The plateau, says the academy, has a staggering 46,298 glaciers, covering almost 60,000 square miles. At an average height of 13,000 feet above sea level, they make up the largest area of ice outside the polar regions, nearly a sixth of the world’s total.

The glaciers have been receding over the past four decades, as the world has gradually warmed up, but the process has now accelerated alarmi?gly. Average temperatures in Tibet have risen by 2 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 20 years, causing the glaciers to shrink by 7 per cent a year, which means that they will halve every 10 years.

Prof Dong Guangrong, speaking for the academy – after a study analysing data from 680 weather stations scattered across the country – said that the rising temperatures would thaw out the tundra of the plateau, turning it into desert.

He added: "The melting glaciers will ultimately trigger more droughts, expand desertification and increase sand storms." The water running off the plateau is increasing soil erosion and so allowing the deserts to spread.

Sandstorms, blowing in from the degraded land, are already plaguing the country. So far this year, 13 of them have hit northern China, including Beijing. Three weeks ago one storm swept across an eighth of the vast country and even reached Korea and Japan. On the way, it dumped a mind-boggling 336,000 tons of dust on the capital, causing dangerous air pollution.

The rising temperatures are also endangering the newly built world’s highest railway, which is due to go into operation this summer. They threaten to melt the permafrost under the tracks of the £1.7bn Tibetan railway, constructed to link the area with China’s northwestern Qinghai province.

Perhaps worst of all, the melting threatens to disrupt water supplies over much of Asia. Many of the continent’s greatest rivers – including the Yangtze, the Indus, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Mekong and the Yellow River – rise on the plateau.

In China alone, 300 million people depend on water from the glaciers for their survival. Yet the plateau is drying up, threatening to escalate an already dire situation across the country. Already 400 cities are short of water; in 100 of them – including Beijing – the shortages are becoming critical.

Even hopes that the melting glaciers might provide a temporary respite, by increasing the amount of water flowing off the plateau – have been dashed. For most of the water is evaporating before it reaches the people that need it – again because of the rising temperatures brought by global warning.

Yao Tandong, head of the academy’s Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute, summed it up. "The full-scale glacier shrinkage in the plateau regions will eventually lead to an ecological catastrophe," he said.

Just 0.6 percent of the oceans are protected reserves at present, compared with 12 percent of the world’s land, according to U.N. data.

While that protection is put in place, trawling along the ocean bottom should be banned, Greenpeace said.

"An immediate U.N. moratorium on high seas bottom ?rawling is essential to stop the destruction of deep-sea life whilst a global network of marine reserves is established," professor Callum Roberts of York University said in a Greenpeace statement.

The U.N. meeting in Curitiba, Brazil, which lasts until the end of March, will discuss ways to expand protection both on land and at sea to slow the accelerating rate of extinction of animals and plants caused by human activities.

The meeting will discuss the principle of extending marine protection, but will not reach a formal agreement.

The United States is not a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity, an international conservation agreement signed by the 188 countries which are meeting in Brazil.

Greenpeace also urged better protection of forests, saying its satellite maps showed that intact forests covered less than 10 percent of the world’s land area, threatening thousands of species of animals and plants.

Deforestation was worst in the state of Mato Grosso where vast swathes of land have been cleared to grow crops.

Greenhouse threat

The loss of 26,000 sq km means almost a fifth of the entire Amazon has now been chopped down.
On this occasion, just under half of the deforestation occurred in Mato Grosso, where trees have been replaced with soya fields.

Last year exports of soya, mostly to China and Europe, propelled Brazil to a record trade surplus.

But campaigners say exports are being put ahead of the environment.

In a statement, Greenpeace called the governor of Mato Grosso the "king of deforestation".

He himself is one of the world’s largest soya producers.

Responding to the figures, the government points out that it has increased satellite surveillance of threatened areas and created some of the largest environmental reserves in Brazilian history, but so far there is little to show for it.

The broader fear among environmentalists is that a shrinking Amazon will soon become a net polluter of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide as its absorbing properties are reduced and more and more felled trees are burned.

Other concerns center on the rising tide of household and industrial wastes contaminating the land, underground freshwater supplies and coastal waters. For example, only 13 per cent of the population of Saint Lucia is connected to the sewage system.

Dwindling quantities of freshwater for drinking and agriculture is a worry in many islands. Some countries in the eastern Caribbean, like Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Saint Kitts and Nevis, are already officially listed as "water scarce".

Tourism in the form of luxury hotels and golf courses can intensify the problems unless carefully managed. Tourist resorts use on average of five to ten times more water than similar residential areas in the Caribbean.

Climate change may, among its many potential impacts, aggravate water shortages. Experts are predicting that rainfall in the eastern Caribbean will decline by 4 per cent in the coming years unless drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions occur.

Global warming is also likely to affect agriculture in the region. Bananas, a key crop, are very thirsty plants and are prone to Black Sigatoka disease under dry conditions.

An estimated 70 per cent of the Caribbean?s population lives in cities, towns and villages located in vulnerable low-lying coastal areas threatened by rising sea levels and increasing frequency and intensity of storms and hurricanes. In 2004, several of the Caribbean small island developing States experienced severe devastation, the loss of thousands of lives and millions of dollars in damages because of intense hurricanes.

Meanwhile, alien invasive species, transported to the region in ships? ballast waters or in imports such as horticultural products, may also threaten the existence of native and often unique plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth.

The Dominican Republic, with an estimated 186 known alien species, has the highest number of invaders followed by Puerto Rico, 182; the Bahamas, 159; and Jamaica, 102.

Alien species may increase the number of native or endemic species already threatened with extinction as a result of habitat loss, deforestation and the clearance of land for farming and urbanization.

Currently Jamaica has, at 254, the highest number of threatened animal and plant species in the Caribbean followed by Cuba with 225.

These are among the findings from a series of reports released by UNEP on small island developing States around the world.

The reports, an international effort involving scientists and collaborating centers across the world, cover the Caribbean and the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Ocean and small island developing States.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) is a first step in implementing EPA?s program that works cooperatively with national organizations that represent septic system practitioners and the public. These systems are used in nearly 25 percent of homes across the country and used in about one-third of all new housing and commercial development. When properly sited, designed and maintained, these systems are capable of producing high quality wastewater. However, decentralized systems are the second greatest threat to groundwater quality, second only to leakage from underground storage tanks. It is estimated that nation-wide, 10 to 20 percent of decentralized systems are not adequately treating wastewater due to inadequate site location, design and maintenance.

The program strategy that accompanies the MOU identifies EPA?s vision, mission and actions to improve the performance of decentralized wastewater treatment systems. The MOU and the strategy are intended to upgrade the management of these systems and facilitate collaboration between EPA headquarters, EPA regions, state and local governments and national organizations representing practitioners and assistance providers. Improved performance of decentralized systems will provide better protection of public health and water resources.

 CONCERNED that these actions appear to be in retaliation for the outspoken positions taken by Director Voloshkevych against the construction of a navigation canal through the core of the Reserve’s most strictly protected area;

RECALLING  that Resolution 2.37 of the 2d World Conservation Congress in Amman, Jordan, called upon the Director-General to speak out publicly and forcefully when environmental advocates are threatened and to discourage harassment or persecution of environmental advocates using all appropriate means;

 RECALLING FURTHER  that?Resolution 19.28 of the 19th IUCN General Assembly in Buenos Aires, Argentina, called for “inclusion in law of provisions for meaningful public participation in the EIA process and full public access to relevant information” and that laws should insure “that EIAs that are found to be inadequate are rejected”;

 CONVINCED that managers of protected areas who bring ecosystem threats to the attention of the public and national and international authorities should not suffer retaliatory actions directed against them personally or against their means of operation;

 INSISTENT  that projects significantly affecting protected areas should go forward only after full environmental assessment meeting international standards, with sufficient opportunities for broad and effective participation by the public prior, during and even after to decisionmaking;

The World Conservation Congress at its 3d Session in Bangkok, Thailand, 17-25 November 2004 RECOMMENDS to:

 1. ASK  the Government of Ukraine to provide adequate replacement operational equipment and means so that Reserve officials can perform their duties to protect the Reserve.

 2. URGE the Government of Ukraine and others to respect and warranty the human rights of Reserve officials and individual who advocate for protection of Reserves, and to ensure that they can perform their conservation and advocacy duties without fear of retaliation.

 3. ENCOURAGE  all concerned to cooperate with international environmental institutions, conservation organizations, and governments in further measures to ensure proper public participation and assessment of impacts of projects involving the Danube Biosphere Reserve.

 Sponsor

Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (Peruvian Environmental Law Society) (SPDA) (Peru) (by Jorge Caillaux)

 Co-Sponsors up to 17 November 2004

Center for Russian Environmental Policy (Russia) (by Alexey Yablokov, President)

St. Petersburg Naturalists’ Society (Russia) (by Roustam Sagitov, Vice-President)

Environmental Educational Centre “Zapovedniks” (Russia) (by Natalia Danilina,Vice-Chair of WPCA)

National Ecological Centre of Ukraine (by Volodymyr Maltsev, Deputy Head)

Centro de Derechos Humanos y Ambiente (Center for Human Rights and Environment(CEDHA) (Argentina) (by Victor Ricco)

Centro Ecuatoriano de Derecho Ambiental (Ecuador Center of Environmental Law) (by Alegria Corral Jervis, Executive Director)

Macquarie University Centre for Environmental Law (Australia) (by Michael Jeffrey)

Instituto O Direito por um Planeta Verde (Institute of Law for a Green Planet) (Brazil) (by Antonio Benjamin)

Corporacion de Gestion y Derecho Ambiental (ECOLEX) (Ecuador) (by Manolo Morales)

Instituto de Derecho y Economia Ambiental (Institute for Environmental Law and Economy) (IDEA) (Paraguay) (by Sheila Abed de Zavala, newly elected Chair of IUCN Commission on Environmental Law)

Pace University Center for Environmental Legal Studies (USA) (by Nicholas Robinson)

(and two other co-sponsoring organizations)

Reviewed and assented by the Steering Committee of the IUCN Commission on
Environmental Law, 15 November 2004

Adopted by IUCN World Conservation Congress, Nov. 23, 2004

“It’s saying that we still need to have action according to (the Kyoto Protocol), we still need to have action at the national and European level,” Professor Jacqueline McGlade, EEA executive director told DW-RADIO. “We’re saying we now know enough to be able to act, and act we must,” she warned.

The report says that as a result of climate change Europe is warming faster than the global average. Scientists say global warming, which is due to the increased emissions of greenhouses gases, like carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere, leads to an increase in extreme weather events like the devastating heat wave across Europe last summer and the mass flooding the summer before that.

[b]Europe must adapt[/b]

While the agency strongly supports international moves to mitigate global warming like the Kyoto Protocol, it is now for the first time calling on countries to adapt to extreme weather events like flooding at the same time as reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

“It’s not simply now a case of building flood defenses to meet an event that might have a one in 100 year chance of happening, Professor McGlade explained.

“These are now not only going to occur more frequently, but also perhaps come in a more intense way. That means we need a very coherent strategy, both across Europe and at regional and local levels, so that people can anticipate what to do under those conditions.”

[b]An integrated approach[/b]

The report also predicts that by 2050 three-quarters of the Europe’s main glaciers in the Swiss Alps will melt. The European Environment Agency says that climate change will not have an isolated impact on one area of the continent and that countries will have to take a more integrated approach on how to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as adapt to the impact of a warmer climate.

“When we talk about the transport infrastructure, we need to think about fuels — in particular, what kind of transport, what kind of fuels — and set ourselves targets for renewable energ?, and within that creating a target for biomass or conversion to bio-fuels, ” McGlade said. “We can’t look in isolation at transport, (but also) where we place the transport infrastructure.”

The floods in summer 2002 killed around 80 people and led to widespread damage. The heat wave the following summer led to over 20,000 deaths and caused severe crop failure. Combined, this cost European countries some ?20 billion ($24.7 billion). The money that could be better spent if Europe acted sooner to prevent and adapt to climate change, said the European Environment Agency.

The aim of the researches in commune Cocieri and village Malovata Nouã, district Chişinãu was to find out the sanitary-hygienic state of the wells and springs, find the polluters of underground waters and elaborate recommendations to improve the situation created in these localities. For commune Cocieri characteristic is the high depth of the wells (48-50 m) which makes it difficult to clean them. The best water which corresponds to all the sanitary norms is at the spring near the old people?s home which is often visited by the local population.

Analyzing the samples from commune Cocieri in 90% of the wells the water does not correspond to sanitary-hygienic norms. Concerning the microbiological indices their quantity is from 2000 per dm3 to 13000 per dm3 and NO¯3 from 78 mg/dm3 to 257 mg/dm3. In the village Malovata Nouã none of the examined wells correspond to the sanitary-hygienic norms (the quantity of Coliforms varies from 1000 to 350000 cells).

The excessive pollution of the examined underground waters is due to the activity of the human factor: animal wastes, unauthorized places for garbage in the center of the village, etc.). Because of the lack of high capacity pumps for the cleaning of the wells at high depths the layer of polluters accumulated during many years is not removed.

According to all mentioned above it is recommended to the Local Public Administration and population the followings:
- Liquidation of all sources of bacterial pollution (zootechnic and chemical wastes, petroleum products) in the area of sanitary protection of drinkable water sources;
- Establishment of an authorized place for garbage according to the existent standards;
- Cleaning of the wells till their bottom (sand sole) and disinfecting twice per year;
- Avoiding worsening of the water quality and precocious find out through a monitoring according to national standards;
- Urgent reparation of the centralized water supply system distribution destroyed during the military conflict in 1992 and connecting the inhabitants of the commune Cocieri to it.