Climate Change Destroying Walden Pond's Flowers

Climate change is devastating the flowers of Walden Pond, picking off those species that cannot react to rising temperatures.

Comparing data meticulously gathered by Henry David Thoreau more than a century and a half ago with more recent observations, Harvard biologists report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that more than a quarter of Walden's plant species have already been lost. And an additional 36 percent are in imminent danger, including lilacs, roses and buttercups.

"It had been thought that climate change would result in uniform shifts across plant species, but our work shows that plant species do not respond to climate change uniformly or randomly," said co-author Charles Davis, a biologist at Harvard, in a release.

The Walden study shows that even small changes in temperature can have outsized impacts on plants that are evolutionarily adapted to fulfill ecological niches. Together with changes seen in other locations, like the unprecedented pine beetle damage in the West, the new work suggests that finely tuned biological systems are having a difficult time keeping up with the rapid pace of human-induced climate change.

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The Painting is by Henri Rousseau

Climate speeds Japan's cherry blossom season

TOKYO (AFP) — Japan's celebrated cherry blossom, which for millions heralds the start of spring, is under threat from climate change, according to experts, who say warmer weather is causing early flowering.

Cherry blossom season officially began in Tokyo this year on March 21 -- five days ahead of schedule and a full week earlier than the average for the last 30 years of the 20th century.

Far from being a freak occurrence, the phenomenon of early blossoming has been happening for several years, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

Traditionally, the first sakura -- cherry tree -- flowers appear in the second half of March on the southern islands of the Japanese archipelago and advance slowly up the central island of Honshu towards the far north.

However, according to the JMA, the "blossoming line" -- the latitude where trees start to flower on a given day -- on April 1, which 40 years ago was in the south of Honshu, is now about 200 kilometres (125 miles) further north.

This change, according to JMA climate expert Takashi Yoshida, is caused "by a warming climate and urbanisation."

City temperatures are noticeably higher than those in the countryside, say experts.

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The Painting is by Frederick William Hulme

Deal struck on forests in climate talks

POZNAN, Poland (AP) — Negotiators broke an impasse Wednesday on including forest conservation in a new climate change agreement, guaranteeing a voice for native peoples who live in forests and rewarding India and China for replanting depleted lands.

Environmentalists said the compromise text, agreed in a committee at the U.N. climate talks, was an important step that cleared the way to discuss politically sensitive questions on how countries will be compensated for protecting their woodlands.

Though activists said they were disappointed that four countries, including the United States, deleted any specific reference to the "rights" of indigenous people, the agreement recognizes, "the full and effective participation" of local communities.

Activists hope the reference will give indigenous people a say in the way forests are managed.

The draft text also made no mention of biodiversity, which could allow countries to uproot natural forests to plant palm oil or fruit plantations, said Nils Hermann Ranum, of Rainforest Foundation Norway.

"More than 50 percent of the planet's species are found in tropical rain forests," he said, and may not fall under the protection of the climate agreement.

A deal on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, known as REDD, has been tied up in a technical committee since the conference opened Dec. 1, frustrating environmentalists who said some countries were backtracking on understandings reached four months ago at the last climate change conference in Ghana.

"It is a good text to go forward, though we didn't get everything we wanted," said Gustavo Silva-Chavez, a deforestation specialist for the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund.

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The painting is by Benjamin Williams Leader

Tropical Forests -- Earth's Air Conditioner

The researchers, including Ken Caldeira of Carnegie's Department of Global Ecology and Govindasamy Bala at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, found that because tropical forests store large amounts of carbon and produce reflective clouds, they are especially good at cooling the planet. In contrast, forests in snowy areas can warm the Earth, because their dark canopy absorbs sunlight that would otherwise be reflected back to space by a bright white covering of snow.

The work simulates the effects of large-scale deforestation, and accounts for the positive and negative climate effects of tree cover at different latitudes. The result, which appears in this week's early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, makes a strong case for protecting and restoring tropical forests.

"Tropical forests are like Earth's air conditioner," Caldeira said. "When it comes to rehabilitating forests to fight global warming, carbon dioxide might be only half of the story; we also have to account for whether they help to reflect sunlight by producing clouds, or help to absorb it by shading snowy tundra."

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The painting is by Nancy Merkle

Tropical Rainforest And Mountain Species May Be Threatened By Global Warming

As Earth's climate has warmed in recent decades, the geographical ranges of well-studied bird, butterfly, and plant species in the US and Europe have moved northward, following the gradual northward shift of their familiar climates. Other studies have shown that species in the US and Europe have shifted to higher elevations, as temperature zones on mountains have moved upward.

In contrast, surprisingly little attention has been given to the effects of warming climate on tropical plants and animals. Colwell's article in Science magazine this week may change that.

The report points out that tropical climates have warmed too (more than 3/4 degrees Centigrade [1.4 degrees Fahrenheit] since 1975), and climate models predict an additional increase of more than 3 degrees Centigrade (nearly 6 degrees Fahrenheit) over the next century in the tropical forests of Central and South America. This much warming would shift temperature zones uphill about 600 m (nearly 2000 feet) in elevation above sea level. Tropical species, like those at higher latitudes, will likely be driven to higher elevations by these changes, following the climate zones they are suited for.

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The painting is by Nancy Merkle

Chicago outlines plan to slash greenhouse gases

CHICAGO - Mayor Richard M. Daley has announced a plan to dramatically slash emissions of heat-trapping gases, part of an effort to fight global warming and become one of the greenest cities in the nation.

The plan calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to three-fourths of 1990 levels by 2020 through more energy-efficient buildings, using clean and renewable energy sources, improving transportation and reducing industrial pollution.

"We can't solve the world's climate change problem in Chicago, but we can do our part," said Daley on Thursday. "We have a shared responsibility to protect our planet."

It's the first step toward cutting emissions to one-fifth of 1990 levels by 2050, as called for in the 1997 Kyoto global warming protocols, officials said.

Daley is one of about 800 mayors who have agreed to adopt that goal, and Chicago is the first to identify specific pollution sources and outline how it would achieve the reductions in a measurable way, said Suzanne Malec-McKenna, Chicago's environmental commissioner.

Malec-McKenna said the city would use a combination of incentives and mandates.

Chicago Climate Action Plan
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The painting is by Laura Tasheiko

Climate Change Caused Widespread Tree Death In California Mountain Range, Study Confirms

Warmer temperatures and longer dry spells have killed thousands of trees and shrubs in a Southern California mountain range, pushing the plants' habitat an average of 213 feet up the mountain over the past 30 years, a UC Irvine study has determined.

White fir and Jeffrey pine trees died at the lower altitudes of their growth range in the Santa Rosa Mountains, from 6,400 feet to as high as 7,200 feet in elevation, while California lilacs died between 4,000-4,800 feet. Almost all of the studied plants crept up the mountain a similar distance, countering the belief that slower-growing trees would move slower than faster-growing grasses and wildflowers.

This study is the first to show directly the impact of climate change on a mountainous ecosystem by physically studying the location of plants, and it shows what could occur globally if the Earth's temperature continues to rise. The finding also has implications for forest management, as it rules out air pollution and fire suppression as main causes of plant death.

"Plants are dying out at the bottom of their ranges, and at the tops of their ranges they seem to be growing in and doing much better," said Anne Kelly, lead author of the study and a graduate student in the Department of Earth System Science at UCI. "The only thing that could explain this happening across the entire face of the mountain would be a change in the local climate."

The study appears online the week of Aug. 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Reading, writing, tree planting

STUDENTS would plant trees during school hours to combat climate change under a plan being advocated by Australia's chief scientist.
Jim Peacock wants to conscript an army of "Carbon Kids", arguing tree planting would "enrich a national curriculum".

Dr Peacock also wants the government to pay indigenous communities to revegetate land to provide economic opportunities.

He plans to lobby Indigenous Affairs Minister and Education Minister Julia Gillard about his blueprint.

"The total amount of forest that children can plant is very small but they can be associated with larger scale things . . so that children will be able to feel part of something much larger and they can see change," Dr Peacock said.

"It's got to be part of what children learn about now, in the past it hasn't been. I've been quite shocked that it hasn't been part of the curriculum.

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Cameroon: Irrational Forest Exploitation Cause Climate Change

Joe Dinga Pefok
Buea

The Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Prof. Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, has said forest exploitation is beneficial only if the effects of global warming are taken into consideration.

He was speaking at the graduation ceremony of some 274 technical staff of the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, MINFOF, after a 45-day paramilitary course at the Camp du Régiment du Génie Militaire, Douala, on April 25.


"No one can deny that forest exploitation is beneficial, but it equally has an adverse effect on climate change if done irrationally," Ngolle Ngolle said. The radical climatic changes observed recently, the minister asserted, is connected with irrational forest exploitation.

Prof. Ngolle Ngolle also emphasised that sustainable forest management was necessary, to avert climate change threats. He unveiled government's efforts, together with development partners, to attain the sustainable management of Cameroon's forests.

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