Bagua)

Of course, once you have found a suitable love partner and a ready to settle in, a better feng shui love cure would be one that speaks of lifelong commitment and devotion. Explore the feng shui symbology of birds to help you find the best feng shui love and marriage cure.

However, this is not to say that butterflies are only used as a feng shui love remedy for single people, not at all!

Another excellent feng shui use of the symbol of butterflies is in the Creativity and Children area of the Bagua; this will help energize the free flow of creative energy in your life.

You can also use the image of butterflies as a temporary feng shui cure for any area of your life that needs transformation. If you are currently experiencing difficulties in specific areas of your life, you can bring the energy of butterflies into the corresponding Bagua areas of your home or bedroom.

As butterflies know how to gracefully go through transformational stages in order to become the beauty they are, you will be guided to do the same with ease and grace in your life.


http://fengshui.about.com/od/fengshuicu ... rflies.htm

[winston]

'Dramatic' solar flare could disrupt Earth communications by Kerry Sheridan

An unusual solar flare observed by a NASA space observatory on Tuesday could cause some disruptions to satellite communications and power on Earth over the next day or so, officials said.

The potent blast from the Sun unleashed a firestorm of radiation on a level not witnessed since 2006, and will likely lead to moderate geomagnetic storm activity by Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

"This one was rather dramatic," said Bill Murtagh, program coordinator at the NWS's Space Weather Prediction Center, describing the M-2 (medium-sized) solar flare that peaked at 1:41 am Eastern time in the United States, or 0541 GMT.

"We saw the initial flare occurring and it wasn't that big but then the eruption associated with it -- we got energy particle radiation flowing in and we got a big coronal mass injection," he said.

"You can see all the materials blasting up from the Sun so it is quite fantastic to look at."

NASA's solar dynamics observatory, which launched last year and provided the high-definition pictures and video of the event, described it as "visually spectacular," but noted that since the eruption was not pointed directly at Earth, the effects were expected to remain "fairly small."

"The large cloud of particles mushroomed up and fell back down looking as if it covered an area of almost half the solar surface," said a NASA statement.

Murtagh said space weather analysts were watching closely to see whether the event would cause any collision of magnetic fields between the Sun and Earth, some 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) apart.

"Part of our job here is to monitor and determine whether it is Earth-directed because essentially that material that is blasting out is gas with magnetic field combined," he told AFP.

"In a day or so from now we are expecting some of that material to impact us here on Earth and create a geomagnetic storm," he said.

"We don't expect it to be any kind of a real severe one but it could be kind of a moderate level storm."

The Space Weather Prediction Center said the event is "expected to cause G1 (minor) to G2 (moderate) levels of geomagnetic storm activity tomorrow, June 8, beginning around 1800 GMT."

Any geomagnetic storm activity will likely be over within 12-24 hours.

"The Solar Radiation Storm includes a significant contribution of high energy protons, the first such occurrence of an event of that type since December 2006," the NWS said.

As many as 12 satellites and spacecraft are monitoring the heliosphere, and one instrument in particular on board NASA's lunar reconnaissance orbiter is measuring radiation and its effects.

"Certainly over the (two-year) lifetime of the mission this is the most significant event," said Harlan Spence, principal investigator for the cosmic ray telescope for the effects of radiation, or CRaTER.

"This is really exciting because ironically when we were developing the mission initially we thought we would be launching closer to a solar maximum when these big solar particle events typically occur," Spence told AFP.

"Instead we launched into a historic solar minimum that took a long, long time to wake up," he said.

"This is interesting and significant because it shows the Sun is returning to its more typical active state."

The resulting geomagnetic storm could cause some disruption in power grids, satellites that operate global positioning systems and other devices, and may lead to some rerouting of flights over the polar regions, Murtagh said.

"Generally it is not going to cause any big problems, it will just have to be managed," he said.

"If you fly from the United States to Asia, flying over the North Pole, there are well over a dozen flights every day," he added.

"During these big radiation storms some of these airlines will reroute the flights away from the polar regions for safety reasons to make sure they can maintain communications.

"People operating satellites would keep an eye on this, too, because geomagnetic storming can interfere with satellites in various ways whether it is the satellite itself or the signal coming down from the receiver."

The aurora borealis (Northern Lights) and aurora australis (Southern Lights) will also likely be visible in the late hours of June 8 or 9, NASA said.

Source: AFP Global Edition

[winston]

Scientists predict rare 'hibernation' of sunspots by Kerry Sheridan

US scientists say the familiar sunspot cycle seems to be entering a hibernation period unseen since the 17th century, a pattern that could have a slight cooling effect on global temperatures.

For years, scientists have been predicting the Sun would by around 2012 move into solar maximum, a period of intense flares and sunspot activity, but lately a curious calm has suggested quite the opposite.

The signs include a missing jet stream, fading spots and slower activity near the poles, said a trio of studies presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Solar Physics Division in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

"This is highly unusual and unexpected," said Frank Hill, associate director of the National Solar Observatory's Solar Synoptic Network.

"But the fact that three completely different views of the Sun point in the same direction is a powerful indicator that the sunspot cycle may be going into hibernation."

Solar activity tends to rise and fall every 11 years or so. The solar maximum and solar minimum each mark about half the interval of the magnetic pole reversal on the Sun, which happens every 22 years.

Experts are now probing whether this period of inactivity could be a second Maunder Minimum, a 70-year period when hardly any sunspots were observed between 1645-1715 known as the "Little Ice Age."

"If we are right, this could be the last solar maximum we'll see for a few decades. That would affect everything from space exploration to Earth's climate," said Hill.

Solar flares and eruptions can send highly charged particles hurtling toward Earth and interfere with satellite communications, GPS systems and even airline controls.

Geomagnetic forces have been known to occasionally garble the world's modern gadgetry, and warnings were issued as recently as last week when a moderate solar flare sent a fiery coronal mass ejection in the Earth's direction.

However, the temperature change associated with any reduction in sunspot activity would likely be minimal and not enough to offset the impact of greenhouse gases on global warming, according to scientists.

"Recent solar 11-year cycles are associated empirically with changes in global surface temperature of 0.1 Celsius," said Judith Lean, a solar physicist with the US Naval Research Laboratory.

If the cycle were to stop or slow down, the small fluctuation in temperature would do the same, eliminating the slightly cooler effect of a solar minimum compared to the warmer solar maximum. The phenomenon was witnessed during the descending phase of the last solar cycle.

This "cancelled part of the greenhouse gas warming of the period 2000-2008, causing the net global surface temperature to remain approximately flat -- and leading to the big debate of why the Earth hadn't (been) warming in the past decade," Lean, who was not involved in the three studies presented, told AFP.

Less sunspot activity means the Sun will radiate lower levels of energy, ultraviolet rays, solar wind and a weaker magnetic field, explained climate scientist and author Rasmus Benestad of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.

"Historical data suggest that solar activity, however, only appears to have a weak effect on our climate," said Benestad.

A study in the March 2010 issue of Geophysical Research Letters explored what effect an extended solar minimum might have, and found no more than a 0.3 Celsius dip by 2100 compared to normal solar fluctuations.

"A new Maunder-type solar activity minimum cannot offset the global warming caused by human greenhouse gas emissions," wrote authors Georg Feulner and Stefan Rahmstorf, noting that forecasts by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecast a maximum 4.5 degree Celsius rise by this century's end compared to the latter half of the 20th century.

"Moreover, any offset of global warming due to a grand minimum of solar activity would be merely a temporary effect, since the distinct solar minima during the last millennium typically lasted for only several decades or a century at most."

Other experts were skeptical about whether the latest data actually predict a long-term solar minimum.

"There is no compelling reason to think that the Sun is about to go into hibernation," said Yi-Ming Wang of the Naval Research Laboratory.

"On the other hand, we don't understand the solar dynamo well enough to make any reliable prediction about what cycle 25 will be like."

Source: AFP Global Edition

[winston]

Is ocean garbage killing whales? by Marlowe Hood

Millions of tonnes of plastic debris dumped each year in the world's oceans could pose a lethal threat to whales, according to a scientific assessment to be presented at a key international whaling forum this week.

A review of research literature from the last two decades reveals hundreds of cases in which cetaceans -- an order including 80-odd species of whales, dolphins and porpoises -- have been sickened or killed by marine litter.

Entanglement in plastic bags and fishing gear have long been identified as a threat to sea birds, turtles and smaller cetaceans.

For large ocean-dwelling mammals, however, ingestion of such refuse is also emerging as a serious cause of disability and death, experts say.

Grisly examples abound.

In 2008, two sperm whales stranded on the California coast were found to have a huge amount -- 205 kilos (450 pounds) in one alone -- of fish nets and other synthetic debris in their guts.

One of the 50-foot (15-metre) animals had a ruptured stomach, and the other, half-starved, had a large plug of wadded plastic blocking its digestive tract.

Seven male sperm whales stranded on the Adriatic coast of southern Italy in 2009 were stuffed with half-digested squids beaks, fishing hooks, ropes and plastic objects.

In 2002, a dead minke whale washed up on the Normandy coast of France had nearly a tonne of plastic in its stomach, including bags from two British supermarkets.

"Cuvier's beaked whales in the northeast Atlantic seem to have particularly high incidences of ingestion and death from plastic bags," notes Mark Simmonds, author of the report and a member of scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which meets this week from July 11-14 on the British island of Jersey.

How widespread the problem is, and whether it could threaten an entire population or species, remains unknown.

"In many areas of the world, stranded whale carcasses are not recorded or examined, and in areas where strandings are recorded, examination of gut contents for swallowed plastics is rare," said Chris Parsons, a marine biologist at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

The majority of cetaceans that die from intestinal trauma getting caught up in fishing gear probably sink to the ocean floor, experts say.

"There is, however, evidence that plastic debris in the seas can harm these animals by both ingestion and entanglement, and this needs to be urgently further investigated," said Simmonds, Director of Science for Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

The main threats to cetaceans worldwide are accidental capture in fishing nets and climate change, he noted in an email exchange.

"We don't yet know enough about marine debris to rank it against other theats, but as it continues to sadly grow in the oceans, it will surely play a greater and greater role."

Studies have shown that litter concentrates in so-called convergence zones -- formed by currents and wind -- where whales feed on abundant prey.

Scientists have been slow to measure the impact of ocean refuse on animals living in or by the sea, and international organisations have been even slower in taking action.

In 2003, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the Global Initiative on Marine Litter, but it launched a detailed analysis of the scope of the problem only in 2009.

More recently, representatives from 38 countries meeting in Hawaii in March adopted the "Honolulu Commitment" outlining a dozen voluntary measures.

For whales, the level of threat from ocean garbage varies according to species and type of debris, the new report said.

For toothed whales from the suborder Odontoceti, ingestion of plastic pieces appears to pose the greatest danger.

Sperm and beaked whales are thought to be especially vulnerable because they are suction feeders.

Less is known about the impact on filter-feeding or baleen whales (suborder Mysticeti), which consume huge quantities of tiny zooplankton and small, schooling fish.

A single blue whale, for example, eats up to 3,600 kilos (8,000 pounds) of krill each day during feeding season.

Potentially, the greater danger here is from toxins in plastic that breaks down over time into tiny, even microscopic, particles.

Collisions with ships, and tissue-damaging noise pollution from off-shore oil exploration are additional threats, experts note.

The IWC is riven between countries that oppose whale hunting, and those that back the handful of nations -- Japan, Iceland and Norway -- that defy a 1986 whaling ban or use legal loopholes to circumvent it.

Source: AFP Global Edition

[winston]

Forests soak up third of fossil fuel emissions: study by Marlowe Hood

Forests play a larger role in Earth's climate system than previously suspected for both the risks from deforestation and the potential gains from regrowth, a benchmark study released Thursday has shown.

The study, published in Science, provides the most accurate measure so far of the amount of greenhouse gases absorbed from the atmosphere by tropical, temperate and boreal forests, researchers said.

"This is the first complete and global evidence of the overwhelming role of forests in removing anthropogenic carbon dioxide," said co-author Josep Canadell, a scientist at CSIRO, Australia's national climate research centre in Canberra.

"If you were to stop deforestation tomorrow, the world's established and regrowing forests would remove half of fossil fuel emissions," he told AFP, describing the findings as both "incredible" and "unexpected".

Wooded areas across the planet soak up fully a third of the fossil fuels released into the atmosphere each year, some 2.4 billion tonnes of carbon, the study found.

http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?a ... &buid=3281