Apparently, before chopping the cane with large machetes called facão, the workers burn huge swaths of cane fields (seems to the remnants of the cane crops on the ground) to remove dry leaves and drive off snakes and other creatures. The cleared fields are easier to cut by hand, but the massive burns create choking clouds of smoke and ash. Other insightful excerpts are below, from the source story.

Nitrogen compounds naturally vary in global warming potential, but tends to be hundreds of times that of CO2, meaning a given mass of various nitrogen gases can do several hundred times the global warming damage as the same mass of CO2.

Happy New Year, everyone! Thank you for reading Envirostats! [Envirostats author]

During the harvest period from April to November, a layer of ash covers cars, and NO_x levels double in the main sugarcane-growing state of São Paulo, says study leader Arnaldo Cardoso of São Paulo State University.

The equivalent of 35% of the nitrogen applied to cane as fertilizer goes up in smoke, Cardoso says. Some of this comes back down and recycles nitrogen into soil to fertilize plants, but much of it does not. “This may generate impacts such as acid rain, ozone, and changes in the quality of water in rivers and lakes,” Cardoso adds.

Cardoso notes, based on his group’s previous work, that “because this season is also dry, this usually increases the particles in the air.” The combination of particles and gaseous emissions can lead to harvest-time ozone levels in the agricultural regions that are “similar to [those in] a big city like São Paulo,” he adds. A recent study by a different research group tied sugarcane burning to higher hospital admissions for asthma.

This kind of research is useful, says Mark Delucchi of the University of California Davis, “because it is important to characterize all of the environmental impacts of the bioethanol life cycle in Brazil.” The country faces growing concerns about ethanol production, and the workers who harvest cane are believed to be the most vulnerable.

- Arnaldo Cardoso of São Paulo State University via Environmental Science & Technology, Dec 5 2007

- Abstract for original research article in Environmental Science & Technology, Oct 23 2007

Doomsday tourism, eh? Nice term. It’s a fine difference to eco-tourism, where you just want to see natural sites. Here, you want to see natural sites that is not predicted to remain for long. 

An interesting story about the eco-tourist boom of those rushing to see sites that are changing so fast they may disappear and never be seen as they were. Most of these are ice disappearing in one form or another, or sea levels rising. Let’s hope those who are rushing there are doing so responsibly so these sites are not gone sooner than would be otherwise without their presence!

Antarctica: the Müller ice shelf and the Larsen ice shelf are shrinking dramatically.

Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania: global warming is blamed for melting of the year-round snows at the summit of Africa’s highest mountain. They could be gone in 15 years.

The Arctic ice cap: the melting of icebergs and ice caps in the Arctic is blamed on global warming and threatens the habitats of species such as polar bears.

The Maldives: rising sea levels (3½in per year) could make these 1,200 islands in the Indian Ocean uninhabitable within 100 years.

Venice: the Italian city is sinking into the Adriatic and rising sea levels could make things worse.

Alaska: American travel agents report thousands heading for the shrinking glaciers and melting permafrost.

Great Barrier Reef, Australia: it’s been predicted that rising water temperatures, which are bleaching the famously vivid reefs, will kill 95 per cent of the living coral by 2050.

Kitzbuhel, Austria: the home of the world’s most fearsome ski run is among low-lying Alpine ski resorts whose long-term futures are threatened by rising temperatures - on average the warmest they have been for 1,250 years.

Galapagos Islands: rising water temperatures are bleaching coral and causing the deaths of marine species.

Patagonia: South American glaciers are also retreating.

According to the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators, more than 37,000 tourists visited the continent last year - double the number five years ago. A third came from America, while the second largest contingent - one in seven visitors - travelled from Britain. “There definitely is a rush to see and explore the world before it changes,” said Matt Kareus, of Natural Habitat, which operates excursions to Antarctica.

Interesting. We Canadians flock to warmer weather. Going to Antartica isn’t exactly our style, though, mind you, I personally took a half day vacation last winter to photograph Halifax harbour freezing in -36C windchill. We’ve got the deepest ice free unfrozen natural harbour in the world, in case you didn’t know. Besides, we Canadians have got the North Pole so why go to the South Pole?

At least we’ve got the North Pole for now.

Merry Christmas again! [Envirostats author]

- Eco-tourism story via The Telegraph, Dec 23 2007

I know we planted trees in Canada, and the US, and the UK, but where were we in all of this???

And just look at Ethiopia! Wow! Standing O for them! [Envirostats author]

On Nov 28 2007, Professor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, the inspiration behind the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Billion Tree Campaign, UNEP, the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and Prince Albert II of Monaco announced that a promise made last year for the UN climate convention meeting to plant a billion trees in 2007 had been met.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, said: “I am delighted to say that an initiative to catalyze the pledging and the planting of one billion trees has achieved and indeed surpassed its mark. It is a further sign of the breathtaking momentum witnessed this year on the challenge for this generation-climate change”.

“There had been a few cynical smiles and shaking of heads when the Billion Tree Campaign was launched. Some said it would never happen, and others couldn’t at first see the raison d’être. But citizen after citizen, community after community and country after country, have proved the doubters wrong and demonstrated an abiding truth in 2007,” he added.

“Namely that given a focus and the chance to act, millions if not billions of people around this world want an end to pollution and environmental deterioration and have rolled up their sleeves and got their hands dirty to prove the point,” said Mr Steiner.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan Green Belt Movement founder and Patron of the campaign, said: “I am elated beyond words at the global interest and action that was motivated by the Billion Tree Campaign. I knew we had it within us as a human family to rise up! We called you to action almost exactly a year ago and you responded beyond our dreams. Thank you very much! Now we must keep the pressure on and continue the good work for the planet. Plant another tree today in celebration!”

The enthusiasm of individuals to make a difference is underlined by figures collected by UNEP which indicate that half of all those who planted are often private citizens or households planting one to three trees. Significantly, another 13 per cent have been planted by the private sector, which participated actively in the initiative.

ICRAF Director General Dennis Garrity said: “The World Agroforestry Centre is very proud that the ambitious goal of the Billion Tree Campaign has been attained. This milestone shows clearly that the global community has the spirit and the substance to unite in achieving ambitious targets to create a better environment for all. We look forward to working with UNEP and so many other organizations in setting and achieving even greater stretch goals for a more ‘bountreeful’ world in the coming years.”

The billionth tree planted is believed to be in Ethiopia where, and as part of the country’s Millennium Commemoration 2007, close to 700 million trees have been planted alone.

The initiative, whose other Patron is His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco, is unlikely to end with the surpassing of the one billion trees planted mark.

UNEP is expecting that Guatemala, China and Spain will shortly announce that several million more trees have been planted.

Indonesia is expected to plant almost 80 million trees in one day in the run up to the Bali climate convention meeting next month.

- United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Press Release, Nov 28 2007

This is a collection of links to great green gift ideas to start off your holiday season now that it is December and by my books, fair time to start Christmas shopping. I’m not into the consumerism hoopla that is Christmas, but I’m not a grinch, either. The list here is the same as the page on this blog I just created called Green Gifts, found at the top menu bar. As a result, the lists will be for Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza or whatever holiday you celebrate at this time of year. However, green gifts can be given all year round, though at the caution of consumption. So please, enjoy your holidays responsibly in as many ways as you can!

Minh Tan
Envirostats author
.

10 great gifts for the eco child 
It’s a tough job to keep the kids happy and save the planet, but the following should do the trick.
(The Independent)

10 great gifts for the green woman
Racking your brains for something suitably stylish, yet planet-friendly?
(The Independent)

10 great gifts for the green man
A selection of presents to the keep the eco-warrior in your life at the top of his game.
(The Independent)

10 great organic christmas drinks
There’s no reason why you shouldn’t go local or organic with your festive tipples.
(The Independent)

Green Christmas getaways
Let someone else worry about the cooking while you take a break in the lap of eco-luxury.
(The Independent)

Alternative green Christmas activities
activities for nature-lovers where family fun is high on the agenda.
(The Independent)

10 green new year’s resolutions
From buying local to saving water, Laura Smith offers 10 ways to make 2008 an ecologically sound year.
(The Independent)

Environmental Defense Christmas List 
Annual roundup of earth-friendly ideas.
(Environmental Defense)

This was from a new study on environmental health burden which are done on estimates based on some model of real data of similar circumstance (not exact cause who can measure direct cause due to shipping emissions related illness?), and extrapolated out. It was probably not wise to put all those significant digits as shown below, which was why I rounded it in the headline since I felt it was interesting enough to show the relative and approximate values, but not the exact values put out below for your information because no study can hope to be so precise. I’ve had the opportunity to investigate other similar studies at work so I know, but didn’t blog them to avoid conflict of interesting using work time, and money to purchase studies in some cases, for my personal blog.

The wide range showed the weakness of the study models, although the range is a good indicator of the magnitude of the problem to demonstrate there to be a problem. These statistical models based on some associated evidence have a range of confidence level so the right answer is like in that range. It’s just too bad that range couldn’t be narrower. But the fact the number is in that range and the magnitude of the range is known are the important things here, not the specifics of the numbers.

With the shipping industry pollution having gotten a lot of attention just recently, other shipping pollution statistics can be found on this blog in Stats 0474, 0471, 0470, 0468 and 0175. 

Corbett, Winebrake, and colleagues estimated seafaring-ship emissions of PM_2.5 and other pollutants, including sulfate and NO_x. Using global circulation models combined with a variety of emissions scenarios, they mapped out how emissions would drift over land. After folding in regional demographic data, they could pinpoint areas with a higher likelihood of deaths from cardiopulmonary and lung cancer that are attributable to PM_2.5 exposure.

Depending on the scenarios and models used, the number of such premature deaths in 2002 ranged from about 19,000 to 64,000. Southeast Asia, India, and Europe bore the brunt of the mortality along coastlines and near ports, but inland France also saw high mortality rates due to atmospheric circulation patterns and population density, the models show. Without emissions controls, the number of premature deaths could increase by 40% in the next 5 years, the authors estimate.

The reported range of deaths “reflects a lot of the uncertainties in the original mortality studies” on particulate matter exposure and its effects, comments Bart Ostro, chief of the Air Pollution Epidemiology Section of the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. Ostro modeled health effects for the port city of Long Beach with higher-resolution models, the results of which the researchers use for comparison. He says that their assumptions and model results seem “reasonably robust.” Ostro also notes that mortality rates hint at the hidden damage from shipping emissions, including asthma and other problems, which contribute to higher costs for health care and the economy due to lost work and wages.

Observers from within the shipping industry and elsewhere argue that the current emissions controls established by IMO are sufficient to cap spewing sulfate, and that more stringent rules, called for by environmental groups and others, would create heavy cost burdens for shipping companies. Corbett and Winebrake reported further modeling results in a paper coauthored with Chengfeng Wang of the University of Delaware, published in ES&T (DOI: 10.1021/es070812w), in which they argue that measures for controlling sulfur emissions could be more cost-effective than previously assumed. Using emissions data from international oceangoing ships making port in the U.S., they calculate that low-sulfur fuels, onboard scrubbers, and market-based emissions trading programs could save up to $260 million in costs for achieving controls targets. 

——————————————

The study correlates the global distribution of particulate matter—black carbon, sulfur, nitrogen and organic particles—released from ships’ smoke stacks with heart disease and lung cancer mortalities in adults. Under current regulation, and with the expected growth in shipping activity, it estimates the annual mortalities from ship emissions could increase by 40% by 2012.

Annual deaths related to shipping emissions in Europe are estimated at 26,710, while the mortality rate is 19,870 in East Asia and 9,950 in South Asia. North America has approximately 5,000 premature deaths, concentrated mostly in the Gulf Coast region, the West Coast and the Northeast, while the eastern coast of South America has 790 mortalities. Highest value tally distribution. [Envirostats author]

Ships run on residual oil, which has sulfur content thousands of times greater than on-road diesel fuel. “Residual oil is a byproduct of the refinery process and tends to be much dirtier than other petroleum products,” Winebrake says.

“We needed to know what the benefits are of cleaning up this fuel,” he explains. “Now we can evaluate the human health impacts of policies to require low-sulfur fuels for the shipping industry or that require ships to put emissions control technology on their vessels. Our study will help inform this policy debate.”

Up until recently, researchers had little information with which to work; emissions data for marine vessels had to be linked with data tracking the movement of these vessels around the world. In their report, Corbett and Winebrake mapped marine pollution concentrations over the oceans and on land, estimating global and regional mortalities from ship emissions by integrating global ship inventories, atmospheric models and health impacts analyses.

The focus on long-term exposure to particulate matter in this study does not extend to impacts on children or other related health issues such as respiratory disease, asthma, hospital emissions and the economic impact of missed workdays and lost productivity.

“Our work will help people decide at what scale action should be taken,” says Corbett, associate professor of marine policy at University of Delaware. “We want our analysis to enable richer dialogue among stakeholders about how to improve the environment and economic performance of our freight systems.”

- “Mortality from Ship Emissions: A Global Assessment” by James Corbett of University of Delaware and James Winebrake from Rochester Institute of Technology, scheduled to appear in the Dec. 15 issue of Environmental Science & Technology, the journal of the American Chemical Society, via Science Daily and Environmental Science & Technology, Nov 7 2007