• Soot's Role in Global Warming
  
• Conservationists Censure Central American Free Trade Agreement
  
• Seeking to Lift Secrecy Curtain Over Energy Industry Lobby
  
• U.S. Calls for Global Natural Gas Industry
  
• Petition Asks Protection for Mexican Garter Snake
  
• Too Many Brazil Nuts Means Too Few Trees
  
• New Deal Protects Key Los Angeles Wetlands
  
• Green Algae Thrive on Coastal Copper Mine Tailings

Soot's Role in Global Warming

The soot is absorbing sunlight and causing snow and ice to melt in the higher latitudes of the Earth, the scientists report in a study published online today in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

The scientists found that soot's effect on snow albedo - the solar energy reflected back to space - may be contributing to trends toward early springs in the Northern Hemisphere, thinning Arctic sea ice, melting glaciers and permafrost.

Soot, or black carbon, is a byproduct of the burning of any fossil fuel - the fine particles are a known carcinogen and soot absorbs sunlight. In the higher latitudes of the Earth, where ice is more common, soot absorbs more of the sun's energy and warmth than an icy, white background.

"Black carbon reduces the amount of energy reflected by snow back into space, thus heating the snow surface more than if there were no black carbon," said Dr. James Hansen, a researcher at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

The scientists say soot in areas with snow and ice may play an important role in climate change. If snow and ice covered areas begin melting, the warming effect increases, as the soot becomes more concentrated on the snow surface.

Soot's increased absorption of solar energy is especially effective in warming the world's climate, according to Hanson and coauthor Larissa Nazarenko, both of the Goddard Institute and Columbia University's Earth Institute.

"This forcing is unusually effective, causing twice as much global warming as a carbon dioxide forcing of the same magnitude," Hansen said.

The researchers cautioned that although the role of soot in altering global climate is substantial, it does not alter the fact greenhouse gases are the primary cause of climate warming during the past century.

Such gases are expected to be the largest climate forcing for the rest of this century.

Hansen and Nazarenko used a leading worldwide climate computer model to simulate effects of greenhouse gases and other factors on world climate.

The model incorporated data from NASA spacecraft that monitor the Earth's surface, vegetation, oceans and atmospheric qualities. The calculated global warming from soot in snow and ice, by itself in an 1880-2000 simulation, accounted for 25 percent of observed global warming.

NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites are observing snow cover and reflectivity at multiple wavelengths, which allows quantitative monitoring of changing snow cover and effects of soot on snow.

Conservationists Censure Central American Free Trade Agreement

Carl Pope, executive director of Sierra Club says the agreement "would expand the privileges of global corporations at the expense of the environment, working families and communities."

"The American people want trade, but trade that is safe, clean and fair," Pope said. "The Bush administration's proposed CAFTA does not achieve that objective."

The accord, which covers the Central American nations of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, was finalized last week. It has been hailed by the Bush administration as a "groundbreaking free trade agreement," but conservationists fear it sells the environment short.

Paul Joffe, director of international affairs for the National Wildlife Federation, says it is clearly in the U.S. interest to improve market access as well as economic and environmental conditions in Central America.

But the administration's "failure to do so in this and other trade deals is undermining support for expanded trade at home and abroad," Joffe said.

Conservationists criticize CAFTA for its lack of an independent process to allow citizens in Central America and the United States to allege a failure to effectively enforce environmental laws.

They say the accord precludes foreign investor lawsuit provisions that can be used to undermine U.S. and Central American environmental laws and fails to establish an independent environmental cooperation institution.

Another criticism levied by conservationists is the lack of specific resource and financial commitments to implement the environmental cooperation goals of the agreement.

"To succeed, international trade and investment must be accompanied by progress on the environment and development in poorer countries," Joffe said. "Without further improvement in these areas and others, the CAFTA will not generate the support it needs to win Congressional approval."

The trade deal sets some precedents that could be used to push for free trade agreements with other Central and South American countries - such as Panama, Columbia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.

"CAFTA must be judged not only for its impacts on Central America and the United States, but as a model for the hemisphere," Pope said. "We can do better."

Seeking to Lift Secrecy Curtain Over Energy Industry Lobby

The FOIA request targets records from Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow and other agency officials.

NRDC has asked the Energy Department to provide any handwritten, typed, or electronic notes in the agency's possession, including but not limited to correspondence, minutes of meetings, memoranda, notes, e-mails, calendar or daily entries, agendas, notices, and faxes.

"Secrecy is job one in the Bush administration, especially concerning energy policy," said NRDC senior attorney Sharon Buccino. "We are trying to pull back the curtain on the latest secret and potentially unlawful dealings between high level Bush officials and energy lobbyists."

Buccino says the request follows a report by the weekly Washington based publication "National Journal" of meetings with McSlarrow and members of the Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth - a coalition of trade groups including the American Gas Association, the American Petroleum Institute, and the Nuclear Energy Institute.

The report said lobbyists from these groups met with McSlarrow to coordinate efforts to gain support for the energy bill, including a grassroots lobbying campaign to pressure lawmakers into passing the controversial legislation. The energy bill contains billions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies for the nuclear, oil and gas industries.

McSlarrow formerly served as an Energy Department participant on Vice President Dick Cheney's National Energy Policy Development Group. Last week, the Supreme Court decided to hear an appeal by Cheney to a lower court ruling that ordered him to release documents related to the task force, which critics say consisted of energy lobbyists.

The task force's recommendations formed the basis for the $75 billion energy bill, which stalled in the Senate last month. The bill will be reconsidered in January.

"If not illegal, it is certainly unseemly for the Bush administration to secretly scheme with corporate lobbyists to pass a bill that is little more than a huge payback to energy producers and polluters," added Buccino. "The energy industry has kicked in millions to President Bush's campaign coffers. Perhaps that is why $23 billion of the energy bill's more than $25 billion dollars in tax breaks go to coal, oil, gas and nuclear power companies."

U.S. Calls for Global Natural Gas Industry

"We are in the beginning stages of a long and very complex project to accomplish nothing less than the creation of an immense, global industry," Abraham said.

For the global natural gas market to really cook, the infrastructure for LNG - gas cooled to a liquid state - must be developed. This means ports, pipelines and ships, Abraham said during his speech, which he delivered at an LNG conference in Washington, DC.

The speech reflected the administration's concern about the U.S. natural gas market and its support for incentives to build LNG import facilities at U.S. ports.

The United States is the world's largest consumer and producer of natural gas - it provides one fifth of all the energy used in the United States and demand is outpacing supply.

The federal Energy Information Administration estimates natural gas consumption will increase 60 percent by 2020.

Prices have spiked in the past few years and the Bush administration fears the economic impact of rising prices, in particular on the electricity generating sector, which has increasingly embraced natural gas, and on consumers.

Some 55 percent of all U.S. households use natural gas for heating or cooking or both.

The U.S. still meets 84 percent of its natural gas needs from domestic sources - in 2002, LNG imports accounted for only one percent of U.S. gas supply. But that must change if the nation is to continue expanding its use of the clean burning fuel, Abraham said.

The long term prospects for LNG trade to aid in meeting America's and the world's natural gas needs "are extremely encouraging," Abraham said.

A global infrastructure could allow the United States and others to tap further into the massive reserves of natural gas in Russia, the Middle East, and elsewhere, according to the energy secretary.

Abraham said now is the time for the industry to "get new terminals up and running, to develop new fields around the globe, and to come together in partnership on mutually beneficial, long term agreements."

Petition Asks Protection for Mexican Garter Snake

"Widespread degradation of southwest rivers and introduction of dozens of exotic species necessitates protection of the Mexican garter snake under the ESA," said Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity.

The Mexican garter snake is one of hundreds of native riparian species that are threatened by the destruction and degradation of rivers and streams in the Southwest.

The species is an aquatic garter snake with an historic range across Arizona, southwest New Mexico, and Mexico.

The Center says that populations of the Mexican garter snake are severely fragmented and isolated due to loss and destruction of suitable habitat,

Livestock grazing, urbanization, pollution, loss of native prey species, and exotic species have resulted in the loss of greater than 90 percent of the Southwest's riparian habitat and the listing of 30 species under the Endangered Species Act .

"Southwest rivers have been under massive assault for over a century," Greenwald said. "To protect southwest riparian species, livestock must be removed from all southwest rivers and streams, instream flows must be established, and further introduction of non-native species must be prohibited."

Listing of the Mexican garter snake will facilitate conservation of riparian habitats and species by prohibiting activities that result in destruction of habitat, such as livestock grazing and groundwater pumping, directing federal funding towards removal of non native species, and encouraging additional research on the status of the species.

Under the ESA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has one year to respond to the petition and determine if listing of the snake is warranted.

Too Many Brazil Nuts Means Too Few Trees

"It is a very simple message: If you collect too many seeds, you are not going to have seedlings," said Karen Kainer, with the University of Florida's Center for Latin American Studies' tropical conservation and development program.

The researcher's work appears in the current issue of the journal "Science," a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Brazil nuts are a favorite for many people during the holiday season and are the only commercially available nut collected exclusively from wild trees.

The trees can live 500 years or longer, so their decline will not affect harvests anytime soon. And the researchers say consumers should buy more of the nuts, because they support an environmentally friendly industry that depends on rainforest preservation rather than destruction.

But the study reveals that managers may need to take steps to ensure that more Brazil nuts take root and grow into young trees, the scientists say.

The researchers report that the "clear message from this study is that current Brazil nut harvesting practices at many Amazonian forest sites are not sustainable in the long term."

The Brazil nut tree flourishes throughout the Amazon's lowland forests and each mature tree produces hundreds of extremely hard, baseball sized fruits containing 10 to 25 seeds or "nuts."

Local harvesters collect the fruit on the ground, where they fall from heights of 150 feet or more, and open them with machetes.

In the Brazilian Amazon alone, harvesters annually collect about 45,000 tons of Brazil nuts valued at about $43 million worldwide, according to the "Science" paper.

The scientists compared surveys of young and adult Brazil nut trees in nearly two dozen Amazonian forest stands with current and historical data about nut harvests in each. The research was conducted in parts of the Brazilian, Peruvian and Bolivian Amazon.

New trees were most common in unharvested and lightly harvested stands, the researchers say, were uncommon to rare in moderately harvested stands, and were virtually absent where seeds had been persistently collected in the 20th century.

New Deal Protects Key Los Angeles Wetlands

The acquisition by the California Wildlife Conservation Board successfully ends several decades of battles between developers and environmentalists to protect the largest historic, restorable coastal wetland in Los Angeles County, where 98 percent of the coastal wetlands have been developed and destroyed.

"The Ballona Wetlands project is the result of hard work by many people to provide a balance of coastal wetlands protection, economic development, and public access for the Los Angeles urban environment," said Mike Chrisman, California's secretary of resources.

Of the 483 acres permanently protected by the agreement, the state purchased 192 acres known as Area A and Area B Residential, and accepted the donation of the 291 acre Ballona Wetlands Parcel, which includes a portion of the Ballona Creek Channel, from developer Playa Capital Company LLC.

The Ballona Wetlands once stretched across 1,500 acres, but as Los Angeles and surrounding cities grew, the wetlands have been reduced to less than 150 acres.

In 2001, the national nonprofit land conservation organization the Trust for Public Land (TPL) struck an agreement with Playa Capital to buy and protect 192 acres of the property for wetland creation and restoration, nature preserves and urban park space.

After much additional negotiating between the state, Playa Capital, and TPL, and two full appraisals to determine the fair market value of the 192 acres, Playa Capital sold Areas A and B Residential to the state for $139 million and donated the 291 acre Ballona Wetlands Parcel.

The funds for the purchase came from voter approved Proposition 50 which set aside at least $300 million for coastal wetland acquisition and restoration in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.

TPL will fund stewardship for the property for a period of up to five years and the State Coastal Conservancy will lead a long term restoration planning process for the property during this interim period.

"This is the most significant wetland acquisition in Southern California and its restoration will positively impact the lives of millions of Angelenos," said Reed Holderman, executive director of the TPL-California..

Green Algae Thrive on Coastal Copper Mine Tailings

The green, fast growing alga, Enteromorpha compressa, has replaced slow growing algae such as kelp over decades of the contamination of seawater by copper mine tailings.

"We found that the green algae has increased the productivity of these contaminated sites, actually resulting in larger populations of reptiles, such as iguanas, and crustaceans, such as crabs, and increasing the body sizes and weight of some intertidal fishes," said researcher Jose Farina.

Farina along with colleagues Juan Castilla, and Patricio Ojeda of Brown University and the Center for Advanced Studies in Ecology and Biodiversity, published their findings in this month's issue of the Ecological Society of America's journal "Ecological Applications."

The study compared copper mine contaminated coastal sites with uncontaminated sites off the coast of Chile.

The researchers found far less biological diversity at the contaminated sites - in particular, bird species diversity decreased, probably due to the loss of small invertebrates for them to feed on in contaminated sites.

"The increased productivity brought about by the dominance of the green algae in contaminated sites lowers species richness - especially for carnivorous species - while boosting the biomass and abundance of herbivores and omnivores," Farina said. "Our study demonstrates the dramatic effect some species can have on biological communities."