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Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 21 Nov 2011
South Africa’s water resources and adjacent ecosystems are in a terrible state, with only 35% of the total length of the country’s mainstream rivers still in good condition.
 The high levels of threat results particularly from intense land pressures. The recently released Atlas of Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Areas reveals that 57% of river ecosystems and 65% of wetland ecosystems are threatened.
Mandy Driver, the SA National Biodiversity Institute’s manager of biodiversity policy, said the Biodiversity Assessment published seven years ago highlighted the poor state of many river ecosystems, with the majority of the country’s large rivers rated “critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable.
“We needed a strategic intervention to help sustain and conserve freshwater ecosystems, and the Atlas is the result.”
The team, who spent three years researching and compiling the Atlas, found tributaries overall were in a “far better state” than mainstream rivers.
“They also support the sustainability of hard-working rivers further downstream by diluting poor quality water and flushing pollutants. Only 35% of the length of mainstream rivers is in good condition, compared to 57% of tributaries. Continue reading More than half of SA ecosystems are threatened
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 15 July 2011
The decline of large predators and other “apex consumers” at the top of the food chain has disrupted ecosystems across the planet.
 The removal of predators like sea otters has consequences for all of us The finding is reported by an international team of scientists in a paper in this week’s issue of the journal Science.
The study looked at research results from a wide range of terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems and concluded ”the loss of apex consumers is arguably humankind’s most pervasive influence on the natural world.”
According to lead author James Estes, a marine ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, large animals were once ubiquitous across the globe. They shaped the structure and dynamics of ecosystems.
Their decline, largely caused by humans through hunting and habitat fragmentation, has far-reaching and often surprising consequences, including changes in vegetation, wildfire frequency, infectious diseases, invasive species, water quality and nutrient cycles.
Plummeting numbers of apex consumers are most pronounced among the big predators, such as wolves on land, sharks in the oceans, and large fish in freshwater ecosystems. There also are dramatic declines in populations of many large herbivores, such as elephants and bison.
The loss of apex consumers from an ecosystem triggers an ecological phenomenon known as a “trophic cascade,” a chain of effects moving down through lower levels of the food chain. Continue reading Global ecosystems disrupted by decline of large predators
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 04 April 2011
According to a new study by WWF and German development bank DEG, the shortage of freshwater is not only becoming more and more of an ecological risk, but it also is rapidly becoming a major business growth risk – one that investors need to take into account.
 Access to sufficient water of adequate quality is of considerable economic significance. Assessing Water Risk: A Practical Approach for Financial Institutions, states that climate change, population growth and increasing living standards are contributing to the rising pressure on existing and already scarce water resources, particularly in developing countries. In Southeast Asia and Africa, for example, water shortages constitute a threat to entire ecosystems and to the living standards of the population.
“The availability of water also is becoming a development bottleneck for companies. With the water risk filter we have now developed a new tool to identify such risks to companies and to offer support in water management,” said Dr Peter Thimme, head of DEG’s department for Sustainable Development/Environment.
Access to a sufficient quantity of water of adequate quality, he added, is therefore of considerable economic significance.
“Our intention is to provide the conscientious investor with the knowledge to work with clients toward more sustainable water management, with the aim of mitigating both business and environmental risks,” according to the study. Continue reading Shortage of water is a business growth risk
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 13 October 2010
Carbon pollution and over-use of Earth’s natural resources have become so critical that, on current trends, we will need a second planet to meet our needs by 2030, WWF said on Wednesday.
In 2007, Earth’s 6.8 billion humans were living 50% beyond the planet’s threshold of sustainability, according to its report, issued ahead of a UN biodiversity conference.
“Even with modest UN projections for population growth, consumption and climate change, by 2030 humanity will need the capacity of two Earths to absorb CO2 waste and keep up with natural resource consumption,” it warned.
If everyone used resources at the same rate per capita as the United States or the United Arab Emirates, four and a half planets would be needed, it said, highlighting the gap in “ecological footprint” between rich and poor.
The “Living Planet” report, the eighth in the series, is based on figures for 2007, the latest year for which figures are available.
It pointed to 71 countries that were running down their sources of freshwater at a worrying, unsustainable rate.
Nearly two-thirds of these countries experience “moderate to severe” water stress.
“This has profound implications for ecosystem health, food production and human wellbeing, and is likely to be exacerbated by climate change,” WWF said. Continue reading 2nd planet by 2030
Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 07 August 2010
A University of Delaware researcher reports that an “ice island” four times the size of Manhattan has calved from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier. The last time the Arctic lost such a large chunk of ice was in 1962.
 Research Tents on the Petermann Glacier. The glacier connects the great Greenland ice sheet directly with the ocean. Image courtesy of NASA. “In the early morning hours of August 5, 2010, an ice island four times the size of Manhattan was born in northern Greenland,” said Andreas Muenchow, associate professor of physical ocean science and engineering at the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. Muenchow’s research in Nares Strait, between Greenland and Canada, is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Satellite imagery of this remote area at 81 degrees N latitude and 61 degrees W longitude, about 620 miles [1,000 km] south of the North Pole, reveals that Petermann Glacier lost about one-quarter of its 43-mile long [70 km] floating ice-shelf.
Trudy Wohlleben of the Canadian Ice Service discovered the ice island within hours after NASA’s MODIS-Aqua satellite took the data on Aug. 5, at 8:40 UTC (4:40 EDT), Muenchow said. These raw data were downloaded, processed, and analyzed at the University of Delaware in near real-time as part of Muenchow’s NSF research.
Petermann Glacier, the parent of the new ice island, is one of the two largest remaining glaciers in Greenland that terminate in floating shelves. The glacier connects the great Greenland ice sheet directly with the ocean.
The new ice island has an area of at least 100 square miles and a thickness up to half the height of the Empire State Building. Continue reading Ice island calves from Greenland glacier
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