Global warming has led to a rapid increase in the number of malaria cases, thereby fuelling the need for lifesaving vaccinations to those in need, says an expert.
Experts fear that the drastic changes in the climate may further increase
the number of cases in the coming years.
?Forty-one percent of the human race lives in areas of high malaria transmission,? said Dr. Sylvain Fleury, Chief Scientific Officer at Mymetics, a Swiss vaccine biotech currently developing a vaccine with the potential to control malaria in developing countries.
?Because Europe, North America, and North Asia are now significantly colder than regions of high malaria incidence, developed nations have felt immune from the malaria threat, but that sense may soon be upended,? Fleury added.
Studies have shown that even a modest temperature increase can extend the proliferation of malaria-bearing mosquitoes.
Therefore, as temperatures rise, billions of people could find themselves living in regions of high malaria incidence.
?The best way to prevent the spread of malaria into warming areas of the globe is to find a solution before the situation worsens,? said Dr. Fleury.
?If we can begin to curb the spread of malaria in high threat areas, the eventual reach of the disease will be seriously limited,? he added.
Due to global warming malaria has already returned to the areas such as
Peru that had already eradicated the disease forty years ago.
America saw 1,337 cases, including eight deaths, as recently as 2002 – the importance of developing a vaccine for the disease is becoming more and more urgent.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Global warming: latest evidence
Following is an encapsulation of the latest evidence on global warming, published in reports issued in February and early April by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The UN's top scientific authority on global warming is meeting in Bangkok this week and will issue its third report on Friday, this time touching on ways of tackling greenhouse-gases.
Past warming
■ Evidence for man's warming of the climate system is now unequivocal. From 1906 to 2005, global surface temperatures rose by 0.74 degrees.
■ Global warming over the past half century has been nearly twice that of the century as a whole, coinciding with a surge in greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Eleven of the past 12 years rank among the dozen warmest years on record.
■ Ocean warming now extends to a depth of at least 3000 metres as the seas take up heat from the air. Mountain glaciers and snow cover have declined in both hemispheres. Sea levels rose globally by 1.8 millimetres a year from 1961 to 2003, a pace that accelerated to 3.1 millimetres per year from 1993 to 2003.
■ The top layers of the Arctic permafrost have warmed by up to 3.0 degrees since the 1980s. The maximum area of seasonally frozen ground has decreased by about 7 per cent in the northern hemisphere since 1900.
Forecast for 21st century
■ By 2100, global average surface temperatures could rise by between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees compared with 1980-99 levels, depending on levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air. Within this range, the likeliest rise will be 1.8 to 4 degrees.
■ Sea levels will rise by between 18 and 59 centimetres, although this could be amplified by accelerating melting of icesheets.
■ Warming will occur most over land at high northern latitudes and least over the Southern Ocean and the North Atlantic.
■ Carbon emissions this century "will contribute to warming and sea level rise for more than a millennium", due to the timescale required for greenhouse gases to degrade.
Likely impacts this century
■ Heatwaves, flooding, drought, tropical storms and surges in sea level are among the events that "will become more frequent, more widespread and/or more intense" this century.
■ By mid-century, water availability is likely to increase in high latitudes but fall by up to 30 per cent in mid-latitudes and the dry tropics, some of which are already badly water stressed. Water from glaciers and snow melt is also projected to decline, reducing resources for regions where more than a sixth of the world population lives.
■ Between 20 and 30 per cent of plant and animal species are likely to be at increased risk of extinction if increases in global average temperature exceed 1.5 to 2.5 degrees.
■ Food production will rise slightly at mid to high latitudes if the global temperature increases 1 to 3 degrees but fall beyond this range. At lower latitudes, especially seasonally dry and tropical regions, crop productivity is projected to decrease for even small local temperature increases (1 to 2 degrees), which would increase the risk of hunger.
■ By the 2080s, sea level rise will place "many millions" of people at risk of flooding and tropical storms. The mega-deltas of Asia, Africa and small islands are the most vulnerable."
■ Malnutrition, deaths from heatwave, storms and drought, diarrhoea, malaria and other pest-borne diseases are some of the heightened risks.
Economic cost
■ There is no consensus on the cost of global warming, as calculations depend on different factors, such as storm damage and the impact on biodiversity. Every tonne of CO2 emitted into the air costs from $US10 to $US350 ($12 to $425), according to the estimates.
■ Investing money now in measures to cope with the future threat and reduce emissions could reduce and delay some of the impacts, although these actions are also limited by political, technical and financial constraints.
Between 20 and 30 per cent of plant and animal species are likely to be at increased risk of extinction if increases in global average temperature exceed 1.5 to 2.5 degrees.
■ Food production will rise slightly at mid to high latitudes if the global temperature increases 1 to 3 degrees but fall beyond this range. At lower latitudes, especially seasonally dry and tropical regions, crop productivity is projected to decrease for even small local temperature increases (1 to 2 degrees), which would increase the risk of hunger.
■ By the 2080s, sea level rise will place "many millions" of people at risk of flooding and tropical storms. The mega-deltas of Asia, Africa and small islands are the most vulnerable."
■ Malnutrition, deaths from heatwave, storms and drought, diarrhoea, malaria and other pest-borne diseases are some of the heightened risks.
Economic cost
■ There is no consensus on the cost of global warming, as calculations depend on different factors, such as storm damage and the impact on biodiversity. Every tonne of CO2 emitted into the air costs from $US10 to $US350 ($12 to $425), according to the estimates.
■ Investing money now in measures to cope with the future threat and reduce emissions could reduce and delay some of the impacts, although these actions are also limited by political, technical and financial constraints.
Environmental Alarms Raised Over Home Electronics
The choice might not be quite that stark, but an energy watchdog is alarmed about the threat to the environment from the soaring electricity needs of gadgets like MP3 players, mobile phones and flat screen TVs.
In a report Wednesday, the Paris-based International Energy Agency estimates new electronic gadgets will triple their energy consumption by 2030 to 1,700 terawatt hours, the equivalent of today's home electricity consumption of the United States and Japan combined.
The world would have to build around 200 new nuclear power plants just to power all the TVs, iPods, PCs and other home electronics expected to be plugged in by 2030, when the global electric bill to power them will rise to $200 billion a year, the IEA said.
Consumer electronics is "the fastest growing area and it's the area with the least amount
Electronic gadgets already account for about 15 percent of household electric consumption, a share that is rising rapidly as the number of these gadgets multiplies. Last year, the world spent $80 billion on electricity to power all these household electronics, the IEA said.
Most of the increase in consumer electronics will be in developing countries, where economic growth is fastest and ownership rates of gadgets is the lowest, Waide said.
"This will jeopardize efforts to increase energy security and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases" blamed for global warming, the agency said.
Existing technologies could slash gadgets' energy consumption by more than 30 percent at no cost or by more than 50 percent at a small cost, the IEA estimates, meaning total greenhouse gas emissions from households' electronic gadgets could be held stable at around 500 million tons of CO2 per year.
If nothing is done, this figure will double to around 1 billion tons of CO2 per year by 2030, the IEA estimates.
In a report Wednesday, the Paris-based International Energy Agency estimates new electronic gadgets will triple their energy consumption by 2030 to 1,700 terawatt hours, the equivalent of today's home electricity consumption of the United States and Japan combined.
The world would have to build around 200 new nuclear power plants just to power all the TVs, iPods, PCs and other home electronics expected to be plugged in by 2030, when the global electric bill to power them will rise to $200 billion a year, the IEA said.
Consumer electronics is "the fastest growing area and it's the area with the least amount
Electronic gadgets already account for about 15 percent of household electric consumption, a share that is rising rapidly as the number of these gadgets multiplies. Last year, the world spent $80 billion on electricity to power all these household electronics, the IEA said.
Most of the increase in consumer electronics will be in developing countries, where economic growth is fastest and ownership rates of gadgets is the lowest, Waide said.
"This will jeopardize efforts to increase energy security and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases" blamed for global warming, the agency said.
Existing technologies could slash gadgets' energy consumption by more than 30 percent at no cost or by more than 50 percent at a small cost, the IEA estimates, meaning total greenhouse gas emissions from households' electronic gadgets could be held stable at around 500 million tons of CO2 per year.
If nothing is done, this figure will double to around 1 billion tons of CO2 per year by 2030, the IEA estimates.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Climate Change in India
India sits on both sides of the table in climate change negotiations. Already the world's 4th largest emitter of greenhouse gases, its emissions are projected to treble by 2050 at current rates – a new coal-fired power station is scheduled to come on stream almost every month for the next 10 years. The country has no obligations under the Kyoto protocol and has stipulated that it is unwilling to agree to any targets that deny its right to per capita use of energy on a par with that of the current major emitting countries. Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, has said that social development is the first priority and that "the developing world cannot accept a freeze on global inequity". India's per capita carbon dioxide emissions are 1.1 tonnes per annum against 20 tonnes in the US. On the other hand, faultlines in India’s food security are deep enough already without the uncertain impact of climate change. With more than 60% of agriculture dependent on rain-fed crops, even modest alteration in the intensity, frequency and timing of rainfall should cause consternation. Greenpeace is striving to raise awareness by campaigning in India’s coastal cities where it says 50 million people are at risk from rising sea levels. Adaptation plans are conspicuous by their absence; the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra K. Pachauri, himself an Indian, has expressed the view that India is completely unprepared for the impact of climate change which he considers could lead to social unrest. Criticism of management of the 2008 monsoon floods which displaced 3 million people in Bihar alone, and which have been described as the worst for 50 years, may hold lessons for the future. Apart from rainfall patterns, water resources are threatened by the retreat of Himalayan glaciers which currently account for 85% of the source water of India’s 3 major rivers, in particular securing their flow in the summer months. Over 400 million people live in the catchment of the Ganges. Predictions that the glaciers could disappear within decades make a nonsense of the ambitious $200 billion River-Linking Project which aims to connect the apparently healthy rivers in the north to those in the drier south.
september edition of one world.net
september edition of one world.net
New Study: 10 Cool Global Warming Policies
The problem with “doing something” about climate change is that it is extraordinarily expensive to “green” the economy using the statist policies advocated by the enviro lobby and global warming alarmists.
What if there were ways to reduce America’s carbon footprint and increase wealth creation at the same time? It sounds too good to be true, but it’s not.
This week the National Center for Policy Analysis released “10 Cool Global Warming Policies,” a great new study by CEI’s Iain Murray and H. Sterling Burnett. They identify 10 simple policies that would simultaneously increase prosperity and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
What if there were ways to reduce America’s carbon footprint and increase wealth creation at the same time? It sounds too good to be true, but it’s not.
This week the National Center for Policy Analysis released “10 Cool Global Warming Policies,” a great new study by CEI’s Iain Murray and H. Sterling Burnett. They identify 10 simple policies that would simultaneously increase prosperity and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
Where the wild things are no more
At the National Wildlife Property Repository, only the imagination runs wild. Everything else is dead and lies on the crowded shelves of this warehouse outside Denver. There's a Hartmann's mountain zebra, its hide a rifle case -- the souvenir of a safari to southern Africa.
There are the alligators whose skins adorn eight pairs of $2,000 Air Force 1s, the scheme of a hip-hop-inspired importer.There are the black bears whose gallbladder bile was extracted and crystallized, a futile cure for hangovers and hemorrhoids.Some deaths here, however, defy imagining -- like that of the orangutan, whose skull, carved with decorative swirls and lightning bolts, is all that remains; or the caimans, standing on hind legs and holding silver trays like butlers; or the cheetah, with the frozen snarl and teardrop eyes.
Domestic and international laws protect roughly 5,000 animals against exploitation and extinction, and the National Wildlife Property Repository is the endpoint for all that is caught and confiscated by federal agencies in this country. Held for educational purposes, future undercover operations and possible use by the Smithsonian or other museums, the items in this building represent, in the words of one agent, nothing less than "the evil in mankind."The federal government may give the repository a fancy name, but it is really a mausoleum, a tomb for nearly 1.5 million mammals, insects, reptiles, birds and assorted sea life, testimony to one of the largest illegal, if not creepiest, trades in the world -- third behind drugs and guns -- worth an estimated $20 billion annually. Skinned, mounted, cut up and/or processed, the items arrive from U.S. Fish and Wildlife field offices around the country. Specialist Doni Sprague's job is to sort and document the pieces before wheeling them through the double doors and into a dusty oblivion.On a recent day she was processing a shipment of antiques from Detroit: opera glasses, snuff boxes, ink wells, each tricked out with elephant ivory or sea turtle shell.The seizure was nothing scandalous. An agent dropped in on an antiques store in the upscale suburb of Birmingham, Mich. He said he was a buyer, and he kept returning for the next few months until he learned that these particular items -- objets de vitrine as they're known in the antiques trade -- had been smuggled from England.In another age and era, they represented the privilege of empire. Today, they are a crime against the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act. In a plea bargain, the owner of the store agreed to pay a $15,000 fine and $10,000 to the Detroit Zoological Society's endangered species program.Sprague steps between a computer and the counter, bar-coding each item. The antiques gleam under the overhead lights, pictures of a diminished elegance. The illegal wildlife trade is colored by many shades of gray. Some violations are blatant: trafficking walrus tusks or polar bear skins. Others, such as selling these antiques, seem strangely innocent and are often prosecuted largely for the purpose of discouraging a potential market. Laws and regulations governing the trade cover the world like a net, tangled and knotted in an attempt to unite countries and cultures in one common mission. That mission -- to conserve ecosystems and save endangered and threatened species -- came of age in this country during the Nixon administration after nearly 200 years of vanishings. Birds that had once blanketed the sky, seals that had once crowded the Caribbean and sea turtles once so plentiful that a man could capture 100 in a single day off Cape Hatteras were gone or nearly gone, and Congress decided to act. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 put the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in charge of protecting various species. Two years later the national agenda took an international turn when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species was ratified. From the start, the Fish and Wildlife Service was overwhelmed by the task. The initial budget was $11 million, and no one could have imagined a need for the repository. Terry Grosz, at the time the endangered species desk officer for the Division of Law Enforcement, remembers being run ragged during those early days. Inadequate staffing and critics who wanted the Endangered Species Act declared unconstitutional added to the burden.The breaking point for Grosz occurred when 11,000 pounds of green sea turtle meat was intercepted in New York City. The importer said it belonged to the one turtle species that was not endangered. Grosz thought otherwise but had no way of proving it. The shipment was allowed into the country, a bitter loss that eventually led to the creation of a forensic laboratory in Ashland, Ore., that could provide DNA tests -- and positive identification -- of seized items. The lab opened in 1989 and is the only one of its kind in the world.
There are the alligators whose skins adorn eight pairs of $2,000 Air Force 1s, the scheme of a hip-hop-inspired importer.There are the black bears whose gallbladder bile was extracted and crystallized, a futile cure for hangovers and hemorrhoids.Some deaths here, however, defy imagining -- like that of the orangutan, whose skull, carved with decorative swirls and lightning bolts, is all that remains; or the caimans, standing on hind legs and holding silver trays like butlers; or the cheetah, with the frozen snarl and teardrop eyes.
Domestic and international laws protect roughly 5,000 animals against exploitation and extinction, and the National Wildlife Property Repository is the endpoint for all that is caught and confiscated by federal agencies in this country. Held for educational purposes, future undercover operations and possible use by the Smithsonian or other museums, the items in this building represent, in the words of one agent, nothing less than "the evil in mankind."The federal government may give the repository a fancy name, but it is really a mausoleum, a tomb for nearly 1.5 million mammals, insects, reptiles, birds and assorted sea life, testimony to one of the largest illegal, if not creepiest, trades in the world -- third behind drugs and guns -- worth an estimated $20 billion annually. Skinned, mounted, cut up and/or processed, the items arrive from U.S. Fish and Wildlife field offices around the country. Specialist Doni Sprague's job is to sort and document the pieces before wheeling them through the double doors and into a dusty oblivion.On a recent day she was processing a shipment of antiques from Detroit: opera glasses, snuff boxes, ink wells, each tricked out with elephant ivory or sea turtle shell.The seizure was nothing scandalous. An agent dropped in on an antiques store in the upscale suburb of Birmingham, Mich. He said he was a buyer, and he kept returning for the next few months until he learned that these particular items -- objets de vitrine as they're known in the antiques trade -- had been smuggled from England.In another age and era, they represented the privilege of empire. Today, they are a crime against the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act. In a plea bargain, the owner of the store agreed to pay a $15,000 fine and $10,000 to the Detroit Zoological Society's endangered species program.Sprague steps between a computer and the counter, bar-coding each item. The antiques gleam under the overhead lights, pictures of a diminished elegance. The illegal wildlife trade is colored by many shades of gray. Some violations are blatant: trafficking walrus tusks or polar bear skins. Others, such as selling these antiques, seem strangely innocent and are often prosecuted largely for the purpose of discouraging a potential market. Laws and regulations governing the trade cover the world like a net, tangled and knotted in an attempt to unite countries and cultures in one common mission. That mission -- to conserve ecosystems and save endangered and threatened species -- came of age in this country during the Nixon administration after nearly 200 years of vanishings. Birds that had once blanketed the sky, seals that had once crowded the Caribbean and sea turtles once so plentiful that a man could capture 100 in a single day off Cape Hatteras were gone or nearly gone, and Congress decided to act. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 put the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in charge of protecting various species. Two years later the national agenda took an international turn when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species was ratified. From the start, the Fish and Wildlife Service was overwhelmed by the task. The initial budget was $11 million, and no one could have imagined a need for the repository. Terry Grosz, at the time the endangered species desk officer for the Division of Law Enforcement, remembers being run ragged during those early days. Inadequate staffing and critics who wanted the Endangered Species Act declared unconstitutional added to the burden.The breaking point for Grosz occurred when 11,000 pounds of green sea turtle meat was intercepted in New York City. The importer said it belonged to the one turtle species that was not endangered. Grosz thought otherwise but had no way of proving it. The shipment was allowed into the country, a bitter loss that eventually led to the creation of a forensic laboratory in Ashland, Ore., that could provide DNA tests -- and positive identification -- of seized items. The lab opened in 1989 and is the only one of its kind in the world.
UK 'must plan' for warmer future
Launching the UK Climate Projections 2009 report (UKCP09), Mr Benn told MPs that the UK climate will change even with a global deal on emissions.
By 2080, London will be between 2C and 6C hotter than it is now, he said.
Every part of the UK is likely to be wetter in winter and drier in summer, according to the projections.
Summer rainfall could decrease by about 20% in the south of England and in Yorkshire and Humberside by the middle of the century.Scotland and the north-west of England could see winter rainfall increase by a similar amount.
The government hopes UKCP09 will allow citizens, local authorities and businesses to plan for future decades.
It uses computer models of the world's climate to make projections of parameters such as temperature, rainfall and wind.
"Climate change is going to transform the way we live," said Mr Benn.
"These projections show us the future we need to avoid, and the future we need to plan for."
By 2080, London will be between 2C and 6C hotter than it is now, he said.
Every part of the UK is likely to be wetter in winter and drier in summer, according to the projections.
Summer rainfall could decrease by about 20% in the south of England and in Yorkshire and Humberside by the middle of the century.Scotland and the north-west of England could see winter rainfall increase by a similar amount.
The government hopes UKCP09 will allow citizens, local authorities and businesses to plan for future decades.
It uses computer models of the world's climate to make projections of parameters such as temperature, rainfall and wind.
"Climate change is going to transform the way we live," said Mr Benn.
"These projections show us the future we need to avoid, and the future we need to plan for."
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