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California conservation to be hit by Arnie's cuts
FRANS LANTING/CORBIS
UPFRONT
Terminator targets parks CONSERVATION projects in California’s state parks face a bleak future if plans by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to tackle the swelling state deficit of $24.3 billion go through. His swingeing cuts would include funding for 80 per cent of the 270 sites run by the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Those earmarked for closure include world-famous attractions such as the giant sequoias at Calaveras Big Trees State Park in the Sierra Nevada. If the parks close, activities such as the removal of invasive plants and efforts to prevent catastrophic fires would also go. In Calaveras, this involves cutting down fir trees to stop any fires engulfing the sequoias. “That’s work that would have to stop,” says Rick Rayburn,
chief of natural resources at the parks department. California’s state parks also host at least 120 field research projects each year. These include a fourdecade study of a breeding population of elephant seals (pictured) at the Año Nuevo State Natural Reserve by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “We’re concerned that we’ll be locked out of our research sites,” says Steve Davenport, who manages the site for the university. In an attempt to keep the parks open, the state legislature’s budget committee on Monday backed a proposal to fund the parks through a $15 surcharge on vehicle registration fees paid by motorists – but it is not clear whether the proposal will pass.
–Time out for seal research–
Iran in the balance HOPES that the Iranian election might usher in a government that is more open to persuasion on nuclear issues hung in the balance this week. A less combative approach to Iran by the US, brought about by the Obama administration, coupled with the presidential candidacy of the moderate Mir Hossein Mousavi in Iran, raised hopes among many that Iran might change its uranium enrichment plans, as the UN has
“Mir Hossein Mousavi said he was open to negotiation over Iran’s uranium enrichment programme” requested, if Mousavi were to win. In an interview with Time magazine last week, Mousavi said he is open to negotiation over Iran’s nuclear enrichment in relation to “concerns about the diversion of this program toward weaponization”. The incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has to date refused to do so. 4 | NewScientist | 20 June 2009
Ahmadinejad was declared the winner on Saturday 13 June with a majority of over 60 per cent, but as New Scientist went to press, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had called for a recount in an attempt to placate mass protests sparked by what opposition supporters viewed as a rigged election. Some commentators think it is unlikely to change the outcome. If Ahmadinejad remains in power, the prospects of Iran halting its enrichment activities do not look promising. Earlier this month, the IAEA reported that Iran had increased the number of enrichment centrifuges by 25 per cent since February, and is now producing fuel-grade uranium almost twice as fast as last year. Though the IAEA has found no environmental evidence of further enrichment to weaponsgrade material, it has asked for more cameras to monitor the growing enrichment process. It also wants to inspect a formerly secret reactor at Arak, as well as plans for a new reactor. Iran has so far refused these requests.
Mass circumcision OVER half a million men are to be offered circumcision in Swaziland and Zambia to curb the spread of HIV. It is the first time circumcision has been proposed on this scale in AIDS hotspots. Circumcision can cut a man’s risk of HIV infection by 60 per cent, and in the past African men have queued up to be circumcised. The new programme is funded to the tune of $50 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation , enough for 650,000 procedures.
Under the programme, these will only be carried out by fully trained medical professionals, which could help prevent men from being harmed. “It’s great news, and this is exactly what’s needed,” says Catherine Hankins, chief scientific adviser at UNAIDS. She stresses however that circumcision alone won’t rule out infection with HIV, and that circumcised men should take additional precautions such as wearing condoms and limiting their numbers of sexual partners.
Swine flu vaccine gets go-ahead VACCINE companies will now plough all their resources into making a vaccine against H1N1 swine flu, following a decision by the World Health Organization to declare the virus an official pandemic on 11 June. The WHO defines a pandemic as a virus that is spreading widely in the community in at least two regions. While community-acquired infections have been reported in Australia and North America for several weeks now, the WHO’s official declaration
changes which vaccines get made. It will activate a slew of government pre-orders for pandemic vaccine from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and 12 European countries, including the UK. These will take precedence over more recent orders for H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines. While most swine flu infections are mild, some people have died. On 14 June, a 38-year-old woman in the UK became the first to succumb to the virus outside the Americas.
UPFRONT
Terminator targets parks CONSERVATION projects in California’s state parks face a bleak future if plans by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to tackle the swelling state deficit of $24.3 billion go through. His swingeing cuts would include funding for 80 per cent of the 270 sites run by the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Those earmarked for closure include world-famous attractions such as the giant sequoias at Calaveras Big Trees State Park in the Sierra Nevada. If the parks close, activities such as the removal of invasive plants and efforts to prevent catastrophic fires would also go. In Calaveras, this involves cutting down fir trees to stop any fires engulfing the sequoias. “That’s work that would have to stop,” says Rick Rayburn,
chief of natural resources at the parks department. California’s state parks also host at least 120 field research projects each year. These include a fourdecade study of a breeding population of elephant seals (pictured) at the Año Nuevo State Natural Reserve by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “We’re concerned that we’ll be locked out of our research sites,” says Steve Davenport, who manages the site for the university. In an attempt to keep the parks open, the state legislature’s budget committee on Monday backed a proposal to fund the parks through a $15 surcharge on vehicle registration fees paid by motorists – but it is not clear whether the proposal will pass.
–Time out for seal research–
Iran in the balance HOPES that the Iranian election might usher in a government that is more open to persuasion on nuclear issues hung in the balance this week. A less combative approach to Iran by the US, brought about by the Obama administration, coupled with the presidential candidacy of the moderate Mir Hossein Mousavi in Iran, raised hopes among many that Iran might change its uranium enrichment plans, as the UN has
“Mir Hossein Mousavi said he was open to negotiation over Iran’s uranium enrichment programme” requested, if Mousavi were to win. In an interview with Time magazine last week, Mousavi said he is open to negotiation over Iran’s nuclear enrichment in relation to “concerns about the diversion of this program toward weaponization”. The incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has to date refused to do so. 4 | NewScientist | 20 June 2009
Ahmadinejad was declared the winner on Saturday 13 June with a majority of over 60 per cent, but as New Scientist went to press, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had called for a recount in an attempt to placate mass protests sparked by what opposition supporters viewed as a rigged election. Some commentators think it is unlikely to change the outcome. If Ahmadinejad remains in power, the prospects of Iran halting its enrichment activities do not look promising. Earlier this month, the IAEA reported that Iran had increased the number of enrichment centrifuges by 25 per cent since February, and is now producing fuel-grade uranium almost twice as fast as last year. Though the IAEA has found no environmental evidence of further enrichment to weaponsgrade material, it has asked for more cameras to monitor the growing enrichment process. It also wants to inspect a formerly secret reactor at Arak, as well as plans for a new reactor. Iran has so far refused these requests.
Mass circumcision OVER half a million men are to be offered circumcision in Swaziland and Zambia to curb the spread of HIV. It is the first time circumcision has been proposed on this scale in AIDS hotspots. Circumcision can cut a man’s risk of HIV infection by 60 per cent, and in the past African men have queued up to be circumcised. The new programme is funded to the tune of $50 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation , enough for 650,000 procedures.
Under the programme, these will only be carried out by fully trained medical professionals, which could help prevent men from being harmed. “It’s great news, and this is exactly what’s needed,” says Catherine Hankins, chief scientific adviser at UNAIDS. She stresses however that circumcision alone won’t rule out infection with HIV, and that circumcised men should take additional precautions such as wearing condoms and limiting their numbers of sexual partners.
Swine flu vaccine gets go-ahead VACCINE companies will now plough all their resources into making a vaccine against H1N1 swine flu, following a decision by the World Health Organization to declare the virus an official pandemic on 11 June. The WHO defines a pandemic as a virus that is spreading widely in the community in at least two regions. While community-acquired infections have been reported in Australia and North America for several weeks now, the WHO’s official declaration
changes which vaccines get made. It will activate a slew of government pre-orders for pandemic vaccine from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and 12 European countries, including the UK. These will take precedence over more recent orders for H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines. While most swine flu infections are mild, some people have died. On 14 June, a 38-year-old woman in the UK became the first to succumb to the virus outside the Americas.