One might be tempted to think that’s a good thing. After all, who wouldn’t enjoy a leisurely swim in bathtub-warm water? But there is a significant downside to the hot weather in this particular part of the globe, one that both tourists and natives alike will find hard to warm up to: the beautiful coral reefs that give the region’s Great Barrier Reef its fame, and its beauty, are losing their color.


The Great Barrier Reef from the air. Photo: charlton_b

It’s a fairly straightforward process: when the weather gets warmer, the ocean water heats up. Among other causes, it is this unusually hot water which causes the vibrant colors to, physically, leave the coral.

This is because the color is due to the presence of zooxanthellae, tiny algae that live in healthy coral. Under cooler temperatures, these algae thrive in their symbiotic relationship with their coral hosts. But when the temperature rises, these sensitive life forms literally can’t take the heat.

Close up of coral polyps, one of which has bleached. Photo: amell

When the water temperatures reach a certain point, the zooxanthellae are expelled from the coral, leaving a white, or bleached coral where there once was vibrant color. This not only leaves the coral bereft of its spectacular beauty, but causes a reduction in nutrients that would normally be created via photosynthesis.

In addition to diminishing the colorful nature of the reef’s coral gardens, which have historically made the Great Barrier Reef a prime destination for tourists, warming ocean waters have other deleterious effects. When the temperature of ocean water gets too high, it causes a decrease in the phytoplankton that grows in the top layer of the ocean. This is particularly problematic because phytoplankton are the “foundation of the marine food chain.” When they decrease in volume, the fish that live on them must eat less or go elsewhere.

The reason warmer temperatures cause a decrease in phytoplankton has to do with a mineral we are all familiar with: iron. It takes a certain amount of iron to feed the phytoplankton. But, when ocean waters become too warm, the colder water that typically pulls the iron up into the surface of the water (referred to as “upwelling”) does not occur. This prevents the phytoplankton from getting the iron they need, causing them to die off; which, in turn, leaves too little food for the fish that feed on it. Too little fish food, leads to fewer fish, which leads to fewer birds (who feed on fish) and so on.

It’s an endless chain of cause and effect. And it’s not just a theory. In 2002, 50 percent of the seabird chicks hatched on Heron Island, which is located in the southern part of the Great Barrier Reef, starved to death because there were not enough fish to feed them.

While many of the consequences of warming ocean waters are known, one can’t help but wonder what additional, and as yet unknown, dangers may await us if the current global warming trend continues. With over 1500 species of marine animals living in the Great Barrier Reef, which covers over 2000 km of the northeastern Australian coast, there’s a lot to keep track of. But one thing is certain: if we suffer a significant loss of one life form, we are pretty much guaranteed the death, relocation, or perhaps even mutation, of another.

For this reason scientists at NASA are studying the Great Barrier Reef with increased intensity, now that climate change is upon us. Gene Carl Feldman of the Ocean Biology Processing Group put it this way: “Coral, which can only live within a very narrow range of environmental conditions, are extremely sensitive to small shifts in the environment. Like the ‘canary in the coalmine,’ coral can provide an early warning of potentially dangerous things to come.”

In order to process such environmental changes more closely, NASA has installed an instrument known as a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The MODIS system allows NASA to gather data from the region, via satellite, and make that data available for internet access within hours of the satellite’s passing over the area. This gives scientists an extraordinary “real time” view of what’s happening in the region.

Yet, despite the state-of-the-art data collection equipment NASA is using to transmit information across the globe, it appears that any real response to this troubling trend is in the future. While a recent editorial in the New York Times hailed the addition of two forms of Caribbean coral to the endangered species list (elkhorn and staghorn), the article failed to mention how labeling their destruction as bad will actually prevent the conditions that are destroying them.

If careless scuba divers, poachers and toxic waste were the sole contributors to the problem, the solution might be simpler. But the reality is that unless we control global warming, the main cause of coral bleaching will remain unchecked. And if that continues for long, we may not be able to predict the exact nature of the consequences that will follow, but there is little question that they will be tragic, indeed.

Making Aluminum in Western Australia

Australia is renown for having beautiful coastlines and expanses of white sandy beaches, as well as being one of the driest continents in the world. Therefore, It comes as a suprise to find situated on what could be described as a magnificent coastal stretch of Western Australian water, an Industrial region that spans 12 kilometers along the foreshore from north to south and is approximately 2 kilometers wide. This region is located 37 kilometers south of Perth, the Western Australian capital, and takes up 1,180 hectares of land, 80 % of which a small, tiny, little company called Alcoa occupies.

Small may have been a slight exaggeration on my part, after all Alcoa only has 250 operations that spread across a tiny community of 30 nations, with Western Australia being lucky enough to acquire three of these magnifiers of beauty, restorers of nature and revitalizers of natural resources.

Hey, it is a well-known fact that Australia is the lucky country!

Alcoa, also known as the Aluminum Company of America, operates in this Industrial region of Kwinana, 15 km south of Fremantle, Perth and a stone throw from the central business district. The Kwinana refinery began in 1963 and produces 1.9 million tones of aluminum annually. Coupled with the other Western Australian refineries, Australia produces 15% of the worlds Aluminum, which is a fabulous feat considering Alcoa depletes natural resources including Australia’s precious water supply, quicker than mother nature can reproduce.

This makes perfect sense when Australia is one of the driest continents on earth.

In a recent study of Perth, the CSIRO or Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization reported:

a 10% decrease in average rainfall and an estimated higher median temperature for the region. They predict this figure will impact upon the ground water of Perth reducing its holding by up to 50%, and they predict that in the future it will become even hotter.

Alcoa plays a significant part in this process because not only do they use natural resources, they also contaminate them, the land surrounding them, the air we breathe, and our glorious ozone layer. It’s like a bad Christmas present that you can’t return, or sell on eBay.

Without taking into consideration the size of the Alcoa plant in Kwinana — because of its insignificance causing an environmental impact — and the lack of incredibly loud noise associated with production, it is hard to ignore the captivating stream of carbon monoxide emissions, sulphur dioxide (So2), Benzene and volatile organic compounds (VOC) cascading into the air.

What a truly magnificent sight! Plumes of smoke 30-100 meters high. It brings a tear to my eye, and coughing to my lungs. Also, my nose is running.

These plumes then settle and hang around for up to 24 hours, which adds to the entertainment factor because you can now choose, if you wish, to run and frolic in them instead of just viewing their destruction from afar.

Sulphur dioxide only attacks the throat and lungs of the creatures residing nearby, making breathing difficult, and attacks plant vegetation, eventually destroying it. Volatile organic compounds erode our ozone layer and allow harmful UV rays to penetrate the atmosphere. Of course, Alcoa, state:

they are committed to using fewer resources, reducing toxic waste and pollution and becoming more environmentally friendly. They also swear they will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25%, and that they have introduced cleaner production programs.

In making these promises, Alcoa also applied for a new license.

The truly wonderful thing is, Alcoa is expanding. In 2003, they built new bauxite residue and storage ponds that are clay-lined, which of course prevents residue from permeating the earth.

This by-product of aluminum manufacturing takes years to dissipate and these ponds like the Alcoa operation are only small; they cover a tiny area of 44 hectares.

With Kwinana dubbed the Cancer Capital of Western Australia and many bizarre types of Cancer killing off the workers of Alcoa, it makes perfect sense that the Western Australian government is allowing brand new residential areas to be constructed in close proximity.

The real estate offices have been inundated with calls and they have almost sold out of potentially ‘fabulous’ blocks with a view. You can see that magnificent plume and there may even be a possibility you can play in it.

Of course, research has been conducted to ensure the environment is safe to build on. These tests were carried out by Alcoa themselves, because the Department of Minerals and Energy thought that the Department of Environmental Protection was doing it, and they in turn thought the Department of Health were responsible, so therefore they were unable to decide who should carry out the relevant studies. In addition, they thought Alcoa had done such a fantastic job, they would borrow their study instead.

Talk about shifting the responsibility. Maybe they thought Alcoa resembled a hot potato.

Who could honesty expect anything more from a governing body who find it challenging to issue a license to destroy mother nature and rape the earth. And, we worry about gun licenses!

Alcoa now has a brand-new license to kill, and no, the company is not related to James Bond. They will, however, continue to pollute the air we breathe with toxic emissions, destroy vegetation, create acid rain, drain our natural resources and contaminate the earth.

Our future is so bright I definitely will have to wear shades, and protective clothing and sunscreen and an oxygen mask and…

I first heard about Nauru in January of 2003 from an NPR article. Following the collapse of their telecommunications system, the Nauruans showed their anger with the government by burning the presidential house, rioting and looting. I like to think that this is an aberration in the Nauru culture. After all, “mountain people are wise, island people are happy.” But these islanders seemed distinctly unhappy.

In a January 31 speech President Dowiyogo made an impassioned plea for help to the international community, but it was several weeks before anyone in the outside world heard the speech. Australia responded by sending two telephone technicians.

A Stark landscape

The central 90% of Nauru, the world’s smallest independent republic, has been stripped of all vegetation, leaving a barren landscape of ancient coral heads. Before the mining Nauru was a lush tropical island that made a perfect resting and nesting spot for migratory birds.

Nauru is a tiny island, even by South Pacific standards. Measuring only eight square miles, it lies 36 miles south of the Equator and 400 miles from its nearest neighbor. Yet it holds one of the most important economic and ecological lessons of our time. Since the phosphate mining neared completion in 2003, the island has been left with about a single square mile of arable land.

Resources are scare. On most islands in the region rain water is collected from rooftops into cisterns. But the barren center of Nauru now reflects sunlight and drives away or dissipates rain clouds. Petrol is used to power the islands single desalinization plant, as well as the electricity plant. All petrol must be shipped in from Australia or New Zealand. Most of the food consumed by the islanders is also shipped in, with the exception of coconuts and bananas which grow around the island’s only lagoon.

There is a tradition on Nauru that the minimum number of people required for survival is 1,500. Apparently they have no such lore about the maximum number of people possible. The population has swollen to 13,000.

Turning Guano into Gold

Centuries of migrating and nesting birds deposited a layer of guano several meters deep on the central plateau. The guano is rich in phosphate; a nutrient required for agriculture. In 1906 corporations started mining the guano and shipping it out. For the next 68 years Nauru was ruled variously by the Germany, the UK, Japan, and a consortium of the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. All of these countries continued to mine and export the phosphate.

In response to an offer from Australia to re-settle the Nauruans on a different island (having destroyed most of Nauru) the Nauruans chose instead to seek independence, which they achieved in 1968. They became a member of the UN in 1999.

With independence came a time of great prosperity. For a while Nauru was the wealthiest nation in the South Pacific, boasting at one point $17,500 per capita GDP (it had dropped to $3,450 by 1999). The government subsidized basic needs such as housing and electricity and provided 95% of the jobs on the island. Health care was free.

The mining continued on the central plateau, mostly out of sight to the people who live on the coastal plane at the edge of the island. The government created a reserve trust with an eye to the day when the phosphate mining would be completed. They had planned to restore the central plateau and provide jobs and education for their citizens.

Nauru Today

Unfortunately a series of bad investment decisions and free spending has left the reserve nearly empty. Without phosphate or cash, Nauru’s government has resorted to any means they can find to generate income. Offshore banking operations provided cover for several illicit Russian companies in the ‘90’s. But the events of 9/11 caused the US government to crack down on such operations.

Even given the limited resources, the Nauruans remain a kind, open-hearted people. They greeted the refugees with flowers and songs, donated clothing and hats to them, and even took some out to lunch. Australia paid $20 million for the refugee housing which provided a temporary boost in income, but as of this writing there are only 35 male refugees left. During the riots of early 2003 the asylum-seekers had to run their refugee camps themselves, the site having been abandoned by the Nauruan officials.

In response to defaults on loans, Australia sent representatives to take over Nauru’s finances in July of 2004. It’s fair to say that the country has been repossessed.

Restore the Land or Move?

A study performed on the feasibility of restoring the interior of the island estimated the cost to be $230 million over 20 years. In 1989 the UN issued a report stating that rising seas will have a serious impact on Nauru in the 21st century. The highest point on Nauru is 61 meters, and there are portions of the island that, if restored, would be habitable when land of the coastal plane is swallowed by the rising sea.

Without the required $230 million (and possibly without 20 years) the Nauruans will be faced with a move to another island and the dissolution of their culture. It’s a harsh lesson; resources do not last forever and once they are gone, entire peoples may disappear as well.

Still, I cannot help but believe that the Nauruans will again survive. They have thrived through hundreds if not thousands of years of isolation, the introduction of diseases and guns (which resulted in tribal wars) from the West, exploitation, exportation and forced labor, exploitation, exploitation, great wealth, and again exploitation. Now they have been left to the wolves of hungry creditors. The spirit of the Nauru community must be strong to have come this far.

Tricia Schmidt

Sources:

• Jane Resture’s Nauru Page
• CIA Fact Book
• The Economist
• NPR, All Things Considered
• Lonely Planet
• Wikipedia
• BBC News
• NauruWire
• Nauru UN Mission
• Photos Courtesy: U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program

"Did you know that Australia’s remaining old growth forests are being logged, woodchipped and burnt? In Tasmania alone, more than 44 football fields worth of forest are logged and destroyed every single day. From this, a staggering 90% is wood chipped then exported overseas to make ‘throwaway’ paper products like junk mail, disposable plates, copy and toilet paper."
ForestFreedom.com

From the comments about Pulping The World, Part 2:

"I am one of the people sued by Gunns for exposing the rape of the Tasmanian forests. However, please note that not all the "Gunns 20" are activists. I am a television cameraman who made a film about activists. People of all walks of life are horrified at the theft of our natural heritage to profit a greedy few.

It is sad to see the lie that the forests are regrown (anonymously) on this site. The truth is that native forest, a mix of rainforest and tall eucalypts, takes thousands of years to form, with its rich ecosystems brimming with biodiversity.

These are being destroyed and replaced by crops, by plantations of eucalypt designed to feed the woodchippers. The ancient, diverse forest does not grow back. It is gone forever. Many species are threatened by extinction.

There is a campaign of intimidation, misinformation, violence and slander directed at those who expose this appalling, irreversible destruction.

Please everybody, wherever you are, pressure the Tasmanian and Australian governments to stop this industrial horror." Brian Dimick

ONE of Gunns Ltd‘s largest woodchip customers has announced it will no longer buy product sourced from old-growth forests, a move heralded as a victory by conservationists.

Mitsubishi Paper Mills is one of three Japanese companies that take the bulk of Gunns’ woodchip exports.
The company has released a conservation policy saying it will only buy woodchips from plantations and regrowth forests.

“Mitsubishi does not purchase any wood harvested from forest areas having high conservation values which are threatened,” says the policy, released on June 1. The Advocate

"While Tasmanian billion dollar Australian registered company Gunns Limited and its shareholders (including the Commonwealth Bank and AMP ) bathe in record profits from woodchipping and vandalizing Tasmania’s native forests, poisoning its wildlife and spraying carcinogenic chemicals, it initiates legal action in Melbourne for $6.3 million in damages against ordinary Tasmanian mums and dads that dare to oppose the Gunns regime and who can’t afford legal representation."
McGunns.com

"Yet the continued use of deadly 1080 poison seems to blow all other crimes off the radar screen. 1080, or Sodium monofluoroacetate, is an extremely toxic chemical imported into Tasmania by the government’s Department of Primary Industry, Water and Environment (DPIWE). It comes in a white powder form and has no odor and no taste. It is, for Gunns Ltd and the Tasmanian government, the perfect poison for wildlife genocide.

Following the re-planting of a monoculture plantation, the area is littered with healthy carrots to attract native wildlife, such as possums and wallabies, to graze. Once wildlife populations have recognized the feeding opportunities within the plantation, carrots are laced with 1080 poison and laid out for unsuspecting animals. The 1080 is quickly absorbed into the animals bloodstream and attacks the nervous system…"
ForestFreedom.com

You may download high resolution versions of the above images from this photostream
.

You’re looking at clear-cut logging of the oldest growth rainforest in the world. In Tasmania, the largest of the 600 species of Eucalyptus trees found in Australia, and some of the tallest standing hardwood trees in the world, are being felled. The timber is ground up into wood chips, and the wood chips are sold to make paper in Asia. Pulped.

The resulting paper and cardboard then eventually goes into a landfill somewhere. Maybe into one near you.

These huge trees will be ground up in machines that are owned and operated by Gunns Ltd, the world’s largest hardwood-chip company. They are also in the business of suing 20 environmental activists and organizations. This is often likened to the "McLibel" case, where McDonald’s Corporation sued Helen Steel and Dave Morris, two British activists. The lawsuit turned out to be a public relations disaster for McDonald’s Corporation.

"Gunns receives the overwhelming majority of logs destined for sawmills and woodchip mills from Tasmania. It owns all four export-woodchip mills in Tasmania. It exports more woodchips from Tasmania than are exported from all mainland states combined. Gunns exports over four million tonnes of native-forest woodchips each year." Wilderness Society

Only the California Redwood is known to grow taller, and at an average height of 85 meters, these huge trees are called Eucalyptus regnans, the "king of the gum tree." They can live longer than 450 years.

People seem to have a hard time with time spans longer than their own lifetimes.

Picture a seedling in the year 1555. The English were burning clergymen at the stake at that time. Back then, in South America, Brazil — which was named for the Portuguese word for the red color of brazilwood, which the early visitors would clear cut — Brazil was being settled by the French. That’s how long ago it was.

That seedling, grown and felled yesterday, to make a product manual that no one is going to read, and cardboard for boxes to ship it, and cardboard for that extra printed marketing sleeve that comes around the box. To make paper for laser printed documents that people will forget to pick up at the workgroup printer.

So far, over 75% of Tasmanian old-growth forests of these trees have been felled, the majority being made into woodchips for shipment to Asian markets.

Since Tasmania is part of Australia, where only .5% of the landmass consists of rainforest, you would think that they would protect the remaining trees. But like the megafauna, and trees on Easter Island, on this trendline the forest cover goes to zero.

The people living in Tasmania would prefer that the forests be harvested in a sustainable way, and made into hardwood furniture, for example, or any other use of the timber that doesn’t throw the island’s ecosystem down the woodchipper for two cents a ton.

Tasmanian politicians will tell you how much of Tasmanian forest is protected, but the problem with that argument is that these laws are not enforced. Forestry Tasmania continues to log protected reserves in Tasmania, making it the only state in Australia that is still clear cutting rainforest.

In clearing the forests they are also being poisoned. Pesticides are used on the converted plantations, which then leaks into the watershed and is distributed through the land.

According to Geoff Law of Wilderness Society, 23% of all the poison used in Tasmania is used on state forests. The so-called 1080 pesticide poisons native animals in one of the world’s most delicate ecosystems.

Yielding to pressure such as the World heritage Status, Tasmanian government is working on a Forest Plan, but it won’t end pulp logging. It protects a few sites and condemns many more to the wood chipper.

From this height you can see just how little of Australia is covered by forest, and how the larger landmass dominates the smaller island.

NASA’s Earth Observatory has the deal on the worsening drought in Australia and its effects on the vegetation there. With their quicktime movie you can actually see the islandcontinent drying out.

Deforestation, such as that currently being carried out in Tasmania, an Australian State, is a significant contributor to drought and desertification.

These days, most places in the world where people live, it’s easier to spot them at night. They light up. Most places. There are many significant exceptions. Most of these exceptions are enormous in area, in fact, the exceptions– the dark places– are the vast majority of the Earth’s land surface.

The water, of course, is the vast majority of the Earth. It’s completely dark, except for a handful of islands. Like England, Australia, etc.

Most of the earth is still dark at night.

I have to use heavy blinds to keep the light out of my windows at night, and I live in a city with less than half a million people in it. As far as cities go, that’s nothing. Chengdu lights up nicely as well, and although it’s not as bright as the island of Taiwan, the lush Sichuan Basin stands out, outlined in light.

I’ll be posting more excerpts from Earth At Night from NASA over the next day or so. If you can’t wait, click here (202kb jpg), or the image above.