THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
UNEP and the Executive Director in the News
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CNBC (USA): Eco-Tourism No Longer For Just The Rich And Fashionable
Anguilla News (Anguilla): School Technology Club Wins $500 in Anguilla - UNEP-CEP
Collage Competition
Haiti Libre (Haiti): Haiti - Environment : Launching of the project of reforestration at the
border
Bahai World News Service (Israel): UN Commission discusses ethics behind the
environmental crisis
IPS: Guatemalan Beaches Threatened by Iron and Gas Operations
AlMasryAlYoum (Egypt): Irina Springuel: A Russian botanist in Egypt
Korea Herald (Korea): Regional action needed for biodiversity decade
Daily India (India): Quake could cause Himalayan glacial lakes to inundate populated
areas
Asian Tribune (Sri Lanka): On Piracy and Pigeonholed Security
Ghana Web (Ghana): Eighth GCLME Regional Steering Committee meets in Accra
Le Soir (Belgium): Les phosphates, une industrie à deux visages
Haiti Libre (Haiti): Haïti - Environnement : Lancement du projet de reforestration
transfrontière
Other Environment News
AFP: UK eyes 50% carbon emissions cut target
Reuters: South to lose 23 million acres of forest over 50 years
AP: UK pledges to cut carbon emissions in half by 2025
Time (USA): Why Japan's Shift Away from Nuclear Is Good for Business
AFP: Malaysia unveils plan to build 'green economy'
Environmental News from the UNEP Regions
RONA
ROWA
Other UN News
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Environment News from the UN Daily News of May 18 2011
Environment News from the S.G.’s Spokesman Daily Press Briefing of May 17
2011 (None)
UNEP and the Executive Director in the News
CNBC (USA): Eco-Tourism No Longer For Just The Rich And Fashionable
17 May 2011
Like other parts of the travel industry, eco-tourism was hammered by the global
recession —but it's on the comeback trail, as operators expand beyond the traditional
high-end core market.
While luxury has been a hallmark of this niche market, as in other industries, the growing
interest in sustainability means a wider clientele.
"Eco-tourism is such a broad and often misleading term, which can encompass
everything from a conservation-based adventure travel program to vacations in high-end
luxury hotels that use recycled toilet paper and avoid washing towels every day," says
Jason Halal, manager of Sierra Club Outings. "One thing is for sure — travel companies
and services are all beefing up their eco credentials in order to attract the rising number
of customers seeking a ‘green’ experience.”
Though industry-wide sales data are unavailable, the U.S. Commerce Department tracks
some travelers.
“The share of travelers who participated in an environmental/ecological excursion has
picked up,” says Ron Erdmann, Director of Research at the Office of Travel & Tourism
Industries.
Annual surveys of Americans headed abroad show eco-travelers accounted for 5.8
percent of the traffic in 2009, up from 5.6 percent in the previous year, but down from 6.3
percent in 2007.
This industry is about much more than luxury bungalows or tents in pristine locations
with carbon neutral operations.
“Sustainability is at the forefront of our business model because of customer demand,"
says GAP Adventures CEO, Bruce Poon Tip.
Tip says revenue grew 42 percent between 2008-2010, despite the global downturn,
surpassing $150 million.
He attributes the growth to the company’s ability to add a younger demographic to its
core market of 30- to 50-year-olds. For instance, Gap Adventures offers “Yolo” for “You
Only Live Once” Tours. For 12 days, 18- to 30-somethings go to remote locations at a
cost of $1,000-$1,500.
GAP Adventure tours use small-scale lodging, local transportation, and locally owned
businesses, because the goal is to stimulate local economies.
"A true sustainability model is about engaging local communities and the traveler, and
delivers on the needs of both," says Tip, who cites a 2010 United Nations Environment
Programme report that only $5 of every $100 spent on vacation remains in the country.
"This obviously is a massive problem. We try to keep tourism dollars in the home
country.”
Costa Rica remains the market giant.
According to the Costa Rica Tourism Board, ICT, approximately 49 percent of 2 million
visitors who flew into Costa Rica in 2010 participated in eco-tourism activities during
their stay. Ecotourism revenue was close to $1 billion.
“Tourism is one of the main economic drivers for Costa Rica," says Maria Amalia
Revelo, Deputy Manager and Marketing Director for the Costa Rica Tourism Board.
“We protect 1,000 acres,” says Nazme Abouomar, manager at Lapa Rios, a so-called
ecolodge and wildlife preserve in the country.
One of the most successful Eco Lodges in Costa Rica, Lapa Rios was named by
National Geographic as one of the most earth-friendly retreats and holds a “5-Leaf”
rating — the highest sustainability certificate from the Certification for Sustainable
Tourism Program. Depending on the season, a room at Lapa Rios ranges from $210 to
$600 per night.
“We are the hotel with the highest occupancy in the area, the Osa Peninsula," says
Abouomar. "We were hurt by the recession. Three and four years ago, we had 99
percent occupancy; now we’re picking up at between 55 and 66 percent.”
Another mainstream option is the Sierra Club, whose eco-trip business was hit hard by
the recession.
The organization offers trips ranging from wilderness backpacking to lodge-based
adventures. Prices start from $325 for a service trip to $8,345 for a cruise to Iceland,
Norway, and Greenland fjords. Over half of the trips are below $1,000. Destinations
include the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Nepal, Bhutan and Patagonia, Chile.
"The last year and a half saw an improvement in domestic trip sign-ups and there's even
been a slight uptick in international, which I would attribute to a growing sense of
improvement in the economy," says Tony Rango, director of the club’s national outings
program.
The Sierra Club has 331 trips booked for this year, more than the partial-crisis year of
2008.
“We rebounded quite a bit in 2010, and we're looking pretty good in 2011," says
manager Jason Halal.
Those in the market for high-end sustainability can try the safari service Roar Africa,
known for environmentally responsible luxury travel.
CEO Deborah Calmeyer says her clients often spend up to $30,000 per person to have
a customized, environmentally friendly African adventure.
“We have doubled our business year on year since opening in 2005," says Calmeyer.
"While many people held back on travel and the eco-tourism industry struggled, our
revenues doubled between 2009 and 2010.”
Calmeyer declined to reveal revenue and trip data.
Roar Africa partners with Singita Game Reserves in South Africa, Zimbabwe and
Tanzania. Singita is a tourism operation whose purpose is to conserve the land and its
resident wildlife. Among other operations, it runs an antipoaching program.
Like other sectors of the travel industry, eco-tourism has attracted a big name or two.
AOL founder Steve Case began work on Cacique, a $800 million, 650-acre resort in
Costa Rica, but the project was sidelined by the global recession.
The resort has a new option for the sustainability crowd. In addition to the 270 guest
rooms, there are plans for 300 private homes.
Case worked with the Costa Rican government to establish a recycling and solid waste
management program to neutralize the impact of the resort on the environment.
Cacique’s design features on-site treatment facilities to re-use wastewater and plans to
purchase its electrical power from renewable sources.
That may be more than enough for some, especially those simply looking for a feel-good
trip.
"More and more travelers want to have a positive impact associated with their tourist
dollars," says Brian Mullis, CEO of Sustainable Travel International.
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Anguilla News (Anguilla): School Technology Club Wins $500 in Anguilla - UNEPCEP Collage Competition
17 May 2011
The Valley, Anguilla) - As part of the global annual celebrations leading up to World
Oceans Day in June 2011, Anguilla joined the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) and the Caribbean Environment Programme (CEP) to promote the joint
protection of the Caribbean Sea from land based sources of pollution.
The promotion was in the form of a Collage Competition focusing on pollution, Anguilla's
waters and pollutants originating from the land.
On Tuesday May 17, Mr. Dallen Connor, Pollution Control Coordinator of the
Department of Environment, presented the winning prize of US$500 to the Albena LakeHodge Comprehensive School Technology Club.
Mr. Connor noted that the winning collage is a clear contender for the regional
competition. He further commented that "the winning collage depicted one important
theme of recycling" and he believes that resource recycling has a vast range of
opportunities both economically and environmentally for Anguilla. Connor also noted
that "even today, very few of our waste products are reused and the ingenious inclusion
of components of every day materials, transformed into a vision, which is the collage, is
something the region would embrace."
The poster was inspired by the BEAM Bots from a robotics class lesson.
The collage will now be shipped to the UNEP-CEP Office in Jamaica as an entry into the
regional competition and for evaluation by a panel of judges from the wider region.
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Haiti Libre (Haiti): Haiti - Environment : Launching of the project of reforestration
at the border
17 May 2011
his Monday, May 16, 2011, at D'Osmond took place the launch of the project binational
of reforestration and transboundary management of natural resources of the Massacre
and Pédernales watersheds. This project of approximately $3 million will be financed by
the Norwegian Government and WFP (World Food Programme).
The launch was done by Dr. Jaime David Fernandez Mirabal, Dominican Minister of
Environment, the engineer Jean-Marie Claude Germain, Haitian Minister of Environment
and Miss Ingrid Fiskaa, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of Norway.
The project will allow programs of sustainable management of watersheds in the
Massacre and Pédernales rivers. It will also ensure a program of reforestration by the
establishment of seeding and seedlings designed to the reintegration in the natural
environment. This will enable to undertake, in the medium term, a campaign of
reforestation of the border space.
The Dominican Ministry of Environment has indicated that they would begin with the
preparation of species important for the local rural economy as, mango and coconut. On
this occasion, the two Ministers and the Norwegian State Secretary for Foreign Affairs
signed the Declaration of Intent of Ouanaminthe, in which they reaffirmed the need to
combine their efforts to contribute to the protection of the environment and the
conservation of natural resources on the border between Haiti and the Dominican
Republic.
Several celebrities attended the ceremony among others: : the Representative of the UN
system, the Mayor of Ouanaminthe, the Departmental Delegate, the Senator JeanBaptiste Bien-Aimé, Vice-delegate of district and the police commissioner of the district.
Peasant organizations, women's organizations, members of civil society also took part in
this event.
Note that the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), the UNDP (United
Nations Development Programme) and local authorities are directly involved in this
project.
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Bahai World News Service (Israel): UN Commission discusses ethics behind the
environmental crisis
17 May 2011
UNITED NATIONS — Focusing solely on the material aspects of the environmental
crisis, while ignoring its moral and ethical dimensions, will not ensure humanity's long
term survival.
That was among the perspectives under discussion at this year's UN Commission on
Sustainable Development, held from 2–13 May.
"We have passed beyond the global tipping point that we have been anticipating for
decades," Jeffrey Sachs – director of the Earth Institute and a special adviser to UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon – told the Commission on 11 May.
"We are now living on a planet of environmental turmoil," observed Professor Sachs,
noting an increase in the number of floods, droughts, and food and water shortages
around the world.
"Fundamentally, we have a global ethics crisis," he said, because, "while we need to find
a path towards sustainable development, we are scrambling instead for resources and
advantage."
Ashok Khosla, a former director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),
also highlighted the need to recognize the values underlying sustainable development.
Gross Domestic Product "measures all the things that don't count in our real lives," said
Mr. Khosla.
"Whatever it is we really care about – happiness and love – doesn't figure in the GDP at
all," he said.
"Making the Invisible Visible"
A panel discussion – also held on 11 May and sponsored by the Baha'i International
Community – sought to explore ways in which cultural, educational, and spiritual
components can be brought into the sustainable development discourse.
Titled "Making the Invisible Visible: Values and the Transition to Sustainable
Consumption and Production", the panel was moderated by Duncan Hanks of the
Canadian Baha'i International Development Agency.
"There is no doubt of the importance of understanding and getting the material
consideration of this discussion right – to adequately address the policy considerations,
legal frameworks, financial mechanisms," said Mr. Hanks.
"However, to allow the discussion to focus merely on the material aspects...only covers
part of the story.
"We are hearing new discussions and language about the dynamic coherence between
the material and value-based or spiritual dimensions of sustainable consumption and
production, between the hardware and the software – the physical and the spiritual –
and we are witnessing an increased willingness to explore not only the policy and
technical ramifications but the very values that ultimately influence attitudes and
transform behaviours," he said.
Five other panelists from four continents offered thoughts about ways that the
consideration of values can be brought into discussions about sustainable consumption
and production, in order to motivate the changes in human behaviour needed to sustain
life on the planet.
"The values debate is at the heart of what our future is going to look like," said Vanessa
Timmer, co-founder and executive director of the One Earth Initiative, "Rethinking the
Good Life".
She noted that values and behaviour are intimately connected, and that a discussion of
values also frames the discussion – and the direction – of behaviour.
Researchers, said Ms. Timmer, have found that if the argument is made for buying a
hybrid car on the idea that it will save money – instead of also saving the environment –
the discussion is kept on material grounds.
"The idea is to use both – give numbers but embed them within a larger conversation
about how this is going to help us move towards a new sense of community and
affiliation with others," she said.
Victoria Thoresen of the Partnership for Education and Research about Responsible
Living in Norway analyzed a series of specific values that have a bearing on sustainable
development – including detachment, moderation, trust, justice, and hope.
The concept of justice, she said, "provides us with the possibility to move from the selfcenteredness that dominates our world to a way of being, a mode of sharing, a way of
moving beyond our complicated, confused world where hope barely exists."
Also on the panel were: Luis Flores Mimica, Consumers International, Latin American
Office (Chile); Elona Hoover, Researcher, ESDinds Project: Developing Values-based
indicators for Sustainable Development, University of Brighton (UK); and Kiara Worth,
Sustainable Development Specialist (Papua New Guinea). The meeting was cosponsored by PERL, One Earth, and Consumers International.
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IPS: Guatemalan Beaches Threatened by Iron and Gas Operations
17 May 2011
GUATEMALA CITY, May 17, 2011 (Tierramérica) - "If they come here to extract iron
from the beach, it will mean the destruction of our natural wealth and the end of tourism,"
warned Leonel Palma, a hotel employee in Puerto de San José on Guatemala’s Pacific
coast, where the government has granted mineral exploration licenses.
"Tourists come here to swim and relax, but if there are mining operations on the beach,
what will they do then?" asked Palma, who greets visitors upon their arrival at the Costa
Verde Hotel, 113 kilometers from Guatemala City.
Environmentalists, academics and local communities have vocally opposed the licenses
granted by the government of social democrat Álvaro Colom for the reconnaissance and
exploration of the iron sands on the country’s southwestern coast.
"There are fears, because we have already lived through situations like what happened
when they built the dock at Puerto Quetzal (located next to Puerto de San José) and
seawater leaked into freshwater wells," something that continues to happen when there
are heavy swells, said José Urbina of the non-governmental Local Power and
Development Collective, based in the southern department of Escuintla.
On May 28, a peaceful demonstration will be held in Puerto de San José to highlight the
opposition to iron mining operations on the southern coast, Urbina told Tierramérica.
In 2009, the Ministry of Energy and Mines issued three reconnaissance and exploration
licenses to Tikal Minerals, a subsidiary of Mayan Iron Corporation, for an area of 292
square kilometers in the departments of Escuintla, Retalhuleu and Suchitepéquez.
Mayan Iron Corporation is based in Australia and has attracted substantial investment
from China. The company is named after the ancestral indigenous peoples of
Guatemala and was created for the purpose of exploiting the oil sand deposits in this
Central American country.
Until now, however, none of the three projects proposed by the company has been given
permission to proceed. In fact, on April 5, the Ministry of Environment and Natural
Resources rejected the only environmental impact assessment submitted so far by Tikal
Minerals for one of those projects.
The authorities determined that "the project is not environmentally viable," because it
would lead to extractive activity that could create "serious risks for the integrity of the
country’s coastal-marine ecosystems and repercussions on the health and safety of the
population of the coastal region."
Mining the iron would require extracting the sand with excavators or dredges and
transporting it to a plant where the minerals, mainly magnetite, would be separated out
by using magnets. Once this process is completed, 90 percent of the sand would be
returned to the beaches, and the iron would be transported from a local port to China.
Tikal Minerals legal representative Enrique Toledo told Tierramérica that the company
filed an appeal in late April to overturn the Environment Ministry’s resolution.
"The principal basis of our position is that the authorities used arguments corresponding
to an exploitation project when what we had submitted was an environmental instrument
for exploration, which makes it improper to address it in this manner," he said.
Exploration activities normally require only a mitigation plan, but the ministry decided to
demand an environmental impact assessment when the company requested permission
to conduct drilling.
Carlos Salvatierra of the environmental organisation Redmanglar International told
Tierramérica that whatever extraction procedures are used, "there will be environmental
consequences. We are concerned about penetration of the salt wedge and the
subsequent salinisation of freshwater systems," he said.
Moreover, mining activity in a marine-coastal area implies a change in land use that
affects the entire ecosystem and, as a result, fishing activity and tourism, he added.
According to Tikal Minerals, Guatemala’s iron deposits could total almost 100 billion
tons, or 12 percent of world reserves, estimated at 800 billion tons. The magnetite-rich
sands are carried by rivers from the country’s volcanoes to the Pacific coast.
In 2009 the Guatemalan government granted the Canadian company G4G and Iron
Sands America a reconnaissance license for an area of 2,492 square kilometers
encompassing the entire Pacific coast, from the Mexican border to the border with El
Salvador.
Mining industry output rose from 8.6 million dollars in 2005 to 370 million dollars in 2009,
according to the Ministry of Energy and Mines. However, under the General Law on
Mining, a mere one percent in royalties enters the state coffers.
Toledo of Tikal Minerals said that because the company has not been able to conduct
on-site exploration, it cannot estimate the economic contribution or employment creation
that would result from iron extraction activities on the Pacific coast.
He claimed, however, that a balance could be struck between mining development and
environmental protection in order to improve the population’s quality of life. "We are not
interested in operating on the beaches, but rather a kilometer inland, and we would
ensure that any natural reserves, mangroves and fragile ecosystems are not affected,"
he stated.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country in a protected area on the Caribbean Coast,
there are plans to install a liquid petroleum gas storage plant.
The plans foresee the construction of five storage facilities with a total capacity of 28,390
liters of gas and the installation of a land and sea pipeline stretching seven kilometers
along the coast of Puerto Barrios, in the northeastern department of Izabal.
In February 2010, the Tomza Group of Mexico initiated work on the project without prior
approval of an environmental impact assessment. The governmental National Council
for Protected Areas (CONAP) rejected the assessment and suspended the work.
CONAP’s decision was based on the fact that the project is located within the Punta de
Manabique protected area, comprising 1,519 square kilometers of marshes, reefs and
mangroves and home to diverse animal species like the American crocodile (Crocodylus
acutus), green iguana (Iguana iguana) and green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas).
"Any industrial activity is prohibited there because it represents a major risk," CONAP
official Gustavo González told Tierramérica.
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AlMasryAlYoum (Egypt): Irina Springuel: A Russian botanist in Egypt
17 May 2011
From the Leningrad State University in the former USSR to the Aswan South Valley
University, well-respected Russian botanist and ecologist Irina Springuel has had an
unusual path in life.
Today, as an older scientist who works for the UN World Food Programme as a desert
botany expert, she looks back on her long career to her childhood in the Soviet Union - a
time where her acute interest in plants became vivid.
“In the Soviet Union, children could join different state facilities that offered activities for
free, depending on the children’s center of interest," Springuel said.
Enthralled by plants and their growing process, at the age of 10, Springuel joined the
young naturalist center that was located within walking distance from her house. There,
the center gave her a patch of land that she was in charge of nurturing herself. The
children from this botany center also went on trip to the Museum of Natural History in
Moscow and were given small lectures on botany.
“When I became older, I still went to the center but was in charge of teaching the young
kids the techniques of botany,” she remembers with a smile.
It is during her undergraduate studies in science at the Leningrad State University that
she met her late husband, Egyptian physician Ahmed Belal, who was studying at the
same university as part of a higher education exchange program between the USSR and
Egypt in the '60s.
“My husband was part of one of the first waves of Egyptian students who came to
Russia, and this is how we met,” she said.
After Springuel married Belal, they left Russia for the South Valley University of Assiut in
1971.
“Of course the transition between these two universes was slightly abrupt, especially
because I only spoke Russian at the time,” Springuel said.
So alongside her Master's studies in Assiut, she enrolled in language classes to learn
English.
Five years later, Springuel’s husband was appointed dean of the faculty of science in the
Aswan branch of the South Valley University, and she followed him to pursue her PhD,
although the only thing that existed of the botany department at the time was the facility.
“There were no professors, no staff at all to run this department,” she explains.
For her PhD field study, she found a supervisor from Cairo University and decided to
study the first cataract island in Aswan, which had interesting vegetation that had never
been studied before. After the construction of the high dam, the level of water decreased
and became constant, which encouraged some people to cut trees, to cultivate or to
develop buildings on these islands.
To prevent the rapid destruction of these unique biospheres and the ancient forest that
covered one of the islands, Springuel launched a battle to turn the Salluga and Ghazal
islands into conservation areas, which she succeeded in doing in 1986 and 1989
respectively.
At the time, she was the only permanent staff member in the botany department at the
Aswan branch of the university, and all the others lecturers were visiting professors from
outside who came once or twice a month. This department was not the most seeked by
science students either - they did not consider field work and botany as a science.
“To them, it was only when a laboratory was involved that it became serious science,”
Springuel explains with a laugh.
Over the years, her students became professors, and the botany department gradually
expended, while her husband and her provided the university with a small scientific
library for students.
“Without Internet and much scientific reviews and books, scientists were marginalized,
and my husband and I often travelled to Cairo just to roam the capital’s university
libraries,” she remembers.
In 1989, Irina managed to turn the southeastern desert of Wadi Allaqi, located 180 km
south of Aswan on the east side of Lake Nasser, into a protected area under the
UNESCO’s “Man and Biosphere” label.
“This area was geologically elevated and because of the creation of the Lake Nasser, it
had been flooded, and after the water had seeped in the sand, wonderful vegetation
grew and turned into a wild forest,” she explains.
She took her students to Wadi Allaqi for field trips to study the effect of the creation of
Lake Nasser on the local vegetation, mainly composed by high tamarix shrubs. In 1993,
she set up the Wadi Allaqi biosphere reserve with funding from the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and the first scientific station for wildlife and botany in
the area. It consisted of a Nubian-style house with a tree growing in the central patio,
surrounded by a farm.
In 2003, she decided to fetch some of the trees that were submerged around the
scientific station and bring them back to the University in Aswan. This is how Egypt’s first
“desert garden” was born, as storage for genetic diversity.
Today, about 30 to 40 species of trees are growing ex-situ in this garden, some of which
have almost altogether disappeared from the wild. They include the Argun Palm tree,
also called Medemia, which is almost extinct in the wild, different species of acacias
(some very rare) that are precious to Bedouins who turn them into fodder or charcoal,
and the “halfa” medicinal grass that is used to treat kidney problems.
“This grass is extinct in-situ today, so Egypt buys large quantities of this grass in Sudan,
where it still grows very well,” she explains.
Apart from preserving Egypt’s diverse desert resources, she also envisions another fate
for the trees and plants that grow in the university’s garden.
“I think that instead of planting introduced plants around the temples and archeological
sites, we should plant the vegetation that was originally present at the time of the
pharaohs, which grow in our desert garden,” she says. Also, she has been contacted by
hotel managers on the Red Sea and by the governor of Aswan who seek to plant
species that use little water and resist strong heat well.
After spending 30 years in Aswan, Irina settled in Cairo about three years ago and now
works as an expert of desert botany for the World Food Programme, which is launching
pilot agricultural projects on the shores of Lake Nasser.
“They use my experience in botany and my field knowledge of Lake Nasser to determine
which plants can resist climate change and grow well in these areas,” she says.
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Korea Herald (Korea): Regional action needed for biodiversity decade
18 May 2011
The following article was contributed by Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the
Convention on Biological Diversity of the United Nations Environment Program. ― Ed.
It is a great pleasure for me to attend the launch ceremony of the United Nations Decade
on Biodiversity 2011-2020 organized by the Republic of Korea. The aim of the Decade is
engaging all the citizens of the world to protect life on Earth to ensure the
implementation of the new biodiversity strategy for 2011-2020 adopted at the Nagoya
Summit on Biodiversity in October by 18,500 participants representing the 193 Parties
and their partners.
I am very pleased to note that Republic of Korea, a leader in promoting the green
economy, is among the first countries to celebrate this event. Indeed the people and the
government of the Republic of Korea have so much to contribute to ensure the success
of the Aichi targets. The National Institute of Biological Resources, under the Ministry of
Environment, will continue to strive to systematically research, preserve, and manage
biodiversity to help meet the targets.
Indeed biodiversity continues to be lost at unprecedented rate, undermining the capacity
of the planet to continue sustaining life. Unfortunately this disaster is met with
indifference and ignorance by the public at large, including policy makers. In a BBC
study last October, members of the public were asked what biodiversity was. The most
common answer was “some kind of washing powder”. According to the Eurobarometer,
only 38 percent of Europeans know the meaning of the term, although another 28
percent have heard of it but do not know its meaning. The children’s bio-Index issued
last year by the secretariat highlights the challenges arising from the nature deficit of the
children of today, the citizen of tomorrow.
Building on the momentum generated from the International Year of Biodiversity, the
Decade will spur efforts to meet the strategic plan’s targets and secure the future of our
planet’ s biodiversity ― the basis of life on Earth. Throughout the U.N. Decade on
Biodiversity, governments are encouraged to develop, implement and communicate
national strategies for the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity.
One of the most important elements of changing this situation is developing a broad
consensus across society for the actions needed by individuals and communities. To
achieve this, it is essential to continue creating links with global networks to advance the
biodiversity agenda and encouraging civil society organizations to develop
communication and outreach campaigns that support the strategic plan and increase
awareness of the value of biodiversity. I am hopeful that this decade will see increased
action at the regional level, particularly where causes of biodiversity loss are transboundary or where large biomes require management across several countries.
In addition to this great endeavor, this year’s celebration of the International Day for
Biodiversity is being held under the theme “Forest Biodiversity.” Indeed 2011 as a whole
has been declared the International Year of Forests to draw attention to the ongoing
destruction of our most diverse terrestrial ecosystems. The celebration will also coincide
with the Greenwave campaign aimed at reconnecting young people with nature.
The loss of biodiversity often reduces the productivity of ecosystems, thereby shrinking
nature’s basket of goods and services, from which industry constantly draws. It
destabilizes ecosystems, and weakens their ability to deal with natural disasters such as
floods, droughts, and hurricanes, and with human-caused stresses, such as pollution
and climate change.
Korea is no exception to these trends. While forests cover 64 percent of the country’s
total land area, Korea’s fourth national report to the CBD states that “frequent incidents
of natural disasters such as wildfires and long-term issues such as climate change are
resulting in a deterioration of the habitats of rare or indigenous species, leading to a
reduction in species diversity in forests.”
Allow me to ask Koreans to lead the way in changing these trends and help others start
seeing biodiversity as a national asset that not only supports their overall wellbeing, but
can also support livelihoods and fuel economic growth if it is wisely used. That is the
message you must continue to spread over the course of this decade ― in Korea, and
throughout the world. For it is only through the hard work and commitment of leading
institutions such as NIBR that we stand a chance of success in the fight to save life on
earth.
Korean President Lee Myung-bak has stated: “A Green Earth can only be achieved
when the global village works together and starts acting now.”
These words carry great import coming from President Lee, who has helped his country
lead by example when it comes to biodiversity. President Lee was recognized by Time
magazine in 2007 as a “Hero of the Environment” for his “low-carbon, green growth”
initiative, through which he secured national commitments on green investment at two
percent of GDP. For these and other reasons we at the convention also honored
President Lee, giving him the CBD Award during the 2010 International Year of
Biodiversity.
The decade is our opportunity to integrate policies and practices into all aspects of our
lives that can guarantee the conservation and sustainable use of the biodiversity, all
while ensuring that the benefits from the use of genetic resources are shared with equity.
This decade is our chance for “living in harmony with nature.”
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Daily India (India): Quake could cause Himalayan glacial lakes to inundate
populated areas
17 May 2011
New Delhi, May 17: Earthquakes could lead glacial lakes in the Himalayas to cause
serious hazards to population centres, scientists have said.
The BBC quoted them as saying that past records indicate the region could experience a
large quake in the future.
According to reports, many glacial lakes are said to be growing, and some of them are
alarmingly, because of melting glaciers.
Some are at risk of rupturing, could flood downstream areas, they said.
"Such a disaster is very much possible, more so, when we are expecting a big
earthquake in the region now. If the acceleration is very high in the epicentre of the
earthquake, everything will be in the air as things will not be stable. So, naturally the
liquids like waters in glacial lakes will burst out," Sushil Kumar, a geophysicist with the
Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in India, said.
Reports also suggest that a number of these lakes are located near seismic faults.
"Given the location of the lakes, if the epicentre of the earthquake happens to be nearby
them, they will certainly explode," Pradeep Mool, a glaciologist with the International
Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) that works on mountain issues in
the region, said.
The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) has shown that at least 35 glacial
lake outburst took place in Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan and China during the last century.
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Asian Tribune (Sri Lanka): On Piracy and Pigeonholed Security
18 May 2011
A few years back, the image of the Somali pirates—locally as well as internationally—
was one painted by some with a heroic narrative; an image of underdog villagers fighting
for their survival and for the protection of their internationally recognized territorial
waters.
Today, these pirates are considered as an international menace and a serious security
threat in the high seas. And, ironically, dealing with this threat might require something
much simpler than the current costly cubicle approach.
In 2005, these pirates were small sea-side village fishermen whose livelihoods were
severely damaged by illegal over-fishing and toxic waste dumping. They were the
provoked fishermen who chased off the perpetrators.
As a nation without a central government with broad authority, Somalia has arguably
been the worst victim of over-fishing; and these pirates essentially became a volunteer
coast guard providing services that the defunct Somali navy could not deliver.
International maritime marauders have been exploiting the Somali waters with impunity.
They commission giant fishing vessels equipped with fish processing and packing, huge
freezing capacity, and a fishing apparatus capable of sweeping massive schools of fish
along with coral reefs, thus destroying what’s known as the rainforests of the sea as they
sustain sea life.
Meanwhile, marine ecologists and international environmental organizations such as
Greenpeace continue to sound the alarm bells that over-fishing and the dumping of
industrial toxic waste are the biggest threats facing the marine ecosystems today as they
can dangerously deplete sea life in that part of the world.
Indeed, the situation is very serious. A few years ago, the United Nations Environment
Program spokesman, Nick Nuttall, “There’s uranium radioactive waste, there’s leads,
there’s heavy metals like cadmium and mercury, there’s industrial wastes, and there’s
hospital wastes, chemical wastes…”
Today, while the over-fishing and illegal chemical dumping phenomena have not
changed, the pirates have. Like the engines driving the phenomena, the pirates too are
motivated by illegal profits. They are now willing to do whatever necessary to achieve
their objectives and care less about the economic, security, political, and social
consequences of their actions. The tragic killing of four Americans who were taken
hostage aboard the yacht Quest off the coast of Oman is one daunting example.
Piracy has become a booming business and an industry of $12 billion according to some
estimates. This includes costs associated with ransom, insurance, escorting, negotiating,
consulting, ransom delivery, vessel security modernization, etc.
According to International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Center and the Lloyds List,
currently Somali pirates are holding 25 vessels owned by different countries, and 800
crewmembers of various nationalities as hostages.
Everyone seems to agree—at least in theory—that piracy in Somalia is a symptom of the
protracted political condition of that country; and that solving the piracy issue would
require establishing rule of law in the ungoverned areas where piracy is commonly
launched from. However, when it comes to assisting the Somali government to expand
its reach and to build a cost guard force able to protect its waters, lip-service is all that is
often offered.
Instead of spearheading the establishment of maritime regimes banning over-fishing and
the dumping of chemical waste and imposing hefty fines on perpetrators (and perhaps
set up a fund to help this abused nation), the UN opted to follow an ill-conceived, but
broadly applied, policy of funding counter-piracy and counter-terrorism in Somalia along
the political division lines.
A new UN funded prison has recently opened in “ Somaliland ” to incarcerate convicted
pirates. Immediately, authorities in that region asserted that it would not deal with any
pirates from other regions or the rest of Somalia . Never mind that most of these pirates
operate out of the neighboring region of “Puntland”. This decision, needless to say,
underscores the importance of having an authority that transcends clan sensitivities and
demarcations; it equally underscores the urgency of a holistic Somali reconciliation that
includes Somaliland .
Like violent extremism, piracy is a Somali national security issue; and our collective
security is indeed interdependent. Effective security requires effective collaboration and
cooperation. It is not farfetched to predict that as soon al-Shabaab is pushed out of
Mogadishu, they would be setting new shops where they are guaranteed some clan
support; in regions where individuals in its top leadership hail from.
It is time to consider bolstering the Somali cost guard and enhancing the judicial capacity
of the government to prosecute any pirates caught in its waters, and imprison those
found guilty regardless of what region or country they are from.
The current Somali government is determined to take that holistic approach toward
security. Pigeonholing security might be good a tactic, but never a good strategy.
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Ghana Web (Ghana): Eighth GCLME Regional Steering Committee meets in Accra
18 May 2011
Accra, May 17, GNA - The steering Committee of the Interim Guinea Current Large
Marine Ecosystems (GCLME), began a two-day meeting in Accra on Tuesday, to
deliberate on the next steps of implementing GCLME Strategic Action Programmes
(SAP).
The SAP is a document that describes policy, legal and institutional reforms and
investments that are needed, to attend to priority problems identified in the GCLME
Regions of Trans-boundary Diagnostic Analysis.
The project is aimed at assisting states to collectively protect the Guinea Current
Region's estimated number of 300 million people from environmental degradation, food
insecurity and depletion of fishery stocks and from land based pollution.
It is also aimed at helping states to restore their coastal and marine habitats and the
project is being assisted by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), UN Industrial
Development Organisation (UNIDO) and UN Development Programme (UNDP).
Speaking at the opening session, Ghana's Minister of Environment, Science and
Technology, Ms Sherry Ayittey, in a speech read on her behalf, stressed Ghana's
continued commitment to support GCLME programmes to achieve the needed results.
She appealed to the partners to ensure that their deliberations yielded the needed fruits
as those results would help protect the ecosystems in the sub-region.
Mr Stephen Donkor, Executive Director of Interim Guinea Current Commission (IGCC),
expressed the hope that the meeting would be able to come out with the needed
implementation of the Osu Declaration of 2010, which, among other things, agreed to
work to protect the environment at all times.
He said IGCC was aware of the fundamental importance of the health of the GCLME,
including coastal areas, and contiguous drainage basins to the well being of the coastal
population, economies and food security of coastal states and socio-cultural life of the
people.
Mr Christian Susan of UNIDO said it was important for all 16-member nations to take
responsibility of developing their economies and should ensure that their ecosystems
were well protected.
He said oil and gas issues posed a lot of risk in the ecosystem and advised participants
to take a cue from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and protect their river banks from oil
and gas pollution.
Mr George Kojo Scott, Chief Director of the Ministry of Environment, Science and
Technology, appealed to member countries to be concerned with eco programmes and
be determined to seek the welfare of the people by implementing all decisions.
As a full Commission, the 16 IGCC member states would have formalized regional
cooperation and be able to set up the governance structure to apply ecosystem-based
management of their shared trans-boundary environmental interests.
Ecosystem-based management is an integrated approach to the management of the
marine environment that considers the entire ecosystem, mankind included.
Its goal is to maintain a healthy and productive ecosystem that can provide the needed
living natural resources and services humans require.
The Steering Committee meeting would also listen to a report on the development of
Memoranda of Understanding between the IGCC and other agencies such as the
Fisheries Commission for West and Central Africa, the Sub-regional Fisheries
Commissions, and the Regional Fisheries Committee of the Gulf of Guinea.
The meeting would also receive a report on the IGCC/GCLME's six national and three
regional ongoing demonstration projects.
The IGCC/GCLME Steering Committee directs the activities of the GCLME.
Since the start of the GCLME project implementation in March 2005, the Committee has
provided direction for project execution on behalf of the governments of all participating
countries.
In addition to this meeting, the Tripartite Committee of United Nations Support agencies
(UNIDO, UNEP and UNDP) would meet on the 19 and 20 May to finalize the SAP
Implementation Project.
Up to 80 delegates from all GCLME project countries, United Nations cooperating
agencies (UNEP, UNIDO, UNDP, FAO and IMO), non-governmental and community-
based organizations, the private sector and other stakeholder communities are
attending.
The GCLME stretches from Guinea-Bissau to Angola, a marine surface area around
350,000 square kilometres, and 2.6 million square kilometres for the total of exclusive
economic zones.
The project aims to assist States, acting collectively, to protect the Guinea Current
region's estimated 300 million people (half of whom live on the coast) from
environmental degradation, food insecurity, depletion of fishery stocks and from landbased pollution.
It also aims to help States to restore their coastal and marine habitats.
The project is assisted by the Global Environment Facility
(GEF)/UNIDO/UNDP/UNEP/US-NOAA.
As a global resource, GCLME is among the most productive coastal and offshore waters
in the world.
The region is home to vast fishery resources, precious minerals, as well as oil and gas
reserves.
It also holds high potential for eco-tourism and is an important reservoir of globally
significant marine biodiversity.
However, the GCLME's habitats and living resources are threatened by human activity,
including overexploitation, pollution from land- and sea-based sources, and ecosystem
alterations resulting in the degradation of coastal habitats through erosion.
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Le Soir (Belgium): Les phosphates, une industrie à deux visages
18 May 2011
Un alien au monde des phosphates », c’est ainsi que Michael Zammit Cutajar s’est
présenté avec ironie en début de conférence. Et pour cause, au milieu des experts
pointus de l’industrie des phosphates réunis au Symposium, son profil détonnait un peu.
Pendant plus de vingt ans, ce citoyen de Malte a dédié sa carrière au développement
humain et à l’environnement, en étroite collaboration avec l’Onu. Autant dire que si
l’homme n’est pas un pro des phosphates, il est en revanche un fin expert du
développement durable.
Le développement durable : un fragile équilibre
Pour présenter son « regard extérieur sur les phosphates », Michael Zammit Cutajar a
attaqué sa présentation par une définition. « La durabilité est la recherche d’un équilibre
entre les exigences de l’économie, de l’environnement et de la société » a-t-il expliqué.
Mais à l’heure actuelle, la croissance de la population fait vaciller cette recherche
d’équilibre, avec une demande croissante des ressources, a-t-il noté.
En conséquence, la sécurité alimentaire est devenue l’un des défis majeurs du XXIe
siècle. Et c’est bien là que les phosphates interviennent, au travers des engrais qui
contribuent au développement agricole, notamment en Afrique. Toutefois une condition
s’impose : l’usage «rationnel et raisonné » des engrais doit être encouragé, ce qui
implique un développement de la recherche et un accès à l’information.
Une stratégie générale des phosphates
«Il est nécessaire d’avoir une stratégie générale dans le domaine», a martelé l’expert du
développement durable. En ce sens, la durabilité est synonyme de responsabilité, tant
au niveau local qu’international. Selon M. Zammit Cutajar, la stratégie de l’industrie doit
s’articuler autour de trois piliers : des exploitations durables (utilisation d’eau, gestion
des déchets et impact sur le changement climatique…), des marchés durables (un bon
usage, une accessibilité aux engrais…) et enfin un environnement socio-économique
durable (investissement social, formation, santé…). Sans anticipation des impacts
environnementaux, l’industrie des phosphates risque de pâtir sur le long terme du
changement climatique provoqué.
Dans cette perspective, la notion clé réside dans le dialogue, a insisté Michael Zammit
Cutajar. « Je ne crois pas à la confrontation, je crois à un dialogue pro actif entre tous
les acteurs. Au niveau des ressources en phosphates, les tendances de prix nécessitent
une discussion entre tous les acteurs » a-t-il souligné.
« Le phosphate est une industrie à deux visages : il y a le côté mère nature, avec
l’image des champs couverts de blé grâce aux engrais, mais il y a aussi la notion de
cicatrices et de blessures au travers des dégâts causés » synthétise-t-il. Face à ce
paradoxe, l’expert onusien du développement durable a formulé deux souhaits en
conclusion. Premièrement, le développement d’indicateurs pour juger de la performance
environnementale, qui seraient publiés et comparés. Deuxièmement, le développement
d’une stratégie pour la sécurité alimentaire et le développement rural en Afrique.
Faire rimer conscience environnementale et sociale des entreprises avec réussite et
dialogue : tel est le difficile défi que doit relever aujourd’hui l’industrie des phosphates
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Haiti Libre (Haiti): Haïti - Environnement : Lancement du projet de reforestration
transfrontière
16 May 2011
Ce lundi 16 mai 2011, a eu lieu à D'Osmond le lancement du projet binational de
reforestration et de gestion transfrontière des ressources naturelles des bassins
versants de Massacre et de Pédernales. Ce projet d'un montant d'environ 3 millions
d'euros, sera financé par le Gouvernement norvégien et le PAM (Programme
Alimentaire mondial).
Le lancement a été fait par le Dr Jaime David Fernandez Mirabal, Ministre dominicain de
l'environnement, l'ingénieur Jean-Marie Claude Germain, Ministre haïtien de
l'environnement et Mme. Ingrid Fiskaa, la Secrétaire d'État aux Affaires étrangères de la
Norvège.
Le projet va permettre des programmes de gestion durable des bassins versants des
rivières Massacre et Pédernales. Il assurera aussi un programme de reforestration par la
création de semis et de plantules destinés à la réintégration en milieu naturel. Ceci
devra permettre d'entreprendre, à moyen terme, toute une campagne de reboisement de
l'espace frontalier.
Le Ministre dominicain de l'environnement a indiqué qu'ils allaient commencer avec la
préparation d'espèces importantes pour l'économie rurale locale comme, les manguiers
et les noix de coco. À cette occasion, les deux Ministres et la Secrétaire d'État
norvégienne aux affaires étrangères ont signé la Déclaration d'intention de
Ouanaminthe, dans laquelle ils réaffirment la nécessité de joindre leurs efforts pour
contribuer à la protection de l'environnement et la conservation des ressources
naturelles sur la frontière entre Haïti et la République Dominicaine.
Plusieurs personnalités ont assisté à cette cérémonie entre autres : la Représentante du
système des Nations Unies, le Maire de Ouanaminthe, le délégué Départemental, le
Sénateur Jean-Baptiste Bien-Aimé, Vice-délégué d'arrondissement et le commissaire de
police de l'arrondissement. Des organisations paysannes, des organisations de femmes,
des membres de la Société civile ont aussi pris part à cet évènement.
A noter que le PNUE (Programme des Nations unies pour l'environnement), le PNUD
(Programme des Nations unies pour le développement) et les collectivités territoriales
sont directement impliqués dans l'exécution de ce projet.
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Other Environment News
AFP: UK eyes 50% carbon emissions cut target
18 May 2011
The government has unveiled plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent
from 1990 levels by 2025, ramping up pressure on the European Union to increase its
target.
The new target is a big jump forward for Britain in its carbon-cutting ambitions and puts it
far head of the EU as a whole, which has committed to a 20-percent cut in carbon
emissions by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
Britain is among the members of the 27-nation bloc, along with France and Germany,
which have been pushing for the target to be hiked to 30 percent.
Prime Minister David Cameron had vowed to lead the "greenest government ever" when
he came to power last May and Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said the new target
showed the coalition was determined to make good on its pledge.
Unveiling the fourth "carbon budget", which governs the country's carbon emissions
between 2023 and 2027, Huhne told the House of Commons on Tuesday: "It puts Britain
at the leading edge of a new global industrial transformation as well as making good our
determination that this will be the greenest government ever."
He added: "We are also sending a clear signal to the international community: that the
UK is committed to the low carbon economy.
"This will help us reach agreement in Europe on moving to a 30-percent emissions
reduction target -- and build momentum toward a legally binding global climate change
deal."
The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union which has also
been pushing for the bloc to increase its target to 30 percent, praised Britain's ambitious
target.
"I welcome the ambitious goal announced by the United Kingdom's government today,"
said EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard.
"This is an outstanding example of strong willingness to act despite difficult economic
times."
Huhne said the proposals would be reviewed in 2014 to ensure they were in line with the
rest of the EU's plans for cutting greenhouse gases, which are blamed for rising
temperatures. MPs still have to approve the proposals.
It is a big shift forward from the third "carbon budget", which covers the period 2018 to
2022 and commits the country to making 35-percent cuts in its greenhouse gases
compared to 1990 levels.
Commentators saw the announcement as a victory for Huhne over other members of the
cabinet who had opposed the proposals, arguing that it could damage the economy.
The EU committed to a 20-percent cut in carbon emissions in 2008 and offered to go to
30 percent if other industrialised powers followed suit.
But offers from other major industrialised countries are still below the 20-percent mark
and critics say that further carbon curbs will hit Europe's fragile economies.
World powers are also seeking to hammer out a new global deal on cutting greenhouse
gases at a series of UN talks to replace the landmark Kyoto Protocol which expires at
the end of 2012.
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Reuters: South to lose 23 million acres of forest over 50 years
17 May 2011
The South is projected to loose 23 million acres of forest or about the size of South
Carolina, over the next 50 years, the U.S. Forest Service said in a report on Tuesday.
The report, the first comprehensive forecast on southern forests, said that urbanization,
bioenergy use, weather patterns, land ownership changes and invasive species will be
the causes of the deforestation.
The area of forests could decline by as much as 22 percent in the Piedmont, which
includes Georgia and the Carolinas, and 30 percent in Florida, the report said.
"The summary report clearly demonstrates the urgent need for developing a
collaborative strategy to conserve and restore southern forests," Forest Service
Southern Regional Forester Liz Agpaoa said in a statement.
Computer models and analysis also found that fewer acres of forests and increased
development will result in more runoff water and decreased water quality as well as an
increase in the frequency and severity of wildfires.
More than 30 scientists, foresters and other experts with the Forest Service, state
forestry agencies and universities contributed to the study, a statement said.
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AP: UK pledges to cut carbon emissions in half by 2025
17 May 2011
The British government on Tuesday pledged to cut the country's carbon emissions in
half by 2025 — an ambitious target which could be watered down unless other European
countries cut their emissions accordingly.
Energy Secretary Chris Huhne told Parliament that Britain would reduce the emissions
by about 50 percent from benchmark emission levels in 1990, part of its legally
mandated commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent by 2030, and
80 percent by 2050.
Huhne sought to cast the dramatic cuts as a massive boost to the country's green
technology companies, telling parliamentarians he was putting Britain "at the leading
edge of the global low-carbon revolution."
But Britain's energy-intensive industries, such as steel manufacturers, are warning that
the country risks making itself uncompetitive unless other European countries follow its
lead. They've pressured the government to put in an escape clause which allows for the
target to be scrapped as soon as 2014 if Britain's European partners fail to implement
their own carbon cuts.
David Cameron, Britain's prime minister, made the same point in separate comments to
lawmakers Tuesday.
"It doesn't actually help climate change if you simply drive an energy intensive industry
to locate in Poland rather than Britain," Cameron told lawmakers. "We believe that
Europe should follow our lead and go for a 30 percent reduction."
But, the prime minister added, Europe has yet to make the same commitment "so there
is a review clause in what is being announced in 2014 to make sure that if they are not
on that pathway, then we shouldn't put ourselves on it too."
Carbon dioxide gas — spewed into the atmosphere by cars, planes, factories, and
power plants — is a major driver of man-made climate change, which scientists say is
already leading to global warming and melting ice caps.
Britain emitted nearly 800 million tons of greenhouse gases in 1990, but although the
number has fallen significantly in the past two decades, environmental activists say more
must be done and faster. Legislation passed in 2008 made the goal of implementing an
80 percent cut by 2050 legally binding.
Nevertheless there's lingering opposition to the reductions. Britain is still trying to emerge
from a damaging recession, and many business leaders have argued for a reprieve. The
issue split Cameron's cabinet, which is composed of lawmakers from the businessfriendly Conservative Party and the traditionally green-conscious Liberal Democrats, of
which Huhne is a senior member.
Cameron, who campaigned on the promise to make his administration the "greenest
government ever," reportedly had to personally intervene to secure an agreement.
The announcement delighted environmental groups, as well as the British government's
climate advisers, who had pushed for the reductions.
The European Union's Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in a
statement that Britain's pledge was "an outstanding example of strong willingness to act
despite difficult economic times."
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Time (USA): Why Japan's Shift Away from Nuclear Is Good for Business
18 May 2011
Seven/Eleven convenience stores in Japan may seem like just another chain of 24/7,
overly lit, electricity-burning businesses wasting this island nation's precious energy
resources. But in fact, they are among a host of forward-looking companies helping set
the pace for change within the nation's energy policy. With over 13,000 locations
nationwide, the convenience store chain plans to spend over $123 million to switch to
energy efficient LED lighting at about 6000 outlets in Tokyo, and will install solar panels
on roofs of 1,000 stores around the country over the next few months. The plan will not
only save 125KW a day per store, but also benefit manufacturers of LED lighting and
solar cell panels - a win-win for all.
Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, the world's second worst
nuclear disaster after Chernobyl, has left a gaping hole - and perhaps a new opportunity
- in Japan's energy policy. At a press conference last week, Prime Minister Naoto Kan
effectively scrapped Japan's plan for increasing domestic electricity supply. "Under the
current energy policy, by the year 2030 more than 50% of Japan's electricity will come
from nuclear power generation and 20% from renewable energy sources," he said.
"However, we now have to go back to the drawing board and conduct a fundamental
review of the nation's basic energy policy." Renewable energy experts agree that the
ongoing nuclear crisis, while tragic, could be a remarkable opportunity to move away
from the country's focus on nuclear power development and imported fossil fuels toward
solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and other natural domestic sources. (See TIME"s full
coverage of the Japan quake.)
Kan's call for a new energy plan follows another unprecedented move: on May 6, he
asked Chubu Electric Power Co. to close its Hamaoka nuclear power plant until it can
better fortify itself against the threat of a large earthquake and tsunami. Dubbed the
'most dangerous nuclear power plant in the world' for its location on a major fault line,
the plant is a mere 125 miles from Tokyo, in a region experts say is due for a major
temblor. The forced shutdown was finalized on May 14 and could shrink output in the
nearby industrial region, including at some Toyota auto factories. Chubu said it will
reboot its suspended thermal power station to meet the summer peak electricity
demand, and has called on consumers to conserve.
The need to save electricity in Tokyo and other areas served by disaster-hit Tokyo
Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) and Tohoku Electric will intensify this summer as air
conditioning needs surge. Based on last year's record-breaking August temperatures,
which averaged upwards 86 °F, the nation's peak electricity needs this August will likely
be 55-60GW. TEPCO has said it expects to be able to meet most of that demand and
avoid rolling black outs. The government has also set a goal for reducing energy
consumption by 15%. Japan Inc. has been quick to respond: on Monday, Toshiba
announced the release of a new computer with an "eco button" that cuts power
consumption by 24%. Sharp is offering a new TV that can last up to 3 to 4 hours without
mains power. "At electronics stores now the biggest sellers are the new power-saving air
conditioners, TVs, computers and appliances," says Andrew DeWit, a Japan energy
policy expert and professor at Rikkyo University.
Despite TEPCO's assurances that there won't be blackouts, however, some companies
are hedging their bets and buying power generators. Companies like beverage maker
Yakult, for instance, rely on a constant stream of steady electricity; a peak-hour blackout
would have a devastating impact on output. The company plans to rent generators from
Nikken Corporation, a construction equipment rental firm, which in turn is scrambling to
meet the sudden spike in demand for generators by buying them overseas. There are
not enough generators available in Japan to meet the country's two different electrical
frequencies, flowing from two incompatible power grid systems: 60 hertz in the
southwestern half (from about Nagoya down to Kyushu) and 50 hertz in the northeastern
half (the other side of Mt. Fuji from Shizuoka to Hokkaido, including Tokyo).
This grid incompatibility is why TEPCO, which has lost 40% of its power generation
capacity since March 11, has not been able to borrow significant amounts of electricity
from utilities in the southwest that were unharmed in the twin natural disasters. A
national, single-standard grid system, in tandem with more renewable energy
generation, would help solve Japan's power needs in the absence of an increase in
nuclear power. But getting the nation's 10 major utilities to cooperate has proved difficult.
"They're all monopoly businesses and act like separate fiefdoms," says Tom Giuffre,
principal and managing director of Hot Earth Enterprise, a geothermal startup in Japan.
"Small independent power producers haven't been able to come into the market until
very recently." (See photo's from inside Japan's exclusion zone.)
New legislation is expected to help diversify the nation's energy portfolio. A new feed-in
tariff (FIT) will oblige utility companies to buy all the power generated through renewable
sources connected to a grid, at fixed, premium rates. Prices are different depending
upon the type of renewable energy. Japan's first FIT scheme in 2009 created a market
for electricity generated by homeowners that installed solar power systems. The
expanded tariff will go into effect on a full commercial scale in Japan next April, and will
include solar PV, wind, bio-mass, geothermal and small hydropower projects. "With
mandated pricing, regulated by law, anyone that goes into business and produces
power, regardless of how they do it, knows there is a marketplace for the power," says
Giuffre. "There are a lot of people lining up to do projects."
Giuffre's geothermal system is one example. Japan is one of the most geothermally rich
countries in the world, with some 28,000 hot springs and nearly 200 volcanoes. But
resistance to large geothermal projects is huge, stemming from concerns they will
deplete the hot springs and ruin spa-related tourism. Hot Earth Enterprise is designing
geothermal technology that works with the spa, or onsen owners. Compact and portable,
the company's units, made in the U.S., are miniatures of the massive borehole projects
that require years of development and millions of investment dollars to build. They are
designed to be used at existing hot spring resorts to reuse the facilities' 'throw-away'
heat to generate power for the local communities. "We calculated that we could roll out
in the [disaster-struck] Tohoku region 50 megawatts of power probably in about 3 years,"
says Giuffre. "We could do it in half the time and probably at 1/3 or 1/4 the cost [of the
big projects]."
Geothermal, wind, biomass and small-scale hydropower projects all have potential in
Japan, but for now, solar looks like the fastest way to add more power to the national
grid. In the 1980s, Japan was once the world's top solar power producer and has strong
government policies in place to promote it, but has since fallen behind on installing largescale solar projects. Gaetan Borgers, who leads the global solar business for Dow
Corning Toray in Tokyo, says the March 11 disaster has generated new solutions for
solar power installation in Japan's relatively small geographic areas. "The [irradiated]
agricultural land near the Fukushima power plant is no longer usable, so why don't we
convert that into solar plants?" he asks. He cites a convincing calculation from Japan's
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology: "Rice produced on
one hectare of land yields a yearly revenue of 1.58 million yen, while a solar plant on the
same surface would generate a revenue of 7.5 million yen." With changes in Japan's
land use law, struggling agricultural farmers could become profitable solar farmers.
The huge task of rebuilding the tsunami-struck northeast coast could yield expansion in
the renewables sector. Hiroshi Komiyama, a former president of the University of Tokyo
and now chairman of the Mitsubishi Research Institute, has proposed as a member of
the Miyagi Prefecture post-disaster reconstruction panel that all homes in the affected
region be installed with solar panels through government loans. "I want Miyagi
Prefecture to be a model for the future with respect to energy," says Komiyama. "Energy
efficiency is the key point for the 21st century."
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AFP: Malaysia unveils plan to build 'green economy'
18 May 2011
Malaysia is launching an ambitious plan to build a "green economy" with the help of an
advisory council that includes economist Jeffrey Sachs and the UN climate change chief.
The initiative is part of economic reforms instituted by Prime Minister Najib Razak since
taking power two years ago, aimed at pushing the Southeast Asian country towards
developed-nation status by 2020.
His administration has already promised major infrastructure projects and financial
market liberalisation to attract foreign investment and boost growth, but critics say the
results have been limited.
Najib on Tuesday convened the first meeting of an eminent 42-member Global Science
and Innovation Advisory Council in New York to help the nation achieve ambitions of
becoming a science and technology innovation destination.
Malaysia's vision of a "green economy" would see it moving beyond its status as a
manufacturing hub, and establish "low carbon emissions, highly efficient use of
resources, and a healthy, well-educated populace."
"Malaysia's ambitious goal is to simultaneously reduce poverty and achieve a green
economy," Najib said in a statement from New York.
"We see science and technology innovation as key to achieving that goal, guided by the
advice and active support of some of the world's most distinguished entrepreneurial,
scientific and economic experts."
"These experts will liaise and work actively with key Malaysian agencies and institutions
to develop 'quick wins' in the palm oil industry, in the creation of a smart city and smart
village, and in education."
As well as Sachs and Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, the panel also includes media tycoon Steve Forbes and two
Nobel laureates.
Najib said the council would aim to "raise the number of scientifically and technicallytrained individuals, entrepreneurs and innovators in our country."
Malaysia also hopes to develop smart cities and villages, where the Internet is available
and resources, such as water and electricity, are managed efficiently through information
technology.
Currently, the middle-income nation of 27 million people suffers from urban sprawl and
traffic congestion in its capital Kuala Lumpur, and a lack of basic services in rural areas.
Citigroup economist Kit Wei Zheng said Najib's administration had achieved some
successes including boosting foreign direct investment, but was under pressure to
deliver ahead of elections tipped to be called within a year.
"At least on some fronts, there seem to be some results coming in... There are some
steps forward but it's slow and probably not as big as the announcements that are being
made," said the Singapore-based economist.
The export-dependent Southeast Asian nation saw a sharp decline in foreign direct
investment (FDI) in 2009, tumbling 81 percent to $1.4 billion from $7.3 billion in 2008.
However, FDI jumped 141 percent to 17.1 billion ringgit ($5.5 billion) in the first nine
months of 2010, in a rebound partly attributed to the reforms.
Malaysia has previously sought out high-profile international advisers like Microsoft's Bill
Gates when it launched its Multimedia Super Corridor project to build up its information
technology industry in the 1990s.
"It's a very fuzzy thing; we don't know what it is... The word 'green' is used very broadly,"
Gurmit Singh, chairman of the Centre For Environment, Technology and Development
Malaysia, said of the latest scheme.
"There seems to be a lot of hot air. In terms of what happens sometimes at the ground
level, it's a repackaging of projects," he told AFP.
Najib has said he expects the economy to expand by 5.0-6.0 percent this year despite
the challenges of slower global growth and rising crude oil prices.
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RONA MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Wednesday 18 May 2011
UNEP or UN in the News
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TreeHugger: We Already Knew But Are Being Told Yet Again: US Domestic
Inaction on Climate Stymies International Action & Resource Overconsumption
Means We're Going To Need Another Planet by 2050
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Get Solar: United Nations Predicts Strong Renewable Energy Growth
International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development: New study finds
LDCs Better Equipped for Green Economy
Fast Company: Do More with less or things will get ugly: study
CNBC: Eco-Tourism No Longer for Just the Rich and Fashionable
AHN: UN Environment Program warns global use of resources not sustainable
TreeHugger: Are We One step closer to Pricing Nature?
Vancouver Sun: Humanity ‘must do more with less,’ panel warns
We Already Knew But Are Being Told Yet Again: US Domestic Inaction on Climate
Stymies International Action & Resource Overconsumption Means We're Going To
Need Another Planet by 2050
TreeHugger; May 13, 2011; Matthew McDermott
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/05/u-s-climate-action-hand-brake-internationalaction.php
Sorry about the exceedingly long headline (appallingly long by accepted standards of
blogging brevity) but it somehow seems an appropriate when two of the weightier stories
making their way around today are items that we have been told repeatedly over the
past couple of years, but as no one seems to be heeding them, get retold on what
seems like a semi-annual basis.
First are statements from UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, coming via Huffington
Post. She's called the US domestic gridlocked inaction on climate change a "very
serious handbrake" on global efforts to take meaningful action on global warming.
Referring to the failure of Congress to enact any sort of price on carbon or emission
reduction agreement, Figueres went on to say, "I don't think it's a permanent state of
affairs that the world will be able to live with."
On the genuine technological capacity of the US to lead on clean energy, Figueres noted
diplomatically that there's a "very remarkable dissonance" between that potential and the
"political incapacity" to realize that potential.
Despite rhetoric to the contrary at the past two year's climate negotiations from the US
that it is a leader here, Figueres is entirely right. In an admittedly complicated and
convoluted situation, Congress and the US is a veritable landslide covering the road
forward, blocking the sort of progress on both preventing climate change and adapting to
the current and future effects that citizens of the US and around the world consistently
say they want.
And then there's the looming specter of resource overconsumption.
Each year the day where we collectively going into ecological overshoot, the day where
humans resource consumption starts exceeding the ability of the planet to perpetually
regenerate those resources, moves forward a few days or weeks. In 2007 it was in
October; in 2010 it was in the third week of August.
A new report from the UNEP shows the trend: If current rates of consumption continue,
by 2050 humanity will consume three times the amount of resources it does today. As
UNEP says, this "represents an unsustainable future in terms of both resource use and
emissions, probably exceeding all possible measures of available resources and
assessment of limits to the capacity to absorb impacts."
Which is a slightly wordier and academic way of saying we will all be eating ourselves
out of house and home. In fact, as the quote indicates, business as usual physically can't
happen. Some collapse will occur prior to that point.
This is all stuff we've covered before, so just read the Science Daily summary.
But I'll leave you with one of the UNEP-noted reasons for optimism here:
The certainty that resource shortages will eventually preclude business as usual ensures
that any country 'ahead of the game' by investing in innovation 'will clearly reap the
benefits when pressures mount for others to change rapidly'.
In other words: Prepare now for coming resource shortages and both you and your
nation will have a serious advantages over those places that don't prepare. That may not
sound hopeful, but at least to me is in that there is something you can do. Transition
Towns anyone?
United Nations Predicts Strong Renewable Energy Growth
GetSolar; May 16, 2011
http://www.getsolar.com/News/California/Solar-Panels/United-Nations-Predicts-StrongRenewable-Energy-Growth-800508652
Renewable energy sources - including solar power installations - have grown remarkably
in the last handful of years.
However, such technology still represents a fraction of of worldwide power production. A
draft report from the United Nations holds that growing capital investment in the field
could make solar power, wind power and other clean energy sources a predominant part
of the global supply by 2050, according to Reuters.
The draft viewed by Reuters is part of the Special Report on Renewable Energy
Sources, and it assesses 164 projections for the further development of the energy
industry.
At the time of the report, nearly 13 percent of the world's energy needs were supplied by
renewable resources, but this figure is misleading. More than 10 percent of that is
actually from biofuels such as wood.
As the price of solar installations, wind turbines and other key technology drops, a shift
should occur. The movement towards renewable energy is predicted to cost around
$12.3 trillion over the next two decades.
However, solar installers, manufacturers and developers will have to contend
with waning public support and falling subsidies, Bloomberg reports. In the next few
years, strained public budgets will necessitate tough choices, and solar developments
could feel the pain. Already, solar manufacturers in California, New York and other
states
have
had
to
cope
with
lower
demand.
One side effect, however, may be cheaper solar cells and components, which is always
nice for those getting individual home solar installations.
New study finds LDCs Better Equipped for Green Economy
International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development; May 16, 2011
http://ictsd.org/i/news/biores/106658/
Least developed countries (LDCs) are better prepared than other countries to transition
to a green economy due to their lack of dependence on fossil fuels, according to a new
UN study.
Not only are they better equipped than their Western counterparts to participate, the
report says, but in fact have the potential to be at the forefront of the transition. The
study was released jointly by the UN Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and the UN Office of the High
Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries
and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) at last week’s Fourth United Nations
Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV) in Istanbul, Turkey.
While developed economies must first face the economic and social costs of the
“decarbonisation” process, the 48 least developed countries (LDCs) are already lowcarbon and resource efficient. This is largely due to their continued reliance on traditional
activities, such as labour intensive agriculture and community-based forestry - both
economically sustainable.
By upholding and invigorating their current sustainable activities, the report says, LDCs
can harness opportunities in the green economy for economic and human development,
catapult themselves to sustainable growth, and meet their Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs).
“The shift to a global green economy can put LDCs in an opportune position if the right
enabling policies are put in place nationally and internationally,” said Achim Steiner,
UNEP’s executive director.
According to the report, historical investment policies have undervalued the importance
of traditional economic sectors of those living in poverty. LDCs have been encouraged to
depend on limited access to energy and low economic diversification.
Thus, new policy initiatives must target investment in sustainable sectors such as
renewable energy, agriculture, forestry, tourism and enhanced ecosystem services in
order to properly support LDCs’ green economic growth potential.
For a successful transition, the report recommends that international trade be embraced
to create markets for LDC green exports and effective mechanisms for green technology
transfer be explored alongside new investment regimes.
The report is released in preparation for the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable
Development (Rio +20), where the central theme will be “green economy in the context
of sustainable development and poverty eradication.”
LDC participation in the green economy has been a recurring point of contention at
official meetings of UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), with LDC
member states insisting that they are ill-equipped to effectively participate in the green
economy (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 24 January 2011).
More information
The report, Why a Green Economy Matters for the Least Developed Countries, can be
accessed here.
Do More with less or things will get ugly: study
Fast Company; May 16, 2011 Ariel Schwartz
http://www.fastcompany.com/1753567/humanity-needs-to-do-more-with-less-study
Ethonomic Indicator of the Day: 140 billion tons--the amount of resources the global
economy will consume in 2050.
As it stands, economic growth is largely dependent on resource consumption. As a
country grows, so does its use of natural--and limited--high-quality resources like oil,
gold, and copper. But this is untenable in the long run, especially as growing countries
like India and China model themselves increasingly on American habits of consumption
(a car, two cell phones, and 30 pounds of meat for all!). The seemingly impossible
solution: separating resource use and environmental impact from economic growth--a
process with the unfortunate moniker "decoupling."
According to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),
decoupling is already happening, albeit at a small scale. The resources required per
$1,000 of economic output dropped from 2.1 to 1.6 tons between between 1980 and
2002--but more needs to be done to prevent the world from devolving into Mad Max-like
mayhem where we're fighting for every last drop of gas. Here are the current trends in
increasing GDP and resource use:
But if resource consumption continues at its current rate, we will see an annual total
consumption of 140 billion tons of minerals, fossil fuels, ores, and biomass by 2050. If
industrialized nations make moderate changes, that number could drop all the way to 70
billion tons of resource extraction by the same year. And if, by some miracle, all
countries start scrambling to decrease resource use, we could see total consumption of
50 billion tons by 2050--the same as in 2000.
Some countries are already experimenting with large-scale decoupling. Japan, for
example, represents "the most advanced examples (of) increasing resource productivity
and minimizing negative environmental impacts in practice," according to the report. And
China has developed both "decoupling indicators" and mandatory targets, as well as
goals for CO2 emissions cuts of up to 40% by 2050.
It's certainly not fair to ask developing countries to give up a chance at prosperity
because we already used all the good stuff and want to keep using what's left. But those
countries may ultimately have an easier time decoupling than developed nations since
they can leapfrog older, inefficient technologies (i.e coal-fired power plants) for more
resource efficient ones, such as solar power. It's easier to simply adopt efficiency first
than to tear down existing infrastructure and start over. In 2050, we may be waving
goodbye to an ascendant solar-powered Africa while we scrounge for one last lump of
coal.
The bottom line: This decoupling needs to begin on a large scale, and fast. The report
notes that we're already having a hard time finding high-quality copper and gold, and
peak oil is coming--if it hasn't already. We've seen the beginnings of this in the energy
industry (giant solar installations in the desert, large-scale offshore wind turbine projects,
etc.) and in the vehicle industry, but it's not enough. Without major changes, today's
economic woes are going to seem like a joke. But not a very funny one.
Reach Ariel Schwartz via Twitter or email.
Eco-Tourism No Longer for Just the Rich and Fashionable
CNBC; May 17, 2011;
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42785072
Like other parts of the travel industry, eco-tourism was hammered by the global
recession —but it's on the comeback trail, as operators expand beyond the traditional
high-end core market.
While luxury has been a hallmark of this niche market, as in other industries, the growing
interest in sustainability means a wider clientele.
"Eco-tourism is such a broad and often misleading term, which can encompass
everything from a conservation-based adventure travel program to vacations in high-end
luxury hotels that use recycled toilet paper and avoid washing towels every day," says
Jason Halal, manager of Sierra Club Outings. "One thing is for sure — travel companies
and services are all beefing up their eco credentials in order to attract the rising number
of customers seeking a ‘green’ experience.”
Though industry-wide sales data are unavailable, the U.S. Commerce Department tracks
some travelers.
“The share of travelers who participated in an environmental/ecological excursion has
picked up,” says Ron Erdmann, Director of Research at the Office of Travel & Tourism
Industries.
Annual surveys of Americans headed abroad show eco-travelers accounted for 5.8
percent of the traffic in 2009, up from 5.6 percent in the previous year, but down from 6.3
percent in 2007.
This industry is about much more than luxury bungalows or tents in pristine locations
with carbon neutral operations.
“Sustainability is at the forefront of our business model because of customer demand,"
says GAP Adventures CEO, Bruce Poon Tip.
Tip says revenue grew 42 percent between 2008-2010, despite the global downturn,
surpassing $150 million.
He attributes the growth to the company’s ability to add a younger demographic to its
core market of 30- to 50-year-olds. For instance, Gap Adventures offers “Yolo” for “You
Only Live Once” Tours. For 12 days, 18- to 30-somethings go to remote locations at a
cost of $1,000-$1,500.
GAP Adventure tours use small-scale lodging, local transportation, and locally owned
businesses, because the goal is to stimulate local economies.
"A true sustainability model is about engaging local communities and the traveler, and
delivers on the needs of both," says Tip, who cites a 2010 United Nations Environment
Programme report that only $5 of every $100 spent on vacation remains in the country.
"This obviously is a massive problem. We try to keep tourism dollars in the home
country.”
Costa Rica remains the market giant.
According to the Costa Rica Tourism Board, ICT, approximately 49 percent of 2 million
visitors who flew into Costa Rica in 2010 participated in eco-tourism activities during
their stay. Ecotourism revenue was close to $1 billion.
“Tourism is one of the main economic drivers for Costa Rica," says Maria Amalia
Revelo, Deputy Manager and Marketing Director for the Costa Rica Tourism Board.
“We protect 1,000 acres,” says Nazme Abouomar, manager at Lapa Rios, a so-called
ecolodge and wildlife preserve in the country.
One of the most successful Eco Lodges in Costa Rica, Lapa Rios was named by
National Geographic as one of the most earth-friendly retreats and holds a “5-Leaf”
rating — the highest sustainability certificate from the Certification for Sustainable
Tourism Program. Depending on the season, a room at Lapa Rios ranges from $210 to
$600 per night.
“We are the hotel with the highest occupancy in the area, the Osa Peninsula," says
Abouomar. "We were hurt by the recession. Three and four years ago, we had 99
percent occupancy; now we’re picking up at between 55 and 66 percent.”
Another mainstream option is the Sierra Club, whose eco-trip business was hit hard by
the recession.
The organization offers trips ranging from wilderness backpacking to lodge-based
adventures. Prices start from $325 for a service trip to $8,345 for a cruise to Iceland,
Norway, and Greenland fjords. Over half of the trips are below $1,000. Destinations
include the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Nepal, Bhutan and Patagonia, Chile.
"The last year and a half saw an improvement in domestic trip sign-ups and there's even
been a slight uptick in international, which I would attribute to a growing sense of
improvement in the economy," says Tony Rango, director of the club’s national outings
program.
The Sierra Club has 331 trips booked for this year, more than the partial-crisis year of
2008.
“We rebounded quite a bit in 2010, and we're looking pretty good in 2011," says
manager Jason Halal.
Those in the market for high-end sustainability can try the safari service Roar Africa,
known for environmentally responsible luxury travel.
CEO Deborah Calmeyer says her clients often spend up to $30,000 per person to have
a customized, environmentally friendly African adventure.
“We have doubled our business year on year since opening in 2005," says Calmeyer.
"While many people held back on travel and the eco-tourism industry struggled, our
revenues doubled between 2009 and 2010.”
Calmeyer declined to reveal revenue and trip data.
Roar Africa partners with Singita Game Reserves in South Africa, Zimbabwe and
Tanzania. Singita is a tourism operation whose purpose is to conserve the land and its
resident wildlife. Among other operations, it runs an antipoaching program.
Like other sectors of the travel industry, eco-tourism has attracted a big name or two.
AOL founder Steve Case began work on Cacique, a $800 million, 650-acre resort in
Costa Rica, but the project was sidelined by the global recession.
The resort has a new option for the sustainability crowd. In addition to the 270 guest
rooms, there are plans for 300 private homes.
Case worked with the Costa Rican government to establish a recycling and solid waste
management program to neutralize the impact of the resort on the environment.
Cacique’s design features on-site treatment facilities to re-use wastewater and plans to
purchase its electrical power from renewable sources.
That may be more than enough for some, especially those simply looking for a feel-good
trip.
"More and more travelers want to have a positive impact associated with their tourist
dollars," says Brian Mullis, CEO of Sustainable Travel International.
UN Environment Program warns global use of resources not sustainable
AHN; May 13, 2011; Linda Young
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/90048353?UN%20Environment%20Program%
20warns%20global%20use%20of%20resources%20not%20sustainable
Rising demand and use of the Earth's resources is above sustainable levels and humans
need to cut back and conserve, the United Nations Environment Programme said Friday.
Some cheap and high quality sources of essential materials are already running short,
UNEP said. Those materials include oil, copper and gold and the remaining sources
require more fossil fuels and fresh water to produce than in the past.
Population growth and increasing prosperity for many of the world's people is fueling
demand for natural resources that is pushing consumption toward levels that are well
above anything that is sustainable.
UNEP officials said decoupling an increased growth in the use of natural resources from
economic growth was critical.
"Decoupling makes sense on all the economic, social and environmental dials," says UN
Under Secretary-General Achim Steiner, UNEP's Executive Director.
For example, people in developed nations consume an average of 16 tons of minerals,
ores, fossil fuels and biomass per capita. In addition, that ranges up to 40 tons or more
per person in some developed nations. By contrast average consumption of those
resources is only four tons per per person per year in India. But as more nations
develop, consumption of those items increases and that kind of growth in consumption
simply is not sustainable.
UNEP called on people to do more with less to conserve resources.
The agency called for furthering that goal with "an urgent rethink of the links between
resource use and economic prosperity, buttressed by a massive investment in
technological, financial and social innovation, to at least freeze per capita consumption
in wealthy countries and help developing nations follow a more sustainable path."
Are We One step closer to Pricing Nature?
Tree Hugger; May 16, 2011; Brian Merchant
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/05/one-step-closer-pricingnature.php?campaign=top_news
One of the most perverse tenets of the economic model that most of the globe adheres
to is that extracting natural resources or doing damage to ecosystems is "free". Bottled
water companies don't pay for the water they extract, lumber outfits don't pay for the
trees they chop down, automakers don't pay for the air pollution they generate, Big Oil
doesn't pay for the oil it extracts, and so on and so forth. This problem, known as the
tragedy of the commons, is one that's been an ugly thorn in capitalism's side from the
get-go. For the most part, we deal with it by imposing restrictions on how much
companies can pollute, creating environmental protection agencies to enforce such
restrictions, and by designating nature preserves to shield nature from corporate claws.
But it's not working.
Deforestation continues to destroy vast sanctuaries of biodiversity around the world,
human greenhouse gas emissions are concentrating in the atmosphere and speeding
climate change, and fish and coral reefs are disappearing at alarming rates. No, in order
to make serious progress in thwarting these ills, one ambitious banker argues, we need
to start putting a price on nature. After all, nature is most certainly notfree -- not only in
the more profound sense that living creatures have a right to exist, but simply in the
sense that the elimination of this stuff poses definite costs on society.
This isn't a new concept, and we've written about TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems
and Biodiversity) before. But the concept remains an intriguing one, and its architect,
Pavan Sukhdev, continues to push the idea -- and some multinational companies are
starting to take note. The Guardian reports:
Teeb, developed under the auspices of the United Nations environment programme,
was designed to highlight the growing costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem
degradation, and to draw together expertise from the fields of science, economics and
policy to enable practical actions moving forward ... While it was published only last
summer, Sukhdev says it is already starting to gain traction. He welcomes Puma's
announcement this week of the creation of an environmental profit and loss account, the
first corporate to do so.
The environmentally concerned have long sought to impose a value on the so-called
negative externalities of corporations' ecologically destructive behavior, and this would
do precisely that: "An example Sukhdev gives to illustrate the value of our ecosystem is
the coral reefs. Not only do they provide an income for local fishermen, but communities
benefit from tourism and the shoreline gets wave surge protection. On top of that cures
for cancer and Alzheimer's are being researched from species relying on the corral
reefs. All that would be lost if they die."
TEEB helps to designate the true cost of these reefs' decline, and hypothetically,
enables governments to attribute each corporations' contribution to the destruction of
coral reefs from carbon emissions or otherwise. Considering that it would span not just
coral reefs but every other declining ecosystem out there, TEEB's database would be
huge, unwieldy, cumbersome, prone to loopholes and book-cooking, and would be
resisted by the vast majority of corporations. But given the dominance of neoliberal
politics and economics around the world, it might just be one of the most viable ways to
prevent ecological collapse.
Humanity ‘must do more with less,’ panel warns
Vancouver Sun; May 13, 2011; Margaret Munro
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Humanity+must+more+with+less+panel+warns/
4777332/story.html
Canada stands out for devouring resources in a world that is consuming minerals, ore,
fossil fuel and biomass at an unsustainable rate, according to a recent United Nations
report.
It warns that humanity will use 140 billion tonnes of the four key resources a year by
mid-century -"three times the current appetite" -unless people get much smarter and
efficient about using resources.
Total global resource use soared from six billion tonnes in 1900 to 49 billion tonnes in
2000 and is now running at close to 59 billion tonnes, the United Nations Environment
Program's resource panel said Thursday.
"Global resource consumption is exploding," Ernst von Weizsäcker, the panel's co-chair
said in a statement. "It's not a trend that is in any way sustainable."
The panel says consumption for each person in developed countries is now about 16
tonnes of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass per year -with Canada near the front
of the pack at 25 tonnes a person.
By comparison, the average person in India consumes four tonnes a year. The world is
beginning to run out of cheap and readily accessible oil, copper and gold, says the
panel, stressing "humanity can and must do more with less."
"It is time to recognize the limits to the natural resources available to support human
development and economic growth," the panel says.
It calls for a massive investment in technological, financial and social innovation "to at
least freeze per capita consumption in wealthy countries and help developing nations
follow a more sustainable path."
"Innovation, even radical innovation, will be required," says the panel that released its
report Thursday at the annual meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable
Development in New York.
"Over the coming decades, the level of resources used by each and every person may
need to fall to between five and six tonnes," Achim Steiner, UNEP executive director,
writes in the forward to the 152-page report.
"Some developing countries are still below this level whereas others, such as India, are
now on average at four tonnes per capita and in some developed economies, Canada
for example, the figure is around 25 tonnes."
National consumption rates per capita are calculated by dividing a country's extraction
and use of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass by its population.
Canada's high consumption rate reflects the country's heavy dependence on production
and export of agricultural products, minerals and fossil fuels.
"It is not necessarily a bad thing to export resources," says Mark Swilling, the report's
lead author, who specializes in sustainable development at South Africa's Stellenbosch
University.
But he stressed in an interview from New York that countries such as Canada that rely
heavily on resource extraction and exports would be wise to take some of the profits and
invest heavily in innovation and technologies.
"That sets you up for the future," Swilling said.
If humanity continues on the current path, the panel predicts that 140 billion tonnes of
minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass a year would be needed by 2050.
This "represents an unsustainable future in terms of both resource use and emissions,
probably exceeding all possible measures of available resources and assessments of
limits to the capacity to absorb impacts," it says.
General Environment News
 Huffington Post: Solar Storms Could Have ‘Potentially Devastating Effects’:
NOAA Official
 Huffington Post: Sungevity, Lowe’s Cut deal to Bring Solar to the Masses
 Huffington Post: EPA Delays Boiler, Incinerator Toxic Pollution Regulations
Indefinitely
 Reuters: Xcel’s Prairie Island reactors pass renewal step
 Reuters: Environmental groups question Obama’s forest plan
 Reuters: State Clean Energy Mandates Have Little Effect on Electricity rates so
far
 Waste Management World: Undercover Investigations into E-Waste Smuggling
 Bloomberg: Mississippi River Diversion Cuts Threat to Cities, Refineries,
Croplands
 Bloomberg: Cajun Riviera Residents Pay Price of Living in Harm’s Way
 Globe and Mail: Windmill startup tilts with the wind
Solar Storms Could Have ‘Potentially Devastating Effects’: NOAA Official
Huffington Post; May 17, 2011; Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/17/solar-storms-noaa-2013_n_862923.html
A senior official at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says solar
storms pose a growing threat to criticial infrastructure such as satellite communications,
navigation systems and electrical transmission equipment.
NOAA Assistant Secretary Kathryn Sullivan says the intensity of solar storms is
expected to peak in 2013 and countries should prepare for "potentially devastating
effects."
Solar storms release particles that can temporarily disable or permanently destroy fragile
computer circuits.
Sullivan, a former NASA astronaut who in 1984 became the first woman to walk in
space, told a U.N. weather conference in Geneva on Tuesday that "it is not a question of
if, but really a matter of when a major solar event could hit our planet."
Sungevity, Lowe’s Cut deal to Bring Solar to the Masses
Huffington Post; May 16, 2011;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/16/sungevity-lowes-solarmasses_n_862641.html
The California-based solar leasing firm Sungevityannounced a deal on Monday with
home improvement giant Lowe's that could make obtaining a personalized estimate for
installing solar panels a push-button affair at Lowe's outlets.
The deal gives Lowe's just under a 20 percent stake in Sungevity, according to a solar
industry source, though neither company would discuss specific dollar figures.
Under the agreement, scheduled to launch in 30 Lowe's stores in California in July,
customers will be able to access kiosks equipped with Sugevity'siQuote system, a Webbased application that allows homeowners to simply enter their address and receive a
firm installation estimate within 24 hours, eliminating the expense of an on-site visit.
The system combines aerial and satellite image analysis with research by Sungevity
engineers at the company's Oakland headquarters to assess the geometry of a home's
rooftop, its disposition to the sun at different times of day and year and any potential
occlusions presented by nearby vegetation or built objects.
In addition to an installation estimate, customers can also get a visual rendering of their
home with solar panels installed. And if interested parties provide information on typical
power usage, such as an account number or past electric bills, the iQuote system can
estimate potential savings expected from using the equipment.
The iQuote system can already be used online, and the company's founder, Danny
Kennedy, estimated that roughly 25,000 users had taken it for a test drive, though only
about 1,500 of those had been converted to sales.
The deal with Lowe's, Kennedy said, could help Sungevity -- a petite player in the solar
leasing market compared to bigger players like SolarCity of San Mateo, Calif., or San
Francisco-based SunRun, which raised $200 million in financing earlier this month -significantly expand its reach.
This will help us to get in front of thousands more customers, in front of middle America,"
Kennedy told The Huffington Post. "We'll be taking it to the 'burbs, as it were."
Despite tough economic times and often uncertain economic incentives, a number of
analyses predict a boom year for solar power in 2011.
A report published in December by IDC Energy Insights, a market research firm based in
Framingham, Mass., estimated following a healthy 2010, the solar market in North
America could well see two gigawatts of solar power installations this year.
Jay Holman, the report's lead analyst, told The Huffington Post that those numbers had
been revised somewhat, but that 2011 was still expected to bring in 1.6 gigawatts of new
solar installations, roughly double the 2010 total.
Part of the reason for America's interest in solar energy may be a decline in the robust
incentives the once drew a deluge of equipment and installations to the European
market, particularly countries like Germany, the Czech Republic and Italy, Holman said.
Those countries have begun to scale back their subsidies, forcing companies to look to
other markets.
Meanwhile, federal tax incentives, including a 30 percent tax cash grant extended
through the end of 2011, have helped keep solar alive. Several states have healthy
incentives in place as well, including the eight states where the Sungevity/Lowes deal
will eventually be rolled out: Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.
Holman also said solar leasing companies like Sungevity, SunRun and Solar City, which
retain ownership of the equipment while reducing or, in many cases, eliminating the upfront installation costs, also help drive the expansion of solar power.
"Obviously, we're obsessed with being customer-focused," said Kennedy. "We hope that
this deal will make going solar as easy as shopping for light bulbs."
EPA Delays Boiler, Incinerator Toxic Pollution Regulations Indefinitely
Huffington Post; May 16, 2011; Dina Cappiello
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/16/epa-boiler-incinerator-pollutionregulations_n_862743.html
The Environmental Protection Agency is delaying indefinitely regulations to reduce toxic
pollution from boilers and incinerators.
The move comes in response to a request from industry groups.
The announcement Monday was another setback for a rule that the agency claims will
avert thousands of heart attacks and asthma cases each year. In February, the EPA
announced changes to make it much cheaper to comply with the new standards without
diminishing the public health benefits.
Industry groups, and congressional Republicans and Democrats, had been critical of the
rule because of its expense and scope.
More than 13,000 large boilers would have to install pollution controls within three years
of the regulation taking effect.
The EPA could not say when that would be. It said it would work as expeditiously as
possible.
Xcel’s Prairie Island reactors pass renewal step
Reuters; May 17, 2011;
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/17/utilities-operations-xcel-prairieidUSSGE74G01L20110517
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
on Tuesday said it found no environmental reason that would
preclude extending the operating life of Xcel Energy Inc's
(XEL.N) two-unit Prairie Island nuclear station in Minnesota
for an additional 20 years.
NRC staff issued the final supplemental environmental
impact statement for renewal of the operating licenses for
Prairie Island's Units 1 and 2, which expire Aug. 9, 2013 and
Oct. 29, 2014, respectively.
Northern States Power Company, the operator of the plant,
submitted an application to the NRC in April 2008 to extend the
original 40-year licenses by 20 years.
If granted, the two units could operate until 2033 and
2034, respectively.
The NRC uses the renewal process to determine how an
operator will manage the aging of a reactor. It is a two-step
process, including safety and environmental reviews.
Factbox on license renewals: [ID:nN21295768]
---------------------------------------------------------PLANT BACKGROUND/TIMELINE
STATE:
Minnesota
COUNTY: Goodhue
TOWN:
Red Wing about 55 miles (88 km) north of St Paul,
the state capital
OPERATOR: Northern States Power
OWNER(S): Xcel Inc
UNIT(S): 1 - 551 MW Westinghouse pressurized water reactor
2 - 545 MW Westinghouse pressurized water reactor
FUEL:
Nuclear
DISPATCH: Baseload
TIMELINE:
1974 Units 1 and 2 enter service
2008 Xcel filed with the NRC to renew both 40-year
licenses for an additional 20 years
Oct 2010 - NRC expects to decide on license renewals
2013 Unit 1 operating license to expire, unit to retire
unless NRC renews license
2014 Unit 2 operating license to expire, unit to retire
unless NRC renews license
(Reporting by Soma Das in Bangalore; Editing by Marguerita
Choy)
Environmental groups question Obama’s forest plan
Reuters; May 17, 2011; Deborah Zabarenko
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/17/us-forests-usa-idUSTRE74F77920110517
An Obama administration plan to protect wildlife and water in U.S. national forests drew
fire on Monday from environmental advocates who contend the new rule needs stronger
scientific standards.
As it stands now, the proposed Forest Planning Rule gives too much discretion to
individual managers of the 155 forests and grasslands that cover 193 million acres (78
million hectares) of public territory, a former U.S. wildlife official said in a telephone
briefing.
"Our forests are in real trouble," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, former director of the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service and now with the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife.
Clark and other environmental activists noted that national forests are a source of
drinking water for some 124 million people, and cited a U.S. Department of Agriculture
report that said these areas sustain 223,000 jobs in rural areas and contribute $14.5
billion a year to the U.S. economy.
While Clark praised the planned rule for its ambitious goals, including restoring areas
that have been damaged by logging and mining and making national forests more
resilient to forest fires, bark beetles and shifting climate zones, she raised alarm about
the lack of specific scientific guidance.
She noted that President Barack Obama has pledged to uphold science in public policy.
Martin Heinrich, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from
New Mexico, said the proposed rule rolls back long-standing protections for water and
wildlife.
LOGGING, MINING AND ENERGY
"There's widespread concern among conservationists and forest managers that the rule
doesn't have clear standards to ensure how it will translate well on the ground," Clark
said. "The rule promises but doesn't clearly outline how to deliver protections for wildlife,
water and wilderness."
Without clear science-based standards, she said, individual forest managers could be
more susceptible to political and commercial pressures. Mining, logging and energy
development take place in some national forest areas.
A 90-day period of public comment on the proposed rule ended on Monday; the rule is
expected to go into effect by year's end. That deadline prompted a flurry of
communiques to the Obama administration.
State Clean Energy Mandates Have Little Effect on Electricity rates so far
Reuters; May 17, 2011; SolveClimate
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/17/idUS102265027320110517
While there's room for more study, the estimated impact on electricity rates is a fraction
of a percent in most cases and just over 1 percent in two states
By Dan Haugen, Midwest Energy News
When Minnesota passed one of the nation's most aggressive renewable portfolio
standards in 2007, Minnkota Power wasted no time in ramping up its wind capacity.
Believing the cost of wind power would go up, the Grand Forks, N.D., generation and
transmission co-op locked in long-term contracts to cover its needs for the next 25 years.
Then the economy went south, dragging electricity demand and wholesale prices down
with it.
Minnkota, along with the 11 rural electric distributors it serves in North Dakota and
northwestern Minnesota, suddenly found itself stuck with more wind power than it
needed. It's been selling the excess at a loss ever since, making up the difference with a
half-cent per kilowatt-hour surcharge on its customers.
The fees have helped fuel the perception — particularly among rural electric co-ops —
that Minnesota's renewable energy policy is driving up the price of electricity. Others,
though, including state energy officials, point to the utility's unusually large and early
hedge on wind prices as a primary cause of its recent losses.
The Minnkota case illustrates just how complicated it can be to calculate the impact of
state renewable mandates on electricity rates. Variables such as fuel prices, wholesale
rates and energy demand are in constant flux, and decisions about what and when to
buy can affect the return on capital investments.
With many states' renewable targets ramping up right as their economies struggle to
rebound from the recession, politicians are scrutinizing the costs of renewable policies
and requesting information about how they affect electricity rates.
They're not likely to find a simple answer.
The most comprehensive studies and the experience of utilities so far suggest that, by
and large, renewable portfolio standards haven't had a significant impact on customers'
bills. Still, there's room for more study, and in some states, including Minnesota, there
remains relatively little data about the ratepayer impact of renewable policies.
'20 Studies on Each Side'
The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce has been pushing for legislation that would
require utilities to include data in their biennial resource plans about costs incurred from
complying with the state's renewable standard, which calls for 25 percent of electricity to
come from renewable sources by 2025.
The legislation appears likely to pass with little opposition because both supporters and
critics of the state's renewable policy believe a study of costs will result in evidence that
supports their position. The Chamber says it is neutral on the issue.
"We get folks who call us and say, 'Hey, my utility rate is going up. How much of this is
[because of] the renewable energy standard?'" said Bride Seifert, the chamber's energy
policy manager. "We'd like to know the answer, because there's 20 studies on each side
of the table."
One of the larger reviews of renewable portfolio standards was a 2008 report by the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The study looked at data on a dozen state
renewable policies enacted before 2007. The estimated impact on electricity rates varied
by state, but it was a fraction of a percent in most cases and just over 1 percent in two
states, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
"There is little evidence of a sizable impact on average retail electricity rates so far," the
report concluded.
One of the report's co-authors, Galen Barbose, said in an interview that they are
collecting data for an updated version of the report. So far he said he hasn't seen any
new information to suggest their conclusion about rate impacts will change significantly
in the next edition.
A 2009 study by the U.S. Energy Information Administration modeled the potential
impact of a 25 percent nationwide renewable electricity standard. It, too, noted that rate
impacts would vary by state, with renewable-rich regions like the Great Plains and
Northwest meeting the targets more easily. Overall, though, it projected no impact on
rates through 2020, followed by a less than 3 percent increase by 2025. By 2030,
however, it projected little difference in rates with or without a national renewable
mandate.
The Minnesota Free Market Institute and American Tradition Institute reached a very
different conclusion in an April 2011 report, which claims Minnesota's renewable
electricity standard is going to cause rates in the state to skyrocket by as much as 37
percent by 2025.
Utilities' Experiences Vary
Xcel Energy has come up with a much smaller number: $0.003. That's the difference the
state's largest utility forecasts between its projected per-kilowatt-hour energy price in
2025 under its proposed wind expansion plan compared to a hypothetical scenario in
which it stopped adding new wind capacity after 2012.
Asked to comment on the Free Market Institute's study, Xcel Energy spokesman Steve
Roalstad said, "It doesn't seem to be moving in that direction." The cost of adding
renewable energy sources, especially wind, continues to fall and has become very
competitive with traditional generating sources, he added.
The utility already files information about the impact of renewables on its rates as part of
its regular resource planning documents. Roalstad said the company would be happy to
provide any additional information to comply with the Chamber's proposed legislation.
But the ratepayer impact so far, he said, is insignificant.
Otter Tail Power, which serves about 130,000 customers in the Dakotas and western
Minnesota, has had a similar experience. Todd Wahlund, Otter Tail's vice president for
renewable energy development, said the company would have added wind capacity
regardless of Minnesota's renewable standard. That's because it's been the most
economical option.
"Absent these wind resource additions, an alternative resource would have been
needed, and from our analysis, other options would have been higher cost," Wahlund
said.
Duluth-based Minnesota Power was among the first utilities to cite compliance with the
state's renewable standard as a factor in a rate-increase case with state utility
regulators. Spokeswoman Amy Rutledge said, however, that renewables accounted for
only a small portion of the increase.
"Our rate increases have been largely the result of large environmental retrofit projects
to reduce emissions at our largest generating facilities," Rutledge said.
Long-Term Benefits
Xcel says adding renewable energy sources to its system has reduced its environmental
regulatory risk, and that diversifying its power sources is a good way to protect
customers against rate increases in the event that natural gas prices go up again.
"Wind power can be a very effective hedge against the volatile nature of natural gas
prices, even taking into account wind's intermittent nature," Roalstad said.
Warren Leon, project director for States Advancing RPS, an association for state policy
officials working on renewable mandates, says the cost of complying with them should
be fairly straightforward for utilities to calculate. But states should also be asking: "Are
there benefits to the thing produced that also deserve to be studied, even though they
are harder to pin down?"
Supporters say there are environmental and job-creation benefits (which, as the
legislation is currently written, wouldn't be a part of the reporting process proposed by
the Minnesota Chamber). But there are also benefits that specifically relate to keeping
down electricity rates, Leon said.
For example, when the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
studied its renewable standard, it concluded that adding wind capacity helped lower
overall rates by reducing the need to buy energy from more expensive power plants
during peak generating hours.
Minnesota State Rep. Bill Hilty, one of the architects of Minnesota's renewable policy,
said some critics have exaggerated the financial impact by attributing the full cost of
transmission upgrades as a cost of wind power. In reality, he said, many of those
upgrades would have needed to happen anyway, and distributing more renewable
power across the grid reduces the need for even greater upgrades.
A Bet on Wind
That doesn't mean utilities haven't encountered costs in trying to achieve those longerterm benefits. In a brief written statement, Great River Energy blamed its wind energy
purchases for increasing retail customer bills by about 1.6 percent, or about $18 per year
for an average homeowner. The generation and transmission co-op serves about
645,000 customers in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
"The environmental benefits of wind energy come at a cost," said Great River Energy
member services vice president Jon Brekke. "To ensure reliability, Great River Energy
must retain sufficient capacity to meet peak load conditions. In effect, wind energy
resources duplicate some of this capacity, resulting in additional costs for our members."
Minnkota Power's predicament stems from locking in big, long-term wind contracts
immediately following the passage of the Minnesota renewable legislation.
Minnesota's policy required utilities to generate 7 percent of electricity from renewables
in 2010. By 2012, they're expected to be at 12 percent, and it gradually ramps up to 25
percent in 2025.
Minnkota Power has sailed past all of those milestones already. By 2009 it had signed
contracts for 357 megawatts of wind power from two North Dakota wind farms. Today it's
already generating more than 30 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.
"We wanted the best available sites and the best available rates," spokesman Kevin Fee
said.
The company made a bet that wind contracts would cost more in the future. That might
still end up being the case, but for now Minnkota is paying a premium it can't recoup
through sales.
The cost of new wind generation has continued to go down. The real hurt has been the
decline in electricity demand and wholesale electricity prices due to the recession.
Minnkota is now selling its wind power for 2 cents less per kwh than it's paying for it, and
it's assessed the loss to customers in the form of a surcharge.
A December report from the Minnesota Office of Energy Security said Minnkota's
"dilemma" should serve as a caution about the risks of overbuilding renewable capacity.
"It remains to be seen how Minnkota's customer-owners ultimately will be affected," the
report notes.
"In the long run, we think it's going to pay off," said Fee.
Undercover Investigations into E-Waste Smuggling
Waste Management World; May 16, 2011;
http://www.waste-management-world.com/index/display/articledisplay/1498817050/articles/waste-management-world/markets-policyfinance/2011/05/Undercover_Investigations_into_E-Waste_Smuggling.html
With the global proliferation of technology continuing to snowball at an exponential rate,
the issue of electronic waste has become a global problem of epic proportions.
According to estimates by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), around
the world some 50 million tonnes of e-waste is produced annually, of which only 10% is
recycled. Government statistics suggest that the UK alone is responsible for producing
some 1 million tonnes per year of e-waste, which has become the fastest growing waste
stream
in
the
country.
With such a large volume of waste to treat, and strong EU regulations in place governing
the proper disposal of e-waste, it comes as no surprise that the illegal export of much of
this waste is a growing problem in the UK. And the UK is not alone in facing this
problem. Work carried out by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggests
that it is 10 times cheaper to ship a CRT monitor to Ghana than it is to recycle it in the
United
States.
However, over the past three years the UK's Environment Agency has become more
proactive in tackling the problem. Intelligence led enforcement involving collaboration
with the Police and Customs, as well as increased international co-operation with over
40
other
countries,
has
been
developed.
As part of this approach, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has recently
embarked on its most thorough investigation to date into the illegal e-waste smuggling
business. As a result of the 18 month undercover operation, the agency has recently
published a report - System Failure: The UK's harmful trade in electronic waste - that
sheds light on the lucrative international black market for e-waste, and more specifically
CRT
screens.
According to the report, the trade involves players from every level of the waste food
chain, from sole traders, right up to local councils and even central government
institutions.
Undercover
Following the successful prosecutions of several councils for selling potentially harmful
e-waste to unauthorised traders, the EIA decided to launch an investigation into how
such waste, collected at civic amenity sites, ends up smuggled todump sites in
developing countries. From mid 2009 until early this year, undercover EIA investigators
held a series of meetings with recycling companies and waste brokers to scrutinise the
handling
of
e-waste
at
several
civic
disposal
sites.
In spring 2010, EIA investigators posing as students carrying out recycling projects
visited six civic amenity sites chosen at random throughout the Greater London area.
Discussions with a site worker revealed that TVs and other electrical goods such as
video players were being taken away separately by an outside company to be packed
into containers and shipped to Nigeria. At least seven tonnes of TVs were being sold to
the company each week, at a cost of about £1.50 to £2 per set. The investigators
uncovered similar occurrences across many of the council sites it visited.
However, it is not against the law in the UK to export electronic equipment such as TVs,
as long as it has been tested and found to be working. To find out if such checks were
being made the EIA made a deposit of their own at the site.
Two deliberately disabled television sets equipped with sophisticated tracking devices
were dropped off at two of the offending sites. After a few days the sets began to tour
the UK, before the signal from one set being lost. The signal from the second set
continued for sometime before it too was lost. Following a month of radio silence,
transmissions from the first set were suddenly re-established - from Lagos, Nigeria. The
tracking device indicated a location close to Lagos's notorious e-waste trade centre,
Alaba Market. Hot on its heals, the second TV set also soon reappeared, only this
inoperable television had made it as far as Tema Port in Ghana.
The EIA tipped off Ghanaian authorities, but by the time they arrived at the port the TV
had slipped away, and was once again on the move. It next reappeared in the town of
Temale, where it remained for a further month, before the tracking device's tamper
device was triggered, suggesting the set had probably been dismantled. The tracking
device on this set was later found by BBC documentary makers. The person who had
bought the set told them that when he realised it was broken, he had stripped it for parts
before
dumping
it.
Middlemen
Based on the results of the results of the tracker investigation, the EIA was able to
conclude that illegal e-waste exports were passing through a number of hands between
being dropped off by the public, and arriving in the developing world. To dig deeper, and
uncover some of this network of middlemen, the agency set up a front company looking
to source non-functional CRTs for shipment to China.
From a list of target companies drawn up using research on internet trading platforms,
the EIA began the next stage of its enquiries, meeting face to face with a number of
suppliers in south east England. The investigations revealed that while some companies
were directly involved with exporting CRTs, many others simply sold them to the
exporters.
At a meeting with one Environment Agency licensed waste carrier, investigators were
told that the company, which at the time was bidding to secure 10,000 CRTs from the
Ministry of Defence - does not have the time to test individual units. Instead they are
visually inspected, with obviously defective sets, such as those with a broken screen,
sent for recycling. The company itself does not export CRTs. However the managing
director did admit to having customers in a number of countries in Africa and Asia.
At another company also marketing untested CRTs, investigators were offered regular
shipments to China of 1000 CRTs per month for £3 each. The company claimed that the
units would be coming from a 'very large' UK recycling company that sourced the sets
from the UK and abroad. Investigators were told that the large recycling company was
not allowed to sell untested CRTs to China, but that by acting as middlemen the traders
could circumvent this issue. This picture was repeated at numerous other waste traders
on the EIA's target list.
The EIA says that its investigations reveal a widespread illegal trade in CRT monitors
destined for the developing world. Some companies posing as recyclers are selling on ewaste with no regard for the final destination, breaking the duty of care to deal
responsibly with e-waste. Investigators have demonstrated how broken CRTs deposited
at council sites ended up in the hands of EA licensed outside companies, from where
they were subsequently diverted into export streams to West Africa.
According to the EIA, until local councils and their contractors take responsibility for
ensuring e-waste in their care does not leak onto the black market, the problem will
persist.
Recommendations
With the aim of dealing with all illegal e-waste exports, the EIA makes a number of
recommendations. Amongst those recommendations it says that all WEEE left at
designated collection facilities should be quantified before leaving the site, and audit
records kept. Additionally, producer compliance schemes holding the contract for site
where e-waste has been proven to be illegally exported should lose their license upon a
successful
prosecution.
Furthermore, the UK government should conduct a full review of the producer
compliance scheme, with the aim of reducing the number of schemes in operation. An
increase to the number of random spot checks would also help alleviate the problem.
The EIA is also calling for the establishment of recycling facilities and producer
responsibility in developing countries to deal with the increasing volume of domestic ewaste being produced.
In spite of the inroads it has made into exposing those responsible for the illegal export
of e-waste, funding for EIA's specialist e-waste intelligence unit ended in March, and it is
uncertain whether progress in curbing e-waste smuggling from the UK will be
maintained.
Perspective
Dr Margaret Bates, manager of the Centre for Sustainable Wastes Management at
Northampton University has travelled to Nigeria several times in the course of her
research, and has seen and talked to the people who deal with the electronics once they
arrive. Commenting on the EIA report, Bates explained that the illegal trade in e-waste
has a significant impact on both the environment and people in Nigeria, but stressed the
need to be very careful to differentiate between legal and illegal trade in second hand
electronics.
"In Alaba market, Lagos, the dealers and traders are very keen to have any equipment
from the UK as even the broken/ illegal can be harvested for components. The tested /
untested theme is consistent throughout the supply chain and if you ask in the marked
for the price of a TV or computer you will be asked if you want tested or untested,
therefore it seems odd to the importers that we worry so much about the difference," she
said.
Bates goes on to explain that Nigeria is developing its own guidelines to ensure
environmentally sound management of e-waste, and is in discussions with a UK based
WEEE recycler to establish a facility in Lagos. The development of a recycling solution,
rather than banning legal export, will provide a sustainable solution not only for EEE that
was imported second hand, but also for that which was brand new or manufactured in
the
developing
world.
"In general I agree with the recommendations of the EIA report and feel the need for
effective regulation and accurate data and records is key to stopping the illegal activities.
I am wary of suggesting that that export activities should be stopped whilst investigations
are ongoing as this could put legitimate exporters out of business," Bates concluded.
Mississippi River Diversion Cuts Threat to Cities, Refineries, Croplands
Bloomberg; May 17, 2011; Brian K. Sullivan
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-16/morganza-opens-nine-gates-as-muddywater-flows-to-cajun-country.html
Mississippi River water pouring through 15 gates on Louisiana’sMorganza floodway has
greatly reduced the risk of flooding to oil refineries that account for about 14 percent of
U.S. capacity.
The diversion means the Mississippi has crested at about 17 feet in New Orleans, 2.5
feet below the forecast, and is expected to top out at 45 feet in Baton Rouge, below a
record 47.5 that was expected by May 22, according to the U.S. Lower Mississippi
River Forecast Center’s website.
The levels probably won’t get much higher in those cities, even with the bulge of the
Mississippi’s high water still days away, said Colonel Ed Fleming, district commander of
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That’s also welcome news for nine refineries
between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
“Overnight news continues to indicate that the flooding problems at refineries on the
Mississippi River are unlikely to be as bad as previously feared,” JPMorgan Chase & Co.
analysts led by New York-based Lawrence Eagles said in a report today. “ However,
disruption to barge traffic is likely to be prolonged and may yet force further reductions in
crude processing at these plants.”
With the river above record flood levels and still rising upstream at Vicksburg and
Natchez, Mississippi, the Corps of Engineers began opening the 125-gate Morganza
over the weekend, sending excess water down into the Atchafalaya River Basin, the
heart of Louisiana’s Cajun country.
Slower Flow
Governor Bobby Jindal said today that the flow through the spillway appears lower than
projected, while flooding on backed- up tributaries in the northern part of the state has
been less than forecast.
“There’s still an awful lot of water headed our way and it’s going to be here in many
cases for weeks, not just a few days,” Jindal said at a press conference today.
Some pipelines, terminals and barge operations shut down last week. However, there
haven’t been any further restrictions on barge traffic on the river, Captain Mike Rooney
of the New Orleans-Baton Rouge Steamship Pilots Association in Metairie, Louisiana,
said today. The water is still moving quite fast and is high, he said.
“It makes things a little easier,” Rooney said. “Everything seems to be working as it was
planned for.”
Vicksburg Flooding
In Vicksburg, the site of an 1863 Civil War battle and the burial site for some 17,000
soldiers who died in that war, the river had reached 57.01 feet as of 7 a.m. local time,
nearly a foot above the record 56.2 feet set in 1927, according to the National Weather
Service.
At least 760 people from 190 homes have been evacuated, Vicksburg Fire Chief Charles
Atkins said today. The water is rising at the rate of a foot a day, although it has been
slowing as the May 19 crest nears, he said.
“We’re just holding onto what we have and waiting for the crest,” Atkins said by
telephone.
Vicksburg is about 130 miles north of Louisiana’s Red River Landing, where the corps is
monitoring the river’s flow to keep the rate at 1.5 million cubic feet per second. The
river’s crest at Red River is about five days away.
About 2,500 people and 2,000 structures are within the spillway, with 22,500 people and
11,000 buildings vulnerable to the rising water in tributaries and bayous, according to
Jindal. Farm losses could total hundreds of millions of dollars, he said.
Oil and Gas
Inside the threatened area also are 2,264 oil or natural gas wells that each day produce
19,278 barrels of crude oil, about 10 percent of Louisiana’s onshore total, and 252.6
million cubic feet of gas, according to the state.
The river had threatened to reach a flow rate of 1.62 million cubic feet per second unless
water was diverted, putting in peril the levees at Baton Rouge, home to an
estimated 229,000 people and industrial areas that include an Exxon Mobil Corp.
(XOM) refinery, the second-largest U.S. facility. New Orleans has about 350,000 people
still recovering from Hurricane Katrina five years ago.
In Baton Rouge, the river reached 44.69 feet early today and may get to 45 feet
tomorrow, according to revised weather service estimates.
Atchafalaya Flooding
The weather service
is
predicting
near-record
flooding
for
towns
along
the Atchafalaya and surrounding wetlands.
The Atchafalaya is expected to crest at Butte La Rose, about 40 miles west of Baton
Rouge, on May 24 at 27 feet, according to the weather service. The record of 27.28 feet
was set there on May 23, 1973.
The water from the Morganza is expected to reach Morgan City near the Gulf of
Mexico later this week. The Atchafalaya is forecast to crest at 11 feet in Morgan City on
May 25, above the record 10.53 feet in 1973, when Morganza was last opened.
The Mississippi is the largest river system in the country and the third-largest watershed
in the world, and drains 41 percent of the continental U.S., according to the corps. The
river’s rising water, caused by heavy rain and snowmelt, has interrupted coal shipments
to power plants inTennessee, flooded more than 100,000 acres of Missouri cropland and
forced thousands from their homes.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Baton Rouge
atbsullivan10@bloomberg.net; Leela Landress in Houston at llandress@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net.
Cajun Riviera Residents Pay Price of Living in Harm’s Way
Bloomberg; May 17, 2011; Duane Stanford
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-17/-cajun-riviera-residents-paying-price-ofliving-in-harm-s-way.html
Mark Vonbodungen cast a primitive form against the raging orange glow of a fire pit as
he tended its coals two nights ago inButte La Rose, Louisiana, where thousands of
residents are fleeing water that could reach 15- feet high.
Nearby, a rented storage container and a flatbed trailer held the contents of
Vonbodungen’s weekend retreat, including doors and the water heater. Only the
refrigerator and a few last-minute items were left inside the one-bedroom camp house.
The last of the boudin sausage from the freezer roasted on a grill. After working 12-hour
days since May 12 loading, sand- bagging and worrying, Vonbodungen, 53, was almost
out.
“You’re in the Atchafalaya River Basin, so you realize Mother Nature’s going to come get
you sooner or later,” Vonbodungen said, edging close to the fire pit to ward off the
swarming mosquitos.
Butte La Rose is one of dozens of small rural communities in and around the
Atchafalaya River Basin being flooded this week to spare population centers in Baton
Rouge and New Orleans. Officials are slowly opening Morganza Spillway gates to
relieve pressure on the Mississippi. It’s part of a plan developed in the decades following
a catastrophic flood in 1927 and used now for only the second time.
The decision by the Army Corps of Engineers to open the nine spillway gates brought
the Mississippi River’s crest a week early and several feet lower, sparing the oil
refineries and dense neighborhoods downstream. The lower crest does little to ease the
impact in the Atchafalaya basin, whose surrounding communities some call the “hidden
Cajun Riviera.”
Evacuation Plan
Vonbodungen, who says he long ago accepted the risk of building in a flood zone, is one
of the lucky ones. He has resources and a well-thought-out evacuation plan, right down
to removable cabinets. He also has his real home to return to in New Orleans. For
others, this 800-home community about an hour’s drive from Baton Rouge is their only
residence, making the leave tougher to accept.
On the main highway into Butte La Rose, a homemade sign in front of an evacuated
house vents frustration in orange spray painted words: “My slice of Heaven force-flooded
straight to hell -- God help us.”
Hard Choices
As this slow-moving disaster unfolds in southeast Louisiana, the surging Mississippi
River -- swollen with melted snow and record-rains from the north -- is forcing hard
choices from officials and residents alike. They are made even harder by the uncertainty
of flowing water. How soon will the water arrive? How high will it go? When will it leave?
About 2,200 residents live in the direct path of the spillway flow, a few hundred more
than were killed in the Katrina disaster in 2005. They live there at their own risk. Ten
times as many face flooding from water that will make a U-turn at the southern end of
the region’s levee system and backflow north into low-lying areas.
Residents in the spillway and parts of parishes such as St. Landry are being ordered to
leave their homes. Voluntary evacuation has been suggested in others. Some have
rented moving trucks. Others toss belongings into their fishing boats, hitched on trailers
to their trucks. Some stay put with nowhere to go.
Local Inmates
In Melville on Sunday, 72-year-old Frank Overton spit tobacco juice as he piled
sandbags at the foot of his brick ranch home on Church Street. A few blocks away, local
inmates in orange jump suits shoveled sand into bags and loaded them onto the backs
of residents’ pickups. Across the street, at town hall, Louisiana Representative Charles
Boustany Jr. held an impromptu meeting with the town council and residents to answer
questions, mostly with more questions.
The preparations came despite a ring of man-made earthen levees that protect Melville’s
1,200 residents. During the storied flood of 1973, the last time water was released from
the Morganza Spillway, Melville’s levees held even as water lapped at the top. Still,
Councilwoman Denise Rose, 53, who made a living in Chicago before coming back
home to retire, said there are no guarantees.
Stamping another bag of sand against the wall, as his wife recovered from a stroke
inside, Overton said he wouldn’t take any chances. “I’m not going down with the ship,”
he said, spitting. “I can get another ship, I can’t get another me.”
Small-Scale Casinos
Most of the region surrounding the Atchafalaya River drainage basin is dominated by
sparsely populated farmlands, anchored by modest towns. Oil refineries nearer the coast
and small-scale casino gambling at freeway exits offer much of the non-farm work. Up
and down the region’s backroads, plumes of smoke rise from freshly harvested wheat
fields that have been set on fire to burn off the stubble and rejuvenate the soil to make
way for soybean crops to be planted.
On one such highway north of Krotz Springs, Danny Wiltz cradled his young daughter in
one arm and held his son’s hand with the other as they crossed from their home to the
nearby levee. Residents like Krotz own sections of the levee, which they often use to
graze cattle. At the top, Wiltz’s kids threw rocks into the rising water which had
inundated a couple of camp houses on lower ground within the spillway. Others had yet
to be touched.
Wiltz’s home, protected by the levee, was still at risk from the coming backwaters. He
was betting the waters wouldn’t reach far enough and planned to stay put. His
confidence comes in part from the design of his house, which his father built two years
after the 1973 flood. The main living area, including the bedrooms and kitchen, is on the
second floor, elevated by metal supports.
Sandbags and Plastic
A quarter of a mile away, authorities had used sandbags and plastic to create a tiny
levee the size of a minivan around a small telephone switching station. Wiltz, whose
commercial air- conditioning repair business sits next to his house, dismissed it as
precautionary. “We built in a flood way,” he said.
Downtown Krotz Springs, meanwhile, looked more like a military occupation zone than
the catfish capital of Louisiana, as its welcome sign boasts. Humvees lined the road and
national guardsmen moved in and out of City Hall. On patrols at night, the soldiers were
armed with M4 rifles.
Back in Butte La Rose, Mark and Stephanie Vonbodungen waited to hear when their
portable storage container would be picked up. They started planning this evacuation 10
years ago, when they bought a garage and started converting into the cabin it is now.
Removable Cabinets
Vonbodungen, an environmental specialist for the New Orleans-based power
company Entergy Corp. (ETR), installed removable cabinets like those common
in Europe. The floors and other building materials are mid-grade, so losing them isn’t a
huge financial risk. The appliances all can be moved in and out easily.
Like others in the region, Vonbodungen has Hurricane Katrina fresh in his mind. The
ensuing flood and what he saw during the cleanup phase informs his plans now. He
plans to race back as soon as possible and hook up his air conditioning unit.
“When it’s over, you have to move pretty fast to re- establish humidity control so you
don’t get mold,” he said. “The longer you wait, the more issues you are going to have.”
He’ll then rip out any wet sheetrock, spray some anti- bacterial chemicals and put the
place back together. He hopes the plastic he wrapped around the house, bolstered with
sandbags at the bottom, will keep out at least some of the water. If the Atchafalaya
crests at 27 feet, he thinks he’ll get six inches of water. Earlier estimates that it would
crest at 29 feet, or 8.8 meters, would have meant as many as two or three feet of
flooding.
“The expectation is I’ll come back to a construction site,” he said. “Now it’s just a waiting
game.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Duane Stanford in Butte La Rose, Louisiana
atdstanford2@bloomberg.net;
Windmill startup tilts with the wind
Globe and Mail; May 17, 2011; Grant Buckler
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/your-business/businesscategories/sustainability/windmill-startup-tilts-with-the-wind/article2023604/
Ever since Cervantes wrote Don Quixote, the popular metaphor for taking on a tough
challenge has been “tilting at windmills.” Like any startup company, Global Wind Group
faces plenty of challenges, but the Winnipeg firm isn’t so much tilting at windmills as
tilting the windmills themselves.
If you’ve seen large wind farms that feed power into electrical grids – or if your only
image of windmills is from Dutch postcards – you picture a windmill as a sort of giant
propeller spinning on a horizontal axis. Global Wind is betting on a different model – a
windmill with a vertical axis and a compact shape without long projecting vanes.
This design has a significant advantage, says Justin Phillips, Global Wind’s co-founder
and vice-president of business development. Horizontal-axis windmills must face into the
wind to work, but vertical-axis turbines work no matter which way the wind blows.
The wind itself can turn smaller horizontal-axis turbines to the right position, using a sort
of rudder like a weathervane, notes Tim Weis, an environmental researcher at The
Pembina Institute, an energy research group in Edmonton, but big ones have motors to
point them the right way.
Mr. Phillips says vertical axis turbines are also easier on flying wildlife. While the blades
of a horizontal-axis turbine can kill birds and bats, he says, a spinning vertical-axis
turbine looks like a solid object and they rarely fly into it.
On the other hand, says Mr. Weis, many vertical-axis turbines need help starting up,
usually from a motor wired to a wind-speed sensor that determines when there is
enough wind to produce power and starts the turbine. Mr. Phillips says Global Wind’s
turbines don’t need starter motors, though he says they do self-start at a higher wind
speed than horizontal-axis turbines.
There are other issues with vertical-axis turbines on a large scale, such as difference in
wind speed from the top to the bottom of a big turbine. “It’s very difficult to design a
vertical axis turbine on a large scale,” Mr. Phillips says. So Global Wind Group is
focusing on small turbines for remote communities, off-grid residences and other
buildings, and telecommunications towers that need modest amounts of power for
transmitters and other electronics.
Remote locations in Canada’s north often rely on diesel generators for electricity, Mr.
Phillips says, and the cost of shipping diesel fuel there can push the cost of the power it
produces to around $2.50 per kilowatt hour (compared to ten cents or less for electricity
from the grid in most of southern Canada).
Global Wind Group has designed a one-kilowatt wind turbine called the Züs that costs
$10,000 to $15,000 for a complete system with storage batteries and the necessary
electronics. The company has a prototype of a smaller, 300-watt unit that Mr. Phillips
hopes to sell for around $1,500.
In 2007, Mr. Phillips, who formerly ran a marketing firm, teamed up with Alex Stuart, an
ergonomist who is now the company’s vice-president of technical development, to
launch Global Wind. Their initial funding came from family and from friends and from
federal and provincial grants and subsidies for technology-based businesses.
They started by reselling vertical-axis turbines from Calgary-based Windterra Systems
Inc., but then decided they could produce an improved design. So they hired an
engineer and started working on the Züs designs. They also brought in John Fjeldsted, a
retired Manitoba Hydro executive, to serve as a part-time chief executive. “We’ve
surrounded ourselves with the right people,” Mr. Phillips says.
The decision to develop their own turbine seems to have been prescient, since
Windterra ceased operations in spring 2010. There have been a few problems with early
installations using the Windterra equipment.
In Rosenort, Man., Global Wind put four turbines on the roof of a garage owned by the
rural municipality of Morris. They produced electricity all right, says Ralph Groening, the
municipality’s reeve, but they also produced noise – lots of it. It seems the steel building
amplified the vibration from the windmills. Mr. Phillips says Global Wind is moving the
windmills from the roof to freestanding poles at its own expense.
Mr. Groening hopes the turbines will be back in operation this fall, but it’s too early to tell
how much they’re saving the municipality. “We haven’t really been able to answer that
question,” he says.
Global Wind installed its own Züs turbines in a limited-time test installation in
Ahmedebad, India, but Mr. Phillips says that trial has been completed and the turbines
removed. The original location lacked sufficient wind, he says, and Global Wind hopes to
install the turbines at another location nearer the coast.
Mr. Weis says small wind turbines are at a disadvantage compared to bigger ones
because they are closer to the ground, while there is usually more wind at higher
altitudes. So choosing just the right site is critical for small turbines, he says. Because
the electronics associated with them draw some electricity, one British study found some
poorly-sited turbines to be net energy consumers.
Global Wind’s turbines have also been tested at the University of Manitoba’s Alternative
Village, a research site focused on alternative energy and building materials. Though the
urban site is not ideal for wind power, says Kris Dick, associate professor of bio-systems
engineering and organizer of the Alternative Village project, “I think they work quite well.
The thing that I notice most is they don’t mind the type of wind.”
Global Wind’s founders are awaiting Canadian Standards Association (CSA) approval
for their turbines. Last fall the Canadian Innovation Exchange in Toronto included them
in its annual list of Canada’s hottest innovative companies. And in May they’re due to
appear on the CBC Television program Dragon’s Den, seeking money to market their
technology and deliver it to larger customers. The outcome of that pitch may show which
way the wind is blowing for this startup.
Back to Menu
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ROWA MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Wednesday 18 May 2011
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Msheireb, Harvard team up for study on sustainable urbanism
'Disi water uncontaminated'
Activists protest against Bergesh Forest project Riverside park for Zarqa
residents on the cards
Students use science to solve day-to-day issues Olivia Olarte
DM launches region’s first Sustainable Facilities Expo (Wam)
Small changes bring big returns for school Environmental problems mounting in
Baabda,
Water shortages worst in Middle East
Msheireb, Harvard team up for study on sustainable urbanism
Msheireb Properties (formerly Dohaland) has entered into an agreement with the
Harvard University Graduate School of Design to launch a research project for a study
focusing on sustainable urbanism in the Gulf region.
The holistic, cross-disciplinary, trans-national study, described as the first of its kind in
the region, will culminate in creating a ‘Gulf Encyclopedia for Sustainable Urbanism’
(GESU) and pave the way to establishing a regional base research facility in Qatar.
Expected to be completed in three phases (Past, Present, and Future), the GESU
project will draw on the region’s environment (both land and sea), its urbanism and
architecture, and its society, culture and economics.
The project, to be funded by Msheireb Properties, a subsidiary of Qatar Foundation, will
also involve researchers from the countries that border the Gulf.
Msheireb Properties CEO, Issa M al-Mohannadi, expressed the belief that future urban
growth can be positively affected by learning from the past, while acknowledging that the
present is shaped by forces resulting from future projections and aspirations.
“Hence we feel it is important to analyse and understand how our ancestors dealt with
common regional urban sustainability challenges and draw lessons from them.
“The partnership with Harvard is part of our commitment to highlight on a global scale
the importance of sustainability to the future of our region.
“The initiative provides the foundation for the adoption of research-based approach and
institutionalisation of the methodologies that can be used to create sustainable cities that
can react to the local climate, and develop a self-sufficient future encompassing the
environmental, economic, and social dimensions.”
The legacy is also a reflection of the global role that Qatar plays in leading the debate on
global sustainability, he added.
The study was initiated to address the lack of written resources on the subject which
became apparent during Msheireb Properties’ initial research into reliable sources on the
local architectural language for its signature project, Msheireb.
A dialogue began on the importance of documenting urban design and architecture for
the cities around the Gulf, with their shared similar climatic and cultural conditions
throughout their histories.
The similarities, differences, and interconnections among the eight countries that border
the Gulf – Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Iran and Iraq - have not
been previously investigated in such a comprehensive study.
The initial research is seen as vital for the region’s coastal strips - despite diverse
environmental and socio-economic conditions the countries share the coastal zone of
the Gulf, thus having a direct impact on each other.
The Gulf region is on a key geopolitical location, amidst global trade routes and with
substantial natural resources, making the long-term sustainability of its urban
environment crucial.
As in the Msheireb project, the past will be analysed to help answer how urban growth
can cope with environmental conditions and society needs, while the present is expected
to be examined both for deviation of local traditions together with the new cosmopolitan
culture in the region.
The Harvard principal investigator on the research project, professor Spiro Pollalis
(professor of design, technology and management at the Harvard Graduate School of
Design) stated that the study is a unique opportunity for a focused and meaningful
glimpse of the past to better inform the future growth of urban settlements in the region.
“The dynamism of the Gulf makes it a beacon for global urban development, which will
make this research applicable beyond its geographical boundaries,” he observed on the
sidelines of the agreement signing.
Harvard University’s Centre for Middle Eastern Studies fellow Nader Ardalan was also
present.
Professor Pollalis will lead a multi-disciplinary Harvard research team based at the
Harvard Graduate School of Design. A unique set of advisers and experts both from
Qatar research stakeholders and across different Harvard schools is being set up to
advice the research team.
Qatar Foundation’s vice president for research, Dr Abdelali Haoudi, said the research
partnership demonstrates Qatar Foundation’s equally strong commitment to both
scientific research and to research in arts, humanities, and social studies.
“Several aspects of the research fit well within the strategic plan of the newly-launched
Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute,” he pointed out.
The phase I ‘historic’ research process will begin with research into the past role of
sustainability in the Gulf region.
The phase II research will involve the ‘contemporary historic’ present perspective,
drawing relations among growth, planning, architectural, urban design, economic and
socio-cultural studies.
The project will generate ideas about development for the future that are friendly to the
environment and fulfil the needs of the local societies.
Msheireb Properties, formerly Dohaland, was recently rebranded in a move intended to
reflect the significance of its signature project, Msheireb, in the company’s evolution, and
reaffirming its local Qatari roots.
http://www.gulftimes.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=435338&version=1&template_id=36
&parent_id=16
'Disi water uncontaminated'
The water of the Disi basin is not polluted and is potable, Jordanian Geologists
Association President Bahjat Al Adwan said on Tuesday, dismissing a report on a news
website claiming otherwise.
Adwan, speaking to The Jordan Times over the phone, denied claims that the basin
water is radioactively contaminated.
Adwan said the water does have radon, but the gas disappears as soon as the water is
pumped from the underground and reaches the surface.
“As soon as the water is pumped out, a chemical reaction occurs between the air and
the gas, causing it to fade away,” said Adwan, adding that water is safe for human
consumption and that such reports are damaging.
Any deep-seated underground water has some sort of radioactivity, said Elias Salameh,
a University of Jordan professor of hydrogeology and hydrochemistry.
Once the water is pumped out, it is checked for radioactivity, he said, noting that if any
high concentration is found, the water is treated.
University of Jordan mineralogy Professor Hani Khouri confirmed that the water is
uncontaminated and that radioactivity is a natural occurrence.
“In the case of any remaining radiation, it is easily removed through aeration and
filtration processes,” Khouri said.
The Disi water conveyance project, slated for completion in 2013, entails the
construction of a pipeline to convey water from the ancient Disi aquifer in southern
Jordan to Amman.
The project is expected to provide the capital with 110 million cubic metres of water
through the pipeline that will pass through several water stations in Maan, Tafileh, Karak
and Madaba.
Ten per cent of the Disi basin is in the south of Jordan and 90 per cent in Saudi Arabia,
which uses it for agricultural and drinking purposes.
http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=37584
Activists protest against Bergesh Forest project
Over 50 environment activists protested on Tuesday outside the Prime Ministry against
the construction of a military academy in Ajloun’s Bergesh Forest.
Writers, journalists and professional association representatives, among others, joined
the demonstration off the Fourth Circle, in a bid to place pressure on authorities and stop
the implementation of the project, which entails uprooting trees.
“We are here because there are lots of desert areas in Jordan where they can construct
a military academy,” said Munjed Diranieh, a 35-year-old salesman who took part in the
protest.
Forests constitute less than 1 per cent of the Kingdom’s area, but the green cover
amounts to some 90 per cent of the total Bergesh area, according to the Royal Society
for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN).
Society figures show that the forest represents an integrated ecosystem and is home to
over 100 plant species, 13 per cent of them rare, 4 per cent locally and internationally
threatened and 13 per cent with medicinal value.
Last week, the Jordan Armed Forces (JAF) issued a statement announcing that it was
going to uproot 200 non-centennial trees, rather than the planned 2,200, following street
and online protests and condemnation from environment activists and area residents.
The army statement said that for each uprooted tree, 20 saplings will be planted in the
area, and that 2 per cent of the 1,200-dunum area slated for use by the academy
includes forest trees and will only be used for training purposes.
“The JAF has worked to ensure that the project does not include any industrial elements
that could potentially harm the environment and [the project] meets green building
requirements,” added the statement, which was carried by the Jordan News Agency,
Petra.
But many environment activists believe such measures are insufficient and the whole
project should be moved somewhere else.
“They are trying to fool us,” Linda Khoury, environment activist, told The Jordan Times
over the phone yesterday.
She said the project should be stopped due to its impact on the trees and on the entire
Bergesh ecosystem.
The JAF statement only talks about the first phase of the project, she said, voicing fears
that the next phases will entail more damage to the forest’s ecosystem.
“It is a whole ecosystem that will be highly harmed by soldiers training there, and
animals living there will escape,” said Khoury.
“Any way you think about it, the forest will be harmed, even if they do not cut down a
single tree,” the 31-year-old photographer remarked.
Salem Zaitoun is a resident of the Urjan village near Ajloun whose piece of land was
appropriated for the construction of the military academy.
“This project will destroy the area and will not bring development,” he told The Jordan
Times at yesterday’s demonstration, adding that, instead, the military camp will lead to
several restrictions in terms of movement near the location.
The protesters held banners that read: “Yes to development but in the correct place”,
“Save Bergesh”, “No to the execution of Bergesh Forest” and “No violating the law by
cutting trees”.
Some slogans were sarcastic: “For a yellow Jordan in 2020”, read one, or “For a Jordan
with no forests”.
Mohammad Boul, a chemical engineer who lives in Anjara, near Ajloun, said he does not
trust the army’s statement.
“If you want to construct a new street in Bergesh, you will have to uproot a large number
of trees. What about a whole military academy?” he asked.
Boul added that the protesters will consider forming a human barrier in front of the
bulldozers to prevent the uprooting of trees.
A camp lobbying in support of the project believes it will be beneficial to the development
of Ajloun Governorate.
“The number of trees that will be cut down will not exceed 200, out of some two million
trees in the area, which means that the percentage of removed trees will be
unnoticeable,” a Facebook user called Ziad Mohed Ababnh wrote on the wall of a group
called “Yes for building a military college in Bergesh”.
He said the construction of the military academy is bound to enhance services for the
residents of the area; among those he cites are a healthcare centre, a sewage disposal
network, street lighting and a civil defence centre.
http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=37575
Riverside park for Zarqa residents on the cards
Land bordering part of the heavily polluted Zarqa River will be turned into a breathing
space by the end of the year under a pilot project designed to address one of the
country’s main environment hotspots.
Under two agreements signed on Tuesday, a 500-metre section of the riverbank will be
cleaned up, rehabilitated and turned into a park for Zarqa residents.
The JD150,000 pilot project, supported by the Spanish Agency for International
Development Cooperation (AECID), entails planting trees along the riverside in the
designated area and upgrading infrastructure.
The Zarqa River, which emits foul odours during the summer and attracts insects and
rodents because of the sewage and waste dumped into it, is severely polluted due to
wastewater leakage, nearby factories, car wash stations, flooding manholes and sewer
systems.
Minister of Environment Taher Shakhshir yesterday said the level of pollution has
declined after authorities intensified monitoring of industries, some of which used to
dump their waste in the Zarqa River.
“There is progress in addressing the pollution, but more time is needed to feel a
difference… we need 10 years to see real change in the river,” he said during the
signing ceremony.
The ministry, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Zarqa
Municipality signed the two agreements.
IUCN Regional Director for West Asia Odeh Jayyousi underscored the relationship
between the economy and environmental sustainability, highlighting that environment
protection sets a country apart and attracts eco-tourists.
“Environment protection and economic development are closely linked… countries
around the world annually lose 2-5 per cent of their gross domestic product due to
environment degradation,” he noted.
Meanwhile, AECID General Coordinator Gregorio Maranon said that the lack of water
resources in Jordan dictates that all measures should be taken to enhance their quality.
“Inadequate water resources tend to impact the most vulnerable in society: women,
youths and the poor,” he added.
Maranon noted that the pilot project is implemented as part of the AECID-funded
Capacity Building for the Rehabilitation of the Zarqa River Basin Project, which aims at
improving the capabilities of related institutions in managing water resources.
http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=37576
Students use science to solve day-to-day issues Olivia Olarte
Students from Al Ain Primary and Secondary School have invented new ways to catch a
large quantity of fish without harming the environment.
The diminishing fish stock in the sea due to indiscriminate and harmful ways of fishing
have given students from Al Ain Primary and Secondary School the idea to invent new
ways to catch a large quantity of them without harming the environment.
By placing a standard boat flash light and a vibrating bug used in fly fishing inside a
large custom-made mesh, both the flickering light and the vibration would attract the fish
into the net.
“If we use them both in the same net, see the advantage you can get,” pointed Abdulla
Mohammed Al Ameri, 16, who demonstrated the findings using a fish tank. “We also
made the net gaps big so we can control the size of the fish that gets in there,” he
added.
Al Ameri was one among the young innovators from 30 schools who participated in the
second edition of the Emirates Science Fair that concluded in the Capital on Tuesday.
For Ahmed Mohammed Hafiz, 16, from Al Nahda National School for Boys, the hapless
way infants die in car accidents prompted him to invent a baby car seat capsule which
would protect the kids from harm. The capsule is a baby car seat with a seatbelt and a
spring under it, which would absorb the shock upon impact. In case of an accident, the
fibre glass cover will close sealing the baby and protecting him/her from shards of glass
or debris, at the same time triggering the air cylinder to pump air into the capsule. “In car
accidents, many babies die as they are not strong. This innovation will encapsulate them
and protect them until the emergency services arrive,” he explained.
The innovations at the Science Fair showcased the creative ideas of students, designed
to tackle critical community issues such as road safety, energy or helping people with
disabilities.
According to Dr Lamya Faisal, head of Science, Technology and Environment at the
Emirates Foundation, the organiser of the competition, this year’s Science Fair saw
participation from more than 200 students who worked over 205 projects.
“This is intended to give opportunity for high school students to come up with innovative
and creative ways for solution and ideas that would help the community through
science,” said Dr Faisal.
The exhibition featured 96 entries from Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and the Western Region. The
entries were judged based on their creativity, presentation, execution and costeffectiveness of the project. Winners were announced on Tuesday, including a special
award for the exceptional student, at the Armed Forces Officer’s Club.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?section=theuae&xfile=data/theuae/
2011/may/theuae_may549.xml
DM launches region’s first Sustainable Facilities Expo (Wam)
The Minister of Economy, Eng. Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, today inaugurated
Sustainable Facilities Exhibition and Conference 2011 at the Dubai International
Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Eng. Hussein Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality and other senior
officials were present on the occasion.
The event, a program by Environment Centre for Arab Towns (ECAT) and dmg, will
continue till 19 May and is aimed at raising awareness on the importance of less energy
and water consumption and minimize environmental risks.
The Expo, region’s first green exhibition in construction and facilities management which
runs alongside the FM EXPO and World FM Congress, will also debate how to increase
life span of the buildings and create a healthy work environment.
Lootah said that sustainable development and climate change are the topics of
international focus, thus the Municipality and ECAT are on the forefront of environmental
protection tactics and policies.
“The world building industry accounts for almost 40% of global greenhouse gases and
the facilities management industry is in the best position to help reduce such output. So
working alongside Sustainable Facilities Expo, our partners at ECAT will be able to
reach an influential audience with its message that the environment has no borders or
political affiliations and as such we must work together so the region can better preserve
the urban environments and protect them from pollution,” he added.
Mohamed Al Noori, Director of the Environmental Center for Arab Towns said: “The
ECAT is a scientific research institute deals with environmental issues concerning Arab
city’s natural resources, economic progress and sustainable development. It is in
partnership with Dubai Municipality and Arab Towns Organization. We are perfectly
placed to align with dmg: events and educate the market its responsibility and promote
initiatives that reduce carbon emissions from any building.”
Event Director for FM EXPO and Sustainable Facilities Expo, David Wilson added:
“Practical solutions that reduce energy costs are in demand especially as big
construction developments present a higher carbon footprint. This is putting pressure on
developers to balance carbon emissions during the lifecycle of the building and facility
management companies are expected to provide this solution to developers and owners.
But if the industry is to rise up to the challenge it needs the backing of governments and
municipalities around the region who can help promotes FM at a board level – that is
why we are honoured to be in partnership with the Dubai Municipality through the
Environmental Center for Arab Towns.”
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?section=theuae&xfile=data/theuae/
2011/may/theuae_may525.xml
Small changes bring big returns for school
A private school in Jumeirah has saved more than Dh235,000 in a year by making small
changes around its premises to save on electricity and water use.
Al Ittihad Private School, Jumeirah Branch, used to see its summer electricity and water
bill top Dh130,000 before sensors and timers were installed to control consumption.
The school, which caters to 1700 students from kindergarten to grade 12, used 18.5 per
cent less electricity and 20.3 per cent less water with the automated devices.
Watering a lawn manually would take up to 45 minutes and unknown gallons of water.
Today irrigation timers switch on sprinklers using treated effluent water for up to 15
minutes twice a day.
A special line pipes in treated sewage water from Al Aweer sewage treatment plant
specifically to water large green areas — a norm at golf clubs and parks around the city.
"Our target was to reduce the electricity and water use to benefit society, the
environment, and our bill," said Aziza Qaziha, activity coordinator at the school.
Award for conservation
Qaziha has been at the school since it was built 12 years ago. This is the first year such
initiatives by the student body and the school have been rewarded by Dubai Electricity
and Water Authority (DEWA) and the Knowledge and Human Development Authority
(KHDA) through the "Conservation Award — For a Better Tomorrow 2010-2011".
Tenth grader Aseel Al Bassam, 15, from Saudi Arabia, is part of the Eco-Rangers club,
and with co-members Mariam Al Shami, 12, and Alia Al Zaabi, 15, from the UAE and
Huda Baghdady, 15, from Egypt, they strive to raise awareness at home and at school.
The school has a five year plan to go green with solar water heaters for the swimming
pool, said Nihad Saeed Al Shamsi, the school director. In the meantime the light bulbs
have been changed to energy efficient ones, the taps have low-flow faucets and anyone
caught littering will have the Eco-Rangers to deal with.
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/environment/small-changes-bring-big-returns-forschool-1.809229
General
Water shortages worst in Middle East
DUBAI: Water shortages are worst in Africa and the Middle East, and the hardest hit are
nations in the Gulf, including Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, according to a
study released Wednesday by risk analysis firm Maplecroft.
The U.K.-based company, which compared the amounts of water available in a country
compared to the demands for it, also found that the booming economies of China and
India were facing increasing shortages, and parts of Africa with adequate water like
Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya could face increasing problems as
they lease out huge chunks of farmland to foreign nations.
Maplecroft said China has a contract to grow 2.8 million hectares of palm oil, while in the
last year in Sudan, companies from South Korea purchased 700,000 hectares and the
UAE 750,000 hectares.
“One of the primary water users is agriculture, providing a direct link between water
stress and food security,” said Principal Environmental Analyst at Maplecroft, Kimberlee
Myers.
“When a country goes outside its borders to ensure food security, it creates a situation
in which water is reallocated away from host countries,” she said. “If local water supplies
are being used for agriculture for food destined for foreign countries at the expense of
the needs of local communities, then the governments could be open to accusations of
negatively impacting on the right to water of their people. As water resources deplete in
countries that currently experience low water stress, this will become increasingly
problematic.”
Maplecroft’s Water Stress Index pinpoints areas of water stress down to 10 square
kilometers worldwide by calculating the ratio of domestic, industrial and agricultural
water consumption against renewable supplies of water from precipitation, rivers and
groundwater. The index can be used by companies to identify risk of water interruptions
to supply chains, operations and investments.
According to the index of 188 countries and regions, the 15 worst effected – categorized
as extreme risk – are all in the Middle East and Africa.
For countries such as Yemen and region of Western Sahara, the shortages are due
mostly to their being located in semiarid regions where poverty is rampant and the
populations are growing.
For others, like the oil-rich Gulf states including the United Arab Emirates and Qatar,
their rapid economic growth that has included a massive building boom exacerbated
underling shortages and increased the demand for water among growing populations,
the study found.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Environment/2011/May-18/Study-Water-shortagesworst-in-Middle-East.ashx#axzz1MgpXwgt6
Environmental problems mounting in Baabda,
Activists in Baabda and residents of eastern Sidon are up in arms about mounting
environmental problems and are urging the authorities to step in to provide solutions.
Sidon residents, frustrated with mounting piles of trash and few alternatives for waste
disposal, set dumpsters on fire over the weekend.
More than 10 waste containers were set on fire Sunday in the village of Abra near Sidon,
as smoke and foul odors reached all the way to the city.
Although Sidon Mayor Mohammad Saudi announced Monday that an end to the city’s
waste crisis would soon be reached, the city and its neighboring villages continue to face
challenges.
According to Fatima Gharbi, a resident of Abra, garbage had been accumulating in front
of homes and neighborhood residents feared the waste would attract stray dogs and
rats.
The garbage crisis intensified in Sidon and its surrounding areas after the city’s dump
exceeded its capacity a few months ago.
The Civil Defense and Fire Brigade in Sidon have received dozens of phone calls from
residents asking for help with fires blazing in waste containers scattered around the
village.
The damage from the fires was surveyed Monday morning and it was discovered that
the flames had damaged trees lining the side of the roads.
Separately, the head of Nature without Borders, Mahmoud Ahmadieh, called on officials
to protect forests in the Baabda village of Tarshish, the National News Agency reported.
Ahmadieh issued his plea to prevent trees from being cut down in the village of Tarshish
for the sixth year in a row, in a conference Tuesday at the organization’s headquarters in
Aley.
“Since 2005, trees have been cut illegally despite all our appeals and communication
with all sides responsible for the protection of forests,” said Ahmadieh. “Massacring
forests under the guise of tree trimming, and cutting down hundreds and thousands of
trees is a crime … still taking place today.”
According to Ahmadieh, people are entering into wooded areas and chopping down
trees in the middle of the forest, such that the deforestation can only be detected from
the air.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2011/May-11/Environmental-problemsmounting-in-Baabda-Sidon.ashx#axzz1MgpXwgt6
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS FROM THE
UN DAILY NEWS
17 May 2011
UN News Center: UN to dispatch expert fact-finding mission to damaged Japanese
nuclear plant
The United Nations atomic agency announced today that it will send a team of
international experts on a fact-finding mission to Japan to assess nuclear safety in the
wake of the damage caused by March’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.
The mission – which will visit Japan from 24 May to 2 June – will comprise nearly 20
experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the wider international
community, the IAEA said in a statement issued from its headquarters in Vienna.
Mike Weightman, the chief inspector of nuclear installations in the United Kingdom, will
chair the mission, which will report to the IAEA-organized Ministerial Conference on
Nuclear Safety that is slated to begin in Vienna on 20 June.
While in Japan the expert team will visit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station,
which sustained major damage in the wake of the disaster on 11 March, and other
unspecified locations.
The experts are tasked with making a preliminary assessment of safety issues linked to
the accident at Fukushima Daiichi, and identifying areas that need further exploration or
assessment based on the IAEA’s safety standards.
The IAEA said the experts will also share their expertise with their Japanese counterparts
and hear of the lessons learned as a result of the accident.
Earlier this month a senior IAEA official said the situation at Fukushima Daiichi, which has
been spewing radioactive contamination into the environment, “remains very serious.”
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS FROM THE
S.G’s SPOKESMAN DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
16 May 2011 ( None)
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