environment :must read Pest sprays poisoning world food supply: study

The world’s most widely used insecticides have contaminated the environment across the planet so pervasively that global food production is at risk, according to a comprehensive scientific assessment of the chemicals’ impacts.

The researchers compare their impact with that reported in Silent Spring, the landmark 1956 book by Rachel Carson that revealed the decimation of birds and insects by the blanket use of DDT and other pesticides and led to the modern environmental movement.

Billions of dollars’ worth of the potent and long-lasting neurotoxins are sold every year but regulations have failed to prevent the poisoning of almost all habitats, the international team of scientists concluded in the most detailed study yet. As a result, they say, creatures essential to global food production — from bees to earthworms — are likely to be suffering grave harm and the chemicals must be phased out.

The new assessment analysed the risks associated with neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides on which farmers spend $2.6 billion a year. Neonicotinoids are applied routinely rather than in response to pest attacks but the scientists highlight the “striking” lack of evidence that this leads to increased crop yields.

“The evidence is very clear. We are witnessing a threat to the productivity of our natural and farmed environment equivalent to that posed by organophosphates or DDT,” said Jean-Marc Bonmatin, of the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France, one of the 29 international researchers who conducted the four-year assessment. “Far from protecting food production the use of neonicotinoid insecticides is threatening the very infrastructure which enables it.” He said the chemicals imperilled food supplies by harming bees and other pollinators, which fertilise about three-quarters of the world’s crops, and the organisms that create the healthy soils which the world’s food requires in order to grow.

Professor Dave Goulson, at the University of Sussex, another member of the team, said: “It is astonishing we have learned so little. After Silent Spring revealed the unfortunate side-effects of those chemicals, there was a big backlash. But we seem to have gone back to exactly what we were doing in the 1950s.” The assessment, published today, cites the chemicals as a key factor in the decline of bees, alongside the loss of flower-rich habitats. The insecticides harm bees’ ability to navigate and learn, damage their immune systems and cut colony growth. In worms, which provide a critical role in aerating soil, exposure to the chemicals affects their ability to tunnel.

Dragonflies, which eat mosquitoes, and other creatures that live in water are also suffering, with some studies showing that ditchwater has become so contaminated it could be used directly as a lice-control pesticide.

The report warned that loss of insects may be linked to major declines in the birds that feed on them, though it also notes that eating just a few insecticide-treated seeds would kill birds directly.

“Overall, a compelling body of evidence has accumulated that clearly demonstrates that the wide-scale use of these persistent, water-soluble chemicals is having widespread, chronic impacts upon global biodiversity and is likely to be having major negative effects on ecosystem services such as pollination that are vital to food security,” the study concluded.

The report is being published as a special issue of the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research and was funded by a charitable foundation run by the ethical bank Triodos.

The EU, opposed by the British government and the National Farmers Union, has already imposed a temporary three-year moratorium on the use of some neonicotinoids on some crops. This month, Barack Obama ordered an urgent assessment of the impact of neonicotinoids on bees.

However, the Crop Protection Association, which represents pesticide manufacturers, criticised the report. Nick von Westenholz, chief executive of the CPA, said: “It is a selective review of existing studies which highlighted worst-case scenarios, largely produced under laboratory conditions. As such, the publication does not represent a robust assessment of the safety of systemic pesticides under realistic conditions of use.”

Unesco world heritage list tops 1,000

The Okavango Delta, a unique inland delta, which does not flow into a sea in Botswana became the 1,000th site to be inscribed on the UN cultural agency’s coveted list.
A vast wetland in Botswana, a prehistoric cave in France and an ancient land formation in the U.S. are among a host of new sites that have been added to the Unesco world heritage list over the last few days, pushing the total number to 1,007.

The Okavango Delta in Botswana became the 1,000th site to be inscribed on the UN cultural agency’s coveted list, which has been active since 1978 and commands strict rules for conservation from host nations. Botswana’s unique inland delta, which does not flow into a sea, was described by Unesco as “an exceptional example of the interaction between climatic, hydrological and biological processes… home to some of the world’s most endangered species of large mammal”. Its addition comes after almost a decade of advocacy from conservationists and scientific researchers. Speaking to the Guardian, Dr. Steve Boyes, scientific director of the Wild Bird Trust, who has worked as a wilderness guide in the Okavango, described the news as highly important, but “long overdue”.

“The region has Africa’s largest elephant population and is considered a sanctuary for white and black rhinoceros,” he says. “The listing will serve as a celebration of this unique wilderness as well as a call to action. All of this will be for nothing if Angola or Namibia decide to develop dams, weirs and mines along the Okavango river — so now begins the much bigger job of preserving the unprotected Angolan catchment. By 2025, we will know whether the Okavango Delta will survive into the distant future.”

The Grotte Chauvet in the Ardeche, France — home to the earliest known and best preserved figurative drawings in the world and described as an “exceptional testimony of prehistoric art” — was also added to the list. The cave, which remained cut off by a rockfall for 20,000 years until its discovery in 1994, contains over 1,000 images dating back to the Aurignacian period (30,000-32,000 years ago). While the closely guarded cave is off-limits to visitors, a replica is due to open in 2015.

“Its state of preservation and authenticity is exceptional as a result of its concealment over 23 millennia,” Unesco said.

Other inclusions, which consist of both cultural and natural sites, are the vineyard landscape of Piedmont in Italy, which has been a historic site for wine making since the fifth century B.C., a series of properties in the city of Bursa, Turkey, that demonstrate the social and economic functions of the Ottoman empire, and the Great Himalayan national park, a stunning yet fragile ecosystem that is home to many endangered species and will now receive close monitoring and observation of its biodiversity.

Burma made its entry on to the list for the first time when the Pyu ancient cities were awarded heritage status. The trio of brick, walled and moated cities of Halin, Beikthano and Sri Ksetra include excavated palace citadels and burial grounds as well as monumental brick Buddhist stupas.

Another notable addition is the prehistoric earthworks of Poverty Point in Louisiana, U.S.A. The complex of ancient mounds and ridges were created for residential and ceremonial purposes between 3,700 and 3,100 B.C. The site was praised by Unesco as: “A remarkable achievement in earthen construction in North America that was not surpassed for at least 2,000 years.” The decision, which was welcomed by the U.S. Department of State, comes a year after the U.S. lost its Unesco voting rights along with Israel. The U.S. has had far less influence over Unesco decisions since withdrawing its financial contributions to the organisation in 2011 after the Palestinian government was granted full membership.

Both Israel and Palestine had sites added to the list this week. The Palestinian village of Battir and its “cultural landscape” — currently under threat from the Israeli separation barrier — was added to the list on Friday, while the caves of Maresha and Bet Guvrin in Israel, an area of vast chalk caves in the Judean lowlands, gained world heritage status on Sunday.

Other sites awarded Unesco world heritage status this year include Qhapaq Nan, a vast Inca road system in Peru, and the fossil rich coastal cliff site of Stevns Kilt in Denmark, which offers “exceptional evidence of the impact of the Chicxulub meteorite that crashed into the planet about 65 millions years ago”. In order to be selected for the list, sites must be considered of outstanding universal value. Cultural sites are judged against a set of criteria such as whether it represents “a masterpiece of human creative genius” while the criteria for natural sites includes whether it “contains superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty”.

More sites are expected to be added over the next two days as delegates at the world heritage committee work their way through the 40 sites up for consideration for special status during the organisation’s 38th session held in Doha, Qatar.

Inscription of the Great Himalayan National Park Conservation Area as a World Heritage Site

The World Heritage Committee has inscribed the Great Himalayan National Park Conservation Area (GHNPCA), India, on the World Heritage List on the basis of criterion (x) of UNESCO Guidelines. The Criterion X is “To contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.”

The Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) is located in the Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh, India. The concept of environmental conservation in the Kullu Valley is very ancient. The names of many places in this valley commemorate saints who came here to meditate in the great sanctuary of Himalayas. Some of these sanctuaries are still preserved as sacred groves of trees. The Great Himalayan National Park Conservation Area (GHNPCA) has GHNP (754.4 sq km), Sainj (90 sq km) and Tirthan (61 sq km) Wildlife Sanctuaries. The 905.40 sq km GHNPCA includes the upper mountain glacial and snow melt water source origins of the westerly flowing JiwaNal, Sainj and Tirthan Rivers and the north-westerly flowing Parvati River.

Situated at the confluence of Oriental and Palaearctic realms, GHNP provides a unique opportunity for the species from both biogeographic regions to thrive, disperse and evolve. GHNPCA is home to several Rare and Threatened species including the Western Tragopan, Chir Pheasant, Snow Leopard, Himalayan Musk Deer, Asiatic Black Bear, Himalayan Tahr, Blue Sheep and Serow. Some 25 Threatened IUCN Red-listed plant species are recorded from the park. The GHNP has more than 35 peaks of greater than 5000m and two greater than 6000m which taken together are arguably more exceptional than a few isolated higher peaks in the region. The boundaries of GHNP are also contiguous with the recently established (2010) Khirganga National Park (710 sq km), the Pin Valley National Park (675 sq km) in Trans-Himalaya, Rupi-Bhabha Wildlife Sanctuary (503 sq km) in Sutlej watershed and Kanawar Wildlife Sanctuary (61 sq km). Together these four protected areas (PAs) add 1,949 sq km to the area around GHNP and its buffer zone, making the total contiguous protected area associated with the nominated property approximately 2,854.4 sq km not including the Ecozone. GHNP inscription would serve to expedite integration of other PAs into a huge GHNP Conservation Area of ca. 2850 km2.

New material can bear 160,000 times its own weight

A new ultra-stiff, ultra-light material, build out of polymers, metals and ceramics, that can withstand 1,60,000 times its own weight has been developed.

Materials with these properties could someday be used to develop parts and components for aircraft, automobiles and space vehicles.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers developed the micro-architected meta-materials — artificial materials with properties not found in nature — that maintain a nearly constant stiffness per unit mass density, even at ultra-low density.

Most lightweight cellular materials have mechanical properties that degrade substantially with reduced density because their structural elements are more likely to bend under applied load.

The team’s meta-materials, however, exhibit ultra-stiff properties across more than three orders of magnitude in density.

“These lightweight materials can withstand a load of at least 1,60,000 times their own weight,” said LLNL Engineer Xiaoyu “Rayne” Zheng, lead author of the research.

“The key to this ultrahigh stiffness is that all the micro-structural elements in this material are designed to be over constrained and do not bend under applied load,” said Mr. Zheng.

The observed high stiffness is shown to be true with multiple constituent materials such as polymers, metals and ceramics, according to the researchers.

The additive micro-manufacturing process involves using a micro-mirror display chip to create high-fidelity 3D parts one layer at a time from photosensitive feedstock materials.

It allows the team to rapidly generate materials with complex 3D micro-scale geometries that are otherwise challenging or in some cases, impossible to fabricate.

“Now we can print a stiff and resilient material using a desktop machine. This allows us to rapidly make many sample pieces and see how they behave mechanically,” said MIT professor and key collaborator Nicholas Fang.

The team was able to build micro-lattices out of polymers, metals and ceramics.

Tatas aim to build aircraft for Ruag Aviation

The Tata Group on Monday said it aims to bring out a fully built aircraft for Ruag Aviation — makers of Dornier 228 new generation aircraft, parts of which are to be made in India by TASL.

Tata Advanced Systems Ltd held ground breaking ceremony in Hyderabad for manufacturing Dornier 228 fuselage and wings.

The Tata-Ruag partnership is a glowing example of cooperation between India and Europe, TASL Chairman S. Ramadorai said.

“It is our belief that this project is a significant step forward in India’s growth as a high technology, precision, manufacturing destination. Ruag has entrusted the Tatas to deliver its showcase product, the Dornier 228, at world-class standards of precision and quality,” he said.

“Our vision is to work with Ruag in having a full aircraft, equipped with systems flying out from a Tata final assembly. This will be of significant importance to the Indian Armed forces in their desire to produce products locally,” he said at the function.

Within five years, TASL has become a significant player in the Global Aerospace market by delivering successfully over 70 Sikorsky S-92 cabins, and delivered Empennage and Center Wing Box for the C-130 J aircraft through its separate JV with Lockheed Martin, Mr. Ramadorai said.

It has also made Hyderabad a premier manufacturing destination for Global OEMs, he added.

The Ruag project is the fourth Aero structures unit to be set up by TASL since 2009 in Hyderabad and the products of all the units are 100 per cent exported.

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, chief guest of the function, said the government will soon announce new industrial policy and consultations with stakeholders are underway.

“The goal is to make the Made in Telangana label as a globally recognised brand for its quality and innovativeness,” Mr. Rao said.

The city — hosts many research and development bodies such as DRDO, DRDL, Midhani and BDL — is ideal for setting up aerospace industries, he said.

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