Environmental Law Prof Blog

Open Thread

Please feel free to post comments relevant to environmental law, natural resources law, or sustainability.

One recent comment concerned hunting of wildlife on public lands in New South Wales.  See  Comment

Open Thread

Please feel free to post comments relevant to environmental law, natural resources law, or sustainability.

The forecast: hot, stormy, and dry

RedOrbit reports:

This year is likely to go down as the hottest, stormiest and driest ever, making a strong case for the urgent need to combat global warming, a report released Tuesday at the U.N. Climate Change Conference said.  The year 2005, the World Wildlife Fund said, is shaping up as the worst for extreme weather, with the hottest temperatures, most Arctic melting, worst Atlantic hurricane season and warmest Caribbean waters.  It's also been the driest year in decades in the Amazon, where a drought may surpass anything in the past century, said the report by international environmental group. The report, using data from the U.S. government  and World Meteorological Organization, was released on the sidelines of the U.N. conference reviewing and upgrading the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty that commits 35 industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions more than 5 percent by 2012.

The Science of Global Warming: African Drought Data Show Influence of Man

An inaugural article by Held, published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that the severe drought in the African Sahel (between the Sahara and the central coast) is best explained as human induced climate change compounding natural variability.  More severe drought is anticipated in the future as a result of GHG emissions.  African Drought

Africa Needs to Plan to Adapt to Climate Change

Nature reports 60 researchers met with policy-makers in Johannesburg last week to discuss adaptation to climate change:

"We urgently need to determine how we can adapt to climate change, and what the most appropriate interventions should be," says zoologist Steven Chown from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Temperatures in Africa have risen up to 1°C in the past century and, even if the emission reductions of greenhouse gases agreed by the Kyoto Protocol are achieved, temperatures could rise a further 2–3 °C by 2050, according to climatologist Bruce Hewitson of the University of Cape Town.Africa and Climate Change

The biggest challenges to African biodiversity will be the increase in temperature, drought, and increased susceptibility to invasive species.  Species dependent on reserves may fare poorly.

Killing the Goose that Lays the Golden Egg

Science reports: 

Wildlife conservation groups oppose Kenya President Mwai Kibaki's decision a week ago to give control of Amboseli National Park to a local council.  The council has allowed free cattle grazing by the Maasai -- as many as 15,000 head in an area designed as a reserve for zebras, elephants, wildebeests, and other animals.   The most remunerative game reserve in Kenya pulled in more than $3.4 million from tourists last year.

Notable quotes from David Western, former head of Kenya Wildlife Service who now heads the African Conservation Center in Nairobi:

"Every other national park and reserve ... risks being erased on a political whim at a moment's notice."

Director of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project Cynthia Moss, who has been tracking Amboseli's elephants:

the tourists "are already complaining that they didn't spend several hundreds of dollars a day to come to Africa to look at cattle."

       News from the Elephant Trust on abolition of the national park: Elephant Trust news