Here’s a list of the previous week’s stories that were interesting (to me at least). Are there any others that you think should be on the list? Please leave a comment.

Convention on Biodiversity meets in Nagoya, Japan

Ever since the United Nations’ 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, delegates have met periodically to assess the health of the earth. Because, well, we sort of depend on the earth and, second, it’s really great to get together and stay in plush hotels in tourist destinations. This year the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) (which was spawned by the Earth Summit) met in Nagoya, Japan for Nagoya 10. According to the source of knowledge these days, Wikipedia, The Convention has three main goals:

1. conservation of biological diversity (or biodiversity);
2. sustainable use of its components; and
3. fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources

Spiegel online says, “The countries present in Nagoya have all recognized the need for global nature conservation, but they are pursuing starkly different interests. Developing nations are expecting incentives to protect and care for their biological treasure troves. For their part, rich industrialized nations are seeking to keep the costs for that as low as possible…”

The goals of this session’s negotiations are:

• A new “strategic plan” for global protection of nature between 2011 and 2020, including a minimization of – overfishing, deforestation and extinctions of species.
• A finance plan for conservation projects.
• A plan on valuation of and compensation for ecosystem services

Fred Pearce writing for New Scientist says the negotiations are not going smoothly. In fact, talks “could be going the way of the climate change talks in Denmark in December 2009…Several countries with the richest biodiversity, such as Brazil, are this week refusing to sign up to new targets unless there is also a deal on sharing the cash benefits from the exploitation of their genetic resources by western corporations such as drugs companies. Western countries see that as a blank cheque they won’t sign.”

James Fahn agrees, “The failure of Copenhagen hangs over Nagoya, and even the star power of Hollywood may not be able to dispel the gloom here. The challenge of conserving biodiversity is enormous: the latest results of the IUCN Red List, an annual checkup on the health of the world’s vertebrate species, has revealed that around one fifth of them are threatened with extinction.”

The talks may be unproductive for another reason. James Delingpole, writing in the UK Telegraph thinks so. These talks, like the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), are a complete waste of money and time because technocrats fabricated the crisis: “And so it begins. With all the shamelessness of a Goldman Sachser trading in his middle-aged wife for a hot, pouting twentysomething called Ivanka, the green movement is ditching ‘Climate Change’. The newer, younger, sexier model’s name? Biodiversity…When I say shameless, I’m talking so amoral it makes the Whore of Babylon look like Mother Theresa; so flagrant it makes Al Gore’s, ahem, alleged drunken ‘Love poodle’ assault on the Portland Masseuse look like an especially delicate passage from Andreas Capellanus’s The Art of Courtly Love…Sure it will go on, churning out Assessment Report after Assessment Report, bringing pots of money to the usual gang of bent scientists prepared to act as lead authors. But the world’s mainstream media – especially all those environment correspondents who so lovingly transcribe the press releases of Greenpeace and the WWF as if they were holy writ – will have moved on [from the IPCC], according to the dictates of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) fashionable crise du jour.”

“Should the CBD be scrapped?” asks The Economist magazine: “It is tempting to say yes when it comes up with overblown, unobtainable targets, such as stopping all extinctions anywhere, or when it entertains foolish proposals, like the current Luddite idea to restrict all forms of research exploring the possibility of “geoengineering” the climate. But when it sticks to achievable, measurable targets, such as increasing the area of nature reserves in the ocean, it can provide a useful focus. And an occasional talking shopis useful for donors to compare projects and see which work best. As conservationists like to say, every niche is valuable. But back local pragmatism, not Utopian dreams.”

Update: The CBD has announced goals to reduce the earth’s extinction rate
The NY Times story says, “The agreement, known as the Nagoya Protocol, sets a goal of cutting the current extinction rate by half or more by 2020…The new targets include increasing the amount of protected land to 17 percent, from the current figure of about 12.5 percent, and protected oceans to 10 percent, from less than 1 percent. The protocol also includes commitments of financing, still somewhat murky, from richer countries to help poorer nations reach these goals”

More new species discovered

The world seems to be gaining species nearly as quickly as the CBD says we are losing them. The UK’s Telelgraph says, “More than 1,200 new species of plants and vertebrates have been discovered in the Amazon over the past decade – a new species every three days – according to a new WWF report, Amazon Alive! that summarises discoveries between 1999 and 2009. The new species include 637 plants, 257 fish, 216 amphibians, 55 reptiles, 16 birds and 39 mammals, confirming that the Amazon is one of the most diverse places on Earth.”

Click here to see pictures of the newly discovered animals

There’s gold in them ecosystems

As an offshoot of CBD, the World Bank has begun a 5-year pilot project to monetize ecosystems. “If we are going to address the alarming loss of habitat and the degradation of ecosystems in the world, we have to properly value natural capital,” said Warren Evans, the World Bank’s Director of Environment to CNN. “That means putting the tools in the hands of finance ministers so that they have a full economic picture of what their countries’ assets are worth. Then they will see the value of preserving versus one of exploitation of natural resources,” he said.

The BBC notes, “The partnership was launched at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting in Nagoya, Japan…The new project aims to pick up conclusions of a recent UN-backed project on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb), and help governments turn them into policy. Teeb’s headline conclusion was that degradation of the natural world is costing the global economy $2-5 trillion (£1.3-3.2bn) per year.”

The idea that eco-services provide economic benefit pits top-down regulation-centric greens against bottom-up libertarians (and many economists) who see such needs as a failure of markets. Property rights and adequate infrastructure will be needed to stop much of the environmental degradation that underlies the worries about high rate species loss. James Salzman (the Samuel F. Mordecai Professor of Law and the Nicholas Institute Professor of Environmental Policy at Duke University) writes, “For decades the solution to environmental protection has been government action. Today, knowledge about environmental processes combined with increased environmental sensitivity provides opportunities for entrepreneurs to find innovative ways of developing markets for ecosystem services.” To read more of Salzman click here to read “Designing Payments for Ecosystem Services.”

Plants do great job cleaning up after us

UCAR photo by Carlye Calvin

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, BOULDER—Vegetation plays an unexpectedly large role in cleansing the atmosphere, a new study finds. The research, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), uses observations, gene expression studies, and computer modeling to show that deciduous plants absorb about a third more of a common class of air polluting chemicals than previously thought. Plants play a significant role in absorbing certain pollutants.

“Plants clean our air to a greater extent than we had realized,” says NCAR scientist Thomas Karl, the lead author. “They actively consume certain types of air pollution.”

Click here for more from UCAR on the NCAR study

Everglades water quality improving

According to a report published in the September-October 2010 Journal of Environmental Quality, phosphorus and nitrogen levels have declined in the water in the Everglades, indicating an improvement in overall water quality, especially since the 1970’s. Better management practices were put into use in the 1990s in the Everglades Agricultural Area and various urban areas and  regulate and diminished the impact of humans.

See American Society of Agronomy (ASA) news release for more.

Halliburton and BP Knew of Cement Flaws Before Deepwater Horizon Explosion

The chief investigator of the presidential commission investigating the Deepwater Horizon disaster and subsequent well blowout says that the cement used to secure the well casing failed. As part of the investigation Halliburton, the supplier of the cement used in the Macondo well, provided investigators with samples comparable to those used at the Deepwater Horizon site. Halliburton agreed that the Chevron lab was highly qualified for this work. In his letter to the commissioners, he says, “Chevron’s report states, among other things, that its lab personnel were unable to generate stable foam cement in the laboratory using the materials provided by Halliburton and available design information regarding the slurry used at the Macondo well. Although laboratory foam stability tests cannot replicate field conditions perfectly, these data strongly suggest that the foam cement used at Macondo was unstable.” Then in typical bureaucratic understatement he concludes, “This may have contributed to the blowout.” D’ya think?

He ends his letter to the commissioners, “Finally, we want to emphasize that even if our concerns regarding the foam slurry design at Macondo are well founded, the story of the blowout does not turn solely on the quality of the Macondo cement job. Cementing wells is a complex endeavor and industry experts inform us that cementing failures are not uncommon even in the best of circumstances. Because it may be anticipated that a particular cement job may be faulty, the oil industry has developed tests, such as the negative pressure test and cement evaluation logs, to identify cementing failures. It has also developed methods to remedy deficient cement jobs.”

NY Times story here.

Uganda buys into biofuels

The story from Uganda’s Daily Monitor doesn’t say how the biofuels would be produced. It is clear that they believe that buying oil will save them money (which I am highly skeptical of), “For Uganda, bio-diesel production, if taken to commercial level can save a capital outflow estimated at $230m spent on importing over 400,000,000 litres of diesel per annum.”

Herdsmen turn Jinja airfield into grazing ground

Also in Ugandan news, “[Uganda’s] joint transport sector review committee was on Tuesday astounded to learn that the Jinja airfield has fallen prey to herdsmen who break the fence to graze their cattle.” According to the Ugandan Daily Monitor story, the Jinja airport’s “grassed area should be replaced with concrete.”

NASA Software to save Airlines’ Fuel Costs

“Direct-To” is a product of NASA aeronautics research. The NASA news release says that Boeing Company intends to adopt the software and provide it through a subscription to airlines. Direct-To enables airlines to save fuel and reduce emissions by automatically identifying flight route shortcuts that are wind-favorable and acceptable to air traffic controllers. [click here for more information]

Amtrak Orders Fuel Saving Locomotives

As part of a comprehensive plan to modernize and expand its fleet of equipment, Amtrak is buying 70 new electric locomotives from Siemens as it retires older models. The new locomotives will have regenerative braking systems that can automatically return electricity to the power grid. The Amtrak Cities Sprinter ACS-64 electric locomotive is to be delivered in February 2013 and will operate at speeds up to 125 mph (201 kph) on the Northeast Corridor from Washington, D.C. to Boston and up to 110 mph (177 kph) on the Keystone Corridor from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, Pa. They will replace locomotives in service between 20 and 30 years with average mileage of 3.5 million miles traveled.

The New York Times Green blog points out in its story, “Moving a passenger by train is already more energy-efficient than doing so by car or plane, government statistics show: about 2,134 B.T.U.’s per mile for an Amtrak train, versus 3,578 per mile for a passenger car at an average level of occupancy and 3,942 by plane for domestic trips, based on 2000 estimates.”