SEATTLE, Washington, February 6, 2009 (ENS) – The North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted unanimously Thursday to prohibit all commercial fishing activity in U.S. waters north of the Bering Strait and east to the Canadian border.

If approved by the Secretary of Commerce, this precautionary approach would close roughly 150,000 square nautical mile Arctic Management Area to commercial fishing, and is intended to provide an opportunity to assess the impacts of climate change on Arctic ecosystems before any commercial fishing is allowed.

The council has already closed an additional 527,110 square nautical miles off Alaska. In total, the area closed to protect fish habitat would cover an area more than five times larger than the entire U.S. National Park System.

To date, no large-scale commercial fishing occurs in the Arctic, and large fish populations do not show up on the few surveys conducted there, but global warming is melting the Arctic sea ice for longer periods each year, potentially enticing cold water fish further north than in the past.

Meeting in Seattle, the 15 member council represents government and industry fisheries experts from Alaska, Washington and Oregon and the U.S. government.

The council’s action today concludes a nearly two year process of deciding what action to take while a management plan is developed for the waters north of Bering Strait.

Spring ice pack on the Chukchi Sea north of the Bering Strait (Photo courtesy NOAA)

The Marine Conservation Alliance, a Juneau-based association of fishermen, processors and communities involved in the groundfish and crab fisheries off Alaska, said it fully supports the council’s action to close all commercial fishing in waters north of the Bering Strait until a management plan is fully developed.

“Climate change is having a significant effect on the Arctic, opening previously ice-covered waters and drawing cold water species further north,” said MCA executive director Dave Benton.

A resolution passed by the U.S. Senate last year supported a halt to commercial fishing in the Arctic until agreement is reached on managing migratory, transboundary and straddling stocks among all nations bordering the Arctic, including the United States, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Russia, and the European Union.

Benton said, “The Council’s action to close these waters as a precautionary measure gives us the opportunity to conduct the scientific review necessary to develop a plan for how sustainable fisheries might be conducted in the Arctic in the future,” he said. “Hopefully a similar precautionary approach will be adopted by other nations that border the Arctic.”

The council says it will maintain a continuing review of the environment in the Arctic Management Area and will periodically review the provisions of the Fisheries Management Plan that implements the closure.

The council plans to maintain “close liaison” with the management agencies involved, particularly the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and National Marine Fisheries Service, but also including regional resource management entities in the Arctic Management Area such as the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, the Eskimo Walrus Commission, and the North Slope and Northwest Arctic Boroughs, to monitor the development of commercial fishery potential.

The council will promote research to increase knowledge of the marine environment and fishery resources of the Arctic Management Area, including birds and marine mammals, either through council funding or by recommending research projects to other agencies.

The council says it is “particularly interested in research that improves understanding of the Arctic ecosystem, predator-prey relationships, energy flow, and how climate warming affects these processes.”

Also planned are public hearings and outreach to Arctic natives and communities to hear testimony on the ecological relationships in the Arctic Management Area and the potential for commercial fishery development and management.

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GENEVA, Switzerland, December 18, 2008 (ENS) – The year 2008 is likely to rank as the tenth warmest year on record since the beginning of the instrumental climate records in 1850, although the global average temperature was slightly lower than previous years of the 21st century, according to the United Nations meteorological agency.

The combined sea-surface and land-surface air temperature for 2008 is estimated at 0.31 degrees Celsius, or 0.56 Fahrenheit, above the 1961-1990 annual average of 14C, or 57.2F, said the World Meteorological Organization, which draws on its membership of 188 member states and territories for metereological observations.

Polar bear amidst melting Arctic ice
(Photo by Arctic Al)

At the same time, the Arctic Sea ice volume during the melt season was its lowest since satellite measurements began in 1979.

The average temperature of 2008 was moderated by La Niña, a weather phenomenon that shrinks the warm water pool in the central and western Pacific. This La Niña developed in the latter half of 2007.

Climate extremes, including devastating floods, severe and persistent droughts, snowstorms, and heat and cold waves, were recorded in many parts of the world.

Europe recorded above-average temperatures across the continent. A remarkably cold winter over Eurasia stretching from Turkey to China caused hundreds of casualties in Afghanistan and China.

In North America, February was a cold month with average daily temperatures in the Midwest of the United States ranging from 4C to 5C below normal in some areas, while in South America a very cold episode due to an early Antarctic air mass saw minimum temperature drop below –6C in May in central Argentina, breaking annual absolute minimum records.

Conversely, mean July temperatures were more than 3C above average in large parts of Argentina, Paraguay, southeast Bolivia and southern Brazil, making it the warmest July in the last 50 years for many locations.

November broke historical records with central Argentina, including Buenos Aires city, experiencing its warmest November in 50 years.

In southern Australia, March brought a record heat wave with Adelaide experiencing its longest heat wave on record – 15 consecutive days of maximum temperatures above 35°C.

Drought at Hume Lake in Australia’s Murray-Darling
Basin (Photo by the Suburban Bloke)

Several heat waves also occurred in southeastern Europe and the Middle East during April, with a very warm spring observed in a large part of the rest of Europe and Asia.

Prolonged drought hit most parts of the southeast of North America at the end of July and hindered efforts to contain numerous large wildfires in California, while southern British Columbia in Canada experienced its fifth driest period in 61 years.

In Europe, Portugal and Spain had their worst drought winter in decades, while in South America, a large part of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay an intense drought which caused severe damage to agriculture.

Dry conditions in south-eastern Australia reinforced long-term drought, exacerbating severe water shortages in the agriculturally important Murray-Darling Basin and causing widespread crop failures in the area.

Heavy snow with subsequent melt, flooding and intense storms were experienced in many regions. The United States experienced 1,489 tornadoes, the most since reliable records began in 1953, and the year was one of the top 10 for tornado-related fatalities at 123.

Sub-Saharan Africa was hit by heavy rains, which caused the worst-ever recorded flooding in Zimbabwe. Extreme rainfall was recorded in northern Morocco with up to 200 millimetres in less than six hours.

In southern Asia, including India, Pakistan and Vietnam, heavy monsoon rains and torrential downpours produced flash floods, killing more than 2,600 people, and displacing 10 million people in India.

Meanwhile in South America, continuous above-normal rainfall in western Colombia and southern Brazil caused severe flooding affecting some two million people.

Destruction after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar (Photo
courtesy International Federation of Red Cross
and Red Crescent)

The most deadly tropical cyclone of the year was Cyclone Nargis, which killed nearly 78,000 people and destroyed thousands of homes in Myanmar.

Sixteen tropical storms formed in the Atlantic, including eight hurricanes. Five of them were major at Category 3 or higher, causing many casualties and widespread destruction.

For the first time on record, six consecutive cyclones made landfall in the United States and a record three major hurricanes hit Cuba.

In the East Pacific, 17 tropical storms were recorded, of which seven evolved into hurricanes, two of them major.

In the western North Pacific, 22 tropical storms were recorded, 10 of them typhoons, compared to the long-term averages of 27 and 14, respectively.

In the Antarctic, the ozone hole reached a maximum of 27 million square kilometers, less than the record of more than 29 million square kilometers in 2006, but larger than the 25 million square kilometers of last year.

In the Arctic, the average sea ice extent over the month of September was 4.67 million square kilometers, the second lowest on record after last year’s low of 4.3 million square kilometers. Because ice was thinner in 2008, overall ice volume was less than that in any other year.

A remarkable occurrence in 2008 was the dramatic disappearance of nearly one-quarter of the massive ancient ice shelves on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. Ice 70 meters thick, which a century ago covered 9,000 square kilometers, has shrunk to just 1,000 square kilometers today, underscoring the 30 year downward trend in Arctic sea ice.

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WASHINGTON, DC, September 3, 2008 (ENS) – A joint Canada-U.S. scientific expedition this fall will map the unexplored Arctic sea floor where the U.S. and Canada may have sovereign rights over oil and gas resources and control over activities such as sea bed mining.

The expedition will be collaboratively undertaken by the U.S. and Canada using two ships. Both countries will use the resulting data to establish the outer limits of the continental shelf, according to the criteria set out in the Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The extended continental shelf, the seafloor and subsoil beyond 200 nautical miles from shore that meet those criteria, is an area of great scientific interest and potential economic development.

Satellite data shows the extent of Arctic sea ice this year is the second-smallest since observations from space began 30 years ago. This is the second year in a row that the most direct route through the Northwest Passage has opened up, making access to the Arctic Ocean easier for ships.

The U.S. Geological Survey will lead data collection from September 6 to October 1 on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy to map the Arctic seafloor.

The Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada will follow Healy on the Canadian Coast Guard ship Louis S. St. Laurent and study the geology of the sub-seafloor.

“Use it or lose it is the first principle of sovereignty in the Arctic,” said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, announcing the geo-mapping program. “To develop the North we must know the North. To protect the North, we must control the North. And to accomplish all our goals for the North, we must be in the North.”

Harper said the mission will “use the full tools of modern geological science to encourage economic development and defend Canadian sovereignty throughout the North.”

Possible foot of the slope north of Chukchi Plateau
looking south-southwest. Water depth
range in image is -2880 to -3800 meters.
(Image courtesy U. New Hampshire)

“Managed properly, Canada’s share of this incredible endowment will fuel the prosperity of our country for generations. And geo-mapping will pave the way for the resource development of the future,” said the prime minister.

“The two-ship experiment allows both the U.S. and Canada to collect and share complementary data in areas where data acquisition is costly, logistically difficult, and sometimes dangerous,” said USGS scientist Deborah Hutchinson, who will sail aboard Louis.

“Both countries benefit through sharing of resources and data as well as increasing likelihood of success by utilizing two ice-breaker ships in these remote areas of the Arctic Ocean,” Hutchinson said.

“Healy will utilize an echo sounder, which emits sounds signals in the water, to map the seafloor. This will be done using a multibeam bathymetry system,” said USGS scientist Jonathan Childs, chief scientist on the Healy during the September cruise.

“Unlike conventional echo sounders, which measure the water depth at a point directly beneath the ship, the multibeam system collects a ‘swath’ of depth information about three kilometers wide along the ship’s path, creating a three-dimensional view of the seafloor.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration funded U.S. participation in this mission and collaborated with the University of New Hampshire to collect bathymetric data in the Arctic Ocean on the Healy from August 14 to September 5.

The U.S. portion of this research is coordinated by the Extended Continental Shelf Task Force, a U.S. government group headed by the U.S. Department of State. The task force includes the USGS, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Coast Guard, National Science Foundation, Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Navy, Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Executive Office of the President, Mineral Management Service, and the Arctic Research Commission.

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BOULDER, Colorado, August 28, 2008 (ENS) – Evidence that Earth’s climate continues to heat up comes this week in the form of satellite data that shows the extent of Arctic sea ice this year has shrunk below the 2005 minimum to stand as the second-smallest since observations from space began 30 years ago.

Last summer, the extent of Arctic sea ice shrank to more than 30 percent below average, its smallest extent in the satellite record.

Each year, the Arctic Ocean experiences the formation and then melting of vast amounts of ice that floats on the sea surface. An area of ice the size of Europe melts away every summer reaching a minimum in September.

Because the extent of ice cover is usually at its lowest about mid-September, this year’s minimum could still fall to set another record low, American and European scientists say.

The extent of Arctic sea ice on August 27,
2008. The orange line shows the
normal ice edge. (Map courtesy
National Snow and Ice Data Center)

This year the sea ice is melting more quickly than it did in 2005, say scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder. “The most recent ice retreat reflects melting in the Chukchi Sea off the Alaskan coast and the East Siberian Seas off the coast of eastern Russia,” they said in a statement Tuesday.

The latest satellite observations suggest that the Arctic could be mainly ice-free before 2040, Professor Heinrich Miller from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany said today.

In 2005, at its minimum point, Arctic sea ice extended over 2.05 million square miles (5.32 million square kilometers).

By comparison, Arctic sea ice extent on August 26 was smaller, measuring 2.03 million square miles.

Arctic sea ice reflects sunlight, keeping the polar regions cool and moderating the global climate. According to scientific measurements, Arctic sea ice has declined over at least the past 30 years, with the most extreme decline seen during the summer melt season.

These conclusions are confirmed by observations from the European Space Agency’s Envisat satellite. The ESA said today in a statement, “Envisat observations from mid-August depict that a new record of low sea-ice coverage could be reached in a matter of weeks.”

Scientists on the Wegener Institute’s ice-breaking research vessel Polarstern also are studying Arctic sea ice by sailing from Iceland through the most direct route – the Northwest Passage, which is currently almost free of ice.

This is the second year in a row that the most direct route through the Northwest Passage has opened up. The indirect route, called the Amundsen Northwest Passage, has been passable for almost a month, Miller said..

“Polarstern will circumnavigate the whole Arctic Ocean and exit through the Northeast Passage,” Miller said. Polarstern is expected to reach Bremerhaven again on October 19.

“The polar regions, especially the Arctic, are very sensitive indicators of climate change,” Miller said. “The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has shown that these regions are highly vulnerable to rising temperatures and predicted that the Arctic would be virtually ice-free in the summer months by 2070.

“Other scientists claim it could become ice-free as early as 2040,” he said. “Latest satellite observations suggest that the Arctic could be mainly ice-free even earlier.”

Polar bear survival is threatened by melting
Arctic sea ice. (Photo courtesy U.S. House
of Representatives)

In 2009, ESA plans to launch another satellite, CryoSat-2, that will orbit the Earth for three years, gathering further evidence on the rates at which ice thickness and cover are diminishing.

The rate of climate warming over the land masses of northern Alaska, Canada, and Russia could more than triple during periods of rapid sea ice loss, according to a study by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

The findings, released in June, raise concerns about the thawing of permafrost, or permanently frozen soil.

“Our study suggests that, if sea-ice continues to contract rapidly over the next several years, Arctic land warming and permafrost thaw are likely to accelerate,” said lead author David Lawrence of NCAR.

Arctic soils are believed to hold 30 percent or more of all the carbon stored in soils worldwide, and thawing permafrost may release additional greenhouse gases that would further accelerate global warming.

Lawrence noted that from August to October last year, air temperatures over land in the western Arctic were unusually warm, reaching more than four degrees Fahrenheit (two degrees Celsius) above the 1978-2006 average, and he wondered whether this warming was related to the loss of sea ice.

David Lawrence (Photo by Carlye
Calvin, ©UCAR)

Using sophisticated climate change simulations, Lawrence and his team found that during episodes of rapid sea ice loss, the rate of Arctic land warming is 3.5 times greater than the average 21st century warming rates predicted in global climate models.

While this warming is greatest over the ocean, the simulations suggest that it can penetrate as far as 900 miles inland, especially in autumn.

Lawrence and his team concluded that a decade of rapid sea ice loss could see autumn temperatures warm by as much as nine degrees F (five degrees C) along the Arctic coasts of Russia, Alaska, and Canada.

The study sheds light on how interconnected the Arctic system is, says co-author Andrew Slater, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. “The loss of sea ice can trigger widespread changes that would be felt across the region.”

Recent warming has degraded large sections of permafrost, with pockets of soil collapsing as the ice within it melts. The results include buckled highways, destabilized houses, and “drunken forests” of trees that lean at wild angles, Lawrence said.

The polar bear population is expected to decline by 30 percent in the next 35 to 50 years due to disappearing habitat induced by global warming. Warming induced changes in tundra vegetation and plant life threaten caribou, reindeer and migratory bird populations. Loss of sea ice and wildlife also makes indigenous life in the Arctic increasingly difficult, endangering an entire way of life.

“An important unresolved question is how the delicate balance of life in the Arctic will respond to such a rapid warming,” he said. “Will we see, for example, accelerated coastal erosion, or increased methane emissions, or faster shrub encroachment into tundra regions if sea ice continues to retreat rapidly?”

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By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, May 14, 2008 (ENS) – The Bush administration reluctantly declared the polar bear a threatened species today, concluding that the loss of Arctic sea ice has put the future of the iconic species in peril. But the administration also took steps to ensure the decision will not require new efforts to tackle global warming or put new restrictions on oil and gas development in polar bear habitat.

The announcement ends a three-year legal dispute over whether the polar bear should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because of the impact of global warming on its Arctic habitat. Three conservation groups first filed a petition requesting the decision in 2005.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service missed a January deadline to issue a decision and was under a court order to finalize its decision by Thursday.

“I wish the decision could be otherwise,” U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne told reporters, bemoaning the “restraints of the inflexible law that guides me.”

Polar bear family. (Photo
courtesy First People)

Kempthorne said the growing body of evidence that the polar bear is at risk from melting sea ice left him with little choice but to list the species. The Endangered Species Act requires that the decision is supported by the best available science.

Although there are an estimated 22,000 polar bears spread across the Arctic, including some 4,700 within the United States, there are worrying signs that rising temperatures have put the species in jeopardy.

A key scientific study issued last fall by the U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, found that two-thirds of the world’s polar bears, including all those within the United States, could disappear by 2050 due to increased sea ice melt caused by rising temperatures. Polar bears rely on sea ice to hunt for prey.

The USGS research came amid startling evidence that the Arctic is melting faster than predicted, as ice loss last year reached levels not predicted to occur until mid-century. Some scientists now predict the Arctic could be ice-free in the summer as early as 2012.

The loss of habitat puts polar bears at risk of becoming endangered in the “foreseeable future,” Kempthorne said, and thus meets the criteria for the species to be listed as threatened.

Listing the polar bear requires federal agencies ensure that any action they authorize, fund, or carry out will not jeopardize the polar bears’ continued existence or adversely modify their critical habitat.

In addition, the Fish and Wildlife Service must prepare a recovery plan for the polar bear, specifying measures necessary for its protection.

Male polar bears sparring
(Photo courtesy First People)

But the Interior chief immediately took steps to limit the impact of the listing and make sure it “isn’t abused to make global warming policies.”

He stressed that decision will not open the door to restraints on activities that produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

“That would be a totally inappropriate use of the Endangered Species Act,” Kempthorne said, adding that the law “was never intended to regulate global climate change.”

While the legal standards under the Endangered Species Act “compel me to list the polar bear as threatened,” he added, “I want to make clear that this listing will not stop global climate change or prevent any sea ice from melting.”

Kempthorne echoed the Bush administration’s standard stance on climate change, saying it is a global problem that will require cooperative action from all major economies.

He touted efforts to further monitor U.S. polar bear populations and to work with Canada and other Arctic nations to protect the species.

Polar bear cub (Photo
courtesy First People)

Kempthorne also invoked a rarely used section of the law that allows the less restrictive Marine Mammal Protection Act, MMPA, to guide regulation of activities, including oil and gas development, in the polar bear’s habitat.

The polar bear has been listed under the MMPA since 1972.

“The loss of sea ice, not oil and gas exploration or subsistence activity, is the primary threat to the polar bear,” he said.

Kassie Siegel, climate program director at the Center for Biological Diversity and lead author of the 2005 petition, called the listing decision a “watershed event” but added that the legal battle is far from over.

“The administration’s attempts to reduce protection to the polar bear from greenhouse gas emissions are illegal and won’t hold up in court,” Siegel said.

Kempthorne also told reporters that the decision was not delayed in order to allow new lease sales in the Chukchi Sea, home to some 2,000 polar bears.

The lease sales went ahead in February, despite widespread criticism from Democratic lawmakers and environmentalists who wanted Kempthorne to postpone the sales until the listing decision was finalized.

“If we had been able to make polar bear decision, it would have preceded the lease sale,” Kempthorne said.

A coalition of Alaska native and conservation groups has filed suit to block the lease sales, arguing that the government failed to fully consider the environmental and economic impacts of oil and gas development on local communities.

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SAN DIEGO, California, March 23, 2008 (ENS) – Black carbon, particulate matter in the air produced by diesel exhaust, biomass burning, and cooking with solid fuels, has a warming effect in the atmosphere three to four times greater than existing estimates, according to scientists in an upcoming review article in the journal “Nature Geoscience.”

Atmospheric scientist V. Ramanathan with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California-San Diego and University of Iowa chemical engineer Greg Carmichael, said that soot and other forms of black carbon could have as much as 60 percent of the current global warming effect of carbon dioxide, more than that of any greenhouse gas besides carbon dioxide, CO2.

The researchers also say that mitigation would have immediate societal benefits in addition to the long-term effect of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The article, “Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon,” is posted in today’s online version of “Nature Geoscience.”

Professor V. Ramanathan explains his new
findings to reporters. (Photo
courtesy UC San Diego)

“Observationally based studies such as ours are converging on the same large magnitude of black carbon heating as modeling studies from Stanford, Caltech and NASA,” said Ramanathan.

“We now have to examine if black carbon is also having a large role in the retreat of arctic sea ice and Himalayan glaciers as suggested by recent studies,” he said.

In the paper, Ramanathan and Carmichael integrated observed data from satellites, aircraft and surface instruments about the warming effect of black carbon and found that its warming effect in the atmosphere, is about 0.9 watts per meter squared.

That compares to estimates of between 0.2 watts per meter squared and 0.4 watts per meter squared that were agreed upon as a consensus estimate in a report released last year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations sponsored agency that periodically synthesizes the body of climate change research.

Ramanathan and Carmichael said the lower, more conservative estimates are based on widely used computer model simulations that do not take into account the amplification of black carbon’s warming effect when mixed with other aerosols such as sulfates.

The models also do not adequately represent the full range of altitudes at which the warming effect occurs, they said.

The most recent observations have found significant black carbon warming effects at altitudes in the range of 6,500 feet, levels at which black carbon particles absorb not only sunlight but also solar energy reflected by clouds at lower altitudes.

Between 25 and 35 percent of black carbon in the global atmosphere comes from China and India, emitted from the burning of wood and cow dung in household cooking and through the use of coal to heat homes.

Countries in Europe and elsewhere that rely heavily on diesel fuel for transportation also contribute large amounts.

“Per capita emissions of black carbon from the United States and some European countries are still comparable to those from south Asia and east Asia,” Ramanathan said.

Black carbon rises from land clearing fires on the island of Borneo. October 2006. (NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team)

In south Asia, air pollution often forms a brownish haze. Ramanathan’s previous research has indicated that the warming effects of this smog appear to be accelerating the melt of Himalayan glaciers that provide billions of people throughout Asia with drinking water.

In addition, the inhalation of smoke during indoor cooking has been linked to the deaths of an estimated 400,000 women and children in south and east Asia.

Ramanathan said that an observation program for which he is currently seeking corporate sponsorship could dramatically illustrate the benefits. Known as Project Surya, the proposed venture would provide some 20,000 rural Indian households with smoke-free cookers and equipped to transmit data. At the same time, a team of researchers led by Ramanathan would observe air pollution levels in the region to measure the effect of the cookers.

Carmichael said he hopes that the paper’s presentation of the immediacy of the benefits will make it easier to generate political and regulatory momentum toward reduction of black carbon emissions.

“It offers a chance to get better traction for implementing strategies for reducing black carbon,” he said.

The National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration funded the review.

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SAN FRANCISCO, California, March 11, 2008 (ENS) – Three conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the Bush administration on Monday for missing the legal deadline to issue a final decision on whether or not to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council, NRDC, say that due to global warming the polar bear’s icy habitat is shrinking.

“Polar bears live only in the Arctic and are totally dependent on the sea ice for all of their essential needs,” the three groups said in a joint statement. “The rapid warming of the Arctic and melting of the sea ice pose an overwhelming threat to the polar bear, which could become the first mammal to lose 100 percent of its habitat to global warming.”

Arctic sea ice is disappearing, placing polar bear survival in doubt. (Photo by Daniel Beltra courtesy Greenpeace)

The groups filed their lawsuit today in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit seeks a court order compelling the administration to issue the final decision on polar bear protection immediately.

“The Endangered Species Act is absolutely unambiguous. The Fish and Wildlife Service was required to make a final decision months ago. Now it’s up to a federal court to throw this incredible animal a lifeline,” said Andrew Wetzler, director of the Endangered Species Project at NRDC. “We need urgent action from this administration, to protect the polar bear and reduce greenhouse gas pollution, not continued delay.”

The Endangered Species Act listing process for the polar bear was initiated in February 2005 with a scientific petition from the three groups. In December 2005, these groups sued the Bush administration for failing to respond to the petition.

As a result of that first lawsuit, in February 2006, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that protection of polar bears “may be warranted,” and began a full status review of the species.

A settlement agreement in that case committed the Service to make the second of three required findings in the listing process by December 27, 2007, at which time the Service announced the proposal to list the species as “threatened.”

By law, the Service was required to make a final listing decision within one year of the proposal. The decision is now more than two months overdue, the groups say.

“The Bush administration seems intent on slamming shut the narrow window of opportunity we have to save polar bears,” said Kassie Siegel, climate program director at the Center for Biological Diversity, and lead author of the 2005 petition seeking the Endangered Species Act listing. “We simply will not sit back and passively allow the administration to condemn polar bears to extinction.”

The groups claim the Bush administration is dragging its heels on the polar listing so oil leasing can proceed in the Arctic. A decision to list the species would mean that their habitat must be protected from any federal government activity that might threaten their survival.

Noting that the federal government initiated lease sales to drill for oil in the Chukchi Sea earlier this month, Kert Davies, research director at Greenpeace USA, said, “Our lawsuit has forced the Bush administration’s hand on the issue of global warming like no other, even as it rubberstamps drilling rights for Big Oil in pristine polar bear habitat. If the federal government is really serious about protecting the polar bear, then its next steps will be to cancel lease sales in the Chukchi Sea and immediately implement a plan for deep cuts in U.S. global warming pollution.”

Since the petition to protect polar bears under the Endangered Species Act was first filed in February 2005, new science paints a dim picture of the polar bear’s future.

In September, the U.S. Geological Survey predicted that two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population would likely be extinct by 2050, including all polar bears within the United States. Several leading scientists now predict the Arctic could be ice-free in the summer as early as 2012.

To date, the government has received approximately 670,000 comments in support of protecting the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, including letters from eminent polar bear experts, climate scientists, and more than 60 members of Congress.

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WASHINGTON, DC, March 11, 2008 (ENS) – Every mode of transportation in the United States will be affected as the climate warms, with the greatest impact expected to be flooding of roads, railways, transit systems, and airport runways in coastal areas because of rising sea levels and surges brought on by more intense storms, says a new report from the National Research Council.

The report identifies five climate changes of particular importance to U.S. transportation – increases in very hot days and heat waves; increases in Arctic temperatures; rising sea levels; increases in intense precipitation events; and increases in hurricane intensity.

Though the impacts of climate change will vary by region, it is certain they will be widespread and costly in human and economic terms, and will require major changes in the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of transportation systems, the committee concludes.

Evacuation of New Orleans flooded by Hurricane
Katrina. September 1, 2005 (Photo
by Michael Rieger courtesy FEMA)

“The time has come for transportation professionals to acknowledge and confront the challenges posed by climate change, and to incorporate the most current scientific knowledge into the planning of transportation systems,” said Henry Schwartz Jr., past president and chairman of the engineering firmSverdrup/Jacobs Civil Inc., and chair of the committee that wrote the report.

“Rising temperatures may trigger weather extremes and surprises, such as more rapid melting of the Arctic sea ice than projected,” Schwartz said. “The highways that currently serve as evacuation routes and endure periodic flooding could be compromised with strong hurricanes and more intense precipitation, making some of these routes impassable.”

Transportation providers will need to focus on evacuation planning and work more closely with weather forecasters and emergency planners, the said the committe, which includes meteorologists, climate scientists and planners as well as transportation officials from Massachusetts, New York, Texas and California.

“It is now possible to project climate changes for large subcontinental regions, such as the Eastern United States, a scale better suited for considering regional and local transportation infrastructure,” Schwartz said.

The U.S. transportation system was designed and built for local weather and climate conditions, predicated on historical temperature and precipitation data, but the report finds that climate predictions used by transportation planners and engineers may no longer be reliable for forecast weather and climate extremes.

Infrastructure pushed beyond the range for which it was designed can become stressed and fail, as seen with loss of the U.S. 90 Bridge in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

U.S. Highway 90 bridge in Biloxi,
Mississippi was destroyed by
Hurricane Katrina in 2005. (Photo
by Mark Wolfe courtesy FEMA)

In addition to climate changes, other vulnerabilities will affect coastal-area transportation systems, the committee notes.

Population is projected to grow in coastal areas, which will boost demand for transportation infrastructure and increase the number of people and businesses potentially in harm’s way.

Erosion and loss of wetlands have removed crucial buffer zones that once protected infrastructure, and an estimated 60,000 miles of coastal highways are already exposed to periodic storm flooding.

Infrastructure vulnerabilities will extend inland as the climate continues to change, the committee says.

In the Midwest, increased intense precipitation could augment the severity of flooding, as occurred in 1993 when farmland, towns, and transportation routes were severely damaged from flooding along 500 miles of the Mississippi and Missouri river systems.

On the other hand, drier conditions are likely to prevail in the watersheds supplying the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes as well as the Upper Midwest river system.

Lower water levels would reduce vessel shipping capacity, impairing freight movements in the region, such as occurred during the drought of 1988, which stranded barge traffic on the Mississippi River.

And in California, heat waves may increase wildfires that can destroy transportation infrastructure.

Not all climate changes will be negative, however. Marine transportation could benefit from more open seas in the Arctic, creating new and shorter shipping routes and reducing transport time and costs, the report notes. In cold regions, rising temperatures could reduce the costs of snow and ice control and would make travel conditions safer for passenger vehicles and freight.

“Preparing for projected climate changes will be costly,” the committee warns.

Response measures range from rehabilitating and retrofitting infrastructure to making major additions to constructing entirely new infrastructure. Roads, rail lines, and airport runways in low-lying coastal areas may become casualties of sea-level rise, requiring relocations or expensive protective measures, such as sea walls and levees.

The report calls for the federal government to perform such services as creation of a clearinghouse for information on transportation and climate change.

Sand pushed inland by the storm surge
of Hurricane Jeanne covers a road
in Vero Beach, Florida. (Photo by
Mark Wolfe courtesy FEMA)

The federal government should establish a research program to re-evaluate existing design standards and develop new standards for addressing climate change, the committee recommends, and should also create an interagency working group on adaptation.

Changes in federal regulations regarding long-range planning guidelines and infrastructure rehabilitation requirements may be necessary.

And the National Flood Insurance Program will need to be re-evaluated and flood insurance rate maps updated with climate change in mind, the committee suggests.

But many recommendations need not wait for federal action, and focusing on the challenges now could help avoid costly transportation investments and disruptions to operations in the future, the committee advises.

Local governments and private infrastructure providers can begin to identify critical infrastructure that is particularly vulnerable to climate change.

Professional organizations can single out examples of best practices, and transportation planners and climate scientists can begin collaboration on the development of regional scenarios for likely climate changes and the data needed to analyze their impacts.

This report is a collaboration between the Transportation Research Board and the Division on Earth and Life Studies of the National Research Council. It was sponsored by six federal government agencies.

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SAN FRANCISCO, California, February 7, 2008 (ENS) – The Pacific walrus is threatened by global warming and oil development throughout its range and needs the shelter of the federal Endangered Species Act, the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity warned today, filing a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the walrus for protection.

“The Arctic is in crisis from global warming. Arctic sea ice is disappearing at a stunning rate that vastly exceeds the predictions of the best climate models,” said Shaye Wolf, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity and lead author of the petition.”

“The Pacific walrus is an early victim of our failure to address global warming,” said Wolf. “As the sea ice recedes, so does the future of the Pacific walrus.”

Walrus on ice (Photo courtesy NASA)

The Pacific walrus inhabits the Arctic seas between Alaska and Siberia in a life cycle intimately linked with the sea ice.

Female walruses and their calves follow the sea ice year-round and mothers rely on the safety of ice floes for nursing their calves and as essential resting platforms between foraging bouts, since they cannot continually swim.

All Pacific walrus are dependent on sea ice for their breeding activities in winter. And all walruses use the sea ice as a platform from which to forage for clams and mussels in the relatively shallow waters over the continental shelf.

But this sea ice is rapidly shrinking and forcing the Pacific walrus into a land-based existence for which it is not adapted. In 2007, the early disappearance of summer sea ice pushed females and calves onto land in abnormally dense herds. As a result, females and young were forced to abandon large regions of their at-sea feeding grounds, and calves suffered high mortality on land due to trampling by the dense herds.

Walrus calves, unable to swim as long as adults, have also been abandoned by their mothers at sea, which has been attributed to the disappearance of the sea ice on which they would normally rest.

The impacts of global warming on the Pacific walrus will worsen in this century. Scientists expect that the Arctic will be ice-free in the summer as early as 2012.

The Pacific walrus’s winter sea-ice habitat is projected to decline 40 percent by mid-century if current greenhouse gas emissions continue, and any remaining sea ice in winter will be much thinner and will not last as long.

Warming sea temperatures and sea-ice loss appear to be decreasing the abundance of the Pacific walrus’s bottom-dwelling prey. Habitat loss of this magnitude will undoubtedly commit Pacific walrus to population declines and an increased risk of extinction.

At the same time the sea-ice habitat of the walrus is melting away, its most important foraging grounds are being auctioned off to oil companies to extract more oil and gas. When burned to produce energy, the oil and gas emit greenhouse gases that further accelerate global warming and the melting of the Arctic.

The Chukchi Lease Sale 193, held on February 6, resulted in 2.7 million acres of important Pacific walrus being bid on by oil companies, opening the door for oil and gas development in a significant portion of the Pacific walrus’s summer range.

Five other lease sales in the Pacific walrus’s habitat in the Chukchi, Beaufort and Bering Seas are planned by 2012.

“With rapid action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, combined with a moratorium on new oil and gas development and shipping routes in the Arctic, we can still save the Pacific walrus, the polar bear, and the Arctic ecosystem,” said Wolf. “But the window of opportunity to act is closing rapidly.”

Jay Skiles, senior research scientist in biosphere science at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California said their data suggest the possibility that sea ice features may be critical factors for the walrus when choosing a habitat.

Using techniques developed during a walrus census last spring, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may be able to determine, over time, if climate change is affecting Pacific walrus populations,” said Skiles.

Oil and gas development, shipping, and greenhouse gas emissions affecting the Arctic would be subject to greater regulation under the Endangered Species Act if the walrus is listed.

Listing of the Pacific walrus would not affect subsistence harvest of the species by Alaska Natives, which is exempted from the law.

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WASHINGTON, DC, January 7, 2008 (ENS) – Three environmental groups today said they will sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to make a decision about whether or not to place the polar bear on the federal Endangered Species List by this coming Wednesday. To survive, polar bears must contend with shrinking sea ice, toxic contamination and petroleum development.

Today the Service said it is “working diligently to reach a final decision” about listing the bear as threatened but will not have made the determination by Wednesday. “We expect to provide a final recommendation to the Secretary of the Interior and finalize the decision within the next month,” the Service said.

The Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council, NRDC, and Greenpeace say they will begin legal action Wednesday

“We certainly hope that the polar bear will be listed within the next month. But this is an administration of broken promises, from Bush’s campaign pledge to regulate greenhouse gases to Secretary Kempthorne’s failure to list a single species under the Endangered Species Act in the last 607 days,” said Kassie Siegel, climate program director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Polar bear on Arctic sea
ice (Photo courtesy MMS)

The Endangered Species Act requires a listing process of no longer than two years, but in this case almost three years have passed since the scientific petition was submitted in February 2005, calling on the government to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.

The groups sued the Bush administration in December 2005, when it missed its first deadline.

Responding to the suit in February, 2006, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that protection of polar bears “may be warranted,” and began a full status review of the species.

On December 27, 2006, the Service announced its proposal to list the species as “threatened” and had one year to make a final listing decision. The legal deadline for doing so is January 9, 2008.

“The polar bear needs a lifeline,” said Andrew Wetzler, director of the Endangered Species Project at NRDC. “Urgent action is required by our government. Polar bears’ very existence is already threatened by environmental disaster, and they also face toxic contamination and habitat destruction from oil and gas development. The administration’s endless delay is outrageous and unwarranted.”

The Service says it is working as fast as it can in light of new information received in September 2007 and public comments on that information.

“When the polar bear was proposed for listing in January 2007, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne directed the Service to work with the U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, the public and the scientific community to broaden our understanding of what is happening with the polar bear and to gather additional information to inform the final decision on whether the species warrants federal protection under the ESA [Endangered Species Act], the Service said today.

“In September 2007, USGS scientists supplied new research findings to the Service updating population information on the Southern Bering Sea polar bear and providing additional data on sea ice trends and effects on polar bear populations throughout the species’ range.

As a result of the new USGS research findings, the Service reopened and later extended a second comment period to allow the public time to review the information and respond. “We received numerous comments on the USGS reports and have been working to analyze and respond to the information provided during the comment period,” the Service said.

To date, the government has received more than 500,000 comments in support of protecting the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, including letters from eminent polar bear experts, climate scientists, and more than 60 members of Congress, a record number of public comments in support of an Endangered Species Act listing, the environmental groups say.

But the groups do not view the number of comments as justification for further delay in issuing a determination.

“The Bush administration has squandered seven years denying the devastating scientific evidence of global warming,” said Kert Davies, research director for Greenpeace USA. “Stalling has cost us dearly, putting the polar bear at risk of extinction and jeopardizing the future welfare of billions of people around the world. This further unjustified delay is emblematic of the administration’s approach.”

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SAN FRANCISCO, California, December 26, 2007 (ENS) – The rare ribbon seal may be one of the first species to lose its habitat to global warming, says the Center for Biological Diversity. The ribbon seal is dependent on Arctic sea ice for survival – but that sea ice is shrinking fast.

The group has filed a scientific petition with the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect the ribbon seal under the federal Endangered Species Act due to decline of its habitat in a warming climate.

“The Arctic is in crisis state from global warming,” said Shaye Wolf, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity and lead author of the petition.

“An entire ecosystem is rapidly melting away and the ribbon seal is poised to become the first victim of our failure to address global warming,” he said.

A ribbon seal in the Alaskan
Arctic (Photo courtesy NOAA)

The ribbon seal is the most decoratively patterned of all seals. While the pups are pure white, the adults have black fur wrapped in white circles.

“Why does the ribbon seal have its stripes? Probably to make it less visible to underwater predators,” explains ribbon seal biologist Carleton Ray from the University of Virginia.

“But this beautiful, charismatic species may soon become totally invisible should its spring reproductive habitat of sea ice continue to diminish, as climate models predict,” he said.

During the late winter through early summer, ribbon seals rely on the edge of the sea ice in the Bering and Okhotsk Seas off Alaska and Russia as safe habitat for giving birth and as a nursery for their pups.

But Wolf says that this winter the sea-ice habitat is rapidly disappearing. “If current ice-loss trends due to global warming continue, the ribbon seal faces likely extinction by the end of the century,” he says.

The ribbon seal’s winter sea ice habitat is projected to decline 40 percent by mid-century under recent greenhouse gas emissions trends, Wolf says.

He says any remaining sea ice will be much thinner and unlikely to last long enough for the ribbon seals to finish rearing their pups, leading to widespread pup mortality.

In addition to loss of its sea-ice habitat from global warming, the ribbon seal faces threats from increased oil and gas development in its habitat and the proliferation of shipping routes in the increasingly ice-free Arctic.

Ribbon seal on ice in Russian
territory (Photo by G. Carleton
Ray courtesy U. Virginia)

Ribbon seals are still managing to find thick enough ice to support their activities. G. Carleton Ray of the University of Virginia Department of Environmental Sciences travelled to the Bering Sea in May 2007 and encountered them.

“In Russian waters is pack ice with leads, where strong, cold winds from Siberia create thick ice with parallel leads and where, last year, we found little-known, strikingly beautiful ribbon seals,” wrote Ray.

In Wolf’s view there is still reason to hope for their survival.

“With rapid action to reduce carbon dioxide, methane and black carbon emissions, combined with a moratorium on new oil and gas development and shipping routes in the Arctic, we can still save the ribbon seal, the polar bear, and the Arctic ecosystem,” he said. “But the window of opportunity to act is closing rapidly.”

He points out that warming in the Arctic now is occurring at a pace so rapid that is exceeding the predictions of the most advanced climate models.

“Summer sea-ice extent in 2007 plummeted to a record minimum which most climate models forecast would not be reached until 2050,” Wolf observed. “Winter sea ice declined to a minimum in 2007 that most climate models forecast would not be reached until 2070.”

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