WorldWatch Institute’s State of the World 2012 outlines what is needed for global sustainable prosperity

April 30th, 2012 by Worldwatch Institute

(click on book cover to go to publisher's website)

Over the last 50 years, the world’s middle and upper classes have more than doubled their consumption levels, and an additional one to two billion people globally aspire to join the consumer class.

The planet cannot maintain such increases in resource demand without serious consequences for both people and ecosystems, concludes the Worldwatch Institute in State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity.

The book, the 29th in a series that Worldwatch began in 1984, stresses that we must act quickly to redefine our understanding of the “good life” and redouble our efforts to make that life sustainable. Continue reading

Need green agenda for progressive economy & competitive advantage

April 18th, 2012 by KPMG

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg visited KMPG offices recently to launch his ‘green growth‘ initiative.

Mr. Clegg made it clear that he regards ‘green’ as a source of competitive advantage. It is not a handicap or an extra cost that will hold us back. Green technology properly embraced can help both businesses to make and consumers to save money. There are a number of government initiatives under way to help make that happen, with a particular focus on consumer households of modest means.

Mr Clegg referred to the importance of “natural capital”. He will be representing the UK at the Rio+20 summit in the summer where, he said, he will be “pushing for greater global protections for our natural assets.”  This is a really important area. We have heard recently, for example, about the danger to bees and the cost to farmers if they have to pollinate their crops without them. Continue reading

Habitat provided by sea wind farms can enhance some fish populations

April 13th, 2012 by Technical University of Denmark

DTU Aqua Staff conduct research at the Danish Horns Rev 1 wind farm on fish populations (click image to expand - image courtesy of Claus Stenberg)

The first Danish study into how one of the worlds largest wind farms affects marine life is now completed. It shows that the wind turbines and the fish live quite happily together. Indeed some species of fish have actually increased in number.

As work is just beginning on Denmark’s newest and so far largest offshore wind farm off the island of Anholt, comes some hopefully good news for all fish in the area.

A new report from the Danish wind-park Horns Rev 1, one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms, shows that offshore wind farms and fish can live together in harmony. Continue reading

Marine Protected Areas work if they are large enough

March 30th, 2012 by British Ecological Society

Ecologists in New Zealand have shown for the first time that Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) – long advocated as a way of protecting threatened marine mammals – actually work.

Their study “First evidence that marine protected areas can work for marine mammals” published in the British Ecological Society‘s Journal of Applied Ecology, was based on 21 years’ of monitoring.

The study reveals that a marine sanctuary off the coast of Christchurch, New Zealand has significantly improved survival of Hector’s dolphins, Cephalorhynchus hectori, which is one of the world’s smallest and rarest dolphins.

Hector's dolphins, Cephalorhynchus hectori, in the Banks Peninsula Marine Mammal Sanctuary off New Zealand (click image to expand - image ©Steve Dawson)

Banks Peninsula Marine Mammal Sanctuary covers 1170 square kilometres of sea off New Zealand’s South Island. The sanctuary was designated in 1988 to prevent the dolphins being killed by gillnet and trawl fisheries, which had reduced their numbers to less than 30% of their original population. Continue reading

Planet under Pressure Conference on-line from 26 to 29 March 2012

March 23rd, 2012 by Events

(click image to go to Planet under Pressure 2012 website)

While 2,500 specialists gather in London from the Planet under Press Conference from 26 to 29 March 2012 to present the latest scientific knowledge on the state of the planet and potential solutions for a sustainable world, science centers and museums worldwide will hold 150 public events relating to the Planet Under Pressure conference and the Rio+20 Summit in June.

Events will take place in North and South America, Asia, Australia, Africa and Europe and will give the public a snapshot of the state of the planet and scientific concern in advance of the UN Rio+20 Summit.

What’s more, via live web streaming, email and twitter, participants will be able to follow the conference live from all over the world and can interact with the speakers in London in real time. Continue reading

Eminent shark scientists state that shark fin trade is unsustainable

March 21st, 2012 by Professsional marine scientists

shark fins on the floor of the auction hall in Vigo, Galicia, Spain in April 1990. These were from sharks that had been disposed of at sea because, we were told, they could not be kept fresh during the 25 day fishing trip. (click image to expand - ©RLLord)

An open letter from professional marine scientists:

As professional marine scientists who have personally witnessed and documented the dramatic declines of shark populations around the world, we would like to express our concern about the recent misinformation perpetuated in the media, both Asian and international, asserting that the shark fin trade is sustainable.

The reality is that this vast trade is largely unmanaged and unmonitored, and that the shark fin industry in Asia plays little to no role in fisheries management in the countries that are fishing sharks. The slow growth and reproductive rates of sharks makes them extremely susceptible to over-exploitation. Since only a small fraction of shark-fishing nations have any type of shark management plan in place, the assertion that the fin trade is sustainable is not based in fact. Continue reading

Climate change threatens world’s cloud forests

March 20th, 2012 by ARC CofE for Environmental Decisions

Mexican cloud forest photographed by Rocio Ponce-Reyes (click image to expand ©Rocio Ponce-Reyes)

Many of the world’s rarest and richest forests – its high-altitude cloud forests – could be all-but obliterated by 2080 due to the combined impact of man-made climate change and habitat destruction.

Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change an international scientific team has warned of the near-total loss of one of the world’s most delicate ecosystems, the Mexican cloud forest, along with 70% of its plant and animal species, as a result of human pressures.

“Cloud forests occur only at certain high altitudes and their species are exceptionally vulnerable to the loss of the cool, moist environment that sustains them,” explains lead author Rocio Ponce-Reyes of Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED) and The University of Queensland. Continue reading

GDP+ to measure value of natural resources and social wellbeing

March 12th, 2012 by DEFRA

Rt Hon Caroline Spelman MP addresses the SDUK Conference on 17 March 2011 (click image to expand - ©RLLord)

UK Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman has pledged that the UK will be a driving force in pressing for new goals to help the world embrace a greener and more sustainable economy at this summer’s major Rio+20 UN conference.

Mrs Spelman said the UK will work with Colombia and others to develop and drive forward the proposal for new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

SDGs are expected to guide and galvanise international and domestic efforts on major sustainability issues, such as food security, water, and access to sustainable energy. Continue reading

Human carbon emissions may turn ocean acidic at faster rate than during four major extinctions

March 1st, 2012 by The Earth Institute at Columbia University

The world’s oceans may be turning acidic faster today from human carbon emissions than they did during four major extinctions in the last 300 million years, when natural pulses of carbon sent global temperatures soaring, says a new study, The Geological Record of Ocean Acidification, published in Science.

The study is the first of its kind to survey the geologic record for evidence of ocean acidification over this vast time period.

“What we’re doing today really stands out,” said lead author Bärbel Hönisch, a paleoceanographer at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Continue reading

Global Partnership for Oceans set up to coordinate effort to save seas

February 25th, 2012 by World Bank

A coalition of governments, international organisations, civil society groups and private interests are joining together under the banner of a Global Partnership for Oceans to confront widely documented problems of over-fishing, marine degradation, and habitat loss.

In a keynote speech delivered on 24 February 2012 at The Economist’s World Oceans Summit in Singapore, World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick said the Partnership would bring science, advocacy, the private sector, and international public institutions together to advance mutually agreed goals for healthy and productive oceans. Continue reading