Scout alarms

Decades of poaching and shrinking habitats have devastated elephant populations across Africa, conservationists said Thursday, warning that one species found in rainforests was a step away from extinction. In an update of its "Red List" of threatened species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) highlighted the broad deterioration of the situation for elephants in most of Africa. Forest elephants on the continent have been particularly hard-hit, it said. Their numbers have fallen by more than 86 percent over three decades, and they are now considered "critically endangered" -- just a step away from becoming extinct. The population of the African savanna elephants had meanwhile decreased by at least 60 percent over the past 50 years, IUCN said, with the Red List now listing that species as "endangered". Previously, elephants on the continent were assessed as a single species considered vulnerable, but not endangered. "Today's new IUCN Red List assessments of both African elephant species underline the persistent pressures faced by these iconic animals," IUCN chief Bruno Oberle said in a statement. Just half a century ago, around 1.5 million elephants roamed across Africa, but in the most recent large-scale assessment of population numbers in 2016, there were only around 415,000 remaining. 'Wake-up call' "These are really sharp declines," said Benson Okita-Ouma of Save the Elephants and the co-chair of the IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group. While the next full assessment of African elephant population numbers is not expected until 2022 or 2023, he told AFP that the declines seen already should really sound "alarm bells". Elephants will not disappear from Africa overnight, he said, but stressed that "what this assessment is giving us is an early warning that unless we turn around things, we are likely to (see) these animals go extinct". "It is a wake-up call to the entire globe that we are going down a steep terrain, …

[Read more...] about ‘Alarm bells’ as African elephants see sharp decline: conservationists

Vietnam’s Can Tho City saw its land subsiding at a rate of 4.37 centimeters per year during the 2005-17 period, the severest in the Mekong Delta region, Pham Anh Huan, head of environmental and water resource management at the Can Tho Department of Resources and Environment, said on Monday. Can Tho’s sinking momentum was presented at a conference on solutions for sinking and groundwater management in the Mekong Delta on Monday. On top of that, satellite image analytics also suggested that the city is sinking more than five centimeters per year for the most part. Dr. Ha Quang Khai from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology pointed out that the majority of Mekong Delta provinces are sinking at the average rate of 1.1-3 centimeters per year, making Can Tho’s situation the gravest in the region. Can Tho’s sinking stems from natural pressure, excessive groundwater mining, as well as physical pressure from unregulated infrastructure development, experts concurred at the conference. Meanwhile, the link between urban flooding and land sinking requires further research to confirm, Khai denoted. Nguyen Thuc Hien, deputy chairman of the Can Tho People’s Committee, said the city is working to pinpoint the areas that require restriction of groundwater extraction, which is expected to help curb land sinking. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! …

[Read more...] about Can Tho City in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta sinks at alarming rate

The UN Secretary-General’s appeal comes in the context that the climate crisis is getting increasingly serious and time is running out to limit global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius as well as to build societies with better adaptation to climate change. Ahead of the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in the UK, the UN expects the US to take the lead in accelerating global efforts towards greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions neutrality, fulfilling commitments and making financial contributions towards ambitious goals by 2030. According to the UN, the new US administration needs to regain the credibility of the international community through setting specific goals on emissions reduction in its roadmap towards achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. The global fight against climate change is facing numerous challenges as more than half of countries worldwide failed to update their commitments to reduce GHG emissions by the deadline of the end of 2020. This has disturbed the ambitious climate schedule agreed upon under the Paris accord. According to commitments when signing the Paris Agreement, countries will increase emissions reduction and revise this goal every five years. However, by the deadline of December 31, 2020, a number of high-emitting countries said they would reach the goal of emissions neutrality within this century, while many others have yet to announce new commitments. According to the UN, as of January 1, 2021, just over 70 of the 200 nations have introduced new targets, including Vietnam. The world is witnessing rapid temperature rise. According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the three years of 2016, 2019 and 2020 saw record heat, and 2020 even surpassed 2016 to become the hottest year ever, with the average global temperature at about 14.9 degrees Celsius, or about 1.2 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial level. The unusual weather characteristics of 2020 were high heat and constant wildfires, together with the …

[Read more...] about Joint hands urged to cope with alarming climate crisis