Tiempo Climate Newswatch

The world is not on the right path to protect the diversity of species and would not reach the agreed target of the year 2010 for reversing biodiversity loss, Sigmar Gabriel, German environment minister, warned delegates at the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity, in Bonn last week. He called for a roadmap, similar to the one on climate reached in Bali last year, that would lead to the establishment of an international set of rules for biodiversity, governing access and equitable sharing of benefits. The Bonn conference is the annual meeting of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD).

The UNCBD Secretariat wants the Biodiversity Conference to highlight sustainable agriculture "not only to preserve biodiversity, but also to ensure that we will be able to feed the world, maintain agricultural livelihoods, and enhance human well-being into the 21st century and beyond." The Bonn Biodiversity Summit takes place this coming week and will receive the results of the conference. The International Youth Conference, Biodiversity on the Edge, was held alongside the Biodiversity Conference. Participants are seeking the integration of sustainable development education into school curricula as well as a protocol on protected areas, no patents on living organisms, prohibition of genetically modified organisms, full and effective participation of indigenous and local communities and measurable targets for biodiversity protection.

Six million Ethiopian children are threatened by drought, according to an assessment from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The agency estimates that 126,000 children are already suffering from severe malnutrition and need urgent therapeutic care. "Widespread drought, poor rainy seasons, heavy loss of livestock, limited food supply and soaring prices of food, fuel and fertilizer linked to the global food crisis are contributing to the troubled outlook of children in Ethiopia," UNICEF reports. "The mechanisms and capacity to prevent and respond to the increase of severe acute malnutrition are in place but are under-resourced," says Bjorn Ljungqvist, UNICEF representative in Ethiopia. He fears that recent progress in ensuring child survival is at risk because of the emergency.

Louise Arbour, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has told the United Nations Human Rights Council that the soaring costs of corn, wheat, rice and other foods "jeopardize the well-being and rights of countless people." "This crisis boils down to a lack of access to adequate food," she said, continuing that "such access is a right protected by international law." She warned that failure to act in a comprehensive manner could put at risk other fundamental rights, such as the right to health or to education, as people are forced to give up other necessities or services in order to feed themselves and their families. The Seventh Session of the Human Rights Council subsequently adopted a resolution expressing "grave concern" at the worsening world food crisis and calling upon "States, individually and through international cooperation and assistance, and other relevant stakeholders, to take all necessary measures to ensure the realization of the right to food as an essential human rights objective."

Global warming will reduce the number of Atlantic hurricanes, though these storms may be wetter and their winds may be stronger, according to a new study by Tom Knutson of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and his collaborators. "This study adds more support to the consensus finding of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other reports that it is likely that hurricanes will gradually become more intense as the climate continues to warm," said Knutson. "It's a bit of a mixed picture in the Atlantic, because we're projecting fewer hurricanes overall."

Knutson considers that the new results argue "against the notion that we've already seen a really dramatic increase in Atlantic hurricane activity resulting from greenhouse warming." NOAA meteorologist Chris Landsea does not find the study's overall conclusions surprising. "I think global warming is a big concern, but when it comes to hurricanes the evidence for changes is pretty darn tiny," he said. Over the Atlantic basin, the direct effect of warmer sea surface temperatures, which would act to increase hurricane numbers, is offset in Knutson's model as the warming creates an increase in wind shear that seems to reduce hurricane activity.