Day: February 19, 2022

Sparked by global warming and other forms of climate change, tropical butterflies are starting to arrive in Hong Kong and Taiwan in greater numbers, while temperate-zone species like the monarch appear to be dwindling in the region, conservationists told RFA.

“Seven new butterfly species were discovered in Hong Kong in 2021, including swallowtails, gray butterflies, and nymphs; most of them were tropical species,” Gary Chan, project officer at Hong Kong’s Fengyuan Butterfly Reserve, told RFA.

“Breeding records were found in Hong Kong for several of these species, which indicates that these weren’t just strays arriving in Hong Kong with horticultural imports or the monsoon,” Chan said.

According to Chan, Neptis cartica and Ancema blanka were both found in Hong Kong for the first time in 2021, along with Zeltus amasa, which is usually native to Malaysia, Thailand, India, Myanmar, Borneo and other points south of Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, tropical migrants are also being spotted in Taiwan, according to Hsu Yu-feng, a butterfly expert at Taiwan National Normal University.

Between 1985 and 2008, at least seven new species of tropical butterfly were found to have settled on the island, including Appias olfern peducaea, which traveled north from the Philippines to settle in the southern port city of Kaohsiung in 2000.

Even butterflies once found only in southern Taiwan are now found across the island, Hsu told RFA.

“When I was an undergraduate student in the 1980s, I went to Kenting [on the southern coast] to see Graphium agamemnon,” Hsu recalled. “Then, I saw it for the first time on this university college campus last year, and it was breeding here.”

SE Asia warming faster

Troides aeacus kaguya is another example of a butterfly that once only lived in southern Taiwan, and can now be found all over the island, he said.

The changes come as temperatures in east and southeast Asia have risen more rapidly than the global average in recent decades, Chan said.

“There are many more places where tropical butterflies and other insects can breed, so that’s why we’re seeing this northward migration, or dispersal behavior,” he said.

Hsu said the butterflies didn’t actually migrate, however; rather, their habitats are expanding due to rising temperatures.

“Once upon a time, the more northerly areas were colder, and not suitable for them to settle in, but they are suitable now, because temperatures have risen,” Hsu said.

“The north is warming at a higher rate than the south, meaning the difference in temperatures between north and south has been reduced,” he said. “That’s why southern butterflies are now living in the north.”

But the changes are forcing out butterflies that need a temperate climate to breed in, experts said.

Few monarchs now

The Siu Lang Shui conservation site in Hong Kong’s Tuen Mun district once saw tens of thousands of monarch butterflies spending the winter, as recently as 2013 and 2014, Chan said.

But numbers have fallen sharply in recent years, he said.

In Taiwan, the purple variegated butterflies that once overwintered in their millions in the Maolin valley outside Kaohsiung have also been dwindling in recent years, preferring to move north to seek out colder temperatures earlier in the year.

The warming environment is also becoming more hostile to temperate tree species some butterflies call home, Hsu told RFA.

“The Taiwan-endemic butterfly Sibataniozephyrus kuafui uses the Taiwan beech as a host plant … so in contrast to the expansion of tropical butterflies, temperate species are being threatened,” he said.

The changes in east Asia come after a study published in the journal Science in 2021 found that populations of most butterfly species in western North America has declined by nearly 50 percent over the past 40 years.

“California is the place with the most endemic species of butterflies in western North America,” Hsu said. “California butterflies are most vulnerable to drought, because this is a Mediterranean climate zone, with dry summers and rainy winters.”

“If climate change causes droughts in winter, plants will grow poorly, and the larvae of butterflies will have nothing to eat,” he said.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government aims to open a new center in Northern Virginia to receive additional Afghan evacuees, according to four sources familiar with the matter, although even before any official announcement the local sheriff in the area raised concerns about the plan.

The center is due to open as the government closes down the last of eight sites on military bases that housed tens of thousands of people evacuated from Afghanistan since August. It would be staffed by multiple U.S. agencies involved with the resettlement effort and could be operational by late February or early March, a senior U.S. official told Reuters.

The site being considered is in Leesburg, Virginia, according to two of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement to Reuters that it was still working to confirm the location of the center.

The sheriff’s office of Loudoun County, where Leesburg is located, issued a statement Thursday saying it was told by DHS that the government planned to bus some 2,000 Afghan evacuees a month, mostly relocating from Qatar, to the National Conference Center (NCC) from nearby Dulles International Airport beginning this month.

Sheriff Michael Chapman raised concerns about a “lack of communication, lack of planning, language barriers” as well as “the NCC’s unfenced proximity to a residential neighborhood and two public schools,” according to the statement.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the sheriff’s concerns. Chapman said he had spoken to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the matter.

The remaining Afghans currently housed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey – the last of the eight sites on military bases – are expected to be resettled in communities around the country in the coming days.

Major milestone

The move away from placing refugees in repurposed military installations marks a major milestone in U.S. President Joe Biden’s evacuation operation launched as the Taliban overran Afghanistan in August.

About 1,200 Afghans were still at the base, commonly known as Fort Dix, as of Tuesday, DHS said. The agency told Reuters that the base will continue housing evacuees awaiting resettlement until the new processing center is set up.

About 80,000 Afghans have been resettled in the United States as part of “Operation Allies Welcome” in the largest effort of its kind since the Vietnam War era.

The population passing through bases included applicants to the Special Immigrant Visa program, which is available to Afghans at risk of Taliban retaliation who worked for the U.S. government.

Others were admitted to the United States temporarily via “humanitarian parole” with the option to apply for asylum.

The Biden administration has urged Congress to create a more direct pathway to citizenship for Afghans.

Thousands of vulnerable Afghans are still stranded abroad as the U.S. government evaluates their cases and wrestles with logistical challenges to processing their admission.

Eligible Afghans currently in third countries could be allowed entry through an expedited refugee admission process, Reuters reported earlier this month.

But for Afghans still inside Afghanistan the pathways are limited. As of data from mid-February, the U.S. government had only approved around 170 applications out of 43,000 Afghans who have applied for “humanitarian parole” to come to the United States.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON — A former White House national security adviser said the Biden administration should call on China to act to show that it is serious about denuclearizing North Korea and that Washington’s options for dealing with North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs are running out fast.

“For too many years, we have let China get away with responsibility for North Korea,” said John Bolton, the national security adviser to former President Donald Trump from April 2018 to September 2019. “As part of the realignment of American policy toward Beijing … China’s responsibility for North Korea has to be put at the center.”

Bolton said during an interview with VOA’s Korean Service on Friday that the Biden administration’s options for dealing with North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs are “small and decreasing rapidly” as the regime’s “immediate threat” of intermediate-range ballistic missiles is “present right now.”

North Korea tested 11 missiles in January, concluding the month with an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. territory of Guam.

Denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang have been stalled since October 2019.

Washington has been expressing its openness to meet with Pyongyang without preconditions, but North Korea has largely dismissed the calls for talks.

Ken Gause, director of the Adversary Analytics Program at the research and analysis organization CNA, said one option Washington has right now is to “try to freeze” North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.

“Denuclearization is a bridge too far right now,” Gause said. “A wiser thing to do is to try to put things on the table in return for a freeze — no provocations, no proliferation, and no tests.”

China key to denuclearization

Bolton said the threat of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons proliferation “is increasing day by day” and suggested the Biden administration needs to ensure China takes action to back up statements that it does not want a nuclear North Korea.

“China has masqueraded for 30 years as just another disinterested party that says it doesn’t want North Korea to have nuclear weapons. Well, if it were serious, it could make that happen,” Bolton said.

“I think it’s important to the world that we put China to the proof on this – either you do what you alone have the capability of doing, which is changing the regime behavior in North Korea, or we draw the conclusion, the legitimate conclusion, that you’re fine with North Korea having a nuclear weapon,” he added.

China, North Korea’s top trading partner, has often been accused of helping Pyongyang evade U.N. sanctions placed on North Korea in 2016 to curb its nuclear and missile programs.

China and Russia, permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, have long called for sanctions relief on North Korea. Most recently, on Jan. 20, Beijing and Moscow delayed Washington’s effort to impose U.N. sanctions on North Korea after the regime’s fourth missile test of the month.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA’s Korean Service on Friday evening that “China’s position on the Korean Peninsula issue is consistent and clear. We hope relevant sides will resolve respective concerns through dialogue and consultation.”

He continued, saying “China has always been seriously implementing U.N. Security Council resolutions concerning DPRK. As long as the resolutions are still effective, we will earnestly fulfill our international responsibilities and deal with relevant matters according to the resolutions.”

Bolton said North Korea is unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons and missile programs through negotiations, adding that the U.S. should not rule out considering the possibility of a regime change or the use of force as an option.

“The U.S. should not be held hostage by a regime like this,” Bolton said. “That’s why possibilities for regime change or if necessary, use of force against the North Korean nuclear program cannot be ruled out.”

VOA’s Korean Service contacted North Korea’s U.N. Mission for comment on Bolton’s remarks but did not receive a reply.

Other options

Other experts believe the U.S. should pursue a diplomatic solution.

Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration, said Washington should seek a deal with Pyongyang through negotiations, although he admits “denuclearization is not possible for the foreseeable future.”

“I expect the U.S. will seek to limit North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs in exchange for political and economic steps, such as sanctions relief,” he said.

The Biden administration says it remains committed to diplomacy with North Korea.

“The United States holds no hostile intent towards the DPRK and we are open to meeting the DPRK without preconditions,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA’s Korean Service on Thursday. DPRK represents North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Liu, the Chinese Embassy spokesperson, said “If the U.S. truly cares about the well-being of the DPRK people, it should not keep pressuring the DPRK with sanctions. Instead, it should face up to the denuclearization measures already taken by the DPRK, respond to its legitimate and reasonable concerns and take measures to ease sanctions on the DPRK.”

Bolton expressed skepticism about an idea floated by some North Korea watchers that the Biden administration should try Trump-style personal diplomacy or high-level engagement to reengage North Korean leader Kim Jong Un into denuclearization talks.

Bolton was present at the two summits that Trump held with Kim, first in Singapore in June 2018 and then in Hanoi in February 2019.

“They gave cover for North Korea systemically to make additional progress on its nuclear and ballistic missile programs under the appearance that they were trying to work out an arrangement with President Trump,” he said.

 

Source: Voice of America