[News] from [guardian.co.uk]
[Environment > Climate change]
Fate of US climate bill casts shadow over Bangkok talks
Evidence of 'clear movement' on domestic front would lend weight to UN climate talks in Bangkok, says US chief negotiator
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 11.41 BST Article history
The fate of US carbon emission cap and trade legislation weighed heavily on delegates at United Nations climate talks which started today in Bangkok, with the Americans saying delays in passing the bill could deter commitments from other nations.
Negotiations on a new UN climate pact have been hindered by a general unwillingness to commit to firm emissions targets, and a refusal by developing countries to sign a deal until the west guarantees tens of billions of dollars in financial assistance – something the richer nations have so far refused to do.
"The more specific we can be, the easier it is to press others to be equally specific," said Jonathan Pershing, the chief US negotiator at the talks. "We have a lot of things we want from countries ... The less we can put on the table, the harder it is to achieve that outcome."
The two-week conference in the Thai capital is drawing some 1,500 delegates from 180 countries to boil down a 200-page draft agreement to something more manageable, in the hope of finalising a new international climate pact this year.
In June, the US House of Representatives passed its first bill to cap carbon emissions. The Senate, currently embroiled in debates over healthcare, is expected to take up the legislation as early as this week.
However, Pershing said he doubted that there's enough time to pass an emissions bill in Congress before December's crucial climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, which aim to reach a deal to replace the outgoing Kyoto protocol, due to expire in 2012.
He said it wouldn't prevent a global deal as long as "we have clear movement, clear intent and a signal from the Senate that is it is moving" towards passing the legislation.
UN climate chief Yvo de Boer warned that the US should not repeat what happened with the 1997 Kyoto agreement – when it signed on to the deal, only to have Congress reject it a few years later over concerns that it would hurt the economy and fail to require China and India to curb their emissions.
President Barack Obama and the Chinese president, Hu Jintao – whose countries are the world's two biggest emitters, each accounting for about 20% of greenhouse gas pollution – vowed tough measures to combat climate change at UN talks in New York last week.
Hu said China would generate 15% of its energy from renewable sources within a decade, and for the first time pledged to reduce the rate by which its carbon emissions rise. He did not provide specific targets.
There will be one more meeting in Spain in November before negotiators head to Copenhagen. De Boer said progress was slower than it should be, but remained confident a deal would be reached in Copenhagen.
David Victor, a political scientist who has written about climate negotiations since 1990, said it is unlikely a comprehensive treaty can be finalised this year.
"The world economic recession has made most governments acutely aware of policies that could affect economic growth," he said. "And the range of issues on the table in Copenhagen is so large and complex and the time available to sort them out is very short."
[Environment > Endangered species]
US to review endangered status of humpback whalesThe population of humpback whales has been growing steadily, prompting a review of its status in the US – but not everyone wants it delisted
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 11.26 BST Article history
The US government is considering taking the humpback whale off the endangered species list in response to data showing the population of the massive marine mammal has been steadily growing in recent decades.
Known for their acrobatic leaps from the sea and complex singing patterns, humpback whales were nearly hunted to extinction for their oil and meat by industrial-sized whaling ships well through the middle of the 20th century. But the species has been bouncing back since an international ban on their commercial whaling in 1966.
"Humpbacks by and large are an example of a species that in most places seems to be doing very well, despite our earlier efforts to exterminate them," said Phillip Clapham, a senior whale biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The US government is required by law to review the endangered species status of an animal or plant if it receives "significant new information". The National Marine Fisheries Service, a NOAA agency, received results last year from an extensive study showing that the north Pacific humpback population has been growing 4-7% a year in recent decades.
Public comment is being accepted until 13 October on the upcoming review, which is expected to take less than a year. It is the first review for humpbacks since 1999.
A panel of scientists will then study the data and report on their analysis in late spring or early summer. It is unclear what the decision on delisting the humpback will be.
Some environmental groups are already opposing the possibility of a delisting.
Miyoko Sakashita, the ocean programs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that ongoing climate change and ocean acidification are emerging threats that may hurt humpback whales.
"Ocean conditions are changing so rapidly right now that it would probably be hasty to delist the humpbacks," Sakashita said.
Ralph Reeves, who chairs the cetacean specialist group at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said the US should remove humpbacks from the list if populations have sufficiently recovered.
He said conservationists must "be prepared and willing to embrace success" if they're to maintain what he called a "meaningful" endangered species program.
"The whole process, the credibility of it, depends on telling people that things are really bad when they're really bad and telling people that they aren't so bad when they aren't so bad," Reeves said.
There are an estimated 18,000-20,000 humpbacks in the north Pacific, up from just 1,400 in the mid-1960s. A survey in the early 1990s of humpbacks in the north Atlantic showed the population at 10,600. The results of a follow-up to that study, expected by the end of the year, are likely to show this population has grown, too.
The global humpback population is estimated to be about 60,000, according to the Swiss-based Conservation of Nature union.
[Environment > Wildlife]
BBC puts wildlife footage online
Clips from 30 series made available on BBC website with introduction by David Attenborough
Adam Gabbatt
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 14.08 BST Article history
Chimpanzees ambushing and eating colobus monkeys, great white sharks leaping clean out of the ocean to catch their prey and the first footage of an entire snow leopard hunt are just some of the wonders of nature made available by the BBC as it opens up its vast archive of wildlife footage online today.
Over 500 video clips have been made available to view on the BBC's website, along with audio and an introduction from Sir David Attenborough.
Users can search all creatures great and small and watch clips, complete with voiceover, to find out more about their favourite creatures.
The video footage has been taken from 30 BBC series, and will gradually be added to. To launch the site Attenborough has selected some of his favourite clips, including a group of chimpanzees cracking nuts and footage of killer whales beaching themselves to catch sealions.
"It has always been my hope that, through film-making, I can bring the wonder of the natural world into people's sitting rooms," he said. "The web has totally changed how we can link information, connect people and reach new audiences in an on-demand world.
"Wildlife programmes have always proved hugely popular and the appetite for discovery has led the BBC to bring these two worlds together."
As well as serving as an education in wildlife, for viewers who grew up watching the BBC's wildlife programmes the videos offer a trip down memory lane ‑ from Attenborough's encounter with mountain gorillas to his "optical probing" of an ant bivouac.
The BBC has also added audio from its archive, where appropriate, with many of the videos of mammals being accompanied by audio clips ‑ some three minutes long ‑ of calls and grunts.
George Entwistle, controller of knowledge, said viewers would now have an all-year round "natural history experience. The BBC has a vast collection of world-class natural history content which we are now making available to viewers online," he said. "Through Wildlife Finder, we are able to offer viewers a year-round on-demand natural history experience."
[Environment > Climate change]
Fate of US climate bill casts shadow over Bangkok talks
Evidence of 'clear movement' on domestic front would lend weight to UN climate talks in Bangkok, says US chief negotiator
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 11.41 BST Article history
The fate of US carbon emission cap and trade legislation weighed heavily on delegates at United Nations climate talks which started today in Bangkok, with the Americans saying delays in passing the bill could deter commitments from other nations.
Negotiations on a new UN climate pact have been hindered by a general unwillingness to commit to firm emissions targets, and a refusal by developing countries to sign a deal until the west guarantees tens of billions of dollars in financial assistance – something the richer nations have so far refused to do.
"The more specific we can be, the easier it is to press others to be equally specific," said Jonathan Pershing, the chief US negotiator at the talks. "We have a lot of things we want from countries ... The less we can put on the table, the harder it is to achieve that outcome."
The two-week conference in the Thai capital is drawing some 1,500 delegates from 180 countries to boil down a 200-page draft agreement to something more manageable, in the hope of finalising a new international climate pact this year.
In June, the US House of Representatives passed its first bill to cap carbon emissions. The Senate, currently embroiled in debates over healthcare, is expected to take up the legislation as early as this week.
However, Pershing said he doubted that there's enough time to pass an emissions bill in Congress before December's crucial climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, which aim to reach a deal to replace the outgoing Kyoto protocol, due to expire in 2012.
He said it wouldn't prevent a global deal as long as "we have clear movement, clear intent and a signal from the Senate that is it is moving" towards passing the legislation.
UN climate chief Yvo de Boer warned that the US should not repeat what happened with the 1997 Kyoto agreement – when it signed on to the deal, only to have Congress reject it a few years later over concerns that it would hurt the economy and fail to require China and India to curb their emissions.
President Barack Obama and the Chinese president, Hu Jintao – whose countries are the world's two biggest emitters, each accounting for about 20% of greenhouse gas pollution – vowed tough measures to combat climate change at UN talks in New York last week.
Hu said China would generate 15% of its energy from renewable sources within a decade, and for the first time pledged to reduce the rate by which its carbon emissions rise. He did not provide specific targets.
There will be one more meeting in Spain in November before negotiators head to Copenhagen. De Boer said progress was slower than it should be, but remained confident a deal would be reached in Copenhagen.
David Victor, a political scientist who has written about climate negotiations since 1990, said it is unlikely a comprehensive treaty can be finalised this year.
"The world economic recession has made most governments acutely aware of policies that could affect economic growth," he said. "And the range of issues on the table in Copenhagen is so large and complex and the time available to sort them out is very short."
[Environment > Endangered species]
US to review endangered status of humpback whalesThe population of humpback whales has been growing steadily, prompting a review of its status in the US – but not everyone wants it delisted
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 11.26 BST Article history
The US government is considering taking the humpback whale off the endangered species list in response to data showing the population of the massive marine mammal has been steadily growing in recent decades.
Known for their acrobatic leaps from the sea and complex singing patterns, humpback whales were nearly hunted to extinction for their oil and meat by industrial-sized whaling ships well through the middle of the 20th century. But the species has been bouncing back since an international ban on their commercial whaling in 1966.
"Humpbacks by and large are an example of a species that in most places seems to be doing very well, despite our earlier efforts to exterminate them," said Phillip Clapham, a senior whale biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The US government is required by law to review the endangered species status of an animal or plant if it receives "significant new information". The National Marine Fisheries Service, a NOAA agency, received results last year from an extensive study showing that the north Pacific humpback population has been growing 4-7% a year in recent decades.
Public comment is being accepted until 13 October on the upcoming review, which is expected to take less than a year. It is the first review for humpbacks since 1999.
A panel of scientists will then study the data and report on their analysis in late spring or early summer. It is unclear what the decision on delisting the humpback will be.
Some environmental groups are already opposing the possibility of a delisting.
Miyoko Sakashita, the ocean programs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that ongoing climate change and ocean acidification are emerging threats that may hurt humpback whales.
"Ocean conditions are changing so rapidly right now that it would probably be hasty to delist the humpbacks," Sakashita said.
Ralph Reeves, who chairs the cetacean specialist group at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said the US should remove humpbacks from the list if populations have sufficiently recovered.
He said conservationists must "be prepared and willing to embrace success" if they're to maintain what he called a "meaningful" endangered species program.
"The whole process, the credibility of it, depends on telling people that things are really bad when they're really bad and telling people that they aren't so bad when they aren't so bad," Reeves said.
There are an estimated 18,000-20,000 humpbacks in the north Pacific, up from just 1,400 in the mid-1960s. A survey in the early 1990s of humpbacks in the north Atlantic showed the population at 10,600. The results of a follow-up to that study, expected by the end of the year, are likely to show this population has grown, too.
The global humpback population is estimated to be about 60,000, according to the Swiss-based Conservation of Nature union.
[Environment > Wildlife]
BBC puts wildlife footage online
Clips from 30 series made available on BBC website with introduction by David Attenborough
Adam Gabbatt
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 14.08 BST Article history
Chimpanzees ambushing and eating colobus monkeys, great white sharks leaping clean out of the ocean to catch their prey and the first footage of an entire snow leopard hunt are just some of the wonders of nature made available by the BBC as it opens up its vast archive of wildlife footage online today.
Over 500 video clips have been made available to view on the BBC's website, along with audio and an introduction from Sir David Attenborough.
Users can search all creatures great and small and watch clips, complete with voiceover, to find out more about their favourite creatures.
The video footage has been taken from 30 BBC series, and will gradually be added to. To launch the site Attenborough has selected some of his favourite clips, including a group of chimpanzees cracking nuts and footage of killer whales beaching themselves to catch sealions.
"It has always been my hope that, through film-making, I can bring the wonder of the natural world into people's sitting rooms," he said. "The web has totally changed how we can link information, connect people and reach new audiences in an on-demand world.
"Wildlife programmes have always proved hugely popular and the appetite for discovery has led the BBC to bring these two worlds together."
As well as serving as an education in wildlife, for viewers who grew up watching the BBC's wildlife programmes the videos offer a trip down memory lane ‑ from Attenborough's encounter with mountain gorillas to his "optical probing" of an ant bivouac.
The BBC has also added audio from its archive, where appropriate, with many of the videos of mammals being accompanied by audio clips ‑ some three minutes long ‑ of calls and grunts.
George Entwistle, controller of knowledge, said viewers would now have an all-year round "natural history experience. The BBC has a vast collection of world-class natural history content which we are now making available to viewers online," he said. "Through Wildlife Finder, we are able to offer viewers a year-round on-demand natural history experience."
※コメント投稿者のブログIDはブログ作成者のみに通知されます