The Environment

[zubin]

UN Owes $13.3b to Iran
For Environmental Damage
Iran Daily


United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) has to pay $13.3 billion in reparations for environmental damages inflicted on Iran as a result of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
A member of the High Council of Environment, Mohammad Taqi Amanpour, told Fars news agency that the disaster which engulfed the region in 1991 led to the spilling of six million barrels of oil into the Persian Gulf. Another five million barrels which had burned for nine months induced a large-scale environmental disaster in the region.
Highlighting that some of the war’s damages are permanent, he noted that officials of the time had spared no efforts in providing substantial evidence for environmental losses.
Amanpour pointed to harms done to people, installations and the environment and went on, “Providing evidence to substantiate Iran’s claims has become increasingly difficult 15 years after the war.“
The research committee established in the aftermath of the war to assess environmental damages estimated the total compensation at $13.8 billion, he recalled.
“Given that the United Nations paid less than half a billion dollars to the Islamic Republic for its monitoring and assessment activities, it still owes $13.3 billion in indemnification,“ Amanpour underlined.
In the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, the UN established a Compensation Commission to decide on reparations for environmental damages.
Under the terms of the ceasefire arrangements and related UN Security Council resolutions, Iraq had formally accepted its state responsibility for the consequences of the aggression, including its liability under international law “for any direct loss, damage, including environmental damage and the depletion of natural resources, or injury to foreign governments, nationals and corporations, as a result of Iraq’s unlawful invasion and occupation of Kuwait,“ and the multilateral compensation procedure set up for this purpose by the Security Council.

[golgol85]

It is very sad to hear that Iran has such extensive environmental damage as a result of the Gulf war, but to think that $13.3 billion in environmental damages will be paid is absurd. Iraq is not a functioning country at the moment, so there is no way it can afford to pay this amount to Iran as collateral for the damages it caused. I personally don't believe in war unless in dire situations, none of the current situations around us in the world warranting war since war has so many reprocussions, loss of human life and environmental damage being the most important of the reprocussions.

[zubin]

yeah I didn't even read the article. I just slapped it on there because I was pissed off that there was environmental damage in Iran due to war. You're probably totally right. I don't even know my source on this one...

[zubin]

yeah upon reflection I was too mad for putting up a post. a "mad meter" would have detected it and responded, "I'm sorry, but you are too mad to post this message at the moment. Please try again later." I think perhaps a more positive and less political post would have been better, but maybe also I was afraid no one would care about it, but maybe that doesn't matter and I might be wrong about that anyway... I might continue to use this thread for political environmental issues..

[mike435]

lol behamin khial bash

these people are complaining wht the us made europeans forgo european debt you think they would pay iran.

at least it europe
vaveyla agar america bood
ke hast

[mike435]

read some of the aticals in last weks economist magazine about the enviormant and its cost

[zubin]

ah..sure I'll take a look. is it on the net?

[mike435]

you need a password

[golgol85]

I am glad you put it up Ramin, it was new knowledge for me and it upset me as well, but when people are upset they think. when people think, they come up with ideas and solutions, so who knows where we can go with this knowledge. Life is not all about being positive Ramin, we have to be realistic and the truth remains that Iran's environment has been damaged. The upside to knowing about this damage is that we can work to prevent further damage and we can see what can be done to reverse the current damage.

[zubin]

you need a password

argh? is it free at least or do I have to pay to hear someone's propaganda?

[zubin]

I am glad you put it up Ramin, it was new knowledge for me and it upset me as well, but when people are upset they think. when people think, they come up with ideas and solutions, so who knows where we can go with this knowledge. Life is not all about being positive Ramin, we have to be realistic and the truth remains that Iran's environment has been damaged. The upside to knowing about this damage is that we can work to prevent further damage and we can see what can be done to reverse the current damage.

That makes sense. Perhaps the environment is something we enjoy, not talk about, unless there's something wrong with it.

[zubin]

Native Villages and Ice in Danger

Ice-melt isolates remote communities in Canada

By Jonathan Spicer Mon Nov 13, 9:59 AM ET

TORONTO (Reuters) - Aboriginal communities in Ontario's far north are becoming increasingly isolated as rising temperatures melt their winter route to the outside world and impede their access to supplies.

"The ice doesn't have its solid blue color any more," said Stan Beardy, the grand chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which represents Ontario's remote First Nations. "It's more like Styrofoam now, really brittle."

"With the toxic waste moving north, and global warming, we don't have that solid ice anymore, and that's why we have problems with winter roads when it's mild."

The 34 First Nations reservations, scattered in boreal forest across northern Ontario, are accessible only by plane for much of the year.

During the coldest months between January and March, "winter roads" are cleared on the frozen network of rivers and lakes to let trucks deliver bulk supplies like fuel and building materials.

But average temperatures have warmed over the past decade, weakening the ice and shrinking the bulk-shipping season by several weeks, aboriginals say.

Beardy said the communities he represents have lost up to a month of heavy trucking time "because one or two degrees really makes a big difference" to the tenacity of the icy route.

About 20,000 status Indians live in the remote reservations and rely on winter shipments of heating oil, gasoline, and diesel fuel to power generating stations. The fragile ice has forced them to hire more trucks to carry lighter loads.

In the past 60 years, regional temperatures have increased by an average of 0.8 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) in the winter, and by 1.3 degrees Celsius in spring, according to Environment Canada, a federal government body.

That change has been more pronounced in the far north, where average winter temperatures have jumped 4.4 degrees Celsius over the same time.

Indeed, warming has speeded up since 1998, after which temperatures in Canada have consistently been "above-normal," said Bob Whitewood, a climatologist at Environment Canada.

Sea ice in Hudson Bay, Ontario's north shore, thaws and breaks up a week earlier every ten years.

"The changes in temperature are reflective of changes we're seeing globally," Whitewood said. "They are also in keeping with what we would expect with climate change -- a greater warming in winter temperatures and in the Arctic areas."

The crimped duration of icing has added a sense of urgency to the communities' bulk-shipping period.

"Once the hauling season opens there's a mad rush, 24 hours, because you might only have four or five weeks," Beardy said.

[zubin]

World: Should Birds Exist?

Climate Change Dislocates Migratory Animals, Birds

NAIROBI, Kenya, November 17, 2006 (ENS) - Climate change is already having severe impacts on migratory species, from whales and dolphins to birds and turtles, and is likely to be increasingly disruptive, finds a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, released Thursday at the UN climate conference here.

Migratory species are in many ways more vulnerable that other species as they use multiple habitats and sites and a many difference resources during their migrations.

It is doubtful whether polar bears, Ursus maritimus, will be able to adapt fast enough to changing ice conditions affecting the habitat of their seal prey species, and the disappearance of the ice threatens the bears’ survival.

The 300 remaining North Atlantic right whales may be impacted by a decline in their main food source, plankton, as a result of shifts in large ocean currents, says the study.

There is likely to be a general shift of species towards the poles, reducing the range of species most adapted to colder waters, the study finds.

The common dolphin, Delphinus delphis, a warm water species is increasing its range, while the cold water range of the white-beaked dolphin, Lagenorhynchus albirostris, is shrinking. Predators are following their prey as prey species of fish, change their latitude or depth in response to a warming climate.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said, "We need to bolster rather than clear habitats, reduce pollution to the land, freshwater and the marine environment, more sustainably manage water supplies for people and wildlife and enact other measures to assist animals and plants to cope and to adapt in a climatically changed world."

The report, by UNEP’s Convention on Migratory Species, CMS, was compiled with support from the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Close to one-fifth of the bird species listed under the Convention could be affected by rising sea levels, erosion and greater wave action linked with climate change, including the lesser white fronted goose.

The study says lower water tables and more frequent droughts will reduce habitat for the Baikal teal and foraging grounds for species like the aquatic warbler.

Small ocean animals called krill that form the base of the food chain may be outcompeted by other species more tolerant of warmer water. The study preducts repercussions for species higher up the food chain, including penguins, albatrosses, seals and cetaceans, despite their wide foraging ranges.

Animals and plants specialized to live in Arctic and Alpine environments will also face greater competition for food from other species which did not previously inhabit higher altitudes.

Governments have agreed to reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010, but Steiner says a warming planet is making that goal tough to attain.

"Biodiversity - a term for the range of animal, plant and other life on this planet - is already suffering from a range of impacts including overexploitation, loss and damage to habitats and pollution. Unchecked, climate change will pile on more pressure, making it increasingly difficult for the world to meet the 2010 target," Steiner said.

CMS Executive Secretary Robert Hepworth said, “The best form of adaptation is mitigation - in other words reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the 60 per cent to 80 per cent that is likely to be needed to stabilize the atmosphere. But we know that the world can no longer avoid some measure of climate change now and in the future, so we must act to help people and the wildlife, upon which many livelihoods depend, adapt."

Sigmar Gabriel, the German Environment Minister, whose country hosts the CMS, endorsed the report’s conclusions.

"Measures, such as maintaining a coherent network of stopover sites like wetlands; creating and expanding suitable habitat like field margins, hedgerows and ponds and developing and sustaining trans-boundary corridors that allow species to migrate as the climate changes, will be key to ensuring a healthy level of biodiversity now and in the future," Gabriel said.

The report, "Migratory Species and Climate Change: Impacts of a Changing Environment on Wild Animals," has documented a wide range of climate effects that are now occurring.

Changes in Migration Routes and Barriers to Migration

Changes in the length, timing and location of migration routes are being documented. In extreme cases, species have abandoned migration altogether. In other cases, species now migrate to areas where they have not been recorded other than as occasional vagrants.

Exotic southern fish species like the red mullet, anchovy, sardine and poor cod are now being found in the North Sea. Fish species are unable to regulate their body temperature, and their distribution and abundance are temperature dependent.

European bee-eaters, Merops apiaster, birds once very rare in Germany, are now breeding regularly across the country.

The rosy-breasted trumpeter finch, Rhodopechys githaginea, is one of many birds once normally confined to arid North Africa and the Middle East now found in increasingly large numbers in southern Spain.

The arrival of hundreds of Bewick swans, Cygnus columbianus, flying in distinctive “V” formations used to herald the arrival of the British winter. Ornithologists now report numbers down to double figures. Warmer weather on the continent and the absence of the northeast winds which aid their migration are the likely reasons for the swans’ non-appearance in their traditional British wintering sites.

Changing wind patterns are making it more difficult for passerine birds to make their migration in the Caribbean where spring storms are becoming more numerous and of greater intensity.

This autumn several large monarch butterflies, Danaus plexippus, which migrate in millions every year from the USA and Canada to Mexico, have been blown across the Atlantic to England 5,000 kilometers away.

Desertification is increasing the size of the Sahara Desert, and the report says the spreading desert will adversely affect the ability of Afro-European migrants to cross this ecological barrier successfully.

Habitat Changes

The permafrost is thawing and Arctic tundra is being replaced by forest, sea levels are rising, hurricanes are more frequent in the Caribbean, and in addition, Antarctic waters are getting warmer and the ice is melting, affecting sea salinity.

Alien species like the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, brought to Europe for commercial reasons, once were not able to survive outside artificial pens. As the North Sea has grown warmer, the Pacific oyster has been able to breed in the wild and is now displacing native oysters in the Wadden Sea.

Flooding and sediment runoff in Queensland, Australia damaged seagrass pasture leading to reduced growth and breeding rates for green turtles, Chelonia mydas,

Baffin Bay hosts the largest concentrations of wintering narwhals, Monodon monocerus. Here the trend has been for increased ice coverage in winter. The narwhals depend on cracks in the ice to breathe and there have been several occasions when they have become trapped in the ice. Their site fidelity and the decrease in open water make them susceptible to climate change.

The report, "Migratory Species and Climate Change: Impacts of a Changing Environment on Wild Animals" is online at: www.cms.int

The UN climate change conference concluded today with agreement on a workplan for future cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases and another agreement to help developing countries adapt to global warming.

[zubin]

Political Will to Save World Renewable Resource: Al Gore Interview

Part 1) [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwgPV_KfMz8"]YouTube - Al Gore Interview on CBC part 1[/ame]

Part 2) [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jux2xMucqdk&mode=related&search="]YouTube - Al Gore Interview on CBC part 2[/ame]