photo by Oceloto (Flickr CC)

I first heard about the Salton Sea via a couple of documentaries focusing on pollution and economic collapse. One, VBS TV’s ‘TOXIC Imperial Valley’ shows the Salton Sea and surrounding area as a polluted wasteland populated by a few rugged individualists, stragglers and diehards. The millions of fish in the Salton Sea are dying off and the once playground for California’s rich and famous is now some kind of post-apocalypse Mad Max landscape dotted with abandoned tourist traps as well as a derelict military base. Honestly, it’s just the kind of thing that gets my imagination running.

But are things really that bad in Imperial Valley, California?

The Salton Sea was an accidental feat of ‘human engineering’ that occurred in 1900 when irrigation canals were diverted from the Colorado River in order to facilitate farming in the Salton Sink, a dried out lake bed and salt sink. For a while it was farmland, but increased snowmelt and heavy rainfall caused the Colorado to flood, eventually creating an accidental sea.

The Salton Sea was stocked with fish, which flourished, helping to make it a top tourist destination for Californians, who fished, camped and water-skied to their hearts’ content. It’s also warm in winter and has the picturesque Chocolate Mountains as a backdrop.

But the salinity increased, making it impossible for many species of fish to survive. Algae and plankton also increased, resulting in an unpleasant smell.

Now, as a part of the State of California’s budget cuts, the Salton Sea State Recreation Area is set to be closed – along with 60 other state parks in Riverside County alone.

Residents and enthusiasts who enjoy the Salton Sea oppose the closure plans, arguing the merits of the park as a bird sanctuary and claiming that the rumors of pollution are inaccurate.

Check out this piece in the Los Angeles Times for more and read about the campaign to save Salton Sea State Recreation Area here.

indigenous 'water laws' protest in Ecuador, 2010; photo by Lou Gold (visionshare on Flickr CC)

A rainbow coalition of indigenous groups and social/political activists recently hit the streets of Quito, the capital of Ecuador, in protest of large-scale mining projects approved by the country’s president Rafael Correa.

Correa praised the Chinese mining project, claiming they will bring 50,000 jobs and billions in revenue.

Though Correa is popular in Ecuador, the project is facing opposition.

Ecuador has already suffered a massive oil spill in the Amazon region, and some 50% of the country is already covered by mining and oil extraction projects. So Ecuadorans are understandably wary of more major mining operations.

See the following video report from Al Jazeera English for more:

Far away and on a much smaller scale, Yorkshire in northern England is also in the throws of what looks to be a mining revival. This time it’s potash in the region’s North York Moors National Park.

Though most press on the recent discovery of large, high quality potash deposits in Yorkshire has been positive, one video report by Deutsche Welle addresses the potential environmental impacts of mining.

And it’s not just a question of 5,000 jobs vs. spoiling the sights of a beloved national park. There are also issues of pollution to consider.

Environmentalists fear that building the huge mine and the countless tons of waste material that will be produced will destroy part of the national park. The mayors of surrounding communities, in contrast, are celebrating. They hope that, after decades of decline, the pits could provide new impetus for reviving the local economy.

– Deutsche Welle

Check out the video report for more:

photo by AgentX-2-0 (Flickr CC)

So far this year poachers have killed 265 rhinos in South Africa, quickly approaching last year’s record 333 killings. To put this number in perspective, only 13 rhinos were poached in 2007.

The cause for this carnage is the skyrocketing trade in rhino horn, due to the false belief that it cures cancer, headaches and fever. This unscientific notion is widespread in China, as well as in some communities in South East Asia, where increased affluence is fueling the illegal rhino horn market.

Poachers use sophisticated military equipment and helicopters to enter wildlife reserves, like Kruger National Park in South Africa, where they shoot the rhinos with tranquilizers and then brutally remove the horns. The rhinos sometimes live for hours, walking and bleeding, before finally dying.

Poachers also risk their own lives for this gruesome crime. 17 have been killed so far this year in Kruger park alone from gun battles with park rangers.

From the New Zealand Herald:

There are an estimated 25,000 rhinos left in Africa. About 20,800 are in South Africa, of which 19,000 are white and 1800 black.

Recently, an international agreement with the aim of fighting the illegal trade in rhino horns was reached at the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species in Geneva, Switzerland.

The deal, which includes public awareness campaigns and the sharing of intelligence and law enforcement between countries, was secured under the leadership of the UK.

UK environment secretary, Caroline Spelman is quoted in the Guardian:

Criminals trading in rhino horn have lined their pockets while bringing this magnificent animal to the brink of extinction, but their days are now numbered. We will be leading global action to clamp down on this cruel and archaic trade, and to dispel the myths peddled to vulnerable people that drive demand for rhino products.

Violent human and rhino deaths, criminality and enormous sums of money wasted for a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) “cure” that does absolutely nothing. Let’s hope education and more effective policing help eradicate this ignorant and violent business.

In a bizarre twist, a single “Irish crime gang” is believed by Europol to be responsible or a spate of rhino horn thefts from natural history museums throughout Europe.

photo by Qiao-Da-Ye賽門譙大爺 (Flickr CC)

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my travels on the continent it’s this: Europeans love bubbly water.

I’m not sure why, as it tickles the nose and tastes weird. Plus you can’t chug it if you’re really hot and thirsty or you might commit the unforgivable faux pas of belching loudly in a Parisian park.

It just so happens that in an attempt to discourage bottled water consumption, the Jardin de Reuilly in Paris has installed a fountain dispensing free chilled carbonated water. In case you didn’t know, the bottled water industry in many developed countries is basically a scam selling you stuff that you can get virtually free from your tap. It creates a huge unnecessary amount of plastic waste and shipping it requires massive amounts of fuel, creating untold greenhouse gas emissions.

From an article in the Guardian:

With the average person drinking 28 gallons [106 liters] of still or sparkling last year, France is the eighth biggest consumer of bottled water in the world, according to figures from the Earth Policy Institute. Observers warn that this habit, which has persevered in many households despite public campaigns to improve the image of l’eau de robinet, is having pernicious effects on the environment: the country is estimated to have produced more than 262,000 tonnes of plastic waste during 2009.

I guess it’s fitting that the French would think of a way to discourage something that they basically created. The yuppie craze to consume Perrier in the 1980s and 90s started this entire mess, followed by Evian and eventually resulting in everyone in the developed world insisting on only drinking water that comes from plastic PET bottles. The U.S. is the largest consumer of bottled water, followed by Mexico, Brazil and China. Those living in the last three can at least argue that their water might not always be that safe, but in the U.S., as in France, it’s just the result of very effective industry brainwashing – and perhaps the aforementioned penchant for bubbles in the case of the latter.

Check out Annie Leonard’s brilliant video ‘The Story of Bottled Water’ for more on why the hell we drink so much of the stuff and the following video report from ITN News on the bubbly fountain in Paris’ Jardin de Reuilly park.

photo by dcmaster (Flickr CC)

‘The Performance’ is a disturbing, but important film about animal abuse in China’s zoos, circuses and animal parks.

In conjunction with a new report by Hong Kong-based Animals Asia, ‘The Performance’ exposes the cruel treatment of animals such as black bears, big cats, monkeys and elephants for the entertainment of live audiences, who are unaware of the suffering they are supporting. The film is part of an effort to get animal welfare legislation laws – of which there are none in China – drafted and passed.

Beaten throughout its life, declawed, de-toothed and kept in unsanitary conditions – this is the life of a Chinese circus animal.

Watch ‘The Performance’, hosted by Terry Waite, British humanitarian and former hostage of 4 years:

Additional resources:

Environment Films – The Performance

Animals Asia – Cruel and abusive practices at Chinese zoos, report says

photo by the justified sinner (Flickr CC)

Plans to reopen an abandoned goldmine and build a processing plant in Scotland’s Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park have been rejected.

Opposition from conservationists, countryside groups and the park’s own director of planning has won out against Scotgold Resources argument for jobs and economic gain.

The convener of Scotland’s National Park authority acknowledged that there are compelling arguments on both sides of the issue, but concluded that issues of conservation outweighed the potential economic benefits of the mine.

From a BBC News report:

Our main concern lay with the design, scale and visual impact of the waste management facility which would hold 820,000 tonnes of slurry waste.

–Dr Mike Cantlay, convener, National Park Authority

Scotgold was understandably disappointed at the decision, which passed by a vote of 12 to 10. The firm’s Australian parent company had invested millions of dollars in the project.

Mining plans were motivated by high gold prices and growing demand for both gold and silver. The mine site, Cononish, is located in the northeast portion of the park near the village of Tyndrum in the Stirling area of Scotland.

For more on the story, see the following article in the Guardian:

Scottish gold mine turned down at Loch Lomond

photo by Beth M527 (Flickr Creative Commons)

All that glitters isn’t… well, you know. Some of it is babbling brooks and lush rolling hills adorned with blossoming heather; or sparkling lakes populated by picturesque islands of greenery. Can’t you just hear the bagpipes’ mournful drone?

Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park is located on the boundary between the Scottish Highlands and the lowlands of Central Scotland. It contains the UK’s largest lake – Loch Lomond – which in turn contains the largest freshwater island in the British Isles.

Increasing international demand for gold is placing some of this national treasure at risk from an Australian-owned mining firm.

From a report in the Guardian:

With gold prices soaring, the mining company Scotgold wants to dig out 700kg of gold and 17 tonnes of silver a year over the next decade from an unworked mine called Cononish, which sits near Tyndrum, just inside the north-eastern boundary of the national park.

Though local government is behind Scotgold’s proposals to mine in Loch Lomond Park, conservationists, countryside groups – and now the park’s director of planning, Gordon Watson – are opposed.

Watson believes the environmental damage would be ‘acute’ and ‘significant’ while the economic gains of the mine would be temporary and marginal in the long term.

From an article in the Scotsman:

Mr Watson also said the proposal went against the aims of the National Park designation within the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000, which says where there is conflict the aims of conservation must be paramount.

Scotgold’s director argues that the mine would be temporary, be of significant economic benefit to the area and that its structures would fit well into the natural landscape.

Additional resources:

BBC News – Cononish gold mine plans ‘should be refused’

photo by Ian Turk (Turkinator on Flickr Creative Commons)

The last female rhino at Krugersdorp Nature Reserve in South Africa was killed by poachers on Wednesday. The poachers are suspected to have entered the game reserve – near South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg – by helicopter, where they then shot the white rhino cow with tranquilizers before cutting off her horn with a chainsaw.

This latest killing marks the 136^th rhino in South Africa that has been murdered for its horn this year – already more than last year’s total of 129, suggesting that the number of killings this year will double.

The sophistication of the operation leaves conservationists at a loss about how to deal with the new breed of poachers.

From an article in the Telegraph:

Highly-trained operatives, possibly ex-soldiers, are then being flown into parks by helicopter, and armed with specialised veterinary drugs and darting guns, chainsaws and automatic weapons. Who is possibly resourced to deal with that?

–Cathy Dean, Save the Rhino International

Methods such as safely carving off rhino horns in order to make the animals less valuable to poachers are controversial because they leave the animals without their main means of self-defense.

Rhino horns are used in traditional Chinese medicine as well as in the handles of ornamental daggers in the Middle East. Soaring demand for rhino horn – particularly in China and Vietnam – is attributed to Asia’s recent economic growth.

From an article in the Observer:

The committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) warned yesterday that rhino poaching had reached an all-time high. The Cites conference in Geneva heard that Asia’s economic expansion had fuelled the market in rhino horns.

According to a report in The Star newspaper (South Africa) the slain white rhino in Krugersdorp Park left behind a young calf. The calf has since been captured and is awaiting transfer to another facility where it will be introduced to other rhinos.

Graham Land

source: marekkohn.tk

Marek Kohn is a British science writer who has written about topics including evolution and drug use. In his latest book, Turned Out Nice: How the British Isles will Change as the World Heats Up, Kohn takes on the topic of climate change and how Britain and Ireland might turn out after a century of global warming.

A review in the Independent summarizes Kohn’s vision of London 2100′s:

His account of London is sobering. The best guess is that the metropolis will become as much of a meteorological as a cultural hotspot, with summer temperatures regularly in the 40s. Parks will become largely denuded of grass and all remaining green space will be zealously conserved, while vigilant thermal surveillance satellites hunt down illegal air-conditioning plants.

An excerpt from Turned Out Nice describing summertime London 90 years into the future can also be read in Sunday’s Independent. The city is 7C hotter with crowded parks, spongy water-absorbent pavements and ‘climate ghettos’ populated by the refugees of global warming. In 2100, climate change has not just influenced physical conditions like weather and infrastructure, but has put its mark on the UK’s social, political, economic and cultural norms:

While they are nowadays diffident about politics in general, citizens are often ardent in their devotion to civic duties on their own doorsteps. Having accepted that environmental responsibility demands self-sacrifice, they watch their neighbours like hawks for signs of slacking or self-indulgence. Believing also that in crowded communities, harmony depends on the suppression of disturbance or inconvenience, they are ever ready to explain this to neighbours who have left toys in their front gardens or music playing with windows open. New arrivals from overseas receive extensive guidance about local customs, to which they rapidly learn to conform.

Back in the present, British climate change books are not as hot as the future Marek Kohn presents. Though Ian McEwan’s latest novel, Solar, recently won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize at the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts, a Guardian report from the festival describes novelists as often reluctant to politicize their art. This is understandable – creating a good novel gets that much harder when you have an agenda that has to be backed up by up-to-date scientific research. This makes readable science books all the more important.

by Graham Land

Additional resources:

Marek Kohn

Who's eating who? Photo by Lori Oberhofer, National Park Service; public domain

It’s not a holiday advertisement for a rugged getaway, but rather a somewhat desperate move by the Florida state government to control what they see as a threat to their state’s fragile eco-system.

I guess hunting pythons is sexier than a moratorium on the construction of new McMansions in the Everglades – and less controversial. Half of the state of Florida’s famed subtropical wetlands have been turned into farmland or urban areas according to a 1999 geological survey by the US government. Furthermore, only half of that half is a protected national park.

Still, invasive species are leaving their mark on the ecology of the Everglades and the psychology of Floridians.

From an article in the Guardian:

Nobody knows how many pythons or other large constrictors are on the loose, or exactly how they got out into the wild. Estimates run as high as 100,000. State wildlife officials are hoping a significant slice of the population froze to death in February’s extreme cold spell but they admit their evidence is spotty.

I’m assuming they got there the same way all the stray housecats – not scary, but still destructive – monitor lizards, iguanas, exotic fishes, dogs and ferrets did: People couldn’t be bothered to take care of their pets anymore and dumped them there.

The hunt, which began in early march and excludes Everglades National Park land, has so far resulted in not one single python kill.

Perhaps the proposed ban from the Obama administration on both importing constrictors into the US and transporting them between states might have more of an effect. Then again, maybe all these invasive species are here to stay. Aside from the unseasonable cold snap experienced this winter, Florida gives them plenty of sun, food and places to hide from hunters.

by Graham Land