Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 18 June 2019

Audubon intervenes to protect ocean monument for puffins

By PATRICK WHITTLE A spokesman for the Na-
Associated Press tional Oceanic and At-
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — mospheric Administration,
The National Audubon So- which oversees fisheries
ciety is getting involved in and oceans for the federal
a lawsuit over the future government, declined to
of a national monument comment.
in the ocean off New Eng- U.S. District Judge James
land because of the area’s Boasberg granted the
importance to seabirds, es- Trump administration’s
pecially colorfully beaked motion to dismiss the suit
puffins. against the monument last
Fishing groups sued in fed- year. The groups appealed
eral court against creation to the U.S. Court of Appeals
of Northeast Canyons and for the District of Columbia
Seamounts Marine Nation- Circuit.
al Monument, which former Oral arguments are not yet
President Barack Obama scheduled, said Jonathan
designated in 2016. The Wood, an attorney for the
case is on appeal. Court fishing groups. The fisher-
documents show Audubon In this Aug. 1, 2014, file photo, an Atlantic puffin comes in for a landing on Eastern Egg Rock, a men’s contention that the
has moved to file a friend- small island off the coast of Maine. Antiquities Act applies to
of-the-court brief in favor of Associated Press the land and not the sea
keeping the monument. tend the creation of the Karen Hyun, vice president boost for Maine, Hyun add- should be enough to over-
Lawyers for the fishing monument has created of coasts for Audubon. ed. turn the creation of the
groups have said the mon- an unfair hardship for them Protecting the monument “It’s really important for monument, Wood said.
ument was illegally created because it restricts where area from commercial fish- the sustainability of these “A century of presidential
by Obama using the Antiq- they can fish. ing will help provide the birds,” Hyun said. “It’s a practice, judicial prec-
uities Act. But the nearly 5,000-square- birds with a reliable food species that people come edent, and the Constitu-
The groups include fisher- mile area is especially im- source, she said. to the Maine coast to see, tion’s separation of powers
men, such as lobstermen portant to Maine’s vulner- The health of the puf- to participate in puffin all show that the answer is
and crabbers who con- able Atlantic puffins, said fin population is a tourism watching tours.” no,” he said.q

Climate talks held as Arctic ice melts, concerns grow

By FRANK JORDANS against a backdrop of
Associated Press mounting concerns about
BERLIN (AP) — Diplomats global warming that have
and climate experts gath- been heightened by ex-
ered Monday in Germany treme weather events and
for U.N.-hosted talks on cli- other signs that man-made
mate change amid grow- climate change may al-
ing public pressure for ready be leaving its mark
governments to act faster on the planet.
against global warming. Over the weekend, a pic-
Officials meeting in the ture taken by Danish cli-
western city of Bonn for the mate researchers show-
June 17-27 talks are focus- ing sled dogs on the ice in
ing on resolving issues that northwest Greenland with
couldn’t be agreed upon their paws in melted ice
at last December’s climate water was widely shared on
summit in Poland. This in- social media. Greenland’s
cludes the rules governing ice melting season normal-
the international trade in ly runs from June to August
carbon certificates, which but the Danish Meteorolog-
allow rich countries to off- ical Institute said this year’s In this photo taken on Thursday, June 13, 2019 sled dogs make their way in northwest Greenland
with their paws in melted ice water.
set emissions by paying for melting started on April 30, Associated Press
projects in poor nations. the second-earliest time on Students in Europe and be- nical issues in Bonn, Euro- Germany and France are
The talks are taking place record going back to 1980. yond have staged regular pean Union leaders will be expected to pass national
street protests demanding debating the 28-nation’s legislation this year enshrin-
leaders do more to meet long-term strategy on cli- ing this “net zero” target in
the 2015 Paris accord’s mate change Thursday in law. U.N. Secretary-Gen-
goal of keeping average Brussels. German Chancel- eral Antonio Guterres has
temperature increases be- lor Angela Merkel has indi- invited world leaders to
low 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 cated that she backs pro- outline their countries’ ef-
Fahrenheit) — ideally 1.5 posals to stop adding fur- forts to cut greenhouse gas
degrees C (2.7 degrees F) ther greenhouse gas emis- emissions on the sidelines of
— by the end of the cen- sions to the atmosphere by the U.N. General Assembly
tury, compared to pre-in- 2050 — a move that will re- in September.
dustrial times. quire ending almost all fos- They’ll likely face no letup
While experts discuss tech- sil fuel use by then. Britain, in pressure there.q