The Environment Chronicle

On 25 September 2014, President Obama signed a proclamation to designate the largest marine reserve in the world that is completely off limits to commercial resource extraction including commercial fishing. The proclamation expands the existing Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, one of the most pristine tropical marine environments in the world, to six times its current size, resulting in 370,000 square nautical miles (490,000 square miles) of protected area around these tropical islands and atolls in the south-central Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Remote Islands National Marine Monument was proclaimed a national monument on January 6, 2009 by U.S. President George W. Bus

On 24 September 2014, the Right Livelihood Award Foundation announced the 2014 Laureates of the Right Livelihood Award. The Jury recognises BILL McKIBBEN (USA) “for mobilising growing popular support in the USA and around the world for strong action to counter the threat of global climate change”. Bill McKibben is one of the world’s leading environmentalists. He has been an influential author and educator for 30 years, and his 1989 book The End of Nature was one of the first - ever books written to inform a general audience about climate change. Over the last ten years he initiated and built the first planet - wide, grassroots climate change movement. With the organisation 350.org at its core, this movement has spread awareness and mobilised political support for urgent action to mitigate the climate crisis that is already unfolding.

Many new initiatives to protect tropical forests have been presented at the UN Climate Summit. The New York Declaration aims to stop deforestation in developing countries by 2030 and establish supply chains that do not require deforestation at all. The declaration was initiated by Germany, the United Kingdom and Norway, the three largest donors in the field of forest protection as a contribution to climate action in developing countries. The German Government is supporting the implementation of the New York Declaration with a new financial commitment to protecting tropical forests. Germany has agreed, together with the United Kingdom and Norway, to finance forest protection programmes in up to 20 developing countries in the future if these programmes are accompanied by measurable emission reductions and the avoidance of deforestation. On the sidelines of the Climate Summit, Germany and Norway established a new forest-protection partnership with Peru. Together with Peru's President Ollanta Humala and Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Hendricks signed a corresponding Letter of Intent, in which Peru agrees to reduce its CO2 emissions from deforestation quickly and decisively. By 2021, Peru intends to be climate neutral in terms of land use and forestry. The rights of indigenous forest dwellers are also to be significantly expanded.

On 23 September 2014, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited world leaders, from government, finance, business, and civil society to Climate Summit 2014 in New York to galvanize and catalyze climate action. New commitments, new ideas, and new financing for significant actions to address the challenge of climate change dominated the announcements made by more than 100 Heads of State and Government and leaders from the private sector and civil society at the Climate Summit

Stephen Heintz, president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, announced its decision to divest from fossil fuels at a press conference in New York City on September 22, 2014, one day before world leaders convene at the UN Climate Summit. The Fund has begun a two-step process to divest from investments in fossil fuels, first focusing on limiting its exposure to coal and tar sands, with a goal to reduce these investments to less than one percent of the total portfolio by the end of 2014. The Fund is also analyzing in detail its remaining fossil fuel exposure and will develop a plan for further divestment as quickly as is prudent over the next few years.

On 21 September 2014, the People’s Climate March (PCM) took place in locations all around the world. From Manhattan to Melbourne, more than half a million people took to the streets in a unified global move to demand ambitious commitments from world leaders in tackling the climate crisis. By end of day estimates, the flagship march in New York City drew more then 300,000 people just two days before world leaders converge in New York for an emergency UN Climate Summit. Notable participants in the march also included: UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, Former Vice President Al Gore, Leonardo di Caprio, Mark Ruffalo, Edward Norton and Sting.

The Ocean Conservancy, formerly known as the Center for Marine Conservation, established and maintains the annual International Coastal Cleanup Day (ICC). The first cleanup was in 1986 in Texas, and the campaign currently involves all of the states and territories of the United States and more than 100 countries around the world. The ICC is the largest volunteer environmental data-gathering effort and associated cleanup of coastal and underwater areas in the world. It takes place every year on the third Saturday in September. In 2013, over 648,015 volounteers across the world participated in the ICCC. They removed about 12,329.332 pounds of debris from more than 12,914 miles of coasts, shorelines, and underwater sites.

ON 18 September 2014, Ban Ki-moon received a six million signature petition from Greenpeace calling for long term protection of the Arctis. "I receive this as a common commitment toward our common future, protecting our environment, not only in the Arctic, but all over the world," said the UN Secretary General.

The 65th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) ended on 18 September 2014 with a landmark decision to impose better controls over any future whale hunts conducted for the purposes of so-called scientific research. In March 2014, the International Court of Justice determined that Japan’s hunts were not for purposes of science, and established criteria that the IWC is now seeking to incorporate. By March 2015, Japan plans to present its new whaling proposal to the IWC’s Scientific Committee. The committee then will have the opportunity to review the merits of what Japan puts forward, to test its compliance with the ICJ criteria, and to make recommendations to the commission.

The international conference ‘Biodiversity Today for Tomorrow’ was convened by BION, the Bonn Biodiversity Network, and was held in Bonn, Germany, during 17-19 September 2014. The conference brought together more than 300 experts, representing 112 organizations and institutions from 38 countries. BION is built upon a unique range of local, federal state, national, and international stakeholders that are based in or near Bonn and that are involved in the study, the conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity. BION, the Bonn Biodiversity Network, aims at increasing mutual knowledge and understanding and fostering synergies among this range of institutions and organizations. This includes academia, private corporations, NGOs, United Nations entities, funding organizations and relevant federal and federal state ministries and agencies, and the recently established Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) as well as the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GDCT).

On 17 September 2014, the WBGU's new special report 'Climate Protection as a World Citizen Movement' was presented to Federal Environment Minister Dr. Barbara Hendricks and State Secretary Dr. Georg Schütte (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) on the occasion of the UN Secretary-General's Climate Summit in New York. In its report, the WBGU recommends a dual strategy for international climate policy: on the one hand, the planned Paris Agreement should codify the global phasing-out of fossil CO2 emissions and thus serve as a guide; on the other, civil-society initiatives that take on responsibility and make their own contributions towards a low-carbon economy and low-carbon lifestyles should be supported.

From 14 September 2014, international trade in specimens of five shark species and all manta ray species, including their meat, gills and fins, will need to be accompanied by permits and certificates confirming that they have been harvested sustainably and legally. New controls adopted by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) will apply to the oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus), scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini), great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran), smooth hammerhead shark (Sphyrna zygaena), porbeagle shark (Lamna nasus) and manta rays (Manta spp.) as they are now included in CITES Appendix II.

IWC65 took place in Portoroz, Slovenia, from 15-18 September 2014.

New analysis and maps released on 4 September 2014, revealed the alarming speed at which the world’s largest expanses of forest wilderness are being degraded. More than 104 million hectares—an area three times the size of Germany—of the world’s remaining Intact Forest Landscapes were degraded from 2000 to 2013. The Greenpeace GIS Laboratory, University of Maryland and Transparent World, in collaboration with the World Resources Institute and WWF-Russia, used satellite technology and advanced techniques to conduct a global analysis to determine the location and extent of the world’s last remaining large undisturbed forests, called Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs).

The Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States was held from 1 to 4 September 2014 in Apia, Samoa. The overarching theme of the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States was "The sustainable development of small island developing States through genuine and durable partnerships". Germany wants to work together with the small island states to better protect the climate. At the UN Conference the Federal Environment Ministry announced a further expansion of cooperation. The central theme of the cooperation is climate action - both on the islands concerned and in the context of the forthcoming negotiations for an ambitious international climate agreement.

The area of sea ice in the Arctic fell to a summer minimum of around 5.0 million square kilometres in the first half of September 2014, which is about 1.6 million square kilometres more than the record low in 2012. However, according to sea ice physicist Marcel Nicolaus from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and Lars Kaleschke from the Hamburg Cluster of Excellence for Climate Research (CliSAP) this confirms the long-term downward trend in the Arctic. On the other hand, the winter ice sheet in the South Polar Ocean has expanded to an area of 20.0 million square kilometres, as the researchers report, which exceeds the 30-year-maximum from the previous year.

The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for September 2014 was the highest on record for September, at 0.72°C above the 20th century average of 15.0°C. The global land surface temperature was 0.89°C above the 20th century average of 12.0°C, the sixth highest for September on record. For the ocean, the September global sea surface temperature was 0.66°C above the 20th century average of 16.2°C, the highest on record for September and also the highest on record for any month.

COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 666/2013 of 8th July, 2013 implementing Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to ecodesign requirements for vacuum cleaners came into effect from 1st September, 2014. As of 1 September only vacuum cleaners with a wattage of less than 1600 may be made available for sale. The aim is to further reduce households' power consumption and to prevent consumer fraud. After 1 September 2017 the maximum allowable power consumption for vacuum cleaners is 900 watts. The requirements apply to new products on the market. Devices which are already on the market may continue to be sold. There are already devices available on the market which comply with the standards for 2017. When compared to the current trend, the EU guidelines will result in a savings of about 18 billion kilowatt hours by 2020, which is the equivalent output of roughly five power stations. The new regulation requires producers to provide proof that their vacuum cleaners are fully functional. The EU Ecodesign Directive therefore not only stipulates minimum requirements for energy consumption, it also addresses dust pick up on carpets and hard floors and imposes limits on noise emissions. To extend the device's service life, the operational motor lifetime must be greater than or equal to 500 hours, and its hose must meet specific requirements as concerns durability.

One of the rarest birds in the world, the Madagascar Pochard Aythya innotata was thought to be extinct until a small population was found in 2006. The first ever study of the Madagascar pochard has revealed that 96% of its chicks die before fledging. The conclusion is that the last remaining population will never expand without outside help. Just 25 pochards remain in the wild, restricted to one wetland in northeast Madagascar – a complex of lakes near Bemanevika. The study, published online on 26 August 2014, in Bird Conservation International, found that the level of mortality actually increases as the chicks get older, peaking when they are between two and three weeks old. The researchers conclude that most chicks slowly starve to death once they’re old enough to dive for food, because the water is too deep for them.

During an expedition with the German research vessel Polarstern off the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, an international team of scientists discovered more than 130 active methane seeps at the seafloor. This is the first report of greenhouse gases seeping out of the seabed in the Southern Ocean. Continental and marine seepage of methane is a research issue of global importance. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change methane is about 21 times more powerful in warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. However, it is uncertain how much methane is emitted at the seafloor and whether it could eventually reach the atmosphere. To answer these and other questions, German, British, and US-American scientists embarked with the German RV Polarstern in the spring of 2013 in search of the Antarctic pieces of the global methane puzzle.

On 25 August 2014, a new atlas, providing the most thorough audit of marine life in the Southern Ocean, was published at the Open Science Conference in Auckland, New Zealand by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Leading marine biologists and oceanographers from all over the world spent the last four years compiling everything they know about ocean species from microbes to whales. 147 scientists from 91 institutions across 22 countries combined their expertise and knowledge to produce the new Biogeographic Atlas of the Southern Ocean. More than 9000 species are recorded, ranging from microbes to whales. Hundreds of thousands of records show the extent of scientific knowledge on the distribution of life in the Southern Ocean. In 66 chapters, the scientists examine the evolution, physical environment, genetics and possible impact of climate change on marine organisms in the region. It’s the first time that such an effort has been undertaken since 1969 when the American Society of Geography published its Antarctic Map Folio Series.

Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), have for the first time extensively mapped Greenland’s and Antarctica’s ice sheets with the help of the ESA satellite CryoSat-2 and have thus been able to prove that the ice crusts of both regions momentarily decline at an unprecedented rate. In total the ice sheets are losing around 500 cubic kilometres of ice per year. This ice mass corresponds to a layer that is about 600 metres thick and would stretch out over the entire metropolitan area of Hamburg, Germany's second largest city. The maps and results of this study were published on 20 August 2014 in The Cryosphere, an open access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

Summer 2014 marked another milestone for the Aral Sea, the once-extensive lake in Central Asia that has been shrinking markedly since the 1960s. For the first time in modern history, the eastern basin of the South Aral Sea has completely dried. An image pair from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite shows the sea without its eastern lobe on August 19, 2014 (top). "This is the first time the eastern basin has completely dried in modern times," said Philip Micklin, a geographer emeritus from Western Michigan University and an Aral Sea expert. "And it is likely the first time it has completely dried in 600 years, since Medieval desiccation associated with diversion of Amu Darya to the Caspian Sea."

August 19 is Earth Overshoot Day 2014, marking the date when humanity exhausted nature’s budget for the year.

New research led by Colorado State University has revealed that an estimated 100,000 elephants in Africa were killed for their ivory between 2010 and 2012. The study shows these losses are driving population declines of the world's wild African elephants on the order of 2 percent to 3 percent a year. This study provides the first verifiable estimation of the impacts of the ongoing ivory crisis on Africa’s elephant populations to date, solidifying speculation about the scale of the ivory crisis. An average of 33,630 elephants per annum are calculated to have been lost over those three years, with preliminary data indicating unsustainable levels continued in 2013. To quantify the poaching death toll, researchers drew on data and experience from a continent-wide intensive monitoring program. The most thoroughly studied site was Samburu in northern Kenya where every elephant birth and death over the past 16 years has been recorded. The intensive population study was conducted in a project founded by George Wittemyer of Colorado State University with Save the Elephants, and in association with the Kenya Wildlife Service. The research paper, "Illegal killing for ivory drives global decline in African elephants," was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States on 18 August, 2014.

On 17 August 2014, the United Nations Watercourses Convention, the first global framework on fresh water and the world’s only global framework for transboundary cooperation endorsed by the General Assembly of the United Nations, officially entered into force.

On 15 August 2014, the starting gun was fired in Brazil for the construction of the climate measurement tower ATTO. Representatives of the Max Planck Society, the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), the Universidade do Estado do Amazonas (UEA), and the Brazilian Ministry for Research poured the foundations for a 325 meter high measuring tower, in the middle of the Amazon rain forest. The Amazonian Tall Tower Observatory, ATTO for short, should provide groundbreaking knowledge and the principles for improved climate models, and will be outfitted with measurement equipment for measuring greenhouse gases, aerosol particles, and collecting weather data. The tower will stand in the largest continuous rain forest in the world, and is therefore of great significance to climate researchers. With its height of 325 meters, the ATTO measurement tower makes it possible to investigate the transport and alteration of air masses through the forest over a distance of several hundred kilometers. In addition, measurement instruments mounted high on the tower will reach into stable air layers, in which for example the carbon dioxide concentration is not exposed to the day - night changes due to plants.

On 7 August 2014, a major ecological disaster took place at the Buenavista-mine when 40,000 cubic meters of wastewater spilled into the Bacanuchi river and Sonora river. The chemical, which is used to dissolve copper from ore, turned a 60km stretch of the Sonora River orange, causing the authorities to shut down the municipal water supply to 20,000 people in seven towns.

On 6 August 2014, a new paper appeared in the journal Nature and provides the first direct calculation of mercury in the global ocean from pollution based on data obtained from 12 sampling cruises over the past 8 years. The work, which was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the European Research Council and led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) marine chemist Carl Lamborg, also provides a look at the global distribution of mercury in the marine environment. Analysis of their results showed rough agreement with the models used previously—that the ocean contains about 60,000 to 80,000 tons of pollution mercury. In addition, they found that ocean waters shallower than about 100 m (300 feet) have tripled in mercury concentration since the Industrial Revolution and that the ocean as a whole has shown an increase of roughly 10 percent over pre-industrial mercury levels.

August 2014 was the warmest on record for the Earth, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. The combined average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces for August 2014 was record high for the month, at 0.75°C (1.35°F) above the 20th century average of 15.6°C (60.1°F), topping the previous record set in 1998. Records date back to 1880.

On 30 July 2014, the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) pressed for speedy regulation of fracking technology, on the occasion of the presentation of UBA's new, 600-page export Fracking II report in Berlin. The Federal Environment Agency recommends a comprehensive risk assessment of all fracking projects for the purpose of gas and oil extraction and for all testing measures. These assessments must become an integral part of an environmental impact assessment which is standardised according to the core principles put forward by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB). The UBA – like the BMWi and BMUB – continue to adhere to placing a ban without exception on every form of fracking in water protection areas and medicinal spring protection zones as well as other sensitive areas such as the drainage areas of lakes and river dams, nature conservation areas and Habitats Directive sites.

Australia's biggest coal mine, the $16.5 billion Carmichael Coal and Rail Project in Queensland's Galilee Basin, has been given federal approval. Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the project proposed by Indian company Adani could go ahead, subject to 36 "strict" conditions focused on conserving groundwater. The mine project west of Rockhampton would be one of the biggest in the world, covering 200 square kilometres and producing about 60 million tonnes of coal a year.

More than 350 newly recognised bird species have been assessed by BirdLife International for the first time on behalf of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. Worryingly, more than 25% of these newly recognised birds have been listed as threatened on The IUCN Red List - compared with 13% of all birds - making them urgent priorities for conservation action. The first of a two-part comprehensive taxonomic review has focussed on non-passerine birds – such as birds of prey, seabirds, waterbirds and owls – and has led to the recognition of 361 new species, that were previously treated as ‘races’ of other forms. The new total of 4,472 non-passerines implies that previous classifications have undersold avian diversity at the species level by more than 10%.

On 22 July 2014, European Commission proposed a higher energy savings target for 2030. The proposed target goes beyond the 25% energy savings target which would be required to achieve a 40% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2030. At the same time the framework on energy efficiency put forward today aims to strike the right balance between benefits and costs.

CO2 emissions from coal power plants in the EU are undermining climate efforts, reveals the “Europe’s Dirty 30” report, released on 22 July 2014, by CAN Europe, WWF, the European Environmental Bureau, the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) and Climate Alliance Germany. The “Europe’s Dirty 30” report exposes the top 30 CO2-polluting power plants in the EU, with Germany and the UK ranking joint first, with nine of the dirtiest coal plants each.

The Chinese Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), one of eight extant pangolins or scaly anteaters as they are also known, was once abundant in China. However, as a result of overexploitation for consumption of its meat and scales, this species is now moving closer to extinction, which is having a devastating impact on the world’s remaining pangolins. This was one of the findings from the first-ever global conference on the conservation of pangolins held by the International Union for Conservation of Nature - Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC) Pangolin Specialist Group and co-organized and hosted by Wildlife Reserves Singapore.

As part of the Antarctic Ocean Alliance’s (AOA) proposal to designate marine protected areas (MPA) and marine reserves across 19 regions around Antarctica, the AOA launched on 17 July 2014, its new report titled Antarctic Ocean Legacy: Towards Protection of the Weddell Sea Region. The findings of the report aim to contribute towards ongoing scientific and policy work – currently led by Germany and Russia – on the region, which is located south of the Atlantic Ocean. The Weddell Sea region is renowned for having one of the most intact ecosystems left on earth and for being a major engine of global ocean circulation.

On 16 July 2014, an oil spill was spotted within a kilometer of the coastline near the beach playa de El Cabrón, in the town of Agüimes/ Gran Canaria, an area well known for being considered a sanctuary for divers.

The carbon tax was repealed by the Australian senate on 17 July 2014.

Since the last glacial period so-called thermokarst lakes in Arctic permafrost areas have sequestered more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than they ever previously emitted during their formation. On 16 July 2014, an international team of scientists presents this surprising research result today in an online publication by the journal Nature. The researchers had examined up to 10,000-year-old soil deposits from northern Siberian lakes and calculated for the first time the total carbon balance for several hundred thousand bodies of water. Their conclusion was that the melt water lakes that came into being due to climate warming after the last glacial period emitted large amounts of methane for a short period. In the long run, however, they cooled the climate in the Arctic by absorbing and storing 1.6 times more carbon than they ever released. An increasingly warmer Arctic could reverse this process within a short time, however.