Archive for the 'environment' Category

This is a follow-up to my previous post on climate change:

http://blog.une.edu.au/klausrohde/2009/10/14/coral-reefs-and-climate-change-close-to-catastrophic-collapse/

Storm threat to New Orleans out of our control, says general
• Flooding can’t be stopped, says chief of city defences
………….

Extracts of an article in the Guardian.

“New Orleans can no longer be protected from hurricane storm surges, according to the US army general in charge of the city’s defences.
General Robert Van Antwerp, chief of the US Army Corps of Engineers, said …………….
“If you ask can I protect the city, the answer is no. Can I reduce the risk? Yes.
“We can develop better early warning systems, better evacuation plans, better levees to hold back most of the water, but we cannot stop levees being overtopped and the city flooded.”

…………

“The vast Mississippi delta is sinking a centimetre a year. Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, and will be two metres higher by the year 2100. Much of the delta is less than a metre above sea level, so most communities will be submerged.
The oil and gas industry’s massive canal and pipeline network, which provides 35% of the country’s gas and oil, cuts through the state’s freshwater swamps and marshes, allowing vast quantities of sea water from the Gulf to wash into the delta and kill many of the trees and plants that protect the land from storm surges.”
………..

“We have broken the ecosystem. What we are doing to restore it is a drop in the ocean of what is needed,” Macaluso said.”

………

“Prof Gerald Galloway, from the department of civil engineering at the University of Maryland, said: “We are facing catastrophe. The challenge now is to see if anybody will do anything about it.”

………

“”There needs to be dramatic changes in policy and attitude, but time is running out.”

Full article here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/25/usa-natural-disasters

Professor Alexandra Grutter, University of Queensland, sent me this:

The coral reef crisis: The critical importance of less than 350 ppm CO2

By Veron et al. 2009. Marine Pollution Bulletin 58, 1428-1436.

“Abstract
Temperature-induced mass coral bleaching causing mortality on a wide geographic scale started when atmospheric CO2 levels exceeded 320 ppm. When CO2 levels reached 340 ppm, sporadic but highly destructive mass bleaching occurred in most reefs world-wide, often associated with El Niño events. Recovery was dependent on the vulnerability of individual reef areas and on the reef’s previous history and resilience. At today’s level of 387 ppm, allowing a lag-time of 10 years for sea temperatures to respond, most reefs world-wide are committed to an irreversible decline. Mass bleaching will in future become annual, departing from the 4 to 7 years return-time of El Niño events. Bleaching will be exacerbated by the effects of degraded water-quality and increased severe weather events. In addition, the progressive onset of ocean acidification will cause reduction of coral growth and retardation of the growth of high magnesium calcite-secreting coralline algae. If CO2 levels are allowed to reach 450 ppm (due to occur by 2030–2040 at the current rates), reefs will be in rapid and terminal decline world-wide from multiple synergies arising from mass bleaching, ocean acidification, and other environmental impacts. Damage to shallow reef communities will become extensive with consequent reduction of biodiversity followed by extinctions. Reefs will cease to be large-scale nursery grounds for fish and will cease to have most of their current value to humanity. There will be knock-on effects to ecosystems associated with reefs, and to other pelagic and benthic ecosystems. Should CO2 levels reach 600 ppm reefs will be eroding geological structures with populations of surviving biota restricted to refuges. Domino effects will follow, affecting many other marine ecosystems. This is likely to have been the path of great mass extinctions of the past, adding to the case that anthropogenic CO2 emissions could trigger the Earth’s sixth mass extinction.”

Full report here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2009.09.009

See also: http://blog.une.edu.au/klausrohde/2009/09/16/if-obama-cant-defeat-the-republican-headbangers-our-planet-is-doomed/

An article by Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian deals with climate change and the Copenhagen conference. Link here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/15/obama-healthcare-climate-change-copenhagen

This summarizes the article:
“One year on, the world still looks to the US and holds its breath. The fate of a global climate treaty rests in American hands”

I would add that the totally irresponsible attitude particularly of the Nationals in Australia fits well in. Nationals = Republicans?

The worst aspect, a rich country expects the poorest to pay. After all, it is well established that most of the burdens will have to be paid by the underdeveloped world in southern Africa and Asia. So, why bother?

This is to draw your attention to a new book on the zoogeography of parasites, which will be published shortly:

The Biogeography of Host-Parasite Interactions. Oxford University Press.
Editors Serge Morand & Boris Krasnov

I have written the chapter on

Marine parasite diversity and environmental gradients.

A brief summary of this chapter follows:

This chapter, after a brief discussion of older studies which established the existence of zoogeographical regions and some patterns in the geographical distribution of marine parasites, describes latitudinal gradients in parasite diversity, reproductive strategies and host ranges; longitudinal gradients in diversity (centres of diversity and oceanic barriers between them); and depth gradients. The marine environment is less heterogeneous than terrestrial and freshwater habitats, and therefore more suitable for evaluating the causes of gradients. An attempt at such an evaluation is made. Important gaps in our knowledge are discussed and suggestions are made for future studies.

Links to my knols on parasitology, ecology, zoogeography, economics, philosophy and art can be found here:

http://knol.google.com/k/klaus-rohde/klaus-rohde-knols-english/xk923bc3gp4/69#

The list is continuously updated. Knols can be used as supplementary material for lectures.

A new paper by Gillman et al. (2009) confirms my hypothesis of “effective evolutionary time”, according to which species diversity is determined by direct temperature effects on mutation rates and generation times. The authors examined 260 mammal species of 10 orders and 29 families and found that substitution rates in the cytochrome B gene were substantially faster in species at warm latitudes and elevations, compared with those from cold latitudes and elevations. A critical examination of the data showed that this cannot be attributed to gene drift or body mass differentials. The only possibilities left are a Red Queen effect or direct effects of thermal gradients (including possibly an effect of torpor/hibernation differentials).

For details see

http://knol.google.com/k/klaus-rohde/effective-evolutionary-time/xk923bc3gp4/11#

and

http://knol.google.com/k/klaus-rohde/latitudinal-gradients-in-species/xk923bc3gp4/56#

For my publications on latitudinal gradients see:

http://blog.une.edu.au/klausrohde/2008/03/28/klaus-rohde-latitudinal-gradients-in-species-diversity-reproductive-strategies-and-geographical-ranges/

(more…)

Here are two excerpts of a report in the Huffington Post:

“The deadliest war since Adolf Hitler marched across Europe is starting again — and you are almost certainly carrying a blood-soaked chunk of the slaughter in your pocket. When we glance at the holocaust in the Congo, with 5.4 million dead, the clichés of Africa reporting tumble out: this is a “tribal conflict” in “the Heart of Darkness.” It isn’t. The United Nations investigation found it was a war led by “armies of business” to seize the metals that make our twenty-first century society zing and bling. The war in Congo is a war about you.”
“These resources were not being stolen to be used in Africa. They were being seized so they could be sold on to us. The more we bought, the more the invaders stole — and slaughtered. The rise of mobile phones caused a surge in deaths, because the coltan they contain is found primarily in Congo.”

Full text here.

According to various press reports, the private arm of the World Bank has decided to support a company with a multi-million Dollar loan for extending its cattle ranches in parts of the Amazon in which illegal deforestation has occurred in the past. Is this the function of the World Bank ? Why not give the money to poor African farmers for improving their farming practices?

In the Congo and the Amazon, environmental destruction on a grand scale! This concerns us all: experts have estimated that damage to the environment will have far greater economic consequences than the present financial crisis.

Der Spiegel 11.2.08. Abschied vom Beton-Brecht (Farewell to Concrete-Brecht)

Neues aus Brechts Notizbüchern. (Something new from Brecht’s note books) (My translations)

Wisse auch, dass etwas nicht glauben, doch etwas glauben heisst.
You should know that not to believe something, also means to believe something.

Immer noch, wie im Pawlowschen Versuch, veranlassen Glocken in mir Prozesse sicherlich chemischer Art, Gedanken metaphysischer Richtung.
Even now, as in Pavlov’s experiments, bells induce processes in me, certainly of a chemical nature, thoughts of a metaphysical nature.

In der Welt, die ich mir wünsche, komme ich nicht vor.
In the world which I like that should exist, I do not occur.

Was ich nicht gern gesteh: gerade ich verachte solche, die im Unglück sind.
I do not admit this easily: Just I despise those who are unfortunate.

Der Mensch ist kein Schwimmer, der Mensch ist kein Flieger: Er ist aus der Gattung der Rückenlieger.
Man is not a swimmer, he is not a flyer, he is of the genus of backlyers (people lying on their backs).

Ich hätte mein Versprechen gern gehalten. Aber ich konnte nicht/Warum?/Ich hatte keine Lust.
I would have liked to keep my promise. But I could not/Why?/I did not feel like it.

Wie lange dauern die Werke? So lange bis sie fertig sind.
How long do works last? Until they are completed.

Google has opened a new free encyclopedia “Knol” (abbreviation of Knowledge). It has certain advantages over Wikipedia, with which it will compete: 1) articles are published under their authors’ names; 2) authors have the option to exclude any changes by readers, allow changes which must be approved by the author, or allow any changes; 3) articles can be reviewed; 4) articles on the same topic by different authors are accepted; 5) it is possible to write comments on articles.
I published an article (in German) on Meeresparasiten (marine parasites) in Knol. Have a look:

http://knol.google.com/k/klaus-rohde/meeresparasiten-wirtschaftliche-und/xk923bc3gp4/2#