Climate Adaptation Difficult for Europe's Birds

For the past 20 years, the climate in Europe has been getting warmer. Species of bird and butterfly which thrive in cool temperatures therefore need to move further north. However, they have difficulty adapting to the warmer climate quickly enough, as shown by new research published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Åke Lindström is Professor of Animal Ecology at Lund University, Sweden. Together with other European researchers he has looked at 20 years' worth of data on birds, butterflies and summer temperatures. During this period, Europe has become warmer and set temperatures have shifted northwards by 250 km. Bird and butterfly communities have not moved at the same rate.

"Both butterflies and birds respond to climate change, but not fast enough to keep up with an increasingly warm climate. We don't know what the long-term ecological effects of this will be," says Åke Lindström.

Butterflies have adapted more quickly to the changing temperatures and have moved on average 114 km north, whereas birds have only moved 37 km. A likely reason is that butterflies have much shorter lifespans and therefore adapt more quickly to climate change. Because birds like to return to the same breeding ground as in previous years, there is also greater inertia in the bird system.

"A worrying aspect of this is if birds fall out of step with butterflies, because caterpillars and insects in general represent an important source of food for many birds," says Åke Lindström.

Sweden shows the strongest trends with regard to birds; however, there is no corresponding Swedish data for butterflies. For the study, the birds have been divided into 'cold' and 'warm' species, i.e. birds that thrive in slightly cooler or warmer temperatures. For example, chaffinches and reed buntings are 'colder' species and blackcaps and goldfinches 'warmer' species. In general, the researchers have observed that 'warm' birds are on the increase and 'cold' birds are in decline. When new species are seen in an area and others disappear, it is more often 'warm' species that arrive and 'cold' species that disappear.

"Over the past 50 years the main factors affecting bird and butterfly numbers and distribution have been agriculture, forestry and urbanisation. Climate change is now emerging as an increasingly important factor in the development of biodiversity," says Åke Lindström, continuing: "For Sweden, this will probably mean more species of bird in the long run; many new species are already arriving from the continent."

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Australia passes landmark carbon price laws

 Australia's parliament passed landmark laws to impose a price on carbon emissions on Tuesday in one of the biggest economic reforms in a decade, giving new impetus to December's global climate talks in South Africa.

The scheme's impact will be felt right across the economy, from miners to LNG producers, airlines and steel makers and is aimed at making firms more energy efficient and push power generation toward gas and renewables.

Australia accounts for just 1.5 percent of global emissions, but is the developed world's highest emitter per capita due to a reliance on coal to generate electricity.

"This is a very positive step for the global effort on climate change. It shows that the world's most emissions-intensive advanced economy is prepared to use a market mechanism to cut carbon emissions in a low-cost way," said Deutsche Bank carbon analyst Tim Jordan.

The vote is a major victory for embattled Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who staked her government's future on what will be the most comprehensive carbon price scheme outside of Europe despite deep hostility from voters and the political opposition.

The scheme is a central plank in the government's fight against climate change and aims to halt the growth of the country's growing greenhouse gas emissions from a resources-led boom and age-old reliance on coal-fired power stations.

It sets a fixed carbon tax of A$23 ($23.78) a tone on the top 500 polluters from July 2012, then moves to an emissions trading scheme from July 2015. Companies involved will need a permit for every tone of carbon they emit.

"Today marks the beginning of Australia's clean energy future. This is an historic moment, this is an historic reform, a reform that is long overdue," Finance Minister Penny Wong told the upper house Senate as she wrapped up the marathon debate.

DECADE OF DEBATE

Australia has been debating a carbon price scheme for a decade and through 37 parliamentary inquiries, with the legislation instrumental in the 2007 fall of former conservative prime minister John Howard and Labor's Kevin Rudd in 2010.

The laws will see Australia join the European Union and New Zealand with national emissions trading schemes. California's starts in 2013, while China and South Korea are working on carbon trading programs. India has a coal tax, while South Africa plans to place carbon caps on its top polluters.

The government hopes securing the carbon price laws will help re-ignite the push for a global agreement to curb emissions and fight global warming ahead of a international talks in Durban in December.

The carbon price will impose a cost on every tone of carbon emitted, giving companies a financial incentive to curb pollution, and will help Australia reach its goal to cut emissions by 5 percent of year 2000 levels by 2020.

Farmers will be exempt from the scheme, but will be able to cash in by selling carbon offsets under separate laws for a carbon farming initiative.

The package of 18 new laws sets up the carbon price as well as billions in compensation for export-exposed industries and local steel makers, as well as personal tax cuts for 90 percent of workers, worth an average A$300 a year.

Emissions-intensive trade exposed industries such as aluminum, zinc refiners and steel makers, will receive 94.5 percent of carbon permits for free for the first three years of the scheme.

A convoy of trucks protesting against the Australian government's proposed carbon tax drive past Parliament House (L) in Canberra August 22, 2011. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne

CLEAN ENERGY GOLD RUSH

The passing of the bill was greeted with applause from the public galleries, with Green Leader Bob Brown -- a major proponent of the scheme -- shaking hands with Government senators.

Attendees at a carbon expo conference in Melbourne were ecstatic with the result.

"The atmosphere is electric. This is fantastic," said Nick Armstrong of emissions trading firm COzero.

The government expects the scheme to spur a multi-billion-dollar investment rush in new cleaner energy sources including natural gas and renewable power stations to replace Australia's aging coal-fired plants.

Canberra has committed more than A$13 billion for renewable and low emissions projects, including a A$10 billion independent Clean Energy Finance Corporation, with around A$100 billion in renewables sector investment expected by 2050.

However, full introduction of the Australian scheme remains uncertain, with conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott promising to scrap the carbon price if he wins power and with Gillard's minority government holding power by only one seat.

The next election is not due until late 2013, but opinion polls show Gillard's government would be easily swept from office, and Abbott could potentially take power at any time in the event of a by-election in a government-held seat.

Abbott, who has campaigned tirelessly against the new laws, was overseas for Tuesday's vote, but he issued a statement to reaffirm his promise to repeal the laws if he takes power.

"The longer this tax is in place, the worse the consequences for the economy, jobs and families. It will drive up the cost of living, threaten jobs and do nothing for the environment," Abbott said.

A poll on Tuesday showed the conservatives leading ruling Labor by 53 to 47 percent, although the government's popularity had improved slightly as voters warmed to Gillard's handling of economic and industrial relations problems.

The carbon price is one of the three key policies Gillard promised to finalize when she became prime minister, alongside a planned 30 percent tax on iron ore and coal mines and new measures to deter asylum seekers.

But dead-heat elections last August forced Gillard to negotiate details of the carbon price with the Greens and three independent lawmakers.

Climate Minister Greg Combet said the government would stick to its A$23 a tone price, despite it being almost double the European cost of between $8.70 and $12.60 a tone, which is four-year-lows on the back of global economic uncertainty.

"I'd certainly hope and anticipate that in the course of the next three-and-a-half years, the crisis in Europe is overcome, markets will stabilize and recover and our carbon price will mesh well," Combet told Australian radio.

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Seals and Walruses Found Dead in Alaska with Mysterious Sores and Hair Loss: Scientists Baffled

According to the Alaska Dispatch, since mid-July, more than 60 dead and 75 diseased seals have been found with skin lesions and hair loss in the Arctic and Bering Strait regions of Alaska. In addition, scientists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported several diseased and dead walruses in their fall survey this year, and the walruses were also found with skin sores and patchy hair loss.

Scientific studies have indicated that a virus is not responsible for the disease impacting these animals, but scientists have been unable to isolate a single cause. Tissue samples from the affected animals have been screened for a variety of pathogens, but all of the results so far have been negative.

NOAA declared mysterious seal deaths "an unusual mortality event"
The seal deaths have been declared "an unusual mortality event" by theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) , a status that provides additional resources to investigate the cause. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering making a similar declaration for the Pacific walrus.

Seal tissue samples will be tested
Tissue samples will be examined for various factors including signs of immune system diseases, fungi, toxins, contaminants related to sea ice change, and radiation. Some of the seals and walruses have undersized lymph nodes, possibly a sign of weakened immune systems. The results of these tests will not be available for several weeks.

Concerns that the seal deaths may be linked to Fukushima radiation 
Local communities have been concerned that the marine mammals deaths may be due to a causal relationship linked to the Fukushima nuclear plant's damage.

Scientists at the Institute of Marine Sciences at UAF believe it's unlikely that Fukushima was the cause of the seals' deaths, given that levels of detected radiation are relatively low around Alaska. Water tests have not shown evidence of elevated radiation in U.S. Pacific waters since the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan. If there is a link to Fukushima, the researchers will find it, as they will be testing for radionuclide Cs-134 and Cs-137.

The disease hasn't spread to polar bears or humans, may have spread to other arctic seals
It is not known whether the disease can be transmitted to humans or other animals. Polar bears, which prey on ringed seals, have not shown symptoms of the disease. Humans have also not shown symptoms of the disease. Similar symptoms have been reported in ringed seals in Russia and Canada. It is not yet determined if the causes are related. However, the timing and overall location of the disease suggests the possibility of transmission between the Alaskan and Russian populations, or at least a shared exposure to an environmental cause.

The public are encouraged to report sightings of diseased or dead animals.NOAA’s Alaska regional fisheries website has more in-depth information about this disease outbreak in ringed seals and walruses.

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Study of Wild Horses Suggests More Range Helps Endangered Species Survive Global Warming

Asian wild horses, or Przewalski's horses, are considered to be the only surviving wild horses -- that is, horses that have never been successfully domesticated (American mustangs, for example, are domesticated horses that have once again become feral). Przewalski's horses went extinct in the wild during the 1960's, but were successfully reintroduced by selectively breeding wild horses surviving in zoos and preserves before releasing the horses back into the wild.

The model program to re-establish the wild horse suffered a serious blow in the winter of 2009/2010, as an extended drought followed by extreme snowfall limited the food available for grazing. Mongolian herders in the Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area lost an average of 67% of their stock. Such weather conditions, referred to locally as "dzud," occur periodically and were not necessarily related to global climate change.

However, scientists Petra Kaczensky and Chris Walzer of the University of Veterinary Medicine of Vienna have used statistics on the geographical ranges of wild horses and wild asses to demonstrate that restricted ranges can "easily result in local population crashes such as the one seen for the Przewalski's horses." From the press release Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket -- or All Your Horses on One Pasture:

The severe effect of this localized catastrophic event was largely due to the small size and limited range of the present-day Przewalski’s horse population. A large and continuous population would be much more robust as it could counteract local population lows or extinctions via re-colonization. The dzud winter of 2009/2010 is a textbook example of how vulnerable small and spatially confined populations are in an environment prone to fluctuations and catastrophes.

The findings suggest that programs to protect endangered species, especially in the face of increasingly frequent extreme weather events related to global climate change, must adopt strategies to open wider ranges to allow species to migrate away from threats and into more habitable locations, as well as to introduce populations to diverse ranges.

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Animal Tickle Tests Shed Light on the Origins of Laughter

Tickling a Pygmy Owl

It is perhaps the most curious of involuntary bodily responses, that is, to giggle and guffaw with reckless abandon when our feet, armpits, and ribs are touched in just the right way. To be tickled seems conjure equal parts ecstasy and turmoil, though it manifests itself as the purest expression of unsolicited joy -- laughter. On its face, this bemusing phenomenon might seem a uniquely human tendency, yet for the last several years real scientists have been discovering tickle-induced chuckling all throughout the Animal Kingdom and are beginning to better understand the origins of laughter.
According to the BBC, researchers in the UK have essentially invented for themselves what might be the greatest job in the world: ticklin' for science. Their focus has been on how gorillas at a local wildlife park vocalize in response to some well-placed fingertip rub downs in order to learn more about how laughter may have evolved in humans. What they found were more similarities than differences, says Dr. Marina Davila-Ross of the University of Portsmouth.

"I was amazed about the way apes responded to being tickled - the apes seem to behave in the same way humans and children behave when they are being tickled," she told the BBC. "Based on the study, we can now say laughter is at least 30 million to 60 million years old."

This latest study with gorillas is just part of a surprisingly well-researched look into animals being tickled. In fact, when not eliciting laughter from a variety of species big and small in the lab themselves, scientists have discovered a wealth of animal-tickling videos on the internet with which to aid their studies. With that in mind, Davila-Ross believes science has honed in on laughter as an evolutionary advantageous 'positive expression' that helped social species better communicate with one another.

"A direct comparison across a range of species will give us some interesting insights into the evolution and co-evolution of play vocalisations and positive animal emotion," says the researcher.

Now, for some more videos of animals being tickled -- for your deeply analytical, science-minded enjoyment, of course.

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Climate Scientists Email Revealed

Thank heavens that so-called 'ClimateGate 2.0' fizzed out faster than Herman Cain's presidential campaign. Dealing with obnoxious, fact-free allegations from overheated climate skeptics is a green blogger's nightmare. I suppose our work is made easier by the stark baselessness of the charges 'revealed' by the emails–six independent inquires (six!) have now cleared the scientists involved of wrongdoing.

But the fact remains: We don't know who the instigator was in the first place. Who's the hacker who sought to frame climate science? It's increasingly looking like the perpetrator who stole the emails (an illegal act in England) indeed has an activist agenda.

The New York Times reports:

In November, just before another major international climate conference opened, this time in Durban, South Africa, another round of e-mails between the scientists were distributed online. Like those released in 2009, they were part of a trove taken from a computer server at the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in England; as before, the e-mail hijacker alerted the public to the e-mails in comments posted on various blogs. But November’s leaker left additional clues behind as well. Not much — an encrypted file and a note ending in what seemed to be a taunt — but enough to revive fervent speculation about what sort of person might be behind the stunt.

The note, somewhat cryptic, seemed to suggest that efforts to fight global warming siphoned money from worthy causes like fighting poverty. “Every day nearly 16,000 children die from hunger and related causes,” it said. Then the note’s author seemed to dangle a challenge for hackers and programmers, saying that even though he was releasing 5,000 e-mails, “The rest, some 220,000, are encrypted for various reasons.”

“We are not planning to publicly release the pass phrase,” the note added coyly. The stunt was enough to jump-start a police investigation that had long seemed dormant.

Little is yet known, but the clues seem to indicate that it's the work of an activist anti-climate activist (duh). Read the whole Times piece for some fun he-said-she-said speculation as to who the perp might be (fun for climate wonks, anyways), none of which is really illuminating at all. That we know so little about the case two years after the initial breach lends the Climate Gate nonsense undue validity (we focused on the content of the emails rather than the actual crime; their theft).

It's high time to get a serious investigation underway.

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