Writing in Nature Reports Climate Change this week, researchers have called for a move away from the ‘curious optimism’ which they believe has characterised Governments’ actions to date to tackle global warming.

Martin Parry, Jean Palutikof, Clair Hanson & Jason Lowe, members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) state that there is a “false optimism…obscuring reality” at major international climate change summits, hampering progress towards mitigation of the impacts of dangerous climate change.

Referencing the 2007 IPCC report, the authors state that a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% of 1990 levels by 2050 will be insufficient to prevent a 2 degree C rise in temperature by 2100. Due to inertia in the climate system, a warming trend will continue to 2100. They call for an 80% cut in emissions by 2050 as the only way to avoid dangerous climatic change. Under an 80% cut, the IPCC report indicates that there will be almost no chance of exceeding the 2 degree rise in 2050, and only a very small likelihood of reaching the 2 degree rise by 2100.

The article also stresses the vital importance of investing in measures to adapt to climate change immediately. “The sooner we recognize this delusion, confront the challenge and implement both stringent emissions cuts and major adaptation efforts, the less will be the damage that we and our children will have to live with.”

The preliminary findings of the EU-funded review into the economics of biodiversity loss, the so-called ‘Stern Review’ of Biodiversity, were unveiled yesterday at the 9th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn.

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb) review has found that global GDP could decline by 7% by 2050 if ecosystem degradation is not tackled. Mankind is causing almost £4obn of damage to terrestrial ecosystems each year. The leader of the study, Pavan Sukhdev, warns that “urgent remedial action is essential because species loss and ecosystem degradation are inextricably linked to human well-being”. The report warns that the world’s fisheries are likely to collapse within the next 50 years if current trends are not reversed.

The final results of the study will be reported at CBD COP-10 in 2010.

As part of the COP meeting, which draws to a close today, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, launched a ‘Life Web’ initiative, which provides financial and technical assistance to those developing countries in a position to provide protected areas on land or sea. Indonesia has declared it will designate 20million hectares of its territory as marine protected areas, establishing the largest marine protected area in the world.

See a webcast of the ‘Life Web’ side-event at the COP CBD meeting – 25 May 2008.

Applications are invited for the position of Director of the Living with Environmental Change (LWEC) initiative.

LWEC is a ten-year, £1bn, cross- Research Council initiative which will provide decision makers with the best information to effectively manage and protect vital ecosystem services. It will improve our tools and knowledge needed to build resilience, mitigate problems, and adapt to environmental change. Further information on the aims of the LWEC programme can be found here.

The Director of LWEC will be the public leader of the overall programme, recruiting and leading a supporting team to work with the programme’s advisory groups and partner organisations to enable the strategic objectives to be met. A high calibre individual is sought for a salary of £85,000, plus benefits.

Further information on the role and how to apply

On Tuesday, 27 May, members of the British Ecological Society gathered in York to discuss the future of ecological education in the UK. The Education team at the Society organised the “Starting from Scratch” workshop with the aim of producing concrete outputs, from researchers, applied ecologists and teachers – school to university – which could eventually filter into policy making at the highest levels.

Participants in the day were clear in their views on the ecological component of the biology curriculum: for too long students have been taught content with little regard to its wider applicability or in an abstract fashion with little connection the the real world outside the classroom. There has been little change in the biology curriculum since it was drafted by Huxley in 1875. Are there components of ecology which should be removed or reworked? Participants were encouraged to consider “ecological thinking”. Why are, for example, food webs, food chains, pyramids of numbers and the nitrogen cycle, taught in schools? What are these things for?

A presentation from the Field Studies Council highlighted the decline in fieldwork in schools, and the closure of field studies centres since the 1970s. This stressed that further work should be done to encourage confidence amongst teachers, whether during initial teaching training or at later career stages, through Continuous Professional Development, to take students out into the field to experience natural science first hand.

After discussion, many felt that the elements of the ecology curriculum currently in place were correct, but that these had to be taught in a different way, encouraging students to see ecology for what it is – applied biology in all its senses, with relevance to the real world and human impacts on it, and engendering an understanding and passion for nature outside the four walls of the classroom.

The BES policy and education teams will be working closely together later this year to develop this work. If you would be interested in getting involved, please contact the Society

Defra yesterday launched the Great Britain Invasive Non-Native Species Framework Strategy, aiming to coordinate existing programmes to tackle non-native invasive species in England, Scotland and Wales and to introduce means to spot threats posed by invaders much earlier. It is estimated that there are now more than 3,000 non-native species wild in Britain, with climate change expected to bring more foreign species to Britain’s shores. Invasive non-native species, such as Japanese Knotweed, cost the British economy upwards of £2bn a year.

The strategy is built around the three-stage approach agreed by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2002, to:

• to help prevent introductions in the first place by raising awareness of the risks and increasing understanding of the impacts;
• to better enable early detection and rapid response to introductions before they become major problems; and,
• to develop longer-term control programmes based on sound science.

Key points from the GB strategy include:

• Measures to educate the public on the risks posed to native habitats and wildlife by non-native invasive species, and on how to prevent introducing these species.
• The development of a web-based, shared central directory showing types of invasive non-native species in particular areas and how they have spread.
• Developing a clear framework for rapid responses when invasive non-native species are detected in Britain.

In addition, the GB Strategy also contains measures to improve the effectiveness of legislation, to improve integration of activities and programmes and to better focus research effort.

Significant changes are occurring in physical and biological systems in all continents and most oceans, according to a paper published recently in Nature.

The researchers conducted a huge meta-analysis using data sets from 829 documented physical and 28,800 biological responses from 1970-2004. Changes that were reported in biological systems included earlier blooming, leaf unfolding and spring arrival. In marine biological systems changes were observed in phenology, migration and community composition in algae, plankton and fish. Physical changes included glacier wastage and an earlier spring peak of river discharge. The team found that globally, the changes were directly attributable to anthropogenic climate change, rather than natural variability or other events such as solar flares or volcanic eruptions.

Disturbingly, the findings confirm the fact that anthropogenic climate change is already impacting these systems globally.

The British Ecological Society’s Conservation Ecology Specical Interest Group (SIG) is holding a one-day event on 2 July to discuss the ecological consequences of the proposed development of a Severn Barrage. The workshop provides an opportunities for ecologists and policy makers to interact to discuss the Barrage proposals and what these might mean for the natural environment of the Severn Estuary.

This will take place at the University of Wales, Cardiff. The draft programme and details of how to book a place at this event are available here.

Yesterday evening saw the launch of the ‘European Green Capital Award‘ at the European Green Capital Award‘ at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels.

The new award is designed to encourage European cities to become cleaner and greener, and will commence in 2010. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas is hopeful that “…this award will act as a powerful incentive for local governments and authorities to improve living conditions for Europe’s city-dwellers.”

The award will be given to a European city that has achieved a proven record of high environmental standards and that can act as a role model for other European cities.

Natural England yesterday announced a new £5million package to support Voluntary Conservation Organisations in safeguarding England’s priority habitats and species. The new scheme, ‘Countdown 2010′, will run for the next three years, funding projects which protect specific endangered species but also supporting initiatives dedicated to the revival of habitats and species across large areas.

Voluntary Conservation Organisations can apply for three-year grants, with a minimum award of £25,000 and a maximum of £250,000 in each of the three years. The programme finishes in March 2011.

Defra yesterday published a revised list of England’s priority habitats and species, which sees the number of priority species nearly double, to 914. The Countdown 2010 Biodiversity Action Fund will support projects which target species and habitats on this list.

A new report suggests that more needs to be done to adapt systems models to adequately reflect the dangers posed to human health by climate change.

Most research on the impacts of climate change has focused on the environmental consequences, rather than the health impacts. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predict that it is very likely that climate change will increase threats to human health. Direct impacts are posed by an increase in the incidence of extreme temperature and weather events, whilst indirect effects could be the increase in infectious disease, for example malaria, caused by warmer temperatures and changes in the hydrologic cycle.

Modelling the health impacts of, for example, malaria, and how this may change under climate change scenarios, is complex, due to the range of factors which can affect the geographic range of the vector, such as drug resistance and economic development. The report suggests that new models should better account for these drivers and develop country-specific projections of risk.

The priorities of healthcare funders are identified as one of the key factors limiting development of these models. To date, healthcare funders have had little interest in developing interdisciplinary models – for example modelling the interaction between land-use and climate change on human health.