Vendée Globe 2016-2017 day -7

Alex Thomson

Windsurfing in extreme hurricane conditions

The toughest windusrfing contest in the world, Red Bull Storm Chase, is back for 2017!
Eight of the world's top windsurfers will be pitted against windspeeds up to Force 10 (89-102kmh), huge waves and intense hurricane conditions, making for an epic battle of Man VS Nature.
The waiting period begins January 9th and the contest will hold until the strongest storm of the winter hits the Northern Hemisphere.
In anticipation for the event, take a look back at the best action highlights from the last contest.

World on track to lose two-thirds of wild animals by 2020, major report warns

Killer whale populations in European waters are under threat from persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

Despite legislative restrictions on their use, these pollutants are still present in orcas’ blubber at levels that exceed all known marine mammal toxicity thresholds.
Photograph: Robert Pitman/NOAA/AP

From The Guardian by Damian Carrington

The number of wild animals living on Earth is set to fall by two-thirds by 2020, according to a new report, part of a mass extinction that is destroying the natural world upon which humanity depends.
The analysis, the most comprehensive to date, indicates that animal populations plummeted by 58% between 1970 and 2012, with losses on track to reach 67% by 2020.
Researchers from WWF and the Zoological Society of London compiled the report from scientific data and found that the destruction of wild habitats, hunting and pollution were to blame.
The creatures being lost range from mountains to forests to rivers and the seas and include well-known endangered species such as elephants and gorillas and lesser known creatures such as vultures and salamanders.

 The leatherback turtle, feeding here on a pyrosome, has become increasingly rare in both the tropical Atlantic and Pacific.

It declined by 95% between 1989 and 2002 in Las Baulas national park in Costa Rica, mainly caused by mortality at sea due to individuals being caught as bycatch and by development around nesting beaches.

Similar trends have been observed throughout the species’ range.
Photograph: Brian J. Skerry/NG/Getty Images

The collapse of wildlife is, with climate change, the most striking sign of the Anthropocene, a proposed new geological era in which humans dominate the planet.
“We are no longer a small world on a big planet.
We are now a big world on a small planet, where we have reached a saturation point,” said Prof Johan Rockström, executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, in a foreword for the report.
Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF, said: “The richness and diversity of life on Earth is fundamental to the complex life systems that underpin it.
Life supports life itself and we are part of the same equation.
Lose biodiversity and the natural world and the life support systems, as we know them today, will collapse.”
He said humanity was completely dependent on nature for clean air and water, food and materials, as well as inspiration and happiness.

 The European eel is declining due to disease, overfishing and changes to its freshwater habitat that impede its migration to the sea to breed.
Photograph: Erling Svensen/WWF/PA

The report analysed the changing abundance of more than 14,000 monitored populations of the 3,700 vertebrate species for which good data is available.
This produced a measure akin to a stock market index that indicates the state of the world’s 64,000 animal species and is used by scientists to measure the progress of conservation efforts.
The biggest cause of tumbling animal numbers is the destruction of wild areas for farming and logging: the majority of the Earth’s land area has now been impacted by humans, with just 15% protected for nature.
Poaching and exploitation for food is another major factor, due to unsustainable fishing and hunting: more than 300 mammal species are being eaten into extinction, according to recent research.
Pollution is also a significant problem with, for example, killer whales and dolphins in European seas being seriously harmed by long-lived industrial pollutants.
Vultures in south-east Asia have been decimated over the last 20 years, dying after eating the carcasses of cattle dosed with an anti-inflammatory drug.
Amphibians have suffered one of the greatest declines of all animals due to a fungal disease thought to be spread around the world by the trade in frogs and newts.

 Desert Seas narrated by David Attenborough tells the story of how the peninsula of Arabia transformed from an ocean millions of years ago to the desert it is today.
The Gulf is now home to a myriad of sea creatures but, just as Arabia was once ocean, a mere 10,000 years ago this expanse of water was a swampy flood plain.
Since it drowned as sea levels rose, the Gulf is now the world's hottest and saltiest open sea.
The Red Sea, on the other hand, is a far older coral-fringed chasm formed as plate tectonics pulled Africa and Arabia apart; its reefs are prowled by huge moray eels and their shrimp entourages.
Splash into the waves that line this desert land and join us as we explore these waters in stunning HD and see what other treasures hide within these mysterious and little-studied seas.

Rivers and lakes are the hardest hit habitats, with animals populations down by 81% since 1970, due to excessive water extraction, pollution and dams.
All the pressures are magnified by global warming, which shifts the ranges in which animals are able to live, said WWF’s director of science, Mike Barrett.
Some researchers have reservations about the report’s approach, which summarises many different studies into a headline number.
“It is broadly right, but the whole is less than the sum of the parts,” said Prof Stuart Pimm, at Duke University in the US, adding that looking at particular groups, such as birds, is more precise.
The report warns that losses of wildlife will impact on people and could even provoke conflicts: “Increased human pressure threatens the natural resources that humanity depends upon, increasing the risk of water and food insecurity and competition over natural resources.”
However, some species are starting to recover, suggesting swift action could tackle the crisis.
Tiger numbers are thought to be increasing and the giant panda has recently been removed from the list of endangered species.

 Ocean Animals - Life Under the Sea (National Geographic)

In Europe, protection of the habitat of the Eurasian lynx and controls on hunting have seen its population rise fivefold since the 1960s.
A recent global wildlife summit also introduced new protection for pangolins, the world’s most trafficked mammals, and rosewoods, the most trafficked wild product of all.
But stemming the overall losses of animals and habitats requires systemic change in how society consumes resources, said Barrett.
People can choose to eat less meat, which is often fed on grain grown on deforested land, and businesses should ensure their supply chains, such as for timber, are sustainable, he said.

“You’d like to think that was a no-brainer in that if a business is consuming the raw materials for its products in a way that is not sustainable, then inevitably it will eventually put itself out of business,” Barrett said.
Politicians must also ensure all their policies - not just environmental ones - are sustainable, he added.
“The report is certainly a pretty shocking snapshot of where we are,” said Barrett.
“My hope though is that we don’t throw our hands up in despair - there is no time for despair, we have to crack on and act.
I do remain convinced we can find our sustainable course through the Anthropocene, but the will has to be there to do it.”

Links :

• CNN : Sixth mass extinction? Two-thirds of wildlife may be gone by 2020: WWF
• The Independant : World facing first mass extinction since the dinosaurs as wildlife populations plunge by 67 per cent in 50 years
• BBC : World wildlife 'falls by 58% in 40 years'
• Christian Science Monitor : Report: Wildlife populations more than halved since 1970s
• ICES advice on eel: all anthropogenic impacts should be reduced to – or kept as close to – zero as possible

Mediterranean migrant deaths reach record level in 2016

Refugees and migrants get off a fishing boat at the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey in October 2015. More than 1 million refugees and migrants escaped to Europe in 2015, the UN refugee agency said.

From CNN by Laura Smith-Spark

This year has become the deadliest for migrants crossing the Mediterranean bound for Europe, the UN refugee agency said Wednesday, with those seeking to make the journey from Libya at greatest risk.
"We can now confirm that at least 3,800 people have died, making 2016 the deadliest ever," William Spindler, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on Twitter.

According to UN Radio, 3,771 lives were lost during 2015, the previous highest number.
"This is the worst we have seen," Spindler told journalists at a briefing Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, as the grim record for 2016 loomed.

 Migrants, most of them from Eritrea, jump into the Mediterranean from a crowded wooden boat during a rescue operation about 13 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, on Monday, August 29

"The high loss of life comes despite a large overall fall this year in the number of people seeking to cross the Mediterranean to Europe."
He said at least 1.02 million made the crossing in 2015, while 327,800 have so far this year.
"From one death for every 269 arrivals last year, in 2016 the likelihood of dying has spiraled to one in 88," Spindler said.
On what's known as the Central Mediterranean route between Libya and Italy, "the likelihood of dying is even higher, at one death for every 47 arrivals," he said.

A ship crowed with migrants flips onto its side Wednesday, May 25, as an Italian navy ship approaches oof the cast of Libya. Passengers had rushed to the port side, as shift in weight that proved too much. Five people died and more than 500 were rescued

Libya is a popular jumping-off point for migrants seeking to reach Europe from North Africa. Smuggling networks are well established there, and the lack of an effective central government makes the job of traffickers easier.
But the crossing can be treacherous, with too many migrants -- some fleeing war or persecution, others seeking a better life -- crammed into what are often barely seaworthy boats.

The Turkish coast guard helps refugees near Aydin, Turkey, after their boat topped en route to Greece on Friday January 22

The UN refugee agency considers the route "extremely dangerous due to the open sea, strong currents and grim weather," UN Radio said.
This year, about half those attempting the journey have taken the Central Mediterranean route, Spindler said.
He also attributed the higher death toll to people smugglers "using lower-quality vessels -- flimsy inflatable rafts that often do not last the journey."
Bad weather during the crossings may also have played a role, and he said smugglers have changed tactics so "there have been mass embarkations of thousands of people at a time," making rescuers' work more difficult.
An agreement in March between the European Union and Turkey resulted in a big reduction in the numbers setting off from Turkey for Greece, a much shorter and less treacherous route, Spindler told UN Radio.

Links :

• CNN : 'These crossings are nothing but fatal' / 3,800 dead ... and more on the way / 5,700 migrants rescued from Mediterranean in two days, authorities say
• NYTimes : ‘The Worst We Have Ever Seen’: Fewer Migrants, More Death
• BBC : Migrant deaths in Mediterranean hit record in 2016 - UN

CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate

 An ultra-high-resolution NASA computer model has given scientists a stunning new look at how carbon dioxide in the atmosphere travels around the globe.

From BBC by Matt McGrath

Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have surged past an important threshold and may not dip below it for "many generations".

The 400 parts per million benchmark was broken globally for the first time in recorded history in 2015.
But according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), 2016 will likely be the first full year to exceed the mark.
The high levels can be partly attributed to a strong El Niño event.

 This animation shows a seven month time lapse animation of CO2 surface concentrations from July 2015 until Feb 2016. The data comes from NASA's GEOS-5 numerical weather model.

Gas spike

While human emissions of CO2 remained fairly static between 2014 and 2015, the onset of a strong El Niño weather phenomenon caused a spike in levels of the gas in the atmosphere.
That's because the drought conditions in tropical regions produced by El Niño meant that vegetation was less able to absorb CO2. There were also extra emissions from fires, sparked by the drier conditions.
In its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, the World Meteorological Organisation says the conditions helped push the growth in the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere above the average for the last ten years.

Greenhouse gases are vital to life on Earth, but the growing concentration of certain gases, such as carbon dioxide, is throwing the planet's delicate balance out of whack.

NASA is on the case, studying carbon dioxide on a global scale and its effects on our weather and climate.

At the atmospheric monitoring station in Mauna Loa, Hawaii, levels of CO2 broke through 400 parts per million (ppm), meaning 400 molecules of CO2 for every one million molecules in the atmosphere.
The last time CO2 was regularly above 400ppm was three to five million years ago, say experts.
Prior to 1800 atmospheric levels were around 280ppm, according to the US National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).
The WMO says that the rise through the 400ppm barrier has persisted and it's likely that 2016 will be the first full year when the measurements show CO2 above that benchmark, and "hence for many generations".
While the El Niño factor has now disappeared, the human impact on climate change has not, the WMO argues.
"The year 2015 ushered in a new era of optimism and climate action with the Paris climate change agreement," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

The air sampling station at Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii which recorded CO2 levels going through 400ppm 

"But it will also make history as marking a new era of climate change reality with record high greenhouse gas concentrations."
The report also details the growth in other greenhouse gases, including methane and nitrous oxide.
In 2015, levels of methane were 2.5 times greater than in the pre-industrial era, while nitrous oxide was 1.2 times above the historic measure.
The study also points to the impact of these increased concentrations of warming gases on the world's climate.

From a quarter to half of Earth’s vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change on April 25.

The greening represents an increase in leaves on plants and trees equivalent in area to two times the continental United States.

Between 1990 and 2015 there was a 37% increase in radiative forcing or warming effect, caused by a build up of these substances, from industrial, agricultural and domestic activities.

While welcoming new initiatives like the global agreement to phase out HFC gases agreed recently in Rwanda, the WMO argues that nations must retain their focus on cutting CO2.

"Without tackling CO2 emissions, we cannot tackle climate change and keep temperature increases to below 2 degrees C above the pre-industrial era," said Petteri Taalas.

"It is therefore of the utmost importance that the Paris Agreement does indeed enter into force well ahead of schedule on 4 November and that we fast-track its implementation."

Around 200 nations who signed the Paris climate agreement will meet in Morocco in November to decide on the next steps forward.

Links :

• The Guardian : 'New era of climate change reality' as emissions hit symbolic threshold /  Past our peak: plants and a burgeoning problem with CO2
• Phys :What the ancient CO2 record may mean for future climate change 
• Mashable : We just entered an alarming 'new era' of global warming