Current Savers Blog

    In a country of more than one billion people, protecting critically endangered species isn’t always a top priority when it comes to making a living and growing enough food.

    In the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, though, a court has halted construction of a major water canal to save one of the world’s rarest birds.

    Only about 50 Jerdon’s coursers (Rhinoptilus bitorquatus) are believed to be left in the wild and are found in scrub-jungle habitat in the Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary, which the Andhra Pradesh government created to protect the remaining birds.

     The Teluga Ganga Canal, being built to bring water to Chennai, India’s fourth-largest city, will now be diverted around the sanctuary, rather than running straight through as originally planned. The Supreme Court halted construction because of the threat to the birds and local authorities will compensate local villagers for the loss of extra land.

   Dr Panchapakesan Jeganathan, a scientist at the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), said: “This bird is more threatened than the tiger and very few people have ever seen it.

   “People thought the Jerdon’s courser was a block to progress but are now benefiting from the canal’s realignment because their compensation is generous and the only land they are losing is difficult to farm,” he said.

    Officials have agreed in principle to buy 3,000 acres of scrub forest between the new canal route and the sanctuary. The state’s forest department will manage that land to protect and enlarge the bird’s habitat.

      The BNHS and Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which both pressed the Supreme Court to order a halt to the canal, have also been involved in survey work to determine the bird’s true range. 

    “It is crucial we find other sites hosting Jerdon’s coursers and encourage both politicians and the people living nearby to support that work,” said Ian Barber, RSPB’s Asia officer.

    With many species being driven towards extinction by human activities, perhaps the world needs to see more examples such as this Indian bird?

   (Picture credit: Simon Wootton, RSPB)

   A Kennedy may be showing up Al Gore as a small time dreamer. 
   Robert Kennedy, Jr. says the Goracle’s challenge to the United States to generate its electricity entirely from renewable sources within 10 years is not fast enough.
   “Al Gore said the other day we can do this in 10 years, and a lot of people were skeptical about that. But we can do it in less than 10 years,” he told U.S. and Mexico border state governors at a meeting this week., arguing that it would be great for the economy, too.
   In solar energy resplendent border states of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas, setting up solar plants would prove cheaper than building more conventional sources of energy, he said.  “These are the Saudi Arabias of sun.”
   “We can build those plants anywhere, we can build them cheaper than nuke plants, cheaper than old coal plants, and cheaper than oil plants, and faster than any of them,” said Kennedy a member of the U.S. political dynasty and a senior attorney for the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council.
(Reporting by Syantani Chatterjee)

Is a global ”green revolution” unstoppable, even with an economic slowdown?

That’s what Danish Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard (left) predicts, saying that a huge shift to renewable energies, such as solar and wind power, from fossil fuels will survive flagging economic growth.

She has to puzzle over the outlook since she is set to be host of a U.N. meeting in late 2009 in Copenhagen at which the world is meant to agree a new climate deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

Many nations have been reluctant so far to spell out what they are willing to do to slow global warming. It’s a bit of the “you first”, “no, you first” trap.

“The green revolution is going to come anyway,” she told me for a story about how far a gloomier economic outlook may dampen action to fight climate change, and how far high oil prices will help.

Is she right? (Many Danes have bet on the revolution – Vestas is the world’s number one wind turbine maker).

In the 1970s the oil crisis spurred huge interest in renewable energies — U.S. President Jimmy Carter even had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. His successor, Ronald Reagan, took them down, and that ‘revolution’ ran out of steam as oil prices fell (below $10 a barrel in 1986).

Since then, of course, almost all climate scientists have concluded that fossil fuels cause global warming. So a shift to renewables is not just about current high oil prices ($111 a barrel), or worries about smog pollution.

Is the revolution coming?

Cranky kids, mosquito bites, burnt marshmallows and soggy sleeping bags - camping in the summer is an American family ritual right up there with baseball and apple pie.

But like other aspects of American life involving big vehicles it has also been hitting the brakes in the face of  sky-high gas prices.

Statistics released on Thursday by the  Texas Association of Campground Owners showed that the state’s “RVers” — owners of recreational vehicles such as big camper vans – are camping less often and not travelling as far afield.

The association said in a statement that an on-line survey found that ”47 percent of Texas RVers are camping less often and closer to home as a result of rising fuel costs.”

U.S. oil demand during the first half of 2008 fell by an average of 800,000 barrels per day compared with the same period a year ago, the biggest volume drop in 26 years, the Energy Information Administration said earlier this week.

One wonders if there is not a double-edged sword here.

On the one hand Americans driving less is obviously a plus for the environment as it means less green house gas emissions linked to climate change.

Many people will applaud a change in U.S. driving habits including fewer big RVs on the road going shorter distances.

On the other hand data elsewhere has shown declining numbers of visitors to U.S. national parks . There was a small rise in national park visits in 2007 but the overall trend this decade has been down.

If less people are out there camping and visiting national and state parks, will it mean less interest in the outdoors and wild spaces? And will that ultimately be good for conservation?

For some of our coverage on the broader issue of declining oil consumption in America you can click here .

Photo: REUTERS/Dept of Justice U.S. Marshalls handout, May 11,2008

For anyone with a ‘green heart’ there was plenty of good news on the front page of the China Daily this morning, an English-language newspaper read by a myriad of expatriates and, especially during the Olympics, tens of thousands of journalists from around the world.
 
“Tax on big cars raised to save fuel,” read the page one headline over a story about the Chinese government’s laudable decision to double the “consumption tax” on heavy cars with engines larger than 4 litres to 40 percent while slashing the tax on cars with engines smaller than 1 litre to 1 percent from 3 percent.
 
In Germany, where I live, the government has been talking about moves like that for about two years now with a tortured drawn-out debate. In China — poof! — it’s decided and done.
 
Another bit of good news at the bottom of page one caught my eye as well and made me wish more European countries had this kind of foresight: “Cut in public transport fare to stay” read the headline over a story about plans to permanently extend a steep cut in metro fares to 2 yuan (30 U.S. cents) from 3 yuan previously.

The fares on the city’s amazingly clean and efficient metro were “temporarily” lowered in October to cut pollution and promote mass transit — that simple act raised the percentage of commuters who use mass transit to 45 percent from 35 percent and took cars off the roads.  
 
In Germany and elsewhere, the public transportation fares go in only one direction — up. 

China obviously has a lot of greenhouse gas issues to resolve, but it’s nevertheless encouraging to see truly aggressive measures like those to punish the fat-cat cars and offer incentives to users of public transport.

Can other countries learn from China?

(Erik Kirschbaum, a Reuters correspondent based in Berlin, is on assignment in Beijing)
 
 

It’s true — elephants never forget. And that may mean the difference between life and death for herds coping with climate change.

That is one of the findings of a recent study by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society and the Zoological Society of London, which suggests that old females may have long memories of distant sources of food and water.

This wisdom or memory can give a herd or family group an edge if confronted with drought or other kind of scarcity.

“Understanding how elephants and other animal populations react to droughts will be a central component of wildlife management and conservation,” said Wildlife Conservation Society researcher Dr. Charles Foley, lead author of the study.

“Our findings seem to support the hypothesis that older females with knowledge of distant resources become crucial to the survival of herds during periods of extreme climatic events.”

The study, recently published in The Royal Society’s Biology Letters, compared the calf mortality rates of three groups of calves during a severe drought in 1993 in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park.

In a nut shell, it found that the two groups that left the park had much  lower mortality rates than the one that stayed.

 And the two groups that left the park also had matriarchs that were 45 and 38 years of age, while the one that stayed had one aged 33. 

The researchers also noted that the old matriarchs had survived hard and prolonged droughts in the area as youngsters while the one aged 33 was not old enough to remember that distant event from 1958-1961. 

The data is hardly conclusive but if the hypothesis is true it does highlight among other things the need to protect elephants of all ages and the importance of family structures to herd survival.

A link to the study can be found here.

(Photo Credit: REUTERS/Claudia Daut, August 7, 2008, Cuba)

The humpback and some other big whales are recovering from the threat of extinction.

But will the celebrations turn sour, for many people, if whaling nations use the news to justify sharpening their harpoons?

The International Union for Conservation of Nature put out a report today showing that the humpback was off the main endangered list, along with some other species including the southern right whale and the minke whale — it said that stocks were recovering, helped by a 1986 moratorium on all hunts. Many other types of whale, porpoise and dolphin were still in trouble.

But is the report bad news in disguise for whales?

Greenland, for instance, lobbied in vain June to add 10 humpbacks — a whale famed for its spectacular leaps (see the picture above) — to its annual quota of other species caught in an aboriginal hunt. Anti-whaling nations voted “No” at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission, arguing stocks were too small.

Can anti-whalers make that same argument next year?

And Japan this year dropped a plan to hunt 50 humpback whales after international criticism. Will that criticism still be fair if Japan targets humpbacks (perhaps even the famed white whale ”Migaloo” off Australia) next year?  

Whaling nations, mainly Japan, Norway and Iceland, argue they should be allowed to hunt whales when there are enough in the seas. Norway targets about 1,000 minke whales a year, and says there are at least 100,000 in the north-east Atlantic.

So should there be hunts or a ban?

DALLAS - Following a path blazed by other U.S. religious groups, a diverse coalition of Jewish organizations has outlined its concerns regarding the environment and called for action from Congress and the Administration.

Spearheaded by the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, it calls among other things for an aggressive 80 percent cut in carbon reductions by 2050.

It also calls for a cap on emissions, tax credits to encourage the purchase of new technologies and provisions for public transit.

The statement, called “Jewish Community Priorities for Climate and Energy Policy,” is rooted in Jewish teachings about obligations to the poor and creation care — an echo of calls for action on the environment by other faith traditions including the U.S. evangelical movement.

“Our tradition teaches that Adam and Eve were asked ‘to till and to tend’ the Garden of Eden. We believe humans remain a partner in Creation,”  the statement says.

  It also notes that “Jewish tradition is founded on the principles of justice … (and) Both climate change itself and policies taken to address it present a disproportionate burden on the poor.”

The coalition of Jewish groups which have signed up to the document is diverse and include B’nai B’rith International, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism among others.

It is all part of and parcel of the widening social agenda among faith-based groups in the United States and points to the broadening of the broad “green coalition.”

(Photo credit: REUTERS/Fred Prouser, June 19, 2008, USA)

 Talk about occupational hazards.

Five Wildlife Conservation Society scientists studying the effects of global warming on shorebirds in Arctic Alaska had to be airlifted away from their remote camp late last month because of the appearance of another species whose life is changing as warming helps erode shores and melt sea ice.
 
The researchers said a polar bear stuck on land forced them to evacuate their camp north of the remote Teshekpuk Lake on the Beaufort Sea –leaving food and tents behind. 
 
The carnivorous bears would normally be out on sea ice this time of year. But with recent warming the ice is miles from shore and polar bears, which were recently listed as “threatened” under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, are becoming increasingly trapped on land well away from their usual seal prey, said Dr. Steve Zack, who leads Arctic studies for WCS
 
“We had no idea how hungry they’d be and thus how ornery they’d be,” Zack, who made the decision for the researchers to evacuate even though they had been trained in bear safety, told me by his mobile phone from his current base near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
 
“Where there’s one polar bear there are usually more,” he said, adding that government scientists have seen 32 polar bears stuck on shore this year, up from only one or two in previous years.
 
In subsequent fly-overs over the abandoned camp, the team discovered that bears had eaten all of the food left by the researchers and destroyed two $500 tents.
 
“It was an ironic circumstance that studying climate change issues for our shorebirds put us in harm’s way with climate change effects on polar bears,” said Zack. 
 

Image by Mark Maftei, WCS 

DALLAS - When Americans vote for a new president on Nov. 4, many will also be asked to have their say on local issues and proposed state constitutional amendments.

Much of the attention has been focused on the attempts to ban gay marriage in California and Florida, which we have written about elsewhere.

Similar initiatives in 2004 were seen as crucial to President George W. Bush’s re-election victory as they energized the Republican Party’s conservative evangelical base.  Propositions are initiated locally people who collect enough signatures to have them put on the ballot. If passed by voters they carry the force of law.

Ballotwatch, which is part of the Initiative & Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California, released a preview Thursday of the initiatives that will coincide with this year’s presidential battle between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.

It said that as of early August, voters in 30 states are set to decide on 112 ballot propositions and the number is likely to grow as several states are still verifying signatures and some legislatures are considering additional measures. (In 2004 there were 162 propositions and 204 in the 2006 mid-term elections).

“The big story for ballot propositions this year is the surge of social issues. The tax and spending issues that normally dominate initiatives and referendums are taking a back seat to a diverse collection of social issues,” it says in its report.

These also include an anti-abortion rights measure in South Dakota and attempts to roll back affirmative action in Colorado, which will keep the issue of race on the boil.

Animal rights and welfare issues have also emerged in a big way this year.

In Oklahoma, State Question 742 will seek to establish a state constitutional right to hunt and fish — a “pre-emptive” strike against the animal rights crowd.

Given Obama’s famous comments about rural voters clinging to their guns, the measure is likely to benefit McCain, though Oklahoma is already pretty solidly Republican.

In Alaska, ballot measure 2 will ask voters to ban the aerial hunting of bears, wolves and wolverines — a measure sure to excite both sides of the issue. (And shock a lot of people who don’t realize that you can shoot wolves from planes?)

And in Massachusetts, voters will be asked to decriminalize marijuana.

The ballot measures offer a good look at the intersect of politics and culture in America — and just how polarized society is.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Top Reuters/Erin Siegel (Couple after marriage in June); Middle Reuters/Keith Bedford (Hunters in December); and Bottom Reuters/Ho New (Wolves in February)