Month: May 2019

The long awaited UN report on Biodiversity has been released – and as we reported last week, the extensive study shows how human activity is threatening the mass extinction of one million of the world’s plant, insect and animal species. However, the report also suggests we can fix the problem. VOA’s Kevin Enochs has more. …

Giving local communities the responsibility to manage forests — which are shrinking worldwide — could help ease poverty and deforestation, scientists said Monday in what they described as one of the largest studies of its kind. Researchers examined more than 18,000 community-led forest initiatives in Nepal, using satellite images and census data from the South Asian country, where more than a third of forests are managed by a quarter of the population. Giving Nepalese communities the chance to look after their own forests led to a 37 percent drop in deforestation and a 4.3 percent decline in poverty levels between 2000 and 2012, they said in a paper published by the journal Nature Sustainability. “Community forest management has achieved a clear win-win for people and the environment across an entire country,” said lead author Johan Oldekop, an environment lecturer at Britain’s University of Manchester. Deforestation is the second-leading cause of climate change after fossil fuels, accounting for almost a fifth of planet-warming emissions, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in a 2018 report. Trees soak up carbon dioxide from the air as they grow, and release back stored carbon when they burn or rot. Cutting down forests can also harm livelihoods and cause tensions, as people compete for fewer resources. “Nepal proves that with secure rights to land, local communities can conserve resources and prevent environmental degradation,” Oldekop said in a statement. Worldwide numbers Yet indigenous peoples and local communities legally own only about 15 percent of forests worldwide, …

Young activists pressuring U.S. lawmakers to aggressively tackle climate change and reject fossil fuel company donations got their first major financial boost Monday from a foundation that wants to “amplify” the Green New Deal movement ahead of the 2020 presidential election. The Wallace Global Fund, a nonprofit that supports social movements, has given the Sunrise Movement $250,000 and committed $750,000 in grants in 2019 to Sunrise partner groups to advance the goals of the Green New Deal, a congressional resolution introduced this year by progressive Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey that has reignited the U.S. debate around climate change. The Sunrise Movement, formed in 2017, has been at the forefront of the Green New Deal movement, which calls for a 10-year, government-driven mobilization to decarbonize the economy through investments in clean energy, buildings and transportation, as well as job-retraining and social and economic justice programs. It has become a political target of President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress who call the plan socialist and radical. “They have a smart strategy around building power with the audacity of their vision,” said Ellen Dorsey, executive director of the fund. “Critics belittle them and question their authenticity but they are brave and are doubling down.” The WGF said it is one of the few funders to publicly back groups advocating for the Green New Deal and is working to rally others to support the youth-led activism that is putting lawmakers on notice globally. While the Sunrise Movement has been …

Teenagers in the U.S. coastal state of North Carolina who were schooled in the basics of man-made climate change saw their parents grow more concerned about the issue, scientists said on Monday in the first study of its kind. The results suggested nationwide protests by young people urging action to tackle global warming could influence the views of adults at home, researchers told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Danielle Lawson, lead author of the study published by the journal Nature Climate Change and a researcher at North Carolina State University, said the findings could “empower” ongoing efforts by students, such as the “Fridays for Future” marches. That movement has seen school children around the world walk out of classes on Fridays, including in the United States, in protest at government inaction on climate change. In the study, parents whose middle school-age children followed a curriculum that included learning about climate change increased their own level of concern by nearly 23 percent on average, the researchers found. For conservative parents, the rise was significantly higher, averaging 28 percent. The two-year experiment, involving about 240 students and nearly 300 parents, was the first to demonstrate that climate change education for children promotes parental concern, a North Carolina State University statement said. But the results could only be generalized to North Carolina coastal counties, where the experiment took place, said Lawson. In the research, teachers gave some students lessons on climate change, including classroom activities like mapping data and field trips to places experiencing …

The active ingredients of commonly-used sunscreens end up in the bloodstream at much higher levels than current U.S. guidelines from health regulators and warrant further safety studies, according to a small study conducted by U.S. Food and Drug Administration researchers and published on Monday. The over-the-counter products originally marketed to prevent sunburn with little regulation are widely used to block radiation from the sun that can cause skin cancer, the most common malignancy in the United States. The study of 23 volunteers tested four sunscreens, including sprays, lotion and cream, applied to 75 percent of the body four times a day over four days, with blood tests to determine the maximum levels of certain chemicals absorbed into the bloodstream conducted over seven days. The study found maximum plasma levels of the chemicals it tested for — avobenzone, oxybenzone, octocrylene and in one sunscreen ecamsule — to be well above the level of 0.5 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) at which FDA guidelines call for further safety testing. For example, the maximum concentration of avobenzone was found to be 4 ng/mL and 3.4 ng/mL for two different sprays, 4.3 ng/mL for a lotion and 1.8 ng/mL for the cream. Researchers did not name the products used in the study. The effects of plasma concentrations exceeding the FDA’s limit is not known and needs to be further studied, the research team wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The results in no way suggest that people should stop using sunscreen …

Scientists have identified an early cousin of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, a pipsqueak that only reached the 3-foot height of a toddler. The new dinosaur, found in New Mexico, is called Suskityrannus hazelae (SUE-ski-tie-ran-us HAY-zel-a), a name that uses a Native American word for coyote. Sterling Nesbitt, a paleontologist at Virginia Tech, said this dinosaur lived about 92 million years ago — millions of years before T. rex. It weighed up to 90 pounds, almost nothing compared to the nine-ton king of the dinosaurs. Suskityrannus hazalae isn’t the first or even smallest of the Tyrannosaurus family tree, but it provides the best example of how this family of modest-sized dinosaurs evolved into the towering horror of movies and nightmares. The findings were announced Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. …

Scientists gathering in Paris are issuing a dramatic warning of the effects that human activity is having on the world’s biodiversity — saying species are being wiped out at an unprecedented rate. Their 1,800-page report was released Monday at a meeting of experts and officials from 132 nations at the 7th session of the Intergovernmental Science and Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. The situation, as scientists describe it,  is serious. In a statement, IPBES estimates that “about one million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction over the next few decades, something that has never happened before in human history. Nature is globally declining at an unprecedented rate in human history,” warns the scientists’ report. The scenario they describe is frightening because all depend on the same ecosystem, without exception. Biodiversity is the diversity of the eight million animal and plant species on Earth. The current rate of their extinction, scientists say, is higher than the average of the last 10 million years. “On average, about a quarter of all species, across many groups, are threatened with high risk of extinction,” said Thomas Brooks, the International Union For Conservation of Nature’s chief scientist. This IPBES gathering is the first of several events to put the ecosystem at the center of discussions. Next deadline: the G-7 at the end of August in Biarritz, chaired by France, which wants to put biodiversity on the agenda. …

Hippos are helping to rejuvenate African rivers and lakes. Scientists say the animal’s nutrient-rich dung makes them vital to the health of the aquatic ecosystem. But the researchers also warn that the dwindling hippo population could prove harmful to those waterways. VOAs Deborah Block takes us to Kenya where the scientists did their latest research. …

Childhood asthma is the most common serious chronic disease among children according to the World Health Organization. A new report says traffic pollution is a major cause of the disease. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) says the outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo is “worsening” and has killed more than 1,000 people. IFRC said Saturday that in the past week, 23 cases were reported in one day, a record number since the start of the outbreak in 2018. The DRC health ministry said Friday the Ebola death toll has risen to 1,008. Violence helps cases spike Violence has complicated efforts to contain the second most deadly Ebola virus outbreak in history, as the number of new cases increases each time treatment and prevention work is disrupted. Many people are afraid to go to Ebola treatment centers because of the violence. They may instead choose to stay home where they run the risk of infecting their caretakers and neighbors. “We are at a critical juncture where we need to step up our support to communities that are facing greater risk of infection, yet Ebola responders face massive security challenges and a lack of resources for the response,” said Nicole Fassina, IFRC Ebola Virus Disease Coordinator. “An under-resourced operation creates a very real risk of an international spread of Ebola,” she added. “We are dealing with a difficult and volatile situation,” said Michael Ryan, the World Health Organization’s executive director of emergencies program. “We are anticipating a scenario of continued, intense transmission.” Insecurity has become a “major impediment,” Ryan said. The most deadly Ebola outbreak occurred in West Africa in 2014. More than 11,000 …

Scientists are conducting a large-scale, underwater experiment in the North Sea, testing for carbon dioxide leaks in what they say is world first. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports the researchers are testing a plan to pump some of the world’s excess carbon into depleted underwater wells. …

Guatemala’s subsistence farmers and indigenous people living in poor rural  communities are most affected by rising temperatures and unpredictable rainfall linked to climate change, a leading researcher said Friday. Poverty makes the Central American country highly vulnerable to the impact of global warming that damages harvests and causes food shortages, said Edwin Castellanos, lead author of a report by the Guatemalan System of Climate Change Sciences (SGCCC).  Guatemala could see a rise of 3 to 6 degrees Celsius by 2100 and a drop of 10 to 30 percent in rainfall if countries such as China, India and the United States do not cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to the SGCCC.  Nearly 200 countries agreed in 2015 to curbing greenhouse emissions enough to keep the global hike in temperatures “well below” 2 C above pre-industrial times while pursuing a tougher 1.5 C ceiling.  Carbon dioxide and methane are the main greenhouse gases that trap heat and contribute to climate change.  “Guatemala is very vulnerable due to its high levels of poverty,” said Castellanos, who is dean of the Research Institute at Guatemala’s Valle University and a leading expert in climate change in Central America.  “Changes in weather exacerbate and worsen the situation, especially among the poorest populations,” he said.  Chronic malnutrition Seven in every 10 farming families live in poverty, and nearly half of all children under age 5 have chronic malnutrition, according to a report this week by the SGCCC, a group of universities, researchers and government agencies.  About half of Guatemala’s population of 17 million is indigenous, many of them subsistence bean and maize farmers.  “It will depend a lot …

Democratic presidential hopeful Jay Inslee, as part of his pledge to make combating climate change the top national priority, is calling for the nation’s entire electrical grid and all new vehicles and buildings to be carbon pollution free by 2030.    It’s the first major policy proposal from the Washington governor as he tries to gain a foothold in a field of more than 20 candidates.    The plan, the first piece of a series of climate action proposals from Inslee, would represent a national shift from coal-powered plants and traditional fuel engines in vehicles, while requiring an overhaul in the way most buildings are heated and cooled. Inslee’s outline would require legislation and executive action, some of it similar to what Inslee has pushed during his six-plus years as governor, but on a scale not seen at the federal level.    Inslee, who announced his campaign in March, has not yet attached a public or private cost estimate for a wide-ranging approach that would involve some direct federal spending, tax subsidies, and outlays by utilities and the private sector. He argues that doing nothing would cost more and that investments in clean energy will create millions of jobs to spur the economy, with that developing market and targeted government programs ensuring a stable transition for existing coal workers.  ​Worthy of “can-do nation”   “This is the approach that is worthy of the ambitions of a can-do nation and answers the absolute necessity of action that is defined by science,” Inslee told The …