Burkina Faso’s cotton companies and growers seem to have settled their long dispute with Monsanto Seed Company over their revenue losses allegedly caused by the introduction of genetically modified (GM) cotton.
The GM Bt Cotton failed in Burkina Faso, with farmers making claims from Monsanto
Among the world’s poorest countries, Burkina Faso, which began the nationwide introduction of cotton containing Monsanto’s Bollgard II trait in 2008 to fight against pests, is Africa’s top cotton producer.
However, a decline in quality of cotton, which lowered the crop’s value on the global market, was blamed on Monsanto by the country’s cotton companies and the national farmers union. They demanded $76.5 million in compensation from Monsanto and withheld nearly $24 million in royalties.
A report by Reuters states that “the agreement, which includes the dividing up of royalties withheld by Monsanto’s Burkina Faso partners, brings to an end a collaboration that had at one time promised to offer the company a foothold in Africa.”
The managing director of SOFITEX, Wilfried Yameogo, stated that his company agreed to accept 25 percent of royalties as part of the agreement reached with Monsanto, even as Monsanto would not confirm the settlement amount and said the agreement terms were confidential.
The Creve Coeur-based seed giant has previously acknowledged changes in cotton fiber length, but said a fiber quality is influenced by both environmental conditions and genetic background.
Burkina Faso did not renew its contract with Monsanto last year and this season returned to its conventional cotton strain.
Monsanto has since exited its cotton business in Burkina Faso, citing difficulties securing a “reasonable return” on its investment, spokeswoman Christi Dixon said.
Minster of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, wants Sports Federations in the country to strive towards changes in their votes ahead of the forthcoming Federation elections.
Solomon Dalung
Dalung said that the ministry would only work with board members elected from acceptable congresses.
The minister, who was in Uyo, capital of Akwa Ibom State for the state’s Youth Sports Festival, advised individuals aspiring for positions in Sports Federations to be democratic as the elections draws near.
“There is going to be a level playing ground. Everybody should go there and demonstrate who he is and the support he has to lead the federations,” Dalung said.
The guidelines for the Federations elections billed to hold in April would be released early in the month.
Meanwhile, the Director of Grassroots Sports Development in the Minister of Sports, Dr Ademola Are, said the future of athletes discovered from the National Youth Games is bright.
Are gave the assurance on the backdrop of the fact that there are international tournaments to showcase such talents.
He said the talents discovered from last year’s games would represent Nigeria in the Youth Olympics this year.
The last Youth Games was held in Ilorin, Kwara State last August.
For failing to arrive at match venue on time, the Technical Manager of Rivers United, Stanley Eguma, has received a one-match ban.
Stanley Eguma
In a letter signed by the management of the team, Eguma’s suspension is coming after he was reported to have arrived at Wednesday’s match venue 18 minutes into the game between Rivers United and Plateau United, which ended goalless.
Eguma will not be part of the team when Rivers United files out against Gombe United at the weekend.
Meanwhile, results of the Week 16 mid-week matches played at various venues across the country have seen MFM returning to the top spot of the Nigeria Professional Football League table with a 2-1 victory over Abia Warriors of Umuahia at the Agege Stadium.
The Lagos side now has 30 points ahead of Plateau United, who held Rivers United to a goalless draw in Port Harcourt.
El-Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri is in third position after losing 0-1 away to Shooting Stars of Ibadan, while at the Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano it ended 1-1 between Pillars and Nasarawa United.
Wikki Tourist of Bauchi stayed at home to tame Enyimba of Aba 1-0. Struggling champions Rangers at home failed to break newly-promoted Remo Stars, as encounter ended 1-1.
Sunshine Stars of Akure defeated Katsina United 2-0, as the game between Gombe United and ABS ended 1-1 in Ilorin.
FC ifeanyi Mbah of Nnewi edged visiting Niger Tornadoes of Minna 1-0.
President Donald Trump’s action on Tuesday, March 28, 2017 to cancel the Clean Power Plan wasn’t a surprise. It had been promised for weeks, part of Trump’s effort to roll back former President Barack Obama’s efforts aimed at combating climate change.
Fossil fuel pollution from a coal power station: President Donald Trump says his administration is putting an end to the war on coal
Still, it marks a major milestone in the national and international debate. The former mandate for electricity providers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions doesn’t mesh with the new president’s vision for the nation’s energy future.
“My administration is putting an end to the war on coal,” Trump said on Tuesday. “I am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on American energy to reverse government intrusions and to cancel job killing regulations.”
While previous environmental policy shifts from Trump have sent shock waves west to California, this one hardly registered for the Golden State.
Still, that didn’t stop the state’s leaders from lashing out at the decision, an about-face that raises questions about the future of U.S. commitment to the international climate agreement forged in Paris in late 2015.
The lack of immediate impact in California from Trump’s decision didn’t stop the state’s chief champion for the cause from taking aim at the president.
“It defies science itself,” Governor Jerry Brown said on Tuesday. “Erasing climate change may take place in Donald Trump’s mind, but nowhere else.”
Brown teamed up with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to pledge that California and New York would continue working to slash emissions. Both states have set ambitious targets for fighting global warming.
Meanwhile, Trump could face a legal blowback from California and its allies around the country. In a joint statement on Tuesday, Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and his counterparts from other states said they were willing to fight Trump in court.
The Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation (Federation) – comprising dozens of waterfront communities and scores of other informal settlements across Lagos – on Wednesday, March 29, 2017 expressed regret at the decision of the Lagos State Government to withdraw from the court-ordered mediation process that had presented a small glimmer hope of finding a win-win alternative solution to the threat of forced eviction hanging over 300,000 Lagosians living in waterfront communities across the state.
Makoko, a waterfront slum community in Lagos.
In late October 2016, after trying to engage the Lagos State Government unsuccessfully, 15 waterfront communities approached the Lagos State High Court to seek protection of their fundamental rights against the threat of eviction issued by the Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode.
A breakthrough came when, on January 26 2017, Honourable Justice S.A. Onigbanjo of the Lagos State High Court issued a landmark ruling, finding that demolitions on short notice without providing alternative shelter for persons evicted constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of Section 34 of the 1999 Constitution, and ordered the parties to attempt mediation through the Lagos State Multi-Door Court House.
“We came to mediation process in good faith and put forward workable proposals regarding alternatives to demolition and forced eviction that could address the various excuses the State Government has tried to use to justify its intention to demolish our homes. Even after the state government went back to continue demolishing one of our communities, Otodo Gbame, forcibly evicting 4,700 residents in violation of a court order, we still came back to the roundtable on 29 March 2017 to at least hear what the state government had to say,” the Federation declared in a statement made available to EnviroNews on Wednesday.
The group added: “It was therefore a great shock to us that the state government decided to unilaterally withdraw from the mediation process and give up on the possibility of any resolution through dialogue. This step is also at extreme odds with the public statement made by the Lagos State Commissioner of Information on 22 March 2017 affirming the government’s ‘unflinching commitment to the development of Lagos State as an ideal megacity that is sensitive to the needs of the public as well as open and continuous dialogue’.
“Waterfront communities across Lagos are home to hundreds of thousands of hard-working, law-abiding citizens. This is where we live and where many of us work. Our businesses – from fishing to sand dealing – and our labour add to the Lagos economy. We are the engine of the Lagos economy and we have a right to the city. We do not have any other home.
“Since last year, the government has tried to offer so many excuses for wanting to destroy our homes and take over the waterfronts. We have proffered alternative ways of resolving each of these concerns, but it seems the Government is not ready to listen nor is it really dedicated to trying to find lasting, citizen-centered solutions to complex urban problems.
“Evictions do not make Lagos safer. Instead, they push the urban poor into deeper poverty through homelessness and loss of livelihoods. Worsened poverty only exacerbates crime. Evictions are not the answer. We need to partner to find lasting solutions to insecurity.
“Evictions will not make Lagos the “ideal megacity” it aspires to be. Lagos is a megacity by virtue of its population. We, the urban poor, are part of that population. It seems that Lagos wants we, the urban poor, to simply disappear. We cannot and will not disappear.
“But, if we had support and partnership from our government such as can be seen in other megacities in the global south, we could develop our communities through in situ slum upgrading and social housing. Indeed, Federation is building community-financed environmentally sustainable toilet solutions to improve sanitation and public health in our communities. Federation is developing a social housing scheme and planning towardin situ slum upgrading. We are learning from the successes of peers in cities around the world.
“Why should the government we elected into power turn its back on dialogue with us when we are still at the table? When we came to the table despite the massive impunity and violation of our members’ human rights perpetrated by the state government with the callous demolitions and violent attacks on Otodo Gbame on 9-10 November, displacing 30,000 people, and on 17, 21, 22 and 26 March 2017, displacing another 4,700?
“Instead of dialoguing with us to find win-win solutions, this government wants to drive the poor from the city by demolishing our homes, taking over our lands, destroying our livelihoods and, very soon, getting rid of our principal means of transportation.”
President Macky Sall of Senegal has thrown his weight behind the adoption of agricultural biotechnology in the country.
Macky Sall, President of Senegal
He made the declaration during the 2017 Annual Session of the Senegal National Scientific and Technical Academy (ANSTS) on the situation, implications and perspectives of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in the country.
At a session chaired by him, President Sall made it clear that he supported the implementation of biotechnology in Senegal provided necessary measures to minimise risks were taken.
“I must say very clearly that I am for the use of GMOs based on the precautions taken and based on a dynamic regulation, otherwise we would be against progress. We must decide and step forward. We need to move forward because we have food security imperatives.
“This is a society choice that engages the future of our nation. It must be taken with full knowledge of the facts, while respecting the interests of present and future generations. Our new strategy for economic and social development is based on the science and technology sector, which is essential for the progress and well-being of the people. That is why I want to seek the ‘informed opinion of the Academy’ on the issue of GMOs which remains an important development issue.
“It is undeniable that GMOs can help meet current challenges, such as food insecurity, public health issues, natural resource conservation and climate change,” he stressed.
The President agreed that it was because biotechnology was an opportunity to effectively respond to these challenges that he agreed with ANSTS that “the precautionary principle must not lead to inertia. There is also a need to amend the 2011 law regulating biosafety.”
Sall instructed the Minister of Environment and other stakeholding government institutions to help speed the process of revising the biosafety law, which was currently unworkable.
“We need serious thought to develop a strategy to maximise the use of GMOs, while mitigating the risks associated with them. That is why it is necessary to strengthen the National Biosafety Authority and to have an appropriate legal system combined with an efficient information system based on objective scientific values to assess the cost/benefit/risks ratio,” he further stressed.
Vice-Chair of the Academy, Ms. Yaye Kene Gassama, presented the findings of a study carried out by the institution on the opportunities and risks for adopting biotechnology in Senegal.
According to her, “It is scientifically proven by notable international institutions that GMOs are safe food and feed,” adding however that precautious measures needed to be taken to minimise potential environmental risks.
On socio-economic concerns, Gassama said that “based on the study, 68% of the population in the country support the adoption of GMOs, 21% are against and 11% had no expressed opinion.”
The Session was an opportunity for the Regional Office of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in Dakar to access up-to-date information on the status of biotechnology and scientific research in the country as well as meet members of the scientific community and decision makers of the country.
For the African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE), which has been supporting Senegal, it was an achievement.
“The academic session has paved the way for a quick revision of the restrictive biosafety law in the country and for a smooth adoption of biotechnology in the country for several years. The necessary resources should be allocated to facilitate the process and especially to support ANB with adequate equipment and capacity building.
The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday, March 29, 2017 banned the sale and registration of Bharat Stage (BS)-III emission norm-complaint vehicles from Saturday, April 1, saying the health of millions was more important than commercial interests.
The Supreme Court’s Wednesday order affecting BS-III vehicles came on a plea by the Environment Pollution Control Authority in India. Photo credit: AP File Photo/Industan Times
The decision could deal a Rs 12,000-crore blow to auto manufactures as about 820,000 vehicles, most of them two-wheelers, are lying unsold.
India will switch to the more efficient and stringent BS-IV norms, already in place in some parts of the country, including Delhi, from April 1.
“The number of such vehicles may be small compared to the overall number of vehicles in the country but the health of the people is far, far more important than the commercial interests of the manufacturers,” a bench of justice Madan B Lokur and justice Deepak Gupta said, rejecting the plea of automobile firms for time to dispose of BS-III vehicles.
The court, which has passed several orders to check pollution, said the manufacturers were aware that from April 1 they would be required to manufacture only BS-IV vehicles but they failed to take sufficient pro-active steps.
The ruling came on a plea by the environment pollution control authority (Epca), which petitioned the court that only BS-IV vehicles should be sold in the market. Most automobile companies except Bajaj opposed the plea.
The objective behind a cleaner fuel technology would not be achieved if older vehicles continue to flood the market, said Epca, a Supreme-court appointed autonomous body that advises government on ecological issues.
The court also rejected the Centre’s argument that the BS-IV rollout only banned manufacturing and not the sale of the BS-III vehicles.
The biggest difference between the two is the emission of carbon particulate matter, a major air pollutant. While BS-III vehicles emit 2.30gm of carbon monoxide per kg of fuel, the emission drops to 1gm per kg in BS-IV vehicles.
Transition to BS-IV could lead to a substantial drop in particulate matter emissions. For instance, new trucks could see an 80% drop in emissions and cars by 50%, Epca told the court.
Similarly, hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions – a big concern for two-wheelers – could drop between 41 and 80%, depending on the engine size, it said.
The norms have to be followed by auto makers as well as fuel companies. The solicitor general told the court that BS-IV fuel would be available across India from April 1.
Industry would abide by the order, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) president Vinod K Dasari said.
The industry had been ready with BS-IV manufacturing since 2010 but the sale of these vehicles was not possible nationwide due to lack of BS-IV fuel, Dasari said.
India has set a deadline of 2020 to switch to BS-VI norms, giving a miss to stage V. But the leap, which will include technology upgrade, will make vehicles pricier – petrol cars by Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 and diesel ones could cost up to Rs 1 lakh more.
Speaking on the occasion of Earth Hour on 25 March, Fiji’s Minister for Agriculture, Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management, Inia Seruiratu, said: “The future of Fiji is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake. And we are taking on these responsibilities not only for every Fijian and every Pacific islander but for all 7.5 billion people on earth.” Fiji will be presiding over the UN Climate Change Conference COP23 in November in Bonn, hosted by the UN Climate Change Secretariat with support from Germany. Seruiratu is also Fiji’s “Climate Champion” for COP23, which means he will play an important role in the Global Climate Action Agenda designed to boost cooperative action between governments, cities, business, investors and citizens to cut emissions rapidly and help vulnerable nations adapt to climate impacts and build their own clean energy, sustainable futures.
Minister for Agriculture, Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management of Fiji, Inia Seruiratu
Tonight, we come together as Fijians and as citizens of the world to shine a light on the urgent need for climate action to save our planet. And as the Climate Champion of COP23, I’m very pleased to be here in Sukuna Park as we commemorate the 10th anniversary of Earth Hour.
Because night falls in Fiji before the rest of the world, Suva is the first of more than 7,000 cities in 175 nations and territories taking part in this event.
And Fiji is also leading the world in the fight to reduce our carbon emissions and reduce the impact of climate change – the extreme weather events like Cyclone Winston and the rising sea levels that threaten many places including my own village – Kumi in Tailevu
As you all know, 2017 is a big year for Fiji. We are co-hosting the UN Oceans Conference in New York in June. And our Honourable Prime Minister will also preside over COP 23 – the ongoing UN climate negotiations in Bonn in November.
You might ask, why is a small country like ours doing all of this? The answer is very simple. The future of Fiji is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake. And we are taking on these responsibilities not only for every Fijian and every Pacific islander but for all 7.5 billion people on earth.
Climate Change threatens our agriculture and the food we eat. Our drinking water, our land, our economy and our security. More cyclones. More floods. More droughts. More sea level rises.
Our oceans are also threatened by pollution and overfishing. And as a government, we have decided to lead this fight – a fight for our very survival.
So I appeal to you all get behind the Prime Minister as he goes to New York in June and to Bonn in November. To support me as the Climate Champion and the rest of our team, including our Climate Negotiator, Ambassador Nazhat Shameem Khan. Because we need your support and we need your prayers as we take this fight to the world on behalf of every Fijian.
We also need you to act. And no matter whom you are or how old you are, you can also make a difference and be a warrior for change.
Turn off your lights and appliances when you don’t need them to conserve power. Plant a food garden in your backyard. Plant as many trees as you can. Buy locally produced food and support the local economy. Walk or use a bicycle to save fuel.
And don’t rubbish our country. Pick up litter and keep our beaches and coastlines clean. These things may seem small. But if we all do them, we can really make a difference. We can all be climate champions and protectors of our seas.
Vinaka vakalevu for coming to support this wonderful event. Vinaka vakalevu to WWF and all our sponsors and supporters. This is the hour when we rededicate ourselves to really making a difference. This is the hour when we make a stand for Planet Earth.
Sixty-six million years ago, the sudden extinction of the dinosaurs started the ascent of the mammals, ultimately resulting in humankind’s reign on Earth. Climate scientists now reconstructed how tiny droplets of sulfuric acid formed high up in the air after the well-known impact of a large asteroid and blocking the sunlight for several years, had a profound influence on life on Earth. Plants died, and death spread through the food web. Previous theories focused on the shorter-lived dust ejected by the impact. The new computer simulations show that the droplets resulted in long-lasting cooling, a likely contributor to the death of land-living dinosaurs. An additional kill mechanism might have been a vigorous mixing of the oceans, caused by the surface cooling, severely disturbing marine ecosystems.
Tyrannosaurus Rex “Tristan”, on display at the Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science in Berlin with which PIK is cooperating. Photo credit: Carola Radke/Museum für Naturkunde
“The big chill following the impact of the asteroid that formed the Chicxulub crater in Mexico is a turning point in Earth history,” says Julia Brugger from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), lead author of the study to be published today in the Geophysical Research Letters. “We can now contribute new insights for understanding the much debated ultimate cause for the demise of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period.” To investigate the phenomenon, the scientists for the first time used a specific kind of computer simulation normally applied in different contexts, a climate model coupling atmosphere, ocean and sea ice. They build on research showing that sulfur- bearing gases that evaporated from the violent asteroid impact on our planet’s surface were the main factor for blocking the sunlight and cooling down Earth.
In the tropics, continental annual mean temperatures fell from 27 to -22 degrees Celsius
“It became cold, I mean, really cold,” says Brugger. Global annual mean surface air temperature dropped by at least 26 degrees Celsius. The dinosaurs were used to living in a lush climate. After the asteroid’s impact, the annual average temperature was below freezing point for about three years. Evidently, the ice caps expanded. Even in the tropics, continental annual mean temperatures went from 27 degrees to mere -22 degrees. “The long-term cooling caused by the sulfate aerosols was much more important for the mass extinction than the dust that stays in the atmosphere for only a relatively short time. It was also more important than local events like the extreme heat close to the impact, wildfires or tsunamis,” says co-author Georg Feulner, who leads the research team at PIK. It took the climate about 30 years to recover, the scientists found.
In addition to this, ocean circulation became disturbed. Surface waters cooled down, thereby becoming denser and hence heavier. While these cooler water masses sank into the depths, warmer water from deeper ocean layers rose to the surface, carrying nutrients that likely led to massive blooms of algae, the scientists argue. It is conceivable that these algal blooms produced toxic substances, further affecting life at the coasts. Yet in any case, marine ecosystems were severely shaken up, and this likely contributed to the extinction of species in the oceans, like the ammonites.
“It illustrates how important the climate is for all lifeforms on our planet”
The dinosaurs, until then the masters of the Earth, made space for the rise of the mammals, and eventually humankind. The study of Earth’s past also shows that efforts to study future threats by asteroids have more than just academic interest. “It is fascinating to see how evolution is partly driven by an accident like an asteroid’s impact – mass extinctions show that life on Earth is vulnerable,” says Feulner. “It also illustrates how important the climate is for all lifeforms on our planet. Ironically today, the most immediate threat is not from natural cooling but from human-made global warming.”
Logging that happens today and potential future rainfall reductions in the Amazon could push the region into a vicious dieback circle. If dry seasons intensify with human-caused climate change, the risk for self-amplified forest loss would increase even more, an international team of scientists finds. If however there is a great variety of tree species in a forest patch, according to the study this can significantly strengthen the chance of survival. To detect such non-linear behavior, the researchers apply a novel complex network analysis of water fluxes.
The Amazon rainforest
“The Amazon rainforest is one of the tipping elements in the Earth system,” says lead-author Delphine Clara Zemp who conducted the study at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Germany. “We already know that on the one hand, reduced rainfall increases the risk of forest dieback, and on the other hand, forest loss can intensify regional droughts. So more droughts can lead to less forest leading to more droughts and so on. Yet the consequences of this feedback between the plants on the ground and the atmosphere above them so far was not clear. Our study provides new insight into this issue, highlighting the risk of self-amplifying forest loss which comes on top of the forest loss directly caused by the rainfall reduction.”
This study results from the German-Brazilian Research Training Group on Dynamical Phenomena in Complex Networks at (IRTG1740) hosted by Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.
Self-amplifying effect comes on top of the forest loss directly caused by reduced rainfall
Under a dry-season halving of rainfall, at least 10 percent of the forest might be lost due to effects of self-amplification alone, adding to the substantial direct forest losses from reduced water availability. Computer simulations built by the scientists suggest that this has already happened in the Amazon about 20,000 years ago, in accordance with evidence from the Earth’s past. Still, they stress that the uncertainties are considerable. Taking into account the puzzlements of the vegetation-atmosphere-feedback, self-amplified forest dieback could amount up to 38 percent of the Amazon basin. In combination with the direct effects of the droughts, in fact most of the Amazon forest might eventually be at risk.
The study cannot provide information about the time scales of the processes, it is rather a sensitivity analysis.
Strikingly, the huge tropical woods produce much of the water they need themselves by evaporating moisture which then rains back onto them. “The Amazon water cycle is of course pure physics and biology, but it is also one of nature’s great wonders,” says co-author Henrique M.J. Barbosa from the Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. “As powerful as the cycle is, it is also surprisingly susceptible to environmental changes – and humankind is imposing massive perturbations on Amazonia by both cutting down the trees and heating up the air with greenhouse gases, which reduces large-scale moisture transport and precipitation, and end up affecting even the untouched patches of the forests.”
Even if average rainfall is stable, extended dry periods increase the risk of tipping
“Today, the wet season is getting wetter and the dry season drier in Southern and Eastern Amazonia due to changing sea-surface temperatures that influence moisture transport across the tropics,” says Anja Rammig from Technische Universität München (TUM) and PIK. “It is unclear whether this will continue, but recent projections constrained with observations indicate that widespread drying during the dry season is possible in the region.”
Even if average rainfall might not drastically change, extended drought events might tip parts of the Amazon forest into self-amplifying forest loss, eventually turning them into a savanna. “Projected rainfall changes for the end of the 21st century will not lead to complete Amazon dieback,” says co-author Carl Schleussner from Berlin-based scientific think tank Climate Analytics and PIK. “But our findings suggest that large parts of it are certainly at risk.”
Interestingly, the more diverse the Amazon vegetation is, the less vulnerable it seems to be. Diversity has the potential to decrease the effects of self-amplified forest loss. “Since every species has a different way of reacting to stress, having a great variety of them can be a means for ecosystem resilience,” says Marina Hirota from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. “Preserving biodiversity may hence not just be about loving trees and weeds and birds and bugs; it may also be a tool to stabilise key elements of the Earth system.”
