As a point of departure, I would like to use this episode of AlJazeera’s Inside Story on “The politics of global food security”. In it, the host flouts these common misconceptions through her provoking comments, and the guests on the show respond with underlining many of the points that are by now well-known to many of those taking a more than superficial interest in global food issues.

Most telling is the introduction, in which population growth and climate change are drawn to the forefront of the debate.

While climate change is admittedly a challenge that will have to be addressed (and will most likely be addressed, as is later pointed out, by individual farmers in haphazard ways), the issue of population growth is one that is all-too-often invoked in the debate. This, beyond being problematic on factual grounds, obscures bigger underlying issues and serves the interests of the powerful in a number of ways.

Since the groundbreaking work of nobel prize winner Amartya Sen, it has been accepted that famine is not the result of a collapse in the availability of food per se, but in the ability of individuals and families to access it. He established that there is indeed enough food being produced, but it is a collapse in an individuals entitlement to it that death from undernourishment will occur. As Philip Thornton points out, there is enough food being produced in the world at the moment to feed about 2 billion more people. How does widespread fearmongering about food production and population growth persist despite this?

Food can be accessed in a number of different ways- through direct production, trade, sale of one’s labour, or as a gift, but most importantly, it is the state that has the ability to step in, either through a ‘safety net’ or through appeals to aid agencies.

Even though many scholars have engaged with and criticised Sen’s approach (1), his work is seminal in overturning the notion that famines are ‘acts of God’ (akin to environmental disasters), and rather casts them as human problems which can be addressed through political institutions.

However, Sen’s political economy analysis is somewhat limited in that famines may not be the result of a ‘malfunction’, but actually a function of harmful political and economic processes.

Mass threats to the subsistence of populations particularly in regard to food security can be more explicitly cast as acts of human violence in situations where conflict interrupts the functioning of agriculture, markets, social security systems and, most critically, food aid agencies. These are what Devereux calls ‘new famines’, which, in light of global food surpluses, high-tech early warning systems and an extensive humanitarian relief sector remain a paradox that cannot be addressed through technical ‘fixes’, but are fundamentally political.

In the 2011 Somali famine, 260,000 were recently reported to have died. Food insecurity had long been a threat in Somalia, along with chronic physical insecurity of food aid agencies attempting to operate there. When the famine was declared in 2011, Al-Shabaab’s obstruction of aid agencies from the most-affected areas was supplemented by threat of prosecution by the U.S. of anybody who directly or indirectly supported the Al-Quaeda-affiliated Islamist group, making it impossible for most agencies to operate save under the control of the extremely corrupt Transitional Federal Government. As such, the affected were caught in the geopolitical crossfire of the U.S. War on Terror and Al-Shabaab’s Holy War.

Additionally, the ability of individuals and groups to secure sufficient and adequate nutrition is affected by the economic policies a government adopts, often under the pressure of International Financial Institutions such as the World Bank and IMF.

This was the case in the Malawi crisis of 2002. While the 1991/92 famine was triggered by a higher production shock than that which would follow in 2002, more deaths occurred in the latter instance because of the increased vulnerability of a population that was arguably brought on by Structural Adjustment Programmes.

In 2001, amidst warnings by NGOs that child malnutrition was rapidly on the rise and a food security crisis impending, the National Food Reserve Agency, following IMF advice, sold off buffer stocks of maize that were intended to stabilise against fluctuations in price and availability. Previous advice by IFIs was followed in the removal of fertiliser and seed subsidies, which caused many to turn to casual labour rather than cultivate their own land and contributed to the food production shock in 2002.

This illustrates the direct effects that economic policy can have in triggering widespread food insecurity.

This is also why Chandra Bhushan (in the video abovea) suggests that it is important to look at the politics that reinforce tendencies towards monocultures (as an ‘economically viable’ form of agriculture), as this inherently poses a threat to biodiversity, which is necessary for food security through the maintenance of landraces that are the potential key to adapting to climate change. Rather, the key to ‘improved’ crops is discursively placed in the hands of elite scientists. The process of the development of more resilient and productive plant varieties is thus commodified, with the market rendered as the source through which improved varieties can be ‘delivered’ (or rather, made available for purchase to those with sufficient purchasing power).

It must be underlined that markets are not neutral, they aren’t just ‘functioning’ or ‘malfunctioning’ at in a particular time/place, but are currently rigged in the favour of capital. The idea that markets, if allowed to operate freely, function by an ‘invisible hand’ that regulates supply and demand is, as Karl Polanyi pointed out decades ago, inherently utopian, especially in the case of agriculture, which is heavily reliant on the ‘fictitious commodities’ of land and labour, which cannot be treated as alienable commodities because of their embeddedness in society.

This is especially salient in food, considering the high levels of market concentration among a few key transnationals all along the commodity chain, from agricultural inputs to processing and retailing.

Hence, the violence inherent to the causation of famine lies not only in the civil/regional conflicts that may trigger particular instances of food insecurity, but also in the wider economic status quo that perpetuates an unsustainable distribution of wealth globally.

Unfortunately, these fundamentally political issues of causality and accountability are lost in debates over the technicalities of famine response. This casts those affected by famines as helpless victims, at the mercy of the goodwill of Western donors (not to mention the weather), and ignores the underlying asymmetries of power that perpetuate structural inequality on the global level.

Olivier DeSchutter, UN Rapporteur on the Right to Food, summarises this aptly in his catchy slogan, “the right to food is not the right to be fed; it is the right to feed oneself in dignity”. This, however, requires a fundamental overhaul not only of food policy, but of the wider economic and political ‘system’ at large in order to empower those who suffer economically, rather than legitimate elite rule through charity.

As I suggested above, discourses of climate change and population growth obscure more than they reveal about the causes of global under- or malnutrition. They detract attention away from the political problems of distribution that lie at the base.

As such, while it is undeniably the world’s poor that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, phrasing the problem in these terms underlines a paternalistic attitude: ‘they’ should stop reproducing so much, and we need ‘experts’ to come up with technical solutions to the consequences.

In conclusion, ‘new famines’ are acts of comission or omission, and should be regarded as crimes against humanity in an environment where (hypothetically) the tools are in place to prevent it. But despite the suggestion that famines are atrocities committed by people (not nature), it is still extremely difficult to pinpoint who exactly is responsible and should be held to account, especially considering the extent and nature of structural economic violence. Food security through poverty alleviation, then, needs an analysis of why poverty exists in the first place.

Footnotes:

1. Among those who have criticised Sen’s approach are Rangasami (1985), who argues that famines are a process not necessarily culminating in death, that the state often responds ineffectively, and (cf. Keen, 1994) that famines produce beneficiaries as well as victims. Stephen Devereux (2001) criticizes the methodological individualism and economism of Sen’s approach, which obscures sociopolitical determinants of famine. Jenny Edkins’ (2000) criticism of Sen rests on the notion that in casting famine as an economic ‘failure’ with technical solutions, famine is effectively dehumanised and rendered as an abnormality rather than as a normal feature of the current epistème.

Sources/Links:

A great article on DeSchutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food: http://www.tansey.org.uk/howtofarm/OlivierdeSchutter.html

The Guardian, on why IMF policies ‘led to Malawi famine::

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2002/oct/29/3

George Monbiot on elitism in environmental discourse:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2013/apr/12/escalating-consumption?CMP=twt_gu&buffer_share=9fa9c&utm_source=buffer

Sen, Amartya. 1981. Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Devereux, Stephen. 2001. “Sen’s Entitlement Approach: Critiques and Counter-critiques.” Oxford Development Studies 29:245-263.

Devereux, Stephen, 2006? ‘Introduction: From ‘old famines’ to ‘new famines’,’ the New Famines. 2-26.

De Waal, Alex. 2000. Who Fights? Who Cares? War and Humanitarian Action in Africa, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.

Edkins, Jenny. 2002, “Mass Starvations and the Limits of Famine Theorising,” in The ‘New Famines,’ IDS Bulletin, Vol. 33, No. 4, p. 12-18.

Edkins, Jenny. 2000. Whose Hunger? Concepts of Famine, Practices of Aid, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Menkhaus, Ken. 2012. ‘No Access: Critical Bottlenecks in the 2011 Somali Famine,’ Global Food Security

Building on this engagement, CIRIA hosted a seminar at the Biodiversity Pavilion at Ecobuild entitled “Green infrastructure, biodiversity and communities” with fantastically engaging presentations from Dusty Gedge of Livingroofs.org, David Beaumont of Victoria Business Improvement District (BID), John Little of Grass Roof Company, and case studies from the Neighbourhoods Green team. CIRIA then hosted a well-attended launch of the new guidance on Water Sensitive Urban Design (C723) at the Green Infrastructure Partnership zone: 

Ben Kidd and Louise Clarke meeting Lord de Mauley, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Defra at the Green Infrastructure Partnership zone at Ecobuild 2013 (Photo courtesy of Joel Knight (and thanks also to Landscape Institute)

In response to feedback received, CIRIA are now taking forward a new proposal for a knowledge platform entitled Green Infrastructure for the Built Environment (GI4BE). The CIRIA Biodiversity Interest Group, is also generating waves in the industry and will be hosting a series of events throughout 2013, further details can be found at www.ciria.org/networkevents 

The new sign at Bealtaine Cottage, alongside a more important one…”No Fracking!”

Time to advertise what it is we stand for!

The power of advertising is immense.

Corporations and governments allocate massive amounts of money each year to get their messages of suppression and control across to the public.

However, we have the access to advertising ourselves, if we decide to use our windows, cars, front doors, entrances to propagate our messages…what a load of free advertising space!

On Saturday 25th May, there is a worldwide March Against Monsanto, taking place in all major cities.

If Monsanto is allowed to pimp it’s wares, as it does so successfully to central governments, then pictures such as this, the bee on Lunaria in the permaculture gardens of Bealtaine Cottage, will be rare indeed!

Here in Ireland, marches are taking place in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Clare…with more being added.

WE NEED EVERYONES HELP
WE ARE ASKING ALL ANTI GMO, ANTI MONSANTO, PRO NATURE, PRO HEALTH, PRO ENVIRONMENT, ANTI CHEMICAL POLLUTION, PRO ORGANIC, FACEBOOK PAGES WEBSITES, BLOGS, NEWS CHANNELS, AND NEWSPAPERS TO GET BEHIND THIS MOVEMENT. WE HAVE JUST A FEW WEEKS LEFT. LETS ALL WORK TOGETHER TO MAKE THIS A HISTORY MAKING EVENT. THIS IS OUR MARCH, ALL OF US, THE WORLD UNITED AGAINST SELFISH GREED THAT WOULD DESTROY OUR HEALTH AND THE PLANET IN ITS PATH.
MAY 25th EVERYWHERE
THIS IS EVENT IS FOR ALL OF US
THIS IS OUR EVENT
OUR VOICES HEARD
EDUCATE ALL

All Events in this Link
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0Ah7h2ApbBPnpdGhOMElaSVg1QUQtRlJQWm1FaUZISlE&toomany=true 

Butterflies are making a welcome appearance here in the permaculture gardens, with this lovely little Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) making an appearance this morning.

It settled for a little sunbathing on the Ribes hedge near the Fairy Wood.

The apple trees continue to make a big show of blossom as it all opens to attract the busy bees.

It’s sunny and bright this morning, but appears to be clouding over as the day progresses.

The weather may have been somewhat dreich and drab; but it was absolutely wonderful to see so many smiling faces joining members of Bothwell Community Garden, Brighter Bothwell and ranger Alasdair Taylor at our seed-bombing day at the new Forestry Commission site at Bothwell Park.

The team, expertly led by Alasdair, planted a variety of perennial plants which, in a few years, will blanket the ground around the paths; but the greatest fun of all was the seed-bombing which, as you can see, was thoroughly enjoyed by people of all ages!

A favourite tool of ‘guerilla gardeners’, the seed-bombs contained a mixture of native wildflower and grass seeds (it is imperative that we only sow seeds that are native to this area), and were thrown into areas more difficult to reach. The clay in the bombs will break down, and the seeds will germinate, then nature takes over and, over the coming years, the flowers and grasses will spread throughout the site, attracting bees, butterflies and other native fauna.

Making (and then throwing!) seed-bombs is fantastic (if messy!) fun for children of all ages, as the schoolchildren from Bothwell Primary who came along to help us make 700 (yes, 700!) of them will testify. If you could like to have a go at making some yourselves, and introducing some wildflower seeds to your local area, you can find a simple to follow guide suitable for children as young as three here.

Alasdair will be joining us again at the garden on June 8th for a short talk on Gardening for Scottish Wildlife as part of Bothwell Community Garden and Brighter Bothwell’s ‘Wild in the Woods, Wild in the Garden’ project, supported by the Forestry Commission’s Community Seedcorn Fund; so if you want to find out how to turn a patch of your garden – or even a pot – into a haven for local wildlife, do come along and join us. Further details to follow.

To achieve the best outcome for marine biodiversity, international standards recommend that representative samples of each habitat type found in the marine park be protected in green zones.  Source: QLD Govt.

• the average biomass of snapper, spangled emperor, redthroat emperor, blackspot tuskfish, Maori rock cod and goldspot wrasse all increased in the new green zones, in the offshore areas of the MBMP
• the numbers of venus tuskfish and blackspot tuskfish increased in the new green zones.  Click here to read the full report.

A clear majority of fishers questioned (64.7 %) felt the re-zoning would be ‘positive for the biology’ of Moreton Bay.

A separate study by Griffith University researchers found that marine reserves with well connected reefs and mangroves also supported the greatest abundance of herbivorous fish. Their work suggests that connectivity may be important for maintaining ecological processes in reserves. Herbivorous fish play a key role underpinning the resilience of coral reefs. They graze on fleshy algae, which compete with coral for living space, and their efforts can tip this competition in favour of coral. Given the greater abundance of herbivores, there may also be an expectation of increased grazing and a greater resilience of protected reefs near mangroves. With the major flooding of the Brisbane River into Moreton Bay over the 2010–2011 summer, this finding may have important consequences for the persistence and recovery of local coral reefs. Source: QLD Govt.

Given the benefits Green Zones have already delivered in such a short time you have to wonder why the Queensland Government is considering opening them up to fishing?

• 2012    April 30
• 2011    April 12
• 2010    March 17
• 2009    May 8

I walked today (5/13) and still no luck.  It troubles me because 10 years ago my relationship with the park began as an enchantment with chipmunks.

In those early days, there was a man who came late in the afternoon, and walked at a leisurely pace with a bag on his shoulder and tossing its contents onto the ground as he neared a stand of  rhododendrons. When I drew close enough to recognize the peanuts, something else made me gasp, – mind boggling numbers of chipmunks.

They swarmed from beneath the shrubbery, fearlessly, eagerly toward the man with the peanuts, – as if he were the Pied Piper of Hamlin. I was one of many who witnessed this delight. People instinctively hung back and kept quiet, so as not to frighten the animals and spoil the moment.

After a time, the peanut man stopped coming and I never again saw the spectacle, but every year, from spring through fall, I recorded an average of 4-5 chipmunks in the park every day.

I am afraid the Springfield Parks Department’s thoughtless and repeated onslaughts and wanton destruction of living trees and fallen ones under which chipmunks live. They intruded as recently as March - when pregnant females and this year’s young may have been killed by heavy machinery.

Up until 2013, chipmunks could be seen scampering over a pile of logs that protected their burrows. This is what’s left.

The plan is being promoted to safeguard the future of South Canterbury’s Mackenzie Basin, but it is dependent on Government funding and new legislation.

It has been produced by a wide range of organisations connected to the area, including community groups, farmers, environment experts, and irrigation groups.

Under the plan, a Mackenzie Country Trust would be established to help landowners and organisations work together to boost the region’s agriculture, tourism and biodiversity.

The ministers said:

“This report is the result of a collaborative process by more than 30 groups and individuals working together to develop options for the future of the basin,” the Ministers say.

“The focus has been on investigating ways the biodiversity and special character of the land can be enhanced, while ensuring tourism and farming continue to develop.”

This collaborative process was initiated in preference over protracted court proceedings for development proposals in the district.

The ministerial statement said:

“It is far more constructive to have diverse interest groups working together on a shared vision for an area than having years of protest, court proceedings and community tensions.

“The report makes a number of recommendations for both central and local government. The Ministry for the Environment and the Department of Conservation will now take time to consider the report and its recommendations.

“We would like to thank all those involved in the development of these proposals. Gaining consensus across such a diverse group of people and interests took considerable effort from everyone.”

Other reactions can be found here and here.

In late April, world renowned Indian ‘seed activist’ Vandana Shiva travelled to the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca to join a gathering of Mexican farmers, indigenous leaders and environmentalists, fighting to protect Mexico’s native corn crops against the imposition of genetically modified alternatives.

Shrine dedicated to corn at the event in Oaxaca, Mexico

The group gathered for the ‘Pre-audiencia Nacional: Contaminación Transgénica del Maíz Nativo‘ in the shadows of the Sierra Juárez mountain range, in response to the Mexican government’s proposal to allow the seeding of twelve million hectares of genetically modified corn. The proposal followed an initial pilot project in which Monsanto was allowed to plant GMO corn in test sites in 2009. While many local communities remain adamantly opposed to the move, extensive lobbying by Monsanto, with support from the world’s richest man, Mexican Carlos Slim, and considerable efforts by the Gates Foundation, have raised real fears that local concerns may be ignored.

While Slim, the Gates Foundation and Monsanto argue that GMO technology will feed the world’s poor, many locals deem the imposition of transgenic crops a serious threat to the native varieties of corn that have been at the core of rural Mexican cultures for millennia.

“On every ground transgenics are wrong,” Vandana Shiva told the Oaxaca audience of several hundred, “but they are hugely wrong in the centre of diversity of maize here in Mexico.”

Vandana Shiva at the anti-GM corn event in Oaxaca, Mexico

The historic birthplace of corn, and home to several thousand varieties of the crop, corn is more than just a staple in the Mexican diet. Renowned Mexican poet Octavio Paz once said, “The invention of corn by Mexicans is comparable only to the invention of fire by man.”

Beyond its prevalence in local cooking, corn is a symbol at the heart of countless indigenous traditions and holds great spiritual significance. An indigenous Nahuatl man from the state of Hidalgo explained that his community hosts a festival to celebrate corn every year in which “we dance with the corn and we celebrate the Earth Mother.”

Echoing this sentiment, a woman from an organisation representing indigenous communities in the south-east of Mexico and Guatemala said, “When we care for and cultivate our cornfields, God is with us. He gives us the food that we need. He works with us and he rests with us. That is why we ask for permission from God in every moment of the life cycle of corn … The corn that God gives us, lives with us, sings and dances with us, and in certain moments it also cries with us.”

Native varieties of Mexican corn

A nationwide campaign was born in Mexico in 2007 called ‘Sin Maíz, no hay país’ (’Without corn, there is no country’). “Corn is the life of the towns,” said event organiser Neftalí Reyes Mendez, of the Oaxacan Collective in Defence of Territories in an interview following the event. “Corn is the base of life, the base of resistance for the peoples of Oaxaca.”

Aware of the crop’s supreme importance in Mexico, Vandana Shiva travelled more than 30 hours to share her experiences of fighting GM-giant Monsanto in India. “We started the seed saving movement in India,” she explained, “with the commitment to not obey laws that make it illegal for us to have our own seeds, because [seed] saving for biodiversity, continuing our heritage, receiving what we have received from nature and our ancestors, looking after it with love and care to pass it on to future generations is not a crime. It is our sacred duty.”

Shiva went on to explain the catastrophic effects that the widespread planting of BT cotton in India has had, relating how within one season only Monsanto seed was available to cotton farmers. Subsequent crop failures and the rise of indebtedness, following an 8,000-fold increase in seed prices, have devastated the fabric of community life. Shiva poignantly told the gathered crowd, “150,000 people have been killed in the criminal violence of organised crime in Mexico. In India, 270,000 Indian peasants have committed suicide because of the criminal violence of the organised crime of Monsanto. … Don’t allow Monsanto to make Mexico a suicide economy.”

 With what critics have called ‘The Monsanto Protection Act’ having recently passed into law in the US, some Mexicans fear Peña Nieto’s government will follow suit and approve the widespread commercial planting of GM corn, making seed sharing illegal and making it far harder for farmers to maintain non-GMO-contaminated varieties of corn. Dr Alejandro Espinosa Calderón, a nationally-recognised expert on GMO corn in Mexico, echoed this fear, stating emphatically, “The Mexican government does not defend Mexicans, they defend Monsanto.”

Dr Alejandro Espinosa speaking at the anti-GM corn event in Oaxaca

While Monsanto have not yet proven the safety of their pilot sites in Mexico, GM advocates argue that scientific tests show no harmful health or environmental results. But Shiva has heard these arguments before. “All the tests they do for safety are not tests, because they work with surrogate proteins. They don’t work with the transgene,” Shiva explained. Her concern is backed up by a 2006 report by Friends of the Earth UK, on the allergenic qualities of GMO foods. The report argues “surrogate proteins may not reflect the toxicity or allergenicity of the plant-produced protein to which people are actually exposed. … The use of surrogate proteins is not acceptable – protein produced by the GM plant that will actually be eaten must be used in allergenicity assessments.”

Similarly, a 2009 report from the Indian Academy of Sciences recommends “carrying out acute toxicity studies with native (not “surrogate”) protein.”

“When it comes to safety,” Shiva explains incredulously, “they say this is natural. It is substantially equivalent to your corn and therefore we don’t have to really test because it is equal. … They say it is just like nature, but when it comes to owning the seed they say, ‘We are the creators. We made it, we are the inventers. We own it, we have the patent. It is our intellectual property.’ So the same thing is new, when it comes to owning, and it is natural when it comes to shedding responsibility for the environmental, health and socio-economic impacts. I call this ontological schizophrenia.”

Shiva concluded by reiterating the connection between Indian and Mexican seed activists, despite their geographical separation – “We are doing what you are doing and we are part of one movement that is planetary, while being deeply local. We have started a global citizen’s movement for seed freedom, to say no to transgenics, no to patents, no to Monsanto’s empire to destroy the planet, and our lives and our food systems.”

Ceremonial march at the beginning of the second day of the event

Vandana Shiva in Oaxaca, Mexico

Participants at the event

Corn, beans and mescal – staples of the Oaxacan diet

Today we are talking about a fish called the Slender Mudskipper (Periophthalmus gracilis).

Fish out of Water

While not endangered, this fish rocks pretty hard. It has the ability to breath out of the water through its skin. The skin needs to be wet for this to work and a humid environment serves as a great membrane for the mudskipper to breath.

It is another example of the amazing wildlife Indonesia has to offer.

That is all. See you soon!

This is an initiative of the World Bank that recognises the value of the planet’s natural resources. Natural Capital Accounting basically means incorporating a country’s natural wealth into its national accounts. In simple words, traditional economic indicators, like GDP, account for how much money a country is making without considering how its natural capital stocks have been affected or lost.

With this project, the World Bank wants to stress the important role played by natural capital assets on the socioeconomic development of nations. The project idea aims to encourage sustainability and avoid the depletion of these vital natural resources, like clean air and water, forests, minerals and other goods and services provided by the environment.

At the 2012 Rio+ 20, the latest United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, in Brazil, the World Bank started a discussion on a Natural Capital Accounting project implementation and its potential advantages to the planet and the next generations. By the end of the conference, 55 countries and 86 private companies committed to move forward to protect their natural wealth.

Despite the fact that this project appears to be beneficial to everyone, this idea does not seem to be unanimous. Those who speak out against it say that businesses would not profit as much as they do nowadays if environmental costs were fully integrated. However, what is the point of using up those natural assets now and not having them available later?

The most environment-impacting industries, such as the coal power generation and the cattle ranching and farming, cause substantial damage to nature and make use of exhaustible and generally non-renewable resources, which may become exhausted if not sustainably managed. As our well-being is directly affected by the ecosystems’, it suggests, therefore, it is time to take action.

The Great Barrier Reef case

This video, by the World Bank, explains how Australia is using Natural Capital Accounting to manage the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef system, particularly threatened by human activities and the consequences of climate change.

Let us know what you think about Natural Capital Accounting. Share it with us in the comment section below.

On the 28th January the Minister for National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing was questioned why his department was given a directive that all future information signage and brochures will not include wildlife and that the use of wildlife will be limited in preference to promoting recreation in National Parks.

We found this unusual given Queensland has such a poor record when it comes to protecting its biodiversity and that its public estate, that is National Parks, which are designed to protect this biodiversity are equally poor by Australian and world standards. We were naturally concerned.

Ecotourism Australia spokeswoman Kym Cheatham said tourists listed the top five Australian attractions as beaches, wildlife, the Great Barrier Reef, rainforests and national parks.

It would seem the Queensland Government fails to see the economic value wildlife brings to Queensland.

A smart state would be one promoting its best assets, and one of these is its wildlife.

While the minister denied this was the case as we expected we now understand his colleague Minister Cripps has advised NRM groups not to spend more than 5% on biodiversity.

Given NRM bodies were setup to do just that, protect biodiversity, we find the Queensland Government’s continuing anti environment stand deplorable.

Caring for our Country is one way the Australian Government funds environmental management of our natural resources by supporting communities, farmers and other land managers to protect Australia’s natural environment and sustainability.          Source: NRM

]]> http://rusustain.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/urban-biodiversity-week-starts-today-may-13-19/ Mon, 13 May 2013 14:12:24 +0000 rusust http://rusustain.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/urban-biodiversity-week-starts-today-may-13-19/ Appropriately enough as the summer semester begins here at RU, Illinois is celebrating Urban Biodiversity Week starting today, May 13th, and running through Sunday, May 19th. As noted on the Millenium Reserve page on the State of IL website:

Please join us in celebrating Urban Biodiversity Week, May 13th to May 19th! This event is part of the National Urban Biodiversity Week, a seven-city collaboration to bring urban dwellers into contact with local flora and fauna.

Urban Biodiversity Week will showcase events in the Millennium Reserve: Calumet Core area. It will celebrate urban biodiversity and conservation activities and will provide opportunities for local residents and visitors to participate in outdoor activities in the Calumet region.

Events taking place this week include:

• Hegewisch Marsh Tours
• Garlic Mustard Pull
• Bird Walk at Sand Ridge Nature Center
• Fay’s Point Tour
• North Creek Cycling Tour
• Frog and Tadpole Hike
• Green Thumb Thursdays
• Tour of the MWRD Deep Tunnel Project (Pre-registration Closed)
• Nature Block Party: Celebrating Urban Biodiversity
• Bi-state Bike Ride around Wolf Lake
• Tour of Powderhorn Prairie
• Migrant Shorebirds at MWRD Calumet Water Reclamation Plant (Pre-registration Closed)
• Canoeing on Powderhorn Lake (Space is limited - Please register here)
• Lakes, Rivers, Marshes, Migratory Birds, Open Spaces, and Dumps(ugh!) – A Hike of the Calumet

To find out more, check out this webpage.

The past week was tragic for anyone who keeps their head above the proverbial sand with regard to environmental issues. The CO2 concentration in the atmosphere trumped 400 ppm for the first time in several million years, shortly after which the West African Black Rhino gave up the struggle to stay off the extinction list.

It may be over-pedantic for me to specify which happened first, as all this really reveals is the order in which I became aware of the two events. In any case, two further examples of how the human race is systematically destroying biodiversity and the atmosphere which sustains our breath of life were reported in close succession.

My response, after allowing myself a very short desperation break, is to ask a direct and personal question to every “climate sceptic” who maintains that ‘the evidence is insufficient…’ or that ‘the climate varies in cycles of millions of years, anyway, and we haven’t been around that long…’ Atmospheric pollution and species extinction are both old hands in the Environmentalists vs. Everyone else debate, so my question is: What will it take?

How many species will die out; how many sea-level settlements will be submerged; how many millions of acres of crops and billions of people’s homes systematically destroyed by recurring “freak” weather events before our global society acknowledges the extent to which pillaging the planet is affecting our lives? And how much worse will it get before we manage a concerted effort to stop, to reverse the damage?

To each individual climate sceptic: What will make you brush the wool from your eyes? What if your livelihood is rendered obsolete because the weather simply doesn’t support the crop yields any more? How about your house being submerged by the sea? Although, in fairness, this probably won’t happen in your lifetime – so why worry? Your kids, after all, can choose to live further above the (current) sea level.

It’s obvious that I’m a convert in this debate, but I challenge someone to produce an alternative explanation for the increasing frequency of “freak” weather events which are now continuously ramping up their destructive effect in every part of the world. Wildfire and hellish temperatures in Australia, snow and ice in the Middle East, disastrous freezing in China, not to mention this last ‘endless winter’ in the UK. The keyword in the reporting of all of these “separate” incidents is ‘record’, or ‘never seen before’ if you prefer. How much can the uber-resilience of the human race endure before the planet’s reactions push our own species towards extinction?

Unsurprisingly, given the speed at which these topics have leaped up the educational agenda, the current generation of schoolchildren are far more switched onto the ideas of sustainability, renewable energy, and trying to save our planet, than any generation before them. Will this be enough?

To permeate this gloom, a ray of hope for me came in the form of the Eradicating Ecocide campaign. It’s a global movement petitioning for a legal – or rather illegal – status for Ecocide, defined as the ‘extensive damage to, destruction of or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been or will be severely diminished.’ If it succeeds in getting Ecocide declared a crime against human rights by the UN, this might just be the first official global acknowledgement that damaging the planet is an undesirable outcome – even if (God forbid) this tramples on the toes of the currently reigning but ever more reticent deity, Economic Growth. If Ecocide is a crime it could provide a handrail for policy makers worldwide who currently find their hands tied, on environmental issues, by big industry sponsors (who often may happen to control large interests in, say, oil or nuclear energy). Or the movement could just as easily fall to the dust, like the once-lush rainforests which could really with its umbrella of protection.

Which way our species and planet will go from here on is not certain. But the evidence is mounting. There is no doubt that the coming decade, twenty, fifty, hundred years will be a turning point in human history, comparable perhaps only to the industrial revolution which started all this fossil fuel business in the first place. Towards extinction ourselves, or towards planetary rehabilitation – the future is going to be what we make of it. And the decision is in all of our hands.

Item 1:

According to a well-publicized new study, unless immediate action is undertaken to mitigate climate change, we stand to lose up to approximately half of all animal and plant species by the year 2080. This is not future science – this is within the lifetimes of people who are living today. It’s important to note that the species in question are not only those currently considered endangered – this study is about all species, including ones we consider common and unthreatened today.

Figures A and B show the loss of animals and plants, respectively, by 2080, if nothing is done to reduce emissions. Black areas show a nearly 100% loss of species richness. Figures C and D show reduced losses with mitigation, if emissions peak in 2016 and are reduced by 5% each year thereafter.
CREDIT: R. Warren et al / Nature Climate Change
Via: LiveScience

From the LiveScience article:

“It’s not too late to do something to prevent the widespread loss of species, however. The study found that if emissions are slowed and ultimately begin being reduced by 2017, about 60 percent of the losses can be avoided, Warren said. If emissions peak in 2030 and are reduced after that, about 40 percent of the losses could be avoided.

A decline in plants and animals means a decline in the services these organisms provide, such as recycling of nutrients, purification of air and water, pollination, as well as draws for ecotourism and recreation, she added.”

Item 2:

The once common Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita), which ranged across Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East, has been endangered for some time now. It is one of the only non-wading kinds of ibis, preferring steppes and fields over wetlands. There were four remaining birds left in Syria – that number is now down to one sole individual. ‘Zenobia’, the last Syrian female to return from the annual migration to Ethiopia, was spotted at the Palmyra breeding site this year.

Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita)
Image via WildlifeExtra.com

Reasons for the decline are not clear, and researchers have attempted to monitor the birds in spite of the ongoing conflict in Syria.

The ibis was considered to be one of the first birds released by Noah off the Ark as a symbol of fertility, and in ancient Egypt the bird symbolized excellence, glory, honour, and virtue, as well as the signifier of the soul. This is what it looks like when an animal, common into the 20th century (although extinct in Europe for some time) finally reaches the end of the line. It will likely be up to zoo breeding programs to keep this species extant on the planet.

Item 3:

A strange hunting free-for-all seems to have occurred in Australia’s state of Victoria over the past weekend. An estimated 50-150 duck ‘hunters’ entered a private wetland area and apparently shot anything with wings that moved – including hundreds of endangered birds. Most of the birds, legal and illegal alike, were left behind. I admit that I have nothing against legitimate and legal hunting – it’s what humans have been doing for a very long time. But playing video game shooting with live animals as targets and leaving the dead and dying behind is not hunting, it is a strange kind of violent self-indulgence.

Bird bodies recovered from a hunting spree in Victoria
Via: The Age

After long consultations with a number of hunting groups, Victoria recently reassigned the administration and compliance of duck hunting season from Department of Sustainability and Environment to the newly created, pro-hunt Game Victoria. In the case of this hunt, Game Victoria was monitoring a different area entirely for anti-hunt protesters, rather than following up on a tip that large numbers of reckless shooters were likely to show up at the Box Flat wetland site.

It matters who we allow to run the administration of wildlife areas. And if those authorities are working at cross-purposes with conservation authorities, a single day can wipe out years of conservation efforts, not to mention financial investment in wildlife protection.

Item 4:

The UK government under David Cameron has appointed a well-known climate change skeptic and former oil company executive, Peter Lilley, to advise the Prime Minister on key foreign policy issues. According to The Guardian, “he will be present at meetings of the prime minister’s new policy board at which such issues are discussed. The government is also involved in crucial United Nations international negotiations aimed at forging a new global agreement on cutting emissions, and equally vital discussions on the future of EU energy policy, to be decided in the next year.”

Mr. Lilley doesn’t disagree with the basic science behind the concept of global warming, rather he is skeptical of the actual impact of global warming itself and the necessity for immediate mitigation action. He has numerous supporters, both in and outside of the government.

When the leadership of an influential and industrial nation like the United Kingdom chooses a climate change skeptic as a key advisor on international issues, it is important news that bears watching.

Now ending my Blue Monday.

Thanks for bearing with me.

Image: borealnz via flickr

More:

Nature Climate Change study – Quantifying the benefit of early climate change mitigation in avoiding biodiversity loss by R. Warren, J. VanDerWal, J. Price, J. A. Welbergen, I. Atkinson, J. Ramirez-Villegas, T. J. Osborn, A. Jarvis, L. P. Shoo, S. E. Williams & J. Lowe

LiveScience article – On the Brink: Climate Change Endangers Common Species by Douglas Main

The Age article – Hunter warned of bird massacre by Melissa Fyfe

Conservation group to save the Northern Bald Ibis in Morocco

The Guardian article – Climate change sceptic to advise David Cameron on foreign policy by Fiona Harvey

Thanks to Rob Cairns (Twitter: @robbiepoet) for the duck-hunting story.

The Irish National Biodiversity Data Centre is one of the best resources you can get, if you want to do some wildlife photography.

You can use the on-line map to find the locations of any wildlife you are looking for.

This is the link for Bees and it contains plenty of valuable information, you can also log your own personal findings by setting up an account and adding your own data.

Orchid Skull

Time to ink up this design….

Outline – done! , rough work up of line-work – done! , outline onto leather – done!

This one, is to go with ‘Biodiversity’ series I have been working on…

Mixing up dissected & stylised florals (in this case an Orchid/Iris inspired shapes and poppies) with geometric lines and geometric skulls .. oh, and a few insects! Which i originally inked onto my bugs piece (seen below)

I wanted to get some faceted shapes and jewell like quality into the piece…. Need to work on the skull lifework, as not entirely happy with the sketch up but like the overall shape of the 2 symmetrical skulls . We will see….. where it takes me!

Bugs Biodiversity

Jadav “Molai” Payeng in ‘Molai woods’, the forest he planted and continues to maintain.

“More than 30 years ago, a teenager named Jadav “Molai” Payeng began planting seeds along a barren sandbar near his birthplace in India’s Assam region…

It was 1979 and floods had washed a great number of snakes onto the sandbar. When Payeng — then only 16 — found them, they had all died. ”The snakes died in the heat, without any tree cover. I sat down and wept over their lifeless forms”… ”It was carnage. I alerted the forest department and asked them if they could grow trees there. They said nothing would grow there. Instead, they asked me to try growing bamboo. It was painful, but I did it. There was nobody to help me”…

Now that once-barren sandbar is a sprawling 1,360 acre forest, home to several thousands of varieties of trees and an astounding diversity of wildlife — including birds, deer, apes, rhino, elephants and even tigers.

The forest, aptly called the “Molai woods” after its creator’s nickname, was single-handedly planted and cultivated by one man — Payeng, who is now 47…

Payeng has dedicated his life to the upkeep and growth of the forest… Today, Payeng still lives in the forest. He shares a small hut with his wife and three children…

According to the Assistant Conservator of Forests, Gunin Saikia, it is perhaps the world’s biggest forest in the middle of a river.

…[O]fficials in the region only learned of Payeng’s forest in 2008. ”[Locals] wanted to cut down the forest, but Payeng dared them to kill him instead”…”

For full, original text visit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/03/indian-man-jadav-molai-pa_n_1399930.html

Image found at: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/news/2012/08/20/the-man-who-planted-a-forest

Even common backyard plants and animals will be affected by global warming. Bob Berwyn photo.

New study projects percent of all plant species will lose half their climatic range

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Plenty of relatively rare plants and animals have already been flagged because of threats from global warming, but even common backyard plants and animals are likely to decline this century as their climatic ranges shift.

Plants — being sessile— reptiles and particularly amphibians are expected to be at highest risk. Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, Amazonia and Australia would lose the most species of plants and animals. And a major loss of plant species is projected for North Africa, Central Asia and South-eastern Europe, according to new research from the University of East Anglia published May 12 in the journal Nature Climate Change.

 The study looked at 50,000 globally widespread and common species and found that more than one half of the plants and one third of the animals will lose more than half of their climatic range by 2080 if nothing is done to reduce the amount of global warming and slow it down.

But acting quickly to mitigate climate change could reduce losses by 60 per cent and buy an additional 40 years for species to adapt. This is because this mitigation would slow and then stop global temperatures from rising by more than two degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial times (1765). Without this mitigation, global temperatures could rise by 4 degrees Celsius by 2100.

The study was led by Dr Rachel Warren from theTyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at UEA. Collaborators include Dr Jeremy VanDerWal at James Cook University in Australia and Dr Jeff Price, from UEA’s school of Environmental Sciences and the Tyndall Centre. The research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.

“While there has been much research on the effect of climate change on rare and endangered species, little has been known about how an increase in global temperature will affect more common species,” said study leader Dr. Rachel Warren, a scientist with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

“This broader issue of potential range loss in widespread species is a serious concern as even small declines in these species can significantly disrupt ecosystems,” Warren said. “Our research predicts that climate change will greatly reduce the diversity of even very common species found in most parts of the world. This loss of global-scale biodiversity would significantly impoverish the biosphere and the ecosystem services it provides,” she added.

The estimates of biodiversity losses may be conservative because the study looked only at the direct effect of rising temperatures without considering ancillary impacts like as extreme weather events, pests, and diseases. Animals in particular may decline more as our predictions will be compounded by a loss of food from plants, Warren explained.

“There will also be a knock-on effect for humans because these species are important for things like water and air purification, flood control, nutrient cycling, and eco-tourism,” she said.

Swift action to cut greenhouse gas emissions could slow the losses, giving some species time to adapt, as temperatures would rise more slowly. Up to 60 percent of the expected impacts could be mitigated by cutting emissions.

“Prompt and stringent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally would reduce these biodiversity losses by 60 per cent if global emissions peak in 2016, or by 40 per cent if emissions peak in 2030, showing that early action is very beneficial. This will both reduce the amount of climate change and also slow climate change down, making it easier for species and humans to adapt.”

Information on the current distributions of the species used in this research came from the datasets shared online by hundreds of volunteers, scientists and natural history collections through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

“Without free and open access to massive amounts of data such as those made available online through GBIF, no individual researcher is able to contact every country, every museum, every scientist holding the data and pull it all together,” said co-author Dr Jeff Price, also from UEA’s school of Environmental Studies.

This image from the NASA Earth Observatory program shows where Hurricane Isabel carved a new channel across Hatteras Island in Sept. 2003.

Measure may get OK from anti-environmental House committee, but is unlikely to pass the Senate

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Fans of motorized beach access in North Carolina are hoping that Congress will overturn a public National Park Service planning process with a bill that would re-open parts of Cape Hatteras National Seashore to dune buggies and other vehicles.

As written, the bill would void a court-approved agreement that protects nesting and baby sea turtles and birds, as well as pedestrians at the seashore.

The 2012 settlement ended a lawsuit that began in 2007, when conservation groups went to court to try and get the park service to implement long overdue protections on park beaches overrun by off-road vehicles.

Conservation groups characterized the deal as a compromise that offered some protection for sea turtles and also enabled some access for dune buggies, a traditional historic use in the area.

When they announced the agreement, environmental emphasized that visitation and tourism revenues remained steady during an interim management period, showing that motorized restrictions won’t harm the local economy, as claimed by dune buggy advocates. At the same time, rare bird and sea turtle populations showed signs of recovery.

As a unit of the National Park System, Cape Hatteras National Seashore has been required under federal law since 1972 to establish guidelines that minimize harm from the use of off-road vehicles to the natural resources of the seashore in accordance with the best available science for present and future generations. The new rules bring the agency into compliance with that requirement.

The park service’s rules allow ORV use on the majority of the seashore. Twenty-eight of the seashore’s 67 miles are set aside as year-round ORV routes, with only 26 miles designated as year-round vehicle-free areas for pedestrians, families, and wildlife. The remaining 13 miles of seashore are seasonally open to ORVs.