24-Jan-2019: Environmental Rule of Law: First Global Report
The first ever global assessment of environmental rule of law finds weak enforcement to be a global trend that is exacerbating environmental threats, despite prolific growth in environmental laws and agencies worldwide over the last four decades.
The UN Environment report found that despite a 38-fold increase in environmental laws put in place since 1972, failure to fully implement and enforce these laws is one of the greatest challenges to mitigating climate change, reducing pollution and preventing widespread species and habitat loss. While there are still gaps in many of the laws, the substantial growth of environmental laws has been dramatic.
David Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment said, "This compelling new report solves the mystery of why problems such as pollution, declining biodiversity and climate change persist despite the proliferation of environmental laws in recent decades. Unless the environmental rule of law is strengthened, even seemingly rigorous rules are destined to fail and the fundamental human right to a healthy environment will go unfulfilled."
25-Feb-2019: High CO2 levels can destabilize Marine Layer Clouds
At high enough atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, Earth could reach a tipping point where marine stratus clouds become unstable and disappear, triggering a spike in global warming.
If the world continues burning fossil fuels at the current rate, Earth's CO2 level could rise above 1,200 ppm in the next century.
Geological records indicate that during the Eocene (around 50 million years ago), the Arctic was frost free and home to crocodiles. However, according to existing climate models, CO2 levels would need to rise above 4,000 ppm to heat the planet enough for the Arctic to be that warm. This is more than twice as high as the likely CO2 concentration during this time period. However, a warming spike caused by the loss of stratus cloud decks could explain the appearance of the Eocene's hothouse climate.
Stratus cloud decks cover about 20 percent of subtropical oceans and are prevalent in the eastern portions of those oceans—for example, off the coasts of California or Peru. The clouds cool and shade the earth as they reflect the sunlight that hits them back into space. That makes them important for regulating Earth's surface temperature. The problem is that the turbulent air motions that sustain these clouds are too small to be resolvable in global climate models.
Scientists created a small-scale model of a representative atmospheric section above a subtropical ocean, simulating the clouds and their turbulent motions over this ocean patch on supercomputers. They observed instability of the cloud decks followed by a spike in warming when CO2 levels exceeded 1,200 ppm. The researchers also found that once the cloud decks vanished, they did not reappear until CO2 levels dropped to levels substantially below where the instability first occurred.
This research points to a blind spot in climate modeling," says Schneider, who is currently leading a consortium called the Climate Modeling Alliance (CliMA) in an effort to build a new climate model. CliMA will use data assimilation and machine-learning tools to fuse Earth observations and high-resolution simulations into a model that represents clouds and other important small-scale features better than existing models. One use of the new model will be to determine more precisely the CO2 level at which the instability of the cloud decks occurs.
13-Jan-2019: Waterbird survey spots three new species
A waterbird survey conducted in the Upper Kuttanad region has recorded 16,767 birds of 47 continental and local species. The survey, conducted as part of the annual Asian Waterbird Census, has spotted three new species — Greater flamingo, Grey-headed lapwing, and Blue-cheeked bee-eater.
However, compared to the previous years, the number of winged visitors to the region has declined drastically. In 2017, the survey recorded 28,198 birds whereas 41,576 were spotted last year. The August deluge and subsequent delay in preparing paddy fields for the Puncha crop season could be the reason behind the sharp fall.
The survey was jointly organised by the Social Forestry wing of the Forest Department, Kottayam Nature Society, and Alappuzha Natural History Society. A total of 72 birders from across the State took part.
The Asian Waterbird Census is part of the global International Waterbird Census (IWC) carried out each January as a voluntary activity. The survey would help understand the changes to wetland systems, change in migratory pattern of birds, and impact of climate change. The information gathered during the survey would be used to promote the designation and management of protected areas, Ramsar Sites, Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs), and so on.