Drought Affects nearly One Billion Trees in California

Ecological catastrophe: 29 million trees dead, 58 million more on the brink

New research by a Carnegie research team has revealed that up to 58 million large trees in California has experienced “severe canopy water loss between 2011 and today due to the state’s historic drought.”

The U.S. Forest Service says more than 29 million trees in California forests have already died.

“In addition to the persistently low rainfall, high temperatures and outbreaks of the destructive bark beetle increased forest mortality risk.”

The team used laser-guided imaging spectroscopy tools that are mounted on the Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO) to measure the full impact of the drought on California’s forests, and combined the CAO data with satellite data starting 2011.

The team’s advanced tools showed that about 41,000 square miles (10.6 million hectares) of forest containing up to 888 million large trees experienced measurable losses of canopy water between 2011 and 2015.  Of this group, up to 58 million large trees reached water loss thresholds that the scientists deemed extremely threatening to long-term forest health.”

Should drought conditions persist, the team concluded, there would be substantial changes to already significantly weakened forest structures and ecosystems in the near future, given the severity of the exiting conditions.

Progressive forest canopy water stress in the state of California from 2011 to 2015. Credit: Greg Asner

Marine Population Halved in 40 Years -Report

Humans catching fish faster than they can reproduce, while also destroying their nurseries —WWF

Population sizes of vertebrate species—mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish—have declined by 52 percent over the last 40 years, says a new report.

These findings coincide with the growing decline of marine habitats, where the deforestation rate of mangroves exceeds even the loss of forests by 3-5 times…; and almost one-third of all seagrasses have been lost.

The study has highlighted the following factors in the population decline:

• Overfishing
• Decline of habitats/ destruction of nurseries
• Climate change
• Ocean acidification due to excessive absorption of carbon dioxide

“Human activity has severely damaged the ocean by catching fish faster than they can reproduce while also destroying their nurseries,” said head of WWF International.

The report authors have analyzed 5,829 populations of 1,200 species of marine creatures since 1970.

Populations of some commercial fish stocks including tuna, mackerel and bonito, have declined by  almost three-quarters (74%).

“An index for Scrombidae, based on data from 58 populations of 17 species, shows a decline of 74 per cent between 1970 and 2010. While the most rapid decline is between 1976 and 1990, there is currently no sign of overall recovery at a global level,” said the report.

Some deep-sea fish populations in the North Atlantic have also declined by 72 percent over the last 40 years.

A Third of World’s Major Aquifers Rapidly Depleting: Report

Groundwater basins likely far smaller than previously thought: Researchers

Some of the world’s largest groundwater basins are rapidly depleting due to excessive human consumption, according to two new studies led by UC Irvine.

Researchers say they they don’t know exactly how much more water remains in the basins.

The findings are significant because humans are consuming groundwater quickly without knowing when it might run out, the researchers say.

“Available physical and chemical measurements are simply insufficient,” said UCI principal researcher. “Given how quickly we are consuming the world’s groundwater reserves, we need a coordinated global effort to determine how much is left.”

Researchers classified eight of the planet’s 37 largest aquifers as “overstressed,” with almost “no natural replenishment to offset usage,” and five others as “extremely or highly stressed.”

Unsurprisingly, the most stressed aquifers are in the world’s driest areas, which depend greatly on underground water. “Climate change and population growth are expected to intensify the problem.”

“What happens when a highly stressed aquifer is located in a region with socioeconomic or political tensions that can’t supplement declining water supplies fast enough?” asks the lead author on both studies. “We’re trying to raise red flags now to pinpoint where active management today could protect future lives and livelihoods.”

Researchers found that the Arabian Aquifer System, on which more than 60 million people depend, is the most overstressed reserve in the world.

The second-most overstressed reserve is the Indus Basin aquifer in NW India and Pakistan, with the Murzuk-Djado Basin in northern Africa in third position. California’s Central Valley is also classified as “highly stressed.”

“As we’re seeing in California right now, we rely much more heavily on groundwater during drought,” said the principal researcher.

“We don’t actually know how much is stored in each of these aquifers.” The lead author said. “In a water-scarce society, we can no longer tolerate this level of uncertainty, especially since groundwater is disappearing so rapidly.”

[Globally, about 2.2 billion people rely on groundwater as the primary source of freshwater. Estimate is based on FIRE-EARTH Models.]

The report is posted at Water Resources Research

Forests Can No Longer Be Considered Wilderness: Study

Deforestation: 70 percent of remaining forests less than 800m deep

Seventy percent of forests left on the planet are within 800 meters (0.5 mile) of a forest edge due to land use changes, especially encroaching urban, suburban developments and agriculture, which are causing global declines in biodiversity, according to a new study lead by North Carolina University.

The researchers discovered that very few forest lands are unaffected by some kind of human development.

“The loss of area, increase in isolation, and greater exposure to human land uses along fragment edges initiate long-term changes to the structure and function of the remaining fragments.”

They also conducted major experiments across five continents examining the effects of habitat fragmentation. They found that fragmented habitats reduce the diversity of plants and animals by up to 75 percent, with the smallest, most isolated patches causing the most impact.

“The initial negative effects were unsurprising,” said the corresponding author of the paper, a professor at NC State University. “But I was blown away by the fact that these negative effects became even more negative with time. Some results showed a 50 percent or higher decline in plant and animals species over an average of just 20 years, for example. And the trajectory is still spiraling downward.”

“Data from 76 different studies across the five longest-running experiments were drawn from published and unpublished sources (table S1). We synthesized results according to three fragmentation treatments: reduced fragment area [the focus of Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP), Wog Wog, and Kansas; see Fig. 2 for identifiers of experiments], increased fragment isolation [Savannah River Site (SRS) and Moss], and increased proportion of edge (all experiments). Fragmented treatments were compared directly to non- or less-fragmented habitats that were either larger or connected via structural corridors (table S1).”

“The results were astounding,” said the author. “Nearly 20 percent of the world’s remaining forest is the distance of a football field—or about 100 meters—away from a forest edge. Seventy percent of forest lands are within a half-mile of a forest edge. That means almost no forest can really be considered wilderness.”

Research Article: Habitat fragmentation and its lasting impact on Earth’s ecosystems http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/2/e1500052
Supplementary material for this article is available at http://advances.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/1/2/e1500052/DC1

Tending their Goaties at the Edge of Anthropocene

Thank goodness geography is not an exact science!

“11 questions to shape geographical sciences research in the next decade”

As a new epoch dawns, prompting humanity to search for the largest cave, situated well above the sea level, but with running water and enough soil to cultivate fast growing, edible weeds, as far away from the nearest volcanoes, and with near-zero seismic history … to protect their backsides [it won’t happen that way, of course] …

Life in a Rockshelter

Daily life at Hinds Cave as depicted by artist Peggy Maceo. In the foreground two women sit on woven mats and prepare food while a baby sleeps to one side and two young girls intently watch (and learn). The woman on the left pulverizes parched nuts while the seated woman uses a parching basket to keep nuts and several red-hot coals in motion. At the rear of the cave, an elder sits wrapped in a rabbit-fur robe while her adult daughter weaves a new mat. Two young boys kick up dust as the older brother aims a stick at his younger sibling. The men must be out hunting [that’s what they’ll tell the kids, any way—Moderator.] Image courtesy of College of Liberal Arts, The University of Texas in Austin. Click image to enlarge.

The National Research Council has released a new report which poses eleven questions that they believe would shape the research in geographical sciences in the next decade. To their credit they have briefly touched on “a time when populations are moving and natural resources are being depleted,” honing their questions with the “aim to provide a more complete understanding of where and how landscapes are changing” so that the society could manage and adapt to the transformation that are occurring on the Earth’s surface.

The following expert is from the National Academy of Sciences latest public release:

11 questions for the next decade of geographical sciences identified

The committee that wrote the report solicited input from the geographical science community to identify research priorities and the approaches, skills, data, and infrastructure necessary to advance research. The strategic directions span from overarching issues of environmental change and sustainability to specific areas in the field that are transforming. They are grouped by topic area, but are not ranked in any order of importance.

How to understand and respond to environmental change:

• How are we changing the physical environment of Earth’s surface?
• How can we best preserve biological diversity and protect endangered ecosystems?
• How are climate and other environmental changes affecting the vulnerabilities of coupled human-environment systems?

How to promote sustainability:

• Where and how will 10 billion people live?
• How will we sustainably feed everyone in the coming decade and beyond?
• How does where we live affect our health?

How to recognize and cope with the rapid spatial reorganization of economy and society:

• How is the movement of people, goods, and ideas changing the world?
• How is economic globalization affecting inequality?
• How are geopolitical shifts influencing peace and stability?

How to leverage technological change for the benefit of society and environment:

• How might we better observe, analyze, and visualize a changing world?
• What are the societal implications of citizen mapping and mapping citizens?

Related Links:

• A New Era of Intense Volcanic Unrest May Have Begun
• Global Travel Warning!

Bering Sea Drilling Revisited!

Update: Bush to urge lifting of ban on offshore drilling
“With gasoline now over $4 a gallon, tomorrow he will explicitly call on Congress to also pass legislation lifting the congressional ban on safe, environmentally friendly offshore oil drilling,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Tuesday.

Offshore Drilling

The following post is a reply to Dan Daniels who recently visited this blog and left a comment at Bering Sea Drilling .

Dan Daniels wrote:

I was the District Manager for Sedco Forex responsible for exp[l]oration activities on the West Coast of the US including the Bering Sea. I had two semi-submersible drilling vessels working in the Bering Sea when environmental concerns required us to cease drilling activities.

In the 8 plus years we, as a company, operated in this area we NEVER had an environmental issue (not so much as a st[y]rofoam cup going over the side) – this with daily high scrutiny from the Department of the Interior. I even received an award on behalf of our company for this accomplishment.

I believe strongly that with proper controls, commitment from management, training and overview offshore drilling can be accomplished without detriment to the environment. The issue lies almost exclusively with shipping the product, not developing the field. We should make every effort to carry out the require exploration and focus our efforts on improving the transportation aspects of moving the petroleum products

An offshore Oil/Gas platform.

Mr Daniels,

We [the FEWW moderators] believe the problems are much more extensive than you have stated. The areas of greatest concern are

1. Impacts of excessive energy consumption.
2. Climate Change.
3. Other impacts of excessive CO2 and other GHG pollution created by the consumption of fossil fuels, e.g., oceans acidification.
4. Marine pollution, habitat destruction and other damage caused by offshore oil and gas drilling including

• Exploration
• Production
• Transportation
• Storage
• Delivery

The specific items of concern include:

• Flaring and venting
• greenhouse gas emissions
• Decommissioning of oil and gas installations
• oil storage tank disposal
• Pollution created by drill cuttings
• Produced waters, muds and fluids
• Subsidence
• Spills
• piping
• Environmental impact of products
• Health impact of processes in products
• Spoilage of sensitive ecological areas and habitat destruction
• Waste disposal
• Health impact of processes in products
• Impact on Marine Mammals and other life forms
• Human Health Impact
• Climate Change
• Release of benzene, methanol, sulfur and other harmful chemicals to the environment
• Discharge of ballast waters
• Release of tank cleaning water
• Impact on ecosystems

The following excerpts are from Sense and Nonsense:The Environmental Impacts of Exploration on Marine Organisms Offshore Cape Breton, by David Lincoln.

Sense and Nonsense

The environmental impacts of the Oil and Gas Industry’s exploration operations are pervasive. No country or province which has been exposed to a prolonged history of offshore hydrocarbon exploration has been left untouched by the inevitable accidents and unforeseen consequences of the petroleum industry.

The fishing industry is usually the first sector to be impacted by these exploration activities. This normally occurs when fishermen are told to remove their boats and gear from an area so that a seismic vessel can begin generating noises.

By far the loudest noises generated by the offshore petroleum industry are those produced by seismic survey equipment. This equipment is designed to create very loud noises, the echoes of which reflect off geological strata deep within the seabed and are used to locate likely places for drilling wells. The sounds were at one time made by explosives, which could kill fish at a range of some hundreds of meters, but the almost universal seismic equipment now used offshore is an array of “airguns”.

Seismic Effects on Fish and Marine Mammals

Experiments on the effects of seismic shooting on abundance and catch of cod and haddock were conducted in the Barents Sea. The Norwegian studies looked at the effects of an airgun using a combination of scientific-survey and commercial fishing techniques. The fish survey work extended across a circle 40 nautical miles in diameter (a maximum range of some 33 km from the airgun survey area) and continued until five days after the seismic work was completed..”

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, information has begun to flow out about the Russian experience with decades of exploration activity in the Caspian and Barents Seas. These reports differ markedly from the rather subdued observations in Western Bloc countries. Dr Stanislav Patin in his 1999 book entitled “Environmental Impacts of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry” recalls a catastrophic ecological situation in the Caspian Sea in the 1960’s. “I was a member of the Special Government Committee on this issue and witnessed firsthand the dramatic ecological consequences of the explosive use, including mass mortality of Caspian sturgeons (up to 200,000 large specimens).”

Exploration Drilling

Despite industry claims, the companies do not yet know for certain which type of hydrocarbon (oil, gas, condensate or a combination of these fluids. will be encountered). Vintage seismic data from the 1980’s cannot accurately distinguish between oil and gas and geochemistry, if available, is often difficult to interpret. Before drilling, the companies will conduct a hazard survey primarily to reduce the chances of encountering shallow gas which could be disastrous.

Shallow seismic surveys of the upper few hundred meters of the seabed are often carried out to determine the structure of the sediments and scan for potential hazards to drilling (e.g., shallow gas pockets). These hazards will be described in greater detail in the section on shallow gas blowouts.

The Drilling Phase

Under normal circumstances, the predominant discharges during drilling, would be the “cuttings”; small chips of rock cut by the drill in forming the well, and the “muds” used in the drilling process to cool and lubricate the drill, carry the cuttings out of the hole and counter-balance the pressure of gas, when that is reached. These discharges, their fates and their environmental effects have been the most intensively studied (and argued) aspect of the offshore petroleum industry’s environmental effect.

Mud and Cuttings Discharges: Water Based Muds (WBMs)

Besides their intended constituents, drill muds, both Water Based Muds (WBMs) and Oil Based Muds (OBMs), often contain high levels of heavy metal contamination. WBMs, despite their water base, also often contain appreciable amounts of oil: under some circumstances, it is necessary to add a “pill” of oil to the circulating WBM and this is usually left in the mud, gradually being dispersed through it and ultimately discharged
with it.

The overall quantities of WBM discharged can be high. While the water naturally disperses into the ocean, the other constituents represent substantial contamination. The eight exploratory wells drilled with WBM on Georges Bank in 1981-2, for example, resulted in some 4000 tons of barite and 1500 tons of bentonite clay being discharged.

Mud and Cuttings Discharges: Water Based Muds (WBMs)

Besides their intended constituents, drill muds, both Water Based Muds (WBMs) and Oil Based Muds (OBMs), often contain high levels of heavy metal contamination. WBMs, despite their water base, also often contain appreciable amounts of oil: under some circumstances, it is necessary to add a “pill” of oil to the circulating WBM and this is usually left in the mud, gradually being dispersed through it and ultimately discharged with it.

The overall quantities of WBM discharged can be high. While the water naturally disperses into the ocean, the other constituents represent substantial contamination. The eight exploratory wells drilled with WBM on Georges Bank in 1981-2, for example, resulted in some 4000 tons of barite and 1500 tons of bentonite clay being discharged.

Water-Based Mud

The composition of drilling mud may be changed often during drilling in response to conditions encountered. In practice, this usually means that mud weight is gradually increased by adding barite and other chemicals to control the natural pressure increase with depth. When this happens suddenly, the mud is dumped in bulk and a new batch is mixed (often with heavier properties in anticipation of increased pressure). Analysis of the drilling waste scenario data (volume density and weight) could yield a likely
composition. It is indeed strange that adult scallops are highly sensitive to barite but show relatively low sensitivity to used water based mud cuttings.

Furthermore, dozens of organisms have already been subjected to varying compositions of drilling mud and the toxicity results are known and well reported. Of 415 acute lethal bioassays lasting 48-144 hrs with 68 drilling muds involving 70 species, 8% showed 50% mortality (LC50) below 10,000 ppm.

Ecosystem Impacts

“There is concern that the routine discharge of wastes during drilling for oil and gas could impact valuable fishery resources. Recent studies have indicated that intensive drilling efforts in the North Sea have caused detrimental effects in adult and larval fish and benthic invertebrates at greater distances from drilling platforms than previously envisaged”.

Abundance of benthic organisms near one N.J. rig site plunged from 8011 animals /sqm before drilling to 1729 animals /sq m. during drilling. One year after drilling was completed, the number had risen to only 2638 animals /sq m. Diversity was also impacted from 70 to 38 species /0.02 sq m rebounding only to 53 species /0.02 sq m one year afterwards.

Discharges and Shellfish

Laboratory experiments have shown barium uptake, from WBM-contaminated sediments and foods, by both flounder and lobster juveniles but there does not seem to be any evidence for its biomagnification up the food chain. In the experimental setting, the contaminants suppressed growth of both species and enhanced lobster mortality but this was with concentrations of 9 g barium per kilogram of sediment and a 98 or 99-day …

Certainly, its finer grain size should ensure that it is at least as mobile as the barite and probably more so. Recent research has shown that scallops are peculiarly susceptible to barite and bentonite, prolonged exposure to even concentrations as low as 10 mgl-1 (less than 10 ppm) being fatal, while levels as low as 2 mgl-1 can affect scallop growth.

“As mush as 90% of the discharged solids settle directly to the bottom. (Brandsma 1980). The remaining 10% including clay-sized particles and soluble materials is diluted by the current and dispersed over large areas8. ” Furthermore “during the entire [one well] scenario a total of 468 MT of drilling mud and 2569 MT of cuttings are released to the marine environment.

Now that it has been shown that drilling eight wells spread detectable levels of barite over much of Georges Bank, the COPAN drilling near Sable Island spread flocculant material some kilometers from the source, Norwegian oil production has affected benthic communities over some 100 sq km around major platforms and that background sediment hydrocarbon levels seem to be rising in the United Kingdom sector of the North Sea, the relevance of such impacts can no longer be ignored.

Shallow Gas Blowouts

One of the greatest risks to the environment during the exploration phase is a shallow gas blowout. This is particularly true if the flow is associated with a condensate discharge which frequently occurs. […] Once flow has started, it is almost inevitable that a blowout will occur.

“Cratering occurs when flow outside the casing displaces large volumes of surface sediment. The eruptive force of blowouts can be dramatic and has been documented as lifting large boulders weighing several hundred pounds into the air and dropping them as much as 150 ft from the well site.

“Records show that if a shallow gas blowout does not bridge within the first one to two days, then the well will probably continue to blow for an extended period of time, i.e., weeks or months. Some have continued for years.”

Adams includes a chart condensed from a database of 950 shallow gas blowouts. Of the 56 rigs listed more than half suffered extensive damage or the total loss of the rig.

The truth is that the biological impacts of gas and condensate spills have been poorly studied until recently. Even the Uniacke gas blowout which released condensate in 1984 was not evaluated for biological impacts. Gas blowouts such as occurred in India in 1999 are poorly reported and not studied in detail. It is ludicrous for the industry to argue that gas wells have little impact on the ecosystem when they have not looked carefully at the marine organisms effected and no long-term studies on productivity or reproductive success following exposure are known to exist.

Related Links:

• Bering Sea Drilling

List of references cited for Sense and Nonsense:The Environmental Impacts of Exploration on Marine Organisms Offshore Cape Breton, by David Lincoln, is available at the URL: http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/oil-and-gas-exploration/sense-and-nonsense.pdf

feww

Food Riots Break Out in Bangladesh and Kenya

See Main Entry: We Need Food!

Why Didn’t China Prevent the Loss of 86,000 Lives?

China Regime: As Evil as Evil Comes!

Are Earthquake Predictions in China Political?

The following excerpts are from an article written by Wu Weilin, Epoch Times Staff [ May 28, 2008 ] Full Article

Was the recent devastating earthquake in Sichuan, China predicted before it struck? Did the Chinese regime ignore earthquake warnings and thereby caused the loss of more than 86,000 lives?

“On July 28, 2006, the Director of the China Earthquake Administration, Chen Jianmin, was speaking on a program of the regime’s mouth piece, China’s Central TV station. He stated with certainty that earthquakes were predictable. But immediately after the recent devastation in Sichuan, Chinese officials claimed that the prediction of earthquakes was a tough task worldwide. Another commentator said that earthquake prediction in China is a political issue.” Said Wu Weilin of Epoch Times.

[Wrapping it up!] Soldiers march to scatter disinfectant in Yingxiu town of Wenchuan county, the epicentre of the earthquake, Sichuan province May 26, 2008. REUTERS/Stringer The image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

What Happened to the Predictions?

“According to Chen, China has been predicting earthquakes since the Xingtai earthquake back in 1966, which killed 8,064 people. ‘Through continuous scientific research and information gained from many actual cases, we can make a prediction on a certain type of earthquake.’ However, after the earthquake in Sichuan took place, Zhang Ziaodong from the China Earthquake Networks Center held a press conference at China’s State Department on May 13. At the conference Zhang denied the quake in Sichuan was predictable and said that predicting earthquakes was a ‘difficult task worldwide.'”

Why did the Chinese media stay quiet about this important issue? “A frontline reporter disclosed that Beijing had sent out rules on reporting the earthquake, ‘To propagate positive, constructive news and forbidding criticism and introspective articles.’ Recently, according to our source, Beijing has officially banned discussing the subject of earthquake prediction in public.”

“However, more and more information has indicated accurate prediction on the quake had been presented to Beijing on many occasions. The communist military had also taken preventative measures based on the predictions.”

Predictions Had Saved Lives Before, Why Not This Time?

“Chen also said during an interview with CCTV two years ago, that following an accurate prediction, a quake that took place in China on February 4, 1975, only took 1,300 lives instead of 100,000. Chen also gave examples from overseas, how predicting earthquakes had cut down the number of deaths – only three died in California in 2003 and 40 in Japan in 2004, two countries where earthquake prediction was released before the event.

“By May 24, 2008, the Sichuan quake was estimated to have killed 60,560, injured 352,290, and 26,221 people were still missing, according to information released from China’s State Department. A Chinese social economist, He Qinglian, commented about the difference in speeches coming out of Beijing about quake prediction before and after Sichuan, ‘In China, earthquake prediction is pure science and earthquake forecasting announcement is pure politics. This is how it works in China, whether in the past or present.‘” [emphasis added.]

Related Links:

• The Anguished Cries of China Quake Nurse
• Chinese paratroopers rescuing survivors or preventing plague?
• How Many More Survivors?
• Heavy Death Toll, Corruption, Criminal Incompetence
• Why Was the Girl Removed from Family?

• Chinese Leaders Incapable of Handling Quake Aftermath
• Bigger China Disaster Unfolds

• China’s grieving quake parents start to voice anger
• Beijing’s quick response to disaster won’t cover cracks of corruption
• Almost five million left homeless, China says
• Corruption blamed for rising death toll in China
• Parents’ grief turns to anger at shoddily built deathtrap schools

• Earthquake Predictions In China Are Also Political

./.