A eulogy to climate scientist Stephen Schneider
Stephen Schneider, a leading climate scientist at Stanford University, passed away while on travel in the United Kingdom, on Monday the 19th of July.
Stephen Schneider did a lot to help people realize that human actions have led to global-scale changes in Earth’s climate. He was instrumental in focusing scientific, political, and public attention on one of the major challenges facing humanity – the problem of human-caused climate change.
Some climate scientists have exceptional talents in pure research. They love to figure out the inner workings of the climate system. Others have strengths in communicating complex scientific issues to non-specialists. It is rare to find scientists who combine these talents. Stephen Schneider was just such a man.
I was really saddened to hear about Stephen Schneider’s death. I have just finished his latest book: ” Science as a contact Sport: Inside the Battle to Save the Earth’s Climate“.
Steven Scheider was an inspiration for any scientist and researcher working on climate change. He epitomized scientific courage. He was fearless. The pathway he chose – to be a scientific leader, to be a leader in science communication, and to fully embrace the interdisciplinary nature of the climate change problem – was not an easy pathway.
Let’s try to follow Stephen Schneider’ footsteps when thinking about BioFresh and how to explain the complexities of science to a variety of audiences.
Climate researcher Ben Santer paid tribute to his peer Prof Stephen Schneider here.
Businesses could benefit from protecting biodiversity
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study is a major international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity, to highlight the growing costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, and to draw together expertise from the fields of science, economics and policy to enable practical actions moving forward.
Back in February I went to an Earthwatch lecture at the Said Business School in Oxford given by Pavan Sukhdev, TEEB study leader, who already then emphasised the importance of evaluating the costs of the loss of biodiversity and the associated decline in ecosystem services worldwide, and comparing them with the costs of effective conservation and sustainable use. These ideas are collated in the TEEB Climate Issues update (2009) and the TEEB for Policy Makers Report (2009).
The latest TEEB report: “The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Report for Business” (executive summary here), argues that many sectors have a stake in protecting nature and that businesses can and should take a key role in stemming biodiversity loss around the world.
Freshwater is only mentioned 3 times in the 2009 report for policy makers and not at all in the latest executive summary of the report for businesses. This maybe because it is talking about biodiversity in general and forests, being the policy issue of the day with major economic engagement (REDD), are frequently referred to.
Where freshwater is mentioned, the report talks about freshwater resources for industry and consumption and makes no mention of the value of biodiverse water. This is a challenge for us. If we were to make a case that freshwater biodiversity is important for business what would it be? What good examples could we offer as examples for such reports?
Beyond a case for recreation-based businesses (e.g. fishing, tourism) I struggle to think of others and would be fascinated to hear your ideas.
The report, launched at the first Global Business of Biodiversity in London reported a study that states that half of European and US consumers say they would stop buying products from companies that disregard biodiversity concerns. Companies are increasingly paying attention to brand reputation and this suggests that another strategy might be to more actively highlight the impacts of corporations on freshwater biodiversity.
TEEB will produce its final report for October’s meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Japan, which will see governments examining the reasons why they have failed to live up to their 2002 pledge to curb nature loss by 2010.
Looking forward to read your comments!
Muriel Bonjean
Workshop on Water and Biodiversity – Brussels
I participated in a Workshop on Water and Biodiversity on the 17-18 June 2010 in Brussels, hosted by the Northrhine-Westfalia Representation (link to the case-studies document). The workshop was jointly organized by DG Environment Water and Nature Units with support from a number of Member States and with participation of the Member States experts from water and nature protection, stakeholders, NGOs and some elements of the scientific community.
The Workshop focused on the links between the EU Nature and Water legislation but it has also set the wider scene for the discussion on biodiversity and water. This discussion took place at this a crucial moment, when the EU Member States failure to meet biodiversity targets triggered the EU policy makers to discuss policy options for a new strategy.
The better integration of sectoral policies, restoration of ecosystem functions and better spatial planning based on sound data and scientific knowledge of how biodiversity links to socio-economic pressures and climate change are key aspects for success of novel biodiversity targets.
BioFresh, J. Freyhof from IGB delivered a short presentation on the Project goals with emphasis on the freshwater biodiversity platform connecting global and regional data bases. He encouraged the participants to share their data on biodiversity and thus to contribute to the EU capability to answer practical and scientific questions for conservation of biodiversity.
In his closing address G. Borchardt, Director DGENV D Water, Chemical and Biotechnology, highlighted the role of BioFresh in contribution to biodiversity conservation.
Ana Cristina Cardoso
Published in May, the 134-page CBD technical report “Biodiversity Scenarios: projections of 21st century change in biodiversity and associated ecosystem services” focuses on longer term projected estimates of biodiversity change .
I was interested to see how freshwater issues are discussed in this report, so I ran it through the ManyEyes Word-tree tool which visualises the context in which the word ‘freshwater; is used. Here is the result
If you would like to explore this word tree interactively click here
For me this confirms the strong associations between freshwater, ecosystems, services and biodiversity in international policy.
Paul Jepson
Name a species
Dr George C. McGavin, honorary research associate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, poimted out last week in the UK newspaper the Guardian (article here), that when it comes to conservation, common names count. Latin classification can be cold and clinical – it’s much easier to care about a species that has a romantic and memorable name.
Following this idea, and to mark the International Year for Biodiversity, the Guardian, Natural England and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History have teamed up to ask the public to name some of the less well-known and lesser-loved animals and plants that inhabit UK shores. A list can be found here.
It is an original idea to raise awareness about biodiversity loss and the fact that not only cuddly polar bears are endangered by human-induced climate change. Any thoughts welcomed!
Muriel Bonjean
Biodiversity – our lifeline; Green Week 2010
The spotlight of the June 2010 EU Green Week conference was biodiversity. Topics addressed included the state of biodiversity and nature in Europe and the world, the benefits they bring, present-day pressures on them, and possible solutions to the current rates of loss.
Looking through the 2010 Green Week conference website, I came across this challenging quote from Prof. Peter Bridgewater which seems highly relevant to BioFresh :
“Despite the dark cloud of climate change, availability and purity of water (the water issue) is the world’s most serious environmental challenge; so can better biodiversity management help solve the water issue, or will the water issue simply add more stress to biodiversity?”
Perhaps the question for us is what evidence and arguments can we draw on to support the proposition that bio-diverse freshwater systems enhance the instrumental value of water in terms of the quantity and quality or water resources for human consumption and use? I would welcome your thoughts and comments on this question.Prof Bridgewater’s talk titled “Climate for Water and Biodiversity, Water for Biodiversity and Climate or Biodiversity for Water and Climate”, can be accessed from here.
Muriel Bonjean
I’ve just returned from the South Korean portal city of Busan where I participated in a week of intense negotiations that resulted in governments agreeing to establish a new mechanism to strengthen the dialogue between the scientific community and policymakers on biodiversity and ecosystem services.
The new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) aims to be for biodiversity and ecosystems what the IPCC is for climate change, namely a leading body offering policy relevant and legitimate, scientifically credible information to inform decision-makers with options and scenario s on biodiversity and ecosystem services, around the world.
In my view BioFresh is optimally positioned to become a crucial scientific partner of this IPBES. This is because we share the goal of providing access to data, information, and our scientific tools may, in the end, contribute to the IPBES assessments. In addition, we may contribute to the capacity development component of IPBES. No doubt there are other ways we could contribute to supporting the vision of IPBES and also take this opportunity to generate more visibility for freshwater biodiversity in international policy. Please contribute your ideas.
Hendrik Segers
For further information, see the IPBES website, the IISD website, the IUCN press release and the BBC news website.
The Freshwater Blog 