The website Carbonpositive reports that the giant shipping company, Maersk, is reducing its consumption of fossil fuel (bunker fuel) by cutting travel speeds. Maersk is one of the main transport companies for New Zealand exports.

According to the article (www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=2278) Maersk reports that between 2007 and 2010  it reduced its CO2 emissions per container by 14.5% by improving operational efficiency, most particularly by slow steaming.  The company has set itself the target for reducing CO2 emissions by 25% per container moved by 2020 compared to 2007 levels.

This has implications implications for New Zealand.  Fonterra exports 95% of its milk to nearly 150 countries.  Maersk provided the logistics of getting NZ milk from point A to point B.  By achieving (and setting) significant CO2 reductions  in transport, it means that the environmental impact of our dairy products is reduced.  It also sets a standard that Fonterra can aspire to.  Wouldn't it be great If Fonterra would set itself the standard of reducing the carbon footprint of each container load of dairy product from cow to container!  It would be a source of pride for all of us.

 The Census of Marine Life has just announced the publication a new document entitled Scientific Results to Support the Sustainable Use and Conservation of Marine Life. The report can help marine planners, resource managers and policy makers to craft science-based policy. It summarizes the discoveries, tools and technologies from the decade-long Census of Marine Life. Included are examples and data that can inform decisions about ecosystem and species level protection.  It discusses findings about marine habitat degradation and rehabilitation and introduces Census-developed tools to identify biodiversity hotspots and large-scale ecological patterns and analyze distributions of species over time and space. 

Even if you are not a policy-maker or marine planner, the report provides a wonderful view on the majesty and mystery of life in the oceans.  It is well supported by maps and illustrations which help to give a much greater appreciation of marine biodiversity.  

The report is available for download from http://www.coml.org/policy-report. 

In December last year the nations of the world met at Copenhagen to form global strategy and policy on ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit predicted global warming.  The meeting, known as the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference ( en.wiipedia.org.wiki/2009_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference) was a disaster, as developed and developing countries faught about fundamentals.

A reconvening of the Copenhagen talks is happening this year, from 29th November to 10 December, known as the 16th session of the conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change.unfccc.int/2860.php  

In April this year the government announced new moves to encourage fish farming (MFish, 2010). 

According to Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Phil Heatley, the government wants to, “free up the regulatory bottlenecks that have kept aquaculture planning in limbo. The industry has been stifled by inflexible rules stopping companies from investing in the sector."  He voiced support for the industry’s aim to achieve a three-fold increase from current levels to $1  billion in sales  by 2025.  "This is about growing the economy, creating more jobs and getting more people into work, particularly in the regions."

A one-off spill of oil as in the Gulf of Mexico, trains the eye of the world on the issue of ocean pollution, and activates a chain of responses and mitigation planning. But what of pollution, perhaps even more insidious, which accumulates almost unseen over time, until it can be termed a "floating continent of debris"?

The New Zealand Herald reports that scientists and conservationists have identified a massive garbage patch in the North Pacific, in which Oceanographers have since suggested that perhaps 100 million tonnes of plastic are held in suspension in those waters. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/environment/news/article.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10659298

A critical assessment of the extent of the problem can be obtained from The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a United States federal agency focused on the condition of the oceans and the atmosphere. http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.html

Although the agency downplays some of the more extreme claims made in relation to the garbage patch, upon reading the supporting information, it becomes clear that slow, accumulating pollution is causing significant harm to ocean ecosystems around the globe, and this type of problem becomes particularly evident in areas such as eddies and convergence zones where debris can accumulate.

An editorial in the journal, Nature, highlights the issue of compensation for loss of ecosystem services when accidents occur such as the April 22^nd explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.  The article cites ecological economist Robert Costanza at the University of Vermont in Burlington that the outpouring of oil into the gulf from the burst well-head has already cost an estimated a $34-billion to $670-billion for the loss of ecosystem services.  The article reports the suggestion by Costanza that oil and mining companies pay an up-front ‘assurance’ bond’ to cover the cost of damages in the event of accident or disaster.  In the case of BP, Costanza has suggested that the company would have had to pay a bond in the order of $50 billion to get permission to drill in the Gulf.

Several more books I can recommend for Christmas are:

Peak Everything, by Richard Heinberg, 2007

Climate Wars, by Gwynne Dyer, 2008

The world is blue, by Sylvia Earle

Godwit in flight, pwallace 2009    

 In 2008 Birdlife International updated its comprehensive assessment State of the world’s birds. The report documents a global situation with some notable conservation successes, but generally characterised by continuing species extinction. It records thata total of 153 bird species is believed to have become extinct since 1500 AD, with 18 species lost in the last quarter of the twentieth century and three more known or suspected to have gone extinct since 2000. It is assessed that 1,226 species (one in eight of the total) were considered threatened with extinction. (BirdLife International State of the world’s birds 2008: indicators for our changing world (United Kingdom: BirdLife International, 2008). http://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/index.html

Following from the fourth assessment by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007),  the Ministry for the Environment has published a Guidance Manual for Local Government (http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/climate/coastal-hazards-climate-change-guidance-manual/coastal-hazards-climate-change-guidance-manual.pdf) which sets out and explains the implications for New Zealand of IPCC projections for climate change and provides guidelines on how district and regional councils can and anticipate and adapt to the expected consequences of global warming.  It suggests:

For planning and decision timeframes out to the 2090s (2090-2099), a base value sea-level rise of 0.5m relative to the 1980-1999 average, and an assessment of the potential consequences from a range of possible higher sea-level rises . . . .of a mean sea-level rise of at least 0.8 m relative to the 1980-1999 average.  Is this enough?