Deforestation: In India, 23,716 industrial projects replaced forests over 30 years

Posted on June 4, 2016 by GarryRogers

Indian villagers walk towards the Mahan forest during a protest against a coal mining project in Singrauli district, Madhya Pradesh. Of the 14,000 sq km of forests cleared over the past three decades in India, the largest area was given to mining (4,947 sq km), followed by defence projects (1,549 sq km) and hydroelectric projects (1,351 sq km).

Over the last 30 years, forests nearly two-thirds the size of Haryana have been lost to encroachments (15,000 sq km) and 23,716 industrial projects (14,000 sq km), according to government data, and artificial forests cannot be replacements, as the government recently acknowledged.

The government’s auditor has said conditions under which these projects are given forest land are widely violated, and experts said government data are under-estimates. Read more: In India, 23,716 industrial projects replaced forests over 30 years. – Enjeux énergies et environnement

GR: Deforestation is rampant across the face of the Earth. Progress, development, and profit–all trump forest. And if forests aren’t totally cleared to make way for various enterprises, they are cut by timber companies that care nothing for biodiversity, only for sales of logs and lumber.

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From floods to forest fires: a warming planet – in pictures | Environment | The Guardian

Posted on June 3, 2016 by GarryRogers

Photos of Human Impact: Droughts, floods, forest fires and melting poles – climate change is impacting Earth like never before. From the Australia to Greenland, Ashley Cooper’s work spans 13 years and over 30 countries. This selection, taken from his new book, shows a changing landscape, scarred by pollution and natural disasters – but there is hope too, with the steady rise of renewable energyAshley CooperFriday 3 June 2016 06.05 EDT

Source: From floods to forest fires: a warming planet – in pictures | Environment | The Guardian

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Climate Engineering Contributing To Climate Chaos » Climate Engineering Contributing To Climate Chaos | Geoengineering Watch

Posted on June 3, 2016 by GarryRogers

Dane Wigington, Geoengineeringwatch.org: “Earth’s former energy balance has been completely derailed, we are now in a free-fall state toward an irreparably altered and very inhospitable planet. The majority of populations (especially in industrialized countries) are even now immersed in total denial in regard to the damage that has been inflicted to the environment and climate systems by human activity. Any form of anthropogenic activity that impacts Earth’s natural processes must be considered a form of geoengineering. The greatest and most destructive form of biosphere interference is the ongoing highly toxic climate engineering/weather warfare global assault. Burning forests, drought, deluge, volcanic eruptions, nuclear contamination and die-off, are already now the norm and this process will accelerate rapidly. Geoengineering is being ramped up to unimaginable levels as the collapse of the biosphere and social structure unfolds. The 9 minute video compilation below is a revealing recent update that covers numerous climate and environmental catastrophes.” Source: Climate Engineering Contributing To Climate Chaos » Climate Engineering Contributing To Climate Chaos | Geoengineering Watch

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Voluntary family planning to minimise and mitigate climate change | The BMJ

Posted on June 1, 2016 by GarryRogers

What is the relation between population and environmental impact?

During 1971-72, Ehrlich and Holdren identified three factors that create humanity’s environmental (including climatic) impact, related by a simple equation2:Environmental impact, I =P×A×T. in which A is affluence (material consumption and the concomitant “effluence” of pollutants such as carbon dioxide (CO2) per person); T is technology impact per person (in which fossil fuels measure more highly than solar based energy); and P is population (the number of people).

Population’s effect on the other two factors is multiplicative. Reducing P can reduce environmental impact if the other factors are constant. In fig 1⇓, for example, fewer people requiring food would manifestly reduce the startling 30% of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and meat production combined (including CO2 from deforestation, methane from livestock, and nitrous oxide from fertilisers).3 That said, other contributory factors, including the worldwide trend towards higher meat consumption, must also be reversed.

Source: Voluntary family planning to minimise and mitigate climate change | The BMJ

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Disappearing West

Posted on May 28, 2016 by GarryRogers

Construction Eliminating Plants and Animals

Every 2.5 minutes, the American West loses a football field worth of natural area to human development. This project maps a rapidly changing landscape, explores what is being lost, and profiles a new movement for conservation that is gaining ground.

Natural areas in the West are going fast. With each flight home, we get a bird’s eye view of sprawling new roads, oil wells, and pipelines. The Oregon woods we explored as kids are now stumps without songbirds. We see fewer stars through Santa Fe’s brightening lights.

Yet, from governors’ mansions to the halls of Congress, questions about land and wildlife conservation command relatively little attention today. The conventional wisdom seems to hold that the most consequential battles over America’s wild places are already settled. President Theodore Roosevelt, Sierra Club founder John Muir, and the environmental activists of the 1960s won protections for national parks, national forests, and wilderness areas. In the eyes of some politicians, the West’s open spaces are not only well protected, but too well protected. An anti-parks caucus in the U.S. Congress, for example, wants to block new national parks and sell off the West’s national forests to private owners.

Natural area loss, by state

State	Total area modified by human development, in square miles		Natural area lost, in square miles	Percent change in area modified by human development
State	2001	2011	2001-2011	2001-2011
Wyoming	10,378	10,873	496	4.8%
Utah	8,248	8,624	376	4.6%
Oregon	12,431	12,843	412	3.3%
Washington	13,812	14,269	456	3.3%
Arizona	11,560	11,931	371	3.2%
Colorado	18,428	18,953	525	2.9%
California	29,856	30,641	785	2.6%
New Mexico	12,587	12,905	319	2.5%
Nevada	8,345	8,490	145	1.7%
Idaho	11,240	11,391	151	1.3%
Montana	23,485	23,770	285	1.2%

Source: Conservation Science Partners, “Description of the approach, data, and analytical methods used to estimate natural land loss in the western U.S.” (2016), unpublished technical report, available here.

Source: Disappearing West

GR: Go to the Source for more facts on the loss of natural areas to construction in the U.S.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife targets illegally stocked pike in Green Mountain Reservoir with a bounty for anglers | Summit County Citizens Voice

Posted on May 27, 2016 by GarryRogers

Non-native predators could threaten endangered species in Colorado River.

Colorado wildlife managers will try to curb expansion of non-native northern pike in Summit County’s Green Mountain Reservoir by paying anglers a $20 bounty for each fish they deliver to the Heeney Marina.

The illegally introduced fish are taking a toll on trout in the reservoir north of Silverthorne and could escape to the Blue River and make their way to the Colorado River. That could add to the challenges of trying to recover four endangered native Colorado River fish species, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Source: Colorado Parks and Wildlife targets illegally stocked pike in Green Mountain Reservoir with a bounty for anglers | Summit County Citizens Voice

Australia scrubbed from UN climate change report after government intervention

Posted on May 27, 2016 by GarryRogers

Exclusive: All mentions of Australia were removed from the final version of a Unesco report on climate change and world heritage sites after the Australian government objected on the grounds it could impact on tourism.

Guardian Australia can reveal the report “World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate”, which Unesco jointly published with the United Nations environment program and the Union of Concerned Scientists on Friday, initially had a key chapter on the Great Barrier Reef, as well as small sections on Kakadu and the Tasmanian forests.

But when the Australian Department of Environment saw a draft of the report, it objected, and every mention of Australia was removed by Unesco. Will Steffen, one of the scientific reviewers of the axed section on the reef, said Australia’s move was reminiscent of “the old Soviet Union”.

Source: Australia scrubbed from UN climate change report after government intervention | Environment | The Guardian

Senegal’s southern forests may disappear by 2018: ecologist | Daily Mail Online

Posted on May 26, 2016 by GarryRogers

Senegal’s heavily forested southern region of Casamance will have no tree cover left by 2018 if illegal logging driven by Chinese demand is not addressed, a Senegalese ecologist warned Thursday. Source: Senegal’s southern forests may disappear by 2018: ecologist | Daily Mail Online

Biodiversity Day – May 22

Posted on May 21, 2016 by GarryRogers

A Day for Biodiversity

The United Nations has declared that May 22 is Biodiversity Day. The goal this year is to publicize biodiversity. After studying the text of the UN Convention on Biodiversity, I believe that the UN is doing little or nothing for biodiversity. I have studied plants and animals for many years. What I’ve seen, and what others report, is that all of nature is in steep decline. Humans are the cause. I fear that people might be led to believe that the United Nations is taking effective action to protect biodiversity. It is not.

The theme of the UN Convention on Biodiversity is sustainable development. It’s text has lofty goals with vague strategies for their attainment. The text makes clear the Convention’s desire for acceptance by even the most growth oriented government. Each Article begins with phrases such as: “Each Contracting Party shall, in accordance with its particular conditions and capabilities. . . .” and this: “Each Contracting Party shall, as far as possible and as appropriate. . . .” Since human desires are the conditions that define what is appropriate, the phrases prohibit no “contractor” from full-bore growth and development if they say that these are needed to provide jobs and improved standards of living.

This is the UN’s definition of the Convention:

Signed by 150 government leaders at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the Convention on Biological Diversity is dedicated to promoting sustainable development. Conceived as a practical tool for translating the principles of Agenda 21 into reality, the Convention recognizes that biological diversity is about more than plants, animals and micro organisms and their ecosystems – it is about people and our need for food security, medicines, fresh air and water, shelter, and a clean and healthy environment in which to live (United Nations).

Biodiversity is definitely not about the needs of only one species. It is a general term that gives equal importance to all species. By placing humans ahead of all other species, the Convention’s definition replaces biological validity with the human bias that is destroying the Earth.

This year’s meeting focus is on promoting biodiversity. The meetings never do much more than report on small achievements. They serve as an opportunity to search for funding for their development-friendly activities and they let governments reward their environmental managers with a two-week vacation in an international resort.

Homo sapiens’ unrelenting rape of the Earth and the rapid decline of biodiversity is taking us toward the greatest mass extinction of all time. No one has found an effective means to stop this. In 1992, the United Nations decided to formalize their support for continued devastation by sugar-coating human impacts with the term “sustainable.” A genuine Biodiversity Day would focus on curtailing human:

Population growth
Habitat destruction
Material aspirations

Over and over, our leading biologists call for emergency responses to our impacts on the Earth. This blog has more than a thousand well-reasoned warnings and suggestions related to biodiversity. However, biodiversity decline continues. What do we do? Even as our impacts grow beyond the hope of remediation, our environmental managers lay by the pool sipping rum punch, eying the pretty young servers, and discussing funding proposals and plans for more meetings.