Tom Stehn of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service transports one of the 23 Cranes that died in Texas during the winter of 2008-2009. (Photo: PRNewsFoto/The Aransas Project)

From Green Right Now Reports

An environmental group called The Aransas Project said it filed a federal lawsuit today in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas against officials of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in their official capacities for violation of the Endangered Species Act.

The officials are being sued for illegal harm and harassment of Whooping Cranes at and adjacent to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The defendants named in the suit in their official capacities are the three TCEQ Commissioners, the agency’s executive director, and the TCEQ’s South Texas Watermaster.

The Aransas Project group said the Whooping Cranes that winter on the Texas coast have suffered increased deaths as the result of the TCEQ’s mismanagement of water rights.

“The harm that the Whooping Cranes have experienced is a direct result of TCEQ’s failed oversight of its water rights permit programs in the Guadalupe River Basin where too much water is being taken out of the Guadalupe and San Antonio Rivers, especially during low flow conditions,” TAP attorney Jim Blackburn said in a statement.

The group said a lack of freshwater inflows to the bays from the Guadalupe and San Antonio Rivers, especially during times of low flows, has resulted in very high salinity levels and depleted food and water sources for the Cranes. The 2008-2009 year was the worst in recent history for the Whooping Crane, the group said. It reported a death toll of 57 birds, a loss of 21.4 percent of the flock—of which 23 deaths, or 8.5 percent of the flock, occurred in Texas during the birds’ winter at Aransas.

The Aransas-Wood Buffalo flock of Whooping Cranes that winters on the Texas coast is the only natural wild flock remaining in the world, the group said. The flock had increased from 16 birds in the early 1940s to a high of 270 in the spring of 2008.

This is the latest salvo against the TCEQ for what many see as failures in its environmental oversight role. The City of Fort Worth recently stepped in to manage its own air tests of natural gas wells because the TCEQ has been slow to do so.

Blackburn said that TAP had been hopeful that an alternative to litigation might emerge during that time, but TCEQ has failed to act. “It’s become apparent that the only way we’re going to see any water left for the bays and the Cranes is through a plan ordered by the court,” he said.

The environmental group said its membership has continued to grow during its fight with TCEQ, adding more than 20 new member organizations including all four local governmental entities in Aransas County, both the Republican Party and the Democratic Club in Aransas County, as well as statewide and national organizations that include the International Crane Foundation, Environment Texas, Texas Conservation Alliance, the American Bird Conservancy, and three Texas chapters of the Audubon Society.

New scientific findings on the Greater Sage-Grouse are a  “wake-up call” about the bird’s dwindling numbers and its vanishing sagebrush habitat, reports the National Wildlife Federation.

Greater-Sage Grouse (Photo: U.S. Geological Survey)

Last week, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), announced that the Greater Sage-Grouse will have to wait in line for Endangered Species Act protection behind higher-priority species. The agency deemed the bird’s status to be  “warranted but precluded,” a designation that means the bird qualifies for Endangered Species Act protection (it is “warranted”) but it will not be acted upon immediately.
Federal land managers will continue to treat the sage-grouse as a “sensitive species” and monitor its numbers and health throughout its range in 11 Western states.

Most populations of Greater Sage-Grouse have been declining for years due to pressure from energy development, grazing, farming, invasive species, fires, herbicides and more recently the West Nile virus. A recent analysis found that 20 of 27 sage-grouse populations have declined since 1995.

The USFWS did not hide its reasons for holding back on full protection for the sage grouse, citing the need to not interfere with energy development. If the grouse had ESA protection status, its habitat could not be degraded, by oil drilling for instance, without a full review of impacts on the bird.

“We must find common-sense ways of protecting, restoring and reconnecting the Western lands that are most important to the species’ survival, while responsibly developing much-needed energy resources,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said.

Gas and oil companies can help find a balance, according to a spokesman for EnCana Oil, who said that company is taking measures to mitigate development effects on the bird.

“We proactively take steps to protect wildlife, both in terms of the Best Management Practices we employ and by engaging third party experts to better understand, address and minimize impacts to wildlife,” said Byron Gale, vice president of environment, health and safety for EnCana Oil and Gas (USA).

Gale said the company uses the latest research to reduce the impacts of drilling and has designated $21.5 million to the Wyoming Wildlife and Nature Resource Trusts to protect wildlife and natural resources. EnCana prides itself on all that it does for wildlife, he said.

Still, environmentalists see the grouse’s dwindling population as a bad portent for Western landscapes, where sagebrush habitat protects many species, such as  pronghorn antelope and mule deer.

“Unfortunately, sagebrush is the most overlooked and under-appreciated Western landscape,” said Kate Zimmerman, senior policy analyst for the National Wildlife Federation in Colorado. “If we don’t pay attention to what science is telling us, sage-grouse and other sagebrush species — even pronghorn antelope — could end up in deeper trouble. Losing this unique habitat would also be devastating for the many people who enjoy outdoor recreation or rely on tourism in sagebrush country.”

Although the USFWS science-based ruling was encouraging because it recognizes the sage-grouse’s plight, it doesn’t fully address how the birds will be supported to prevent continuing declines, said Ben Deeble, sagebrush habitat expert with the National Wildlife Federation in Montana.

“A business-as-usual approach isn’t going to conserve the sage-grouse or its sagebrush habitat,” Deeble said. “Now that the federal government acknowledges the decline of sage-grouse, we need to ensure that its land-management agencies reconcile their energy-development practices with the latest wildlife science. And we need strategies to cope with the impacts of drought, fires and invasive species brought on by climate change.”

Deeble hopes that state and federal officials, and landowners, will collaborate to solve this problem.

“A few governors have already taken steps to protect sage-grouse in their states, and we need to build on that momentum,” Deeble said. “Now we need partnerships on both public and private lands to properly manage and enhance the best remaining habitats.”

After giving the public 90 days to comment on its proposal, the USFWS is expected to publish a final finding within a year.

More than 25 conservation groups have taken the occasion of the Olympics to call for the end of one controversial sport in British Columbia: the trophy hunting of bears.

The groups oppose the trophy hunting of black and grizzly bear, which they say also jeopardizes the distinctive and revered “spirit bear,” a rare light-coated variation of the Kermode bear. The Kermode, along with grizzlies, will be the target of trophy hunts set to open in a few weeks in  British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest. The trophy hunts are timed to when the bears emerge from hibernation.

The Spirit Bear (Photo: Ian McAllister/pacificwild.org)

“How can British Columbia be celebrating the spirit bear in the opening Olympic ceremony and as an official mascot to the Olympics when trophy hunting is allowed in over 98 percent of the animal’s genetic range?” asks Ian McAllister of B.C.-based Pacific Wild, an organizer of the campaign to stop the trophy hunts.

Though laws restrict the hunting of the genetically distinct white-coated spirit bears, they are produced by the Kermode bear.

“It just doesn’t make sense to protect only the white coloured bears when the black bear also carries the gene that produces white cubs,” said Kitasoo-Xai’xais bear viewing guide Doug Neasloss, in a news release about the effort to stop the hunts.

Neasloss, and other naturalists, say that bear should be protected to assure their continued existence in the temperate Canadian rainforests, and that bear-watching tourism is an important part of the economy.

Neasloss explains in a video on the Pacific Wild website.

Hunting for the Kermode bear is allowed across the vast majority, about 98 percent, of its territory. It is only protected on a small area of BC rainforest shown on this map.

Many groups in the U.S. as well as Canada support an end to trophy hunting of black bear and grizzlies in the Great Bear Rainforest.

While the Olympic Games will soon end, the conservation groups have vowed to continue the pressure to stop bear trophy hunting.

“The eyes of the world are on B.C. and the global campaign to end the trophy hunting of bears in Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest will continue to escalate until they are protected,” said Rebecca Aldworth of Humane Society International/Canada, in the news statement.

Groups representing native people also support the end of trophy hunting.

“This is not a sport, it is a senseless slaughter,” said Art Sterritt, Executive Director of Coastal First Nations. “The trophy hunt goes against every moral teaching that we carry and is disrespectful to our culture and values.”

In a news release, the groups note that:

• 2,000 grizzlies have been killed in the last nine years in British Columbia since Premier Gordon Campbell lifted a moratorium on trophy hunting of grizzlies.
• A 2009 Ipsos-Reid poll showed that 80 percent of residents in British Columbia opposed bear trophy hunting

Along with Pacific Wild and the Human Societies of Canada and the United States, groups supporting a ban on bear trophy hunting in the Great Bear Rainforest include:

Humane Society

Wildlife Land Trust

Coastal First Nations

Greenpeace

Sierra Club BC

Western Canada Wilderness Committee

David Suzuki Foundation

The Spirit Bear Youth Coalition

Valhalla Wilderness Society

Bears Matter

Forest Ethics

Animal Rights Sweden

Freedom for Animals – Croatia

Brigitte Bardot Foundation – France

Franz Weber Foundation – Switzerland

Global Action in the Interest of Animals (GAIA) – Belgium

Fundacion para la Adopcion, Apadrinamiento y Defensa de los Animales
(FAADA) – Spain

Four Paws (International)

Respect for Animals – UK

Commercial Bear Viewing Association of British Columbia

Robin Wood

Canopy

Friends of the Earth

BCSPCA

Vancouver Humane Society

Natural Resources Defense Council

Copyright © 2010 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network

Even after monumental clean-ups that rescued the Great Lakes from acid rain and industrial dumping in the 20th Century, these national water resources continue to suffer environmental assaults.

Sewage overflows into the lakes — some 25 billion gallons of untreated sewage from 20 cities in 2008 — have resulted in waters that periodically test positive for dangerous levels of E coli in 2008, according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Asian Carp (Photo: US Fish and Wildlife Service.)

Lately, too, the lakes are under threat from the large and destructive Asian carp, an invasive species that has been making its way up rivers to Lake Michigan, where scientists say it could annihilate whole populations of native fish, creating havoc in the Great Lakes, and depleting food and fishing jobs. (The carp were imported decades ago by catfish farmers to clean their stock ponds; they escaped during Midwestern floods.)

Today, the EPA officially unveiled a five-year plan to help restore the Great Lakes, which supply 30 million people with water and support billions in fishing and recreational businesses.

“We have an historic opportunity to restore and protect these waters. This action plan outlines our strategy to protect the environmental, human health, and economic interests of the millions of people who rely on the Great Lakes,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “We’re committed to creating a new standard of care that will leave the Great Lakes better for the next generation.”

State governors were, predictably, pleased. Said Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, co-chair of the Council of Great Lakes Governors, “Wisconsin is defined by the Great Lakes, and one of our greatest responsibilities is to preserve this important freshwater resource for future generations. This action plan sets a strong course of action as we confront tremendous challenges to not only protect, but also restore the Great Lakes.”

“We must protect and preserve our lakes for our families and outdoors enthusiasts, as well as the industries that rely on the waterways to transport their goods around the world,” added CGLC co-chair  Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, in the same news release.

The five-year action plan was developed by 16 federal groups on an inter-agency task force headed by Jackson. It will have five areas of focus, according to an EPA news release:

• Protection and cleanup of the most polluted areas in the lakes: The task force will work with state and municipal partners to clean up toxic hotspots so that critical “working waterways” are reclaimed for healthy fishing and recreation.

• Combating invasive species: The plan will take a “zero tolerance” approach toward invasive species, such as the Asian Carp, to keep them out of the lakes.

• Protection of high priority watersheds and reduced runoff from urban, suburban and, agricultural sources: Reducing runoff and pollution to help clean up Great Lakes beaches.

• Restoration of wetlands and other habitats: Restoration work will begin with an assessment of the entire 530,000 acre Great Lakes coastal wetland, which has never been done before, to help the task force identify and restore affected areas for healthier wildlife and habitats.

• Implementation of accountability measures, learning initiatives, outreach and strategic partnerships: The task force will work closely with the Great Lakes states, non-profits, stakeholder groups and Canada to protect and restore the lakes.

The initiative is slated to be funded with $475 million for a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative proposed this month by President Barak Obama. If approved, it would be the most significant investment in the Great Lakes in two decades, according to the EPA.

Over the past year or so, there’s been a velvety, yummy buzz: Chocolate may just save the planet!

Divine Hearts are actually good for your heart

Actually, that’s a stretch. But in the months leading up to the Copenhagen climate talks last December, several chocolate-makers claimed they were venturing further into fair trade practices, including Nestle, Mars and Cadbury.

Add to that the promising method of “cabruca farming” in Brazil — a way of supplementing rainforests with valuable cacao plants to offset wholesale slash-and-burn techniques. Then multiply those happy developments by now-abundant data showing that chocolate — dark chocolates and bittersweets, specifically — are good for our health, and you’ve got a growing body of evidence that semi-sweet, Fair Trade chocolate is not only good for body, heart and soul; it could be good for the environment.

“Chocolate is considered to be a super food,” says Steven Flood, co-owner of Fat Turkey Chocolates, an organic chocolatier based in Austin, Texas. “You could actually live and sustain yourself on chocolate alone and get everything you need. And you wouldn’t get fat. Because there’s not a lot of fat in dark chocolate.”

According to the American Institute for Cancer Research and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center’s  Cancer Prevention Center, among others, cacao contains potent antioxidants that reduce free radicals in the body much quicker and more efficiently than green tea or vitamin C, helping to prevent cancer. Also, the natural flavanoids in chocolate have a beneficial impact on our systems’ blood vessels, helping them pump that vital red fluid more smoothly, making heart disease less likely.

And, posits Fat Turkey’s Steven Flood, “The darkest chocolates have a chemical called theo-bromine, which is also a decongestant. It’s similar to caffeine in chemical structure. So if your kids are congested, you can give them a little bit of dark chocolate instead of medicines and chemicals.”

But you don’t need to wait for a cold or congestion, of course. For many of us, February is officially “chocolate month.” It’s the season where we say to all things chocolate, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. …”

CHOCOLATE: FUTURE RAINFOREST SAVIOR?

It turns out there’s a lot more to savor than just chocolate’s rich, almost primal flavor. Some farmers and scientists think they can use a certain type of farming to protect, and potentially, revitalize parts of the rainforest.

Back in December, the Swiss behemoth Nestle and Europe’s Fairtrade Foundation reached an agreement that would certify a certain type of Nestle’s Kit Kat bar, the choco-biscuit bar, as Fair Trade — the caveat: it’s only these certain size of Kit Kats, and they’re only sold in the U.K. and Ireland. But last October, Nestle launched its “Cocoa Plan,” a global, 10-year initiative that invests 65 million British pounds (about $102 million U.S. dollars)  to address fair trade issues that have plagued cacao farmers from Africa to South America, such as lack of health-care, educational and environmental protection plans.

Farmers in Côte d’Ivoire (the Ivory Coast)  – producers of more cocoa than any other country in the world — will especially benefit from the Nestle plan, which calls for farmers’ groups to receive extra Fair Trade premium payments, in addition to the Fair Trade price (or market price if higher) for their crop; these extra payments can be used as the cocoa growers see fit, but most experts expect the money to go toward the groups’ health-care, education and community improvements (water, sewage, preservation of farmland), along with reinvestment into more eco-sustainable farming.

In early 2008, Britain’s Cadbury announced its Cadbury Cocoa Partnership, which invests 45 million pounds ($70.5 million) into cocoa producing farms in Ghana, India, Indonesia and the Caribbean. Also, in 2008 it reached an agreement with Fair Trade bodies in the UK that would certify “Dairy Milk” bars as Fair Trade — though, as a result of the global economic crisis, Cadbury says, there have been delays .

Typically, a “fair trade” label means that the chocolate manufacturer has agreed to buy a certain percentage of Fair Trade cocoa — or to use a certain ratio of Fair Trade cocoa in a particular brand and size of candy bar — from Fair Trade providers who pay a decent living wage and adhere to other standards. Fair Trade products often employ sustainable models of production.

In fact, as Carmen K. Iezzi of the U.S.’s Fairtrade Federation cautions, these announcements and partial Fair Trade-purchases could be more PR campaigns than anything.

“These big companies aren’t interested in making that full commitment (to using only Fair Trade cocoa); they are selectively incorporating Fair Trade into their purchases for several reasons, partially because they want to capitalize on consumer’s growing interest in making responsible decisions,” says the federation’s executive director, Iezzi. “We want consumers to move in that direction and really harness the power that they have, but we want people to be clear on what’s really going on, and often it’s a difference between the messaging and marketing and the actual purchasing.”

What is provable, however, is that in the Brazilian rainforests, old-school farmers are working with scientists at the State University of Santa Cruz in Eastern Brazil, the World Agroforestry Center and chocolate manufacturers of Mars, Inc. to research a cacao-growing practice known as “cabruca farming.”

Essentially this means that cacao fruit trees are planted within rainforests, rather than in open spaces. Granted, it requires the felling of a relative few old-growth giants to make room for the squattier cacao plants, but since the forests will then shelter a valued commodity (the essence of chocolate!), governments, corporations and small farmers are less likely to take out entire swaths of forest.

It’s a long-shot — salvaging rainforests by growing cacao. And one that isn’t going to restore millions of lost acres, experts say. But it provides an example of a different way to farm cocoa and make money. Also, some scientists are noting that over a period of time, as fewer big trees are leveled and more crops are interspersed among the tall guys, carbon build-up in the soils is returning.

As a National Public Radio segment on “cabruca farming” stated… “There used to be 330 million acres of rainforest in eastern Brazil, called the Mata Atlantica. Settlers arrived hundreds of years ago and began destroying the forest for the wood, and to create fields for pasture and crops. Only 7 percent of the Mata Atlantica remains, and destruction is still going on. Every time a tree is burned, its stored carbon is released. As more carbon is released into the air, the planet gets warmer.”

The on-location report went on to explain how chocolate was once a major source of income for Brazil. But as the market for cocoa (made from the cacao tree’s beans) plummeted over the past 20 years, due largely to plant disease, the low price of cocoa discouraged farmers — who then began logging or harvesting the ancient carbon-storing trees, or simply burning down the forests for agricultural use.

But through “cabruca,” Brazil and other rainforest nations have an example of what can be done to halt and possibly reverse some of the slash-and-burn damage.

One family who has been growing cacao for four generations — the Joao Tavares family — has seeded 2,200 acres of rainforest with cacao. They cut only a few of the taller, canopy trees, adding the shorter cacao plants beneath. Over the past several years, the experiment has been successful, and the Tavares family are now seeing a replenished and reinvigorated soil, which again supports all kind of plant and animal life. They are learning that this may well mean salvation for some sections of rainforest.

“We understand that we have to preserve the cabruca,” Joao Tavares told NPR, “even if you have less production.

The upshot is, despite smaller yields, the quality and value of the plants is much greater, commanding higher prices from chocolate manufacturers. Farmers who grow in non-rainforest environments find their plants have many more diseases and insect problems. The other trade-off is that more and more consumers are demanding eco-friendly chocolates. So these specialty cabruca farmers have an already established market — and one that’s only growing, as people become more environmentally aware.

CHOCOLAT! SALUD? (WELL, IF IT’S DARK…)

A gift to make anyone wake up and take notice -- chocolate and coffee pairings from Equal Exchange.

Another boon to chocoholics is the fact that recent studies show that dark chocolate is good for the heart and circulatory system, as well as the immune system — and possibly the brain.

According to the American Society of Nutrition’s Journal of Nutrition and a story in ScienceDaily, the Research Laboratories of the Catholic University in Campobasso, Italy, published some interesting findings in late 2008.

Working with the National Cancer Institute of Milan, the university’s study was “one of the largest epidemiological studies ever conducted in Europe,” the Research Labs noted that inflammation of the cardiovascular system is notably less among people of a certain region in Italy where chocolate is a regular part of the diet.

Basically, the study indicates that by eating less than half of a 100-gram dark chocolate bar, consumers have less risk for heart disease, cancer and high blood pressure.

“We started from the hypothesis that high amounts of antioxidants contained in the cocoa seeds, in particular flavonoids and other kinds of polyphenols, might have beneficial effects on the inflammatory state,” stated Romina di Giuseppe, the study’s lead author. “Our results have been absolutely encouraging: People having moderate amounts of dark chocolate regularly have significantly lower levels of C-reactive protein in their blood. In other words, their inflammatory state is considerably reduced. The 17% average reduction observed may appear quite small, but it is enough to decrease the risk of cardio-vascular disease for one third in women and one fourth in men. It is undoubtedly a remarkable outcome”

Now for the not-so-good news. This only applies when we eat dark chocolate, and in moderation. The study proscribed an average of 6.7 grams per day – or a small square of chocolate up to three times a week.

“Beyond these amounts the beneficial effect tends to disappear,” di Giuseppe said. He also mentioned that previous research indicates that milk chocolate isn’t so healthy, and that the milk “interferes with the absorption of polyphenols. That is why our study considered just the dark chocolate”

Other professionals in the United States, including professor of nutrition Katie Eliot at Saint Louis University, in St. Louis, MO, say chocolate is having a renaissance because of its good qualities.

Dark chocolate products with a cocoa content of 60 percent or higher carry the desired flavonoids.

“Like green tea and berries, dark chocolate contains powerful antioxidants (flavonoids) that have been shown to reduce blood pressure and the bad LDL cholesterol to prevent cholesterol from collecting in the arteries,” Eliot said. “Most studies have used one 40-gram serving – or three large squares of dark chocolate-to show cardiovascular benefit. … (But) because one serving packs 200 calories, it should be your one sweet treat for the day and part of a balanced diet. If you just add 200 calories to your daily diet, you will gain weight.”

If you’re going for full-on Fair Trade chocolate that’s good for the planet and for your body/soul/conscience, here are three chocolate-makers in the U.S. where you can start your search:

• Divine Chocolates, owned by cocoa farmers in Ghana
• Alter Eco USA, sells various edibles, including Fair Trade chocolate bars. Find out where to buy locally here.
• Equal Exchange, Fair Trade 24/7.

Now — armed with all this feel-good data about chocolate — go forth and savor that midnight-colored, velvety, electrifying substance we know as chocolate.  After all, what’s not to love?

(The Fair Trade Federation in Washington D.C. is calling on teachers to educate about the value of Fair Trade chocolate this Valentine’s Day. Naturally, their offering enticements of…chocolate.)

Copyright © 2010 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network

Environmentalists in the U.S. often face derision and debate as they work to save species and protect the natural environment. But raising the ire of authorities in Russia can carries bigger penalties.

Lake Baikal (Photo: Pacific Environment.)

Last week, police officers from the regional offices of Internal Affairs virtually shut down the office of an environmental watchdog group by searching its office and confiscating 12 computers and a web server. The authorities, who did not have warrants, told members of Baikal Environmental Wave that they were looking for pirated software and fire safety regulations. But when presented with licenses for the software, they still confiscated computers with help from the local prosecutors office, according to accounts from the environmentalists.

Members of the BEW group believe the raid was staged to impede their efforts to protect Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest freshwater lake, which also contains 20 percent of the earth’s freshwater.

The officers, believed to be from the Internal Affairs Consumer Affairs and Anti-Extremism sections, denied through a spokesman that the raid was politically motivated.

Lake Baikal has suffered from decades of pollution from the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill, which had been shutdown in 2008. Last week, however, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that the mill will be allowed to reopen.

The timing of the raid coinciding with the mill’s impending reopening has left the environmentalists suspicious. “It is clear that the stated reason for investigating Baikal Environmental Wave was just an excuse,” Marina Rikhvanova told U.S. environmentalists with the Pacific Environment, a San Francisco-based non-profit that works to protect Pacific rim resources. “The real reason for taking our computers is to paralyze our organization and keep us from protesting the January 18 decision to reopen the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill.”

According to Pacific Environment, the paper mill, which has been testing equipment for its reopening is already contaminating aquifers with effluent.

The mill’s reopening is an effort to bring jobs to the town of Baikalsk.

Arizona wildlife authorities should have notified federal officers before setting a trap last year that ensnared a jaguar, leading to the death of the cat, according to an investigative report by the U.S. Interior Department’s Inspector General’s office released last week.

Because the jaguar is an endangered species, the local authorities were supposed to notify the federal wildlife overseers and obtain a permit for the capture, investigators found. Their failure to apply for a permit was a violation of the Endangered Species Act.

Arizona Game and Fish Department authorities have maintained that the capture of the jaguar, known as Macho B, was inadvertent. But the IG’s office found that even that circumstance did not exempt local wardens from needing a permit while conducting operations in known jaguar territory.

“We found that the AZGFD was aware of Macho B’s presence in the vicinity of its mountain lion and black bear study in late December 2008 and January 2009, yet it did not consult with FWS, as required by the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973,” investigators wrote.

The death of the cat has been under investigation since environmentalists raised questions about the animal’s suspicious death in 2009. Macho B was possibly the last jaguar alive in the wild in the United States. He died in February 2009 after being captured in a leg hold snare meant for mountain lions an black bear.

Arizona Fish and Game personnel affixed a GPS tracking device to the  jaguar and freed him.  But in days, the GPS collar indicated Macho B was not moving. Researchers found him, lethargic and ailing; veterinarians determined that Macho B was suffering from renal (kidney) failure and euthanized him.

The death prompted calls for more details about the trapping, and raised questions about whether the stress of the capture contributed to Macho B’s demise. The cat was older, and estimated to be 16-20 to years old. After the ailing cat was recaptured, experts agreed he was suffering from lethal renal failure, and he was euthanized.

The Center for Biological Diversity is suing the AGFD over the death in an effort to prevent any further operations from jeopardizing any possible remaining U.S. jaguars, or those that might wander across the border from Mexico.

“This report affirms all of the legal claims in our litigation to prevent Arizona Game and Fish from killing another jaguar, and will be critical evidence at trial,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity.

The IG report also suggests that Macho B may have been injured in his capture, which the Arizona GFD denies, concluding that the animal lost a canine tooth while ensnared and not before the capture, as state officials had argued. The tooth was broken to the root, according to the report, which suggests it could have been the entry point for infection.

Federal investigators also found that the autopsy of Macho B was less than thorough. It was performed as a “cosmetic necropsy,” which preserved the pelt but was less exploratory than a full autopsy, because a state authority did not know the difference between a “cosmetic necropsy” and a “complete necropsy.”

The Department of the Interior encompasses the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers the Endangered Species Act.

Bengal Tiger (Photo: Martin Harvey | WWF-Canon)

Tigers are among the world’s most threatened species — only an estimated 3,200 remaining in the wild. WWF officials said the threats facing Bengal tigers and other iconic species around the world highlight the need for urgent international action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“If we don’t take steps to address the impacts of climate change on the Sundarbans, the only way its tigers will survive this century is with scuba gear,” Colby Loucks, WWF’s deputy director of conservation science and lead author of the study, said in a statement . “Tigers are a highly adaptable species, thriving from the snowy forests of Russia to the tropical forests of Indonesia. The projected sea level rise in the Sundarbans will likely outpace the tiger’s ability to adapt.”

According to the study, “Sea Level Rise and Tigers: Predicted Impacts to Bangladesh’s Sundarbans Mangroves,” an expected sea level rise of 11 inches above 2000 levels may cause the remaining tiger habitat in the Sundarbans to decline by 96 percent, pushing the total population to fewer than 20 breeding tigers. Unless immediate action is taken, the Sundarbans, its wildlife and the natural resources that sustain millions of people may disappear within 50 to 90 years, the study said.

“The mangrove forest of the Bengal tiger now joins the sea-ice of the polar bear as one of the habitats most immediately threatened as global temperatures rise during the course of this century,” said Keya Chatterjee, acting director of WWF’s climate change program. “To avert an ecological catastrophe on a much larger scale, we must sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for the impacts of climate change we fail to avoid. In 2010, the Chinese Year of the Tiger, there is no better time for the US to pass domestic climate legislation and to reach an effective international agreement.”

The Sundarbans, a UNESCO World Heritage Site shared by India and Bangladesh at the mouth of the Ganges River, is the world’s largest single block of mangrove forest. Mangroves are found at the inter-tidal region between land and sea, and not only serve as breeding grounds for fish but help protect coastal regions from natural disasters such as cyclones, storm surges and wind damage.

Providing the habitat for between 250 and 400 tigers, the Sundarbans also is home to more than 50 reptile species, 120 commercial fish species, 300 bird species and 45 mammal species. While their exact numbers are unclear, WWF says the tigers living in the Sundarbans of India and Bangladesh may represent as many as 10 percent of all the remaining wild tigers on Earth.

Using the rates of sea level rise projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its Fourth Assessment Report from 2007, the new study’s authors said an 11-inch sea level rise may be realized around 2070, at which point tigers will be unlikely to survive in the Sundarbans. However, recent research suggests that the seas may rise even more swiftly than what was predicted in the 2007 IPCC assessment.

In addition to climate change, the Sundarbans tigers, like other tiger populations around the world already face tremendous threats from poaching and habitat loss. Tiger ranges have decreased by 40 percent over the past decade, and tigers today occupy less than seven percent of their original range. Scientists fear that accelerating deforestation and rampant poaching could push some tiger populations to the same fate as their now-extinct Javan and Balinese relatives in other parts of Asia.

Tigers are poached for their highly prized skins and body parts, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine. The 2010 Year of the Tiger will mark an important year for conservation efforts to save wild tigers.

Recommendations in the new study include:

• Locally, governments and natural resource managers should take immediate steps to conserve and expand mangroves while preventing poaching and retaliatory killing of tigers.
• Regionally, neighboring countries should increase sediment delivery and freshwater flows to the coastal region to support agriculture and replenishment of the land
• Globally, governments should take stronger action to limit greenhouse gas emissions

Related video:

Year of the Tiger video from WWF

Endangered jaguars have won a concession from the federal government that could lead to their recovery from the brink of extinction in the United States.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday that it will designate critical habitat for the wild cat, whose population has dwindled in the U.S. to the point where it is unknown how many, if any, remain in the country.

The FWS will propose specific areas for jaguar habitat by January 2011, according to a Federal Register announcement on Tuesday.

Wildlife conservationists who have been fighting for jaguar habitat were delighted.

“This is a double banner day for the Jaguars in the United States and for ecosytems in the Southwest,” said Michael Robinson, an advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, which has three times sued to win such protections for the jaguar.

“With critical habitat designation and a recovery plan, jaguars will have a chance to roam once again through the southwestern lands they’ve inhabited since time immemorial,”  Robinson said.

The critical habitat is likely to include swaths of wilderness in Arizona and New Mexico. It could possibly also reach into sections of California, Texas and even Louisiana, where jaguars traditionally ranged, Robinson said.

Once the FWS team assigned to the case determines the needed “critical habitat” to help the jaguar survive, activities that could negatively affect the cat would be curtailed or constrained. Logging in federal wilderness areas, for instance, could be affected.

The critical habitat designation comes as the result of a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, which had argued against the federal government’s contention that designation of critical habitat and the development of a recovery plan were not practical because so much of the jaguar’s range occurs outside the United States, according to a news release by the Center.

(In this 2006 news release the FWS argues that critical habitat in the U.S. “is not essential” for the conservation of the jaguar.)

The jaguar population in Mexico is more robust, but it is also in decline there, Robinson said. The predator traditionally roamed the arid mountainous regions of the Southwest, and also the forests of East Texas and Louisiana. It is the third largest feline species in the world, after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere.

Last March, a U.S. federal judge rejected the FWS position that designating habitat was not necessary or realistic, and ordered the federal agency to reconsider both determining habitat and the development of a recovery plan. That order resulted in the announcement Tuesday.

Other groups also have advocated for the jaguar, a top predator that is considered a key part of healthy wildlife ecosystems in the Southwest.

The American Society of Mammalogists described jaguar habitat in the United States as “vital to the long-term resilience and survival of the species” and the Jaguar Conservation Team, an interagency group, has identified millions of acres in Arizona and New Mexico that could provide habitat for jaguars, conservationists said.

These groups argued that designating critical habitat is needed to offset losses of habitat to urbanization and the border wall, which has separated the cat from its cousins along the U.S.- Mexico border, making reproduction more difficult.

The Center for Biological Diversity said it welcomed the federal oversight for the jaguar, noting that the Arizona Game and Fish Department, which has wanted to maintain control over jaguar management, was responsible for a bungled snaring operation in February 2009. That operation led to the death of the last known jaguar in the United States, a mature male known as Macho B. The death is under federal investigation. (Arizona officials maintain the trapping was inadvertant.)

“Given mismanagement of the jaguar by Arizona Game and Fish, including the death of Macho B, today’s decision is a welcome turn toward real, meaningful protection,” Robinson said.

Robinson said it was premature to speculate about whether the recovery plan will include reintroductions of jaguars, or whether the plan will simply protect habitat and hope for migrations from Mexico into the cat’s traditional turf in the U.S.

While there are no minimums set for the habitat acreage that will be designated for the jaguar — that will be determined by the federal FWS team — the point of the plan will be to foster the recovery of the cat, which was decared endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1997, Robinson said.

“We’re hopeful,” he said.

Copyright © 2010 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network

The International Fund for Animal Welfare said today that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service failed to respond to a petition that it submitted to list two High Arctic caribou species — also known as reindeer — on the Endangered Species Act.

IFAW said it submitted the petition in September 2009, “presenting substantial scientific and commercial information” indicating that Peary and Dolphin-Union caribou are threatened with extinction by the effects of global climate change. The organization said the Fish & Wildlife Service needed to respond within the 90 days as required under the Endangered Species Act.

The organization attributed the lack of government response to likely understaffing and underfunding of the nation’s Endangered Species Program.

“It is clear that these two sub-species of reindeer are in need of help right now,” Jeff Flocken, IFAW’s Washington D.C. office director, said in a statement. “The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service needs improved listing systems and adequate resources to ensure that both domestic endangered species, and foreign imperiled species such as these reindeer, are evaluated in a timely manner.”

IFAW said that, of 43 global reindeer and caribou populations studied in the past decade, 34 have declining populations linked to climate change. No populations have declined as dramatically as the Peary and Dolphin-Union caribou in Canada. Peary caribou numbers have dropped from 50,000 in the late 1960s to fewer than 7,800 today. Climate change is altering weather in the High Arctic and caribou are dying when they can’t access the food they need to survive.

This past year is expected to rank among the top 10 warmest on record, since record-keeping began in 1850.

The combined global sea and land surface air temperature readings for 2009 (January to October) suggest it will be about the fifth warmest year on record, making the last decade definitively warmer than the 1990s, which was warmer on average than the 1980s, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

The tentative ranking for 2009, was affected by above-normal temperatures recorded in “most parts of the continents,” the WMO reported in a release on its findings, which also detailed droughts and weather fluctuations around the globe.

The report was released on the second day of climate talks in Copenhagen, providing further evidence that global warming is already having measurable effects.

According to the WMO, large sections of southern Asia and central Africa are likely to record their warmest year ever.

The United States and Canada were cooler than average in 2009.

Climate extremes, such as severe flooding, droughts, snowstorms and heat or cold waves, were recorded around the globe, though most frequently in South America, Australia and Southern Asia, according to the weather agency.

Scientists also found that the “extent” or expanse of Arctic sea ice during the warm season when it retreats was the third lowest (the sea ice covered the third smallest area) ever recorded, after 2007 and 2008.

Scientists consider the melting of the Arctic a major climate concern because the frozen ice cap holds water that released into the oceans would cause extensive sea level increases, flooding major cities and freshwater aquifers.

The Arctic ice cap also functions as a sun shield, reflecting solar rays and thereby helping Earth maintain cooler temperatures.

The preliminary information for 2009 is based on climate data from networks of weather stations on land, ships, buoys and satellites.

The data are continuously collected and disseminated by the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) of the 189 Members of WMO and several collaborating research institutions.

Three datasets are used to compile this information: The combined data maintained by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom; another data set maintained by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the third one from the Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Final weather results for 2009 will be released in the spring of 2010.

Some other key details from the WMO report:

• The year 2009 was warmer than the 1961–1990 average all across Europe and the Middle East.

• The European summer also was warmer than the long-term average, particularly over the southern regions. Spain had the third-warmest summer, after hotter summers in 2003 and 2005 and Italy recorded a strong heatwave in July, with some local temperatures reaching 45°C.

• A heatwave at the beginning of July affected the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Germany, and some stations in Norway experienced new maximum temperature records.

• China had the third-warmest year since 1951; for some regions 2009 was the warmest year. A heatwave hit in northern China during June, with maximum temperatures above 40°C .

• India had an extreme heatwave during May, which caused 150 deaths.

• Many cities across Canada recorded their warmest daily temperatures on record in July. Vancouver and Victoria set new records, reaching 34.4°C and 35.0°C, respectively.

• Alaska also had the second-warmest July on record.

• Across large parts of the U.S., conversely, October was a very cold month. For the nation as a whole, it was the third-coolest October on record, with an average temperature anomaly of -2.2°C ( or -4.0°F).

• Scandanavia also recorded a very cold October, with mean temperature anomalies ranging from -2°C to -4°C.

• The austral autumn (March to May) was extremely warm in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil. Daily temperatures ranged from 30°C to 40°C, and several records were broken during this season. North and central Argentina experienced extremely warm temperatures in October, followed by abnormal cold in November,
  with some rare and late snowfalls.

• Australia has had the third-warmest year on record. The year 2009 was marked by three exceptional heatwaves, in November and August and in January/February, the latter of which which affected southeastern Australia, triggering bushfires that caused 173 fatalities.

• Severe droughts also damaged living conditions in various places around the globe, with China suffering its worst drought in five decades. Water levels in parts of the Gan River and Xiangjiang River were the lowest in the past 50 years.

• In India the poor monsoon season – some say the scantest since 1972 — caused severe drought in 40 per cent of the districts with the north-western and north-eastern parts of the country badly affected.

• East Africa drought led to massive food shortages, causing for instance, a 40 percent decline in the maize harvest in Kenya.

• In North America, Mexico experienced severe-to-exceptional drought conditions by the month of September. In the United States, the western region was the most affected by a moderate-to-exceptional drought by the end of October. Nevertheless, the total area affected by drought in the United States during October was the second-smallest value recorded in this decade.

• In Australia, sustained dry conditions in the agricultural Murray-Darling Basin continued for the ninth year.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

In what might seem a no-brainer, the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday pronounced greenhouse gases to be  a verifiable public health threat to all Americans.

The announcement came on the first day of the Copenhagen Climate Conference and after what the EPA describes as a “thorough examination of the scientific evidence” required by government rules as the agency prepares to set standards for “light-duty vehicles.”

Though largely a formality given the EPA’s view of greenhouse gases has been fairly clear, the timing of the announcement sends a signal to negotiators that the EPA is prepared to enforce its clean air mandate, with or without a Congressional climate bill.

Some environmental groups, in fact, seemed to view the announcement as a lob over the net to Congress.

“The danger of global warming pollution is clear and present, the solutions are at hand, and the time for action is now,” said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund. “It’s time for Congress to finish its work on U.S. legislation to cap and reduce the 19 million tons of heat-trapping pollution we emit every day.”

It’s also clearly intended as a message to climate negotiators in Denmark.

“Today’s action also makes clear that the Obama administration is doing its part to combat climate change. That amplifies our voice and strengthens our hand going into Copenhagen,”   said Natural Resources Defense Council President Frances Beinecke.

“This announcement couldn’t come at a more important time,” said Sierra Club president Carl Pope. “The Obama administration has followed through on its pledge to act …President Obama sees the Big Picture—by shifting to clean energy, and cracking down on the corporations that pollute the water we drink and the air we breathe, we can restore our economy to prosperity and reduce our dependence on oil and coal, all while tackling global warming.”

Krupp also noted that a plan to cut greenhouse gases can be good for business, a majority point of contention in political circles, be it Washington or Copenhagen.

“American leadership on climate change will strengthen our security, wean us off of foreign oil, and ensure that America wins the race to clean energy innovation in the global market place,” he said.

At the conference, EPA Adminstrator Lisa P. Jackson said, “These long-overdue findings cement 2009’s place in history as the year when the United States Government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of clean-energy reform. Business leaders, security experts, government officials, concerned citizens and the United States Supreme Court have called for enduring, pragmatic solutions to reduce the greenhouse gas pollution that is causing climate change.”

As scientists around the world have documented, rising GHGs are causing rapid climate change by trapping gases in the atmosphere, leading to warmer and longer heat waves that are melting the ice caps, causing seas to rise and jeopardizing the world’s inhabitants. The gases also increase ground-level ozone pollution that is linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

EPA’s report covers emissions of the six major greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride, all of which have been the focus of studies by scientists in the US and around the globe.

These studies invariably point out that global warming is the result of human activities, such as carbon emissions from coal-fired plants and cars and trucks.

Aside from recording increases in average global temperatures, scientists have been charting sharp increases in melting ice in the Arctic, the loss of glaciers around the world, rising ocean temperatures and sea levels, changes in precipitation patterns and acidification of oceans — all linked to carbon dioxide pollution.

The EPA said its declaration on Monday is part of its obligation imposed by a 2007 US Supreme Court decision determining that  GHGs fit the definition of air pollution governable by the Clean Air Act.

The ’07 ruling rejected the Bush Administration contention that the EPA did not need to address greenhouse gases under the nation’s clean air laws.

However, the new EPA report does not force the issue of emission reduction,

Instead, the findings allow the EPA to finalize GHG standards that were proposed earlier this year for new light-duty vehicles in conjunction with the Department of Transportation.

The EPA report states that on-road vehicles are responsible for more than 23 percent of total U.S. GHG emissions. EPA’s proposed GHG standards would lessen GHG emissions by almost 950 million metric tons and conserve 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of model year 2012-2016 vehicles.

EDF’s Krupp says the EPA announcement is a wakeup call for new policies by the U.S. Senate that enforce carbon emission reductions and expand America’s clean energy economy.

Unfortunately, he says, some climate change deniers are hoping to slow progress by using scare tactics, claiming that the EPA pronouncement will result in a “cow tax,” a reference to the fact that cows are big methane emitters.

EPA’s action is long overdue, says Krupp. Citizens have petitioned EPA since 1999 to deal with global warming pollution. Since that time, the country has emitted nearly 70 billion tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and heat-trapping carbon dioxide concentrations have risen to 387 parts per million. Scientists say that 350 parts per million should be our goal if the planet is to survive as we know it.

Here’s an audio clip on the  EPA on greenhouse gas announcement.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media