Indonesia's ambitious plan to reforest 2M ha annually

Indonesia’s new government has ambitious reforestation plans. President Joko Widodo’s election campaign included a commitment to reforest 2 million hectares of degraded land annually. 

Depending on tree planting density, that requires some four billion tree seedlings to be grown, planted, and maintained, or about 20 trees for every Indonesian. Bold plans indeed. 

One challenge is that Indonesia has some 83 million hectares or 63 percent of its forest estate in deforested or degraded conditions. So, there is a lot of potential reforestation land to choose from. Where then are the best places to start? 

A recent study led by Sugeng Budiharta of the Center of Excellence for Environmental Decisions at the University of Queensland and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) provides useful guidance for locating the most cost-effective reforestation areas. The paper published in the journal Environmental Research Letters assessed where to best allocate funding for restoration in the provinces of East and North Kalimantan. 

One major finding of the study is that restoring highly degraded areas is the most cost-effective option, as opposed to planting trees in lightly degraded forest areas. This is interesting because it is often the highly degraded areas that are converted to other land-uses such as oil palm, because the government considers them of limited economic value. The new study indicates, however, that the government should seriously reconsider the reforestation option for these lands. 

Reforestation is urgently needed in many places in Indonesia, especially where the land is in a critical state. These are often areas with lots of rain, sleep slopes, and fragile soils. A good example is an upland watershed just west of Bandung, where I frequently work. The area’s deep river valleys and steep slopes are under the management of Perhutani, the state plantation company. They have, however, been almost entirely deforested by a combination of illegal logging, ineffective plantation management and small-scale slash-and-burn agriculture. Soil erosion rates are high and the steeper slopes are rapidly turning into rocky areas with minimum soil cover and little or no agricultural potential. 

Reforestation seems the only option to prevent serious socio-ecological impacts in such vulnerable areas. It would stabilize soils, reduce erosion and reduce downstream flooding risks. If the right trees are chosen, communities could obtain income from tree products rather than the lemon grass now grown on these eroding slopes. Reforestation is also the only chance of saving the handful of Javan leopards, Javan gibbons, Javan slow lorises and other species of highly endangered wildlife in the area. 

 

Planting trees is relatively easy, but the real tricky part of reforestation is to keep the trees alive after they have been planted and allowing them to grow. Reforestation is needed because someone decided to cut down forest in the first place. So, apparently, people in the area don’t care that much about standing trees. How then do you make sure that planted seedlings are cared for and protected? 

Community-based programs are one way. Planting multi-purpose tree species, such as fast growing timber species, fruit trees, and fuel woods provides both ecological benefits of reforestation and economic benefits to communities. If these new forests provide more income than the communities would get without the forest, there is a chance that long-term community management might work. This would only be possible if communities actually had legal land title and use rights to the land and forests. But such legal rights remain rare within the government’s Forest Estate, reducing incentives for long-term community management. Policy change on who actually owns Indonesia’s forest would be one requirement for successful, large-scale reforestation programs. 

Another reforestation option is the Ecosystem Restoration Concessions (ERC), a restoration program funded by private investments. Prioritizing highly degraded land for ERC’s would draw private funding into ecological restoration. The Harapan rainforest in Sumatra, the first ERC, is an example of how a logged-over timber concession can be turned into a haven for species such as tigers who try to survive in a sea of plantations. 

There is snag though. Indonesia had the ambitious target of developing 2.5 million hectares of ERC by 2014, but so far less than 0.5 million hectares have been granted. There is obviously some catching up to. 

The above makes it clear that successfully reforesting 2 million hectares of degraded land every year will require large and well-guided investments. Past experiences with reforestation indicate that there is plenty of room for error and wasted funds.  

Planning reforestation carefully targeting the best areas, is a first step. Ensuring that someone on the ground is going to care about the planted trees for several decades to come, is another requirement. 

With the rainy season coming and low lying cities like Jakarta once again exposed to floods, Indonesia urgently needs effective reforestation, as part of a comprehensive program to maintain crucial environmental services in the country. With deforestation rates declining and reforestation rates increasing, the forest estate and its valuable resources would eventually stabilize. Only then might the sustainable land and natural resource management that the government is committed to become possible. 

The country is on the right track, but it has some way to go developing reforestation programs that work. 

http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1205-meijaard-rps-indonesia-reforestation.html#sthash.2T9b7oqK.dpbs

Study demonstrates that organic farming accumulates carbon in the soil

By. Kai Kreuzer


Organic farming contributes to the sequestration of carbon in the soil and thus helps to mitigate climate change. This is the conclusion arrived at by a group of international climate experts. Under the leadership of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), the group evaluated for the first time data contained in 74 studies from around the world.
These studies measured soil organic carbon in organic and conventional farming systems. The results of the metaanalysis have now been published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Their analysis of the various studies has shown that the level of carbon stocks in organically managed soil is, on average, 3.5 t per hectare higher than on non-organically managed land.

Based on 20 studies, the researchers calculated that organically managed land can store up to 450 kg more atmospheric carbon per hectare and year. Significantly higher carbon stocks were shown to be present in farms that did not import fertilizers from outside. This shows that enhancing humus content and carbon sequestration in a closed nutrient cycle – the goal of organic farming – is certainly possible. The authors of the study emphasize that, although the closed organic cycle is a typical feature of organic farming, it can also be applied in conventional land management and thus contribute to alleviating damage to the climate.

„Enhanced top soil carbon stocks under organic farming. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)" was published by the authors A. Gattinger, A. Mueller, M. Haeni, C. Skinner, A. Fliessbach, N. Buchmann, P. Mäder, M. Stolze, P. Smith, N. El-Hage Scialabba and U. Niggli (2012).

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Climate change will shake the Earth

The idea that a changing climate can persuade the ground to shake, volcanoes to rumble and tsunamis to crash on to unsuspecting coastlines seems, at first, to be bordering on the insane. How can what happens in the thin envelope of gas that shrouds and protects our world possibly influence the potentially Earth-shattering processes that operate deep beneath the surface? The fact that it does reflects a failure of our imagination and a limited understanding of the manner in which the different physical components of our planet – the atmosphere, the oceans, and the solid Earth, or geosphere – intertwine and interact.

If we think about climate change at all, most of us do so in a very simplistic way: so, the weather might get a bit warmer; floods and droughts may become more of a problem and sea levels will slowly creep upwards. Evidence reveals, however, that our planet is an almost unimaginably complicated beast, which reacts to a dramatically changing climate in all manner of different ways; a few – like the aforementioned – straightforward and predictable; some surprising and others downright implausible. Into the latter category fall the manifold responses of the geosphere.

The world we inhabit has an outer rind that is extraordinarily sensitive to change. While the Earth's crust may seem safe and secure, the geological calamities that happen with alarming regularity confirm that this is not the case. Here in the UK, we only have to go back a couple years to April 2010, when the word on everyone's lips was Eyjafjallajökull – the ice-covered Icelandic volcano that brought UK and European air traffic to a grinding halt. Less than a year ago, our planet's ability to shock and awe headed the news once again as the east coast of Japan was bludgeoned by a cataclysmic combination of megaquake and tsunami, resulting – at a quarter of a trillion dollars or so – in the biggest natural-catastrophe bill ever.

In the light of such events, it somehow seems appropriate to imagine the Earth beneath our feet as a slumbering giant that tosses and turns periodically in response to various pokes and prods. Mostly, these are supplied by the stresses and strains associated with the eternal dance of a dozen or so rocky tectonic plates across the face of our world; a sedate waltz that proceeds at about the speed that fingernails grow. Changes in the environment too, however, have a key role to play in waking the giant, as growing numbers of geological studies targeting our post-ice age world have disclosed.

Between about 20,000 and 5,000 years ago, our planet underwent an astonishing climatic transformation. Over the course of this period, it flipped from the frigid wasteland of deepest and darkest ice age to the – broadly speaking – balmy, temperate world upon which our civilisation has developed and thrived. During this extraordinarily dynamic episode, as the immense ice sheets melted and colossal volumes of water were decanted back into the oceans, the pressures acting on the solid Earth also underwent massive change. In response, the crust bounced and bent, rocking our planet with a resurgence in volcanic activity, a proliferation of seismic shocks and burgeoning giant landslides.

The most spectacular geological effects were reserved for high latitudes. Here, the crust across much of northern Europe and North America had been forced down by hundreds of metres and held at bay for tens of thousands of years beneath the weight of sheets of ice 20 times thicker than the height of the London Eye. As the ice dissipated in soaring temperatures, the crust popped back up like a coiled spring released, at the same time tearing open major faults and triggering great earthquakes in places where they are unheard of today. Even now, the crust underpinning those parts of Europe and North America formerly imprisoned beneath the great continental ice sheets continues to rise – albeit at a far more sedate rate.

As last year's events in Japan most ably demonstrated, when the ground shakes violently beneath the sea, a tsunami may not be far behind. These unstoppable walls of water are hardly a surprise when they happen within the so-called ring of fire that encompasses the Pacific basin but in the more tectonically benign North Atlantic their manifestation could reasonably be regarded as a bit of a shock. Nonetheless, there is plenty of good, hard evidence that this was the case during post-glacial times. Trapped within the thick layers of peat that pass for soil on Shetland – the UK's northernmost outpost – are intrusions of sand that testify to the inland penetration of three tsunamis during the last 10,000 years.

Volcanic blasts too can be added to the portfolio of postglacial geological pandemonium; the warming climate being greeted by an unprecedented fiery outburst that wracked Iceland as its frozen carapace dwindled, and against which the recent ashy ejaculation from the island's most unpronounceable volcano pales.

The huge environmental changes that accompanied the rapid post-glacial warming of our world were not confined to the top and bottom of the planet. All that meltwater had to go somewhere, and as the ice sheets dwindled, so the oceans grew. An astounding 52m cubic kilometres of water was sucked from the oceans to form the ice sheets, causing sea levels to plummet by about 130 metres – the height of the Wembley stadium arch. As the ice sheets melted so this gigantic volume of water was returned, bending the crust around the margins of the ocean basins under the enormous added weight, and provoking volcanoes in the vicinity to erupt and faults to rupture, bringing geological mayhem to regions remote from the ice's polar fastnesses.

The breathtaking response of the geosphere as the great ice sheets crumbled might be considered as providing little more than an intriguing insight into the prehistoric workings of our world, were it not for the fact that our planet is once again in the throes an extraordinary climatic transformation – this time brought about by human activities. Clearly, the Earth of the early 21st century bears little resemblance to the frozen world of 20,000 years ago. Today, there are no great continental ice sheets to dispose of, while the ocean basins are already pretty much topped up. On the other hand, climate change projections repeatedly support the thesis that global average temperatures could rise at least as rapidly in the course of the next century or so as during post-glacial times, reaching levels at high latitudes capable of driving catastrophic breakup of polar ice sheets as thick as those that once covered much of Europe and North America. Could it be then, that if we continue to allow greenhouse gas emissions to rise unchecked and fuel serious warming, our planet's crust will begin to toss and turn once again?

The signs are that this is already happening. In the detached US state of Alaska, where climate change has propelled temperatures upwards by more than 3C in the last half century, the glaciers are melting at a staggering rate, some losing up to 1km in thickness in the last 100 years. The reduction in weight on the crust beneath is allowing faults contained therein to slide more easily, promoting increased earthquake activity in recent decades. The permafrost that helps hold the state's mountain peaks together is also thawing rapidly, leading to a rise in the number of giant rock and ice avalanches. In fact, in mountainous areas around the world, landslide activity is on the up; a reaction both to a general ramping-up of global temperatures and to the increasingly frequent summer heatwaves.

Whether or not Alaska proves to be the "canary in the cage" – the geological shenanigans there heralding far worse to come – depends largely upon the degree to which we are successful in reducing the ballooning greenhouse gas burden arising from our civilisation's increasingly polluting activities, thereby keeping rising global temperatures to a couple of degrees centigrade at most. So far, it has to be said, there is little cause for optimism, emissions rocketing by almost 6% in 2010 when the world economy continued to bump along the bottom. Furthermore, the failure to make any real progress on emissions control at last December's Durban climate conference ensures that the outlook is bleak. Our response to accelerating climate change continues to be consistently asymmetric, in the sense that it is far below the level that the science says is needed if we are to have any chance of avoiding the all-pervasive devastating consequences.

So what – geologically speaking – can we look forward to if we continue to pump out greenhouse gases at the current hell-for-leather rate? With resulting global average temperatures likely to be several degrees higher by this century's end, we could almost certainly say an eventual goodbye to the Greenland ice sheet, and probably that covering West Antarctica too, committing us – ultimately – to a 10-metre or more hike in sea levels.

GPS measurements reveal that the crust beneath the Greenland ice sheet is already rebounding in response to rapid melting, providing the potential – according to researchers – for future earthquakes, as faults beneath the ice are relieved of their confining load. The possibility exists that these could trigger submarine landslides spawning tsunamis capable of threatening North Atlantic coastlines. Eastern Iceland is bouncing back too as its Vatnajökull ice cap fades away. When and if it vanishes entirely, new research predicts a lively response from the volcanoes currently residing beneath. A dramatic elevation in landslide activity would be inevitable in the Andes, Himalayas, European Alps and elsewhere, as the ice and permafrost that sustains many mountain faces melts and thaws.

Across the world, as sea levels climb remorselessly, the load-related bending of the crust around the margins of the ocean basins might – in time – act to sufficiently "unclamp" coastal faults such as California's San Andreas, allowing them to move more easily; at the same time acting to squeeze magma out of susceptible volcanoes that are primed and ready to blow.

The bottom line is that through our climate-changing activities we are loading the dice in favour of escalating geological havoc at a time when we can most do without it. Unless there is a dramatic and completely unexpected turnaround in the way in which the human race manages itself and the planet, then long-term prospects for our civilisation look increasingly grim. At a time when an additional 220,000 people are lining up at the global soup kitchen each and every night; when energy, water and food resources are coming under ever-growing pressure, and when the debilitating effects of anthropogenic climate change are insinuating themselves increasingly into every nook and cranny of our world and our lives, the last thing we need is for the dozing subterranean giant to awaken.

Bill McGuire is professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London. Waking the Giant: How a Changing Climate Triggers Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Volcanoes is published by Oxford University Press. 

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Coke Makes 100% Recycling Pledge for 2012 Olympics

Coca-Cola has promised to recycle all clear plastic PET bottles used at the London 2012 Olympics, according to news reports.

The company has partnered with Sita UK, the waste management partner of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog), and aims to recycle the materials into 80 million new Coke bottles within six weeks of the games ending, Marketing reports.

Coke will recycle its own bottles as well as those of other companies.

Locog has a target of zero waste to landfill and has pledged that at least 70 percent of all waste will be reused, recycled or composted. Coke says its own recycling will account for about a fifth of consumer waste produced at the Olympic Park.

In March Coca-Cola Enterprises and ECO Plastics formed a joint venture to develop a facility to more than double the amount of PET bottles recycled in Great Britain.

The Lincolnshire facility will raise the amount of PET bottles recycled from 35,000 tons last year to more than 75,000 tons when the plant is fully operational in 2012. Coca-Cola said the move will supply it with enough material to meet its target of including 25 percent recycled PET in all its plastic packaging in Great Britain by next year.

But across the pond, the company’s joint-venture recycling plant in Spartanburg, S.C., has been plagued by difficulties, closing for restructuring, laying off workers and then re-opening.

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DHL Launches ‘Carbon Dashboard’ Emissions Tracker

DHL Global Forwarding has launched the GoGreen Carbon Dashboard, a service for its freight customers to track carbon emissions in their supply chain.

 

The system records carbon emissions coming from both DHL and third party sources, in an effort to provide users with a single carbon measurement platform, the freight firm says.

DHL says that the dashboard uses a “internationally recognized public standard” to calculate carbon emissions and treats CO₂ as an integrated business parameter, putting it into relation with other supply chain parameters such as volume shipped, product density and trade lane efficiency.

The dashboard also enables customers to dry run various carbon reduction scenarios using real data (pictured) and explore the effectiveness of different options for carbon reduction, DHL says. The Carbon Dashboard’s CO2 mapping is web-based and available instantly.

“Up to 50 percent of the carbon footprint of a product comes from the supply chain,” vice president of green strategy Kathrin Brost said. “DHL Global Forwarding, Freight now offers its customers a best-in-class tool to gain transparency on the carbon efficiency within their supply chain. In the future, carbon will become a global currency and DHL makes it easy for companies to integrate it in their balance sheet.”

DHL is committed to improving its carbon efficiency by 10 percent by 2012 and by 30 percent by 2020, against a 2007 base.

As a part of this commitment, in April the freight firm announced that it was introducing 30 electric vans and 50 hybrid trucks to its Manhattan fleet in an initiative that it said will cut CO2 emissions by over 50 percent, compared to traditional vans and trucks. The vehicles should all hit the streets by September 2011.

Both types of vehicles will be manufactured in the U.S. by Azure Dynamics and will use Ford chassis. DHL’s existing Ford E450s will be converted into hybrids, improving fuel economy by up to 40 percent while reducing emissions by about 30 percent, DHL said.

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India's 'recycled' school teaches environmental lessons

JAMKHANDIKAR (PUNE): On a regular school day, four-year-old Kush Bhattacharya can leave his mathematics class to run barefoot on grass, hide from his friends in a cave made of cow dung and return to recite nursery rhymes in a red bus that doubles up as a classroom.

Kush is a student at the Aman Setu school in Pune, an educational and technological hub three hours drive from Mumbai.

Almost every part of the school premises is made out of recycled material, including roofs made out of old hoardings, walls built from plastic bottles and hand-stitched uniforms made out of eco-friendly 'khadi', or handspun, cloth.

"It isn't a marketing thing, it's what we believe and how we live," says Madhavi Kapur, who started the school in 2008 with just four students. The school now has more than 140 students studying up to grade five.

"We didn't have too much money to begin with, and one of my (former) students, who is an architect came up with the idea of using recycled materials to build the school on a piece of land leased to me by my brother," she said.

Starting off with a modest 600,000 rupees ($13,500) Kapur and architect Saurabh Phadke devised ways to build walls from mud and old cement bags. They were then tamped down and plastered with mud.

Consisting of just two one-storeyed structures which house four classrooms, students at Aman Setu, which means bridge of peace, sit on rattan mats on a cowdung-plastered floor, use text books handed down from other students and grow their own vegetables in a small garden.

Children get to feed fish in a tank, watch a robin's egg hatch and travel to school by community transport - all in an effort to make them more environmentally conscious.

Kapur also acquired an old bus from the government transport authority, stripped it down, and refurbished it as a classroom.

"We don't mind them walking out of a maths class, feeding their favourite fish, taking a barefoot walk in the grass and then coming back in. We want them to be one with the surroundings," says teacher Bano Bhagwat, as she teaches a gaggle of excited kids how to make lemonade.

It might sound like a school straight out of a fairy tale, but it wasn't all smooth sailing.

"Parents weren't willing to send their kids to a school which had an old bus doubling up as a classroom. We started off with just four students, and I've had a hard time convincing parents that it was a safe environment" Kapur said.

Now that the school has grown she has an entirely different problem persuading parents that they should not tear down the concrete building down the road -- into which they have already moved some classes -- for a more environmentally friendly structure.

"We have moved to a bigger structure down the road. But that is a concrete building, and parents don't want their kids to move there. They want me to stay here." says Kapur.

"Now, they are giving me lessons in the environment. But for me, tearing down a concrete structure is also not ecologically sound."

For now, Kapur hopes to replicate her eco-friendly teaching methods at the concrete school as well, with plans for a rain water harvesting facility, a vegetable garden, and of course, a fence made of old plastic bottles.'

"This is a way of life, we plan to continue it no matter where we go," she says.

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How green is your internet ?

You might think cats power the internet, but the truth is that our wired world sucks up massive amounts of energy, releasing deadly carbon dioxide into our atmosphere and choking kittens (not exactly).

click this link : http://holykaw.alltop.com/how-green-is-your-internet-video?tu2=1

Southeast Asia's Tropical Peatlands could Disappear by 2030

Like Southeast Asia's tropical rainforests, the region's peatlands are disappearing at alarming rates. In fact, they could vanish altogether by 2030, says a new study published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

Found mainly in peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, and Sumatra, peatlands consist of partially decayed organic material saturated by water. They form an important carbon sink, keeping large quantities of carbon out of the atmosphere while providing habitat for certain species of wildlife. However, tropical peatlands are disappearing due to increased draining, fires, and other ecosystem changes, releasing vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere

In Indonesia and Malaysia, the palm oil industry has played a large role in the destruction of peatlands. Palm oil has become an important export used in numerous products from foods to cleaning supplies. The two nations are the world's largest exporters of palm oil, with Indonesia producing 87 percent of the world's supply, according to a March 2011 Nature article.

Between 1990 and 2010, the percentage of original peatland coverage dropped by 41 percent, says Dave Mosher in Science magazine. About 2,700 square kilometers of Southeast Asian peatlands disappear each year, he adds.

Peatlands form in wet lowland areas where lack of oxygen keeps vegetable matter from completely breaking down. The organic material piles up in partially decayed layers. Because peatlands are saturated by water, they are often called peat swamps. In the tropics, they form at about .5 mm to .20 mm per year, says the ASEAN Peatlands Forest Project (APFP). Existing peatlands have taken thousands of years to form. Preserving the remaining peatlands would require dramatic measures to protect them.

With 21 million hectares of peatlands, Indonesia holds the most by a wide margin. In May 2010, Indonesia pledged to implement a two-year moratorium on clearing natural forests and peatlands at the beginning of 2011, as part of a $1 billion agreement with Norway. However, the Indonesian president has yet to sign the decree, presumably because of confusion over what type of forest should be protected. Much of the country's forests and peatlands have been affected by humans, leading to ambiguity over what is ''natural.''

Six thousand species of animals live only in Southeast Asia's peatlands, says Mosher. Orangutans, critically endangered in Sumatra and endangered in Borneo, live in peatlands as well as fast-disappearing lowland forests. Further, the world's peatlands store more carbon than the rest of the world's plants combined, according to APFP.

Food prices driven up by global warming, study shows

Global warming has already harmed the world's food production and has driven up food prices by as much as 20% over recent decades, new research has revealed.

The drop in the productivity of crop plants around the world was not caused by changes in rainfall but was because higher temperatures can cause dehydration, prevent pollination and lead to slowed photosynthesis.
Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, Washington DC, said the findings indicate a turning point: "Agriculture as it exists today evolved over 11,000 years of reasonably stable climate, but that climate system is no more." Adaptation is difficult because our knowledge of the future is not strong enough to drive new investments, he said, "so we just keep going, hoping for the best."

The scientists say their work shows how crucial it is to find ways to adapt farming to a warmer world, to ensure that rises in global population are matched by rising food production. "It is vital," said Wolfram Schlenker, at Columbia University in New York and one of the research team. "If we continue to have the same seed varieties and temperatures continue to rise, then food prices will rise further. [Addressing] that is the big question."

The new research joins a small number of studies in which the fingerprint of climate change has been separated from natural variations in weather and other factors, demonstrating that the effects of warming have already been felt in the world. Scientists have shown that the chance of the severe heatwave that killed thousands in Europe in 2003 was made twice as likely by global warming, while other work showed that the floods that caused £3.5bn of damage in England in 2000 were made two to three times more likely.
Food prices have reached new record highs this year, and have been implicated as a trigger for unrest in the Middle East and Africa. A rising appetite for meat is a critical factor, said Wolfram. "We actually have enough calories to feed the world quite comfortably, the problem is meat is really inefficient," as many kilogrammes of grain are needed to produce one kilogramme of meat, he said. "As countries get richer and have a preference for meat, which is more expensive, they price people in poorer countries out of the market."

"The research provides evidence of big shifts in wheat and maize production," commented Prof Tim Wheeler at the Walker Institute for Climate System Research, Reading University, UK, who added it had involved "heroic" statistical analysis. But he said that, while long-term climate change impacts were another pressure on food prices, short-term price spikes were linked to extreme weather events, such as the Russian heatwaves and wildfires in 2010.
The study, published in the journal Science, examined how rising temperatures affected the annual crop yields of all major producer nations between 1980 and 2008. Computer models were used to show how much grain would have been harvested in the absence of warming. Overall, yields have been rising over the last decades and the models took this into account. The scientists found that global wheat production was 33m tonnes (5.5%) lower than it would have been without warming and maize production was 23m tonnes (3.8%) lower. Specific countries fared worse than the average, with Russia losing 15% of its potential wheat crop, and Brazil, Mexico and Italy suffering above average losses. Some countries experienced lower production of rice and soybeans, although these drops were offset by gains in other countries.
The losses drove up food prices by as much as 18.9%, the team calculated, although the rise could be as low as 6.4% if the increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere strongly boosts plant growth and yields - a factor that is not well understood by scientists.

Global food prices have risen by about 200% in recent years, says Schlenker. Other causes of the rise are the increased demand for meat and the diversion of food into biofuels. Nonetheless, the researchers conclude that the negative impact on crops overall is "likely to be incurring large economic and health costs".
The US, which has the world's largest share of overall production, stood out in the analysis because it appears to have lost no production to climate change as yet. Schlenker said this was because the rise in temperature there was very small compared to other parts of the world. This was perhaps due simply to luck with the weather, or the cooling influence of aerosol particles, such as soot, that blocks warming.
"US farmers are having a good time in the sense that their yields have not been impacted much and prices have been pretty high, so for them it has been pretty profitable," he said. "But most climate models predict that eventually the US will warm."

Adapting farming to climate change could involved moving to cooler areas as existing areas warm, said Schlenker, but often soils are poorer in the new locations. He highlighted the potential of biotechnology - genetic engineering - to develop new crop varieties that are more resistant to heat, but said the potential remains unproven. "What happens over the next 20 years depends on how optimistic you are about finding those extra ways of adapting."

source 

Laut Menghangat Bikin Populasi Ikan Berkurang

Singapura - Studi baru menunjukkan, meningkatnya suhu laut secara acak di beberapa bagian dunia berdampak pada populasi ikan yang semakin berkurang jumlahnya.

Laut yang menghangat membuat pertumbuhan ikan terhambat. Parahnya, hal ini bisa meningkatkan stres bahkan risiko kematian ikan.

Hasil studi ini berdasarkan penelitan ilmuwan Australia yang berfokus pada spesies ikan Morwong di Laut Tasman, di antara Australia dan Selandia Baru.

Para ilmuwan menemukan, pertumbuhan ikan Morwong di beberapa wilayah melambat akibat naiknya suhu air laut hingga dua derajat celcius dalam kurun 60 tahun terakhir.

Penelitian yang diterbitkan dalam jurnal Nature Climate Change ini mengungkapkan, selain ikan Morwong, efek perubahan suhu juga berdampak pada jenis ikan lain dan terumbu karang.

"Sektor perikanan akan rugi besar,” papar Ron Thresher dari badan penelitian CSIRO.

Seperti dikutip Reuters, "Melalui penelitian ini, kami menemukan bukti pertumbuhan ikan melambat dan stres pada ikan mencapai ambang batas,” tutupnya

Sumber :  http://id.berita.yahoo.com/laut-menghangat-bikin-populasi-ikan-berkurang-190400519.html

Climate Change Population Increase Feather Worm

Climate change, especially the environmental temperature influence the population of caterpillars, because of increasing temperatures can accelerate the life cycle of caterpillar that, experts said pests and plant diseases, Faculty of Agriculture, Gadjah Mada University Suputa. ”The increased population of caterpillars is also due to the reduction in natural enemies, such as birds, parasitoids, and other predators,” he said in the discussion Pests Plague Worm Feather phenomenon in East Java, Yogyakarta, on Thursday.
According to him, due to high population, attacks caterpillars in Probolinggo, East Java, the more apprehensive. Caterpillars not only attack the leaves of mango in the district banks, Leces, Those are, and Tegalsiwalan, but also enter the house residents.”Leaves of mango varieties in the area Manalagi devour caterpillars. Mango trees live twigs and stems,” he said.
He said, the caterpillars prefer the leaves of mango Manalagi attack than other varieties of mango trees. Selection of the host caterpillars adults was carried out when laying an egg. ”The caterpillar hairs not including butterflies, but moths compatriots. Allegedly moth caterpillars that are laid eggs in cracks in the skin of the mango tree or under a leaf,” he said.
According to him, attack caterpillars are not a new phenomenon, because previous similar attacks have occurred. In fact, never happened before Java chilli plants which wilted plant yellowing due to pest attack. ”There are two species of caterpillar that attacks the leaves of mango in Probolinggo, namely arctornis sp and Lymantria atemeles Collenette. Caterpillar hairs that are nocturnal, the caterpillars are active at night,” he said.
He said no wonder that on the night often sounded like rain, and it was actually caterpillars eating the leaves of mango. ”If this worm attacks left unchecked, it will be many parties suffered losses. In addition to fear of economic losses as well,” he said.
Therefore, the control of caterpillar populations into steps that must be done immediately. Moreover, silkworm egg production capacity reaches 70-300 eggs per female worm. ”Integrated pest control by utilization of natural enemies, birds, parasitoids, UV light traps, pheromone traps and the use needs to be done,” he said.

Source. http://scienceray.com

Lenovo ThinkPad Captures UL's Environment Gold Rating UL Environment put the laptop to test for sustainable lifecycle design

Lenovo has announced that it has become the first company to earn a Gold rating for the laptop category in UL Environment’s new Sustainable Product Certification (SPC) for high-tech equipment. UL Environment tested the upcoming ThinkPad T420 laptop, to be introduced later this month, for the most stringent and prestigious of three levels of compliance.

“Becoming the first PC-maker with a UL Environment Gold-certified laptop reconfirms efforts we’ve made to green our products and advancing sustainability throughout our organization,” said Rob Taylor, director of environmental affairs, Lenovo. “Our upcoming products, like the ThinkPad T420, demonstrate that we can make high performance technology that’s environmentally responsible.”

In order to determine compliance with the IEEE 1680 sustainability standard, UL Environment assessed product documentation and records, physically examined product samples, independently tested the product for compliance to Energy Star 5.0 requirements, and conducted onsite audits of manufacturing facilities. UL Environment-certified environmental criteria include the elimination or reduction of certain hazardous substances that pose threats to human health and the environment. 

"UL’s trusted independent testing and certification program helps companies differentiate their products based on tested and validated environmental performance,” said Steve Wenc, president of UL Environment. “Companies like Lenovo that choose third-party certification to environmental standards are not only encouraging customer peace of mind, but they are raising the sustainability bar for their industry peers.”

As part of its Environmentally Conscious Products program, Lenovo built the laptop with the entire lifecycle in mind, starting with using low halogen and post-consumer recycled content (PCC). The company has used more than 9,500 metric tons of PCC since September 2005 to reduce use of raw materials. All ThinkPad laptops contain PCC with several upcoming ones containing more than 10 percent PCC. Additionally, ThinkCentre desktops and ThinkVision monitors incorporate more at roughly 65 percent on average.

To maximize energy efficiency during use, Think-branded products meet and exceed Energy Star 5.0 requirements. More than 50 Think-branded products, like the T420, are certified to meet other eco-labels including Nordic Swan and Electronics Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Gold rating. 

Source. Environmental Protection

Happy Earth Hour 2011

What is Earth Hour?

Earth Hour is a global grass-roots movement encouraging individuals, businesses and governments around the world to take positive actions for the environment, and celebrating their commitment to the planet by switching off their lights for one designated hour.

Earth Hour 2011 aims to show the actions that people, businesses and governments world-wide are taking to reduce their environmental impact. Thereby establishing and encouraging others to join an interconnected global community engaged in dialogue and resource sharing that generates real solutions to environmental challenges.

The highlight of Earth Hour 2011 will see the world’s most iconic landmarks go dark for one designated hour, as hundreds of millions of people transcend race, religion, culture, society, generation and geography, switching off their lights in a global celebration of their commitment to protect the one thing that unites us all – the planet.

 

When does Earth Hour take place?

Earth Hour 2011 will be held on Saturday March 26 between 8.30PM and 9.30PM in your local time zone.

What does Earth Hour ask people to do?

Earth Hour encourages individuals, businesses and governments to show leadership on environmental solutions through their actions, to use Earth Hour as a platform to showcase to the world what measures they are taking to reduce their environmental impact.

Earth Hour asks everyone to take personal accountability for their impact on the planet and make behavioural changes to facilitate a sustainable lifestyle.

Taking the first step is as easy as turning off your lights. By switching off your lights for Earth Hour you are acknowledging and celebrating your commitment to do something more for the planet that goes beyond the hour. 

Does this mean during Earth Hour I have to turn off everything in my home and use absolutely no electricity?

No. The main point of Earth Hour is to show the world that a solution to the world’s environmental challenges is possible if we work on them together – together our actions add up!

Earth Hour only asks that you turn off non-essential lighting. This does not mean you have to turn off your refrigerator, but we do encourage you to be part of this global action by switching off your lights, as well as making a commitment to go beyond the hour with a long-term behavioural change.

Safety and security lighting should remain on.

How long has Earth Hour been going for?

Earth Hour began in one city in 2007 when more than two million individuals and two thousand businesses in Sydney, Australia turned off their lights for one hour on Saturday 31 March 2007 to take a stand on climate change.

In the space of three short years Earth Hour grew to become the greatest environmental action in history with individuals, businesses and governments across 128 countries coming together for Earth Hour 2010 to show the path to a sustainable future is a collective journey. More than 1000 of the world’s man-made marvels and natural wonders, including the Pyramids in Egypt, Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, Niagara Falls, Beijing’s Forbidden City, Cape Town’s Table Mountain, Sydney Opera House, Buckingham Palace and Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, stood in darkness symbolising a landmark moment in the planet’s environmental consciousness.

source. www.earthhour.org

Is Japan's tsunami linked to climate change?

Could the earthquake that triggered Japan's devastating tsunami be linked to climate change?

The short answer is probably not, but recent research suggests that changing climate has the potential to influence earthquakes in some parts of the world

Scientists have shown that weight shifts caused by melting glaciers can trigger tectonic activity. As ice melts and waters runs off, tremendous amounts of weight are lifted off Earth's crust. As the newly freed crust settles back to its original, pre-glacier shape, it can cause seismic plates to slip and stimulate volcanic activity, according to research into prehistoric earthquakes and volcanic activity.

. Map of the Senadai Earthquake 2011

Analyzing an 800,000-year record of volcanic activity in eastern California, Allen Glazner, a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill geoscientist, found evidence that "peaks of volcanic activity occurred when ice was retreating globally," as told to the Wall Street Jorunal's Sharon Begley in 2006. "At first I thought it was crazy, but other scientists also found evidence that climate affects volcanism."

With Earth's glaciers and ice gaps melting at increasing rates due to climate change, it is conceivable that we could see further impact from "isostatic rebound" in the Earth's crust. Work by Patrick Wu, a professor of geophysics of the University of Calgary, suggests that past disappearance of ice "may still be contributing to quakes in eastern Canada."

"The pressure of the ice sheet suppresses earthquakes, so removing that load triggers them," Wu told Begley. "Present-day earthquakes may have their origin in postglacial rebound."

Bill McGuire, professor of Geophysical Hazards at University College, spelled out the scenario further in a 2006 article in New Scientist, titled "Climate change: Tearing the Earth apart?"

"It shouldn't come as a surprise that the loading and unloading of the Earth's crust by ice or water can trigger seismic and volcanic activity and even landslides. Dumping the weight of a kilometer-thick ice sheet onto a continent or removing a deep column of water from the ocean floor will inevitably affect the stresses and strains on the underlying rock," he wrote. "[While] not every volcanic eruption and earthquake in the years to come will have a climate-change link... [As] the century progresses we should not be surprised by more geological disasters as a direct and indirect result of dramatic changes to our environment."

Japan's quake

Japan lies in one of the world's most seismically active areas between four major continental and oceanic plates: the Pacific Plate, Philippine Plate, Eurasian Plate and North American Plate. The country accounts for roughly 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or bigger. It has also suffered from more than 200 tsunamis (tsunami is a Japanese word).

Nevertheless the March 11, 2011 quake had a devastating impact. The 8.9-magnitude earthquake was centered 130 kilometers (81 mi) east of Sendai, Honshu, Japan, or 373 kilometers (232 mi) from Tokyo, according to the United States Geological Survey. It generated a tsunami that caused waves of up to 10 meters to swamp coastal areas of eastern Japan. Thousands were feared dead in the immediate aftermath of the quake and tsunami.

The earthquake was the strongest on record for Japan and one of the world's five most powerful earthquakes since modern seismological record-keeping began. 

source. http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0311-japan_tsunami_climate.html?newsmenu

Fakta - fakta tentang air (Peringatan Air sedunia th. 2011)

Heloo !

Tak terasa sudah berhari - hari  saya absen  berkicau di blog ini. Sepertinya ada yang kurang. Terakhir cerita saya ttg energi alternatif, namun belum sempat blog tsb saya rampungkan, eh tiba – tiba kompienya error. Jadilah tulisan saya yang berentet itu hilang tanpa jejak. Mau ditulis kembali, idenya sudah keburu menguap. Akhirnya, blog ttg energy alternatif itu muncul hanya setengah badan. Alias belum kelar. Nah berhubung hari ini adalah  World Water Day atau Hari Air Sedunia. Saya pengen banget membahas hal tentang Air. Apa itu ? apa itu ? Mau tau lengkapnya ? Yuk, cekidottttt.. :D  

Air…

Coba katakan  bumi sebelah mana yang tidak terdapat air. Bumi kita yang bulat ini, konon terdiri atas  97 % air laut dan 3 % air yang dapat dikonsumsi.

Namun seiring dengan pertambahan waktu, kondisi air yang kita jumpai saat ini tak seperti waktu lampau. Debit air mulai menyusut, kualitas air makin menurun. Penggundulan hutan di wilayah tangkapan air dan limbah yang dibuang ke air digadang – gadang merupakan penyebabnya.

Berikut ini adalah sejumlah fakta tentang air :

# Konon, air minum yang layak di konsumsi di bumi jumlahnya tinggal 1 persen. Dari 1 persen ini, hanya sekitar 0.62 % air yang benar – benar bisa dikonsumsi.

# Israel merupakan negara #1 yang gencar melakukan daur ulang air. Israel menjadikan daur ulang air sebagai bagian integral dari kehidupan sehari – hari – meski sebagian masyarakat tidak menyadari hal tersebut.  

Lebih dari 80 % limbah rumah tangga didaurulang, yaitu sebesar 400 juta kubik per tahun (Sumber Kementrian Lingkungan Hidup Israel). Angka rasio ini 4x lebih tinggi dari negara manapun di dunia.

# 50% persediaan air layak minum hanya tersedia di 6 negara di dunia diantaranya : Brazil, Kanada, China, Kolombia dan Indonesia

# Meski sejumlah negara kebutuhan airnya tercukup namun ada juga negara – negara yang belum mendapat pasokan air yang layak, contohnya seperti di Afrika Selatan. Majalah Science menulis, penduduk miskin di sana tidak memiliki persediaan air yang memadai selama puluhan tahun karena kebijakan apartheid pemerintah sebelumnya.

# Di Indonesia, beberapa wilayah juga mengalami krisis air. Di wilayah pengunungan Jawa Barat misalnya. Kebutuhan air sulit untuk dipenuhi karena letak permukiman masyarakat yang berada di punggungan gunung. Namun ada juga masyarakat yang dapat memenuhi kebutuhan airnya meski wilayah tempat tinggalnya terletak di ketinggian. Kebanyakan masyarakat membuat bak penampungan berukuran besar yang meneruskan air ke sejumlah rumah – rumah penduduk melalui selang – selang yang tersambung. 

Meski air hingga kini merupakan kebutuhan penting bagi makhluk hidup, tetapi sayangnya upaya untuk menjaga keberlangsungan sumber daya air belum kompak dilakukan. Di perkotaan sering kita jumpai pemborosan air oleh pengguna rumah tangga, belum lagi munculnya kasus penebangan liar yang perlu ditangani secara serius.

Energi alternatif sebagai kebutuhan

Hingga saat ini pasokan energi untuk kebutuhan pembangkit listrik di Indonesia masih tergantung pada batubara dan minyak bumi. Padahal batubara dan minyak bumi berasal dari fosil - fosil purba yang umurnya ratusan juta tahun. Diperkirakan cadangan minyak bumi yang kita miliki saat ini hanya cukup untuk memenuhi kebutuhan 10 tahun mendatang yaitu sebesar 5 milyar barrel. Hm..kebayang kan ? Jika cadangan batubara dan minyak bumi kita habis, pastinya akan terjadi kekacauan karena hampir di seluruh sektor kehidupan baik industri, pertanian, pendidikan dll sangat tergantung bergantung pada listrik.

Belakangan ini beberapa negara di belahan dunia sedang berlomba - lomba mengimplementasikan energi alternatif. Misalnya di Jepang, negara sakura ini memanfaatkan tenaga matahari sebagai energi alternatif untuk pembangkit lampu - lampu penerang jalan. Meskipun, negara ini memiliki 4 musim yang rata - rata bersuhu dingin. Berbeda dengan Indonesia yang beriklim tropis, lebih banyak menerima sinar matahari. Tetapi itu tidak menyurutkan langkah mereka untuk menghasilkan energi alternatif. Keren yak ?

Berbeda dengan negara Norwegia, negara yang terletak di semenanjung Skandinavia ini yang pantainya berada di samudera atlantik yang terkenal dengan fyord, sata ini tengah getol menerapkan energi osmotic atau osmosis.

Taman mungil

Awalnya saya bukanlah penyuka bunga, meski di rumah orang tua saya dipenuhi oleh berbagai macam bunga mulai dari berbagai macam bunga dari anggrek, gelombang cinta sampai krissan dan aglonema. Maklumlah, ibu saya yang penggemar tanaman hias. Beliau sangat rajin sekali memelihara tanaman - tanamannya itu. Dari mengganti pot, memupuk hingga menyiramnya setiap hari. Semua ditakar dan diberi makan (istilah saya untuk memupuk) sesuai dengan takarannya masing - masing. Ribet yak ?

Sampai kemudian...ketika saya dan suami dapat rezeki untuk membeli rumah. Rumah kami yang mungil di depannya disediakan taman minimalis. Aturan dari developer, setiap rumah tidak boleh dipagar karena formatnya cluster. Ditambah lagi keinginan developer, supaya tidak ada sekat antara tetangga.

Akhirnya saya dan suami berpikir keras. Hmm..bagusnya taman yang mungil ini kita bentuk seperti apa ya ?

Pikir punya pikir, akhirnya saya memanggil tukang taman. Dibentuklah seperti ini :

Hihi..penampakannya cuma sedikit. Soale taman ini belum sempurna bener. karena setelah ini mau dibuatkan kolam ikan juga. Tapi nanti yach, kalo kolam ikannya sudah jadi, saya aplod lagi fotonya. Sementara segini dulu yang tampak ;D

Btw, jangan ditanya yach..apa nama - nama bunga yanga ada di situ. Suerr..saya ngga tau, kecuali nama bunga yang warna kuning dan orange. Itu namanya bunga krissan.
Ternyata mendesain taman dan mememeliharan bunga hias itu seruu lho. Berasa banget puasnya waktu taman itu jadi dan ketika dilihat teman ada yang berkomentar : 'wah, bagus ya tamannya. ini rumahmu ya ? ' *melayanggg dehh*
O'ya bunga - bunga di sini mudah banget diperoleh. Hunting aja ke pinggir jalan Pajajaran Bogor, disitu banyak pedagang bunga hias. Harganya beragam dari Rp 3.500 - 200.000-an tergantung jenis dan ukuran bunganya.

Masing - masing bunga juga ternyata punya manfaat bagi lingkungan lho.
Seperti bunga sansevieria yang berfungsi untuk menyerap karbon dan bunga kamboja yang berguna untuk menyerap debu. Di samping nilai positif tanaman - tanaman itu sendiri dalam memproduksi oksigen. So, buat teman - teman yang  memiliki taman tetapi belum ditumbuhi oleh tanaman. Yukk, mulai membuatnya. Selain keindahan yang didapat. Kamu juga akan merasa nyaman ketika melihat hamparan warna warni di sekitarmu.

Newbie

Horaaaayy..

Akhirnya bisa juga ngedit2 blog ini setelah blog ini terkapar selama berbulan - bulan.

maklumlah, yang punya blog rada gaptek. Sampe bingung gimana cara untuk mengedit template maupun mengupload fotonya.

Anyway, selamat menikmati tulisan - tulisan ringan dan foto - foto santai di blog ini. 

Semoga menyenangkan !