“When I open up a frog, it’s literally just bursting with parasites — thousands of them, and dozens of different species,” the evolutionary biologist Pieter Johnson says.
David Herasimtschuk/Freshwaters Illustrated (frog); Pieter Johnson/ University of Colorado (parasites)A new study shows that increases in parasite diversity can benefit the health of amphibians.
Hardly an appealing image. But the observation led Dr. Johnson, an assistant professor at University of Colorado, Boulder, to pose an intriguing question: When might more parasites be a good thing?
The results of his research appeared this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Amphibians are in a conservation crisis, having experienced striking declines in biodiversity over the last 30 years, and many species are on the brink of extinction. The leading cause of species loss is still believed to be habitat destruction combined with the devastating effects of the fungal skin disease chytrid.
University of FloridaAn Asian citrus psyllid feeding on liquid inside a citrus tree.
In a worrisome development for citrus growers in California, or anybody there who has a beloved lemon or orange tree in the yard, the citrus disease huanglongbing, or citrus greening, has been found in southeastern Los Angeles County, the California Department of Food and Agriculture reports.
It’s the first time the disease, one of the most serious scourges of citrus, has been reported in the state.
“It’s a gut shot,” Joel Nelsen, president of industry group California Citrus Mutual, said in a telephone interview. “We’ve been looking for this, and unfortunately we’ve found it.”
University of FloridaCitrus greening causes yellow mottling on the leaves of citrus trees.
The disease is caused by a bacterium that is thought to have originated in China and is spread by the Asian citrus psyllid, a pest that feeds on citrus trees and other plants. The bacteria attack the trees’ phloem, or vascular tissue, preventing the transport of nutrients. Once infected, trees die within about five years; despite years of research, there is no known cure or treatment for the disease.
Found in Florida in 2005, the disease has already killed millions of trees and devastated growers throughout the state. The University of Florida estimates that citrus greening has caused the loss of 6,600 industry jobs and erased $3.6 billion in revenue.
Mr. Nelsen said he and others connected to California’s $2 billion citrus industry were “very worried.”
United States Geological SurveyCoral in Kaneohe Bay affected by Montipora White Syndrome.
Scientists have discovered an outbreak of a disease in rice coral in Kaneohe Bay off Oahu, a popular spot frequented by snorkelers, bathers, divers, boaters and fishermen. [United States Geological Survey]
“The City Dark,” a new documentary opening on Wednesday in New York, explores the health and environmental consequences of urban “light pollution.” [Space.com]
Above-normal temperatures and rising production from shale drilling push natural gas futures to their lowest closing price in nearly a decade. [Bloomberg News]
Protesters opposed to whaling clash with a Japanese whaling vessel off the coast of Antarctica. [Reuters]
Health advocates said Monday that adopting more ambitious targets for cutting greenhouse gases could save health programs up to 30.5 billion euros ($38.7 billion) in expenditures each year in the European Union.
European Pressphoto Agency A brown coal plant in Turow, Poland, that has reduced its emissions in recent years.
The study found that as greenhouse gases fall, so do other pollutants that set off respiratory diseases and other illnesses, which reduce in health care costs. Savings could also be achieved on health care costs associated with heat waves, floods, reduced food production and infectious diseases, the study said.
That should be “welcome news to governments,” said Anja Leetz, the executive director of the nonprofit group Health Care Without Harm Europe. “The figures show that acting now would mean 140,000 fewer consultations for asthma and upper respiratory conditions per year by 2020 and thousands of fewer hospital admissions for cardiac and respiratory problems.” Read more…
The costs of adaptation to climate change have been grossly underestimated, the authors of a new study suggest.
There is widespread agreement among policymakers that cold, hard cash will be an essential element in persuading nations vulnerable to climate change to sign up to a global agreement in Copenhagen in December.
Far less clear: how much cash is needed to do the job.
European ministers have discussed sums up to about $140 billion to be paid each year by more affluent countries to developing countries. Meanwhile, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has estimated the annual global costs of adapting to climate change to be up to $170 billion each year.
This week, academics in Britain presented a report, Assessing the Costs of Adaptation to Climate Change, contending that sums in that range are gross underestimations.
The authors of the report, including experts from institutions including Imperial College London, the London School of Economics, Oxford and Cambridge, criticized the U.N. body in particular for producing its estimates too quickly.
Pascal Guyot/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Experts warn that France could lose its famous wine vineyards because of global warming.
Leading figures from the French wine and food industries are urging their government to push for a strong global agreement at a United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen in December, warning that failure to cut greenhouse gases will devastate their sector.
“The jewels of our cultural heritage, French wines, elegant and refined, are today in danger,” a group of 50 winemakers, sommeliers and chefs wrote in an opinion piece published on Aug. 12 in the newspaper Le Monde and addressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
“Changes in the climate are leaving our vineyards increasingly vulnerable. Summer heat waves, recent hail storms in the Bordeaux region, new diseases coming from the south — these disturbances will soon be much more serious,” the piece continued.
The group, which wrote in collaboration with Greenpeace, predicted that vineyards would be found well beyond France – more than 600 miles past their traditional boundaries – by the end of the century if nothing is done to curb climate trends.