China's Urbanization

For frequent visitors to China, it will be no surprise that the country is now home to one quarter of the world’s largest cities. According to a new United Nations report, there are now 236 cities in China with a population of over half a million. Over 100 more are expected to be added by 2025. The report, 2009 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects, issued last month, says that China’s urban population more than doubled between 1980 and 2010, rising from 19 to 47 percent. By 2025, it is expected that 59 percent of China’s population will live in cities.

China is transitioning from a centralized planned economy to a market economy, from egalitarianism to individualism and competition. Within one generation China is making the transition from a developing nation to a developed one.

Urbanization has led to staggering economic growth but it had also caused massive inequalities.

China has been able to lift half a billion people out of poverty in the last 30 years and improved the quality of life of hundreds of thousands, particularly in urban areas. But the disparities between urban and rural areas are stark with urban per capita incomes three times those of rural areas according to UN reports.

Although regional inequalities remain a major problem, it is not just in China’s megacities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing and Chongqing where the quality of life is improving for ordinary Chinese. On a visit last year to the coalmining city of Datong in China’s Shanxi Province, one could not but be impressed by the quality of housing going up all over the city at a phenomenal pace (photo above).

China’s transition is unprecedented. The consequences are still unfolding, both at home and abroad.

The African World Cup

I am vaguely concerned about the World Cup that starts in South African shortly and I am not sure why. Maybe it is the disruption and incongruity of the fantastic stadiums that have risen in the larger cities?

We, by the way, call it soccer and play on fields that do not conform to world standards. Grass is nice as it hurts less when you fall but I really don't know the need for the cow dung that normally lies scattered on the informal fields. Perhaps the dung add excitement to falling, you know it is soft but you would rather not land in it?

Port Elizabeth has a new stadium and it is magnificent! It rose in the northern end of town in a tired area that has a few factories, a large polluted lake and some cheaper housing. The lake seems strange in its urban setting but it still has a few fish that people try to catch (although I would not eat them) and it is used for power boating and any other water activity where you don't have to spend too much time in the water. Let us called the lake interesting, there are a few birds and occassionally and otter will pop its head out of the reeds.

Then you have the stadium. There are a few aspects that I really enjoy like the fact that the rain which falls on the roof is collected and can be used to water the pitch. I hope it is a tough African grass like Kikuyu that does not need too much water and is not scared of soccer boots. I hope it is not too hard for international knees but I am sure that some committee has approved it.

The stadium made the local newspaper headlines a few weeks ago. We are in the throes of a drought (living memory stuff) and an antelope driven from the veld by the drought tried to break through the glass doors of the stadium. Maybe the view of the green grass was too much?

In any case it is great to feel as though the world is looking and coming to visit. Entrepreneurs are excited although the cooked sheep head (called "smileys") sellers are not allowed near the stadiums (too strange for you) and the beverages being sold are American (and not the one we are used to). I am sure vuvuzelas (loud trumpet-like things) are being tuned although the idea of tuning one is a paradox and you must see the traditional decorative soccer hats that are being made from safety helmets that you normally see on construction sites.

It is, despite all the committees and rules and change and cows and taxis (they don't like the mass transport systems) and grass and dung, going to be very exciting. I just hope that you can see the Africa beneath all the FIFA polish. Look for Africa if you come - the people, the nature and the way of life.

Sharks fail to get CITES protection

The current round of talks between  Parties to the Convention for the International Trade in Endangered Species, better known as CITES, has failed to produce any protection for 4 shark species - the porbeagle, spiny dogfish, scalloped hammerhead and oceanic whitetip. All the proposals put forward by the EU and the USA to protect these at risk species were voted out.

Sadly, this lack of protection means that these sharks, along with many other species of shark  will continue to be overfished for their meat and fins. Unbelievably, the numbers of the once common spiny dogfish have fallen by a massive 90 per cent or more. Heavily overfished for its meat (sold as rock salmon), this fish is now critically endangered. It is the slowest growing of  the sharks and has the longest gestation period, factors which mean that its numbers take a long time to recover. The rising demand for shark fins is threatening the hammerhead and oceanic whitetip sharks.

Ecoscene has an excellent selection of shark images such as the image of the spiny dogfish above. Check out our website www.ecoscene.com

HOME AGAIN ON THE RANGE?

A new report by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature gives some hope that more wild bison may be roaming free on the North American plains. Five hundred years ago, 30 to 50 million bison roamed North America from Mexico to Alaska. But in the 1800s, as European settlers moved across the continent, bison were slaughtered to near-extinction. Thanks to conservation efforts that started in the 1930s, it is estimated that today there are about 430,000 bison on the continent. Most of these are in commercial herds according to the IUCN report. Only 20,000 Plains Bison and 11,000 Wood Bison are wild, all in carefully managed conservation herds.

While there is no doubt that a growingly conservation-minded public would like more free-ranging bison, the main problem is finding sufficiently large areas of land to accommodate the wandering species. As the herds of wild bison in Yellowstone National Park in the United States grew, they encroached on grazing land for cattle, and in 2008 over 1,000 had to be slaughtered.

In Canada, there’s a proposal to introduce a breeding herd on the eastern slopes of the Rockies between Banff and Jasper National Parks. However, the plan is under review and nobody is expecting this to happen anytime soon.

Further south, in Waterton Lakes National Park, the plan for roaming bison was scuttled last year as there is not enough grassland to feed a herd in addition to the resident Elk. The initial breeding stock of Plains Bison, of which the bull photographed here is one, had to be culled so that there was sufficient grass in the adjacent paddock to feed the remainder.

Because of the 10,000-year-old relationship between First Nations and bison, there is a proposal to consult the Blackfoot community to see if undeveloped reserve land could once again become a home for wild bison.

Lions kill elephant calf

Over the last couple of years I have been lucky enough to spend time filming for various projects in Amboseli, Kenya. During a shoot for Animal Planet last year I was out with the women of the Amboseli Trust For Elephants (ATE) early one morning when a call came in from Lion Researchers working in the area. They had witnessed two young male lions chasing an elephant calf which had somehow become separated from it's mother.

We raced to the scene whilst discussing what exactly we would do once we got there. Would we try and intervene or let nature take it's course? By the time we arrived the decision was taken from us. The lions had already managed to bring the calf down.

As there was nothing we could do to help the calf, Soila, Noraha and Katito began to search he area for signs of the calf's family in order to try and identify the calf. The ATE is a charity established scientist Cynthia Moss in Amboseli in 1972 and has undertaken the longest study of elephant populations in the world. The women of the trust undertake daily census's of the elephants within the park and know by name almost all the 1,500 or so elephants in the Amboseli ecosystem.

Despite years of experience in the field this was the first time lions killing an elephant calf had been witnessed by the women and they were very keen to establish the reasons behind this unusual occurrence.

As we searched for signs of a distressed mother, I noticed a large bull elephant approaching the lions. Clearly agitated the bull advanced towards the lions, temples streaming and sniffing the air. When he was almost upon the carcass he let out a huge trumpet and the lions scattered.

From a distance the elephant could see the calf was lifeless and bloody and he slowly moved off and the lions returned to the kill. At this point there was no sign of other families in the area and the lions took the opportunity to drag the calf towards cover.

Soila then notice a family in the distance sniffing the air and looking very disturbed. They approached the area very carefully, crowding together with the young calf's being ushered into the middle of the herd. As they neared the area where the calf was killed they became increasingly agitated. Eventually they gathered around the area where the calf had lain and was now covered in blood. The elephants slowly combed the area with their trunks trying to pick up the scent of the calf

After some time the elephants moved on very cautiously scanning the bush for signs of Lions.

Although the family was known to the Soila, Norah and Katito they couldn't say with any certainty that the calf belonged to this family. The calf was around 18 months old and as such was very hard to identify outwith the family group and with so many families in the ecosystem it would take some time to work out who exactly the unfortunate calf belonged to.

Occurrences of Lions killing elephant calf's' appear to be quite rare in Amboseli and in conjunction with the lion researchers the women established that possibly due to the drought (the worst in living memory) the young male lions had been pushed out of the pride to fend for themselves the previous week. Mounting hunger must have lead to the lions looking for an easy target and presumably a mother and calf separated from the herd would have made a reasonable target.

Last year the ATE estimate that 80-90% of the Wildebeest population was lost along with 70% of the Zebra and around 200 elephants The good news is after 3 years the drought in Amboseli broke in January and the ecosystem is slowly returning to normal and large aggregations of elephants are returning to the park along with the big bulls in musth.

Recycle those batteries

Non-rechargeable batteries should not go in the rubbish, but how many of us have been guilty of throwing them in the bin. At last, it is compulsory in the UK for retailers who sell batteries to offer a recycling facility in shop. So now there is no excuse for people to throw them way.

Environment Minister Huw Irranca-Davies said, "This new legislation will make it easier for consumers to do the right thing whilst ensuring retailers fulfil their part of the bargain. Old batteries can cause harm to the environment when they are not recycled. The new approach to disposal of batteries will help to reduce the number of batteries that now end up in landfill."

Currently, the UK recycles a miserly 3% of old batteries, but the government hopes that the new legislation will mean that within 6 years the recycling rate is more like 45%.

This is a really good move by the EU as the batteries contain heavy metals that should be recycled. Once in a landfill the battery case corrodes, allowing the heavy metals to contaminate both soil and water. Many batteries contain cadmium which is toxic to aquatic vertebrates.Low levels that exist in water get magnified along the food chain, in a process called bio-accumulation. Unfortunately, the sight of a discarded battery lying on the sea bed is becoming more common, as shown in the photo below by Mark Caney.  Mercury used to be a major problem, but most non-rechargeable batteries are now mercury-free, with the exception of button cell batteries.

There are many types of dry cell battery which contain different metals so they are recycled in different ways. NiCd batteries contain cadmium and iron-nickel which is recovered by heat treatment in the furnace. NiMH  batteries are separated mechanically in a vacuum-chamber and the nickel re-used in the steel industry. Li-Ion batteries are treated by pyrolysis (very high temps) which separates out the metals. Mercury-containing button cells are processed by vacuum-thermal treatment which vaporises the mercury and then it is condenses back to a solid. The zinc-carbon and alkaline-manganese batteries are usually smelted and the metal recovered.

Waste of Fresh Water

The images of earthquake survivors fighting over scarce resources in Haiti is a grim reminder of what is to come in parts of our overpopulated planet. In addition to earthquakes, extreme weather brought on by global climate change, be it drought or floods from excessive rainfall, is causing misery and suffering to countless millions with increasing frequency. Water and food, in that order, are the most basic human needs following a natural disaster.

Yet, as thirsty, dehydrated Haitians strive to survive on the bald rock which is all that is left of their part of the once-lush, tropical island in the Caribbean, trillions of tons of fresh water from glaciers and icebergs at the polar extremities of the planet are slowly melting into the sea.

What a terrible waste!

Is there nothing that can be done to harness the water from tidewater glaciers and icebergs before they make life on our planet more precarious by expanding the size of our oceans? Are we set to passively let part of our species die of thirst or drown?

On a cruise to Antarctica earlier this month, I asked the ship’s glaciologist if that was any ongoing research on ways to harness water from icebergs in these times of mounting scarcity. He said hadn’t heard of any and could only point to the initiative of a Saudi prince, who in the mid-70s had the idea of towing a 100 million-ton iceberg wrapped in sailcloth and plastic from Antarctica to Saudi Arabia. Prince Mohamed al Faisal was convinced that despite the cost of towing the iceberg to Saudi Arabia and loosing up to 20% of the mass from melting en route, the fresh water that would be left would be much cheaper than producing it locally in a desalinization plant. Apparently, nothing came of the idea and some scientists argued that once in waters around the equator all that would be left of the berg would be the rope at the end of the tow.

I’m not convinced that we should give up on the idea. After just a few days of watching huge icebergs from the Larsen Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula like this one floating northward, I would hope that there is research going on somewhere to find ways of harnessing this immense resource. Reports this month that icebergs calved from the Mertz Glacier are drifting towards New Zealand would mean that there would be no need to tow them through equatorial waters to harvest the fresh water. Once harvested in New Zealand or at the tips of South America or South Africa, the water could be moved to drier parts of the planet using conventional methods.

If not for concern for humankind, there could be money to be made from icebergs.

Walking with the Lions

By Gerard Hancock ©

It was one of those experiences you simply have to do to understand. “Walk with the Lions” said the bit of paper I was holding. Seems simple enough, I thought. We go for a walk........with some lions. What is there not to understand? Everything was clear to me, I had images in my mind of small, fluffy, cub-like creatures which would respond warmly to being stroked and bottle-fed. Easy. When we actually saw the lions and were told they had brought down a young giraffe the day before, we quickly realised that bottle-feeding was definitely out of the question and this was the real thing, or I suppose as near as you get to the real thing. As for easy, the unwitting tourist simply has no idea of the complexity, challenge and controversy behind what on the surface seem to be well-intentioned and fun experiences. ....

[Full feature available from Ecoscene http://www.ecoscene.com/?service=feature&action=show_content_page&language=en&feature=8 ]

Act now for diversity

The UN has declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity. Hopefully this will mean that more attention is paid to the plight of the world's species.
Biodiversity is the variety of life that lives on Earth. Fewer than 2 million species have been named and biologists estimate that as many as 13 million more species may exist, many being micro-organisms such as bacteria and archaea that live in some of the world's most extreme places.

When people think of biodiversity, they may  think of rainforests and coral reefs, but there are biodiverse habitats all around us, such as meadows, ponds, and hedgerows. A veteran oak tree may be home to several hundred species of insect, while a wildlife-friendly garden with nectar-rich flowers, vegetable beds, overgrown lawns, ponds and compost bins may be visited by a wide range of animals.

New life can be found in the strangest places. Who would have thought that the hot, acidic waters of  Yellowstone would be inhabited by many species of bacteria and archaea new to science. The heat-resistant enzymes of some of these bacteria have proved to be  incredibly useful in biotechnology.

However  many species may disappear before they are even discovered, mostly as a consequence of habitat loss and degradation. Deforestation, the ploughing up of grassland, the drainage of wetlands and the polluting of the oceans are all causing a loss of biodiversity. And then there is global warming.  Extinction rates are already at record highs and now it is estimated that every 1 degree Centigrade rise in the average global temperature will increase the rate of  extinction by 10 per cent.

The loss of an unknown insect or bacterium may not seem very important, but every organism has a role to play in its community and there is a knock-on effect on other species.For example, the insect may be the pollinator of a particular flower, or the food source for another animal.  Biodiversity is important to our daily lives - oxygen,  food, oil, wood, paper, medicines and much more, so its in all our interests to protect it.

In the UK, the International Year of Biodiversity is being spearheaded by the Natural History Museum via this website: http://www.biodiversityislife.net/. More than 200 UK partners are working with the NHM to run events and promote biodiversity.

Do one thing for biodiversity in 2010

So start the year with a pledge to help biodiversity. There are lots of things you can do - plant a tree, plant butterfly friendly plants in your garden, donate money to a wildlife charity, support your local wildlife trust and much more. For ideas visit http://www.biodiversityislife.net/?q=do-one-thing.  What am I doing? The Ecoscene office looks out on a large field with 400 year old oak trees (below). We have visiting barn owls so I am putting up some barn owl nest boxes.