世界最新环境资讯

A global environmental update

《新科学家》引用一项重要评论称，联合国政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC），这个世界领先的气候科学机构，必须“彻底改革”其组织和运作才能恢复公众的信任。

美联社消息，蒙古12名部长在戈壁沙漠举行会议，提请关注气候变化。他们在一个曾为可耕地的沙质山谷中，在酷热难耐的天气下开始这次会谈。

据路透社报道，科学家认为巴基斯坦的毁灭性洪水除了全球变暖的原因，还要要归咎于土地管理不善、灌溉系统陈旧和伐木。洪水淹没了该国五分之一的土地并已破坏14％的耕地。

《华盛顿邮报》报道，在巴基斯坦西北部，牲畜死亡与洪后饥弱动物中爆发时疫的威胁加剧了该国灾情，在各地表现为牛奶供应短缺和失业率上升。从全国范围来看，牲畜损失是巴基斯坦农业经济大规模不景气的一部分。

路透社消息，印度议会批准了一项法案，开放该国150亿美元的核电市场，该项立法对美国大公司进入市场至关重要。印度总理辛格表示，此举对印度的能源安全关系重大。

路透社报道，研究人员发布报告支持环保之战，抗议开发油砂资源。报告称加拿大油砂开采污染阿萨巴斯卡流域。与阿尔伯塔省政府给出的该流域毒素乃自然产生的说法相矛盾，科学家们称释入河流的13种毒素中包含水银、砷、铅和镉等。

路透社消息，壳牌称已启动展示项目，测试加速回收油砂区毒废池塘的新方法。尾矿池是油砂争论中的主要争议对象。

路透社称，卑诗省签署了一项协议，使该加拿大省与原住民分享加拿大采矿业税收收入。业界希望该协议能改善矿工和原住民之间的人民的关系，使本土群体更易接受采矿行动。

《卫报》引述地球之友（FoE）的报告《非洲：直面掠夺》称，欧洲企业抢占非洲土地种植生物燃料作物，减少了非洲粮食作物的产出。如果欧盟国家不放弃其设定的生物燃料目标，则更多非洲人将陷入饥荒，还将导致碳排放量的上升。

来自里海鲟鱼的鱼子酱是世界上最珍贵的食物之一 ，《金融时报》引述科学家警告称其可能成为俄罗斯旱灾最新受害者。在未来数月内，里海海平面预计将下降达三米。

法新社消息，俄罗斯环保人士称，肆虐该国的野火已造成森林损失达3000亿美元，他们认为对林业法的修改对此要承担一定责任。
 

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- the world’s leading climate-science body -- must “fundamentally reform” its organisation and operations if it is to regain public trust, according to a major review cited by New Scientist.

Twelve Mongolian ministers held a cabinet meeting in the Gobi desert to draw attention to climate change, the Associated Press said. They discussed the topic in scorching heat in a sandy, formerly arable valley.

Scientists believe poor land management, outdated irrigation systems and logging are at least as much to blame as global warming for Pakistan’s devastating floods, according to Reuters. Water covers a fifth of the country and has damaged 14% of cultivated land.

In north-west Pakistan, livestock deaths -- and the threat of epidemics among hungry and weak animals that survived the floods – have compounded the country’s misery, The Washington Post reported. The calamity is measured locally in milk shortages and job losses. Nationwide, the loss of livestock is part of a wide-scale drowning of Pakistan’s agricultural economy.

The Indian parliament approved a bill to open up the country’s US$150-billion nuclear-power market, said Reuters, sealing legislation crucial for the entry of major US companies. Prime minister Manmohan Singh said the move was critical for India’s energy security.

Canada’s oil-sands operations are polluting the Athabasca river system, researchers said in report that is bound to fuel the environmental battle over developing the resource, Reuters reported. Contradicting Alberta provincial government assertions that toxins in the watershed occur naturally, the scientists said mercury, arsenic, lead and cadmium are among 13 toxins released into the river.

Shell said it was starting up a demonstration project to test a new method of speeding the reclamation of toxic-waste ponds at oil-sands operations, according to Reuters. Tailings ponds are a major source of friction in the oil-sands dispute.

British Columbia signed an agreement that will see that Canadian province share tax revenue from the mining industry with aboriginal groups, Reuters said. The industry hopes the deal will improve relations between miners and First Nations people and make native groups more receptive to mining activities.

European Union countries must drop their biofuels targets or risk plunging more Africans into hunger and raising carbon emissions, The Guardian quoted Friends of the Earth (FoE) as saying. In its report “Africa: Up for Grabs”, FoE accuses European companies of land-grabbing to grow biofuel crops that compete with food crops.

Caviar from Caspian Sea sturgeon – one of the world’s most highly prized foods – may become the latest casualty of Russia’s drought, The Financial Times cited scientists as warning. Sea levels in the Caspian are expected to drop by up to three metres in the next few months.

Blaming changes to forestry law, Russian environmentalists say the country’s wildfires have cost US$300 billion in forest loss, according to Agence France-Presse.