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A Wet and Warm Spring, Then 200,000 Dead Saigas

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A Wet and Warm Spring, Then 200,000 Dead Saigas

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The Saiga Antelope, an endangered species, is experiencing heightened mortality rates. The extreme cold that saigas endure has been replaced with high humidity and higher temperatures. All of the dead were found with a typically harmless bacteria, Pasteurella Multocida, is poisoning their bloodstreams. Scientists are suggesting is the main cause of the mass die-off. This occurrence has happened in the past and may continue until their extinction if the source of the problem cannot be identified and dealt with.

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[READ: Animals Die in Large Numbers, and Researchers Scratch Their Heads]

Scientists now need to model how climate change might affect saigas in the future, particularly if unusually wet and warm weather events become more common in their range.

In the new study, Dr. Kock and his colleagues first confirmed that P. multocida was the immediate cause of death in 2015. They ruled out other pathogens and toxins (including Russian rocket chemicals, as a handful of ecologists had speculated). They found nothing significant in the soil or the vegetation the antelopes had been exposed to, and determined that the animals were not nutritionally deficient or immunosuppressed.

What did show a strong correlation with the die-off in 2015 - as well as two similar events in 1981 and 1988 - were the average relative humidity and average minimum temperatures in the 10 days leading up to mass mortality. During these 10 days, if relative humidity is greater than 80 percent, there's a strong possibility of outbreak, said Wendy Beauvais, a postdoctoral student in veterinary medicine at Cornell University and an author of the study.

It's clear that an environmental trigger allowed the bacteria to wreak havoc, but how remains a mystery, Dr. Kock said. The 100 percent fatality rate that occurred in 2015 was unprecedented among similar outbreaks in other large mammals.

"I've worked with many nasty things," he said. "You always get survivors."

Another contributing factor may be the saiga's unique life history. Since females give births to unusually large calves, they tend to be stressed and more susceptible to disease during calving season.

Furthermore, the antelopes have evolved specific mechanisms to deal with cycles of weather extremes in the Eurasian steppe, including their Seussian trunks, which facilitate heat exchange and keep out dust. The more "fine-tuned" an animal is to specialized conditions, the more vulnerable it might be to change, Dr. Kock said.

[READ: Saiga Population Grows After Mysterious Epidemic]

Going forward, conservationists perhaps won't be able to stop environmental change, but they can try to make sure the world's five saiga populations are resilient enough to cope with disease outbreaks, said E.J. Milner-Gulland, a professor of biodiversity at Oxford and an author of the paper.

This means managing other threats, such as encroachment on the saigas' habitat and poaching. "Saigas have a history of bouncing back," she said, "so we always have hope."

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A Wet and Warm Spring, Then 200,000 Dead Saigas

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READ: Animals Die in Large Numbers, and Researchers Scratch Their Heads] Scientists now need to model how climate change might affect saigas in the future, particularly if unusually wet and warm weather events become more common in their range. In the new study, Dr. Kock and his colleagues first confirmed that P.

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Weather anomalies accelerate the melting of sea ice

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Weather anomalies accelerate the melting of sea ice

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Sea ice is melting at an alarming rate due to a series of events in past years and only now are we finding out the significance of those events. Due to the positioning of pressure system and the warmth of 2015 and 2016 currents, hot, humid air was sent over the Arctic. Along with the air, the intensified solar radiation on cloudless days in the Arctic sped up the melting process, sending temperatures up to 8 degrees in areas. The melting of the ice has not been linked to global warming, but has a large environmental impact.

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Bigger, Faster Avalanches, Triggered by Climate Change

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Bigger, Faster Avalanches, Triggered by Climate Change

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Glaciologists find that glaciers and avalanches are taking on new behaviors with a warming climate being the culprit. Known to be large masses of snow and ice that move down mountains that progressively build speed, recent avalanches in Tibet have moved faster 200 mph. As well as making them considerably more dangerous, this discovery cause glaciologists to believe that this is only the beginning.

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To understand what the researchers found, it helps to know that generally there are two kinds of mountain glaciers: flat and steep. When a flat glacier collapses, it can move a lot of snow and ice, but in slow motion. These "surges" can last weeks and even years, but move no more than a few hundred feet a day.

Steep glaciers appear perilously affixed to mountain walls, and when they do collapse they create avalanches with speeds up to 250 m.p.h. Those avalanches may imperil mountain climbers, but over all they don't move as much snow and ice.

In Tibet, however, researchers saw a frightening hybrid of the two. "It was a flat glacier, but it produced speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour," or 186 m.p.h., said Andreas Kääb, a professor of geosciences at the University of Oslo in Norway and lead author of the study.

On top of the speed, each of the collapses moved enough snow and ice to fill one million freight train cars stretching 7,500 miles, Dr. Kääb said. That's roughly the distance between New York City and Shanghai.

The only other comparable event scientists have recorded was the 2002 collapse of the Kolka glacier in the Caucasus Mountains. That collapse tumbled eight miles downriver, reaching speeds of 179 m.p.h. and killing more than 120 people in the North Ossetia region of southwestern Russia.

"It happened during the second Chechen war, very close to the boundary to Chechnya, so there were a lot of refugees camping," Dr. Kääb said.

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Bigger, Faster Avalanches, Triggered by Climate Change

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To understand what the researchers found, it helps to know that generally there are two kinds of mountain glaciers: flat and steep. When a flat glacier collapses, it can move a lot of snow and ice, but in slow motion. These "surges" can last weeks and even years, but move no more than a few hundred feet a day.

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Air pollution is the worst threat to public health

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Air pollution is the worst threat to public health

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The national rank based on the Environmental Protection Index is concerning. Ranked 27th, there is much room for improvement as we are behind some of our most influential/powerful allies. It seems that most nations ranked lower are Stage 1 and 2 countries such as India and China due to their lack of eco-friendly legislation while Stage 3 and 4 nations such as England and Japan are higher in the rankings.

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The 2018 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) finds that air quality is the leading environmental threat to public health. Now in its twentieth year, the biennial report is produced by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. The tenth EPI report ranks 180 countries on 24 performance indicators across 10 issue categories covering environmental health and ecosystem vitality. Switzerland leads the world in sustainability, followed by France, Denmark, Malta, and Sweden.

Switzerland's top ranking reflects strong performance across most issues, especially air quality and climate protection. In general, high scorers exhibit long-standing commitments to protecting public health, preserving natural resources, and decoupling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from economic activity.

India and Bangladesh come in near the bottom of the rankings, with Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Nepal rounding out the bottom five. Low scores on the EPI are indicative of the need for national sustainability efforts on a number of fronts, especially cleaning up air quality, protecting biodiversity, and reducing GHG emissions, said the researchers. Some of the lowest-ranking nations face broader challenges, such as civil unrest, but the low scores for others can be attributed to weak governance, they note.
EPI Rankings
The United States places 27th in the 2018 EPI, with strong scores on some issues, such as sanitation and air quality, but weak performance on others, including deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. This ranking puts the United States near the back of the industrialized nations, behind France (2nd), the United Kingdom (6th), Germany (13th), Italy (16th), Japan (20th), and Canada (25th).

Of the emerging economies, China and India rank 120th and 177th respectively, reflecting the strain population pressures and rapid economic growth impose on the environment, note the researchers. Brazil ranks 69th, they add, suggesting that a concerted focus on sustainability as a policy priority will pay dividends -- and that the level and pace of development is just one of many factors affecting environmental performance. Sustainability outcomes among emerging economies remains highly variable.

Seychelles ranks as the most-improved country over the past decade, due largely to its commitment to combating greenhouse gas emissions. São Tomé and Príncipe, Kuwait, and Timor-Leste also increased their ranking due to several factors, including the establishment of areas protecting biodiversity and habitat. Burundi, Central African Republic, Madagascar, the Bahamas, and Latvia slipped significantly in environmental performance, largely due to sub-par performance on climate change. All trend analyses are based on backcasting this year's EPI methods on historical data.
2018 EPI Trends
The 2018 EPI offers not only a snapshot of where countries stand today but also reflects important trends in environmental performance at both the national and global levels. The global community is generally improving on a number of issues, such as health outcomes related to drinking water and sanitation and protection of marine ecosystems, while on other issues significant challenges remain. Fisheries continue to deteriorate in most countries, with significant problems in El Salvador, Papua New Guinea, and Portugal. Substantial populations still suffer from poor air quality, most notably in India, China, and Pakistan. And on some issues, a small number of countries are failing to address critical problems. Indonesia, Malaysia, and Cambodia, for example, have experienced significant deforestation over the past five years, reflecting broad policy failures, said the researchers.
EPI and Policy
Analysis of the policy drivers underlying the 2018 EPI rankings makes it clear that income is a major determinant of environmental success, said the researchers, noting that investments in safe drinking water and modern sanitation, in particular, translate quickly into improved environmental health results. Yet at every level of development, some countries achieve scores that exceed their peer nations with similar economic circumstances, demonstrating that good governance and careful policy choices also affect outcomes, they add.

"As the world community pursues new sustainable development goals, policymakers need to know who is leading and who is lagging on energy and environmental challenges," said Daniel C. Esty, director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy and the Hillhouse Professor at Yale University. "The 2018 EPI confirms that success with regard to sustainable development requires both economic progress that generates the resources to invest in environmental infrastructure and careful management of industrialization and urbanization that can lead to pollution that threatens both public health and ecosystems."
EPI and Global Sustainability Data
The EPI builds on the best available global data from international research entities, such as the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the World Resources Institute, and the Sea Around Us Project at the University of British Columbia, as well as international organizations such as the World Bank and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Nevertheless, serious data gaps limit the ability to measure results -- and particularly changes in performance -- on a number of important issues. "As the EPI project has highlighted for two decades, better data collection, reporting, and verification across a range of environmental issues are urgently needed," said Zach Wendling, principal investigator of the 2018 EPI. "The world needs better data on sustainable agriculture, water resources, waste management, and threats to biodiversity. Supporting global data systems is one of the most important steps the world community can take to achieving sustainable development goals."

Report: https://epi.envirocenter.yale.edu/2018-epi-report

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health policy; workplace health; teen health; fitness; environmental policy; sustainability; environmental issues; environmental awareness

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Air quality is leading environmental threat to public health: Switzerland tops the report while India falls to the bottom tier

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The 2018 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) finds that air quality is the leading environmental threat to public health. Now in its twentieth year, the biennial report is produced by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum.

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2016 was the hottest year on record without El Nino naturally boosting temperatures and scientists say 2017 wasnt much better. Being directly connected with man-made global warming. The heat has lead to series of droughts and forest fires if this trend continues.

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national oceanic and atmospheric administration

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Near-record heat despite the absence of an El Nino is evidence of climate change

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Cape Town Is 90 Days Away From Running Out of Water

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Cape Town Is 90 Days Away From Running Out of Water

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Cape Town will be one of the first major cities to run out of water. Unless the measures that were set for water consumption are followed, Cape Town is going to be in trouble. This water shortage is due to a 3 year long drought they have experienced and similar conditions have been noticed in drought areas such as California of the United States. This drought may be a result of the warming climate.

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Cape Town Is 90 Days Away From Running Out of Water

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Unless Capetonians drastically cut down on water use, taps in the seaside metropolis of four million will run dry on April 22 - "day zero"