Deforestation in Myanmar threatens biodiversity and communities

http://www.dw.de/deforestation-in-myanmar-threatens-biodiversity-and-communities/a-18314594

Deutsche Welle News
Jennifer Collins
March 13, 2015

Concerning the Myanmar deforestation issue, this article clearly addresses the impact of the developing problem - being severe rates of deforestation in Myanmar's richest forests. Nearly 5.2 million acres of forestland has been already allocated by the government for agribusiness projects, and another 11 million are being identified. To add to that, nearly half of the country's land is covered in lush forests, home to thousands of species which live in many different levels in trees, bushes, grass and soil.

The forestland cut down is meant to be used for building rubber and biofuel plantations in the Kachin State, and oil palm and rubber plantations in the Tanintharyi Region. 

Conflict among minorities
The biggest issue which comes from this occurrence, is the dispute over the land itself. Much of the land is home to ethnic minority groups, which settle in villages near the forests. These ethnic groups have been stripped of their ownership rights, which may therefore fuel old armed conflicts with the local government. The companies and businesses are promising to provide employment and economic development to the local communities, which in fact is opposed by the villagers themselves, due to the fact that their farming fields would be taken away too. Much of the land initially would be empty prior to the allocation of employment, therefore infuriating these people rather than satisfying. The issue of mass deforestation then comes down to the people affected by it, as the unattended claim overlaps with their historical ownership of land which is no longer recognised. 

Discontinued Planting
After forests are cut down, it is the wrongdoer's responsibility to re-plant in the region which was devastated, for future opportunities and rebirth of the environment in that case. This should be monitored by the government too, however in Myanmar there seems to be a loop hole. According to Kevin Woods, the author of an issued report on this case, only 15% of the cleared land has been planted. This leaves the remaining 85%, over 4 million acres, bare and unplanted - which concessions cannot cover. This is a great issue, as succession will take much longer than if the seed was set by human hands or even by machines, which means many species would probably become extinct by that time, as they won't have enough land to occupy if they attempt to migrate. 

Illegal Business
This whole issue in Myanmar in fact is happening illegally - logging rights to those forests are very difficult to attain, yet if they had been attained, definitely not for nearly 17 million acres of land (Forest Trends - conservation organisation). The only reason this is permitted and valued by the government and businesses, is because the timber found in Myanmar's forests (teak), is a very high quality and expensive product, with exports jumping from $1 billion to $1.6 billion in 2 years. Therefore businesses are seeking more, including European and North American markets. This economic benefit for all is also the reason for the highest rate of deforestation on earth. 

In my opinion, this is an underestimated and marginalised issue, as global economy should be in an equilibrium with nature rather than pressing to the extremes and destroying their own future for simple instant demands. Despite the economic issues in 2013, it is also Myanmar's place to restrict companies from destroying completely their precious forests, which are home to many rare species. Quite a few of the mammals which inhabit the forests of Myanmar are considered to be Endangered, and majority are considered to be Vulnerable - meaning that they have a high chance of becoming extinct. This is a call to all of us, despite our small impact on companies decisions, but as future workers and leaders, to take action and prevent extreme cases of deforestation like this. 

First pictures of Tonga's newly-formed volcanic island

March 11, 2015

Sam Bolitho for Australian Broadcast

Article

Figure 1

Figure 2

A new island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? This is occurring since January in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. An island that Belongs to the island of Tonga is being formed by a volcano that erupted underwater is creating an island that has been growing for only some months, but already has reached a size that can be seen as something quite large. The mountains on top of the island are said to be about 250 meters high, and the island is about 800 meters wide and 1.3Kilometers long. This has only been formed since January, when in that place, a volcano erupted causing this Island to form. On the other hand, it has formed itself about 65 Kilometers away from the capital of Tonga.

As Tonga is a quite small Island, and I didn’t quite know too much information about Tonga, I decided to do some research about it. Tonga is an Island group that belongs to the continent of Oceania, so it is relatively close to Australia. It is also situated quite close to the International Date Line, where the day changes to be the day before the one on Tonga. Also they have 100,000 Inhabitants on Mainly the main Island, as this is the largest one of the whole Island chains, and its capital is Nuku’alofa. The country of Tonga is situated quite near to the other Island groups like Fiji and the other Islands that belong to Oceania.

Figure 1- A view onto the Island

Nevertheless, the article speaks about the discoverers of the Island. His name is GP Orbassano, who is a Hotel owner in Tonga. He and his son have went on the Island and have said to be the first ones to enter onto the island, as it looks like no one else has discovered this Island yet. Although he has lived in Tonga for more than 20 years, he says "This was a great location. It's not every day a new island appears in the middle of the ocean." This means that not everyday a new Island can be found in the middle of the Ocean. The downside with this is, that Orbassano wants to partially use this Island to attract tourists to Tonga, this means that the Natural environment could be destroyed on this island. This is due to that the succession is still in a full process. He claims that there are thousands of seabirds on the island, which means that they probably have brought seeds or so with them so that the Island will be habitable by animals.

Figure 2- A picture on the Island

I personally think about this article, that it is very impressive that someone has discovered a newly formed Island. This is due to that not every day a new island is just found in the middle of nowhere, due to that there are not many big islands around this small and newly formed Island. Yet on the other hand, I think that it is not such a good idea to use this Island as a tourist attraction, due to that the succession of the Island could be disturbed, as then maybe animals from outside the region could be brought in, or even that the Birds stop coming to the Island which would then mean that the Island would never be habitable in the near future. But in all, I think that this is a very impressive discovery, as the Island is very new, and not discovered before.

Plastic-Eating Fungus May Solve World's Waste Problems

Plastic was a material invented from around 1800s-1950s as a light-weight practical material that would be for everyday use replacing materials such as glass and other various metals. Today it is most commonly used for everyday consumer goods such as bottles, toys, technologies, and frankly everything. It is fair to say that over 85% of today's production revolves around plastic and it has become an essential part of our lives. However, let’s say you drink a bottle of water per day on average, and you throw it in your garbage can, where does it end up? It ends up in landfills or even worse in our precious oceans killing species in and around the water such as birds and fish. The birds and fish eat the plastics from the ocean and as some die some are still alive with plastics in their bodies which all end up in our bodies by eating this fish. The general cycle of waste just comes back to us which means we need to preserve and conserve our environment one of the most common ways of conserving is by recycling, a method used mainly in the MEDC's while not practiced by LEDC's. However, with the rise of technologies the mankind will most likely end up finding an efficient way to reduce or store all garbage not only plastics.

Recently in a expedition to the Amazon led Yale students to discover a type of fungus which allegedly can break-down plastic. The fungus is called pestalotiopsis microspora which is according to research only break down polyurethane the most commonly used plastic especially for garden hoses, toys, foam, shoes, bags and many more. What is even better about the fungi is that it can anaerobically (without oxygen) digest polyurethane, which means that it can be used at the bottom of a landfill where there is barely oxygen which is a positive side. This finding was accidental as the purpose of exploration through the Amazon and Ecuador was for "students to experience the scientific inquiry process in a comprehensive and creative way." 

As waste management is a big problem all around the globe, these findings are beneficial to our environment because only in us 32 million tons was thrown away while only 9% was recycled. In some countries recycling rates are even below 1%, mainly LEDC's for which this fungus would be beneficial as they could set it up in landfills and not invest in plastics recycling plants.

 Article Link: http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/8922/20140908/plastic-eating-fungus-may-solve-worlds-waste-problems.htm

By Jenna Iacurci

Sep 08, 2014 10:23 AM EDT

Where has all the Plastic gone?

National Geographic
Where has all the (Sea Trash) Plastic gone?
Laura Parker
June 13, 2014
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140613-ocean-trash-garbage-patch-plastic-science-kerry-marine-debris/

As it is commonly know that most of the used plastic ends in the oceans, giant garbage patches are formed floating in so called convergence zones. Through the oceans current the plastic particles are being transported to areas in the Pacific forming the; Western Garbage Patch, and the Eastern Patch.



The problems with these garbage patches is that they are not directly noticeable as the plastic degrades into micro particles floating under the water surface, these are then eaten by fish which mistake them for food and digested, Through fish eating these plastic particles they often become either infertile or have other health impacts.

When Spanish scientist Andres Cozar Cabanas created the first ever global map of ocean trash, he discovered that other than expected most of the plastic which should have floated near the surface was infact not there. Through increased plastic production it had been exprcted that there would also be more plastic present in the ocean. A recent study though published claims that the plastic broke down even further and now is embedded in the ocean floors sediments. Through this our foodchain is even more in danger as it already has been recorded that mammals and fish eat plastic particles. Every sqaure kilometer of deep ocean contains 4 billion plastic fibers, with the width of a human hair and a proximatly a lenght of 4cm. Further studies conducted showed that microfibres in the indian ocean settle mostly on corals, causing damage as light is blocked.

Generally this new research shows how much humans dont understand in the end what happens with out garbage. The overall health risks are still not fully understood, making plastic a potential threat as it enters our food chain. Overall the way plastic is disposed has to be rethinked, as to prevent it from entering out food chains and our oceans. Stopping the usage of plastic bags, or reducing is a good start as these cheap plastics especially enter our food chains easily as they break down the fastest. 

In California, Demand for Groundwater Causing Huge Swaths of Land to Sink.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140325-california-drought-subsidence-groundwater/

The article talks about the very common issue in the USA and the world which is the pumping of underground water leading to sink-age of land. This issue is a very common one in Florida, in which recently a hotel sunk in the ground.

This issue is a common one in the San Joaquin, from 1930 to 1970 the ground level sank by around 9 meters (USGS report). As groundwater supplies 1/3 of water to California even more in drought seasons, underground pumps are built in order to extract water and supply all the counties with water. In the subsidence, an investment of over 800 million needs to be conducted in order for the restoration of the San Joaquin River to be restored. Recently a survey has been conducted related to the sink ages in which USGS thought that their data was wrong because the land had settled so much as Rick Woodley the bureau resource manager. Many construction sites that were near the river were delayed due to the restoration. 

However, this issue is not only present in the USA, it is occurring more and more in Russia and its neighboring countries. 


These causes are not due to water extractions, but may be the cause from various floods or chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks.

National Geographic 

Invasive Asian Carp Found Breeding in "Surprising" Location

Brian Clark Howard

March 11, 2014
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140311-asian-carp-upper-mississippi-invasive-species-fish/

Recently it was discovered that the invasive Asian carp has made it into the upper Mississippi River. This invasive species was introduced into the American ecosystem around 20 years ago, though the recent discovery came very surprising. Asian Carp eggs were found in the Upper Mississippi River along with late-stage embryos. This recent discovery is 250km further upstream than at the last known location. 
The problem with the Asian carp is that it is an invasive species potentially harmful for the delicate ecosystem. An Asian carp can grow up to 50 Kg, making it the top predator, eating large amounts of plankton and aquatic vegetation. The fear for sports fishers is that their current preferred species will die out. In order to counter this invasion the local government already invested several 100 million dollars into the effort of stopping the spread. Possible solutions are Electric barriers, water guns, and scent-based lures. Due to fishers catching Asian carp regularly the advance of this species is well documented. Currently scientists are puzzled as to how the species managed to spread so far. The Asian carp is described as a gernal term for several species; the bighead (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), silver (Hypophthalmichthys moltrix), grass (Ctenopharyngodon idella), and black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus). These species are known invasive species negatively affecting the American river eco systems. Generally Asian carp are considered a better food source though than the native Carp. The danger is that is the carp reaches the great lakes it can possibly endanger the ecosystem. This high ecological risk is being taken serious causing the investment of millions in order to prevent the Carp from reaching the Great Lakes.

The danger with invasive species is the possible effects for the ecosystem. Invasive species often adapt faster allowing them to exploit their new eco system disregarding the carrying capacity. This is very dangerous as often it is almost impossible to get rid of these invasive species, as an example the raccoon is Western Europe or several species in Australia. The methods used to stop the Carp are though very questionable as they simply seems as a waste of money, introducing a control variable such as nets would allow for the government to limit the Asian carp population. If the carp does enter the Great lakes simply using nets with larger gaps allowing for the indigenous species to pass through but not the carp can be a very effective limiting factor.

Ecological Sampling Topic 2 Great Video!!!