Thawing permafrost frees millions of tons of carbon: study

A vast outcrop of the Arctic Siberian coast that had been frozen for tens of
thousands of years is releasing huge carbon deposits as rising temperatures thaw parts of it's coastline, a study warned Wednesday.

The carbon, a potential source of Earth-warming CO2, has lain frozen along the 7,000-kilometre (4,400-mile) northeast Siberian coastline since the last Ice Age.

But atmospheric warming and coastal erosion are gnawing at the icy seal, releasing about 40 million tonnes of carbon a year -- 10 times more than previously thought, said a study in
the journal Nature.

About two-thirds of the carbon escapes into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2) and the rest becomes trapped in higher layers of
ocean sediment.

About half the carbon pool in soil globally is held in permafrost in the Arctic, a region that is experiencing twice the global average of climate warming, said the study led by
researchers at Stockholm University.
Earlier this week, US scientists said the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean had melted to it's smallest point ever.

The region covered by the Nature study, called Yedoma, is twice the size of Sweden but has been poorly researched because it is so remote.
The finding touches on a vicious circle, or positive feedback in climate parlance.

Under this, man-made warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels releases naturally-occurring stocks of CO2 that have been stored in permafrost since the last Ice Age, called the Pleistocene.

The released gases in turn add to global warming, which frees even more locked-up carbon, and so on.
"Thermal collapse and erosion of these carbon-rich Pleistocene coastline and seafloor deposits may accelerate the Arctic amplification of climate warming," the paper warned.

The atmospheric leakage from Yedoma is equivalent to the annual emissions of around five million passenger cars, on the basis of average carbon output (five tonnes per year) of vehicles in the United States.

In a separate study also in Nature,
researchers in Britain, the Netherlands and the United States used computer models to estimate there could be as much as four billion tonnes of methane under Antarctica's icesheet.
Methane is 25 times more efficient at
trapping solar heat than carbon dioxide.

Before it froze over, the region teemed with life whose organic remains became trapped in sediment later covered by ice sheets.
"Our modelling shows that over millions of years, microbes may have turned this old organic carbon into methane," which could boost climate warming if released by ice sheet collapse, the researchers said in a statement.

The collapse of the Antarctic ice sheet is considered an extremely remote scenario by most climatologists, and some studies have suggested that parts of it could be thickening, due to localised increases in snowfall.

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Culled from france24.com

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FAILING EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS by Odedeyi Abiodun

For its numerous contribution, especially to national development, educations has been receiving special attention from the federal, state and local governments. It is the leading requirement to get virtually any position or move out and make a living as such, it has become a matter of getting the right grades or nothing.

This has also lead to call for improvement in education standards so as to have quality human capital turnouts. So, a sizable part of the country's budgets disappear into project at enhancing basic training and better manpower building for the future generations.

These dreams are however not shared by the very people whose case the state is fighting- Pupils.

About a week ago, some students of a public secondary school in Lagos were seen altering their examination report cards, with no regards to who or what anyone think of their action, they changed their low grades in full glare of the public.

On investigation, it was revealed that the students were among those who were asked to repeat their present class due to poor examination results.

Appalled, myself and a group of facebook friends otherwise known Space for Change approached the vice principal of the school (name withheld) who confirmed the revelations, "We know them", she said, "We deal with them everyday, even some teachers are involved.

"Once the initial marking is complete, we make sure that the master-report is submitted to the principal, this minimizes to the barest minimum any chances of manipulation from their efforts."

"There has been a surge in this issue since the directive from the state government that students must score 50% and above in six subjects including English and Mathematics."

Seated in her book-laden office, however, the vice principal seems more concerned about inflicting eternal punishment rather than repatriating the students.

"We have other important things to do than dealing with those fraudulent students," she said, slamming her hand on her dusty woody table when it seems our little party won't take 'no' for an answer.

From her conversation she revealed other pranks of the students including buying new examination result sheets among others. At the state education board, a staff disclosed that principals have been adviced to make use of duplicating paper so as to foil any mischief.

With much persuasion, she promised in a not-too-strong-tone to look into the matter and 'do' something about it.
We left and was I was dropped close to Radio Nigeria, Shogunle, where I was to drop a story but uptill now, questions about the incident fails to get convincing answers from me.

Are we leaving the coming generation to their fate?
Why are those picked to instill training aiding their pupils to cheat the system?
Is this what poverty has turned many to? Selling off the future of a whole generation because of today?

While no one has been brought to book by the school authority and no plan to do so, and with a combine effort of pupils and some teachers within the system compromising effective training of these wards, efforts at resuscitating this latent sector may well be a long shot.

- email: abiodunodedeyi@gmail.com
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Towards making energy available and affordable to all and sundry by Tina Armstrong Ogbonna

A recent study by the International Centre for Energy and Environmental Development ICEED has called on the Federal Government to put a policy in place establish a national cooking energy programme and new national rural electrification programme under the power sector reform. Funding for rural electrification and cooking energy for poor people has declined over the years, and called on the Federal Government to Shown that without a new national programme on rural electrification and clean energy stoves the number of poor people in Nigeria will grow exponentially.
The Executive Director of ICEED Mr. Ewah Eleri made this known recently during a programme, on Financing Pro-Poor Energy Access in Nigeria. Mr. Eleri said lack of clean energy for cooking in rural communities has continued to increase the level of deforestation in the country as rural dwellers depend largely on firewood for cooking.
He noted that "ICEED and its partners are on a campaign that focuses on the silent energy crisis and the silent energy crisis is that of household not having access to save and affordable cooking energy.
We have a situation where government has no plans and
programmes or policies on cooking
energy". This is not acceptable, he
added.
The over dependence of rural dwellers on firewood for cooking energy has continued to increase the level of deforestation in Northern Nigeria. According to a World Bank report, Nigeria has the largest number of death due to indoor air pollution from cooking with firewood.
Mr. Eleri explained that the pro-poor energy financing campaign is calling on the Federal Government to provide adequate budget lines to expand rural electrification, significant resources to different agencies of government in the 2013 budget. Furthermore, he pointed out that Nigeria export more gas than is being used in the country. Nigeria is one of Africa's largest exporters of cooking gas but the usage is poor at home due to poor distribution channel, lack of awareness about proper use of gas cylinders that have created fear and apathy and also high upfront cost of cylinders. The Federal Government should enlighten the people about safe usage of gas cylinders; it should also put in place standard safety measures and regulations and also subsidize the price of cylinders. According to him, Lagos state government has started that and the Federal Government can follow suit. The use of cooking gas should be encouraged by making available smaller mass of cylinders because not everyone can afford the 5kg gas cylinders. In line with what has been done with recharge cards, where you can purchase as low as #100 to #1,500. Cooking gas is environment friendly.
The Federal Government should stop the flaring of gas in the country and utilize it for household energy use for cooking. Mr. Eleri believes that the Vision 20:20, Millennium Development Goal (MDG's) and the transformation agenda of the present administration would be far from been achieved if the energy poverty in the country is not aggressively tackled with the right programmes and policies in place.
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Drought fears loom in India as monsoon stalls

Meteorological department predicts at least 10 per cent less rain this year affecting millions of farmers across nation.

As millions of farmers in India continue to wait for the season's monsoon rains, vital for the country's agriculture and power sector, the Indian Meteorological department says that it expects at least 10 per cent less rain this year.

In a statement released late on Thursday, the department said that the rains between June and August 1 have been 19 per cent below normal levels, and that the remaining month of the monsoon will also be drier, owing to the impact of El Nino.

El Nino is the phenomenon of the warming of the Pacific Ocean.
The shortfall is expected to swell electricity demand in an power-starved country, as farmers turn to irrigation pumps to keep fields waters.
Earlier this week, three of India's regional electricity grids failed for hours in a blackout that affected more than 600 million people.

"If the government doesn't help us we will die of hunger. There's no water to drink and no food to eat."

- Bharat, a farmer from Gujarat state
Several states have already declared near-drought conditions, and are demanding extra federal funds or announcing large subsidies to help farmers to purchase diesel fuel for electricity generators.
Officials in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh - India's most populous - fear that a drought is around the corner.
Farmers in the state say that if rain does not come in the next few days, they will be forced to forego this year's rice crop.

In the eastern state of Bihar, at least eight of 38 districts have received rains that are 70 per cent below normal, said Anil Kumar Jha, the deputy director of the state's
agriculture department. Jha said the state is spending 6.19 billion rupees($112m) on subsidising diesel so that farmers could generate electricity to draw up ground water.

Cascading effect on economy.
Several other states - Haryana and Punjab in the north, Maharashtra in the west and the southern state of Karnataka - have all recorded poor rainfall.
These states grow a large amount of the country's rice, wheat, oilseeds and cereals.

A poor monsoon has a cascading effect on the Indian economy, because about 60 per cent of the population works in agriculture and more than half of the country's farmlands are rain-fed.

The sector contributes up to 20 per cent to India's gross domestic product.
A lack of adequate rainfall in this period can also worsen inflation of food prices.

While the government is yet to declare a drought, it has already offered 19 billion rupees ($340m) in cash and subsidies to tens of millions of farmers.

It has also rolled out contingency plans to ensure seeds are available to farmers and adequate fodder is supplied for livestock, as well as prioritizing drinking water from low-level reservoirs.

Overall this year, there has been a reduction of around eight million hectares (19.7 million acres) in the crop area sown compared to last year, when the rains were normal.
"If the government doesn't help us we will die of hunger. There's no water to drink and no food to eat," said Bharat, a farmer from Gujarat, in western India.
"We are tired of looking at the sky, but the rain just doesn't fall," he said.

Culled from aljazeera.com

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