Sunday, October 31, 2010

BOOK OF NOVEMBER

                                                                            


Title      :The Climate Fix:
           What Scientists and Politicians
                 Won't Tell You About      
                 Global Warming  
Author    : Roger Pielke      
Publisher : Basic Books
Pages      : 288
Price        : $26   
ISBN     9780465020522

Why has the world been unable to address global warming? The world's response to climate change is deeply flawed. This book is where we begin to get it back on track. Science policy expert Roger Pielke says it's not the fault of those who reject the Kyoto Protocol, but those who support it, and the magical thinking that the agreement represents. In his latest book, The Climate Fix: What Scientists and Politicians Won’t Tell You About Global Warming, Pielke offers a “commonsense approach” to climate policy.



The relationship between humans and the earth system that we inhabit is two-way - humans affect the planet and the earth system processes affect us. This symbiosis is characterised by empirical complexities and uncertainties, the most intense of which is the global climate change debate in recent years. These debates are often characterised by a considerable amount of heat, but unfortunately too little light. Roger Pielke, recommends we should first comprehend why the current approach is failing and then consider better alternatives.


We are invited to read a widely publicized article in the Journal of Climate titled “Why Hasn’t Earth Warmed as Much as Expected?” written by top-notch atmospheric scientists (http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/19/brookhaven-national-laboratory-why-hasnt-earth-warmed-as-much-as-expected/). The article is premised on the conclusion that the Earth hasn’t warmed as much as expected, and asks why. One possible answer to the “Global-warming time-bomb” is that the prognostic models are too large, a second possible answer is that anthropogenic haze could be offsetting the enhanced greenhouse effect.


Both of those answers are in fact allowed by IPCC-endorsed science, as is the possibility that the net anthropogenic effect has actually been close to zero, and thus global temperature change observed in the last century was largely a natural fluctuation, driven by mechanisms unappreciated back in 1982. All this uncertainty about what has been happening in the past century contributes to uncertainty about what will happen in the next, and, as Pielke points out, research in the coming decade is likely to reveal more uncertainly, not less.


In carefully crafted chapters that rely heavily on widely acknowledged truths, he examines everything from carbon dioxide emissions to the recent climategate controversy. From Kyoto to Copenhagen, Gore to George W. Bush to Obama, he addresses the changing political winds, the myths used to justify political will. For revealing the treacherous field of Climate Politics Pielke deserves much praise. Copious endnotes and sourcing material included.


While tearing down the venomous politics that have surrounded the debates, Pielke calls for an alternative to the various wishful proposals, typified by the Kyoto Protocol, that hold essentially that ordering climate change to go away will make it go away. The conventional wisdom on how to deal with climate change has failed us, Pielke argues, and it's time to change course. Pielke provides a comprehensive exploration of the problem and its resolution - such as investing to create a more carbon-efficient economy and cost-efficient carbon-capture technologies.


According to Pielke, the Climate policies must be made compatible with economic growth as a precondition for their success, he writes, and because the world will need more energy in the future, an oblique approach supporting causes, such as developing affordable alternative energy sources rather than consequences. Pielke's focus on adaptation to climate change opens up the possibility for effective action that places human dignity and democratic ideals at the center of climate policies.


With the goal of advancing the discussion on climate change and contributing to the ongoing national debates in Europe, the United States, Japan, Australia, India, China, and other developed and developing countries, "The Climate Fix" offers something new to the climate-change discussion - a common sense perspective. A thought-provoking yet pragmatic discussion of the interaction between science and politics, "The Climate Fix" proposes a means for digging ourselves out of this climate-change mess that we have created.


Review Text Courtesy:http://www.amazon.com/, http://sppiblog.org/, http://www.changinghands.com/, http://www.powells.com/http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/
                                                         

EVENT OF THE MONTH: NOVEMBER 2010

National Conference on Conservation of Biodiversity



Location        : Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, INDIA
Date              : 20 - 21 November 2010
Organisation : National Centre for Science Communicators

The National Centre for Science Communicators (NCSC) was established in January 1997 with a view to facilitate improvement in the quality of Science and Technology communication in our country. The Centre provides opportunities for science communicators to explore and express their talents and creativity and also recognizes such talents. Presently, the membership of NCSC is over 200 strong across the country.


The United Nations has declared the year 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity. It is a call for celebration of life on Earth and of the value of biodiversity to our lives. Keeping this in mind, The National Centre for Science Communicators (NCSC) is organizing a National Conference on Conservation of Biodiversity on this occasion. The purpose of organizing this conference is to raise awareness about, the importance of biodiversity to life in general, the consequences of its loss and further seek not only its conservation but also promote its sustainable use. The aim is to draw attention to agro-biodiversity and encourage continued protection and promotion of crop genetic resources. Media has a great role to play here especially in building awareness, in contributing data, and in creating valuations of our scarce resources.

The conference is based around these themes. The proposed programme would be as follows.

Inaugural function
Four sessions:
1. Presentations by College Students of their reports on projects related to one of the conference themes
2. Biodiversity in Agriculture
3. Conservation Strategies
4. Role of Science Communicators

Each session is expected to have about four presentations followed by an open discussion in which all the delegates will be able to participate. This unique format would allow a complete cross-fertilisation of ideas, impart a detailed discussion of problems and offer possible solutions across the whole spectrum.
This conference is open to science communicators and professionals, researchers and postgraduate students working in the field of biodiversity and allied subjects. It will be held on 20 and 21 November 2010.


Registration Fee:
Students: Rs.500
NCSC members: Rs. 1000
Participants from Educational Institutes, Government Organisations, Public Sector Undertakings & Industries: Rs. 1500.
The registration fee includes Conference kit, lunches, tea/coffee and conference dinner.

All those who are interested may please confirm their participation in the conference by filling the attached registration/ Booking of accommodation form and mailing it to the General Secretary, latest by September 30, 2010.

Registration fee is payable by DD favouring “National Centre for Science Communicators’ Payable at Mumbai.

Contact Details
Suhas B. Naik-Satam
General Secretary
National Centre For Science Communicators
Vidnyan Bhavan, V.N. Purav Marg
Sion-Chunabhatti, Mumbai 400022

Web Link: http://www.ncsc.in/

News Source: http://www.scidev.net/










                                                             

SPECIES OF THE MONTH: NOVEMBER

MYANMAR SNUB-NOSED MONKEY


Phylum  : Chordata
Class     : Mammalia
Order    : Primates
Family   : Cercopithecidae
Genus    : Rhinopithecus
Species  : Rhinopithecus strykeri

An international team of primatologists have discovered a new species
of monkey in Northern Myanmar (formerly Burma.) The research,
published in the American Journal of Primatology, reveals how
Rhinopithecus Strykeri, a species of snub-nosed monkey, has an
upturned nose which causes it to sneeze when it rains.

Field biologists led by Ngwe Lwin from the Myanmar Biodiversity And
Nature Conservation Association and supported by an international team
of primatologists from Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and the
People Resources and Biodiversity Foundation, discovered the new
species during the nationwide Hoolock Gibbon Status Review in early
2010. Hunters reported the presence of a monkey species with prominent
lips and wide upturned nostrils.

Sightings were reported from the eastern Himalayas to the northeastern
Kachin state leading the team to conduct field surveys which led to
the discovery of a small population of a new species which displays
characteristics unlike any other snub-nosed species previously
described.

Thomas Geissmann, who is leading the taxonomic description, describes
the monkey as having almost entirely blackish fur with white fur only
on ear tufts, chin beard and perineal area. It also has a relatively
long tail, approximately 140% of its body size.

The species has been named Rhinopithecus Strykeri in honour of Jon
Stryker, President and Founder of the Arcus Foundation who supported
the project. However, in local dialects it is called mey nwoah,
‘monkey with an upturned face.’

While the species is new to science the local people know it well and
claim that it is very easy to find when it is raining because the
monkeys often get rainwater in their upturned noses causing them to
sneeze. To avoid getting rainwater in their noses they spend rainy
days sitting with their heads tucked between their knees

Frank Momberg, FFI’s Regional Programme Development Coordinator, Asia
Pacific, who interviewed local hunters during the field surveys
suggests that the species is limited to the Maw River area. The
distribution area is believed to be 270 km (squared) with an
approximate population of 260-330 individuals, meaning that it is
classified as Critically Endangered by IUCN.

As this new species of snub-nosed monkey inhabits the Kachin State in
northeastern Myanmar it is geographically isolated from other species
by two major barriers, the Mekong and the Salween Rivers, which may
explain why the species has not been discovered earlier.

According to local hunters the monkeys spend the summer months,
between May and October, at higher altitudes in mixed temperate
forests. In winter they descend closer to villages when snowfall makes
food scarcer.

Species of snub-nosed monkeys are found in parts of China and Vietnam.
Presently all species are considered endangered. Until now no species
have been reported in Myanmar. However, this latest addition to the
snub-nosed family is already critically endangered due to increasing
hunting pressure resulting from the building of logging roads by
Chinese companies beginning to invade the previously isolated
distribution area of this newly discovered monkey.

Mark Rose, Chief Executive of Fauna & Flora International said, “We
are committed to taking immediate conservation action to safeguard the
survival of this important new species together with our partners and
local communities in Myanmar.”

About the Journal: The American Journal of Primatology is the official
journal of the American Society of Primatologists. The Journal aims to
provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and findings among
primatologists and to convey our increasing understanding of this
order of animals to specialists and interested readers. Primatology is
an unusual science as its practitioners work in a wide variety of
departments and institutions throughout the world, carrying out a vast
range of research procedures. The journal aims to reflect this
diversity of research

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1098-2345

While there are currently no images of living specimens of this new
species available Fauna & Flora International has commissioned the
attached artists impression of the new species in its habitat, based
on field sightings and a carcass of the newly discovered species. The
image should be credited to Martin Aveling/Fauna & Flora
International.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Full bibliographic information

Geissmann. T, Lwin. G, Aung. S, Naing Aung. T, Aung. Z
M, Hla. T, Grindley. M, Momber. F, “A new species of Snub-nosed
monkey, Genus Rhinopithecus Milne-Edwards, 1872 (Primates,
Colobianae), From Northern Kachin State, Northeastern Myanmar”,
American Journal of Primatology, Wiley-Blackwell, October 2010, DOI:
10.1002/ajp.20894

This paper is published in the American Journal of Primatology. To
request a copy contact Lifesciencenews@wiley.com or +44
(0) 1243 770 375

News Source Courtesy: http://www.alphagalileo.org/

Saturday, October 30, 2010

SCIENCE OF NOVEMBER 2010


SAINABA- ENDOSULFAN VICTIM FROM KASARAGOD, KERALA: At the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee in Geneva last month, India supported Endosulfan, saying there was not enough evidence to prove the health and environmental impacts of the insecticide.

November 1: An eight-member Indian team today left from Goa on an expedition to explore climatic changes in the frozen depths of the Antarctic region over the past 1,000 years. The team of Indian scientists is led by Rasik Ravindra, Director of National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Goa. During their 40-day journey, the scientists will conduct experiments, gather atmospheric data and collect ice cores from the frozen continent in their bid to understand the changes in the environment over past 1,000 years.

November 2: A Japanese man has joined the elite club of humans whose genetic code has been fully sequenced, according to research unveiled today. Six other genomes are reported to have been fully sequenced since 2001.They comprise the genomes of James Watson, who co-discovered the structure of DNA; Craig Venter, a US biotech tycoon; a male of the Yoruba ethnicity of western Africa; two Korean males; and a male of Han Chinese ethnicity.The study is published online in the specialist journal Nature Genetics.

November 3: Neanderthals may have been underdeveloped mentally compared to modern humans, but in one respect they outperformed us: in the number of sex partners. That's the conclusion of a study published by the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, which suggests finger length can indicate promiscuity among hominins, as the ancient family of humans is known. Researchers from Liverpool University, looked at fossilised fingers from four hominin specie such as Ardipithecus ramidus, Australopithecus afarensis, Neanderthals and a fossil of an early Homo sapiens.

November 4: A breakthrough in holographic technology has just brought researchers a step closer to creating real-time 3-D images. Nasser Peyghambarian of the University of Arizona, and colleagues, say their new holographic technology can beam a near 360-degree image that updates every two seconds, to another location. Known as Three-Dimensional Telepresence, the technology addresses shortcomings of current holograms, which give the illusion of 3-D but leave out the rear view. The study appears in the journal Nature.

November 5: A virus closely related to polio is causing major outbreaks of hand, foot and mouth disease across the Asia-Pacific region. In Lancet Neurology and Lancet Infectious Diseases this month, researchers from the UK, Asia and Australia warn that in some cases there are severe neurological complications; and there are fears that Australia is unprepared for an outbreak. Enterovirus 71 was first identified in California, US, in the 1960s where it caused small outbreaks of hand, foot and mouth and neurological disease.

November 6: The weather department has warned of the cyclone called Jal that is likely to hit the northern region of Tamil Nadu and southern region of Andhra Pradesh coasts, India by Sunday evening. Cyclone Jal is currently in one of the neighbouring countries of India, Sri Lanka. The department informs that there is a huge possibility of heavy rainfall in the coastal regions of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry (Puducherry) and Andhra Pradesh anytime, within 24 hours. (It later weakened and claimed only 11 lives in different incidents.

November 7: NASA's human spaceflight program might take some giant leaps forward if the agency embraces genetic engineering techniques more fully, according to genomics pioneer J. Craig Venter. Craig Venter who is a pioneer in creating "artificial life" said that human space exploration could benefit from more genetic screening and genetic engineering. Venter was speaking to a group of scientists and engineers who gathered at NASA's Ames Research Center for two different meetings: a synthetic biology workshop, organised by NASA.

November 8: Stem cell researchers have found a way to turn a person's skin into blood, a process that could be used to treat cancer and other ailments. The method uses cells from a patch of a person's skin and transforms it into blood that is a genetic match, without using human embryonic stem cells, said the study in the journal Nature. With the ability to create blood for transfusion from a person's own skin, the advance means someday patients needing blood for surgery could bypass the blood bank and derive the necessary supply from themselves.

November 9: Physicists working on the ALICE experiment in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have started smashing heavy lead ions together at close to the speed of light - in the process recreating the universe as it was 13.7 billion years ago. The successful collision of lead ions in the accelerator at record energies allows matter to be probed as it would have been in the first moments of the Universe's existence. This comes after seven months of successfully colliding hydrogen proton packets at high energies.

November 10: Scientists in China have bred the country’s first genetically engineered Rhesus monkey, a step that could speed up the development of cures for diseases ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s. Scientists used green fluorescent protein (GFP), a substance originally isolated from a jellyfish and now commonly used as a biotech marker, and implanted transgenic embryos in the uteri of surrogate mother monkeys, said Ji Weizhi, a researcher with the Kunming Institute of Zoology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

November 11: A new study has found that has resolved the age-old issue of the origins of the people who introduced farming to Europe some 8000 years ago. A detailed genetic study by an international team of researchers led by ancient DNA experts from the University of Adelaide revealed marked similarities with populations living in the Ancient Near East (modern-day Turkey, Iraq and other countries) rather than those from Europe. The results of the study were published in the journal PLoS Biology.

November 12: According to an initial survey of the Kerala Birds held as part of commemorating the birthday of renowned ornithologist Dr. Salim Ali, the Painted Stork and Glossy Ibis that live in the wetlands of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have been spotted in large numbers in in the major bird habitats in and around central Kerala. As many as 130-odd birders covered an area extending from the kole fields in Thrissur to the birding hotspots in Kottayam and Alappuzha districts.

November 13: The Himachal Pradesh government has taken an initiative to preserve 'Chamurthi', one of four recognised indigenous horse breeds in India. 'Chamurthi', or snow horse, is an endangered species, which has prompted the government to initiate a preservation project. It is one of the most popular breeds of horses in the world. They are very strong, sure-footed, rarely fall sick, and have great endurance. The 'Chamurthi' horse traces its origin to the Tibet region.

November 14: Archaeologists in New Mexico have discovered what they believe is a complete mammoth skeleton. The New Mexico Natural History Museum Foundation will hold a special event at the Western Heritage Museum next week during which Executive Director Calvin Smith will announce the historic find.
 So far, amateur archaeologists have unearthed a femur, tibia, fibula and a carpal. Smith has found the remains of five mammoths in Lea County, but this could be the first complete skeleton.

November 15: Today is the Steve Irwin Day. Australia Zoo on Queensland's Sunshine Coast will celebrate the life and legacy of Steve Irwin who died after he was stabbed in the heart by a stingray barb while filming a nature documentary off far north Queensland's coast on September 4, 2006. It was his widow Terri and family decided the year Irwin died to make the anniversary of the 44-year-old's death a private day and established November 15 as Steve Irwin Day for the public. Link: http://www.steveirwinday.org/

November 16: Wayanad Jeerakasala Rice, Wayanad Gandhakasala Rice and Central Travancore Jaggery have been registered with the Geographical Indications (GI) registry at the initiative of the Kerala Agricultural University. Geographical Indications (GIs) identify products, the reputation or other characteristics of which essentially attributable to its geographical origin. The registration is intended to prevent unauthorised use of a registered geographical indication by others and to promote economic prosperity of its producers.

November 17: In a bid to solve Earth's energy woes, scientists are contemplating building the world's first "sustainable fusion" reactor by creating what they claim a miniature star on our planet. Following a series of key experiments over the last few weeks, the 2.2-billion-pound project has inched a little closer to its goal of igniting a  fusion reaction by 2012. National Ignition Facility in Livermore, has earlier fired up the LASER-experiment resulting release of energy of a magnitude of 1.3 million mega joules, which was a world record.

November 18: A large new species of deep red, glowing squid has been discovered living near undersea mountains in the southern Indian Ocean. At about 28 inches (70 centimeters) long, the as yet unnamed species is relatively big—though other squid can reach as long as 65 feet (20 meters), some species are barely three quarters of an inch (1.5 centimeters). The new species belongs to Chiroteuthidae, a group of slender squid in which light-producing organs run in the family.

November 19: Physicists have succeeded for the first time in trapping atoms of antihydrogen, a feat that could take researchers one step closer to understanding anti-matter. That, in turn, could reveal all sorts of things about gravity and perhaps shed light on what happened to all the antimatter that theoretically should be, but isn't, present in the universe. two groups have been working on trapping antihydrogen at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland.

November 20: Around four lakh species of plants and animals in the country are yet to be identified, as many biodiversity-rich areas remain inaccessible, said M Sanjappa, director of  Botanical Survey of India. About 33 per cent of the higher plant species are endemic. There are 17, 588 species of Angiosperms,of which 5,725 are endemic. The three megacentres of endemism are Western Ghats, Eastern Himalaya and Western Himalaya. There are 3,000 medicinal species, of which 85 per cent are wild.

November 21: In an attempt to answer astrobiology's fundamental questions about the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe, NASA launched a nanosatellite, known as Organism/Organic Exposure to Orbital Stresses, or O/OREOS. NASA also launched its Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite, or FASTSAT. It is a unique platform creating opportunities for researchers to conduct low-cost scientific and technology research on an autonomous satellite in space.

November 22: Scientists have discovered the first planet from another galaxy. It has been discovered orbiting a star called HIP 13044, located about 2,000 light year away. The new planet is orbiting a star from what is known as the Helmi stream — a group of stars that originally belonged to another galaxy that was captured by our Milky Way about six to nine billion years ago. The new planet is about 20 percent larger than Jupiter. A telescope in Chile was used to make the discovery, the journal Science report says.

November 23: Researchers in Norway and France have deciphered the genetic blueprints of a tunicate called Oikopleura dioica, a tiny member of one of the most abundant plankton types in the oceans. The animal’s compact genome contains roughly 18,000 genes — nearly as many as the human genome’s 22,000 or so, but with genes in a completely different order and less DNA stuffed in between them, the researchers report  in the journal Science.

November 24: Scientists at sites in eastern Utah say they have discovered two new species of dinosaurs related to the plant-eating, beaked iguanodon. Teams led by the Utah Geological Survey discovered the bones in 2004 and took years to extract them. Paleontologist Jim Kirkland says the specimen dubbed “Iguanacolossus” includes most of the backbone, tail, ribs, hip and shoulder..Iguanodons were able to walk on their hind legs.The species were identifiedin online scientific journal PLoS ONE.

November 25: DNA experts are working with sweet giants Mars to create genetically modified chocolate that fights heart disease and diabetes and won't make you fat. The beans contain chemicals called flavonols which lower blood pressure and help keep the heart healthy. And the scientists believe they can change the DNA of the cocoa tree so it produces beans with far higher levels of flavonols.They also hope to produce beans that fight diabetes, as well as making the fat in cocoa much healthier.

November 26: Four clones of Dolly the sheep, the world's first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, are alive and well and living in Nottinghamshire. University of Nottingham researchers created the quads three-and-a-half years ago from the same genetic material used to make Dolly. The sheep are being used carry out further research into cloned animals' longevity and susceptibility to disease. Professor Keith Campbell, leading the research into animal development, was part of the team that created Dolly.

November 27: An advanced communication satellite HYLAS (Highly Adaptable Satellite), built by ISRO on a commercial basis in partnership with EADS-Astrium of Europe, was successfully launched today by the European Ariane-5 V198 launch vehicle from the Guyana Space Centre at Kourou in French Guyana.
HYLAS satellite developed for Avanti Communications, UK consists of ten high power transponders that use eight in Ka and two in Ku band frequencies.

November 28: Saturn's second-largest moon Rhea has a wispy atmosphere with lots of oxygen and carbon dioxide, a new study has found. Oxygen atmospheres are known to exist on other natural satellites in solar system. For example, Europa and Ganymede ,moons of Jupiter,are also rich in oxygen. But the discovery on Rhea suggests that many other large, ice-covered bodies throughout the solar system and beyond may harbor thin shells of oxygen-rich air and, perhaps, complex chemistry, researchers said.

November 29: Representatives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) signatory countries gathered today in Cancun, Mexico for a summit to draw out a plan to curb global warming. At the summit, which will run until December 10, the leaders of the world's twenty major economies will attempt to reach a binding agreement on curbing greenhouse gasses after 2012, when current emission reduction targets laid out in the Kyoto Protocol expire.

November 30: Tripura has huge stock of ‘unexplored’ Anthracite coal, considered as black gold. A team of Geological Survey of India (GSI) has been conducting survey extensively in different villages of Tulashikar block in Khowai subdivision over the past few days. This is for the first time, the GSI has undertaken exploration drive for coal and it got success. If the test gives positive report, the economy of not only Khowai subdivision but also the State will get a massive boost.












November 30:

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

EVENT OF THE MONTH : OCTOBER 2010

Nagoya Meet on Biodiversity



An international conference aimed at preserving the planet'sdiversity of plants and animals in the face of pollution and habitatloss begins in Japan,facingsome of the same divisions betweenrich and poor nations that have stalled U.N. climate talks.

Frogs and other amphibians are most at risk of disappearing, coralreefs are the species deteriorating most rapidly and nearly a quarterof all plant species are threatened, according to the convention,which is convening the two-week meeting. A key task facing delegates will be to hammer out a set of 20 strategic goals for the next decade. Unless steps are taken to reverse the loss of Earth's biodiversity,scientists warn that the rate of extinction will climb and natural habitats will be degraded or destroyed - contributing to climate change and threatening agricultural production, fish stocks in the oceans and access to clean water.

Scientists estimate that the Earth is losing species 100 to 1,000 times the historical average, upsetting the intricately interconnected natural world. Prominent insect biologist E.O. Wilson at Harvard University argues that a man-made environmental crisis is pushing the Earth toward its sixth big extinction phase, the greatest since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago.

However, some battle lines have already formed between developed and developing nations over the convention's strategic mission statement - whether to take action to halt or simply slow the loss of biodiversity by 2020 - and finding a way to equitably share the benefits of genetic resources, such as plants native to poor countries that have been converted into lucrative drug products in the West.

The convention, which will bring together 8,000 delegates from 193 member nations in Nagoya, 170 miles (270 kilometers) west of Tokyo, was born out of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. So far, the convention has failed to meet a series of goals set eight years ago to preserve the world's biodiversity against overfishing, deforestation and pollution.

Conservation groups attribute part of that to a lack of political will and funding. They also say that some of the goals until now have been fuzzy, and partly blame their own failure to make a convincing case that action is needed - something they hope to change in Nagoya. "We haven't been able to successfully get across a message that our society and economies ultimately depend on this biodiversity," said Bill Jackson, deputy director-general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. "We have to fix the problem within the next 10 years."

Host country Japan, meanwhile, will be looking to this conference as a chance to portray itself as a protector of biodiversity after helping kill off many of the measures at the CITES, or Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, meeting earlier this year that would have limited the trade in tuna, sharks and other marine species.

Divisions between rich and poor nations over how to fairly share in the access and benefits of genetic resources could undermine the gathering, observers say. For example, the rosy periwinkle, a plant native to Madagascar, produces two cancer-fighting substances. Drug companies have grown the plants and profited from them, but little of the money has returned to Madagascar. Developing countries argue they should receive royalties or a share of the benefits of such natural resources.

The convention aims to address this problem by setting up a legal framework by which producers and users can negotiate to reach mutually agreeable terms to ensure equitable sharing of resources and their benefits.

"Developing countries are putting pressure on developed countries and saying if we don't reach an agreement on this issue, we won't give you what you want on the strategic plan," said Patricia Yakabe Malentaqui, international media manager at the environmental group Conservation International. "All the parties are at risk of polarizing the debate." Another contentious goal will be setting a percentage of the Earth's land and oceans that should be protected by 2020.

Currently, 13 percent of land and less than 1 percent of open ocean is protected - which can range from a strict nature reserve to an area managed for sustainable use of natural resources. Those percentages need to be raised to 25 percent and 15 percent respectively,
Conservation International says.

But even if delegates manage to agree to such targets, carrying them out in real life is another matter. Businesses will likely oppose any limits on their activities and population growth means setting aside such protected areas will become increasingly difficult. Furthermore, the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity has no mechanism for enforcing compliance.

Environmental groups argue that creating protected areas reap huge economic rewards. For example, there is plenty of evidence, says IUCN's Jackson, that providing safe havens for fisheries help their populations recover and flourish.



SPECIES OF THE MONTH: OCTOBER

DURRELL' VONTSIRA 


Phylum   : Chordata
Class      : Mammalia
Order     : Carnivora
Family    : Eupleridae
Genus     : Salanoia
Species   : Salanoia durrelli


The point of this article is to announce the publication of a new, living euplerid species: Salanoia durrelli Durbin et al., 2010, discovered in the marshes around Lake Alaotra in central-eastern Madagascar. It was identified by scientists at the Natural History Museum, the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (DWCT) and Conservation International (CI). The small mongoose-like animal is about the size of a cat. It is only known in Madagascar, and it is likely to be one of the most threatened carnivores in the world.


The most well-known member of this family is the Fossa, which is the largest of the Madagascan carnivores. The new species has been named Durrell’s vontsira, Salanoia durrelli, in honour of Gerald Durrell, the conservationist and writer who died 15 years ago. Traditionally, the Fossa, Falanouc and so on were regarded as peculiar civets (that is, they were included in Viverridae) while the Madagascan 'mongooses' were classified as, well, mongooses (as part of Herpestidae).


Salanoia durrelli most closely resembles the brown-tailed mongoose, which is a small, gracile mongoose-like carnivoran. It is reddish brown overall, paler than the brown-tailed mongoose. The head and nape are speckled.The underparts are reddish buff, not brownish as in the brown-tailed mongoose. Most of the tail is similar in color to the body, but the tip is yellowish brown. The inner side of the well-furred external ear (pinna) is reddish buff.


The unique habitat of  this is threatened by pollution, destruction of marshes for the construction of rice fields, overfishing, and introduced species such as exotic fish, plants, the black rat (Rattus rattus), and the small Indian civet (Viverricula indica), another small carnivoran.As a narrowly distributed species with a small population, S. durrelli is likely to be threatened by degradation of its habitat but its conservation status has not yet been formally assessed.

Ref: http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2010/08/new_mad_mongoose.php