The Environment 2010 ties for warmest year, emissions to blame The national average tem­perature for the year was three degrees Celsius above normal, based on preliminary data, according to a report put on Environment Canada's website on Monday. That made it the warmest year since nationwide records began in 1948.

T AST year tied for the wannest Lsince data started in 1880, cap" ping a decade of recoId high tem­peratures that shows mailkind's greenhouse gas emissions are healing the planet, two us. agen· des said Global surface temperatures in

2010 were 1.12 degrees Fahrenheit (0.62 Celsius) above the 20th century average, tying the record set in 2005, the National dimatic Data Centre at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Wednesday. "These results showthatthe cli· mate is continuing to show the influence of greenhouse gases. It's showing evidence of warm· ing," David Easterling, the chief of the scientific services divi­sion at the NCDC, told reporters in a teleconference.

Many places, such as Russia and PalOs tan, suffered from heat waves and floods that killed thousands, scorched crops and inundated countless farm acres. Those events, caused in part by a shifted jet stream in the atmosphere. helped lead to record global food prices and threaten to lead to food riots like those seen in 2008. It's not possible to directly link

global warming as the cause of one weather event. But the trend of rising temperatures since 2000 increases the pqssi­bility of extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts and floods, Easterling said. Every year since 2000 has ranked as one of the 15 warmest years on record, he said

Last year was also the wettest on record and a warmer atmos­phere holds more water, which in general can result in more floOds, he said.

The report did not predict

weather in the future, but the U.N. climate science panel says weather is likely to be more extreme this century because of a build up of gases released by burning fossil fuels and forest destruction. James Hansen, the director of

NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said, "if the warming trend continues, as is expected, if greenhouse gases continue to increase, the 2010 record will not stand for long." His office also released a report on Wednesday that said 2010 was tied for the warmest year on record with 2005. Jay Gulledge, the senior scien­

tist at the Pew Centre on Global Climate Change, said that farm­ers and others could adjust to expected warmer tempera-

=:~e b~!at6:re~:!n~arJ~:. "We've got really immense potential right now to have even bigger impacts from the direct effects of extreme events," he said.

As the weather warmed, the world did not do enough to pre­vent future climate change, sci­entists said. At U.N. climate talks in cancun

late last year nearly 200 coun­tries agreed to set a target of limiting a rise in average world temperatures to below two degrees C (3.6 F) over pre-indus­trial times. But promised emissions curbs

~Uilr'&~~;~ ~:~s"!r~~ enough to achieve that goal and tougher actions are need­ed, climate scientists said.

NOM's and NASA's reports were the first of four major

~::s.o~fe°~~ 2~~t t"3'rE~!~~ Hadley Centre and the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organisation are expecteil to issue reports later this month.

Frigid winters in parts of Europe and the United States in 2010 may be a paradoxical side effect of climate change, some scientists said. Ri~ing tempera­tures mean a shrinKing of sea ice in the Arctic, heating the region and pushing cold air southwards during the winter, accoIdlng to a study last month in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Warming of the air over the Barents and Kara seas, for instance, seems to bting cold

CONTINUEO ON PAGE 49

Scientists see climate change link to Australian floods

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Kenya recovers 2491cg of ivory from poachers

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Jonalhan Odoy

'Groups urge President Jonathan to assent climate change bill By ChInedIIn UwaeabuIam A FIER crossing the first hurdle

Ill:o harmonise the climate change bill campaigners and pro­moters in the envirornnent sector may be facing another Herculean task This time, tting President Goodluck Jonate to assent to the bill which will set pace for the establishment of a Climate Change Commission to drive the nation's polides and quest for a green economy; But civil society groups are urg­ing the preSident to assent to the bill before the expiration of his tenure and write his name in history as a major promoter

The bill among other things proposes the establishment of a climate change commission that will address all issues of environmental pollution, erosion, deforestation and deser­tification. The bill stipulates that 10 per cent of ecological funds and certain percentage of funds from the consoli­dated revenue account will be given to the commission for the discharge of its duties

of environmeot-frlendly Nigeria. NIgeria Climate Change Action Network (NigeriaCAN) and Communication for Development and Social Change (CDSC) in their separate views said that bill should be assented to without much delay.

AccoIding to NigeriaCAN, the

bill was submitted to the Presidency a month ago. The proposed commission comes as a statutory body vested it with the responsibili~ to regu­late, coordinate polIcies and actions on climate change in Nigeria and to set up a National carbon Market Scheme in addi­tion to tackling the effect of

global warming and its impact on Nigeria

Cliairman of the House Committee on Climate Change, Mr. Eziuche Ubani recently con­firmed that it was ready to be forwarded to the l'resident for his assent. Ubam reportedly said that Nigeria was the first country in Africa trying to set up a commission on climate cliange, but stressed, "that is not all there is to it as there was a need for a national policy to be put in place to asSign roles to institutions and individ uals on climate change." Besides, the commission when

fully establish is expected to

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ConselVationist laments killing of birds, urges preselVation strategy ~~~il l!J.:!.!WW~

By Tunda Alao

A CODSeIVationist has expressed I'ldeep concern over the abuse and exploitation of birds, saying that coDSeIVation and wise use of earth's natural resources have become even more necessaty globallj< They warned that if no appro­

priate conservation strategy was adopted, the birds would face severe extinction and resolved to continue mounting pressure to effects -change in the attitudes of people towaIds birds and other aIlimaJs. The

~~'i:~':~~ th~a~~!f S.LEdu Lectu~e organi$ed by the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), in Lagos. Setting the tone for the discus-

With its perceived importance to the societies cultures, especially their indis­criminate killings for ritual and con­sumption purposes, Collar is propagat­ing new strategies to prevent their extinction of birds sion, Dr. Nigel Collar, a Levenlis Fellow in Conservation Biology working with Birdlffe International, In his lecture titled "Birds and People" said that the bond between birds and people goes back to the dawn of humanity. AccordlnJ!: to CoDar, birds had

continuea to play key roles in human societies and culture that thou~h, seldom recog­nised, addfug"All human cul­tures seem to have used birds in some way and revered them as

(or assodated them with) gods. Consequently, we have many wondeiful representations of these birds from different parts of the world."

He cited sever;jl ancient gods such as Horus', the fabled Egyptian Pharaohs' god of ere-' ation, Garuda, a potent avian deity In both Hindu and Buddhist relWons, Cranes that were and still revered by the Chinese as symbols oflongevity and fidelity, health and wealth, all associated, with the use of

birds. "The goose was sacred to the Greek goddess Aphrodite. rhe swan was the form taken by the Greek god Zeus when he desired Leda, wife of the King of Sparta_ In Christian mythology the Phoenix and the pelican became symbols of Christ because the Phoenix tises from the dead and the pelican sup­posedly feeds its young with its own blood, as Jesus gave his blood for all humanity (both these ideas probably derive from the Danungo)".

Collar said further that com­posers of music had likewise Incorporated birdsong into their work, and been inspired by it directly or indirectlY. He, however, regretted that birds had always been hunted by mankind and that mindlessly

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