March 16, 2010
A study published 16 March 2010 ahead of print in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) finds that many
developing countries have high long-term levels of aerosol air pollution. The study is the first to use satellite data to estimate long-term fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations across the entire globe.
PM2.5 consists of particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers (the size of many bacteria) or smaller and comes from such sources as forest fires, power plants, cars, industry, and in many countries, home heating and cooking. These particles pose a health concern because of their ability to penetrate deep into the lungs once they are breathed in.
The study found that 80 percent of the global population lives in places where concentrations of PM2.5 exceed the ultimate air quality guideline set by the World Health Organization (WHO) of 10 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3). The WHO has set several interim targets, the highest of which is 35 µg/m3, and even that is exceeded over central and eastern Asia for 38% and 50% of the population, respectively. Eastern China showed high levels of pollution; large regions showed an annual average of more than 80 µg/m3.
The study used satellite data gathered over a span of six years, providing some of the first long-term measurements of average PM air pollution concentrations for many regions with significant sources of air pollution but few if any ground-level sampling stations to substantiate the extent of human exposures—including many developing countries.
The methods described and validated by the study can be applied to further studies of health effects caused by exposure to PM air pollution around the world. These methods include combining data from different satellite instruments with a chemical-transport model to relate observations of the entire air column beneath the satellite to air quality near the surface. The authors validated this approach by comparing their estimates to those derived from ground-based sampling and found a significant level of agreement. However, they note additional research is needed to reduce uncertainty due to non-uniform satellite sampling, cloud cover, and other factors that may limit the accuracy of the satellite-based estimates.
The study is the first to combine data from two particular satellite instruments—MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and MISR (Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer)—on a global scale.
Authors of the article are Aaron van Donkelaar, Randall V. Martin, Michael Brauer, Ralph Kahn, Robert Levy, Carolyn Verduzco, and Paul J. Villeneuve. This work was supported by Health Canada and by graduate fellowships from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Killam Trust.
Source: Environmental Health Perspectives
More information about aerosols: http://www.sflorg.com/space_weather/ato_multimedia/flvato_11
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March 12, 2010
The University of Sydney will lead a new project to improve existing methods of detecting a fish disease which is causing substantial
setbacks to the barramundi industry.
Thanks to a quantum leap in DNA-detection technology in 2009, a new test is available for the nervous necrosis virus—a serious disease affecting more than 35 species of fish worldwide. In Australia, the disease has primarily affected the production of barramundi, with losses of up to 100 per cent occurring in some hatcheries.
Principal Investigator Professor Richard Whittington, Chair of Farm Animal Health in the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney, says the disease has prevented the expansion of the industry and hampered productivity. It has also reduced options for restocking wild fisheries due to fears the disease may spread.
In the past, the gel-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method was the validated test used in laboratories to find signs of the nervous necrosis virus.
"The old test was not very sensitive, and in many cases, infection was present yet still turned up negative," Professor Whittington explains.
"For that reason, the result of the test did not really predict the likelihood of an outbreak occurring."
The new PCR method was first achieved at the University of Sydney through research and development funded by the Australian Research Council, and will allow researchers to concentrate the genome from the virus so that it can be detected in a very sensitive laboratory procedure.
The new study will also improve detection by developing and applying serological tests to complement the PCR method. This will provide the information as to whether the antibody status should be used as an indicator of infection in a fish population.
Launched after the largest consultative meeting in Australia in 2007, the project is a major national collaborative research program to control the disease. The meeting included State Departments of Primary Industries, CSIRO, representatives from the Australian Barramundi Farmers Association as well as the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
Working with Professor Whittington, will be Dr Joy Becker and Alison Tweedie at the University of Sydney as well as team members listed below:
- Mark Crane, the fish health project leader, from the Australian Animal Health Laboratory at CSIRO;
- Jane Frances, Manager of Aquatic Biosecurity & Risk Management at the New South Wales Industry and Investment;
- Dr Peter Kirkland at Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute, New South Wales Industry and Investment;
- Dr Edla Arzey, at Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute, New South Wales Industry and Investment;
- Dr Kitman Dryting, from Aquatic Animal Health Northern Territory State Government;
- Dr Ian Anderson, the principal Veterinary Pathologist (Fish Disease) at the Queensland Department of Primary Industries.
Image Caption: Barramundi (Lates calcarifer)
Source: University of Sydney
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March 11, 2010
Under Embargo Till: 19:00 UTC March 11, 2010
Posted: 19:00 UTC 03/11/2010
An international convention will meet next week to decide whether to grant requests from Tanzania and Zambia to lower the protection
status of their elephants, allowing them to conduct one-time sales of stockpiled ivory.
An international team of 27 conservationists, writing in the March 12 edition of Science, says allowing the sale could lead to increased slaughter of elephants for their ivory throughout Africa. The team says there was a sharp increase in poaching even before 2007, when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species approved a lower protection status for elephants in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
However, uncertainty about whether that action would further escalate poaching led the convention to impose a nine-year moratorium on ivory sales, but it was modified at the last minute so the moratorium only applied to those four countries.
The conservationists say Zambia and Tanzania are major sources and trafficking corridors for Africa’s illegal ivory, demonstrated by tons of contraband ivory seized in 2002, 2006 and 2009. DNA sampling on the 2002 and 2006 seizures traced the majority of that ivory back to those two nations.
"These two countries are at the center of the illegal ivory trade in Africa. It’s kind of unbelievable that their requests have gotten this far," said Samuel Wasser, a University of Washington conservation biologist and lead author of the paper published in the Policy Forum section of Science urging that the sale not be allowed.
In the last 30 years African elephants have declined to about 35 percent of their original numbers, and their population today stands at less than 500,000.
An international ban on ivory trade was enacted in 1989, and for four years the elephant poaching level dropped dramatically. But largely because of that success, money for enforcement dwindled. In the meantime, ivory demand from China, Japan and Thailand led to a sharp increase in poaching since 2000.
"More than 8 percent of the elephant population is being poached annually," Wasser said. "That rate of illegal take derails the laws of supply and demand, and makes it critical to maintain the moratorium until we have a better understanding of the impact of illegal trade and how it is affected by legal ivory sales."
The international convention begins meeting Saturday (March 13) in Doha, Qatar, to consider, among other things, the petitions from Zambia and Tanzania for one-time sales from their national ivory stockpiles.
The convention imposes two levels of protection for elephants. The strictest level, which currently applies to both Zambia and Tanzania, does not allow any sales of ivory. To be allowed limited trade, the countries are supposed to demonstrate that their elephant populations are secure, that law enforcement is effective in combating poaching and that the ivory sales will not be detrimental to elephants.
However, neither nation has met any of the criteria, Wasser said. In addition, China and Japan, the only nations approved to import ivory, are among the largest consumers of illegal ivory and have done little to ensure the ivory they sell was obtained legally. That means they also have not met the convention’s standards for taking part in legal ivory trade.
"We’re making decisions that have a huge impact on the world’s ecosystems and we’re not relying on the best available science," Wasser said. "This is a problem with the convention’s decisions in general, even the potential long-term impacts of those decisions is immense."
Source: University of Washington
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March 10, 2010
In a discovery of consequence for efforts to save Tasmanian devils in the wild, scientists have found some devils from north-west
Tasmania are genetically different and potentially resistant to the deadly cancer threatening the species.
The discovery by University of Sydney and University of Tasmania researchers will have implications for efforts to contain the spread of Devil Facial Tumors Disease (DFTD) which has decimated 70 per cent of the devil population since the first diagnosis in east Tasmania in 1996.
Results from the collaboration, published in the latest edition of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, describe levels of diversity in key immune genes in Tasmanian devils.
Lead author, University of Sydney Associate Professor Kathy Belov, from the Faculty of Veterinary Science, said the identification of a small number of genetically different devils in the north-west population opened exciting new research opportunities.
"The majority of devils in Tasmania are immunological clones and therefore susceptible to DFTD. This study has identified a group of devils that are genetically different. We think these devils may be able to see the cancer cells as foreign and mount an immune response against them," Associate Professor Belov said.
"We think more animals might survive in the wild than we initially thought."
DFTD is a transmissible cancer that affects only Tasmanian devils and is spread by biting. It is characterized by large facial tumors which often spread to internal organs. The disease has decimated populations on the east coast where the disease was first detected, because of a lack of genetic diversity at key immune genes.
A decade ago the Tasmanian devil was regarded as common but now it is listed as endangered at both a state and national level and extinction in the wild is considered to be a real possibility within 25-35 years.
Associate Professor Belov said the identification of the genetically different devils, may have implications for captive breeding if these devils are resistant to DFTD.
She said the long term aim of the breeding program however, should still be to maintain as much genetic diversity as possible for future generations and that the insurance breeding program should continue unchanged.
"Once we have a handle on the disease, we want to put the healthiest animals back into the wild. For this reason, we need to continue to breed both eastern and north-western devils in captivity. The possibility of breeding and releasing resistant devils into the wild would be an added bonus".
Save The Tasmanian Devil Program manager Andrew Sharman said it has been known for a while that there are populations of devils that appear to be responding differently to the disease, whether there are resistant individuals or not is still unclear at this stage.
"However, this work supports the idea that there may be some inherent resistance associated with these "genetically different devils". Every new piece of research that sheds light on the relationship between the devil genetics, the environment and the disease helps us develop strategies and tools to ensure the long term survival of the species."
This project has been funded by the Australian Research Council; the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program; an Eric Guiler grant; the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industry, Water, Parks and the Environment; Veterinary Science Foundation and the Elizabeth Gabler Charitable Trust.
The work of the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program is also supported by donations through its fundraising arm, the Save the Tasmanian Devil Appeal.
Visit: Save the Tasmanian Devil Appeal
More Information: Breakthrough Could Save The Tassie Devil
Image Caption: Diseased Tasmanian Devil
Image Credit: Sydney University
Source: Sydney University
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February 16, 2010
In an innovative effort to save endangered quolls from extinction, University of Sydney biological scientist Stephanie O’Donnell is feeding
them poisonous cane toad sausages.
The sausages, made from minced cane toad legs, are laced with a chemical designed to make the quolls feel sick. After their unpleasant experience with the sausages, quolls are likely to avoid eating poisonous cane toads in the wild. Research has suggested that a quarter of quolls will avoid eating a cane toad if they have sampled one of these sausages.
O’Donnell is a researcher for The University of Sydney’s Shine Lab, which focuses on evolutionary ecology in reptiles. According to ARC Federation Fellow and head of the Shine Lab, Professor Rick Shine, O’Donnell’s research is invaluable to the ensuring the future of Australia’s quolls.
"Quolls have largely disappeared from the areas where cane toads occur," he explains. "We know from Stephanie’s work that if you don’t train quolls to leave toads alone they’re very likely to eat the first toad they encounter and die as a result."
Cane toads, which use poisonous glands in their back as a defense against predators, are rapidly spreading across the quoll’s natural habitat. O’Donnell’s research for the Shine Lab (in co-operation with the Territory Wildlife Park and the Federal Government’s Caring for our Country initiative) aims to tackle the threat of cane toads to quolls by training their predators rather than controlling the cane toad population.
"The big picture story is that in trying to save the wildlife from cane toads just about all of the effort has gone into controlling the cane toad population," Professor Shine says. In contrast, O’Donnell’s research employs a more feasible strategy of training quolls before cane toads arrive, allowing them to colonies the area before the new threat is introduced.
"We have to come up with something we can do immediately that doesn’t rely on getting rid of every toad. Changing the behavior of the predators is the new approach and so far the results are really encouraging," says Professor Shine.
Image Caption: Quoll
Source: University of Sydney / Katie Szittner
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December 10, 2009
Tropical forest destruction accounts for some 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But quantifying these emissions has not
been easy, particularly for tropical nations. New technology, developed by a team of scientists at Carnegie’s Department of Global Ecology, is revolutionizing forest monitoring by marrying free satellite imagery and powerful analytical methods in an easy-to-use, desktop software package called CLASlite. Thus far, 70 government, non-government, and academic organizations in five countries have adopted the technology, with more on the horizon.
The team announced its new web site for CLASlite users at the Copenhagen climate meetings today. See http://claslite.ciw.edu.
To support international policy discussions and to solve on-the-ground needs for forest monitoring, CLASlite is being rapidly disseminated through a tailored, demand-driven technology transfer to government, academic and non-government institutions of the Andes and Amazon regions.
“We’re providing CLASlite to support the U.N. program for Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation [REDD] and other tropical forest monitoring efforts,” remarked Greg Asner, the lead scientist for the CLASlite project. “My team has already trained more than 240 users from 70 organizations in the Andes-Amazon region, and we will do more workshops in 2010.”
CLASlite is a software package designed to automatically identify deforestation and forest degradation from satellite imagery. The power of CLASlite rests in its unique ability to convert seemingly green “carpets” of dense tropical forest cover in raw satellite images into highly detailed maps that can be readily searched for deforestation, logging, and other types of forest degradation. CLASlite is also a key component of a cost-effective new method developed by Carnegie that integrates satellite and airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) mapping to support high-resolution forest carbon mapping.
“It is how we use CLASlite that will make the difference,” remarked Guayana Paez-Acosta, the CLASlite coordinator for capacity building. “The new CLASlite user website is a space for collective knowledge building to improve forest monitoring and management in the Andes-Amazon region.”
In addition, Carnegie has teamed up with Google.org to provide “CLASlite Online” via the web, which will greatly extend the ability of users to monitor their forests, officials from both organizations announced today.
Amy Luers, Senior Environment Program Manager for Google.org, stated that “working with Carnegie and others, we have developed a prototype imagery analysis engine to power forest-monitoring systems such as CLASlite online. By providing computational horsepower and easy access to massive data sets, this new technology will dramatically lower the cost and complexity for tropical nations to monitor their forests using CLASlite and other forest analysis programs.”
In 2010, the group plans to extend the training and technology transfer to other countries in the Amazon region, and will provide the web-based version to support tropical forest mapping anywhere in the world. The CLASlite project is supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Google.org, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Image Credit: Carnegie Institution of Washington
Source: Carnegie Institution of Washington
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December 9, 2009
Delegates to the climate change conference in Copenhagen have been told that ecosystem-based strategies offer cost-effective and sustainable solutions to climate change that can deliver multiple benefits.
This is according to a report from Dr Kerrie Wilson from UQ’s The Ecology Centre, who is attending Attending COP15 on the second day of plenary sessions.
“With many of the impacts of climate change already being felt, methods to adapt to climate change are a key focus of discussions at the climate change meeting in Copenhagen," she said.
"Ecosystem-based approaches to climate change – referred to by some scientists as a ‘convenient solution to an inconvenient truth’ – are one mechanism on the negotiating table."
Dr Wilson said the broader issue was the Reducing Emissions through Avoided Deforestation and Degradation mechanism (REDD) to reward nations and communities for voluntarily improving forest protection and management.
Greenhouse gas emissions from forests were caused by logging and conversion to agriculture, resulting in a release of stored carbon which was the largest source of emissions caused by humans, second to combustion of fossil fuels.
“The advisory group responsible for the technical support of mechanisms to lessen and adapt to climate change revealed optimism today that a decision on REDD will be made at this meeting," she said.
"Acceptance of REDD as a viable means of international emissions could offer a new platform and financing mechanism for protecting biodiversity, ecosystem services, and the livelihoods of those that depend on forests.”
Dr Wilson said representatives of developing nations were calling for enhanced capacity to promote readiness for REDD and secure funding commitments, along with acknowledgement of the role that indigenous communities can play in implementation and monitoring. The realities of REDD and issues surrounding corruption and law enforcement were also being openly discussed.
The original form of REDD was now being replaced by REDD +, where forest management, reforestation and carbon sequestration in other landscapes are also compensated.
With multiple objectives, and multiple ways to achieve these objectives, the careful planning and prioritization for REDD implementation would become pivotal.
Dr Wilson said not everyone could be a winner and trade-offs between objectives were inevitable.
"Our research has proven that it is feasible to integrate the dual objective of conserving biodiversity and reducing the release of greenhouse gases. We can analyze in a transparent way the winners and losers, and thereby inform decision-making for REDD.”
Brief bio of Dr. Wilson
Dr Kerrie Wilson holds a degree in Environmental Science from The University of Queensland (top graduate in 1999, University Medalist). She obtained a DPhil in ecology from the University of Melbourne in 2004. Kerrie is author of approximately 50 scientific publications (including publications in Science and Nature) and one edited book. In 2009 she was awarded an Australian Leadership Award and an European Erasmus Mundus Fellowship. Kerrie has previously held leadership positions with non-government organizations including Director of Conservation for The Nature Conservancy Australia. Her research into the socio-economic aspects of conservation involves collaborations with national and international government and non-government organizations.
Source: University of Queensland
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December 8, 2009
Despite oft-repeated claims by sources ranging from the United Nations to music star Paul McCartney, it is simply not true that consuming
less meat and dairy products will help stop climate change, says a University of California authority on farming and greenhouse gases.
UC Davis Associate Professor and Air Quality Specialist Frank Mitloehner says that McCartney and the chair of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ignored science last week when they launched a European campaign called "Less Meat = Less Heat." The launch came on the eve of a major international climate summit, which runs today through Dec. 18 in Copenhagen.
McCartney and others, such as the promoters of "meatless Mondays," seem to be well-intentioned but not well-schooled in the complex relationships among human activities, animal digestion, food production and atmospheric chemistry, says Mitloehner.
"Smarter animal farming, not less farming, will equal less heat," Mitloehner said. "Producing less meat and milk will only mean more hunger in poor countries."
Mitloehner traces much of the public confusion over meat and milk’s role in climate change to two sentences in a 2006 United Nations report, titled "Livestock’s Long Shadow." Printed only in the report’s executive summary and nowhere in the body of the report, the sentences read: “The livestock sector is a major player, responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalents). This is a higher share than transport.”
These statements are not accurate, yet their wide distribution through news media have put us on the wrong path toward solutions, Mitloehner says.
"We certainly can reduce our greenhouse-gas production, but not by consuming less meat and milk.
"Rather, in developed countries, we should focus on cutting our use of oil and coal for electricity, heating and vehicle fuels."
Mitloehner said leading authorities agree that, in the U.S., raising cattle and pigs for food accounts for about 3 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, while transportation creates an estimated 26 percent.
"In developing countries, we should adopt more efficient, Western-style farming practices, to make more food with less greenhouse gas production," Mitloehner continued. In this he agrees with the conclusion of "Livestock’s Long Shadow," which calls for “replacing current suboptimal production with advanced production methods — at every step from feed production, through livestock production and processing, to distribution and marketing.”
"The developed world’s efforts should focus not on reducing meat and milk consumption," said Mitloehner, "but rather on increasing efficient meat production in developing countries, where growing populations need more nutritious food."
Mitloehner particularly objects to the U.N.’s statement that livestock account for more greenhouse gases than transportation, when there is no generally accepted global breakdown of gas production by industrial sector.
He notes that "Livestock’s Long Shadow" produced its numbers for the livestock sector by adding up emissions from farm to table, including the gases produced by growing animal feed; animals’ digestive emissions; and processing meat and milk into foods. But its transportation analysis did not similarly add up emissions from well to wheel; instead, it considered only emissions from fossil fuels burned while driving.
"This lopsided ‘analysis’ is a classical apples-and-oranges analogy that truly confused the issue," Mitloehner said.
Most of Mitloehner’s analysis is presented in a recent study titled "Clearing the Air: Livestock’s Contributions to Climate Change," published in October in the peer-reviewed journal Advances in Agronomy. Co-authors of the paper are UC Davis researchers Maurice Piteskey and Kimberly Stackhouse.
"Clearing the Air" is a synthesis of research by the UC Davis authors and many other institutions, including the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture, California Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board. Writing the synthesis was supported by a $26,000 research grant from the Beef Checkoff Program, which funds research and other activities, including promotion and consumer education, through fees on beef producers in the U.S.
Since 2002, Mitloehner has received $5 million in research funding, with 5 percent of the total from agricultural commodities groups, such as beef producers.
Source: University of California, Davis
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December 7, 2009
In the long term, the Earth’s temperature may be 30-50 per cent more sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide than has previously been
estimated, reports a new study published in Nature Geoscience this week.
The results show that components of the Earth’s climate system that vary over long timescales – such as land-ice and vegetation – have an important effect on this temperature sensitivity, but these factors are often neglected in current climate models.
Dr Dan Lunt, from the University of Bristol, and colleagues compared results from a global climate model to temperature reconstructions of the Earth’s environment three million years ago when global temperatures and carbon dioxide concentrations were relatively high. The temperature reconstructions were derived using data from three-million-year-old sediments on the ocean floor.
Lunt said, “We found that, given the concentrations of carbon dioxide prevailing three million years ago, the model originally predicted a significantly smaller temperature increase than that indicated by the reconstructions. This led us to review what was missing from the model.”
The authors demonstrate that the increased temperatures indicated by the reconstructions can be explained if factors that vary over long timescales, such as land-ice and vegetation, are included in the model. This is primarily because changes in vegetation and ice lead to more sunlight being absorbed, which in turn increases warming.
Including these long-term processes in the model resulted in an increased temperature response of the Earth to carbon dioxide, indicating that the Earth’s temperature is more sensitive to carbon dioxide than previously recognized. Climate models used by bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change often do not fully include these long-term processes, thus these models do not entirely represent the sensitivity of the Earth’s temperature to carbon dioxide.
Alan Haywood, a co-author on the study from the University of Leeds, said “If we want to avoid dangerous climate change, this high sensitivity of the Earth to carbon dioxide should be taken into account when defining targets for the long-term stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse-gas concentrations”.
Lunt added: “This study has shown that studying past climates can provide important insights into how the Earth might change in the future.”
Source: University of Bristol
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December 4, 2009
Queensland researchers have unveiled a new strategy for saving the world’s forests on the eve of crucial climate change talks in Copenhagen.
Published today in leading journal Science, the research suggests wealthy countries participate in a carbon payment system to encourage developing countries to keep their forests to avert a looming extinction crisis, in addition to avoiding dangerous climate change.
Experts from The University of Queensland and James Cook University assessed the ability to slow down species extinctions using both carbon-focused and biodiversity-focused strategies.
“We found that, dollar for dollar, a carbon-focused approach will contribute little to slowing biodiversity loss and save far fewer species than will a biodiversity-focused strategy that targets the most imperiled forests,” said lead author and The University of Queensland researcher Oscar Venter.
The study reveals if carbon payments focus narrowly on carbon and ignore threatened biodiversity, carbon-trading alone won’t be enough to stave off large-scale extinctions of tropical species, according to co-author Dr Kerrie Wilson from The University of Queensland.
“The problem is that the Amazon basin in South America, where there’s still quite a lot of surviving forest, is the cheapest place to reduce emissions, but threatened species are concentrated in countries like Madagascar and the Philippines, where only a few scraps of forest remain,” said co-author Professor William Laurance from James Cook University.
Fortunately, the authors found that a compromise is possible.
“If you tweak things a little, putting some carbon funds into countries that are good value for carbon but also biodiversity-rich, like Cameroon and the Philippines, you can save twice as many threatened species and still do a great deal to combat global warming,” said co-author and director of The University of Queensland’s Ecology Centre Professor Hugh Possingham.
Mr Venter said billions of dollars will be spent on forest carbon initiatives in the next decade, and these could hold huge benefits for vanishing ecosystems and wildlife if engineered in the right way.
The team’s findings are expected to draw much attention at the forthcoming climate negotiations in Copenhagen, where international leaders are hoping to hammer out a final strategy for combating global warming.
Source: University of Queensland
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developing countries have high long-term levels of aerosol air pollution. The study is the first to use satellite data to estimate long-term fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations across the entire globe. 
