Environmental Policies – Part 6 ENVIRONMENT POLICIES EVOLUTION Part 6 António Gonçalves Henriques 1 1988 Chico Mendes Brasil • Sometimes called "The Ghandi of the Amazon" Chico Mendes was a rubber tapper who lived and worked in Brazil's Amazon region. Largest river basin in the world Area of river basin: 6 300 000 km2 Area of rainforest: 5 500 000 km2 2 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 1 Environmental Policies – Part 6 Amazonia Area of river basin: 6 300 000 km2 Area of rainforest: 5 500 000 km2 Brazil: 58.4% Peru: 12.8%, Bolivia: 7.7%, Colombia: 7.1%, Venezuela: 6.1%, Guyana: 3.1%, Suriname: 2.5%, French Guyana: 1.4%, Ecuador with 1%. 3 Amazonia Amazon basin forest north of Manaus 4 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 2 Environmental Policies – Part 6 Amazonia Members of an uncontacted tribe encountered in the Brazilian state of Acre in 2009 5 Amazonia Members of an uncontacted tribe encountered in the Brazilian state of Acre in 2009 6 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 3 Environmental Policies – Part 6 Amazonia Glaucous macaw Ka’apor capuchin Amazon river dolphin Jocotoco antpitta (Anodorhynchus glaucus) (Cebus kaapori) (Inia geoffrensis) (Grallaria ridgelyi) Bald Uakari South American Jaguar Black caiman (Cacajao calvus) (Panthera Onca) (Melanosuchus niger) Some rare or endangered species of fauna in Amazonia 7 Deforestation of Amazonia Wildfires in Brazil's indigenous territory, 2017 8 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 4 Environmental Policies – Part 6 Deforestation of Amazonia Deforestation in the state of Maranhão 9 Deforestation of Amazonia Fires and deforestation in the state of Rondônia 10 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 5 Environmental Policies – Part 6 Deforestation of Amazonia Impact of deforestation on natural habitat of trees 11 1988 Chico Mendes Brasil • To save the rainforest, Chico Mendes and the rubber workers union asked the government to set up reserves as they wanted people to use the forest without damaging it. They also used a very effective technique they called the 'empate' where rubber tappers blocked the way into rubber reserves, preventing their destruction. • During the 1980's Chico became a political activist interested in protecting the rights of rubber tappers against the invasion of cattle ranchers. His struggle caught the attention of international environmentalists who saw Chico's resistance movement as a fight to save the rainforest. 12 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 6 Environmental Policies – Part 6 1988 Chico Mendes • Chico was murdered by ranching interests in late 1988. • Chico’s murder made international headlines and led to a wave of support for the rubber tappers' and environmental movements. • Mendes believed that relying on rubber tapping alone was not sustainable, and that the seringueiros needed to develop more holistic, cooperative systems that used a variety of forest products, such as nuts, fruit, oil, and fibers; and that they needed to focus on building strong communities with quality education for their children. • Chico and the ecologists worked together for a short period, but then Chico was murdered by ranching interests in late 1988. • Thanks in part to the international media attention on the murder, the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve was created in the area where he lived. More than 20 such reserves, along the same lines as Mendes had proposed, now cover more than 32 000 km². 13 1988 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) • The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created in 1988. • It was set up by WMO and UNEP to prepare, based on available scientific information, assessments on all aspects of climate change and its impacts, with a view of formulating realistic response strategies. • In 2007 the IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. • The initial task for the IPCC was to prepare a comprehensive review and recommendations with respect to the state of knowledge of the science of climate change; the social and economic impact of climate change, and possible response strategies and elements for inclusion in a possible future international convention on climate. • Today the IPCC's role is “...to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation”. 14 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 7 Environmental Policies – Part 6 1988 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) • IPCC reports should be neutral with respect to policy, although they may need to deal objectively with scientific, technical and socio-economic factors relevant to the application of particular policies. • The scientific evidence brought up by the first IPCC Assessment Report of 1990 underlined the importance of climate change as a challenge requiring international cooperation to tackle its consequences. It therefore played a decisive role in leading to the creation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). • Since then the IPCC has delivered on a regular basis the most comprehensive scientific reports about climate change produced worldwide, the Assessment Reports. 15 1988 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) • The IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 provided important material for the negotiations that led to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. • The Third Assessment Report came out in 2001 and the Fourth in 2007. • The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) was released in four parts between September 2013 and November 2014. AR5 provides a clear and up to date view of the current state of scientific knowledge relevant to climate change. • The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) will be released in 2021. 16 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 8 Environmental Policies – Part 6 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Bligh Reef, Prince Williams Sound, Alaska • On March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez, en route from Valdez, Alaska, to Los Angeles, California, grounded in Alaska's Prince William Sound, rupturing its hull and spilling nearly 262 thousand gallons (42 000 m3) of crude oil into a remote, scenic, and biologically productive body of water. • The tanker was 301 metres long, 51 metres wide, 26 metres depth, with a deadweight of 218 000 tons. 17 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 18 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 9 Environmental Policies – Part 6 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 19 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Bligh Reef, Prince Williams Sound, Alaska • The oil would eventually impact over 2 000 km of non-continuous coastline in Alaska. It was the largest single oil spill in U.S. coastal waters prior to 2010. • In the weeks and months that followed, the oil spread over a wide area in Prince William Sound and beyond, resulting in a previously unprecedented response and cleanup. 20 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 10 Environmental Policies – Part 6 21 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Bligh Reef, Prince Williams Sound, Alaska Ecosystem response • Oil persisted beyond a decade in surprising amounts and in toxic forms. It was sufficiently bioavailable to induce chronic biological exposures and had long-term impacts at the population level. • Three major pathways of long-term impacts emerge: (1) chronic persistence of oil, biological exposures, and population impacts to species closely associated with shallow sediments; (2) delayed population impacts of sublethal doses compromising health, growth, and reproduction; and (3) indirect effects of trophic and interaction cascades, all of which transmit impacts well beyond the acute-phase mortality. 22 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 11 Environmental Policies – Part 6 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 23 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 24 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 12 Environmental Policies – Part 6 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 25 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Acute Mortality • Marine mammals and seabirds are at great risk from floating oil because they have routine contact with the sea surface. • Oiling of fur or feathers causes loss of insulating capacity and can lead to death from hypothermia, smothering, drowning, and ingestion of toxic hydrocabons. • Scientists estimate mass mortalities of 1000 to 2800 sea otters, 302 harbor seals, and 250 000 seabird in the days immediately after the oil spill. • Mass mortality also occurred among macroalgae and benthic invertebrates on oiled shores from a combination of chemical toxicity, smothering, and physical displacement from the habitat by pressurized wash-water applied after the spill. 26 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 13 Environmental Policies – Part 6 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill California grey whale covered in oil 27 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill A Red Necked Grebe, covered in oil, found about 35 miles from the spill, on March 30, 1989 28 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 14 Environmental Policies – Part 6 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill One baby and five adult oil-soaked sea otters lie dead on Green Island beach on April 3, 1989 29 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 30 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 15 Environmental Policies – Part 6 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 31 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 32 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 16 Environmental Policies – Part 6 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 33 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 34 António Gonçalves Henriques 2020-10-22 17 Environmental Policies – Part 6 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill On May 5, 2010, oil is shown seeping into a hole dug on a beach on Eleanor Island, Alaska 35 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Long-term impacts • The persistent nature of oil in sediments produce chronic, long-term exposure risks from some species. For example, chronic exposures for years after the spill to oil persisting in sedimentary refuges were evident from biomarkers in fish, sea otters, and seaducks intimately associated with sediments for egg laying or foraging. These chronic exposures enhanced mortality for years.