Dammed if you do

According to Mongabay, the United Nations through its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is helping the developing world reduce carbon emissions by financing projects like hydroelectric dams. A new one under construction in Panama is pending carbon credit certification from CDM. Unfortunately, the dams can wipe out indigenous, fragile wildlife, arguably put something worse into the sky — and in the case of the Panama dam could displace an indigenous tribe. Excerpt:

The American firm (AES Corporation of Virginia) has requested carbon credit certification under the CDM for the project, claiming that the dam will help against global warming. However, recent research suggests that tropical dams release methane, a gas which has more than 20 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.

Beyond potential emissions from flooding, environmentalists say the dam threatens La Amistad Reserve, Central America’s largest intact rainforest. Biologists have counted more than 215 mammal species, 600 birds, 115 fish, 250 reptiles and amphibians to date in the reserve, including 180 plant species and 40 bird species found no-where else in the world. La Amistad’s biological stars include the quetzal, harpy eagle, howler monkey, jaguarondi, tiger-cat, tapir, and jaguar. In January scientists from the Natural History Museum of London announced three new species of salamander from the Costa Rican side of the park, proving that there was still much left undiscovered in La Amistad Reserve.

 

How many canaries does it take?

Greenland is calling itself one of the Earth’s canaries in the coal mine, as the polar cap melts. In another story yesterday, the Sierra Nevada mountains bear that description. So now we have an animal class — amphibians — that fits the description of a canary in the coal mine, and a country, and a mountain range. How many canaries does it take to create a greater sense of urgency? 

How global warming is good news for Greenland’s economic climate

RARELY a month goes by without another scientific survey proclaiming that Greenland’s ice sheet is melting faster than previously thought. But for the 56,000 people who live on the giant Arctic island, climate change is now being seen as an opportunity rather than a threat: a passport to prosperity, perhaps even independence.

The self-governing Danish territory didn’t miss the chance to promote itself on the world stage this week when diplomats from Denmark, Norway, Russia, Canada and the United States gathered in the town of Ilulissat, halfway up the west coast, to discuss competing claims for territory in a region believed to contain a quarter of the world’s un-discovered oil and gas reserves.

“We are the first ones to notice climate changes, so it’s important people co-operate with us,” said Greenland’s prime minister, Hans Enoksen. “We live in the Arctic and are daily users of the natural world, so we feel it’s important we take the natural world and animal life into consideration in our decisions.”

Few could deny Greenland’s Inuit understand the effects of global warming better than anyone on the planet. They have had a front-row seat to see the glaciers retract and the sea ice thin, altering a traditional way of life that has existed for 3,000 years. But global warming is also heating up the economy.

The fishing industry, which accounts for almost all of its exports, remains strong. Having opted out of the European Union in 1979, Greenland is not restricted by fishing quotas, and stocks remain healthy. This gives Royal Greenland, the state-owned seafood company, a monopoly in Arctic waters, which are home to some of the world’s finest quality fish.

Tourism is the biggest growth industry, while rising temperatures could soon leave most of the Arctic ice-free in the summer, opening up the Northwest Passage and cutting thousands of miles off the shipping route from Europe to Asia.

But the key to Greenland’s future lies under the seabed. Producers have drilled just six wells – and only once since the 1970s – but record oil prices and declining reserves elsewhere have persuaded at least half a dozen companies to take the plunge.

Cairn Energy, the Edinburgh-based oil exploration company, controls or has a stake in six of ten blocks of territory leased by the Greenland government and will be at the forefront of the search off the west coast. It plans to conduct seismic testing soon to determine the size of its reserves. And Greenland is preparing to cash in.

On and off, it has been under Danish control for more than 400 years, officially becoming part of the kingdom of Denmark in 1953 before opting for devolution in 1979. But potential oil revenues have raised the prospect of Greenland being able to go it alone in 15 to 20 years.

“The development of the oil industry is one of the most important components in Greenland’s effort to establish a self-bearing economy,” Kim Kielsen, Greenland’s minister of mines and petroleum, has said.

In the shorter term, the country is relying on the rapidly expanding eco-tourism market. Business is already booming in Ilulissat, where hotels are now booked up a year in advance and unemployment is 0 per cent.

Hotel Arctic, which hosted this week’s North Pole conference, opened a new five-star wing this month, and local politicians hope to extend the airport and attract a hotel chain.

Located 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, the town of 5,200 people, and almost as many sled dogs, welcomed 27,000 tourists last year, and several thousand more dropped in from cruise ships. Most visitors are drawn by the fastest-moving and most productive glacier in the world, which now moves at up to 40 metres a day and empties spectacularly into Disko Bay. The ice fjord joined the Unesco world heritage list in 2004.

 

New York Times frog report has the croak, er, quote of the week

Last Tuesday’s New York Times featured a short article about a scholarly frog debate: is the spread of chytrid fungus being fueled by global warming? New and old studies draw differing conclusions. It should be noted that the scientists involved actually aren’t arguing — they’re simply pointing to scientifically valid reports that point to different reasons for the spread of chytrid. But I got a chuckle from a “tie breaking” quote from an Australian biologist:

Ross A. Alford, a tropical biologist at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, said such scientific tussles, while important, could be a distraction, particularly when considering the uncertain risks attending global warming.

“Arguing about whether we can or cannot already see the effects,” he said, “is like sitting in a house soaked in gasoline, having just dropped a lit match, and arguing about whether we can actually see the flames yet, while waiting to see if maybe it might go out on its own.”

 

More froggy radio on disappearance of frogs in Costa Rica

“Monteverde is an ark — and it’s in trouble.” Yesterday on NPR’s “All Things Considered”, there was a 6-minute story explaining how “climate change is shuffling the deck” in Monteverde’s rich biodiversity, starting with the disappearance of the golden toad 19 years ago.  Excerpt:

When nature guide Javier Perez began giving tours of the Cloud Forest preserve three years ago, they would normally spot 40 frogs on their loop walk.

‘Today, only three years later, in a two-hour walk (we see) only two or three frogs…’ (quote from Perez).

 

At Davos, headlines about climate change and the subtext of the amphibian crisis

Al Gore said this earlier today at in the World Economic Forum in Davos: “All future generations will at some point look back and make an assessment of whether we succeeded or failed.” He (with Bono) was talking about global warming and poverty. But within the big topic of climate change are many subplots; what global warming is doing to the animal kingdom is one of them.

Warmer temperatures are weakening the animal kingdom, not just for polar bears, but for amphibians who are withering amid a toxic fungus that may be spreading into more and more habitat, fueled by the heat.  The fungus is called chytrid. This is what Kathy Krynak, who manages the amphibian exhibit at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, recently said about the connection between chytrid and global warming: 

“Amphibians that live in mountain regions and particularly the humid tropics are having a really hard time because as you increase the elevation, climate change is much more dramatic there. The nighttime temperatures in the areas where chytrid thrives are getting warmer so it’s 24 hours a day of a chytrid hotbed in the humid tropics.”

One-third to one-half of amphibian species could go extinct in our lifetime. There are some 6,000 species of amphibians, so you do the math. If the mass extinction isn’t stopped, it will be the most significant since the disappearance of the dinosaurs.

We have the knowledge to stop it. There’s a common sense plan called Amphibian Ark to avert it. But to paraphrase something that Al Gore said on Jan. 24, 2008, will future generations look back and say we succeeded or failed in saving the amphibian?  

 

If we don’t take care of frogs, their problems will become our problems

“They are indicating to us that there is a problem, and if we don’t take care of the problem, it’s going to move up to our level.”  That’s what an amphibian zoo keeper said Monday in a very informative, nearly hour long radio interview about the amphibian crisis on WCPN radio in Cleveland. I typed below a few excerpts from the interview with husband and wife amphibian experts Kathy Krynak, who manages the amphibian exhibit at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, and Tim Krynak, naturalist with Cleveland Metroparks: 

“One of the biggest (contributors to the mass extinction) is habitat loss (but) within the last ten years we have a new disease that’s entered the arena — that’s the chytrid fungus. It lives on amphibian skin, and amphibians basically breathe through their skin — and once this happens, they suffocate to death.” – Tim Krynak

“Climate change is actually the biggest factor across the board globally in the amphibian declines, so anything that you can do to be a little greener, like Kermit says, in your own lives will help amphibians and the planet in general.” – Kathy Krynak

“Amphibians that live in mountain regions and particularly the humid tropics are having a really hard time because as you increase the elevation, climate change is much more dramatic there. The nighttime temperatures in the areas where chytrid thrives are getting warmer so its 24 hours a day of a chytrid hotbed in the humid tropics.” – Kathy

“They are the cold and slimy canaries in the coal mine. Since they have such sensitive skins and they breathe and they drink right through their skins, changes in their environment affect them very quickly.  They are our best vertebrate bio indicators species so they are indicating to us that there is a problem and, if we don’t take care of the problem, it’s going to move up to our level.”

 

Is climate change speeding amphibians’ decline?

The scientists who organize Amphibian Ark believe that climate change may be exacerbating the spread of the frog-killing chytrid fungus. The current issue of The Scientist examines this in the article, “Climate Change and Frog Deaths.” It cites different studies, including those that:

“… found a correlation between frog declines and years when the temperature exceeded historical averages: Populations would dwindle in the warm year and disappear in the following year. ‘The study is the first to link some recent species extinctions to climate change,’ says (J. Alan) Pounds.”  (Pounds is a scientist in Costa Rica’s Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve.)

“… found that temperature fluctuations (not just temperature increase or decrease alone) can weaken immunologic responses and increase susceptibility to infection in red-spotted newts.” (This finding comes from Jason Rohr and team at the University of South Florida in Tampa.)

But while there’s consensus that chytrid has spread and it’s lethal, the connection to global warming is being debated. According to the article, Lee Skerratt at James Cook University “argues in a 2007 paper  that the effects of climate change have not been significant enough to be a primary cause of the chytridomycosis outbreaks. ‘You don’t need climate change for a disease to wipe frogs out,’ he says.”

 

Year of the frog video for children

We’re only weeks away from 2008 The Year of the Frog! Here’s a video, created by the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the Auburn Career Center, that features “kids telling kids” about the amphibian crisis — what’s happening, and why, and most important, what kids can do about it. Kudos to the folks in Cleveland for making this video.

 

A terrific overview of the amphibian crisis

Why are frogs disappearing? What can you do about it? There are snippets of Kevin Zippel’s speech at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival posted earlier today. But here’s the complete speech. Definitely worth passing along.

 

Why amphibians are disappearing

Kevin Zippel explains the magnitude of the amphibian crisis and explains what’s causing their extinction — a perfect storm of habitat loss, pollution, chytrid fungus, and climate change.  This video captures part of his remarks at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in October.

“This is by far the greatest extinction they have ever faced – and for us, this is the greatest species conservation challenge in terms of the numbers being affected.  The planet has not seen anything of this magnitude since the dinosaurs went extinct 65 millions years ago, an event that I remind you the amphibians survived.”