The velocity of the rate of extinction

The United Nations reported this week that the Sixth Extinction is well on its way. Without strenuous, consistent and intelligent action taken on a global level, the predicted “iconic” event of the new Anthropocene epoch of man-made ecological catastrophe is upon us. And the velocity of the rate of extinction in this epoch eclipses the known geological record.

Meanwhile, back at the golf resort, some of Trump’s appointments to resource-agency posts, including the secretary of the Department of Interior himself, are being investigated by the department’s Office of Inspector General.

Apparently, the flamboyant corruption and disgrace of Pruitt and Zinke, Trump’s first appointments to head the EPA and Interior, was just a gaudy prelude to decisions being made daily by many other environment-haters embedded in agencies whose purpose is to protect the environment.

But trust Don T. Culo, the Old Developer, to lay waste to everything in his path. The only open space he allows is a golf course, another field for him to cheat on.

--blj

 

 

5-7-19

ipbes

Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

https://www.ipbes.net/news/Media-Release-Global-Assessment 

Nature’s Dangerous Decline ‘Unprecedented’
Species Extinction Rates ‘Accelerating’

Current global response insufficient;
‘Transformative changes’ needed to restore and protect nature;
Opposition from vested interests can be overcome for public good

Most comprehensive assessment of its kind;
1,000,000 species threatened with extinction

Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history — and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating, with grave impacts on people around the world now likely, warns a landmark new report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the summary of which was approved at the 7th session of the IPBES Plenary, meeting last week (29 April – 4 May) in Paris.

“The overwhelming evidence of the IPBES Global Assessment, from a wide range of different fields of knowledge, presents an ominous picture,” said IPBES Chair, Sir Robert Watson. “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”

“The Report also tells us that it is not too late to make a difference, but only if we start now at every level from local to global,” he said. “Through ‘transformative change’, nature can still be conserved, restored and used sustainably – this is also key to meeting most other global goals. By transformative change, we mean a fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values.”

“The member States of IPBES Plenary have now acknowledged that, by its very nature, transformative change can expect opposition from those with interests vested in the status quo, but also that such opposition can be overcome for the broader public good,” Watson said.

The IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is the most comprehensive ever completed. It is the first intergovernmental Report of its kind and builds on the landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of 2005, introducing innovative ways of evaluating evidence.

Compiled by 145 expert authors from 50 countries over the past three years, with inputs from another 310 contributing authors, the Report assesses changes over the past five decades, providing a comprehensive picture of the relationship between economic development pathways and their impacts on nature. It also offers a range of possible scenarios for the coming decades.

Based on the systematic review of about 15,000 scientific and government sources, the Report also draws (for the first time ever at this scale) on indigenous and local knowledge, particularly addressing issues relevant to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.

“Biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people are our common heritage and humanity’s most important life-supporting ‘safety net’. But our safety net is stretched almost to breaking point,” said Prof. Sandra Díaz (Argentina), who co-chaired the Assessment with Prof. Josef Settele (Germany) and Prof. Eduardo S. Brondízio (Brazil and USA). “The diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems, as well as many fundamental contributions we derive from nature, are declining fast, although we still have the means to ensure a sustainable future for people and the planet.”

The Report finds that around 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades, more than ever before in human history.

The average abundance of native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20%, mostly since 1900. More than 40% of amphibian species, almost 33% of reefforming corals and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened. The picture is less clear for insect species, but available evidence supports a tentative estimate of 10% being threatened. At least 680 vertebrate species had been driven to extinction since the 16th century and more than 9% of all domesticated breeds of mammals used for food and agriculture had become extinct by 2016, with at least 1,000 more breeds still threatened.

“Ecosystems, species, wild populations, local varieties and breeds of domesticated plants and animals are shrinking, deteriorating or vanishing. The essential, interconnected web of life on Earth is getting smaller and increasingly frayed,” said Prof. Settele. “This loss is a direct result of human activity and constitutes a direct threat to human well-being in all regions of the world.”

To increase the policy-relevance of the Report, the assessment’s authors have ranked, for the first time at this scale and based on a thorough analysis of the available evidence, the five direct drivers of change in nature with the largest relative global impacts so far. These culprits are, in descending order: (1) changes in land and sea use; (2) direct exploitation of organisms; (3) climate change; (4) pollution and (5) invasive alien species.

The Report notes that, since 1980, greenhouse gas emissions have doubled, raising average global temperatures by at least 0.7 degrees Celsius – with climate change already impacting nature from the level of ecosystems to that of genetics – impacts expected to increase over the coming decades, in some cases surpassing the impact of land and sea use change and other drivers.

Despite progress to conserve nature and implement policies, the Report also finds that global goals for conserving and sustainably using nature and achieving sustainability cannot be met by current trajectories, and goals for 2030 and beyond may only be achieved through transformative changes across economic, social, political and technological factors. With good progress on components of only four of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, it is likely that most will be missed by the 2020 deadline. Current negative trends in biodiversity and ecosystems will undermine progress towards 80% (35 out of 44) of the assessed targets of the Sustainable Development Goals, related to poverty, hunger, health, water, cities, climate, oceans and land (SDGs 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 13, 14 and 15). Loss of biodiversity is therefore shown to be not only an environmental issue, but also a developmental, economic, security, social and moral issue as well.

“To better understand and, more importantly, to address the main causes of damage to biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people, we need to understand the history and global interconnection of complex demographic and economic indirect drivers of change, as well as the social values that underpin them,” said Prof. Brondízio. “Key indirect drivers include increased population and per capita consumption; technological innovation, which in some cases has lowered and in other cases increased the damage to nature; and, critically, issues of governance and accountability. A pattern that emerges is one of global interconnectivity and ‘telecoupling’ – with resource extraction and production often occurring in one part of the world to satisfy the needs of distant consumers in other regions.”

Other notable findings of the Report include[1]:

 

 

Three-quarters of the land-based environment and about 66% of the marine environment have been significantly altered by human actions. On average these trends have been less severe or avoided in areas held or managed by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.

More than a third of the world’s land surface and nearly 75% of freshwater resources are now devoted to crop or livestock production.

The value of agricultural crop production has increased by about 300% since 1970, raw timber harvest has risen by 45% and approximately 60 billion tons of renewable and nonrenewable resources are now extracted globally every year – having nearly doubled since 1980.

Land degradation has reduced the productivity of 23% of the global land surface, up to US$577 billion in annual global crops are at risk from pollinator loss and 100-300 million people are at increased risk of floods and hurricanes because of loss of coastal habitats and protection.

In 2015, 33% of marine fish stocks were being harvested at unsustainable levels; 60% were maximally sustainably fished, with just 7% harvested at levels lower than what can be sustainably fished.

Urban areas have more than doubled since 1992.

Plastic pollution has increased tenfold since 1980, 300-400 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge and other wastes from industrial facilities are dumped annually into the world’s waters, and fertilizers entering coastal ecosystems have produced more than 400 ocean ‘dead zones’, totalling more than 245,000 km2 (591-595) - a combined area greater than that of the United Kingdom.

Negative trends in nature will continue to 2050 and beyond in all of the policy scenarios explored in the Report, except those that include transformative change – due to the projected impacts of increasing land-use change, exploitation of organisms and climate change, although with significant differences between regions.

The Report also presents a wide range of illustrative actions for sustainability and pathways for achieving them across and between sectors such as agriculture, forestry, marine systems, freshwater systems, urban areas, energy, finance and many others. It highlights the importance of, among others, adopting integrated management and cross-sectoral approaches that take into account the trade-offs of food and energy production, infrastructure, freshwater and coastal management, and biodiversity conservation.

Also identified as a key element of more sustainable future policies is the evolution of global financial and economic systems to build a global sustainable economy, steering away from the current limited paradigm of economic growth.

“IPBES presents the authoritative science, knowledge and the policy options to decisionmakers for their consideration,” said IPBES Executive Secretary, Dr. Anne Larigauderie. “We thank the hundreds of experts, from around the world, who have volunteered their time and knowledge to help address the loss of species, ecosystems and genetic diversity – a truly global and generational threat to human well-being.”

- ENDS -

 

 

 

4-26-19

Science 

Interior Department Launches Investigation of Potential Ethics Violations Among Staff

https://topworldwidetrendingnews.com/interior-department-launches-invest...

 

The Department of the Interior’s inspector general has launched a new investigation into one or more political appointees at the agency, a move it described as a “related investigation” to a federal probe into the ethics practices of the agency’s secretary, David Bernhardt.

Mary L. Kendall, the Interior Department’s deputy inspector general, confirmed the investigation in an April 18 letter sent to the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group that had issued a complaint against several agency officials. The inquiry will examine “potential ethics violations committed by multiple Department of Interior senior executives,” Ms. Kendall wrote.

The Campaign Legal Center complaint alleges that senior members of the Interior Department “repeatedly violated revolving door ethics prohibitions” by offering agency access to former employers or lobbying clients.

Faith Vander Voort, an Interior Department spokeswoman, said in a statement that the secretary’s office is reviewing the complaint.

“The Department takes ethics issues seriously. The office of the secretary immediately consulted with the department Ethics Office after receiving the subject complaints,” she said.

The probe is the second in two weeks targeting the Interior Department. The first, into Mr. Bernhardt’s conduct, came just four days after he was confirmed by the Senate to lead the agency, which is responsible for managing public lands and natural resources. A former lobbyist for the oil and agribusiness industries, Mr. Bernhardt has been instrumental, first as deputy secretary and now as the agency’s leader, in promoting President Trump’s policy of fossil fuel development.

His conduct came under scrutiny after three New York Times investigations showed that Mr. Bernhardt used his position to advance a policy pushed by his former lobbying client; that he continued working as a lobbyist after filing legal paperwork declaring that he had ceased lobbying; and that he intervened to block the release of a scientific report showing the harmful effects of a chemical pesticide on certain endangered species.

The Campaign Legal Center in its complaint names Benjamin Cassidy, senior deputy director for intergovernmental and external affairs; Lori Mashburn, the agency’s White House liaison; Doug Domenech, assistant secretary for insular and international affairs; and Timothy Williams, deputy director of the office of intergovernmental and external affairs.

A spokeswoman for the inspector general’s office on Tuesday acknowledged the probe and declined to describe its scope or how many of the individuals cited in the complaint are under investigation.

 

Ms. Vander Voort also declined a request for individual comments from the staff members named in the Campaign Legal Center’s complaint, saying, “As a general rule, we do not comment on specific personnel matters.”

Corey Goldstone, a spokesman for the Campaign Legal Center, said, “We hope this investigation will answer whether these officials are working on behalf of the American people, or on behalf of the interests that used to pay their salary.”

In each of the cases the 82-page complaint alleges the staff member had improper contact with former clients or employers. It included correspondence, for example, showing Mr. Cassidy, a former lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, working on a recreational shooting plan in Utah and other issues on which he lobbied at the N.R.A.

 

In another case, it included calendar items showing Mr. Domenech, who previously directed the Fueling Freedom Project at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a free-market think tank, had met with his former employer in April 2017 to discuss endangered species litigation that organization was pursuing against the agency. Six months later, in what the think tank described in a news release as a “major win for private property rights,” the Interior Department settled the case.