Shrugging Off Criticism, Europe Will Keep Trawling. By David Jolly, NYTimes, 12/3/10. “European nations will keep trawling the deep sea bottom… confounding hopes that they would honor commitments made to the United Nations General Assembly to stop the destructive practice. The Council of Fisheries Ministers, made up of officials from the 27 member nations of the European Union, said on Nov. 29 that there would be little change [PDF, 22 pp] in deep-sea quotas for the next two years, despite strong objections from the conservationist camp. Officials agreed to end deep-sea shark fishing and to restrict fishing for a handful of species, but in a victory for the French and Spanish fleets, fishing will continue largely as before. Deep-seas fisheries are defined as those below 200 meters, or about 650 feet. Deep-sea trolling and long-lining can lead to overfishing a stock, and dragging heavy nets across the bottom destroys coral and vegetation, disrupting the fragile ecosystem of the ocean floor. Making matters worse, deep-sea species tend to reproduce more slowly than species higher in the water column, so severely depleted stocks can face a tough road back to health even if significant conservation measures are eventually enacted… For a few commercial target species, thousands of tons of coral are hauled up only to be thrown back dead or dying, along with huge quantities of unwanted bycatch. In a matter of a few weeks or months, bottom trawl fishing can destroy what took many thousands of years to create.”

Nagoya Protocol: A Breakthrough in Protecting Biodiversity. By Julio Godoy, IPS, 11/11/10. “An international agreement reached in the Japanese city of Nagoya constitutes a great step forward towards protecting biodiversity from decimation, but also represents an enormous legislative and administrative task, environment experts say. The Nagoya Protocol, signed in late October by the 193 member states of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, includes more than 40 measures aimed at fighting bio-piracy and preventing misappropriation of genetic resources. The agreement outlines a strategic plan for implementation of the measures to halt the loss of biodiversity within the next 10 years, and foresees benefits for developing countries from sustainable industrial and commercial use of biogenetic resources. But to fulfil these tasks, most developing countries must carry out an enormous amount of legislative and administrative work in identifying and cataloguing biogenetic resources to prove their origin and claim international property rights, the experts warned.”

The Siberian Energy Rush. By Joshua Hammer, Fast Company, 11/1/10 issue, in-depth. “Global warming is opening up the Arctic Circle, and Russia would like to control its bounty of natural resources. That is drastically altering life for the Nenets, a tribe of reindeer herders, who complain bitterly about being forced to divert their herds from routes they've upsed for more than a thousand years.”

Are Pakistan Relief Efforts a Training Exercise for Climate Change Disasters? By Nathanial Gronewold, ClimateWire, 10/14/10. “Some 12 weeks since the onset of devastating flash floods left a half-million Pakistanis stranded, U.S. forces are still actively assisting the Pakistani military with delivering aid to populations in need… U.S. embassy officials say they expect troops to be here doing this work until at least November. The troops involved say they have all trained heavily in disaster relief work since enlisting, but many also admit that they never expected to actually be putting the training to work, expecting instead to be engaged in combat… In February, the U.S. Department of Defense released a Quadrennial Defense Review Report [PDF, 128 pp] that… calls climate change an ‘accelerant of instability’ that could increase the frequency and severity of natural disasters, taxing civilian disaster relief capabilities and requiring more regular military support. DOD has been among the first on scene responding to a string of mass-casualty disasters caused by earthquakes, including the devastating quake in northern Pakistan in 2005… Riding with and interviewing the men and women engaged in efforts here shows that, for most enlisted personnel, relief work in foreign lands is among the most welcome and rewarding parts of their service. It's also almost as exhausting and stressful as combat, and not without its own levels of danger and deadly threats, especially in northern Pakistan.”

Severe Drought Afflicts Brazilian Amazon. BBC, 10/22/10. “The Brazilian government has announced $13.5 million in emergency aid for Amazon regions hit by the worst drought in decades… The River Amazon at Manaus has fallen to its lowest level since 1963. Scientists say the region is facing its worst drought since that year. In Amazonas state 27 municipalities have declared a state of emergency because of the dry spell. Several tributaries of the Amazon have almost completely dried up, paralyzing river transport and the fishing industry. The rainy season in the region usually begins in November. The Peruvian Amazon, 2,000km (1,240 miles) upstream has also been affected… Environmental groups say severe drought are likely to become more frequent in the Amazon as a result of global warming, putting further strain on the rainforest.”

‘Right to Food,’ Sustainable Farming Marked on World Food Day. AFP, 10/16/10. “The UN top official on the right to food called for wholesale changes in farming methods to safeguard the environment and ensure everyone has enough to eat. Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said in a statement to mark World Food Day [October 16] that there is currently ‘little to rejoice about’, and ‘worse may still be ahead’. ‘Current agricultural developments are... threatening the ability for our children's children to feed themselves,’ he said…

“De Schutter said the emphasis on chemical fertilizers and a greater mechanization of production was ‘far distant from the professed commitment to fight climate change and to support small-scale, family agriculture.’ In addition, ‘giving priority to approaches that increase reliance on fossil fuels is agriculture committing suicide’, he said. ‘Agriculture is already directly responsible for 14% of man-made greenhouse gas emissions -- and up to one third if we include the carbon dioxide produced by deforestation for the expansion of cultivation or pastures.’ As a result of climate change, the yields in certain regions of sub-Saharan Africa are expected to fall by 50% by 2020 in comparison to 2000 levels. And growing frequency and intensity of floods and droughts contribute to volatility in agricultural markets.’... ‘Low-technology, sustainable techniques may be better suited to the needs of the cash-strapped farmers working in the most difficult environments,’ De Schutter said. ‘They represent a huge, still largely untapped potential to meet the needs and to increase the incomes of the poorest farmers.’”

IPCC Meets in South Korea, Agrees to Reforms. By Eli Kinticsch, Science, 10/15/10. “The annual meeting of the nations that make up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ended yesterday in Busan, South Korea, and a few details have trickled out. Going into the meeting, documents [PDF, 72 pp] show [PDF, 33 pp], nations wanted IPCC to reform itself along the lines of the recommendations in a report by the InterAcademy Council (IAC). That group, which represents several national science academies, called for a wide range of reforms, including an executive council to handle day-to-day business, rules on how to correct errors, and better procedures for dealing with scientific uncertainties.

“The IPCC agreed to several recommendations from the council, including tighter policies to reflect scientific uncertainty in its reports and to ferret out and fix any errors in them, panel officials said. In particular, it will be more careful about ensuring that it lays out the evidence for any assertion it makes about the likelihood of any effect of climate change, said Chris Field, a U.S. scientist and a leader of the panel's 2014 report... IPCC has appointed a panel to consider the question of term limits for its officers. IAC had suggested that no official ought to serve more than one term, corresponding to the interval of 6 or 7 years between reports. Some said that meant Rajendra Pachauri, now in his second term after being appointed in 2002, should step down as IPCC chair. The Busan meeting also allowed scientists serving on IPCC's three so-called Working Groups to lay out what sort of science they plan to focus on in the next ‘Assessment Report,’ to appear in 2013."