December 31, 2019
Many of the ~200 science news releases written and distributed for 30 clients in the 2010s warned of emerging problems; many celebrated breakthroughs. All included new insights and hopeful ways forward.
Biodiversity, the marine environment, and human health were dominant themes. Others included electronic waste, DNA, agriculture, freshwater, green energy, and The Anthropocene.
With thanks to many global collaborators who provided these stories, and to the journalists who covered them, the following releases were among the most noted this decade.
Click here: https://adobe.ly/2SBfX2H
19 Oct 2016
Portable observatories and new marine vehicles: The hinge of historic change in deep sea exploration
Yet to be found worldwide: A million species, a million wrecks in “world’s largest museum”
Transformative new technologies opening “citizen science era of ocean exploration”
100 experts convene for national Forum: Beyond the Ships, Marine Exploration, 2020-2025
Little known of “submerged America” – the half of US territory that lies under the sea
Complete mapping of “Gurgle Earth” achievable
Year of purple sea creatures celebrated with disco ball orb, vampire squid
Five hundred vents newly discovered off the US West Coast, each bubbling methane from Earth’s belly, top a long list of revelations about “submerged America” being celebrated by leading marine explorers meeting in New York.
“It appears that the entire coast off Washington, Oregon and California is a giant methane seep,” says RMS Titanic discoverer Robert Ballard, who found the new-to-science vents on summer expeditions by his ship, Nautilus.
The discoveries double to about 1,000 the number of such vents now known to exist along the continental margins of the USA. This fizzing methane (video: http://bit.
“This is an area ripe for discovery,” says Dr. Nicole Raineault, Director of Science Operations with Dr. Ballard’s Ocean Exploration Trust. “We do not know how many seeps exist, even in US waters, how long they have been active, how persistent they are, what activated them or how much methane, if any, makes it into the atmosphere.”
Further research and measuring will help fill important knowledge gaps, including how hydrocarbons behave at depth underwater and within the geological structure of the ocean floor.
Expeditions this year include also NOAA’s Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas Trench – a 59-day voyage with 22 dives into the planet’s deepest known canyons in the Pacific Ocean near Guam.
NOAA explorers added three new hydrothermal vents to the world’s inventory and a new high-temperature “black smoker” vent field composed of chimneys up to 30 meters tall – the height of a nine-story building.
Also revealed: a tiny spot volcano (the first ever discovered in US waters), a new mud volcano, thick gardens of deep-sea corals and sponges, a rare high-density community of basket stars and crinoids (a living fossil), and historic wreckage from World War II. (Photo, video log: http://bit.
Bizarre purple animals
Scores of spectacular, rare and sometimes baffling unknown species encountered on this year’s first-ever voyages to new deep ocean areas include several purple animals such as:
- A bizarre purple “mud monster”: the “acorn worm.” Photo: http://bit.ly/2dytSnW, video: http://bit.ly/2d6FQ6a,
credit: NOAA
video: http://bit.ly/2d6FQ6a, credit: NOAA
Swimming purple sea cucumber, reminiscent of a flying Mary Poppins. Photo: http://bit.
credit: NOAA
credit: Ocean Exploration Trust
credit: Ocean Exploration Trust
Credit: Ocean Exploration Trust
Beyond being spectacularly photogenic, such animals help scientists better understand the web of life that sustains all species, including humans.
As well, understanding how “extremophile” lifeforms survive in such conditions (piezophiles, for example, thrive in high pressure; pyschrophiles, aka cryophiles, live in water as cold as ?20 °C, as in pockets of very salty brine surrounded by sea ice), is usefully relevant to food and pharmaceutical preservation technologies, medical technology, nanotechnology and energy science.
Ocean exploration undergoing historic transformation
Dr. Ballard and about 100 other leading figures in marine science meet Oct. 20-21 to compare thoughts on the future of marine exploration at the 2016 National Ocean Exploration Forum, “Beyond the Ships: 2020-2025,” hosted in New York by The Rockefeller University in partnership with Monmouth University. The Forum is also supported by the Monmouth-Rockefeller Marine Science and Policy Initiative, NOAA, the Schmidt Ocean Institute, and James A. Austin, Jr.
Ocean exploration has arrived at a historic hinge, Forum organizers say, with profound transformation underway thanks to new technologies, led by increasingly affordable “roboats” – autonomous or remotely controlled vehicles that dive into the ocean or ply the surface laden with sensors collecting information from instruments suspended beneath them.
Credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute
ROV SuBastian, for example, is a new eco-friendly 3,100 kg (6,500 pound) deep-sea research platform for the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor, equipped with ultra high-resolution 4K cameras, mechanical arms that move seven ways and can sample to depths of 4,500 meters (2.8 miles), with a lighting system equivalent to the lamps of 150 car high-beams. (SuBastian sea trials video: http://bit.
Says Wendy Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Ocean Institute: “With ROV SuBastian we will help make life on the ocean floor real to people who will never visit the sea, so they, too, can begin to appreciate the importance of ocean health and make the connection between life in the deep sea and life on land.”
“You don’t have to be a scientist at sea to recognize the importance of the marine environment, and we are only at the beginning of our understanding. We never anticipated discovering the world’s deepest living fish, the ghostfish (video: http://bit.
ROV SuBastian will have that opportunity this December during its first science cruise, in the Mariana Back-Arc in the western Pacific. (Cruise details: http://bit.
Contributing as well to the transformation: Modern communications and sampling techniques, including eDNA, big data analysis and other high-tech advances that automate and vastly accelerate the work, opening the way for experts and the public to reach, see, chart, sample and monitor formerly secret depths of the seas.
Building “curious” roboats
Innovations include portable observatories for underwater monitoring and a “curious exploration robot,” programmed to focus on everything unfamiliar to its data bank brain (photo: http://bit.
According to innovator Yogesh Girdhar of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in a recent test off the Panama coast, the suitcase-sized swimming robot discovered a startlingly enormous population of crabs.
Other engineers, meanwhile, are developing “game changing” unmanned undersea and surface vehicles tricked out with an array of sophisticated sensors to perform a suite of underwater tasks, enabled to run for months by recent improvements in battery technology. (See video, for example, of Boeing’s 51-foot Echo Voyager: http://bit.
Such “roboats” can be programmed to conduct deep sea exploration or searches using a lawn mower pattern, surfacing regularly to report data back to shore via satellite, or to patrol a coastal area, returning to port after one or two months to recharge and redeploy.
These technologies will enable today’s generation to “explore more of Planet Earth than all previous generations combined,” predicts Dr. Ballard, whose celebrated career will be recognized at the Forum with the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute’s Champion of the Ocean award.
The technologies will not only help discover and monitor new mineral and living resources, they could help secure interests vital to the world’s economy or identify the best paths for communications cables that span the ocean floor – the veins of the Internet.
Ships transitioning to multi-vessel research hives
Until recently, ocean exploration has involved ships operated like fishing vessels, dipping sensors and hauling up data.
Forum participants such as John Kreider of Oceaneering International envision such ships in future serving as hives from which flotillas and squadrons of autonomous underwater, surface and aerial vehicles are launched – robots guided by experts on board or remotely, such as from a distant university campus via “telepresence,” returning with images and data orders of magnitude larger than ever before.
Thanks to modern communication technologies, schoolchildren, their teachers and indeed any interested members of the public can, and do, now follow expeditions online in real time.
Among the many compelling interests and pursuits of marine scientists and historians in the public, private and military sectors:
- The changing Arctic environment, including the impact on sea ice edge formation of waves on newly opened water, and by new intrusions of warm water from the neighboring Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which also disrupts Arctic Ocean water column stratification
- The discovery of rare earth and other minerals, caches of methane and new oil deposits, and new species of marine plants and animals, some of which have already led to new pharmaceuticals with high expectations of many valuable discoveries to come
- Better understanding the food chain – monitoring the distribution and abundance of marine life, finding species new-to-science, and detecting invasive or endangered species.
- eDNA (environmental DNA) techniques, a water sample can now be used to discern what species recently passed through, based on the DNA left behind in metabolic wastes, skin cells, and damaged tissues (the subject of a paper by NOAA-funded ocean explorer Shirley Pomponi. And, thanks to new acoustic techniques, marine biologists can also discern biodiversity levels on coral reefs just by listening (the subject of a paper prepared for the Forum by Jennifer L. Miksis-Olds of the University of New Hampshire and Bruce Martin, Dalhousie University, available at http://bit.ly/2dwUxzA)
Finding historic wrecks of aircraft and ships, such as the recent discovery 2,800 feet underwater of the WWII era aircraft carrier USS Independence (photo: http://bit.
Says scientist James (Jamie) A. Austin, Jr. of the University of Texas, “the slow, time consuming and expensive way we’ve done ocean exploration forever – one ship doing one task at a time – is giving way to autonomous systems that net massive hauls of data, with advances in big data analysis enabling scientists to make sense of it rapidly.”
Dr. Austin envisions installations on the seafloor – measuring tremors or helping scientists estimate the rate at which Earth swallows carbon into its mantle through plate tectonics, for example – with data delivered by a device periodically flying up and down to the surface.
Gurgle Earth
Simply mapping the ocean floor is an important goal. While satellites have fully charted the seafloor in low resolution, only 10% is mapped in detail.
At an estimated cost of $2.9 billion – or about $9 per square kilometer ($23 per square mile) – a “Gurgle Earth” map of the deep oceans could be completed at high resolution using swath like, multi-beam sonar.
The hazard of uncharted oceanic mountains, trenches, volcanoes and other features was dramatically underscored in 2005 when a nuclear attack submarine, the USS San Francisco, struck a seamount in the Pacific at high speed, killing one crew member and injuring 97.
Over 50% of US territory lies beneath the ocean surface and such mapping could also expand American territorial and resource claims.
With documentation of the continental shelf, America’s Exclusive Economic Zone, 11.3 million square km in size today, could extend a further 2.2 million square km – a 20% enlargement, representing an underwater area larger than Alaska. (See http://bit.
World’s foremost ocean discoveries
According to Dr. Ballard, key marine discoveries to date include:
- In the Galapagos Rift, hydrothermal vents, “which may well explain the origin of life on Earth”
- On the East Pacific Rise, other black smokers “which explained the chemistry of the world’s oceans and their poly-metallic sulfide deposits of copper, lead, silver, and gold”
- On the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a Lost City of carbonate chimneys towering 60 meters, “which revealed the depth of seawater circulation into the earth”
- Along the continental margins of the world massive methane seeps, “that were not included in our modelling of global change”
- In the Black Sea, highly preserved wooden ships, “which showed that the deep sea is the largest museum on earth,” and
- Near Newfoundland, the RMS Titanic, “which created a massive interest in the history of the human race hidden beneath the sea.”
Other recent finds of ancient shipwrecks and even ancient human remains, he adds, reveal that early mariners didn’t simply hug the coastline but sailed courageously great distances from shore, and make it possible to determine who they were.
While these and countless biological discoveries represent things discovered underwater, the intent of future exploration campaigns include measuring more, sampling more, and better understanding physical, geological and living processes – knowledge of vital importance for security, responsible ocean use and sustainable resource management.
Asked what he thought might yet be discovered underwater, Dr. Ballard compares that to asking Lewis or Clark what they thought they’d find on their historic traverse of America. The reply, he says, would have been “I don’t know. I’m getting into a canoe and I’m going to paddle.”
In one of several papers written for the Forum, meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Cameron Hume adds that, beyond exploring and the initial characterization of an ocean area, humanity also needs to pursue subsequent research and long-term observing.
In his paper, Dr. Jerry Schubel of the Aquarium of the Pacific, lamenting the relatively low level of public attention accorded to ocean exploration, points to new opportunities for awareness raising created by social media.
“Understanding life on other planets,” he says, “may help us understand the origins of life in the universe, but it can’t match the relevance and importance of ocean exploration to the future of life on this planet.”
Hidden in the seas: A million unknown species, a million shipwrecks
Says organizer Prof. Jesse Ausubel, faculty member at The Rockefeller University: “SuBastian and the Roboats sounds like a rock band, but it is the future of ocean exploration. One million marine species and one million shipwrecks may remain to be discovered. Let’s use new approaches to multiply exploration.”
Says Forum organizer Vice Admiral Paul Gaffney, former President of Monmouth University and Urban Coast Institute Ocean Policy Fellow: “America is the greatest maritime nation in the history of the world, yet we scarcely know submerged America and only about 10% of the global oceans. At this Forum, we are encouraging ocean technology leaders to join the discussion and support more comprehensive exploration campaigns indispensable for sustainable use of the oceans and inspiring ocean stewardship.”
The Forum will use three example priority ocean exploration areas to flesh out new ideas:
- the Southeast US Atlantic Bight
- the Gulf of Mexico and
- the Arctic
Maps in high resolution: http://bit.
The ultimate aim: to formulate compelling, feasible campaigns to be carried out by the participants in the 2020-2025 timeframe.
At the Forum, Dr. Jyotika Virmani will share the roster of teams for the $7 million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, a global competition to promote unmanned ocean exploration.
NAS President: new technologies can open “citizen science era of ocean exploration”
In a letter to the Forum (in full: http://bit.
Inadequate knowledge of ocean terrain and currents hampered the search for flight MH 370 in 2014, for example.
CubeSats, she notes, have “‘democratized’ space, providing access for pennies on the dollar. Similarly, new commercial tools, although still in their infancy, hold the promise of ushering in the citizen science era of ocean exploration.”
“The task we face is simply too large to continue to use 20th century tools if we hope to make a dent in the problem.”
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2016 National Ocean Exploration Forum, “Beyond the Ships: 2020-2025”
Oct. 20-21
Venue: The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Ave, New York, NY.
Website, including Forum programme and speaker biographies: http://phe.
Supporters: the Monmouth-Rockefeller Marine Science and Policy Initiative, NOAA, the Schmidt Ocean Institute, and James A. Austin, Jr.
Papers
Positioning Ocean Exploration In a Chaotic Sea of Changing Media
Jerry R. Schubel (Aquarium of the Pacific)
http://bit.
Exploring the Ocean through Sound
Jennifer L. Miksis-Olds (University of New Hampshire) and Bruce Martin (Dalhousie)
http://bit.
New National Leadership for Ocean Exploration
US Ambassador Cameron Hume
http://bit.
Discussion Paper on Marine Minerals
Mark Hannington, University of Ottawa, and Sven Petersen, GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research
http://bit.
Emerging Technologies for Biological Sampling in the Ocean
Shirley Pomponi, Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research, & Technology [CIOERT], Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University
http://bit.
The Forum is the latest in a series mandated by Congress (Title XII of Public Law 111-11) in March 2009 when it officially established the NOAA ocean exploration program. This law requires NOAA to consult with the other federal agencies involved in ocean exploration, as well as external stakeholders, to establish a “coordinated national ocean exploration program” that promotes data management and sharing, public understanding, and technology development and transfer. The law also requires NOAA to organize an “ocean exploration Forum to encourage partnerships and promote collaboration among experts and other stakeholders to enhance the scientific and technical expertise and relevance of the national program.”
The 2016 Forum convenes approximately 100 experts from academia, government, and the private sector to discuss adaptation and integration of technologies that can be employed in ocean exploration campaigns in the 2020-2025 timeframe.
The Forum will look to a future of expanded exploration activities by making more platforms capable of measuring, sampling, or imaging yet-to-be-explored areas – employing a suite of technologies that have been dubbed “flyaway systems.”
Expanding spatial coverage and reducing cost of data collection are key ocean exploration priorities over a ~10 year time horizon. These priorities can be realized by creatively adapting and assembling existing technologies, and deploying them onboard autonomous devices, buoys, various so-called ships-of-opportunity, and other platforms, in addition to the existing fleet of dedicated ocean exploration vessels.
The Forum will help federal funding agencies and foundations define and prioritize exploration technology investment options for 2020-2030, and stimulate a vision among leading explorers of what it might be like to conduct expeditions in this time frame.
Forum sub-themes:
- Acoustics-based exploration including bathymetric data collection and the precise navigation issues that surround collection of accurate bathymetric data from remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs)
- Biological/chemical discovery; sampling and sensing
- Geological/geophysical discovery (e.g., gravity, magnetics, seismic); sampling and sensing
- Telepresence (real time and non-synchronous) including, but not limited to, discussion of “fly away” possibilities and the impact of the proliferation of IT/visualization technology among the public — from smart phones to virtual reality. Also related systems for integration/command-and-control.
- Off-board measuring, sensing and sampling technologies (vehicles, sensors, installations, and samplers/collectors)
- Command and control of unattached vehicles (communications, accurate positioning, non-synchronous data transmission issues)
Forum advisory panel:
James A. (Jamie) Austin Jr., University of Texas
Robert Ballard, Ocean Exploration Trust and University of Rhode Island
Frank Herr, Office of Naval Research, US Navy
John Kreider, Oceaneering International
Alan Leonardi, NOAA Ocean Exploration and Research
Shirley Pomponi, Florida Atlantic University
Rick Rikoski, Hadal Inc.
Jerry Schubel, Aquarium of the Pacific
Lance Towers, The Boeing Company
Victoria Tschinkel, 1000 Friends of Florida
Invitees represent the academic, government, non-profit, and for-profit communities, with expertise in both the engineering aspects of creating relevant equipment, and in exploratory and scientific applications of such equipment.
Beyond the Ships: 2020-2025 is the first of four annual Marine Science & Policy Series conferences that will be organized by Rockefeller and Monmouth, with events taking place on alternating campuses in New York City and West Long Branch, New Jersey.
* * * * *
Media coverage highlights:
International newswires
The Associated Press, USA (via Daily Mail, UK), Images from the deep unveil weird and wild sea critters, click here
Spanish (via El Nuevo Herald, USA), Profundidades marinas revelan criaturas extrañas y salvajes, click here
Reuters, UK, Scientists find 500 U.S. seabed vents of powerful greenhouse gas, click here
Agencia EFE, Spain, Los robots marinos y la captura del ADN son el futuro de exploración oceánica (Marine robots and capture DNA are the future of ocean exploration), click here
Austria Presse Agentur / Deutsche Presse Agentur, Austria / Germany, Hunderte neue Methan-Quellen vor US-Westküste entdeckt (Discovered – hundreds of new methane sources along US West Coast), click here
News sites
New Scientist, UK
Hundreds of deep-sea vents found spewing methane off US coast, click here
Gizmodo, USA, There’s an Enormous Natural Gas Seep Along the West Coast, click here
N-TV, Germany, Unmengen Methan lagern vor US-Westküste (“A gigantic source;” Vast amounts of methane stored along US West Coast)=, click here
RT (Russia Today), Новые виды животных, вулканы и метановые источники: что скрывает Мировой океан (New species of animals, volcanoes and methane sources: it hides the Oceans), click here
* * * * *
News release in full, click here
Coverage summary, click here
]]>6 July 2016
Why important innovations stall; Understanding obstacles to change key to timely adoption of technologies needed to address global problems
Cambridge, MA – Disruptive, transformative technologies are being introduced at an accelerating pace, fuelling opposition that impedes forms of innovation needed to meet profound challenges such as climate change, poverty and world hunger, says a new study from Harvard University.
Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technology, by Prof. Calestous Juma of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, chronicles the history of opposition to change — from tractors and certain uses of the printing press to coffee and margarine — and its underlying reasons.
Such understanding is critical, he argues, to the successful introduction and adoption of technological innovations needed to cope with humanity’s most serious economic and environmental challenges.
Published as a book by Oxford University Press, the 16-year study says fear and perceptions of lost employment, identity, and power drive impediment to innovation, and describes the widening gap between the pace of technological advancement and slow rate at which society adjusts.
Says Dr. Juma:”To meet the needs of a growing world population on a warming planet, humanity’s hopes are pinned on the introduction of transformative technologies but progress can be impeded by unreasonable obstruction to change.”
The study acknowledges the need to address legitimate health and environmental concerns related to new products and technologies and underlines that transparency, inclusiveness and caution in the handling of scientific uncertainty as critical elements of public trust.
The study chronicles the extraordinary measures taken by opponents to change, and the tenacity of entrepreneurs and technologists who overcame it.
Drawing on nearly 600 years of controversies, the study presents in-depth case studies of opposition to innovation, including printing of the Koran by the Ottomans, alternating current, refrigeration, recorded music, and, more recently, robotics, artificial intelligence and agricultural biotechnology.
Both coffee and tractors, for instance, were the targets of smear campaigns. Other tactics included demonization, rumours, slander, efforts to restrict use through legislation, and outright bans.
Parallels through history are striking. Transgenic crops have been dubbed “Frankenfoods.” In 17th century Italy, coffee was called “Satan’s Drink” and “Junior Alcohol” in 20th century southern India. In England, France, and Germany, coffee was said to cause sterility.
Calling refrigerated products “Embalmed Foods” had a chilling effect on consumers. Swedes dubbed the early telephone the “Devil’s Instrument.” Margarine was derided as “Bull Butter” in America and accused of causing sterility, male baldness, and stunting.
“Common to all these cases is fear and opponents excluded from the benefits of new technology,” says Dr. Juma.
Launch of the study takes place Wednesday July 6 at the 16th International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society Conference in Montreal. Dr. Schumpeter, an early 20th Century Austrian economist introduced the idea of “creative destruction” and was equally concerned about resistance to change.
The study says that in many cases objections and social responses to innovation fall into in one or more of four categories: intuition, vested interests, intellectual arguments, and psychological factors.
- Intuitive responses, often expressed as disgust, reflect patterns of behaviour that rely on deeper evolutionary roots of our fears and phobias. New foods, for example, may be seen as a threat to human health.
- Vested interests are illustrated with a well-known example of Luddites, early 19th century British textile workers, popularly portrayed as machine breakers who were simply opposed to change. But the reality was a clash of competing economic world views and moral values.
- Intellectual challenges to new technologies include philosophical objections to the manipulation of nature or the use of robotics in manufacturing, considered by some as “dehumanizing” and changing how we see ourselves as humans.
- Finally, business models that aim to alter the psychology of health and nutrition choices face strong opposition.
Innovation and Its Enemies advocates more timely scientific assessments of the benefits and risks of new technologies, swift adjustment of social institutions to keep pace with technological advancement, and greater public awareness and citizen engagement.
Inclusive innovation is critical for acceptance of new controversial technologies, Dr. Juma says.
This entails greater involvement of public institutions to provide training in the emerging fields, creation of joint ventures, equitable management of intellectual property rights, segmentation of markets to enable a technology to be used for noncompetitive products, and improvement of the policy environment to support long-term technology partnerships.
Building local capabilities and fostering public engagement in technology development are critical. The absence of inclusive strategies leads to intense debates over questions of justice, equity, corporate control and challenges to intellectual property system.
Also needed: strong, entrepreneurial decision-makers and leaders who can use available knowledge to assess a situation, take informed executive action in a timely manner, and monitor technological advances and their impacts. Leaders must be able to rely on advice from both scientific academies as well as complementary advisory institutions in executive offices.
Finally, says Dr. Juma, public education is critical in determining the pace and patterns of technological adoption. Many programs alienate the public by assuming that the root cause of social concern over new technology is ignorance. To the contrary, concerns commonly come from well-informed sections of the population. Public education should aim to enhance the legitimacy and quality of risk assessment processes. Ultimately, the goal is to manage risk perception and foster trust.
“People are more likely to accept the risks of new technologies if they have been part of the process of deciding on their use,” says Dr. Juma.
###
Calestous Juma is Professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He directs the School’s Science, Technology, and Globalization Project. He is author of The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa (Oxford University Press, 2011, 2015). His next book is tentatively entitled How Economies Succeed: Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. Twitter @Calestous
Comments on the study
“It takes one of the leading lights on innovation — Calestous Juma — to truly understand the forces that oppose it. Just as technologic change is reaching peak velocity, this extraordinary work provides a systematic, scholarly, and surgical dissection of what can hold us back.”
Professor Eric Topol, MD, Director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, La Jolla, California, and author of The Patient Will See You Now
“Innovation and its Enemies is a wonderful read. The style is lucid. The tone is lively. Professor Juma examines why people resist innovation, and argues that controversies result from the tension between the need to innovate and the pressure to maintain order. Although he discusses a profound socio-historical issue, his titles are very creative and eye-catching, and his use of case studies from history brings the information closer to the general reader. This is truly a great book and a fascinating read!”
Professor. Ismail Serageldin, Librarian of Alexandria, Director of the New Library of Alexandria, Egypt
“A must read to anyone holding public office. Having overcome obstacles as president of the Dominican Republic in building the metro system of Santo Domingo, I found in Professor Calestous Juma’s book useful theoretical insights into the understanding of why resistance occurs when introducing innovation in the public sphere.”
Dr. Leonel Fernández, Former President of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo
“An insightful book that addresses one of the paradoxes of our time, namely why generations that have benefited so much from innovation are so resistant to it. Drawing on a fascinating diversity of historical examples–coffee, electricity, refrigeration, farm mechanization, genetic modification–Professor Juma discusses how innovation occurs, the role of experts and why skepticism and confusion are often inevitable. A must-read for everyone involved in technology development and policy.”
Professor Louise O. Fresco, President of Wageningen University and Research Centre, The Netherlands
“An outstanding treatise on how new technologies are created and why they are so often not initially accepted by society. Innovation and Its Enemies is filled with wonderful stories that go through innovations ranging from cell phones to coffee to the light bulb. I loved reading it.”
Professor Robert Langer, David H. Koch Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
“Calestous Juma’s book provides a very enjoyable insight into the attitudes of society and individuals to innovation over the centuries. It’s highly accessible style provides the reader with great historical nuggets arising from the introduction of coffee and printing through to reactions invoked when margarine and transgenic crops were launched. The conclusions are supported by amazing facts and details.”
Sir Christopher Snowden, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Southampton, UK
“We all know how difficult it can be to accept truly revolutionary innovations. Professor Juma illustrates the difficulties faced by the innovators with a few case histories and provides some guidelines for avoiding many of the difficulties. One strong lesson is that engaging with the consumers, usually the general public, at an early stage is a very good idea. Another clear lesson is that different stakeholders react very differently to innovation, especially when it seems it might seriously disrupt existing businesses or traditional social structures. A must read for anyone who wishes to engage in such disruption themselves.”
Dr. Richard J. Roberts, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and Chief Scientific Officer, New England Biolabs, Massachusetts, USA
“This is a good read and an invaluable reference work for those working on new technologies, especially those needed to meet the grand challenges of the 21st century. Calestous Juma’s detailed analysis of how innovations have been accepted or resisted is complete and fascinating. Many view resistance to advances such as GM foods and mobile phones as a modern phenomenon related to recent advances in science. Calestous explains that innovations have in fact been resisted for centuries but goes on to explain how this resistance can, and has been, overcome.”
Lord Alec Broers, British House of Lords, Former Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University, and Former President of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering
“Calestous Juma’s Innovations and Its Enemies is a great read that uniquely outlines the history of society resisting new technologies and innovative ideas that caused social and economic distribution. We have dwindling resources on our planet and continue to do irrevocable harm to our climate. Add the ever growing population demanding the benefits of wealth including health and food excess and it is clear we are heading for disaster. Rapidly evolving scientific advances are labeled as disruptive because they might radically alter the production of food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, fuel, into much more sustainable processes which will clearly require social change. Appling new genomic science can shift medicine to a preventative life and cost saving enterprise and computer-based knowledge can lead to democratization but not without social disruptions. Juma discusses how laws, business and social institutions and scientific communication need to adapt as ‘the risk of doing nothing may outweigh the risks of innovating.'”
Dr. J. Craig Venter, President, J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, California
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Media coverage highlights
Coverage summary, click here
News release in full, click here
]]>Record installations for wind and solar PV in 2014; renewable energy targets created in 20 more countries, new total: 164
Renewable energy targets and other support policies now in place in 164 countries powered the growth of solar, wind and other green technologies to record-breaking energy generation capacity in 2014.
According to REN21’s latest Renewables Global Status Report, policymakers continued to focus on adapting existing policies to keep pace with rapidly changing costs and circumstances.
With 135 gigawatts added, total installed renewable energy power capacity worldwide, including large hydroelectric plants, stood at 1712 gigawatts, up 8.5% from the year before and double the 800 gigawatts of capacity reported in the first REN21 report in 2005.
In 2014, renewables made up an estimated 59% of net additions to global power capacity and represented far higher shares of capacity added in several countries around the world. By year’s end, renewables comprised an estimated 27.7% of the world’s power generating capacity. This was enough to supply an estimated 22.8% of global electricity demand.
The quantity of electricity available from renewables worldwide is now greater than that produced by all coal-burning plants in the USA (in 2013 coal supplied ~38% of US electricity, down from ~50% in the early 2000s).
Solar photovoltaic capacity has grown at the most phenomenal rate (up 68-fold, from 2.6 GW in 2004 to 177 GW in 2014), with strong growth also in wind power capacity (up almost 8-fold, from 48 GW in 2004 to 370 GW in 2014).
Heating accounted for about half of world energy consumption in 2014. Renewable energy supplied more than 25% of final energy use in the heating sector, of which over two-thirds was traditional biomass. Modern renewable energy supplied the remaining third, or about 8% of the world’s total final energy use for heat production.
All of which helped the world achieve a sustainable development milestone: In 2014, for the first time in four decades, the world economy grew without a parallel rise in carbon dioxide emissions. Despite the world’s annual 1.5% increase in energy consumption in recent years and 3% Gross Domestic Product growth last year, CO2 emissions were unchanged from 2013 levels: 32.3 billion metric tons.
According to the report, the landmark “decoupling” of economic and CO2 growth is due in large measure to China’s increased use of renewable resources, and efforts by countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to promote sustainable energy sources.
This is “particularly encouraging,” the report says, given the UN’s major conference in December in Paris, where countries will announce and / or confirm actions to mitigate climate change, setting the stage for future investment in renewables and energy efficiency. “Renewable energy and improved energy efficiency are key to limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius and avoiding dangerous climate change”, says REN21 Chair Arthouros Zervos, who released the new report at the Vienna Energy Forum.
Employment in the sector is growing fast as well. In 2014, an estimated 7.7 million people worldwide worked directly or indirectly in the renewable energy sector
The sector’s growth could even greater if not for government policies, including more than $550 billion in annual subsidies for fossil fuel and nuclear energy, which perpetuate artificially low energy prices from those sources, encouraging waste and impeding competition from renewables.
Says Christine Lins, Executive Secretary, REN21: “Creating a level playing field would strengthen the development and use of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. Removing fossil-fuel and hidden nuclear subsidies globally would make it evident that renewables are the cheapest energy option.”
More than one billion people, or 15% of humanity, still lack access to electricity. With installed capacity of roughly 147 GW, all of Africa has less power generation capacity than Germany. Distributed renewable energy technologies are improving the situation, providing essential and productive energy services in remote and rural areas. For example, off-grid solar PV (which attracted roughly US $64 billion in 2014) has a significant and growing market presence.
However, the growth rate is below that necessary to achieve the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) goals of doubling renewable energy and energy efficiency and providing universal access for all by 2030.
Available publicly from June 18 (at http://www.
Other report highlights
New investment in renewable power and fuels (not including hydropower >50 MW) increased worldwide by 17% over 2013, to US$ 270.2 billion. Including large-scale hydropower, new investment in renewable power and fuels reached over US$ 301 billion.
Global new investment in renewable power capacity was more than twice that of investment in net fossil fuel power capacity, continuing the trend of renewables outpacing fossil fuels in net investment for the fifth year running.
Investment in developing countries was up 36% from the previous year to US$ 131.3 billion. Developing country investment came the closest ever to surpassing the investment total for developed economies, which reached US$ 138.9 billion in 2014, up only 3% from 2013.
China accounted for 63% of developing country investment, while Chile, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey each invested more than US$ 1 billion in renewable energy.
By dollars spent, the leading countries for investment were China, the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany. Leading countries for investments relative to per capita GDP were Burundi, Kenya, Honduras, Jordan, and Uruguay.
- Wind: The growth of energy generated with wind turbines resumed in 2014, which marked another record year.
Over 51 GW of wind capacity was added, representing a 44% increase over 2013 and raising the world total to around 370 GW. China alone accounted for 45% of global additions. Asia remained the largest market for the seventh consecutive year, and overtook Europe in total capacity. However, Europe saw its second highest installations ever, largely thanks to Germany. The United States was the leading country for wind power generation.
Wind power met more than 20% of electricity demand in several countries–including Denmark, Nicaragua, Portugal, and Spain. An estimated 1.7 GW of grid-connected capacity was added offshore– all in the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, and China — bringing the world total to more than 8.5 GW.
- Solar PV: Rapidly falling costs have made unsubsidized solar-generated electricity more cost-competitive, fuelling the record-breaking 40 GW added capacity installed in 2014, raising total global capacity to 177 GW. The top three PV markets, China, Japan, and the United States, accounted for the vast majority of new capacity. Latin America is the fastest growing regional market. Significant new capacity also came online in several African countries, and markets are picking up in the Middle East. Consolidation among solar technology manufacturers continued, although the flood of bankruptcies seen over the past few years slowed to a trickle.
- Hydropower: An estimated 37 GW of new hydropower capacity was commissioned in 2014, raising the global total to approximately 1,055 GW. By far, the most new capacity was installed in China (22 GW), with significant capacity also added in Brazil, Canada, Turkey, India, and Russia.
- Concentrated Solar Thermal Power: CSP continued a near decade-long run of strong growth in 2014, with total global capacity up 27% to 4.4 GW. Only the United States and India added CSP facilities to their grids in 2014. However, CSP activity continued in most regions, with South Africa and Morocco as the most active markets in terms of construction and planning. Spain remained the global leader in terms of existing capacity. Spain added no new capacity in 2014 due to regulatory curtailment of the Spanish CSP industry, but remained the global leader in terms of existing capacity (2.3 GW).
- Bioenergy: Bio-heat capacity increased by an estimated 3% in 2014. Composition of bio-heat portfolios continued to vary widely by region, ranging from large-scale production in industry (e.g., in the United States) to vast numbers of residential-scale bio-digesters (e.g., in China). Global bio-power production increased approximately 9%, with China, Brazil and Japan leading for capacity additions, and the United States and Germany leading for generation (despite comparatively smaller capacity additions).
Liquid biofuel production was up 9% in 2014, reaching its highest level to date. Although the United States and Brazil dominated overall volume, Asia experienced particularly high growth rates of production. Biofuels production also increased in Europe, although growth was slowed by the decision to limiting the contribution of first generation biofuels to EU national targets. Low oil prices in the second half of the year positively affected some feedstock production, but reduced turnover for some bioenergy businesses.
Trade patterns in both solid and liquid fuels saw some shifts in 2014, with a considerable share of North American wood pellets flowing to Asia, reducing the domination of flows to European markets. The share of traded biofuels destined for Europe continued to decline, while new markets (particularly for fuel ethanol) expanded in other regions.
- Solar Thermal Heating and Cooling: Deployment of solar thermal technologies continued to slow, due largely to declining markets in Europe and China. Cumulative capacity of water collectors reached an estimated 406 GWth by the end of 2014 (with air collectors adding another 2 GWth), providing approximately 341 TWh of heat annually. China again accounted for about 80% of the world market for solar water collectors, followed by Turkey, Brazil, India and Germany.
- Geothermal: About 640 MW of new geothermal power generating capacity came online in 2014 bringing total global capacity close to 12.8 GW. Total capacity growth has averaged 3.6% for the last five years. The largest share of new geothermal power capacity came on line in Kenya.
- Ocean Energy: Harnessing mostly tidal but also some wave energy, generation remained at about 530 MW in 2014. Virtually all new installations were in some form of pilot or demonstration projects.
- Energy efficiency: Overall, energy intensity has decreased in most regions, with the exception of the Middle East. In a growing number of countries, policies have been enacted to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, appliances, industry and transport vehicles, including fuel economy standards, incentives for electric (EV) and hybrid (HEV) vehicles, and public transit.
- A trend towards meeting transportation and heating needs with electricity continued in 2014.
Recommendations, in brief
- Develop stable and predictable policies that can adapt to a changing environment
- Showcase and communicate renewables ability to provide industrial-scale electricity supply
- Create a level playing field to increase cost-competiveness beyond PV and wind
- Renewable power: energy system thinking is required
- Increase support to the renewable heating and cooling sector
- Improve access to finance in developing countries
- Drive good decisions with good data
###
About the REN21 Renewables Global Status Report
Available publicly from June 18 (at: http://www.
* * * * *
Example coverage:
The Associated Press, via Washington Post, “Record year for renewable power; heat, transport stay fossil,” click here
New Scientist, UK, “CO2 emissions stall thanks to China’s passion for renewables,” click here
Business Green, UK, “Global green energy surge ‘decoupling’ economic growth from emissions,” click here; “REN21 global green energy report – at a glance,” click here
Agencia EFE, Spain, “Los subsidios al petróleo limitan el auge de energía renovables, según REN21,” click here
Coverage summary: click here
News release in full, click here
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The Gordon Foundation, Toronto
22 April, 2015
10,000 people in 8 nations with Arctic territory surveyed;
Results released on eve of Arctic Council meeting in Nunavut;
Secretary of State John Kerry scheduled to participate as US succeeds Canada into Arctic Council chair
Differing levels of trust, geopolitical tension, and a general lack of public awareness of Arctic issues provide the backdrop for this week’s meeting of high level representatives of the eight Arctic states in Iqaluit, Nunavut.
A survey of 10,000 respondents in countries with Arctic territory reveals major differences of opinion on issues ranging from Arctic co-operation with Russia to the threat of military conflict north of the 60th parallel, to whether the Northwest Passage is a Canadian or international waterway.
It also shows that the Arctic Council, a forum for the eight nations to manage mutual Arctic concerns and interests, is only vaguely known, if at all, among citizens in the countries surveyed. Governments, on the other hand -including non-Arctic states-and other stakeholders, are according the Council increasing political priority given the North’s vast natural resources, centrality to global climate change, and potential as a far shorter route for shipping goods between the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Such is the importance of the Council to the United States, for example, that Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to attend meetings in Iqaluit, capital of Canada’s Nunavut Territory, on April 24, 2015. During these meetings, the U.S. will accept from Canada the Council chair for a two-year term.
Commissioned by the Munk-Gordon Arctic Security Program based in Canada and the Institute of the North in Alaska, and conducted by EKOS Research Associates, the polling uses many of the same questions used in their 2010 survey, revealing how public opinion has changed over the last five years.
Citizens acknowledge in this survey the reality of rising geopolitical tensions and their implications for the Arctic. While they include a strengthened military as one response, the favoured option is diplomatic and co-operative approaches. This is evident in a specific question on how best to deal with Russia and in general, support for the “softer” approaches of negotiation and co-operation are endorsed particularly in the Nordic countries.
It also sheds light on divides between Canadians living in Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut and their northern American neighbours in Alaska. It highlights the differences between the northern and southern citizens of Canada and the U.S.
Tables of the complete survey are available online at http://bit.
Among highlights:
- Conflict threat: Majorities in Russia (50%), Iceland (58%) and Finland (51%) believe the threat of military conflict in the Arctic has increased in the past year, a view shared by significant proportions of citizens of other countries with Arctic territory: the U.S. (South 24%, Alaska 34%), Canada (South 36%, North 30%), Norway (35%), Sweden (33%) and Denmark (29%).
- Co-operation with Russia: Only 5% of Russians believe that their country should withdraw from international co-operation in the Arctic. This view is supported in most of the Arctic Council nations where only minorities are supportive of excluding Russia from co-operative Arctic forums: Canada South (38%), Canada North (36%), Alaska (37%), U.S. South (32%), Denmark (31%), Finland (22%), Norway (19%). Sweden and Iceland (44% and 43%, respectively) were most likely to agree that Russia should “withdraw from international co-operation arrangements like the Arctic Council in light of recent developments in Ukraine.”
- Strengthening military in the North: Support has dipped in Canada for strengthening the nation’s military presence in the North “to protect against international threats.” Agreed in Canada North (45%) and Canada South (49%, down from 60%). Alaska (52%) and U.S. South (45%).
- Protecting northern interests: Given the statement: “The best way to protect Canada’s/America’s interests in the Arctic is to have Canadians/Americans living there,” as in 2010 a majority agreed in both Canada North (78%) and South (69%). In Alaska, 51% agreed, as did 48% of those in the U.S. South.
- Approach to border disputes: Despite real concern about security tensions in the Arctic, it is remarkable that when dealing with dispute resolution, support for a “firm line” is only endorsed by a minority of respondents in all countries and that support for the harder approach has gone down – not up – over the past five years. Even in Russia where 43% support a firm line, 28% support negotiations. In all other countries surveyed there was more support for negotiation than pursuing a firm line: Canada North (47%), Canada South (41%), Alaska (39%), U.S. South (34%), Denmark (31%), Finland (28%), Iceland (29%), Norway (32%) and Sweden (28%).
- Northwest Passage: A vast majority (71%) in Canada North say the Northwest Passage is within Canadian waters, a view shared by a plurality in Canada South (45%). Just 22% of Alaskans and 14% of other Americans, however, and very small minorities in Norway (11%), Sweden (9%), Russia (8%), Finland (7%), Iceland (6%) and Denmark (6%) express that view.In Russia, a majority (51%) consider the Northwest Passage an international waterway, a view widely shared in Alaska (41%) and Denmark (40%). Elsewhere: Finland (35%), Norway (34%), U.S. South (33%), Sweden (30%), Iceland (28%), Canada North (15%) and Canada South (9%).
- Arctic Council awareness: Awareness of the Arctic Council is strongest in Iceland (49% recall it clearly), followed by Canada North (32%), Denmark (28%), Alaska (15%), U.S. South (12%), Russia (12%), Norway (12%), Sweden (11%), Canada South (8%) and Finland (8%).
- Arctic Council, indigenous representation: Among northerners of the U.S. and Canada, awareness of the Council’s inclusion of indigenous representation is substantial: Nunavut (52%), Northwest Territories and Yukon (44%), and Alaska (41%).
- Arctic Council, awareness of Canadian chair: Among Canadians, awareness that Canada has been the chair of the Arctic Council is strongest in Nunavut (45%), followed by the NWT (41%), Yukon (35%) and Canada South (10%).
- Arctic Council, military mandate: Respondents were largely in favour of the Arctic Council mandate being expanded to include military security, though the proportion holding that view is declining in many places. A majority of respondents in Russia agreed (79%, largely unchanged from 2010), Finland (71%, up from 39% in 2010), Denmark (63%, up from 48% in 2010), Canada North (57%, largely unchanged from 2010), Canada South (55%, down from 62% in 2010), Alaska (56%) and Sweden (53%, possibly down from 61% in 2010). Elsewhere, that is the view of substantial minorities in Iceland (44%, unchanged from 2010), and Norway (46%, largely unchanged from 2010), while the U.S. South was evenly divided (50%).
- Arctic Council, non-Arctic states: Asked if countries without far northern territory should “have a say in Arctic affairs,” only in Finland did a majority of respondents agree (63%). Those who agreed elsewhere: Alaska (49%), Sweden (47%), Russia (46%), Iceland (42%), Canada North (32%), Denmark (31%), Norway (31%), the U.S. South (29%) and Canada South (26%).
- Nuclear weapons-free: Except in Alaska, large majorities of people say the U.S. and Russia should remove their nuclear weapons and the Arctic designated a nuclear weapons-free zone like Antarctica. Results: Sweden (90%), Finland and Iceland (88%), Norway and Denmark (83%), Canada South (81%), Canada North (79%), Russia (68%), U.S. South (67%), Alaska (46%).
Says Nils Andreassen, Executive Director, Institute of the North: “We need this polling data to know where we can make a difference and improve awareness of issues, address concerns, and develop a more sophisticated and substantive outreach and public education campaign around the Arctic Council and the issues with which it deals.”
“During the U.S. Chairmanship of the Arctic Council, we can leverage that leadership role into real gains for Alaskans and people across the North,” says Andreassen.
Adds Arctic issues expert Sara French, Senior Policy Analyst at The Gordon Foundation: “This is a one of a kind study that allows us to understand more clearly public attitudes on a wide variety of Arctic issues in order to help decision makers make more informed public policy choices that are reflective of the views of Canadians and Americans who call the Arctic home.”
###
Our mission is to promote innovative public policies for the North and in fresh water management based on our values of independent thought, protecting the environment, and full participation of indigenous people in the decisions that affect their well-being.
Our mission is vital to Alaska’s role as a key stakeholder in policy affecting the Arctic. We stand at a pivotal place where ideas and connections matter -across the state and on a global scale.
Munk-Gordon Arctic Security Program
A partnership between the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, and The Gordon Foundation, the Munk-Gordon Arctic Security Program is dedicated to studying and promoting four overarching areas of concern: Emergency Preparedness in the Arctic; Arctic peoples and security; The Arctic Council; Public opinion in and about the North. The Munk-Gordon Arctic Security Program undertakes original research and hosts interactive gatherings to achieve its vision.
* * * * *
News release in full, click here
Example coverage, by
Reuters (via Daily Mail, UK), “Arctic nations want cooperation with Russia, despite Ukraine-poll,” click here; via Yahoo! News Canada, click here
Agencia EFE, Spain, “Aumenta entre habitantes del Ártico sensación de amenaza de conflicto bélico,” click here
Talk Radio News Service, USA, “Arctic Council Populations Want Nuclear Weapon-Free Region,” click here
Nunatsiaq News, Canada, “International poll finds Arctic Council poorly known even in northern Canada,” click here
Forskning, Norway, “Klart ja til arktisk samarbeid med Russland,” click here
Baltic News Service, click here
Coverage summary in full, click here
]]>
United Nations University, Bonn
19 April 2015
End-of-life electronic, electrical equipment totals 41.8 million metric tonnes in 2014
E-waste last year contained $52 billion in resources, large volumes of toxic material; most is not collected for recovery or treatment
New report details e-waste generation by region
Bonn — In 2014, people worldwide discarded all but a small fraction of an estimated 41.8 million metric tonnes (Mt) of electrical and electronic products – mostly end-of-life kitchen, laundry and bathroom equipment like microwave ovens, washing machines and dishwashers.
And the volume of e-waste is expected to rise by 21% to 50 million Mt in 2018.
The new figures were released today in the Global E-Waste Monitor 2014, compiled by the United Nations University (UNU), the UN’s think tank. The report offers in unprecedented detail a wealth of insights into the location and composition of the world’s fast-growing e-waste problem.
Just 7% of e-waste last year was made up of mobile phones, calculators, personal computers, printers, and small information technology equipment.
Almost 60% was a mix of large and small equipment used in homes and businesses, consisting of:
- 12.8 Mt of small equipment (vacuum cleaners, microwaves, toasters, electric shavers, video cameras, etc.)
- 11.8 Mt of large equipment (washing machines, clothes dryers, dishwashers, electric stoves, photovoltaic panels, etc.)
- 7.0 Mt of cooling and freezing equipment (temperature exchange equipment).
- 6.3 Mt of screens
- 3.0 Mt of small IT (mobile phones, pocket calculators, personal computers, printers, etc.)
- 1.0 Mt of lamps
The 41.8 million Mt weight of last year’s e-waste is comparable to that of 1.15 million 40-ton 18-wheel trucks, enough to form a line of trucks 23,000 kilometres long, or the distance from New York to Tokyo and back.
Less than one-sixth of last year’s e-waste is thought to have been diverted to proper recycling, reuse and treatment.
The e-waste generated in 2014 contained an estimated 16,500 kilotons of iron, 1,900 kilotons of copper, 300 tonnes of gold (equal to 11% of the world’s total 2013 gold production), as well as silver, aluminum, palladium plastic and other resources with a combined estimated value of US $52 billion (48 billion Euro).
Toxins in that e-waste, meanwhile, include 2.2 Mt of lead glass-more than six times the weight of the Empire State Building -0.3 Mt of batteries, as well as mercury, cadmium, chromium and 4,400 tonnes of ozone-depleting substances (CFCs). Health problems associated with such toxins include impaired mental development, cancer, and damage to livers and kidneys.
And while the USA and China produce the most e-waste overall (32% of the world’s total), the top per capita producers by far are the wealthy nations of northern and western Europe, the top five being Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, and the UK.
The escalating global e-waste problem is driven by the rising sales and shortening life cycles of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE -essentially, any device with a battery or an electric cord).
“Worldwide, e-waste constitutes a valuable ‘urban mine’ – a large potential reservoir of recyclable materials. At the same time, the hazardous content of e-waste constitutes a ‘toxic mine’ that must be managed with extreme care,” says UN Under-Secretary-General David Malone, Rector of UNU.
“The monitor provides a baseline for national policymakers, producers and the recycling industry, to plan take-back systems. It can also facilitate cooperation around controlling illegal trade, supporting necessary technology development and transfer, and assisting international organizations, governments and research institutes in their efforts as they develop appropriate countermeasures. This will eventually lead to improved resource efficiency while reducing the environmental and health impacts of e-waste.”
Says co-author Kees Baldé of United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) SCYCLE in Bonn (Germany): “This report, based on empirical data, provides an unprecedented level of detail and a more accurate overview of the magnitude of the e-waste problem in world different regions than has ever been reported previously.”
Selected highlights:
- In 2014, approximately 4 billion people were covered by national e-waste legislation (though not all laws cover the full range of e-waste and are not all enforced).
- Around 6.5 Mt of e-waste was reported as formally treated by national take-back systems
- Most world e-waste in 2014 was generated in Asia: 16 Mt (3.7 kg per inhabitant)
- The highest per inhabitant e-waste quantity (15.6 kg/inh.) was generated in Europe; the region (including Russia) generated 11.6 Mt
- The lowest quantity of e-waste was generated in Oceania (0.6 Mt), however, per inhabitant the e-waste generated was nearly as high as Europe’s (15.2 kg/inh.)
- The lowest amount of e-waste per inhabitant was generated in Africa (1.7 kg/inh). The continent generated 1.9 Mt of e-waste in total.
- The Americas generated 11.7 Mt of e-waste (7.9 Mt in North America, 1.1 Mt in Central America, 2.7 Mt in South America), or an average of 12.2 kg/inh
- Growth of e-waste by volume since 2010, with projections to 2018
Top 40 e-waste producing nations, per capita (kg per individual)
Top 40 e-waste producing nations, by volume (kilotonnes)
(please see annex 1, page 62: http://bit.ly/1an7E08)
* * * * *
United Nations University
UNU is an autonomous organ of the UN General Assembly dedicated to generating and transferring knowledge and strengthening capacities relevant to global issues of human security, development, and welfare. The University operates through a worldwide network of research and training centres and programmes, coordinated by UNU Centre in Tokyo.
UNU’s Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) is a leading research and teaching institute based in Tokyo. Its mission is to advance efforts towards a more sustainable future, through policy-oriented research and capacity development focused on sustainability and its social, economic and environmental dimensions. UNU-IAS serves the international community, making valuable and innovative contributions to high-level policymaking and debates within the UN system.
Sustainable Cycles (SCYCLE) is an operating unit of UNU-IAS based in Bonn, Germany. Its activities are focused on the development of sustainable production, consumption and disposal patterns for electrical and electronic equipment, as well as other ubiquitous goods. SCYCLE leads the global e-waste discussion and advances sustainable e-waste management strategies based on life-cycle thinking. SCYCLE fosters a solutions-oriented dialogue, cooperation and consensus through e.g. hosting the Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP) Initiative, a global network of more than 65 member organizations committed to developing applicable, holistic, science-based recommendations concerning the growing e-waste problem.
* * * * *
Example coverage by
Agence France Presse, “Mountain of electrical waste reaches new peak,”click here; French, “Record de déchets électriques et électroniques dans le monde en 2014,” click here; Spanish, “Récord de residuos eléctricos y electrónicos en el mundo en 2014,” click here; German, “Weltweit produzierter Elektroschrott erreicht Rekordmenge,” click here; Chinese, “回收還不夠 全球電子垃圾量創新高,” click here
Reuters, UK, “U.S., China top dumping of electronic waste; little recycled,” click here; Czech, “Nejvíc elektroodpadu na obyvatele má Norsko Zdroj” click here; Croatian, “SAD i Kina vodeći proizvođači elektroničkog otpada” click here; Indonesian, “AS, China paling banyak buang sampah elektronik,” click here
BBC Online, UK, “Microwaves and dishwashers dominate e-waste mountain,” click here; Spanish, “¿Cuáles son los países de América Latina que más basura electrónica producen?,” click here; Turkish, “Elektronik çöp dağları geri dönüştürülemiyor,” click here
CBS News, USA, “United States, China are biggest producers of e-waste,” click here
Forbes, USA, “Which Country Is On Top Of The World’s Electronic Waste Mountain? [Infographic],” click here
The Weather Network, USA, “Report names U.S. and China as worst e-waste culprits,” click here
Gizmodo, USA, “Humans Threw Out 92 Billion Pounds of Electronics Last Year,” click here
Salon, USA. “The planet’s e-waste problem is out of control — and getting worse,” click here
Voice of America, USA “UN: Record Amount of E-Waste Generated,” click here; Indonesian, “PBB: Limbah Elektronik Tahun 2014 Memecahkan Rekor,” click here; Chinese: “聯合國：全球電子垃圾量去年創紀錄,” click here; Vietnamese, “LHQ: Rác thải điện tử tăng cao kỷ lục,” click here
United Press International, USA, “Worldwide electronic waste worth $52 billion; 60 percent household appliances,” click here
UK Press Association, “Warning as ‘e-waste’ levels rise,” click here
The Independent, UK, “Electronic waste worth £34bn piling up in ‘toxic mine’, warns UN report,” click here
Agencia EFE, Spain, “La basura electrónica aumentó en todo el mundo a 41,8 millones de toneladas,” click here
Sing Tao, “美中去年製造最多電子垃圾” click here
China Daily, China, “印度已成世界第五大电子垃圾生产国,” click here
Sina Daily, China, “去年电子垃圾再创新高 美、中最多,” click here
Yonhap news, Korea, “‘금·은·철’ 포함 전자폐기물 16%만 재활용,” click here
Press Trust of India (PTI), “India 5th biggest generator of e-waste in 2014: UN report,” click here; Hindi: “भारत ई-कचरा पैदा करने वाला 5वां सबसे बड़ा देश: संयुक्त राष्ट्र,” click here
O Globo, Brazil, “Maior parte das 41,8 milhões de toneladas de e-lixo produzidas em 2014 é de eletrodomésticos,” click here
Norsk Telegrambyrå (NTB), Norway, “Nordmenn kaster mest elektronisk avfall i verden,” click here
Finska Notisbyrån (FNB), Finland, “FN: Det elektroniska sopberget växer,” click here
Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANP), Netherlands, “Huishoudelijke apparaten vormen enorme afvalberg, meer recyclen is nodig,” click here
Corriere Della Sera, Italy, “Nuovo record per i rifiuti elettronici: toccano i 42 milioni di tonnellate,” click here
Repubblica, Italy, “42 milioni di tonnellate di rifiuti elettronici,” click here
Informazione, Italy, “Nel 2014 record mondiale di rifiuti elettrici ed elettronici,” click here
Morgunblaðið, Iceland, “Íslendingar henda mikið af raftækjum,” click here
Namasthe Telangana Daily, Telugu language, India, “ఈ-వ్యర్థాల ఉత్పత్తిలో భారత్ ఐదో స్థానం,” click here
Thế Giới Tiếp Thị, Vietnam, “Rác điện tử chủ yếu từ nhà bếp,” click here
Bultan News, Persian, Iran, “تولید 42 میلیون تن زباله الکترونیکی در سال 2014,” click here
CBC, Canada, “Discarded metal UN calls ‘toxic mine’ worth some $52 billion US,” click here
Lenta, Russian, Russia, “В мире за год выбросили 300 тонн золота,” click here
STYK News, Ukrainian, Ukraine, “У світі за рік викинули 300 тонн золота,” click here
La Tribune, France, “Le poids des déchets électroniques à un niveau record en 2014,” click here
20 Minutes, France, “2014, année du record de déchets électriques et électroniques dans le monde,” click here
France TV Info, France, “Plus de 40 millions de tonnes de déchets électriques et électroniques jetés dans le monde en 2014,” click here
The Local, Denmark, “Denmark among top producers of e-waste,” click here
* * * * *
News release in full, click here
Global E-waste Monitor in full, click here
Coverage summary, with links to coverage in 29 languages, 75 countries, click here
]]>31-Mar-2015
Driven by Solar and Wind, World Investments Reverse 2-year Dip, Brush Aside Challenge from Sharply Lower Oil Price; 103gw Capacity Added in 2014 is Roughly that of all US Nuclear Plants
Frankfurt / New York, 31 March, 2015 — Global investments in renewable energy rebounded strongly last year, registering a solid 17% increase after two years of declines and brushing aside the challenge from sharply lower crude oil prices.
Major expansion of solar installations in China and Japan and record investments in offshore wind projects in Europe helped propel global 2014 investments to $270 billion, a 17% surge from the 2013 figure of $232 billion.
It was the first annual increase in dollars invested in and committed to renewables (excluding large hydro-electric projects) in three years, a total just 3% below the all-time record of $279 billion set in 2011. The falls in the investment figures for 2012 (to $256 billion) and 2013 (to $232 billion) were attributed in part to lower prices for renewable energy technologies due to economies of scale.
The 103Gw of generating capacity added around the world made 2014 the best year ever for newly installed capacity, according to the UNEP’s 9th annual “Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investments” report, prepared by the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
A continuing sharp decline in technology costs -particularly in solar but also in wind -means that every dollar invested in renewable energy bought significantly more generating capacity in 2014. The 103GW of capacity added by new renewable energy sources last year compares to 86GW in 2013, 89GW in 2012 and 81GW in 2011.
The 103GW of capacity added by renewables last year equals the energy generating capacity of all 158 nuclear power plant reactors in the USA.
Wind, solar, biomass and waste-to-power, geothermal, small hydro and marine power contributed an estimated 9.1% of world electricity generation in 2014, up from 8.5% in 2013. This meant that last year the world electricity system emitted 1.3 gigatonnes of CO2 -roughly twice the emissions of the world’s airline industry -less than it would have if that 9.1% had been produced by the same fossil-dominated mix generating the other 90.9% of world power.
“Once again in 2014, renewables made up nearly half of the net power capacity added worldwide”says Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNEP.
“These climate-friendly energy technologies are now an indispensable component of the global energy mix and their importance will only increase as markets mature, technology prices continue to fall and the need to rein in carbon emissions becomes ever more urgent.”
“The growing penetration of renewable generation in the world’s developing economies is one of the important and encouraging aspects of the 2014 report.”
China saw by far the biggest renewable energy investments last year -a record $83.3 billion, up 39% from 2013. The US was second at $38.3 billion, up 7% on the year (though this is below its all-time high reached in 2011). Third came Japan, at $35.7 billion, 10% higher than in 2013 and its biggest total ever.
As in previous years, the market in 2014 was dominated by record investments in solar and wind, which accounted for 92% of overall investment in renewable power and fuels. Investment in solar jumped 25% to $149.6 billion, the second highest figure ever, while wind investment increased 11% to a record $99.5 billion. In 2014, some 49GW of wind capacity and 46GW of solar PV capacity were added worldwide, both records.
The dominant feature of the solar sector was unprecedented expansion in China and Asia. Between them, the two Asian giants invested $74.9 billion in solar in 2014, around half the world’s total.
In China, utility-scale projects of more than 1MW made up about three-quarters of the solar investment of $40 billion, which was a 45% increase on the previous year. In Japan, on the other hand, investment was dominated by small scale projects of less than a megawatt, which accounted for 81% of a total solar investment of $34.8 billion, a 13% increase on 2013.
A boom in European offshore wind development resulted in seven $1 billion-plus projects reaching “final investment decision”stage in 2014. Among these, the $3.8 billion 600MW Gemini installation off the cost of the Netherlands was the largest non-hydro renewable energy plant to get the go-ahead anywhere in the world.
Offshore wind projects worth $18.6 billion were financed globally in 2014. This was 148% higher than the previous year and 45% higher than the next highest year, 2010. Most of this total -$16.2 billion -was in Europe with China accounting for the remaining $2.4 billion.
Other renewable energy sources did not perform so well by comparison. Biofuels fell 8% to $5.1 billion, biomass and waste-to-energy dropped 10% to $8.4 billion and small hydro was down 17% to $4.5 billion. Only geothermal bucked the trend with a 23% increase to $2.7 billion.
A salient feature of the 2014 result was the rapid expansion of renewables into new markets in developing countries, where investments jumped 36% to $131.3 billion. China with $83.3 billion, Brazil ($7.6 billion), India ($7.4 billion) and South Africa ($5.5 billion) were all in the top 10 investing countries, while more than $1 billion was invested in Indonesia, Chile, Mexico, Kenya and Turkey.
In contrast, the total renewables investment in developed economies rose only 3% to $138.9 billion. Even accounting for the booming offshore wind sector, investments in Europe hardly changed at $57.5 billion.
Despite turnaround, challenges remain
Although 2014 was a turnaround year for renewables after two years of shrinkage, multiple challenges remain in the form of policy uncertainty, structural issues in the electricity system -even in the very nature of wind and solar generation, with their dependence on breeze and sunlight.
Another challenge was, at first sight, the impact of the 50%-plus collapse in the oil price in the second half of last year. According to Udo Steffens, President of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, however, the oil price is only likely to dampen investor confidence in parts of the sector, such as solar in oil-exporting countries, and biofuels in most parts of the world.
“Oil and renewables do not directly compete for power investment dollars,”said Steffens. “Wind and solar sectors should be able to carry on flourishing, particularly if they continue to cut costs per MWh. Their long-term story is just more convincing.”
Of greater concern is the erosion of investor confidence caused by increasing uncertainty surrounding government support policies for renewables.
“Europe was the first mover in clean energy, but it is still in a process of restructuring those early support mechanisms,” notes Michael Liebreich, Chairman of the Advisory Board for Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “In the UK and Germany we are seeing a move away from feed-in tariffs and green certificates, towards reverse auctions and subsidy caps, aimed at capping the cost of the transition to consumers.
“Southern Europe is still almost a no-go area for investors because of retroactive policy changes, most recently those affecting solar farms in Italy. In the US there is uncertainty over the future of the Production Tax Credit for wind, but costs are now so low that the sector is more insulated than in the past. Meanwhile the rooftop solar sector is becoming unstoppable.”
There are also structural challenges in the electricity system as grids and utilities in many countries struggle to cope with the increasing penetration of wind and solar in the generation mix. Coping with 25% or more variable generation is more difficult for grids and utilities than managing a 5% proportion.
Governments have often struggled to produce policy measures that keep up with the advance of renewable power and its knock-on effect on the rest of the electricity system. ing
2014 was a year of eye-catching steps forward for renewable energy with investment rallying strongly. If these positive investment trends are to continue it is increasingly clear that major electricity market reforms will be needed of the sort that Germany is now attempting with its Energiewendeenergy transition. The structural challenges needing to be overcome are not simple ones, but are of the sort that have only arisen because of the very success of renewables and their over two trillion dollars of investment mobilized since 2004.
Over $2 trillion invested in renewables since 2004
The 2014 global investment of $270 billion in renewables followed investments of $232 billion (2013), $256 billion (2012), $279 billion (2011), $237 billion (2010), $178 billion (2009), $182 billion (2008), $154 billion (2007), $112 billion (2006), $73 billion (2005) and $45 billion (2004) – an 11-year total of $2.02 trillion (unadjusted for inflation).
Other highlights:
- Although asset finance of utility-scale renewable energy projects went up 10% to $170.7 billion, the increase for small-scale projects of less than 1MW was even bigger at 34%, to $73.5 billion. Recent sharp reductions in solar system costs are making rooftop solar a more competitive option for businesses and households looking to generate part of their own power needs. The US, Japan and China had the biggest increases in small-scale project investment.
- Among other investment categories, equity raising by renewable energy companies on public markets jumped 43% in 2014 to $15.1 billion, helped by the recovery in sector share prices between mid-2012 and March 2014, and by the popularity with investors of US “yieldcos” and their European equivalents, quoted project funds.
- Venture capital and private equity investment in renewable energy rallied to $2.8 billion last year, up 27% on 2013’s depressed figure, but still little more than a quarter of the record established in 2008. R&D spending on renewables edged up 2% to $11.7 billion, with corporate entities accounting for $6.6 billion and governments $5.1 billion.
- Although outside the scope of the UNEP report, large hydro-electric projects (more than 50MW) saw final investment decisions reached on an estimated 15-20GW of fresh capacity worldwide, equivalent to financial commitments of some $31 billion.
###
The report in full, click here
News release in full, click here; in Chinese, French, German and Spanish, click here
Examples of original coverage, by:
Washington Post, USA, Renewable energy is growing very, very fast. It’s just still not fast enough, click here
Los Angeles Times, USA, Renewable energy investment heats up worldwide, click here
US News and World Report, Solar, Wind Investment Surge, Reversing 2-Year Decline, click here
Bloomberg, USA, Investors Spent a Record $2 Trillion on Renewables, Report Says, click here
DPA, Germany / via AFX newswire, USA, Green Energy Spending Soars Despite Cheap Oil, click here
BBC Online, UK, UN: New renewables broke through 100GW barrier in 2014, click here
New Scientist, UK, Asian solar spending helps drive renewable energy boom, click here
Reuters, UK, Global green energy investment climbs after two-year decline, click here; French: Les investissements dans les énergies vertes repartent à la hausse, click here
Agence France Presse, France, French, Energies renouvelables: l’ONU confirme la reprise des investissements en 2014, click here
El Pais, Spain, La inversión en renovables crece pese al desplome del petróleo, click here
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Canada, Renewable energy investment rose 17% worldwide in 2014, click here
Globe and Mail, Canada, Investments in renewable energy climb 17% in 2014: report, click here
Business Green, UK, Global clean energy investment soars 17 per cent in 2014, click here
Triple Pundit, UK, ‘Eye-Catching’ Gains in Renewable Energy Investment, click here
InterPress News Service, Italy, A “Year of Eye-Catching Steps Forward” for Renewable Energy, click here
Coverage summary in full click here
]]>12-Mar-15
World registry, nearing completion, confirms 228,450 known marine species; consolidation relegates 190,400 other “species” as duplicate identities
Champion of taxonomic redundancy: “Rough Periwinkle” sea snail had 113 scientific names
Over 1,000 new-to-science marine fish species have been described since 2008 – an average of more than 10 per month – according to scientists completing a consolidated inventory of all known ocean life.
Among fish species newly-described worldwide are 122 new sharks and rays, 131 new members of the goby family, and a new barracuda found in the Mediterranean.
All are contained in the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), a landmark international effort to unite all existing knowledge of sea life.
In the past eight years, the effort has identified as redundant aliases almost half the names assigned over two and a half centuries to ocean dwelling creatures.
Merging scores of global databases, the more than 200 editors of WoRMS found almost 419,000 species names in literature worldwide, of which 190,400 (45%) were deemed duplicate identities. One species of sea snail alone had 113 different names (see elaboration below).
WoRMS editors have contracted to 228,450 the number of species currently known to science. About 195,000 (86%) of them are sea animals, including just over 18,000 species of fish described since the mid-1700s, more than 1,800 sea stars, 816 squids, 93 whales and dolphins and 8,900 clams and other bivalves. The rest are species of kelp, seaweeds and other plants, bacteria, viruses, fungi and single cell organisms.
Based at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) in Belgium, WoRMS is a collaborative scientific triumph, constituting a single, authoritative reference list of all marine species described since the pioneering work of Carl Linnaeus.
In 2014 alone, some 1,451 new-to-science marine creatures were added to WoRMS – an average of four per day.
“Though a few relatively minor gaps remain, we consider the register now virtually complete with respect to species described throughout scientific history,” says WoRMS co-chair Jan Mees, Chair of the European Marine Board and Director of VLIZ. “And, of course, we are constantly updating with newly-described species, revisions of taxonomy, and adding occasional species that have been overlooked.”
Dr. Mees adds that an estimated 10,000 or more new-to-science species are in laboratory jars around the world today waiting to be described.
Amazingly, says WoRMS fish specialist Nicolas Bailly of the Hellenic Center for Marine Research, new species of relatively large animals are still regularly discovered and described.
Added just last month, for example: A new species of sea dragon, the ruby red Phyllopteryx dewysea(link is external) from southern Australia, distinguished via DNA analysis from two other sea dragon species.
The Gobiidae family of goby fish boasts the most new species added since 2008 with 131, followed by the Liparidaefamily of snailfish with 52.
Other new fish curiosities since 2008 include:
- Sphyraena intermedia: A new third species of barracuda found in the Mediterranean
- Protanguillidae: A new basal eel-like family discovered in Palau (species: Protanguilla palau)
- Histiophryne psychedelica: An Indonesian frogfish with “psychedelic” colouring
- Chlamydoselachus africana: A particularly homely (http://bit.ly/1EAkUL8) frilled shark species in African waters genetically split from the wide-ranging Chlamydoselachus anguineus
- Salmo kottelati: A new species of trout found in Turkey
New to science ocean species in 2014 include two dolphins, 139 sponges
Other forms of ocean life described in 2014 include two dolphins and 139 new-to-science sponges.
Some previously-discovered sponges have yielded valuable cancer-fighting agents. Studies foresee more than 200 oncology drugs derived from marine life compounds passing clinical trials – pharmaceuticals with an estimated value of at least US$560 billion.
The two new-to-science dolphins:
- Sousa sahulensis: Australian humpback dolphin
- Inia araguaiaensis: a long-snouted river dolphin from Brazil, a rare river mammal included in the WoRMS marine species database as an exception
Scientists last year also described 12 new marine life families and 141 new genera (family and genus ranking higher than species on the eight-rung ladder of life’s scientific classification).
A new genus of animal (Dendrogramma, with two associated species (Dendrogramma enigmatica and Dengrogramma discoides) does not readily fit into an existing phylum – the top classification in the animal kingdom. Further research will resolve the issue but could lead to the historic addition of a new life classification.
Other curiosities among the class of 2014:
- Areospora rohanae: A new genus and species of parasite, first noticed by Chilean fisheries workers, that invades and causes lesions on the valuable King Crab. The taxonomist dubbed the little critter after his daughter.
- Keesingia gigas: A new genus and species of giant jellyfish – venomous and tentacle-free – named in honour of renowned Australian biologist John Keesing
- Litarachna lopezae: A species of mite collected in the waters of Puerto Rico and named for entertainer Jennifer Lopez, who likewise hails from that US territory
- Mysidopsis zsilaveczi: (high-res photos, credit Guido Zsilavecz): A ‘star-gazing’ shrimp in South Africa, so-called because its eyes are fixed in an upward direction
- Phoronis emigi: The first new horseshoe worm discovered in over 60 years, named in honour of distinguished French marine scientist, Christian C. Emig
- Nitzschia bizertensis: An alga causing harmful blooms of Domoic acid, the neurotoxin that causes amnesic shellfish poisoning
- Sierradiadema kristini: A new species of sea urchin identified from a fossil specimen
The champion of taxonomic redundancy: Littorina saxatilis
After consolidating all marine life databases, WoRMS experts have crowned a new champion of taxonomic redundancy: Littorina saxatilis (popularly known in English as the Rough Periwinkle; photos, credit Antonio França), a sea snail with a shell that ironically resembles the Horn of Plenty. It has been assigned 113 names in all.
The taxonomist who finds and describes a new species earns the right to name it. And in 1792 young scientist Giuseppe Olivi first described and named Littorina saxatilis in a catalog of animals in the waters around Venice.
Subsequently, other taxonomists worldwide have reclassified the species, misspelled, or discovered a variety and mistakenly described it as a new species, leaving it with a cornucopia of Latin identities (all listed here, with links to maps of its location and other information).
In all instances of a species found to have a superfluous description and name, WoRMS accords precedence to the oldest work (though to aid research all synonyms are noted).
Daunting challenges remain
Formal scientific taxonomic description involves a slow, exacting process recently accelerated by DNA identification techniques and other new technologies.
And there’s a daunting challenge ahead: Researchers with the Census of Marine Life of 2000-2010 (within which WoRMS was a major component) estimate that between 500,000 and 2 million marine species remain to be discovered and described.
Even at today’s rate of roughly four per day, describing every marine inhabitant thought to exist would take at least 360 more years.
“Indeed, it is humbling to realize that humankind has encountered and described only a fraction of our oceanic kin, perhaps as little as 11%,” says Dr. Mees, who underscores that the remarkable pace of discovery and species description does not imply a growing abundance of marine life.
“Sadly, we fear, many species will almost certainly disappear due to changing maritime conditions – especially warming, pollution and acidification – before we’ve had a chance to meet.”
The bulk of new fish species descriptions are based on recent discoveries, studies of museum collection specimens, and reassessments of species with wide range distribution, says Dr. Bailly.
For example, many new marine fish descriptions come from a reassessment of species ranging both in Red Sea and Indian Ocean, with a recent tendency to separate the Red Sea populations as new species.
Coral reefs still provide 30% of new marine fish species described (mostly Gobiidae and other small size families); another 30% are from the deep sea. Very few are described from the pelagic zone in the middle of oceans between surface and 200 meters depth.
Says WoRMS chair Geoff Boxshall of the Natural History Museum, London: “I am very proud of what WoRMS has achieved. It represents the collective effort of well over 200 editors distributed around the world and it is now a truly global resource. The inspirational support we have had from our hosts at VLIZ has been vital to our success, as has the continuing financial support from the European Union via a succession of projects (e.g. LifeWatch), but I especially want to pay tribute to the taxonomic specialists – without their expertise and their commitment, WoRMS wouldn’t exist.”
WoRMS also includes a rapidly-expanding collection of 50,000 images – a nine-fold increase from 2008 – along with hyperlinks to original taxonomic literature and other information.
WoRMS forms an important backbone in LifeWatch, the E-Science European Infrastructure for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, which aims to standardize and consolidate species data from different component databases.
Thanks to the financial support of LifeWatch, WoRMS has since 2012 filled many previously identified gaps and can continue to grow at its current pace.
* * * * *
World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) (most recent statistics available on www.lifewatch.be/en/worms-stats)
Statistics:
- 228,445 accepted species
- 418,848 species names, including synonyms
- 50,000 images
Of the “accepted species”:
- 195,000 (86%) are in the taxonomic kingdom animalia
- 20,300 (9%) are in the kingdom chromista (e.g. algae)
- 8,800 (4%) are in the kingdom plantae
- 1,700 (<1%) are in the kingdom bacteria
- 1,360 are in the kingdom fungi
- 623 are in the kingdom protozoa (a diverse group of mostly unicellular organisms)
- 120 are in the kingdom archaea (single cell microbes)
- 111 are in the kingdom of viruses
*******
News release in full: click here
Nederlands / DutchCoverage summary, click here
Example coverage:
* BBC, UK, WoRMS catalogue downsizes ocean life, click here
* The Guardian, UK, Seaside snail most misidentified creature in the world, click here
* Reuters, UK
In English, Oceans yield 1,500 new creatures, many others lurk unknown, click here
In German, Volkszählung der Ozeane: Forscher entdecken 1451 unbekannte Spezies im Meer, click here
In French, Près de 1.500 nouvelles créatures identifiées dans les océans, click here
In Chinese, 全球海洋特搜 發現1451個新物種, click here
In Indonesian, 1500 Makhluk Baru di Lautan Dunia Tercatat oleh Ilmuwan, click here
In Norwegian, Oppdaget 1500 nye arter i havet, click here
In Polish, Odkryto 1500 nowych gatunków, click here
* Washington Post, USA Nearly 200,000 ‘new’ marine species turn out to be duplicates, click here
* UK Press Association, 1,000 unknown sea fish identified, click here
* Nature, UK, Dolphins, diatoms and sea dragons join census of all known marine life, click here
* Daily Mail, UK, From a frilled shark to the frogfish, we’re finding four new sea creatures every day: Scientists uncover 1,451 new species in the ocean in the past year alone, click here
* Belga newswire, Belgium, Dutch, Voorbije acht jaar meer dan duizend nieuwe zeevissoorten ontdekt, click here
* Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANP newswire), Netherlands, Dutch, Ruim duizend nieuwe zeevissoorten ontdekt, click here
* Agencia EFE newswire, Spain, Spanish, Científicos reducen a casi 230 mil el número de especies marinas reconocidas, click here
* Europa Press newswire, Spain, Spanish, El 45 % de las especies marinas estaba duplicado, click here
* ABC Radio News, Australia, Marine census: plenty of fish in the sea, click here
* Australian Associated Press, More than 1000 unknown fish identified, click here
* SingPao, China, Chinese, 海洋再發現千五種新生物, click here
* Iltalehti, Finland, Finnish, Merestä löytyi viime vuonna liki 1 500 uutta lajia, click here
* Irish Examiner, Ireland, We have discovered more than 1,000 new fish species in the last 8 years, click here
* CIHAN newswire, Turkey, Turkish, Okyanuslarda Bi̇r Yilda 1500 Yeni̇ Canli Türü Keşfedi̇ldi̇, click here
* Vietnam News Agency, Vietmamese, Phát hiện thêm hàng nghìn sinh vật biển mới trong năm 2014, click here
* Belgien/TT-Reuters newswire, Sweden, Swedish, Haven är fulla av oupptäckta arter, click here
* Philenews, Cyprus, Greek, H απογραφή της θαλάσσιας ζωής δεν έχει φτάσει ούτε στα μισά του δρόμου, click here
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Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton CANADA
22-FEB-2015
Corruption, siphoning 30 percent of water sector funding, must end for world development and security
A new UN report warns that without large new water-related investments many societies worldwide will soon confront rising desperation and conflicts over life’s most essential resource.
Presenting their report at UN Headquarters, New York, officials of UN University and the UN Office for Sustainable Development said unmet water goals threaten many world regions and form a barrier to key universally-shared ambitions including stable political systems, greater wealth and better health for all.
Continued stalling, coupled with population growth, economic instability, disrupted climate patterns and other variables, could reverse hard-earned development gains and preclude meaningful levels of development that can be sustained into the future.
Says lead author Bob Sandford, EPCOR Chair, Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of the UN Water for Life Decade: “The consequence of unmet water goals will be widespread insecurity creating more international tension and conflict. The positive message is that if we can keep moving now on water-related Sustainable Development Goals we can still have the future we want.”
Published in the run-up to the adoption this September of universal post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the report provides an in-depth analysis of 10 countries to show how achieving water and sanitation-related SDGs offers a rapid, cost effective way to achieve sustainable development.
The countries included in the study cover the full range of economic and development spectrum: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Canada, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zambia.
Based on the national case studies, the report prescribes country level steps for achieving the global water targets.
Among top recommendations: Hold the agriculture sector (which guzzles roughly 70% of world water supplies), and the energy sector (15%), accountable for making efficiencies while transitioning to clean energy including hydropower.
Prepared in association with the Global Water Partnership and Canada’s McMaster University, the report says the success of global efforts on the scale required rests in large part on a crackdown on widespread corruption in the water sector, particularly in developing countries.
“In many places … corruption is resulting in the hemorrhaging of precious financial resources,” siphoning an estimated 30% of funds earmarked for water and sanitation-related improvements.
The report underscores the need for clearly defined anti-corruption protocols enforced with harsh penalties.
Given accelerating Earth system changes and the growing threat of hydro-climatic disruption, corruption undermining water-related improvements threatens the stability and very existence of some nation states, which in turn affects all other countries, the report says.
“Corruption at any level is not just a criminal act in its own right. In the context of sustainable development it could be viewed as a crime against all of humanity.”
The report notes that the world’s water and wastewater infrastructure maintenance and replacement deficit is building at a rate of $200 million per year, with $1 trillion now required in the USA alone.
To finance its recommendations, the report says that, in addition to plugging the leakage of funds to corruption, $1.9 trillion in subsidies to petroleum, coal and gas industries should be redirected by degrees.
The estimated global cost to achieve post-2015 sustainable development goals in water and sanitation development, maintenance and replacement is US $1.25 trillion to $2.25 trillion per year for 20 years, a doubling or tripling of current spending translating into 1.8 to 2.5 percent of global GDP.
The resulting benefits would be commensurately large, however – a minimum of $3.11 trillion per year, not counting health care savings and valuable ecosystem service enhancements.
Changes in fundamental hydrology “likely to cause new kinds of conflict”
Sandford and co-lead author Corinne J. Schuster-Wallace of UNU-INWEH underline that all current water management challenges will be compounded one way or another by climate change, and by increasingly unpredictable weather.
“Historical predictability, known as relative hydrological stationarity … provides the certainty needed to build houses to withstand winds of a certain speed, snow of a certain weight, and rainfalls of certain intensity and duration, when to plant crops, and to what size to build storm sewers. The consequence is that the management of water in all its forms in the future will involve a great deal more uncertainty than it has in the past.”
“In a more or less stable hydro-climatic regime you are playing poker with a deck you know and can bet on risk accordingly. The loss of stationarity is playing poker with a deck in which new cards you have never seen before keep appearing more and more often, ultimately disrupting your hand to such an extent that the game no longer has coherence or meaning.”
“People do not have the luxury of living without water and when faced with a life or death decision, people tend to do whatever they must to survive … Changes in fundamental hydrology are likely to cause new kinds of conflict, and it can be expected that both water scarcity and flooding will become major trans-boundary water issues.”
Within 10 years, researchers predict 48 countries – 25% of all nations on Earth with an expected combined population of 2.9 billion – will be classified “water-scarce” (1,000 to 1,700 cubic meters of water per capita per year) or “water-stressed” (1,000 cubic meters or less).
And by 2030, expect overall global demand for freshwater to exceed supply by 40%, with the most acute problems in warmer, low-resource nations with young, fast-growing populations, according to the report.
An estimated 25% of the world’s major river basins run dry for part of each year, the report notes, and “new conflicts are likely to emerge as more of the world’s rivers become further heavily abstracted so that they no longer make it to the sea.”
Meanwhile, the magnitude of floods in Pakistan and Australia in 2010, and on the Great Plains of North America in 2011 and 2014, “suggests that the destruction of upstream flood protection and the failure to provide adequate downstream flood warning will enter into global conflict formulae in the future.”
The report cites the rising cost of world flood-related damages: US$53 billion in 2013 and more than US$312 billion since 2004.
Included in the global flood figures: roughly $1 billion in flood damage in the Canadian province of Manitoba in both 2011 and 2014. The disasters have affected the province’s economic and political stability, contributing to a budget deficit, an unpopular increase in the provincial sales tax and to the consequent resignation of political leaders.
UNU-INWEH Director Zafar Adeel and Jong Soo Yoon, Head of the UN Office for Sustainable Development, state: “Through a series of country case studies, expert opinion, and evidence synthesis, the report explores the critical role that water plays (including sanitation and wastewater management) in sustainable development; current disconnects between some national development plans and the proposed SDGs; opportunities for achieving sustainable development through careful water management; and implementation opportunities.”
The report, they add, “fills a critical gap in understanding the complexities associated with water resources and their management, and also provides substantive options that enable us to move forward within the global dialogue.”
###
The report in full is available from Feb. 24 at inweh.unu.edu
Recommendations
- National governments must make sustainable advancements in water, wastewater, and sanitation management, supported by a dedicated and independent arm’s length water agency, a high level policy priority.
- Decisions for managing water at all scales must be evidence informed, accounting for the multiple roles, uses, and demands on water and disposal of human waste and wastewater, as well as the way in which the distribution of water resources is changing, and expected to continue to change over time and space.
- Governments and all economic sectors must eradicate corruption through the establishment and implementation of clear and defined anti-corruption protocols, with meaningful consequences when the protocols are breached.
- Capacity development must be nested within, and form a pillar of, institutional reform at all scales within a country, with an emphasis on transferable skills that can be used for sustain- able development across all areas and goals.
- Governments, supported by relevant stakeholders, must commit to timely and transparent monitoring and reporting on SDG indicators to monitor progress and hold the global community mutually accountable.
- There must be a national commitment to universal access to WaSH, linked to waste treatment and management, delivered through nationally coordinated and monitored multi-stakeholder response while recognizing and realizing the value in human and animal waste and wastewater wherever possible.
- The world must identify, recognise, and account for water needs for planetary bio-diversity based Earth system function and national governments must commit to ensuring continued viability and level of provisioning and regulating functions.
- National water governance and management must include a requirement to balance supply and demand at the at the sub-basin level for sustainability and disaster risk reduction, while recognising and protecting downstream users.
- Common disaster risk reduction targets need to be formally incorporated into post-2015 water- and sanitation-related sustainable development goals. These targets must permit the tailoring of actions to national realities.
- The agriculture sector must be held accountable for water use efficiencies and other system efficiencies which limit water demand while maintaining or increasing productivity, ensuring that women and small scale farm-holders are provided with the knowledge and technology to be able to play their part, thereby increasing income above poverty thresholds.
- The energy sector must be held accountable for water efficiencies in energy and a transition to clean energy, including hydropower, which does not compromise water quality, environmental integrity, community access, or disaster mitigation.
- Water-dependent companies have a key role to play in financing and implementing sound water, sanitation and wastewater management strategies and must step up to the plate or risk significant losses. This is no longer simply corporate social responsibility but sound economic strategy.
- National governments, multi-national corporations, and international institutions must work together to identify and implement strategies to equitably free up available existing resources.
- Current expenditures must be more efficient, freeing up and increasing returns on existing resources through integration of inter- and intra-sectoral activities that take advantage of economies of scope and scale.
- Subject to rigorous due diligence, national governments must identify, explore, and utilise new and emerging financial sources.
UNU-INWEH: http://bit.
The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health is a member of the United Nations University family of organizations. It is the UN Think Tank on Water created by the UNU Governing Council in 1996. The mission of the institute is to help resolve pressing water challenges that are of concern to the United Nations, its Member States, and their people, through knowledge- based synthesis of existing bodies of scientific discovery; through cutting edge targeted research that identifies emerging policy issues; through application of on-the-ground scalable solutions based on credible research; and, through relevant and targeted public outreach. It is hosted by the Government of Canada and McMaster University.
UN Office for Sustainable Development: http://bit.
News release in full, click here
Example coverage by:
Reuters: here
Agencia EFE, click here
O Globo, Brazil, click here
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23-DEC-2014
Large Parts Of Europe, South America Face Rising Vulnerability
The first-ever maps of global vulnerability to dengue, a mosquito-borne tropical virus that produces a painful condition of body joints sometimes referred to as “breakbone fever,” were published today by UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
The maps colourfully illustrate the dynamic expansion and contraction of dengue vulnerability worldwide through the year, revealing hotspots in January, April, July and October (available online for download: http://bit.ly/1wCq0mi). While not all vulnerable regions identified currently experience endemic dengue, these maps demonstrate where the virus could become a danger.
The work illustrates the consistent exposure to the virus in equatorial regions with greater seasonal trends in sub-tropical latitudes.
As the planet warms, according to the paper, conditions in West and Central Africa are particularly favourable for expansion of dengue illness and both regions are urged to plan for this anticipated health challenge.
As well, people living in large parts of Europe and mountainous regions of South America – too cold today to sustain mosquito populations year-round – face a “serious threat” of potential dengue virus exposure, the paper warns.
Vulnerability is a function of both exposure and susceptibility, the latter determined by such factors as access to healthcare, to clean water, housing quality, dengue control measures and government policies.
In typical northern conditions, eggs of the dengue-carrying Aedes mosquitoes die below -2°C. Should minimum temperatures rise 2°C and 4°C due to climate change, however, the eggs could survive, putting large populations worldwide at risk of exposure for the first time, the paper says.
While the paper notes that a rise in temperatures could make the environment too hot for mosquito populations in some places and shrink exposure to dengue, in general the authors expect the dengue virus to expand both north and south of its current range due to climate change.
Led by Senior Research Fellow Dr. Corinne J. Schuster-Wallace, the UNU-INWEH’s team of authors included Laura M. Fullerton, now a Research Associate, University Health Network, Toronto, and Sarah K. Dicken, a McMaster University and Water Without Borders PhD candidate.
The paper says dengue is endemic in more than 100 countries and the world’s fastest growing vector-borne disease.
Close to 400 million people today are infected by the virus, causing 250,000- 500,000 severe cases annually leading to hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, approximately 20,000 deaths and enormous economic impacts due to lost productivity and healthcare costs. In Southeast Asia, dengue creates annual direct healthcare costs estimated at US $950 million.
UN estimates of the number of people at risk today: 2.5 billion people, rising to 5 or 6 billion people by 2085 (assuming climate change and population growth). The increase due to climate change alone would more than double the number at those at risk to an estimated 3.5 billion.
The Top 10 Dengue Endemic Countries:
- Brazil
- Indonesia
- Vietnam
- Mexico
- Venezuela
- Thailand
- Philippines
- Colombia
- Malaysia
- Honduras
Between 2004 and 2010, Brazil reported by far the largest number of dengue cases – about 450,000. Overall, however, the people of South Asia and Southeast Asia are deemed to have highest levels of vulnerability to dengue (for a map comparing global exposure to dengue in January and July, download at http://bit.ly/1IYEJgz).
Countries located close the equator tend to maintain some level of vulnerability to dengue throughout the year because they experience moderate to high susceptibility and consistently favourable exposure conditions (e.g., Colombia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Southern India, Indonesia).
The disease is often misdiagnosed. In addition to fever, symptoms include headache, muscle and joint pains, and a measles-like rash. A small share of cases develop into life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or dengue shock syndrome, characterized by dangerously low blood pressure.
Since there is no vaccine, the usual approach to curbing dengue is insecticidal fogging of sites where the Aedes mosquito breed.
Mapping Global Vulnerability: Background
The paper, “Mapping Global Vulnerability to Dengue,” assesses several factors – including social, cultural and economic conditions – that determine the exposure and susceptibility of people to the disease to arrive at the global vulnerability maps.
Developed by UNU-INWEH, the Water-Associated Disease Index (WADI) used in the research incorporates and aggregates such factors behind the disease as climatic conditions, land cover, population educational status and water use practices. WADI helps visualize the vulnerability of communities and regions to infectious water-related diseases in the face of global changes such as increasing urbanization, land use intensification and climate change.
Says Dr. Schuster-Wallace: “WADI was developed to assess vulnerability by integrating disease-specific measures of environmental exposure (i.e., temperature, precipitation, land cover etc.) with disease-specific measures of social susceptibility (i.e., life expectancy, educational attainment, access to healthcare etc.) to provide a holistic picture of vulnerability to disease.”
Employing freely available global datasets, the global vulnerability data created using the WADI approach provides valuable information to decision-makers for improved planning and resource allocation for the prevention of disease (the same approach can be applied to many other illnesses).
High population density increases exposure by providing human virus reservoirs that allow rapid dengue transmission. For instance, in Asian countries where population density is high, such as India, Bangladesh, China, and Indonesia, vulnerability to dengue is also high. Similar trends are observed in Central America and Western Africa where regions with high population density also have a high vulnerability to dengue.
In Central and West African regions, susceptibility to dengue is very high due to the lack of access to clean water resources, sanitation facilities and health care services. With very high susceptibility to dengue, vulnerability in this region was higher than other regions with similar exposure levels but lower levels of susceptibility to dengue.
Download The Report: Click here
Example coverage by
Reuters, UK, Risk of dengue increases due to climate change, city growth: research, click here; Spanish: Riesgo de dengue aumenta por cambio climático y urbanización, click here; Portuguese: Risco de dengue cresce por mudança climática e urbanização, diz estudo, click here
Agencia EFE, Spain, Spanish: Investigadores de la ONU crean un mapa global de la vulnerabilidad al dengue, click here; English: UN Researchers Say Dengue Fever Could Spread to Europe click here,
Salon, USA, Dengue’s deadly future: How climate change will put billions more at risk, click here
The Star, Malaysia, Climate change raises dengue risk, click here
Ekonomicheskie Izvestija, Ukraine, Russian, Европе угрожает лихорадка Денге, — ООН, click here
News release in full, click here
Coverage summary, click here
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