THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
UNEP and the Executive Director in the News











Shanghai Daily: Bid to plant 1 billion trees to save the world
India Info: Desi film joins UN fight against Global Warming
The Age (Australia): Pacific nations mull maritime boundaries
Solomon Island News: Six Pacific Island Countries to Claim Ocean Space
Canada Free Press: The Hockey Stick scam that heightened global warming hysteria
Herald Sun (Australia): Your planet
Asia Pulse: Pakistan making efforts for ozone layer protection
Jornal do Comercio (Brazil): Licenças ambientais são grandes preocupações dos pequenos
e microempresários
Xinhua: Sept pays pacifiques sous pression pour présenter leurs revendications portant
sur davantage d'espace océanique (synthèse)
Kölnische Rundschau (Germany): Weiteres Versagen verboten
de Volkskrant (Netherlands): 'Orang-oetans worden massaal uitgeroeid'
Other Environment News












Bloomberg:UN Official `Frustrated' at Lack of Rich-Nation Climate Money
BBC: Pollution 'ups blood clot risk'
Reuters: Study links air pollution to blood clots in veins
Reuters: Spain To Help Fight Hunger, Climate Change In Africa
AFP: McCain splits with Bush on climate change
Time/CNN: What Condoms Have to Do with Climate Change
Reuters: Russia may hold on to emission rights -expert
The Dallas Morning News: McCain reveals emissions proprosals
Reuters: Japan eyes new emissions cut goal for 2050 - media
Reuters: China quake kills nearly 10,000 in Sichuan
Reuters: Two more U.S. aid flights set to fly to Myanmar
AFP: Costa Rica plants more trees to become carbon neutral
1
Environmental News from the UNEP Regions




ROA
ROAP
RONA
ROLAC
Other UN News


Environment News from the UN Daily News of 12 May 2008
Environment News from the S.G.’s Spokesman Daily Press Briefing of 12 May
2008 (none)
2
UNEP and the Executive Director in the News
Shanghai Daily: Bid to plant 1 billion trees to save the world
HSBC Bank (China) Co Ltd yesterday became one of the first international companies to
commit to the China component of a global campaign to plant 1 billion trees in an effort to
combat climate change.
HSBC China, one of the first locally incorporated foreign banks, donated 1 million yuan to
China Green Foundation for planting 5,800 trees at the Beijing Olympic Memorial Forest
Park near the Badaling Great Wall to help improve the capital's environment and ward off
sandstorms.
The donation contributes to the United Nations Environment Program initiative "Plant for
the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign."
Inspired by 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Wangari Maathai, the campaign
encourages people, communities, businesses and governments to annually plant at least 1
billion trees worldwide to help reverse the trend of climate change.
"Supporting environmental protection is a key component of HSBC's corporate social
responsibility," said Richard Yorke, president and CEO of HSBC China, at yesterday's
tree-planting with his staff: "We strongly support China Green Foundation in launching the
'Billion Tree Campaign' and we look forward to working with more people to plant trees
for a better environment in China and tackle the challenges of climate change."
HSBC last year launched a five-year Climate Partnership program to fund projects that
address global warming. HSBC has invested US$100 million in the program to help some
of the world's great cities - Shanghai, Hong Kong, London, New York and Mumbai respond to the challenge of climate change.
Back to Menu
________________________________________________________________________
India Info: Desi film joins UN fight against Global Warming
Monday, May 12, 2008 13:58 [IST]
New Delhi: A magical fable about a young boy who discovers the solution to global
warming from a monk in the Himalayas has been adopted by the UN as part of its
initiative to green the planet and stop Global Warming.
The fable, a documentary by Mumbai-based filmmaker Nitin Das, has become part of the
international body's worldwide campaign to plant trees.
3
The 7-minute film finds itself part of the 'Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign' that
encourages people, communities, civil society organisations and governments to plant
trees aiming for a total of one billion trees worldwide each year.
"The video advocates for tree planting. We explored whether there was any hidden
political or other message and when we were assured we uploaded it on our website,"
Meryem C. Amar, Information Officer United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
said.
The initiative has been well received by countries with nine NGOs and several
government organisations including the state government of Uttar Pradesh
participating.
"India is doing very well. We have employees of several public service organisations
giving up a full day's salay to buy seedlings to plant trees," says Meryem Amar.
Since the launch of the Billion Tree Campaign in January last year, close to two billion
trees have been planted around the globe.
Along with a focus on tree planting, the campaign also highlights the importance of
voluntary action by all sectors of society to address issues such as climate change, air
quality and water, among others.
"We advocate planting of indigenous trees that has the highest per cent rate of growth.
We encourage them to plant trees that are in sync with the local climate. Our core
campaign is to revive the biodiversity of the area. So while we do not say yes to
eucalyptus and jatropha and pine, all plant species that drain water and resources, we
appreciate medicinal plants," adds Amar.
Meanwhile the film by Das, portrays the journey undertaken by a small boy in a tiny
Himalayan village who is entrusted by his chieftain to seek solution to the problems of
sudden food shortage and climate change in his once prosperous and happy village.
The boy trudges up mountains and journeys to an old sage at the top of the mountain who
hands over a fistful of seeds to him. With the counsel that planting them will restore the
lost peace and happiness of his village.
Backed by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai and the Prince of Monaco the
campaign encourages all sectors of society - from the concerned citizen to philanthropic
corporations - to pledge and plant trees.
"We have people from the slum dwellers to the Presidents of Maldives and Mexico.
Actor Amitabh Bachchan is also lending his name to the campaign. More than superstars
and celebrities we want everyone from local farmers to anybody to participate. They can
plant it on any occasion say weddings or any other social function," says Amar.
4
Along with a focus on tree planting and deforestation, the campaign also highlights the
importance of voluntary collective action to address issues such as climate change, ozone
layer protection and the Montreal Protocol, air quality and integrated water management,
among others.
Source : PTI
Back to Menu
________________________________________________________________________
The Age (Australia): Pacific nations mull maritime boundaries
May 13, 2008 - 10:21AM
Advertisement
Eight Pacific countries are hoping to follow Australia's lead and increase their maritime
boundaries.
The Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) on Monday said the
countries had a credible claim to more than 1.5 million square kilometres of additional
area.
The countries expected to make the claim to the United Nations are Fiji, Cook Islands,
Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga and Papua
New Guinea.
If successful the countries will have exclusive rights to resources on and beneath the
seabed of their extra territory, including oil, gas and biological resources.
Australia recently extended its territory by 2.5 million square kilometres, an area about
10 times the size of New Zealand, after a submission to the United Nations.
A workshop coordinated by SOPAC, Geoscience Australia (GA) and the UNEP Shelf
Programme is underway in Fiji until Friday.
"Scientific studies have revealed the access to extended continental shelf could mean
more access to mineral rich resources," a SOPAC statement said.
"It's the first time the Pacific region is combining their efforts in its bid to extend their
exclusive economic zones," it said.
SOPAC director Cristelle Pratt said assessments had identified strong grounds for the
Pacific countries to extend sovereignty over their continental shelves.
5
"These Pacific Island countries recognise that determining the boundaries of their
exclusive economic zone beyond 200 nautical miles is critical to securing exclusive
ocean development," she said.
The countries have until May 2009 to submit their claim.
Back to Menu
________________________________________________________________________
Solomon Island News: Six Pacific Island Countries to Claim Ocean Space
Six countries in the region are working on their submissions to the United Nations
(UN) to claim extra ocean space.
According to Fijilive, the six island nations 'are beginning to feel the pressure to complete
their submissions to the United Nations to claim extra ocean space, with only one year
remaining to the May 2009 deadline, says the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience
Commission (SOPAC)'.
'The Maritime Boundaries Project Officer with SOPAC, Emily Artack said Fiji along
with Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga and
Papua New Guinea have a credible claim to more than 1.5 million square kilometres of
additional space beyond their current 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)'.
'Artack said SOPAC, GA (Geoscience Australia) and UNEP will help these countries
complete the activities required to delineate the outer limits of their continental shelf' and
that 'scientific studies have revealed the access to extended continental shelf could mean
more access to mineral rich resources previously outside our EEZ'.
Fijilive also reports that SOPAC Director, Cristelle Pratt, stated that, '"These Pacific
Island Countries recognise that determining the boundaries of their Exclusive Economic
Zone beyond 200 nautical miles is critical to securing exclusive ocean development of
potentially rich non-living resources, such as oil, gas, gold and silver, as well as living
organisms that live on and beneath the seabed."
Reportedly, the move to secure this ocean space is being made possible under article 76
of the International Law of the Sea.
Back to Menu
________________________________________________________________________
Canada Free Press: The Hockey Stick scam that heightened global warming
hysteria
By Dr. Tim Ball Monday, May 12, 2008
UN agencies, especially the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and its
offspring the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), were orchestrated to
6
achieve the goal of convincing public and policy makers that warming and climate
change were a human created disaster. Manipulation of the process was first publicly
exposed in the Chapter 8 issue (here). Sadly, it was just the first of several that
established the pattern of IPCC behavior.
It was not the first time the unsupportable claim that humans were causing global
warming had made the news. A major incident occurred in 1988 when James Hansen,
Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS), appeared before Senator
Al Gore’s committee and said he was “99 percent” certain the Earth had warmed.
Few who study climate change denied warming even though many were accused. They
knew that for 22,000 years the world generally warmed as it emerged from the last Ice
Age and more recently it warmed from 1680 out of the Little Ice Age (LIA). However,
Hansen then suggested the cause was likely an enhanced Greenhouse Effect due to
human addition of CO2 from industrial activity what was to become known as the
anthropogenic global warming (AGW) theory The problem is there was no proof and
there were many other possible explanations. It was an untested theory that was accepted
as fact by the IPCC.
By the time of the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report (TAR), the politics and hysteria
about climate change had risen to a level that demanded clear evidence of a human
signal. An entire industry had developed round massive funding from government. A
large number of academic, political, and bureaucratic careers had evolved and depended
on expansion of the evidence. Environmentalists were increasing pressure on the public
and thereby politicians. In addition, the bar of proof was raised by claiming the 20th
century and especially the last decade had 9 of the 10 warmest years in history; warming
beyond anything previous and therefore unnatural. These claims were to become their
downfall because, as some climate experts knew, there were much warmer periods in the
historic record.
There were hundreds of research papers from a wide variety of sources confirming the
existence of a period warmer than today just a thousand years ago known as the Medieval
Warm Period (MWP). Its existence is well documented in the work of Soon and
Baliunas.
------------Soon, W., and S. Baliunas, 2003. Proxy climatic and environmental changes of the past
1,000 years. Climate Research, 23, 89–110.
------------This period was clearly warmer than present temperatures and warmer than some
computer model predictions for the future. Its existence was a serious problem because it
negated the claims that the 20th century temperatures were unprecedented. What to do?
The answer is provided by Professor Deming in the following letter to Science .
“With the publication of the article in Science [in 1995], I gained significant credibility
in the community of scientists working on climate change. They thought I was one of
7
them, someone who would pervert science in the service of social and political causes. So
one of them let his guard down. A major person working in the area of climate change
and global warming sent me an astonishing email that said “We have to get rid of the
Medieval Warm Period.” (My emphasis)
This was effectively done by what became known as the “hockey stick”. The name came
from the shape of a graph which showed no temperature increase for 1000 years (the
handle) with a sudden rise in the 20th century (the blade). It was ideal, two strikes with
one event. The MWP was gone and the sudden rise in the 20th century was clearly
unnatural. It had to be due to human activity.
Research that produced the hockey stick came from dendroclimatology, the
reconstruction of past climates from tree ring data--but they tacked on modern
temperature data for the blade. They incorrectly assumed tree rings are only a function of
temperature and cherry-picked those trees that gave the desired result. When challenged
on this, one dendroclimatologist justified this practice by telling a US Congressional
committee, “You have to pick cherries if your are going to make cherry pie.” Another
wrote, “However as we mentioned earlier on the subject of biological growth
populations, this does not mean that one could not improve a chronology by reducing the
number of series used if the purpose of removing samples is to enhance a desired signal.
The ability to pick and choose which samples to use is an advantage unique to
dendroclimatology.” These are deeply disturbing comments in any area of research.
Source of the hockey stick was a dendroclimatic study published in 1998 by Mann,
Bradley and Hughes, (known as MBH98) was introduced in Chapter 2 of the Technical
Report (produced by Working Group I). Conflict screamed because Mann was a lead
author of the Chapter while Bradley and Hughes were contributing authors, but was
ignored. It screamed louder when the hockey stick appeared as a major part of the
Summary for Policymakers again with Mann involved. After an opening statement that
said,
“New analyses of proxy data for the Northern Hemisphere indicate that the increase in
temperature in the 20th century is likely to have been the largest of any century during
the past 1,000 years. It is also likely that, in the Northern Hemisphere, the 1990s was the
warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year”
The graph appeared on the second page of the Summary and underscored the argument
visually and scientifically. It also, as intended, stole the media limelight and versions
quickly appeared in everything from National Geographic to government web sites. Now
they could bully people who questioned the science and introduce draconian legislature to
get rid of the evil CO2 as was the intention all along. Now the useless Kyoto Protocol
apparently had justification.
The hockey stick fiasco was unmasked by a basic scientific test known as reproducible
results. Other scientists use the same data and procedures to try and reproduce the
original findings. Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick (M&M) attempted, but failed to
8
reproduce the MBH98 findings. A debate ensued with claims M&M were wrong or not
qualified climate experts. They replied that Mann had refused to disclose all the codes he
used to achieve the results, but even without them the major problem was a misuse of
data and statistical techniques. In effect the hockey stick was meaningless.
The US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) appointed a committee chaired by
Professor Wegman to investigate and arbitrate. His committee report found in favor of
M&M as follows;
It is not clear that Mann and associates realized the error in their methodology at the time
of publication. Because of the lack of full documentation of their data and computer code,
we have not been able to reproduce their research. We did, however, successfully
recapture similar results to those of MM. This recreation supports the critique of the
MBH98 methods, as the offset of the mean value creates an artificially large deviation
from the desired mean value of zero.
Mann continues to refuse disclosure of all his codes. He and his acolytes are still fighting
a rearguard action claiming the work is valid.
Serious concerns were raised about the objectivity of an IPCC Report and Summary with
major input from scientists citing their own research. Unfortunately, this is typical of the
incestuous, political, nature of the entire IPCC process. In his report Professor Wegman’s
first recommendation says,
Especially when massive amounts of public monies and human lives are at stake,
academic work should have a more intense level of scrutiny and review. It is especially
the case that authors of policy-related documents like the IPCC report, Climate Change
2001: The Scientific Basis, should not be the same people as those that constructed the
academic papers.
Most people, especially the media, missed the equally startling and disturbing conclusion
by Wegman.
In our further exploration of the social network of authorships in temperature
reconstruction, we found that at least 43 authors have direct ties to Dr. Mann by virtue of
coauthored papers with him. Our findings from this analysis suggest that authors in the
area of paleoclimate studies are closely connected and thus ‘independent studies’ may not
be as independent as they might appear on the surface.
The incestuous potential of such a small close-knit group is disturbing beyond coauthorship. Proponents of the anthropogenic global warming theory have made much of
the fact that critics have few or no ‘peer reviewed’ papers. Why? It appears members of
the group of 43 were also peer reviewing each other’s papers. It is one possible
explanation why Mann’s paper sailed through peer review. Journal editors are not
required to disclose the names of reviewers, so we can’t know. It probably also explains
why so much is made of peer review by members and defenders of the IPCC. When you
9
have a small group in a specialized research area it is too easy to control what gets
published. What I call peer review censorship.
The hockey stick debacle caught the attention and shifted the views of many who
understood the scientific problems. It did not deter the group now known as the hockey
team. It seems they were victims of what Tolstoy presciently wrote about 100 years ago.
“I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity,
can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige
them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they delighted in explaining to colleagues,
which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread,
into the fabric of their lives.”
Most of the public did not understand the issue, something those pushing human caused
warming and climate change understood. They pushed ahead riding the wave of global
warming hysteria broadcast by most of the media. They also developed the technique of
convincing people that what was natural was unnatural. The science in Gore’s movie is
mostly wrong, but the images he shows are natural. I will examine a major example of
that approach in the next Part as the IPCC continued to point the finger at CO2 in its
search for a human signal.
Back to Menu
________________________________________________________________________
Herald Sun (Australia): your planet
May 13, 2008 Tuesday
Climate change tops the list, but the challenge of feeding a growing human
population and the rate of extinction of species are among the major environmental issues
facing the planet and putting humanity at risk.
THE warnings come in the United Nations report entitled Global Environmental
Outlook: environment for development (GEO-4 for short). The world body's most
comprehensive report on the issue to date, it was prepared by 1400 experts and scientists
across the globe.
The 550-page detailed assessment of the state of the global atmosphere, land, water
and biodiversity found the threat of climate change was so urgent that large cuts in
greenhouse gases were needed by mid-century.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) also reported we are living far
beyond our means with the human population so large "the amount of resources needed
to sustain it exceeds what is available.
Key facts for the report include
Atmosphere: global temperatures have risen by about 0.74C since 1906. They are
expected to rise a further 1.8C to 4C this century.
10
Pollution: more than two million people worldwide are estimated to die prematurely
every year from indoor and outdoor air pollution.
Food: losses in total global farm production, due to insect pests, have been estimated
at 14 per cent. By 2030 developing countries will need 120 million more hectares to feed
themselves.
Biodiversity: one in 10 of the world's large rivers runs dry before it reaches the sea
and
30 per cent of amphibians; 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds are under
threat of extinction. More than half the world's 6000 languages are endangered. Some
experts believe up to 90 per cent of all languages may not survive this century.
Water: in developing countries three million people die annually from water-borne
diseases, most of those who die are younger than five years old.
On the home front
A SURVEY of more than 2000 households in Victoria, Queensland, New South
Wales and South Australia has revealed more than 75 per cent of people want to reduce
energy consumption in the home and implement a rapid response to climate change.
Last month CSIRO's EnergyTransformed Flagship released a report looking at
attitudes to household electricity consumption.
The report considers people's willingness to accept alternative approaches to reducing
domestic energy.
CSIRO social scientist Dr John Gardner says the survey showed most Australians
would like to find ways to curb electricity use in the home.
"The majority of people surveyed, women in particular, indicated a strong desire to
try to reduce the amount of electricity they are using in their home,'' Dr Gardner says.
"People want to reduce their household emissions as well as save on the cost of their
energy bills.''
Introducing energy-saving technology such as "energy managers'' - devices that
automatically control power use by household appliances such as pool pumps and
airconditioners - was seen as an effective tool to help people reduce the electricity they
consume.
Energy use in Victoria
VICTORIA'S energy consumption has doubled since 1973. The current demand for
final energy - the energy consumed by the end user (all of us) - is growing by an average
of 1.6 per cent a year.
At this rate, demand for energy will increase by 50 per cent by 2029-30.
Back to Menu
________________________________________________________________________
11
Asia Pulse: Pakistan making efforts for ozone layer protection
ISLAMABAD May 12
Pakistan is making all-out efforts for the protection of Ozone Layer and has, so far,
implemented 32 projects for phasing out Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS).
Iftikhar Ahmed, Technical Expert, United Nations Development Program (UNDP),
and Ozone Cell, Ministry of Environment, said while talking to The Nation here on
Thursday.
He said that Pakistan had agreed along with 191 other countries to phase out
chemicals responsible for depleting Ozone layer by the year 2010 under an international
treaty called Montreal Protocol, which Pakistan had ratified in 1992.
Under the protocol, the expert maintained, a country programme for Pakistan was
established in 1996, after which several projects for phasing out ODS had been carried
out.
He said the government was providing necessary technical and financial support to
the industries using ODS from the international funding known as Multilateral Fund for
the implementation of Montreal Protocol.
Iftikhar said Pakistan did not produce ODS substances, however, imported a few
chemicals like Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), Carbon Tetra Chloride (CTC), Halons and
Methyl Bromide (MB) for use in the foam, refrigeration, metal and surgical industries,
fire extinguishers and Quarantine & pre-shipment purposes.
He said UNDP, UNIDO, UNEP and World Bank were implementing agencies for
phasing out of the use of ODS from Pakistan through the Ozone Cell.
He said Ozone Cell had, so far, implemented 32 projects in foam and refrigeration
sectors for converting ODS-based technologies into Non-ODS technologies in
collaborating with UNIDO.
He said the Cell had trained 200 Custom officers for the purpose while over 750
technicians had been facilitated to build their capacity in retrofitting in CFCs-based
refrigerators and air conditioners.
Pakistan has introduced licensing system to regulate and monitor the import of CFCs,
Halons, Methyl Chloroform and Methyl Bromide while import of Carbon Tetra Chloride
was banned in May, 2007, some two and a half year ahead of the target fixed under the
Montreal Protocol, the expert maintained.
He also informed that the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) had
awarded Pakistan a certificate of appreciation in recognition of its efforts made to protect
the Ozone Layer.
Ozone is a naturally occurring gas, which constitutes a protective layer above the
earth surface from 15 to 55 kilometers in stratosphere. It absorbs certain wavelength of
Ultraviolet (UV) radiation coming from the sun, which are very harmful to the life on
earth.
12
A number of synthetic chemicals containing Chlorine and Bromine damage this
protective layer by producing large holes in it, which resultantly permits the hazardous
UV radiation to reach the earth.
According to NASA, the Ozone layer experienced the record high damage last year
when its hole reached 11.5 million square miles. However, fortunately, a recent study by
the same organisation reveals 16 per cent reduction in Ozone hole, shrinking back to the
average level of the past 15 years.
The expert, however, expressed dissatisfaction over the measure the world
community had so far taken for the protection of Ozone layer.
He said chemicals hazardous for the same remained in atmosphere for 40 to 100
years, while so far only 3.1 per cent decrease had been observed over world level in the
same.
The expert explained a number of scientific methods for restoration of the Ozone
layer but said all the same were differed by scientist for one or the other reason. He said
the best way for obtaining the said goal was reducing domestic and industrial use of the
Ozone depleting substances to a sufficient level.
(THE NATION)
Back to Menu
________________________________________________________________________
Jornal do Comercio (Brazil): Licenças ambientais são grandes preocupações dos
pequenos e microempresários;
Mais agilidade nos licenciamentos
GABRIEL SIMI
Uma das grandes preocupações dos pequenos e microempresários do estado é a
dificuldade em conseguir licenças ambientais para suas atividades. O tema foi destaque
no seminário Desenvolvimento Sustentável e Licenciamento Ambiental para as Micro e
Pequenas Empresas, promovido pela Associação Comercial do Rio de Janeiro (ACRJ),
com a participação do Sebrae, representado pelo presidente Cezar Vasquez e pelo gerente
de Inovação e Tecnologia, Paulo Alvim, do Comitê Brasileiro do Programa das Nações
Unidas para o Meio Ambiente (Instituto Brasil PNUMA). O secretário do Ambiente,
Carlos Minc, disse aos participantes que está empenhado em destravar os processos,
facilitar o desenvolvimento sustentável e garantir a proteção do meio ambiente.
O secretário citou medidas para reduzir a burocracia e assegurar maior agilidade,
passando para as prefeituras a responsabilidade de analisar os casos menores e deixando
com a Fundação Estadual de Engenharia do Meio Ambiente (Feema) apenas as atividades
de grande porte. Um processo de pedido de outorga pelo direito de uso da água, por
exemplo, que leva até três anos para ser analisado, terá que ser finalizado em um período
muito inferior: três meses. Minc, no entanto, garante que não mudou de lado.
13
"A intenção é possibilitar maior agilidade à demanda empresarial, descentralizando e
aprimorando as atividades, desde que a preservação ambiental esteja garantida", disse o
secretário.
menos impacto. Os municípios capacitados concederão licenciamento de atividades
de menos impacto, como edifícios e postos de gasolina. Atualmente, estas atividades são
submetidas ao crivo da Feema e estão no mesmo grupo de processos de siderúrgicas, o
que torna o licenciamento mais lento. Grandes empreendimentos, como o Comperj
(Complexo Petroquímico do Rio de Janeiro), continuam sob a responsabilidade da
Feema.
Além de diminuir a burocracia, Carlos Minc disse acreditar que novos postos de
trabalho estarão disponíveis, já que as prefeituras serão obrigadas a contratar pessoal
qualificado. O secretário falou ainda da importância de mais dois decretos. Eles obrigam
que as empresas divulguem os gases poluentes emitidos e usem madeira certificada em
obra pública. "É uma garantia de que ela foi retirada legalmente, caso das madeiras
oriundas de reflorestamento econômico", afirmou.
Também presente ao evento, o presidente da Feema, Axel Grael concordou que a
descentralização das licenças ambientais pode ajudar muito os micro e pequenos
empresários. Segundo ele, o acúmulo de trabalho e a demora na liberação dos
licenciamentos comprovam a necessidade de reformulações. "Se a Feema não funciona
bem, o licenciamento atrasa. É fundamental que tenhamos uma empresa ambiental forte".
De acordo com estudos da Feema, a descentralização pode acelerar em 40% o tempo
de tramitação de pedidos. O presidente do Instituto Brasil PNUMA, Haroldo Lemos,
acredita que é preciso pensar também em questões ambientais para garantir o crescimento
econômico do país. Segundo ele, os recursos naturais não podem ser transformados em
resíduos.
"O sucesso de qualquer organização dependerá da integração das suas política
econômicas, sociais e ambientais. Temos que ter responsabilidade quanto ao emprego
mais eficiente de recursos naturais, de maneira que seu emprego não prejudique as
gerações futuras", disse.
O Brasil possui hoje aproximadamente 5,3 milhões de empresas. Desse total, 98% são
de micro e pequena empresas (MPE), distribuídas nos setores de comércio, serviços e
indústria. Para a economia brasileira, as MPE respondem por 53% do emprego formal,
20% do PIB e 2,7% das exportações. © 2008 NoticiasFinancieras - Jornal do Commercio
- All rights reserved
Back to Menu
________________________________________________________________________
Xinhua: Sept pays pacifiques sous pression pour présenter leurs revendications
portant sur davantage d'espace océanique (synthèse)
WELLINGTON, 12 mai (Xinhua) -- Les Fidji et six autres pays insulaires du
Pacifique commencent à sentir les pressions pour achever leurs présentations à l'ONU
14
afin de revendiquer davantage d'espace océanique, à un an seulement de la date-butoir en
mai 2009.
Les Fidji avec les îles Salomon, la République de Kiribati, la République de
Palau, les Etats fédérés de Micronésie, les îles Tonga et la Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée
ont revendiqué plus de 1,5 millions de m2 d'espace supplémentaire au-delà de leur zone
économique exclusive (ZEE) actuelle, a rapporté l'agence de presse régionale
PACNEWS basé à Suva (capitale de Fidji) lundi.
Cela est rendu possible en vertu de l'article 76 du droit international de la Mer.
Un séminaire d'une semaine sur la préparation de la présentation des Fidji sur le
plateau continental étendu (ECS) a commencé lundi. Il est coordonné par le comité de
sciences de géosciences appliquées des îles du Pacifique (SOPAC), les géosciences
australiennes (GA) et le programme des Nations Unies pour l'environnement (PNUE).
C'est la première fois que la région pacifique combine ses efforts pour étendre
les zones conomiques exclusives.
La SOPAC, la GA et le PNUE pourraient aider ces pays à compléter les activités
nécessaires pour délimiter les limites extérieures de leur plateau continental.
Ces pays sont confrontés actuellement au travail coûteux et complexe de
l'identification, de la collecte et des analyses de données ainsi que la préparation des
présentations, a rapporté la PACNEWS.
En raison de capacités techniques et financières limitées, ils risquent de ne pas
compléter le processus de présentation sans un soutien extérieur considérable, à la fois
technique et financier.
Les études scientifiques ont révélé que l'accès au plateau continental étendu
pourrait signifier davantage d'accès aux ressources minérales qui se trouvent à l'extérieur
de la Zone économique exclusive.
La directrice de SOPAC Cristelle Pratt a déclaré que les pays se sont engagés à
travailler ensemble afin d'améliorer les conditions de vie dans le Pacifique.
Mme Pratt a dit que les évaluations avaient identifié les terrains pour que ces pays
pacifiques étendent leur souveraineté sur les plateaux continentaux.
"Ces pays insulaires du Pacifique reconnaissent que la délimitation des limites de
leur zone économique exclusive au-delà de 200 milles marins est critique pour assurer le
développement potentiel des ressources naturelles, tels que le pétrole, l'or et l'argent,
ainsi que les organismes vivants qui vivent au-dessus et au-dessous du fond de la mer", a
précisé Mme Pratt cité par PACNEWS.
Les présentations pour revendiquer un plateau continental étendu doivent être
basées sur les données techniques crédibles et satisfaire les conditions énoncées à
l'article 76 de la Convention des Nations Unies sur le droit de la Mer (UNCLOS), afin
d'assurer un plateau continental étendu au-delà de la zone économique exclusive au delà
de 200 milles marins.
Back to Menu
15
________________________________________________________________________
Kölnische Rundschau (Germany): Weiteres Versagen verboten
VON WERNER GROSCH, 12.05.08, 21:40h
In China ist 2008 das Jahr der Ratte. Auch 2007 war schon ein Jahr der Ratte, wenn auch
nicht im traditionellen Kalender. Im Sommer fielen Schätzungen zufolge allein in der
Provinz Hunan zwei Milliarden Ratten über die Felder her und vernichteten die Ernte auf
1,6 Millionen Hektar. Die Gründe: Erstens war der Winter extrem mild, der erste
Nachwuchs früh dran. Zweitens trieben starke Überschwemmungen die Nager aus ihren
Löchern. Drittens verbreiten sie sich durch immer mehr Verkehrswegebau immer
schneller. Viertens, und nicht zuletzt, landet eine unbekannte, aber sicher hohe Zahl an
Eulen und Schlangen in chinesischen Heilmitteln - und im Falle der Schlange oft auch
auf Tellern. Eine Eule frisst aber bis zu 1500 Ratten im Jahr, eine Schlange 400.
Das Beispiel zeigt fast alles, was Artenschutz wichtig macht - für den Erhalt des
ökologischen Gleichgewichts, für die Nahrungssicherheit. Und die Ursachen lassen sich
alle auf den Menschen zurückführen. In jeder Stunde sterben zwei Tier- oder
Pflanzenarten aus. Gegeben hat es einen Verlust immer, nur dass die Geschwindigkeit
heute bis zu 1000 Mal höher ist als vor den ersten massiven Eingriffen des Menschen.
Diese Arten fehlen - als Schädlingsbekämpfer, als Nahrungs- und Heilmittelquelle, als
touristische Attraktion, als Schutz gegen Luft- und Wasserverschmutzung, als
Klimastabilisator.
Der Wert der Artenvielfalt ist also längst erkannt. Weil mehr als ein Drittel der
erforschten Arten in seiner Existenz bedroht ist, zweifelt auch niemand am
Handlungsbedarf. Ab nächsten Montag wollen tausende Delegierte und später Dutzende
Regierungschefs und Minister diesem Bedarf nachkommen. Es geht unter anderem
darum, ein weltweites Netzwerk von Schutzgebieten zu schaffen, auch auf hoher See.
Schon für die bestehenden Schutzräume wären 20 bis 30 Milliarden Euro jährlich nötig.
Davon steht aber nicht einmal ein Viertel derzeit zur Verfügung. Dabei sollte bis 2010
der Verlust an Artenvielfalt gebremst, nach dem Ziel der EU sogar völlig gestoppt
werden. Davon ist man weit entfernt. Was nicht verwundert, wenn man Manfred
Niekisch folgt. Niekisch, Direktor des Frankfurter Zoos, Professor für Naturschutz und
seit Jahrzehnten umtriebiger Artenschützer, spricht von einer „bislang peinlich schlechten
Umsetzung der CBD“. CBD, das ist die Biodiversitäts-Konvention, also das UNAbkommen zum Erhalt der biologischen Vielfalt, das schon seit 1992 existiert und
dessen Unterzeichner sich jetzt wieder treffen. Bonn richtet die neunte Konferenz der
Vertragsstaaten aus. Was bisher geschah, ist für Niekisch „ernüchternd“. Bis zur siebten
Konferenz habe es schon gedauert, auch nur ein Arbeitsprogramm für das Netzwerk von
Schutzgebieten aufzustellen. Und bei der achten Konferenz vor zwei Jahren hätten
Fortschritte überprüft werden sollen. Das ging aber nicht, weil nur ein sehr geringer Teil
der Staaten, darunter Deutschland, überhaupt seiner Berichtspflicht nachkam. Am Ende
sei der allererste Punkt in einer Bilanz des UN-Umweltprogramms Unep der Dank an
Nicht-Regierungs-Organisationen für die wichtigsten Fortschritte gewesen.
16
Da hätten die UN-Staaten sich selbst geohrfeigt, mein Niekisch. Wird es in Bonn nun
besser? Der Artenschützer formuliert seine Skepsis mit Humor: „Pessimismus können
wir uns eigentlich gar nicht leisten“, sagt er.
Bleibt nur die Herausforderung, die Öffentlichkeit zu mobilisieren, damit sich die
Politiker in Bonn nicht ergebnislos davon machen können. Unep hat das jüngst mit einem
Buch getan, dass den Schatz der Artenvielfalt für die Medizin sichtbar machen soll.
Naturschutzverbände setzen auf drastische Beispiele und Zahlen. „Indonesien“, so
berichtet Christoph Heinrich vom WWF, „hat inzwischen den weltweit drittgrößten
Ausstoß von CO nach den USA und China, allein wegen der Brandrodung“. Zerstörung
von Lebensräumen und Verschärfung des Klimawandels gehen einher.
Back to Menu
________________________________________________________________________
de Volkskrant (Netherlands): 'Orang-oetans worden massaal uitgeroeid'
Caspar Janssen
May 12, 2008
SAMENVATTING:
Willie Smits
Orang-oetanredder wil met zijn fotoboek tonen dat er toch nog hoop is voor de apen.
VOLLEDIGE TEKST:
AMSTERDAM Sinds hij in 1989 begon met zijn werk als orang-oetanredder, heeft
Willie Smits al heel wat machtige vijanden gemaakt in Indonesië. Deze variëren van de
'dierenmafia', houtkappers, palmoliebedrijven, politici tot aan het leger. In de afgelopen
jaren is Smits (51) meer dan duizend keer met de dood bedreigd. Maar de oprichter van
de organisatie Balikpapan Orangutan Society (BOS), die zich behalve met het
beschermen van orang-oetans bezighoudt met herbebossing, kreeg ook hoge
onderscheidingen. 'Dat kan samengaan in Indonesië', zegt Smits.
Hij is in Nederland ter promotie van zijn (foto)boek De denkers van de jungle. 'Met
dit boek willen we laten zien hoe bijzonder orang-oetans zijn, hoe belangrijk ze zijn voor
het voortbestaan van het regenwoud en dat ze toch massaal worden uitgeroeid.' De apen
komen alleen nog voor op Borneo en Sumatra. 'Maar we laten ook zien hoe het anders
kan, dat er hoop is.'
Smits kwam in de jaren tachtig als bosecoloog naar Borneo, maar viel als een blok
voor de gezichtsuitdrukking van een doodziek, achtergelaten aapje op een markt. Daarna
redde hij meer dan vijftienhonderd orang-oetans.
Hij geeft toe dat hij meer van dieren houdt dan van mensen en ook dat hij niet als
wetenschapper, maar 'vanuit de onderbuik' orang-oetans probeert te begrijpen. En dus
dicht hij de apen 'menselijke eigenschappen' toe en beweert hij dingen als: 'Bijna het
enige verschil tussen orang-oetans en mensen is dat orang-oetans niet kunnen praten.' De
17
apen zijn volgens hem vredelievend, intelligent, hebben een veel beter geheugen dan
mensen en gebruiken wel degelijk (gebaren)taal.
Om de soort ook op langere termijn te redden zorgde hij met zijn organisatie voor
herbebossing. Zijn nieuwste wapen in de strijd tegen uitsterving van de orang-oetan is
een inmiddels gerealiseerd 'reservaat', waarover BOS zelf de baas is. En Smits heeft de
lokale bevolking meegekregen door het opzetten van suikerpalmplantages, rondom het
reservaat. Daarmee slaat hij veel vliegen in één klap. De boeren verdienen goed aan het
sap, maar ze mogen alleen meedoen met het project als ze beloven de bossen te
beschermen. 'Dat werkt', aldus Smits. 'Er zijn al indringers, ook ambtenaren, met geweld
door boeren verwijderd.'
Maar daarmee is de orang-oetan nog niet gered. En Smits heeft er weer een vijand bij:
de suikerimporteurs in Indonesië. Ook heeft BOS intussen geldproblemen. Frustrerend,
vindt hij. Want in al die grote organisaties als UNEP, de IUCN, en WWF gaan miljoenen
om, maar ze redden geen apen. 'Ze zijn vooral bezig met de duurzaamheid van hun eigen
organisatie. Wij zijn de enigen die de uitroeiing van orang-oetans ter plekke proberen te
stoppen.'
Back to Menu
________________________________________________________________________
===============================================================
18
Other Environment News
Bloomberg:UN Official `Frustrated' at Lack of Rich-Nation Climate Money
By Mathew Carr
May 12 (Bloomberg) -- The head of the United Nations agency supervising a globalwarming treaty said he was “frustrated” with climate talks because rich nations have
failed to contribute money to developing nations pledged 14 years ago.
The funds, owed by industrialized nations that caused most of the buildup of greenhouse
gases, were promised in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The treaty,
ratified by 192 nations, took effect in 1994 and spawned the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which
set emission caps for industrialized signatories.
``What sometimes frustrates me about this whole process is that both the convention and
protocol already oblige all countries, including developing countries, to undertake
efforts'' to cut emissions, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the so-called UNFCCC,
said May 9 in an interview. Both ``say that developing countries should only be asked to
do this if rich nations provide the necessary resources.''
Nations around the world agreed to meet through the end of 2009 to urgently negotiate
new limits to emissions blamed for dangerous climate change, replacing the protocol,
which expires in 2012. Developing countries are worried rich nations may use the talks to
curb trade and restrict their economic advancement.
Other developed nations should consider mimicking Germany, which is beginning to use
money from sales of European Union carbon-dioxide permits ``for international
cooperation,'' de Boer said on the sidelines of the Carbon Expo in Cologne, Germany. He
didn't specify how is owed by the industrialized world.
China said in UN documents in March that developed nations such as the U.S. should cut
emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2020, a position put forward by
the European Union and developing nations during climate-change negotiations last year.
Chinese Proposal
Industrialized nations should provide financial support of 0.5 percent of their gross
domestic product a year to help it and other developing nations remedy the effects of
climate change, China said. That would bring the U.S.'s contribution to about $66 billion
dollars, based on 2006 data.
19
The U.S. Congress ratified the climate convention though never passed the Kyoto treaty
into law, releasing the world's biggest air-polluter from binding emissions limits.
The world will become at least 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer by
2100, threatening food supplies and making some species extinct, according to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a UN scientific body.
One of the biggest sources of money for less-industrialized nations has been the
protocol's so-called clean development mechanism, a UN-sponsored accord whereby
developing nations including China, India and Brazil sell emission credits to the EU and
Japan for instigating projects that trim greenhouse gases.
UN Credits
A UN Web site says 1.5 billion of those UN credits may be issued through 2012, valued
at 25.3 billion euros ($39.1 billion) at the May 9 closing price of 16.89 euros a metric ton
of carbon dioxide equivalent for the benchmark futures contract on the European Climate
Exchange in London.
The European Commission, regulator of the world's biggest emissions program, last week
said it had no plans to change a proposal to limit the use of UN emission credits, starting
in 2013, in the absence of a new global climate treaty.
To attract developing nations to a new global climate agreement, rich nations need to
offer more, not be threatening to take away money already being provided, de Boer said.
That principle was agreed again in December at a UN climate conference on the island of
Bali, Indonesia.
``The fact is that in Bali, developing countries said `we are willing to take real,
measurable and verifiable action, providing there's real measurable and verifiable money
on the table','' de Boer said. ``Those are two sides of the coin and you can't take away half
and still have a coin.''
To contact the reporters on this story: Mathew Carr in Cologne, Germany at
m.carr@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: May 12, 2008 07:26 EDT
Back to Menu
________________________________________________________________________
BBC: Pollution 'ups blood clot risk'
Exhaust fumes
Exhaust fumes contain small particulates
20
Breathing in air pollution from traffic fumes can raise the risk of potentially deadly blood
clots, a US study says.
Exposure to small particulates - tiny chemicals caused by burning fossil fuels - is known to
increase the chances of heart disease and stroke.
But the Harvard School of Public Health found it also affected development of deep vein
thrombosis - blood clots in the legs - in a study of 2,000 people.
Researchers said the pollution made the blood more sticky and likely to clot.
The team looked at people living in Italy - nearly 900 of whom developed DVT.
Blood clots which form in the legs can travel to the lungs, where they can become lodged,
triggering a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism.
The risk of DVT is known to be increased by long periods of immobility. In particular,
passengers on long-haul flights have been shown to be vulnerable, but so are people who
spend long periods of time sitting at their office desk without exercising, or walking
around.
It's an exciting finding because air quality is something we can improve on through
tightening air quality legislation
Dr Beverley Hunt, of Lifeblood
Researchers obtained pollution readings from the areas they lived and found those exposed
to higher levels of small particulates in the year before diagnosis were more likely to
develop blood clots.
The Archives of Internal Medicine report said for every 10 microgrammes per square metre
increase in small particulates, the risk of developing a DVT went up by 70%.
Air quality guidelines generally state that small particulate concentrations should not
exceed 50 microgrammes.
Risk factor
Lead researcher Dr Andrea Baccarelli said: "Given the magnitude of the effects, our
findings introduce a novel and common risk factor into the development of DVT.
"And, at the same time, they give further substance to the call for tighter standards and
continued efforts aimed at reducing the impact of urban air pollutants on human health."
21
Dr Beverley Hunt, medical director of the DVT charity Lifeblood, said: "We have known
for some time that air pollution has been associated with increased risk of heart attack and
stroke.
"This study shows for the very first time that air pollution also increases the risk of clots in
the veins and tells us why.
"It's an exciting finding because air quality is something we can improve on through
tightening air quality legislation."
Back to Menu
________________________________________________________________________
Reuters: Study links air pollution to blood clots in veins
Mon May 12, 4:11 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Air pollution heavy in small particles may cause blood clots in the
legs, the same condition air travelers call "economy class syndrome" from immobility
during flight, researchers said on Monday.
Dr. Andrea Baccarelli of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and colleagues
said they found the link after looking at 870 people in Italy who had developed deep vein
thrombosis between 1995 and 2005.
When compared with 1,210 others living in the same region who did not have the
problem, they found that for every increase in particulate matter of 10 micrograms per
square meter the previous year, the risk of deep vein thrombosis increased by 70 percent.
On top of that, the blood of those with higher levels of exposure to particulate matter was
quicker to clot when tested at a clinic, they reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Air pollution from automobiles and industry can contain tiny particles of carbon, nitrates,
metals and other materials that have been linked over the years to a variety of health
problems.
While lung diseases were an initial concern, later research has indicated it may cause
heart disease and stroke, possibly because it increases the rate at which blood can
coagulate, Baccarelli and colleagues said.
Until now particulate pollution had not been linked to blood clots in the veins. The
mechanism that causes problems for some air travelers is related not to the blood itself
but to impaired circulation when sitting in one place without exercise for long periods of
time.
22
The findings introduce a new and common risk for deep vein thrombosis, the researchers
said and "give further substance to the call for tighter standards and continued efforts
aimed at reducing the impact of urban air pollutants on human health."
In a commentary, Dr. Robert Brook of the of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
said if the findings are proven by additional research it may turn out that "the actual
totality of the health burden posed by air pollution, already known to be tremendous, may
be even greater than ever anticipated."
(Reporting by Michael Conlon; editing by Maggie Fox and David Wiessler)
Back to Menu
_______________________________________________________________________
Reuters: Spain To Help Fight Hunger, Climate Change In Africa
SPAIN: May 13, 2008
NIAMEY - Spain plans to help five poor African countries fight hunger and climate change
under a 60 million euro ($90 million) scheme to help the continent whose people flood to
Spain in their tens of thousands each year.
Spanish First Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega announced the
aid package ahead of a Spanish-African women's conference opening on Monday in Niger,
one of many African nations struggling to cope with high world food prices.
"With this plan, Spain hopes to relaunch agriculture, fight desertification and promote
appropriate management of water resources, along with marketing fish, farming products
and renewable energy," de la Vega told delegates late on Sunday.
The programme would cover Burkina Faso, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Niger.
"We are committed to helping these countries in their efforts to counter the effects of
climate change on food security. The rise in food prices is a worry and requires an
international response," she said.
Erratic weather, rising demand for food from increasingly affluent Asian countries, the use
of land and food crops for biofuels, and investors speculating on world futures markets
have driven up food prices around the world in the past year.
The Spanish aid plan consists of 25 million euros to fight the causes and effects of food
insecurity, 25 million more for water and environmental projects, and 10 million for related
programmes run by non-governmental organisations.
23
De la Vega said Spain was also giving Niger 10 million euros for 2008 to fight poverty
under a cooperation agreement, along with 300,000 euros to reinforce border security.
She said the Niger aid package would include 1.3 million euros to top up Niger's strategic
food reserve.
Niger, like other countries in West Africa and beyond, has eased tax on food imports this
year to cushion the effects of high prices on its poorest families.
The country is one of the world's poorest, with one in five children dying before their fifth
birthday. Even if the next harvest is successful, aid agencies fear high food prices could put
decent nutrition beyond the reach of millions of people.
In 2005 widespread hunger in Niger sparked an international emergency programme to
distribute food aid.
Tens of thousands of young people set out from West Africa each year in the hope of
finding work and better lives in Europe, many putting ashore on Spain's Canary Islands
after treacherous voyages.
Spain has signed a series of aid agreements with West African countries, hoping to fight
poverty and improve cooperation in controlling the flow of departing migrants.
(Writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Giles Elgood)
Story by Abdoulaye Massalatchi
Back to Menu
________________________________________________________________________
AFP: McCain splits with Bush on climate change
Mon May 12, 11:55 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Republican White House candidate John McCain will Monday
tack sharply away from President George W. Bush on climate change, saying he will not
"shirk" from the need for US global leadership.
The Arizona senator was due to propose a cap-and-trade system designed to cut
greenhouse gas emissions, in remarks which will clearly separate him from the
skepticism on global warming which has marked Bush's presidency.
The initiative will also signal that McCain plans to challenge the Democrats for
independent voters in the November presidential election, targetting especially the
climate change stance of leading Democratic candidate Barack Obama.
24
"I will not shirk the mantle of leadership that the United States bears," McCain was due
to say in a speech in the western state of Oregon.
"I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges,"
he said, in a clear rebuke to the Bush administration.
McCain will also pledge to play a lead role in negotiations for an agreement to come into
force after the Kyoto Protocol on emissions cuts, which the United States refused to
ratify, expires in 2012.
"I will not accept the same dead-end of failed diplomacy that claimed Kyoto," McCain
was to say.
"The United States will lead and will lead with a different approach -- an approach that
speaks to the interests and obligations of every nation."
McCain proposed a cap-and-trade system, which sets a limit of total greenhouse gas
emissions but allows companies to sell unused greenhouse gas emission credits to other
firms which have exceeded their quota.
His plan would seek to return emissions to 2005 levels by 2012, and a return to 1990
levels by 2020. It foresees a reduction of 60 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
McCain's stance on climate change sets him apart from a large chunk of his party's
conservative base, which remains skeptical about the science on climate change.
Bush last month laid out a blueprint to curtail US greenhouse gas emissions from 2025,
but critics said it would do little to combat climate change.
The president did not detail any mandates to bring down industrial emissions, and warned
Congress against passing new legislation that might "impose tremendous costs on our
economy and American families."
Bush also objects to Kyoto because it did not apply binding greenhouse gas targets on
fast-growing China and India.
Back to Menu
_______________________________________________________________________
Time/CNN: What Condoms Have to Do with Climate Change
Back in the 1970s, Hayden's argument wouldn't have been surprising. That era, which
saw the birth of the modern environmental movement (the first Earth Day was observed
in 1970), was obsessed with the idea of global limits, that without drastic intervention, we
25
were doomed to overpopulation. Books like Paul Erhlich's The Population Bomb warned
that the Earth was reaching the end of its carrying capacity, and that within decades,
hundreds of millions of people would starve to death. The only way to avoid this
Malthusian fate was rigid population control, which many environmentalists were in
favor of.
Fast-forward 30 years, however, and the situation has changed. The mass famines that
Erhlich and others prophesized never happened, and while population growth has
continued — an estimated 6.8 billion people now live on Earth — and on the whole, the
world is better off today than it has ever been. A Green Revolution helped a growing
planet feed itself, while the forces of globalization helped lift hundreds of millions in the
developing world out of poverty, even as population continued to rise. As the years
passed, overpopulation has dropped from the vocabulary of most environmentalists,
partially due to the controversies that surrounded state-mandated birth control in
countries like China, with its one-child policy. Though simple arithmetic will tell you that
the bigger the global population becomes, the harder it will be to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, you rarely see the population connection made explicit in major environmental
reports. "Environmentalists came to realize how complicated and sensitive this issue
was," says Robert Engleman, vice-president for programs at the Worldwatch Institute,
and the author of the new book More: Population, Nature and What Women Want.
"People didn't want to tell their neighbors and friends how to have kids."
But now, the pendulum is shifting back. The sudden spike in both food and fuel prices is
raising concerns that we may not be able to grow forever, that even with the best
technological innovation, the planet may have limits. It's becoming increasingly clear that
if we can't curb carbon emissions in a world of 6.8 billion, it may be impossible to do
when there are 9 billion of us. And while population growth has slowed drastically in
many countries in Western Europe and in Japan, where women are having fewer and
fewer babies, it's still rising in much of the developed world — and for that matter, in the
United States. "You really can't talk about the supply and demand imbalance that is
sending energy and food prices up without acknowledging that we are adding 78 million
people each year, the equivalent of a new Idaho every week," says Engleman.
The question remains though: what can we do about population? State-mandated birth
control is essentially unfair — and a policy no American government would ever support.
But in his new book, Engleman makes the argument that the government doesn't need to
get involved. The key to limiting population growth, he says, is to give control over
procreation to women. In society after society, even in countries where large families
have always been the norm, when women take control over family size, birth rates shrink.
26
"They don't have to be coerced," says Engleman. "This will happen as long as women are
in charge."
I've seen this transition happen myself. In Japan, where I spent a year as a foreign
correspondent, large families were once the norm, and women rarely worked. That's
changed — and Japan's birth rate has plummeted — as women seek professional and
personal fulfillment beyond having children. But that change has yet to occur in those
parts of the developing world that are growing fastest, such as Uganda, where population
is rising at 3.6%, the highest rate in the world. That's what Gen. Hayden is worried about
— that bursting population will turn struggling nations like Uganda into basket cases,
with political and environmental consequences for the rest of the world. For the U.S., the
best option is vigorous foreign aid that helps make contraception safe, reliable and
accessible in every country — too often women in the developing world who want to use
contraception, can't get it. "The funding for contraception aid has been stagnant for
decades," says Engleman. "Americans need to influence their government to get behind
this." If we don't, we may find out very soon just what the limits of the Earth are. It's not
just feminism to support population control — it's environmentalism.
_Back to Menu
_____________________________________________________________________
Reuters: Russia may hold on to emission rights -expert
GERMANY: May 12, 2008
COLOGNE, Germany - Russia may decide to hold onto its greenhouse gas emissions
rights under the Kyoto Protocol, at least until the details of a successor treaty are clearer, a
Russian expert said.
The United Nations' Kyoto Protocol allows industrialised countries to meet greenhouse gas
targets by buying emissions rights from each other or from clean energy projects in
developing nations.
One controversial scheme under the agreement allows industrialised countries which are
comfortably below their emissions targets to sell the difference to other industrialised
nations, in a trade which is not necessarily related to any emissions cuts.
According to available data, Russia may have more than 800 million tonnes of carbon
dioxide rights, called Assigned Amount Units (AAUs), to sell at the end of Kyoto's first
commitment period (2008-2012).
This is more than the estimated AAU demand of every other Kyoto signatory country
combined.
27
Alexander Khanykov, head of Russian clean energy project developers Carbon Project
Group, told Reuters on Friday that he believes Russia will save most of its AAUs past 2012
instead of selling them and possibly flooding an already precarious carbon market.
"Russia can sell a huge amount, but nobody will buy this much. The market would be
destroyed." he said.
"I think Russia doesn't want to sell until the targets of the second commitment period are
clear."
Last month, Japan and Russia held preliminary talks about a prospective AAU transaction,
but a bilateral deal was not reached, said Alexander Averchenkov, a World Bank
consultant.
"Japan is the only country to approach Russia, as far as I know," Averchenkov said on the
sidelines of a carbon markets conference in Germany.
The World Bank's Moscow office is consulting Russia on its AAU portfolio.
Averchenkov also believes Russia will bank most of its AAUs until after 2012, so it can
continue to enjoy the benefits under any new emissions targets set out in a Kyoto successor
pact.
KYOTO II
With Kyoto's end quickly approaching and major emitters like the US, China, and India
wary about committing themselves to greenhouse gas targets, doubts are surrounding the
new pact.
Last month, Vsevolod Gavrilov, the official in charge of Russia's Kyoto obligations, said
Moscow would oppose binding emissions cuts under a new treaty for the "foreseeable
future", arguing that the emerging middle class and industry needed to use more energy.
"Perhaps what the Russians are saying is that if other major industrialised countries don't
take action to limit their emissions, then why should we?", Yvo de Boer, head of the United
Nations' climate change secretariat, told Reuters in an interview.
"There's some sense in that."
(Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Story by Michael Szabo
_Back to Menu
_____________________________________________________________________
28
The Dallas Morning News: McCain reveals emissions proprosals
11:12 PM CDT on Monday, May 12, 2008
By DAVE MICHAELS /
dmichaels@dallasnews.com
WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate John McCain would push for
mandatory cuts of carbon dioxide emissions to curb global warming, but his system
would be less restrictive than competing plans and offer flexibility for the biggest
polluters.
Mr. McCain outlined his policy in a speech Monday in Portland, Ore. The plan stuck to
his long-held belief that climate change should be tackled, but he included assurances for
industries worried about the costs of cutting emissions.
Power plants, refineries and chemical plants – some of Texas' major industries – could
offset their pollution with credits, some of which they'd get for free.
Companies that need more time to reduce emissions would be given "extra time to adapt
– and that is good economic policy," Mr. McCain said.
He proposed a 60 percent reduction in 1990 greenhouse gas emission levels by 2050. His
Democratic rivals, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, have proposed an
80 percent cut. Both Democrats would sell all of the allowances used to offset emissions.
Mr. McCain's position also cut a deep contrast with President Bush, who would commit
to binding reductions only if developing countries, such as China and India, did the same.
Mr. McCain said he'd try to persuade those nations to cut emissions, but he wouldn't
"shirk the mantle of leadership that the United States bears" if they didn't.
An aide later said Mr. McCain's plan was "the beginning of the end of Bush
administration-imposed inaction on climate change."
By declaring his concern about the dangers posed by climate change, Mr. McCain also
fleshed out differences with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a supporter who disputes that climate
change is totally caused by man-made actions.
Robert Black, a Perry spokesman, said the governor would urge Mr. McCain to "not
unilaterally disarm the U.S. economy and certainly not the Texas economy" without
commitments from China and India to make changes.
A system to cap emissions would impose major costs on Texas' biggest industries.
Polluters such as coal-fired power plants and oil refineries would pass the cost of buying
carbon credits to consumers, driving up energy prices.
29
Texas produced more carbon dioxide emissions in 2004 than any other state, according to
the Energy Information Administration.
"The sources that are subject to the allowance requirements will tend to be concentrated
in Texas," said Larry W. Nettles, an environmental lawyer at Vinson & Elkins in
Houston. "We process more of the gas here, and we refine more of the fuels here."
The Senate is scheduled to take up cap-and-trade legislation in June. It calls for a 70
percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, compared with 1990 levels.
Mr. McCain hasn't endorsed the legislation because he wants provisions that would make
it more feasible to expand nuclear power, such as assistance with storing spent nuclear
fuel, an aide said.
Democrats and some environmental groups criticized Mr. McCain for some past votes on
environmental issues.
In 2005, he voted against a proposal to make utilities get 10 percent of their power from
renewable sources.
In 2003, he voted against a proposal to raise fuel-economy standards for cars and light
trucks.
Back to Menu
________________________________________________________________________
Reuters: Japan eyes new emissions cut goal for 2050 - media
11 May 2008 03:29:13 GMT
Source: Reuters
TOKYO, May 11 (Reuters) - Japan, the world's fifth biggest polluter, will announce a
target next month for cutting domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80 percent from
current levels by 2050, media reported on Sunday.
The target, more ambitious than Japan's current proposal for the world to halve emissions
by 2050, is aimed at boosting its leadership in climate talks as host of the Group of Eight
summit in July, the Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun newspapers said.
While the European Union and Canada also favour a goal of halving global emissions by
2050, developing nations have said they would not sign up for such a goal unless the
United States did far more to curb emissions.
The Nikkei said Japan would also set out plans to create a carbon credit exchange, where
companies can trade emission rights, but did not give details.
30
Japan is seeking to take a more active role in global talks on fighting climate change and
has pushed for an industry-focused framework for a new United Nations climate treaty to
follow the Kyoto Protocol, which ends in 2012.
Its proposal for a "sectoral approach" to targets, which sets greenhouse gas curbs on
industries such as steel and cement, is meant to appease domestic businesses that have
long said targets should reflect Japan's past efforts to raise energy efficiency.
But developing countries are suspicious that the approach will put their energy-intensive
industries at a disadvantage and allow rich countries to get away with easier curbs on
future emissions.
China, in a joint statement with Japan during President Hu Jintao's visit to Tokyo, said
the sectoral approach was an important tool for fighting climate change but stopped short
of a full endorsement.
The Mainichi Shimbun said African nations meeting near Tokyo later this month would
support Japan's steps against global warming and welcome its plans to provide $10
billion in aid to help developing countries fight climate change. (Reporting by Chisa
Fujioka; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Back to Menu
________________________________________________________________________
Reuters: China quake kills nearly 10,000 in Sichuan
Mon May 12, 2008 7:31pm EDT
By Ben Blanchard
CHENGDU, China (Reuters) - Nearly 10,000 people were killed by the earthquake that
hammered southwest China, officials said on Tuesday as rescuers struggled to reach the
worst-hit areas, where many more may have died.
Rescuers worked frantically through the night, pulling bodies from schools, homes,
factories and hospitals that were demolished by the 7.8 magnitude quake, which rippled
from a mountainous area of Sichuan province across much of China on Monday
afternoon.
The toll from China's worst earthquake for over three decades appeared sure to climb as
troops struggled on foot to reach the worst-hit area, Wenchuan, a hilly county of 112,000
people 100 km (62 miles) from Sichuan's provincial capital, Chengdu.
About 900 teenagers were buried under a collapsed three-storey school building in the
Sichuan city of Dujiangyan.
31
Premier Wen Jiabao, who rushed there, bowed three times in grief before some of the 50
bodies already pulled out, Xinhua news agency reported.
"Not one minute can be wasted," Wen said, state television showed. "One minute, one
second could mean a child's life."
At a second school in Dujiangyan, fewer than 100 of 420 students survived, Xinhua
reported.
China's Communist Party leadership announced that coping with the devastating quake,
and ensuring that it did not threaten social stability, was now the government's top
priority.
"Time is life," said an official announcement from the Communist Party Standing
Committee, according to the Xinhua news agency. "Make fighting the earthquake and
rescue work the current top task."
Officials must speed food, water, medicine and other necessities to quake-stricken areas,
the meeting ordered, adding that officials must keep a grip on social stability.
"Strengthen positive guidance of opinion," the meeting urged, warning against the spread
of rumors.
The Sichuan quake was the worst to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan tremor in
northeastern China where up to 300,000 died. Then, unlike now, the Communist Party
kept a tight lid on information about the extent of the disaster.
SEVERED ROADS, RAIL LINES
In Chengdu, many residents slept outside or in cars on Monday night, fearing more
tremors in the city where at least 45 people died and 600 were injured.
The government has rushed troops and medical teams to dig for survivors and treat the
injured. But severed roads and rail lines blocked the way to Wenchuan, and local officials
described crumpled houses, landslides and scenes of desperation.
"We are in urgent need of tents, food, medicine and satellite communications equipment,"
the Communist Party chief of Wenchuan, Wang Bin said, according to Xinhua.
Most farmers' homes in two townships had collapsed and there was no word from the
three townships nearest the epicenter, which have a population of 24,000, the report
added. So far Wenchuan has reported 15 dead, a number likely to rise steeply.
More than 7,000 may have died in Sichuan's Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County,
where 80 percent of the buildings were destroyed, Sichuan television said. Beichuan has
a population of 161,000, meaning about one in 10 there were killed or injured.
32
"Even if it means walking in, we must enter the worst-hit areas as quickly as possible,"
Wen said, according to Xinhua.
But a paramilitary officer marching with a hundred troops towards Wenchuan described a
devastated landscape that is likely to yield many dead and to frustrate rescuers.
"I have seen many collapsed civilian houses and the rocks dropped from mountains on
the roadside are everywhere," said the People's Armed Police officer Liu Zaiyuan,
according to Xinhua.
(Writing by Chris Buckley; Editing by John Chalmers)
Back to Menu
_______________________________________________________________________
Reuters: Two more U.S. aid flights set to fly to Myanmar
Mon May 12, 2008 10:04pm EDT
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) - Two more American aid flights were due to leave for cyclone-hit
Myanmar on Tuesday where the reclusive military government is keeping most foreign
aid workers away from the devastated Irrawaddy delta.
Local staff for international relief agencies are stretched to breaking point and facing
tighter restrictions on their ability to deliver a trickle of foreign aid to 1.5 million people
facing hunger and disease.
Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said its first cargo plane loaded with medical and
logistical supplies landed in the former capital Yangon on Monday. But it was facing
"increasing constraints" imposed on its workers in the delta.
"In Bogalay for instance, the MSF team is unable to provide as much assistance as they
could to respond to the enormous needs in terms of food and medical care," the aid group
said of one devastated township where at least 10,000 people were killed.
The military junta has welcomed "aid from any nation" but has made it very clear it does
not want an influx of foreign experts or equipment to distribute it in five declared disaster
zones after Cyclone Nargis struck 11 days ago.
U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking after the first U.S. military aid flight to
Myanmar on Monday, condemned the junta for failing to act more quickly to accept
international help, saying "either they are isolated or callous."
33
Bush, who before the cyclone had imposed fresh sanctions on the country ruled by the
military for 46 years, said the junta was apparently more interested in power than in its
people.
"It's been days and no telling how many people have lost their lives as a result of the slow
response," Bush said in a radio interview with CBS News. "An American plane finally
went in but the response isn't good enough."
The C-130 military transport plane flew in from an air base in neighboring Thailand
carrying water, mosquito nets and blankets, but U.S. officials involved in the relief effort
were not allowed beyond Yangon airport.
A stream of other aid flights had already landed in Yangon, but only a fraction of the help
is getting to where it is needed.
The World Food Programme said it was able to deliver less than 20 percent of the 375
metric tons of food a day it wanted to move into the flooded delta.
WAITING FOR VISAS
At the United Nations in New York, Ban delivered his most critical comments so far of
the Myanmar authorities' response and said: "We are at a critical point."
"Today is the 11th day since ... Nargis hit Myanmar," he told reporters. "I want to register
my deep concern -- and immense frustration -- at the unacceptably slow response to this
grave humanitarian crisis."
The United Nations said its top representative in Myanmar had flown to Naypyidaw, the
generals' new capital, on Monday to hand over a list of 60 critical U.N. and relief agency
staff.
U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes told reporters in New York the United
Nations had disbursed $20.3 million from its emergency relief fund to cover costs related
to urgent needs, such as food, shelter, sanitation and health.
He said there were still problems with visas though the situation had improved somewhat.
"It was confirmed that 34 visas for United Nations relief staff from the different agencies
will now be granted or are being granted," he said.
In its latest assessment of the scale of the disaster, the U.N. humanitarian agency said
between 1.2 million and 1.9 million people were struggling to survive and the number of
dead could range from 60,000 to 102,000.
Myanmar state television raised its official toll to 31,938 dead and 29,770 missing on
Monday. Most of the casualties were killed by the 12-foot (3.5 meter) wall of water that
hit the delta, with the cyclone's 190 kph (120 mph) winds.
34
People throughout the delta were crammed into monasteries, schools and other buildings.
Displaced people flooded into towns that were barely able to cope with the influx.
Lacking food, water and sanitation, they faced diseases such as cholera. Heavy rain was
forecast for the delta this week, which could further hinder the relief effort.
People from Yangon were loading food and water into their vehicles and taking it to
villages outside the city in the absence of any organized aid effort.
The cyclone raged through an area that is home to nearly half of the country's 53 million
people and about 5,000 sq km (1,930 sq miles) of land remained under water. The
cyclone ravaged some of the country's main rice-growing areas.
France was sending a warship carrying 1,500 metric tons of rice which was expected near
Myanmar later this week. Paris says it wants to distribute the food directly itself, but will
not do so without authorization.
The United States will also have three ships near Myanmar this week, and Britain was
sending a navy ship to the region to help humanitarian operations.
(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau and Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations;
and Susan Cornwell and Paul Eckert in Washington; Writing by Darren Schuettler;
Editing by Bill Tarrant)
Back to Menu
_______________________________________________________________________
AFP: Costa Rica plants more trees to become carbon neutral
Mon May 12, 6:25 PM ET
SAN JOSE (AFP) - Costa Rica will plant seven million trees in 2008 to soak up as many
greenhouse gas emissions as it produces, in a bid to become the world's first carbon
neutral nation, a top official said Monday.
"The stated goal is to be the first neutral country as far as greenhouse gas emissions is
concerned," said Energy and Environment Minister Roberto Dobles.
"To get there, this administration is betting on halting deforestation and on the 'Plant a
Tree' project," he added, referring to an ongoing government initiative to plant as many
trees as possible in the country.
The project aims to "plant seven million trees this year, meaning that in our country there
would be 1.5 trees for each Costa Rican.
35
He added that in 2007 the country managed to plant five million trees, spurred by the
desire to forestall an impending environmental catastrophe.
"Climate change is the main threat facing humanity and, even so, the world still can't
agree to fight this problem," Dobles said.
Every country can help in the struggle, even a small nation like his own, Dobles said.
"We all know developed countries and big developing nations like China, Brazil and
India are chiefly responsible for most of the greenhouse gases that destroy the ozone
layer.
"That doesn't mean a country like Costa Rica should stand by doing nothing. On the
contrary, we're working on a series of initiatives on the national and global levels to
lessen the impact" of climate change, the minister said.
Back to Menu
_______________________________________________________________________
AFP: Norwegian island runs on wind power, even when all is still
by Nina Larson 2 hours, 1 minute ago
UTSIRA, Norway (AFP) - How to keep the lights on when all is still and the local
windmill won't budge? A small Norwegian island testing a way to store wind-generated
energy for calm days may have found the answer.
The tiny, windswept island of Utsira, situated off Norway's southwestern coast, is home
to what is said to be the world's first full-scale system for cleanly transforming surplus
wind power into hydrogen.
Perched atop a 40-metre-high wind turbine on a perfectly windstill day, technician Inge
Linghammer explains that at times like this or on days when the gales whipping the
unsheltered island get too strong the windmill shuts down and stops pumping out power.
"You need to have back-up power when this happens," he says, nodding towards the
motionless blades.
On a good day, the island's two wind turbines, planted on a small hill overlooking several
red-painted wooden houses, produce more energy than the 210 people living here can
use.
When they are down however, most of Utsira, which measures only six square
kilometres, is furnished with electricity from the mainland.
36
But 10 households receive clean, wind-generated electricity regardless of the weather
conditions, thanks to a pilot project launched here in July, 2004 making it possible to
store wind power by transforming it into hydrogen.
Surplus wind-generated energy is passed through water and, using electrolysis, the
hydrogen atoms are separated from the oxygen atoms that make up water molecules.
The hydrogen is then compressed and stored in a container that can hold enough
hydrogen gas to cover the energy needs of the 10 households for two windless days.
"Utsira has more than enough wind power to be self-sustained ... but the problem arises
on a day like today when there is not enough wind," explains Halgeir Oeya, who heads
up the hydrogen technology unit at Norwegian energy giant StatoilHydro, which is
running the project.
"This system allows us to deliver power with expected quality and reliability," he says,
standing next to the large metal electrolyser box baking in the spring sun.
Combining renewable energy and hydrogen, he says, makes most sense in secluded areas
like the numerous islands lining the European coast or in remote Australian communities,
which until now have been heavily dependent on carbon dioxide-spewing diesel fuel
provided by a constant flow of truck convoys.
Islands like Utsira have long been considered ideal laboratories for renewable energy due
to their total dependence on outside energy supplies and their access to powerful wind
energy.
Oeya boasts that the people participating in the Utsira test project have no restrictions on
how they use power, switching on the lights, dishwashers, television sets and stereos
without a thought to how the wind is blowing.
And amid growing alarm over greenhouse gas-promoted global warming, they can do so
with a clean conscience, he says, pointing out that "the only emission is oxygen."
Producing and storing energy this way however is still, nearly four years after testing
began, far more expensive than the hydraulic power produced on Norway's mainland.
StatoilHydro has no intention of building up the system to compete with large-scale
energy production, but even making it competitive in the small, remote communities far
off the grid that make up its target market remains years off.
"This is not a commercial project as it stands," Oeya acknowledges.
"We must have a bigger scale in order to compete ... and this will take a number of
years," he says.
37
Utsira mayor Jarle Nilsen is nonetheless ecstatic about the system and its effects on his
small island community.
"This is a fantastic project that has been good for Utsira," he says, pointing out that initial
concerns about noise levels and birds getting caught in the turbines had been laid to rest.
"We haven't found a single dead bird," he says.
Most importantly, the system was helping nudge his Utsira towards its goal of zero
emissions within the next decade and had become a major tourist attraction.
"The tourists go over to the lighthouse first, but then they go to look at our windmills.
They want to see the world's first full scale wind and hydrogen project in action," he says
proudly.
Back to Menu
===============================================================
38
ROA MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
13 May 2008
General Environment News
Africa: In Lake, Signs of Slow Shift From Savannah to Sahara
New York Times (New York): Six thousand years ago, northern Africa was a place of trees,
grasslands, lakes and people. Today, it is the Sahara — a desolate area larger area than Australia.
Lake Yoa, in northeastern Chad, has remained a lake through the millennia and is still a lake
today, surrounded by hot desert. Although little rain falls, Lake Yoa’s water is replenished from
an underground aquifer. By analyzing thousands of layers sediment in a core, which is a column
of sediment drilled from the lake bottom, a team of scientists has reconstructed the region’s
climate as the savannah changed to the Sahara. In Friday’s issue of the journal Science, the
researchers, led by Stefan Kröpelin, a geologist with the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology at
the University of Cologne in Germany, report that the climate transition occurred gradually. In
particular, the changing types of pollen that fell on the water and drifted to the bottom tell a story
of how the terrain shifted from trees to shrubs to grasses to sand — “where today you don’t find
a single piece of grass,” Dr. Kröpelin said. The findings run counter to a prevailing view that the
change happened abruptly, within a few centuries, about 5,500 years ago, marking the end of the
“African Humid Period” when monsoon rains poured down on the region. That view arises from
ocean sediment cores drilled off the coast, to the west of Mauritania. In 2000, analysis of the
cores by researchers led by Peter B. deMenocal of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory showed a sudden rise in the dust blown off Africa at that time. Dr. Kröpelin did not
dispute the ocean core data but said it had been “overinterpreted.” Data about what was
happening on land is sparse, because blowing sands do not preserve a clear geological record the
way lake sediments do. But at Lake Yoa, ancient water from underground aquifers that filled
during the humid period, which began 14,800 years ago, is still flowing into the 80-foot-deep
lake. It is enough to offset the six meters of water lost to evaporation every year, Dr. Kröpelin
said. Only a few millimeters of rain fall a year. Dr. Kröpelin said he hoped to return to Lake Yoa
next year to drill a core that could trace the climate history back 12,000 years. Dr. deMenocal
praised Dr. Kröpelin’s research. “I think it’s a very good body of work,” he said. “It’s really the
only thing of its kind from the arid interior.” But he said he wondered whether the pollen might
have come mostly from the area immediately by the lake and not the larger Sahara. Jonathan A.
Holmes, director of the Environmental Change Research Center at University College London,
said both sets of research had been carefully done, and the challenge would be to put together a
more complex history of the area’s climate. “I don’t think either record is somehow wrong,”
said Dr. Holmes, who wrote a commentary accompanying the article in Science. “I think what
they are representing are slightly different things.” Dr. Holmes said one possibility was that the
offshore dust might reflect a drop in water levels around Lake Chad, revealing more dustproducing soil. However fast the drying occurred, it pushed people out of north-central Africa,
Dr. deMenocal said, and that climatically forced migration might have led to the rise of the
pharaohs and Egyptian civilization.
39
Africa: A Green Revolution for Africa - Can It Be Made in Austria?
The East African (Nairobi): A grand initiative to give food production and agricultural
development in Africa a shot in the arm got underway last week with experts drawn from all
over the world making suggestions on what needs to be given priority to achieve a Green
Revolution in Africa. Held in the city of Salzburg in Austria, the conference dubbed Towards a
'Green Revolution' in Africa, was part of a series of events meant to help millions of African
smallholder farmers liberate themselves from extreme poverty. The participants focused on what
African countries and emerging continent-wide initiatives like the Kofi Annan-led Alliance for a
Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) need to do to make the "revolution" irreversible. The more
than 60 participants acknowledged that though billions of dollars have been pumped into farming
over the past couple of decades and some of the best brains have been deployed in such outfits as
the 15 centres under the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research, all these
efforts have failed to lift millions of African farmers and their families out of extreme poverty.
"It is time for Africa to produce its own food and attain self-sufficiency in food production.
There is no reason why Africa cannot join the league of net-food exporting regions. Food
insecurity should not be accepted as a normal state of affairs" said Kofi Annan. Participants also
explored continent-wide initiatives like the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development
Programme (Caadp) that was launched by the African Union in 2003. Caadp had set targets for
2015, established a budget and had gone ahead to pinpoint where the money will come from and
how much of it would be from African internal sources. The African Union had targeted a 6 per
cent annual growth in agriculture throughout the continent. In his speech, Mr Annan downplayed
that Agra is upstaging this initiative, saying; "Our work is in alignment with and supportive of
the African Union's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme." To achieve
the African Union's targeted growth, he said, "We need a sustainable and uniquely African Green
Revolution." He said that the revolution must take into consideration the diversity of Africa's
environments, help improve crop varieties for the staple food crops, protect and enrich genetic
diversity among other measures. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805120081.html
Kenya : Une ONG implique le public dans la gestion des ressources naturelles
PANA (Nairobi) : Une organisation communautaire kenyane impliquée dans la gestion des
ressources naturelles du pays a préconisé une participation directe du public pour intensifier les
efforts de protection afin de contrôler la dégradation des ressources naturelles dans la région du
Mont Kenya. Les responsables du Projet pilote du Mont Kenya Est (MKEPP) on déclaré que le
projet, co-financé par le gouvernement et des organisations non- gouvernementales
internationales allait contribuer à réduire la pauvreté et à garantir la viabilité de l'environnement.
Les activités du projet MKEPP sont menées dans cinq bassins hydrographiques dans la zone de
captation du fleuve Tana avec l'assistance du Fonds international pour le développement agricole
(FIDA) et la Facilité pour l'Environnement Mondial (FEM). L'officier de liaison du projet,
Richard Munyithia, a déclaré à la PANA vendredi que ce projet d'un coût de 23,53 millions de
dollars sera dirigé par les ministères de l'Eau et de l'Irrigation et de la Préservation de
l'environnement. Dans le cadre de ce projet ambitieux, les fleuves prenant leurs sources dans les
collines orientales du Mont Kenya, le second plus haut sommet d'Afrique, seront préservés,
tandis que tout l'écosystème sera protégé pour permettre un approvisionnement en eau adéquat à
des fins d'usage domestique et d'irrigation. Le projet, qui a été lancé en juillet 2004, va également
40
se concentrer sur un renforcement de la sécurité alimentaire et les activités génératrices de
revenus pour les femmes rurales par une utilisation adéquate des ressources naturelles. M.
Munyithia a expliqué que le projet aiderait à renforcer l'accès des familles à l'eau et à introduire
des pratiques agricoles et de gestion de l'eau améliorées dans leur intérêt. Les paysans vont
également pouvoir utiliser au maximum les terres et les ressources hydriques.
Tanzania: Environment Woes Worry Zanzibar Leader
The Citizen (Dar es Salaam): Africa is much hit by environmental degradation and natural
disasters because of instability of its ecological system, Zanzibar President Amani Abeid
Karume said yesterday. According to him, large forest areas of the continent have been cleared
and agricultural land used to grow corn for ethanol production rather than production of food.
The turn to food crop production for energy rather than for feeding people has led to food
shortages in the world's poorest continent, he observed. No statistics were given. Mr Karume, in
a speech read by his Chief Minister Nahodha Vuai cited the frequent floods, droughts
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions which have hit the continent in recent years. These include
the December 2004 tsunami aftershocks which hit the east coast of the continent from its
epicentre in south east Asia, thousands of kilometres away. Recently communities living around
Oldonyo Lengai mountain in Ngorongoro district, Arusha, were affected by consistent eruptions
of the volcano mountain, leading to major disruption of the people's lives and their
properties.The speech was delivered during the closing of a two-day scientific conference here to
officially launch the International Year of the Planet Earth for Africa (IYEA).
http://allafrica.com/stories/200805120119.html
Tanzania: Crater Rim Hotels Projects Likely to Take Off
Arusha Times (Arusha): There are reports that Ngorongoro conservation area is earmarked for
new hotel projects some of which are to be built around the crater rim despite environmental
concerns. The issue is also proving to be controversial because despite all efforts the
management of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority was not prepared to comment on
it. Sources reveal that among the proposed new hotel projects is the one which was intended to
be constructed at one of the crater edge's view-spots but had to be halted last year after it was
deemed inappropriate for the location. Now latest reports have it that the management is
planning to give green-light to the once halted project despite posing environmental concerns.
"To be honest I am not aware of the issue," Salustine Halu, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area's
Extension Officer commented. Halu denied being aware of both initial plans to build a hotel on
the rim and the latest intentions to go ahead with the project despite earlier government's ban.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200805120579.html
Uganda: Kyoga At Risk
The Monitor (Kampala): Environmentalists are concerned about encroachment on Lake Kyoga.
The Chairman of Lake Kyoga Integrated Management Organisation (Lakimo) James Wandera
41
Muruli says the number of people settling near the lake is alarming. Lakimo is an umbrella
organisation of the eleven districts in the catchment area of Lake Kyoga that was formed to
ensure that the lake is properly managed. According to Mr Muruli, the rising settlements have
accelerated the silting of the lake. "They (encroachers) throw all kinds of waste in the lake. They
are also cutting the vegetation around the lake," he said. Mr Muruli who doubles as Nakasongola
District Chairman was on Wednesday speaking at Kumi Hotel during a meeting to discuss the
problems affecting the lake. Kumi District Environment Officer, Simon Peter Achuu, said the
lake
was
becoming
shallow
and
smaller
as
a
result
of
silting.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200805120232.html
Uganda: Nema Chief Accused of Abetting Wetland Destruction
New Vision (Kampala): The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) chief, Dr.
Aryamanya Mugisha, has been accused of allegedly abetting wetland encroachment. Leaders
from Nakawa Division asked Aryamanya to explain the permits issued to wetland encroachers.
The permits, issued on NEMA letter-heads, had the organisations's stamps. Nakawa security
chairman Abdul Mugerwa said several plots in wetlands were issued to the rich and influential
people at the expense of the poor. "Local leaders are not consulted. NEMA issues wetland
permits to the rich and evict poor people. The problems in wetlands were brought about by
Aryamanya," Mugerwa said. This was during a meeting between Nakawa local leaders,
environment state minister Jessica Eriyo and NEMA officials at Naguru Community Centre last
week. The meeting was held after NEMA cut down local's crops and threatened to evict over
3,000 households from the Kinawataka wetland. Kampala Central Division chairman Godfrey
Nyakana, State House employee Mary Mugyenyi and former Bank of Uganda agricultural
economist Charles Gashumba were among the people said to have acquired leases in the Luzira
wetland. Nakawa resident district commissioner Fred Bamwine said he had received several
complaints
about
encroachers
who
had
assaulted
the
locals.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200805120944.html
Namibia: Calls to Curb Making of Fires
New Era (Windhoek): Concerned with forest fires that destroy forest resources every year,
authorities in the Kavango Region want traditional leaders to pass by-laws that restrict people
from burning the environment. Veldt fires are a dominant feature in the region especially in
summer when hectares upon hectares of forest resources are burnt down. There are fears that if
this is left unattended, national parks will be destroyed and development could be hampered.
Crafts and thatching grass from forests provide an income to members of the conservancies.
Ndiyona constituency councillor Sebatsian Karupu raised this issue last week during the official
launch of the Khaudum National Park and the signing of a tourism concession agreement
between the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, the Gciriku Traditional Authority and
George
Mukoya
and
Muduva
Nyangana
conservancies.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200805120775.html
42
South Africa: Growing concerns over animal poaching at SA park
PANA (Cape Town): South Africa's world famous Kruger National Park has become a hot spot
for the poaching of mammals, according to the Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.
The Ministry revealed here that over the last four years, at least 44 white rhinos and 31 buffaloes
were killed by poachers. In total, 249 mammals were killed by poachers in Kruger during this
period, it said. There was admittedly a meaningful drop in the number of animals reportedly
poached in 2007, compared to the previous years, but these figures remain disturbingly high,
especially for white rhino. The Ministry has also revealed the extraordinarily high levels of
poaching of marine species in the Table Mountain National Park. The figure increased over each
of the last three years to 8,665 in 2007.
Libye : Appel à la création d'un projet pour l'environnement en Libye
PANA (Tripoli) : Le directeur de l'Institut libyen de pétrole, Bourima Ali Belgacem, a appelé à
la création d'un projet national libyen pour l'environnement, auquel sera dévolue la mission de
traiter les effets de la pollution de l'environnement résultant des effets de l'extraction pétrolière
des décennies 60 et 70 du siècle dernier. Dans une déclaration à la PANA lundi à Tripoli en
marge de la conférence et de l'exposition internationales sur le pétrole et l'environnement, M.
Belgacem a indiqué que cette pollution est le résidu du peu d'intérêt que manifestaient les
compagnies pétrolières étrangères de l'époque à la protection de l'environnement. Ce qui a porté
un grand préjutice à l'environnement de la région. Il a affirmé que le projet qu'il propose est un
projet de recherches afin de permettre l'évaluation des polluants existants et d'éviter les polluants
futurs. Le responsable libyen a indiqué que son institut a élaboré de nombreuses études
scientifiques et techniques en vue d'aider techniquement et scientifiquement les sociétés et
services qui ont des problèmes d'ordre écologique. M. Belgacem a signalé aussi l'exsitence en
Libye d'une pollution liée au pétrole portant sur la pollution du sol et des eaux à cause des
écoulements de pétrole et des hydraucarbures pendant la distribution.
Back to Menu
_______________________________________________________________________
43
ROAP MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
UNEP or UN in the news




More countries eye Pacific borders – Herald Sun
Indian film chosen for UN fight against Global Warming - PTI
UN calls on junta to open its doors to aid – Bangkok Post
UNICEF health official says aid is desperately needed – The Japan Times Online
General environment news




Rush to trade co2 credits – The Nation
Thousands killed by quake in China – Bangkok Post
G8 talks seek to link environment, labor – The Japan Times
Sea turtles reclaim Koh Samet – Bangkok Post
UNEP or UN in the news
Indian film chosen for UN fight against Global Warming
New Delhi, May 12 (PTI) A magical fable about a young boy who discovers the solution
to global warming from a monk in the Himalayas has been adopted by the UN as part of
its initiative to green the planet and stop Global Warming.
The fable, a documentary by Mumbai-based filmmaker Nitin Das, has become part of the
international body's worldwide campaign to plant trees.
The 7-minute film finds itself part of the 'Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign' that
encourages people, communities, civil society organisations and governments to plant
trees aiming for a total of one billion trees worldwide each year.
"The video advocates for tree planting. We explored whether there was any hidden
political or other message and when we were assured we uploaded it on our website,"
Meryem C. Amar, Information Officer United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
told PTI.
The initiative has been well received by countries with nine NGOs and several
government organisations including the state government of Uttar Pradesh participating.
44
"India is doing very well. We have employees of several public service organisations
giving up a full day's salay to buy seedlings to plant trees," says Meryem Amar.
Since the launch of the Billion Tree Campaign in January last year, close to two billion
trees have been planted around the globe.
Along with a focus on tree planting, the campaign also highlights the importance of
voluntary action by all sectors of society to address issues such as climate change, air
quality and water, among others. PTI
http://www.ptinews.com/pti%5Cptisite.nsf/0/175AAC631EDEF9A16525744700305CB1
?OpenDocument
………………………………………………
More countries eye Pacific borders
May 13, 2008 10:08am
EIGHT Pacific countries are hoping to follow Australia's lead and increase their maritime
boundaries.
The Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) says the countries have a
credible claim to more than 1.5 million sq km of extra area.
The countries expected to make the claim to the United Nations are Fiji, Cook Islands,
Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga and Papua
New Guinea.
If successful, the countries will have exclusive rights to resources on and beneath the
seabed of their extra territory, including oil, gas and biological resources.
Australia recently extended its territory by 2.5 million sq km, an area about 10 times the
size of New Zealand, after a submission to the UN.
A workshop co-ordinated by SOPAC, Geoscience Australia (GA) and the UNEP Shelf
Programme is on in Fiji until Friday.
"Scientific studies have revealed the access to extended continental shelf could mean
more access to mineral rich resources," a SOPAC statement said.
"It's the first time the Pacific region is combining their efforts in its bid to extend their
exclusive economic zones," it said.
SOPAC director Cristelle Pratt said assessments had identified strong grounds for the
Pacific countries to extend sovereignty over their continental shelves.
45
"These Pacific Island countries recognise that determining the boundaries of their
exclusive economic zone beyond 200 nautical miles is critical to securing exclusive
ocean development," she said.
The countries have until May 2009 to submit their claim.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23690109-5005961,00.html
………………………………………………..
UN calls on junta to open its doors to aid
BANGKOK POST and AP, RANGOON and BANGKOK
The United States delivered its first relief supplies to Burma yesterday, as the United
Nations urged the reclusive nation to open its doors to foreign experts who could help up
to two million cyclone victims facing disease and starvation.
The unarmed military C-130 cargo plane, packed with supplies, flew out of U-tapao in
Chon Buri and landed in Rangoon, capping prolonged negotiations to persuade Burma's
military government to accept US help.
Burmese government spokesman Ye Htut said the aid, which was transferred to Burmese
army trucks, would be ferried by air force helicopters to the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta
later yesterday. Two more US air shipments were scheduled to land today.
The official death toll from the May 3 cyclone Nargis is 28,458 with another 33,416 still
missing. But UN assistant secretary-general Catherine Bragg said it could be 62,000 to
100,000, ''or possibly even higher than that''.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) representative
Terje Skavdal said in Bangkok yesterday that much more assistance was still needed to
help the survivors as rapidly as possible.
''Much aid has arrived [in Burma] over the weekend, but in fact it has been limited.
People are getting into a much worse situation. We need to receive more cooperation
[from the international community],'' said Mr Skavdal, who oversees the UN's key
humanitarian agency.
Though international assistance has started trickling in, the authoritarian government has
barred most foreign experts experienced in humanitarian crises.
''The authorities need to open up to an international relief effort. There aren't enough
boats, trucks, helicopters in the country to run the relief effort of the scale we need,''
Richard Horsey, a spokesman for UN humanitarian operations, said in Bangkok. ''It's
urgent that the authorities do open themselves up.''
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon yesterday phoned Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej,
asking Thailand to convince Burma to allow more agencies to go in.
46
The same message was also passed on to Burmese authorities by Lt-Gen Nipat Thonglek,
director-general of the Supreme Command's Border Affairs Department, who was on
board the US plane with Adm Timothy Keating, commander of the US military in the
Pacific.
But the Burmese government insisted it will consider visas on a case-by-case basis, Thai
government spokesman Pol Lt-Gen Wichienchote Sukchoterat said.
Burma will open the Thilawa port in Rangoon to international relief supplies and plans to
open its Myawaddy-Mae Sot border checkpoint for overland transport to Rangoon, the
spokesman added.
The Foreign Ministry will today ask cabinet for another US$1 million (32 million baht) to
help Burma, according to Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama.
In the Irrawaddy delta, people were surviving in miserable conditions, including
hundreds cramped in monast-eries with little access to food. Others camped in the open,
drinking dirty water contaminated by human waste or dead bodies and animal carcasses.
Still, the reclusive junta insists it will handle the aid distribution itself, through its feared
military, which has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1962.
Many have complained that they are getting rotting rice while soldiers are keeping the
best food for themselves.
''The government is very controlling,'' said U Patanyale, the abbot of a monastery in Kyi
Bui Khaw village.
''Those who want to give directly to the victims get into trouble. They have to give to the
government or do it secretly. They follow international aid trucks everywhere. They don't
want others to take credit. That's the Myanmar government,'' he said.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/13May2008_news05.php
........................................................
UNICEF health official says aid is desperately needed
Kyodo News
Aid is desperately needed in hard-to-reach parts of Myanmar devastated by the recent
cyclone, which triggered huge waves that in some areas swept away more than 90 percent
of dwellings and left as many as 90 percent of residents dead or missing, a UNICEF
official said Sunday.
Osamu Kunii, chief of health and nutrition at UNICEF's office in Yangon, Myanmar's
largest city, described the dire situation faced by Cyclone Nargis survivors in the
Ayeyarwady delta region of southwestern Myanmar in a telephone interview.
47
"People are drinking contaminated water and diarrhea is becoming rife," Kunii said.
"Bodies are floating around in the water and can't be recovered. We fear outbreaks of
communicable and water-borne diseases."
UNICEF estimates that 20 percent of the children in the hardest-hit areas already have
diarrhea and says cases of malaria are also being reported. Dengue fever is another
concern.
The U.N. agency has so far distributed 15,000 hygiene kits and plans to distribute another
20,000, as well as to construct large numbers of portable toilets in camps set up to house
people who have lost their homes.
Lacking other sources of food, some cyclone victims are subsisting on unripe mangoes,
Kunii said.
He said the most pressing need right now is clean drinking water.
"Items like water purification tablets, essential drugs and shelter materials for those
whose homes were washed away are required," he said.
With many roads blocked by debris and fallen trees, UNICEF says distributing
purification tablets is quicker and more practical than attempting to distribute large
quantities of potable water.
But while it is important to rush out relief supplies to those in need, boats needed to
deliver them in the delta area have mostly been washed away, he lamented.
Emergency supplies that were prepositioned in the country are now being distributed, but
they are insufficient to meet critical needs, Kunii said.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20080512a4.html
………………………………………
General environment news
Rush to trade co2 credits
By The Nation, Published on May 13, 2008
100 schemes likely to get the nod
Thailand-based companies are expected to come up with about 100 carbon-dioxide
(CO2) reduction projects by the end of this year, Sirithan Pairote-boriboon, director of
Thai Greenhouse Gas Organisation, said yesterday.
48
He told a seminar organised by the Thai Reporters' Association yesterday that about 30
schemes aimed at reducing CO2 by about two million tonnes have been certified by the
agency. CO2 is a significant contributor to the global-warming phenomenon.
"At present, we're evaluating another 28 projects. By end of the year, we expect to certify
a total of 100 schemes. Certified projects need further approval by the UN body on
climate change before they can start trading the CO2 credits," Sirithan said.
Each of the projects is estimated to have a capacity to reduce CO2 by an equivalent of
10,000 to 200,000 tonnes.
Once approved by the UN Convention Framework on Climate Change under the Kyoto
Protocol, each of the CO2 credits can be traded worldwide at US$7-$14 (Bt224-Bt449) a
unit.
Though the Kyoto Protocol is near over, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) - in
which CO2 credits are traded among countries - will remain intact, the seminar was told.
Thailand is among developing countries keen to reduce CO2 emissions as the cost of
achieving it in the Kingdom is cheaper than in the more developed and industrialised
nations.
Thai firms may propose projects for certification and approval by the UN body.
Reduction of CO2 emissions will reduce the greenhouse gas effect.
"Worldwide, a total of 1,338 projects are now registered under the CDM programme for
CO2 trading, with India proposing the most projects. The world's market for CO2 credits
is currently worth Bt75 billion," Sirithan said.
"While we've found that more firms here and abroad are interested, many still do not
have the correct understanding ... partly because the number of consultant firms in this
field is not enough."
http://nationmultimedia.com/2008/05/13/headlines/headlines_30072905.php
..................................................................
G8 talks seek to link environment, labor
NIIGATA (Kyodo) Labor officials from the Group of Eight nations began on Sunday a
three-day meeting to discuss ways to curb climate change coupled with measures to
redress economic and regional inequalities.
It is the first time discussions linking labor issues with environmental policies have been
attempted within the G8 framework. According to the Health, Labor and Welfare
Ministry, the participants in the Niigata meeting are aiming to provide momentum toward
building a consensus on climate change at the G8 summit in July in Hokkaido.
49
During the talks Sunday, representatives of labor and employers' groups urged
governments to act swiftly and properly to improve unstable labor markets and tackle
growing inequalities.
John Sweeney, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial
Organizations, called on the G8 to "ensure coordinating government actions to reduce
rising risks of unemployment and support decent work" and "effective action to reduce
regional inequalities."
In the opening speech, Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said, "Our
society is becoming more and more complex against the background of globalization and
increasing longevity, and a resilient and sustainable society cannot be realized without
devotion from workers and employers."
Masuzoe turned out to be the only Cabinet minister attending the meeting. The other
seven nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States
— are being represented by vice ministers or other senior officials "because of conditions
back in their countries," according to a labor ministry official.
From the employers' side, Peter Clever of the Confederation of German Employers'
Association, emphasized the importance of promoting vocational training system for
sustainable employment.
Loes van Embden Andres of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development's Business and Industry Advisory Committee said, "More people should
work and should work longer" in an aging society while calling for a flexible work style
as well as flexible social protection systems for irregular workers.
According to statistics compiled by the OECD, more than a quarter of the total
employment in Japan in 2005 consisted of part-time positions, of which about 68 percent
were women. A similar trend has been shared by other G-8 nations as well, particularly
Britain and Germany.
In their statement, participating labor unions from the G-8 nations also pushed for the
introduction of "Green Jobs," an International Labor Organization-led initiative of
promoting environmentally friendly industries that take into consideration global
warming effects.
Failure to address this matter properly "would entail catastrophic consequences for
human society, the global economy and prospects for sustainable jobs," the statement
said, acknowledging that the policies should include energy saving, development of
carbon separation technology and fair transfer to other industries of workers affected by
climate change.
"The phrase 'green job' hasn't taken root in the international community, but it's important
to have the standard of the value in deciding labor policies," Masahiro Nogi, assistant
50
director of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation's international division, said in
briefing reporters.
The International Trade Union Confederation has also noted that climate change may
result in a 5 percent loss of annual production across the globe and that the trend may
continue permanently if the issue is left unattended.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20080512a1.html
...........................................................
Thousands killed by quake in China
Shock felt in Bangkok, workers flee highrises
AFP/ BANGKOK POST
BEIJING : A massive earthquake stunned southwest China yesterday, killing more than
8,000 people and flattening schools, factories and homes in a powerful tremor felt across
a swathe of southeast Asia.
The quake, with a magnitude of 7.8, struck close to densely-populated areas of Sichuan
province in what Premier Wen Jiabao called a "major disaster".
China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported 8,533 confirmed dead in Sichuan
province alone, but there were fears the toll will rise far higher with others killed in
neighbouring regions and reports of thousands buried under debris.
Buildings swayed in Beijing and Shanghai, while the quake was also felt in Hong Kong,
Hanoi, Taipei and in Bangkok, 1,800km from the epicentre.
"Facing disaster, the most important thing is calm, confidence, courage and strong
leadership," Mr Wen told China's CCTV television on a flight to the heart of the quakehit zone.
Xinhua cited local disaster relief officials as saying 3,000 to 5,000 people were estimated
to have died in just one district of Sichuan, Beichuan county. A further 10,000 people
were injured in the county, where officials said 80% of buildings had collapsed.
"I heard the vents ruffling and then started to feel the building shake and a couple of bits
of the ceiling fell," Richard Morgan-Sanjurjo, a 30-year-old business consultant who
lives in Chengdu, said.
"I ran so fast. I thought the building was going to come down on my head."
The quake damaged two chemical plants in Shifeng, about 50km from the epicentre,
burying hundreds of people and forcing more than 6,000 others living nearby to be
evacuated, Xinhua said.
51
It earlier reported up to 900 students buried when a high school collapsed in Dujiangyan,
northwest of the provincial capital Chengdu. At least 50 bodies were recovered as frantic
parents looked on.
A local official in the city said "rows of houses" had crumbled, while two primary
schools were demolished in the sprawling metropolis of Chongqing.
All trains to and from Chengdu were ordered to stop, the city's airport was shut down and
planes diverted for engineers to assess the runways, and mobile phone and internet
communications were disrupted.
An Olympics spokesman said none of the 31 venues for the Beijing Olympics in the
capital and other host cities had been damaged.
The quake struck 93km from Chengdu, a city of more than 12 million people, and some
260km from Chongqing and its 30 million.
The State Seismological Bureau located its epicentre in Wenchuan county, a mountainous
region home to the Wolong Nature Reserve, China's leading research and breeding base
for endangered giant pandas.
Both the Chinese seismological bureau and the US Geological Survey, which use
different scales, measured the quake at 7.8. It struck at 2.28pm (1.28pm in Bangkok) at a
shallow depth of just 10km, the USGS said.
Xinhua quoted an official saying the landmark Three Gorges Dam in Sichuan province
was not affected.
In Bangkok, office workers in highrise buildings in the Sathorn and Silom areas ran from
their offices in panic.
A woman worker on the 12th floor of the 55-storey Empire Building on Sathorn road said
she felt the vibrations, an emergency alarm rang and all the workers left the building.
"When I got downstairs I found a lot of people already gathered outside," she said.
The Mineral Resources Department said the tremor was felt in the Sathorn, Silom,
Sukhumvit and Rama III areas. Department chief Apichai Chawacharoenpan said there
were no reports of damage and the quake was unlikely to have any impact on Thailand's
13 active fault lines.
The Foreign Ministry said it could not contact the Thai consulate in Chengdu and had no
reports on the fate of about 80 Thais, mostly students, in the city.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/13May2008_news00.php
.............................................................
52
Sea turtles reclaim Koh Samet
The hope for a local turtle population lingers
SONGFANG JARUNGIDANAN
The days of walking along deserted untouched beaches on Koh Samet have become a
distant memory. The island now teems with countless resorts and tourists, numbering
over 200,000 a year.
In an attempt to turn back time, 140 sea turtles were freed on April 25 as the main event
of Koh Samet Conservation Day.
"Twenty years ago, sea turtles that came to lay eggs on Koh Samet numbered over a
thousand, but a few years ago the population had declined to barely a hundred," said
Mickmin Charuchinda, director of the Eastern Marine and Coastal Resources Research
Centre.
Sea turtles always return to lay eggs on the same beach that they started their lives on.
Therefore, the significant decrease in the number of eggs on Koh Samet is a clear
symptom of ecological degradation, with people being the main suspects. As more and
more resorts cram along the island's picturesque beaches, the turtles' nesting habitats are
threatened, and their chance of survival diminishes further.
The idea to help was sparked two months ago when Dymphna M Brennan, general
manager of the Paradee Resort, observed turtles laying eggs on the beach very near her
resort. Motivated to action, Dymphna become the patron of the "Adopt-a-Turtle"
campaign.
With strong assistance from the Eastern Marine and Coastal Resources Research Centre
(Emcor), the campaign focuses on caring for the vulnerable creatures.
Most of turtle eggs found on Koh Samet are cared for by resort staff or guests. While the
intentions to save the helpless creatures are usually good, sadly the lack of knowledge
often results in the death of the rescue victims. Often the infant turtles are released to the
ocean prematurely, thus tragically becoming easy prey for opportunistic birds and fish.
"Releasing turtles which are two to four months old doesn't give them a decent chance of
survival in open water. From the research, they have to be at least one year old to survive
in the Gulf of Thailand," said Mickmin.
Apart from releasing turtles, other activities of Koh Samet Conservation Day included the
clean up of the underwater environment, which has become rife with litter and other
unwanted additives due to human inhabitation.
Scuba divers armed with nets scanned coral reefs not far from the island to collect
rubbish.
53
The mission was led by Sombat Taotawong, leader of the Marine Garbage Managing
Project under the Eastern Marine and Coastal Resources Conservation Centre, based in
Rayong.
He said his experiences inform him that most undersea rubbish comes from local
communities, not tourists. The bigger challenge is, therefore, how to raise the awareness
of local people.
As the sun sunk below the turquoise horizon, it was high time to release the baby turtles
since the cover of darkness helps shield them from the eyes of hungry birds.
The launch point was the beach near the Nimmanoradee Resort, where the eggs had been
laid months before.
As the 30cm turtles shuffled down towards their new ocean home, everybody present at
the beach couldn't help but cheer them on. It didn't take long for the waves to wrap them
up and take them out to the sea, much like a mother welcoming her children home. As for
their fate, this time mother nature and not humans will decide.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/Outlook/13May2008_out002.php
54
RONA MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Monday 12 May 2008
UNEP or UN in the News
 Reuters: GM crop foes march in Germany as U.N. summit starts
 American Forests: American Forests Joins UNEP Billion Tree Campaign
General Environment News








MSNBC: Startup shows off electric car planned for Israel
MSNBC: Pollution busts Okla. mining town
Reuters: AccuWeather: 12 named storms in '08 hurricane season
Reuters: McCain pledges to combat climate change
Reuters: Japan scientists warn Arctic ice melting fast
Reuters: Spain to help fight hunger, climate change in Africa
The New York Times: Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit
The New York Times: Joseph Egan, Lawyer Who Fought Nuclear Waste Site,
Is Dead at 53
 The New York Times: Earth to Young People: Help!
 The New York Times: Change We Can Stomach
 The Christian Science Monitor: Why pump prices need to stay high
 Yahoo: EPA testing air after twister in toxic Okla. town
 Yahoo: Global Warming Worries Wealthy, Polluting Nations Least
 The National Post: Dion may champion carbon tax
 CBC News: Ontario needs new green, union-friendly job strategy: report
 The Los Angeles Times: Seaweed confirms Monte Verde village in Chile is
among oldest in the Americas
 The Los Angeles Times: British birds adapt to global warming
 The Los Angeles Times: Orange County toll road agency hails wildlife deal
 The Los Angeles Times: Slow, steady -- and under siege
 San Francisco Chronicle: Lean, mean - and green
 San Francisco Chronicle: Summitgoers push for sustainable cities
 San Francisco Chronicle: ON THE RECORD: VINOD KHOSLA
 San Francisco Chronicle: Florida moves to restore the Everglades
 San Francisco Chronicle: McCain's voting record suggests inconsistent stance
on green issues
 San Francisco Chronicle: A blight on 'the green city'
 TheEnvironment
Washington Post:
India's green revolutionary is back in spotlight
General
News
 The Washington
Post:
Environmental
Are Balancing Act For McCain
Toronto Star: Science fair projectsStances
go 'greener'
Washington
Post:
and Driver
 The Miami
Herald:
NoCar
answers
to crisis in workforce housing
 USA
Today:
States
remove
local
barriers
eco-friendly homes
The Los Angeles Times: Civilization's
lasttochance
Globe and
Mail: Polar
coming
in from the
cold
 The Chicago
Tribune:
Moreresearch
Iowans is
draw
link between
faith,
protecting
 environment
The Globe and Mail: Light and fruity - with half the alcohol
 The Globe and Mail: Opposition gives Campbell the gears for ignoring carbon
tax in speech
55
UNEP or UN in the News
GM crop foes march in Germany as U.N. summit starts
Reuters
Monday May 12, 2008
BERLIN (Reuters) - About 5,000 activists marched through the German city of Bonn on
Monday to protest against genetically modified food at the start of a U.N. conference to
discuss risks linked to the technology.
Campaigners, many waving colorful flags and banners with slogans such as "Biofuel
Creates Hunger" and "Good Food Instead Of GM Food", walked and danced through the
western German city. Some drove tractors and floats.
"We are protesting for biodiversity and against the destruction of nature, against GM, for
the protection of biodiversity," activist Amira Busch told Reuters Television.
About 2,000 government and non-governmental officials will attend the five-day U.N.
conference in Bonn to discuss global protection measures for the transfer of genetically
modified plants, including rice and soya.
The issue has become particularly sensitive due to a recent surge in food prices which has
sparked anger and protests in some developing countries.
The experts will try to agree on ways to help implement a U.N. agreement on the trading
of living genetically modified organisms called the Cartagena protocol.
In Europe, consumers are fairly skeptical about GM crops but the biotech industry says
its products are as safe as non-GM equivalents.
The conference, which starts on Monday, precedes a bigger summit next week on
biodiversity in Bonn where some 4,000 international experts and government ministers
will try to agree on ways to slow the rate of extinctions.
"We want biodiversity to be part of humanity's wealth and a precondition to overcome
hunger," said Greens EU lawmaker Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf who was on
the march.
"We demand that all other activities, which probably boost industry's profits, do not
endanger food security for future generations," he told Reuters Television. (Reporting by
Reuters Television, Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Matthew Jones)
© Thomson Reuters 2008.
56
http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USL1210604320080512
American Forests Joins UNEP Billion Tree Campaign
American Forests
Monday 12 May 2008
Online tree planting now available for program supported by Nobel Laureate and
Monaco’s HSH Sovereign Prince Albert Contact: Michelle Robbins, (202) 737-1944 x
203
American Forests is proud to announce it is a partner in the United Nations Environment
Programme’s Billion Tree Campaign. The campaign, which targets climate change by
encouraging the planting of at least a billion trees a year, is supported by Nobel laureate
Wangari Maathai and HSH Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco.
Every dollar contributed to American Forests in support of the Billion Tree Campaign
will plant one tree in a Global ReLeaf Forest.
“American Forests is proud to offer its many tree-planting supporters the option of
contributing to the Billion Tree Campaign,” Executive Director Deborah Gangloff said.
“If we all do our part for the environment, we can grow a healthier world with trees.”
She added that she was particularly delighted to be working again with Maathai, who has
been honored by American Forests in the past for her work with Kenya’s Green Belt
Movement, and with HSH Sovereign Prince Albert, who has planted trees in New York
City with American Forests in honor of the victims of 9-11.
American Forests’ Global ReLeaf Forests program plants native species in forest
ecosystems damaged or destroyed by human or natural causes. More than 25 million trees
have been planted in Global ReLeaf Forests in the United States and 22 other countries.
The idea for Plant for the Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign was inspired by Professor
Maathai who is co-patron along with the Prince. When a corporate group in the United
States told Professor Maathai it was planning to plant a million trees, her response was:
“That’s great, but what we really need is to plant a billion trees.”
To contribute to the Billion Tree Campaign through American Forests, visit Donate Trees
To learn more about Plant for the Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign, visit The Billion
Tree Campaign
### American Forests’mission is to grow a healthier world with trees by working with
communities on local efforts that restore and maintain forest ecosystems. Our work
encompasses planting trees, calculating the value of urban forests, fostering
environmental education, and improving public policy for trees at the national level. We
57
have a goal of 100 million trees planted by 2020.
American Forests is on the World Wide Web at www.americanforests.org.
http://www.americanforests.org/news/print.php?id=186
General Environmental News
Startup shows off electric car planned for Israel
Group hopes to sell large number by 2010, but technical issues persist
The Associated Press
MSNBC
Sunday May. 11, 2008
TEL AVIV, Israel - Israelis got a first demonstration Sunday of the electric car that
developers hope will revolutionize transportation in the country and serve as a pilot for
the rest of the world.
The silver car doing circles in a Tel Aviv parking lot looked like a regular sedan —
except it had no exhaust pipe and there was an electric socket where the mouth of the gas
tank should have been.
The Silicon Valley startup Project Better Place hopes the fully electric prototype will be
on Israel's streets in large numbers beginning at the end of 2010.
Backers of the project say the car will drastically reduce dependence on oil, cut emissions
and put Israel at the forefront of international efforts to develop more environmentally
friendly modes of transportation. Israel's government endorsed the project in January, and
a Danish energy company also has joined as a partner.
But experts say technical pitfalls, such as a limited battery range, remain before the car
will be marketable, and other car manufacturers are gambling on gas-electric hybrids as
the green cars of the immediate future.
If the company's plan proceeds on schedule, Israel will be the first country to have
electric cars on its highways in large numbers.
On the dashboard of the Renault sedan presented Sunday, the gas gauge was replaced by
a screen showing how much battery power remained. In a test drive, the car accelerated
quickly — the company says it can go from zero to 60 mph in eight seconds — and the
engine remained nearly inaudible even at high speed.
58
The project is a joint venture between automotive giant Renault-Nissan, which is building
the car, and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Project Better Place, which came up with the business
model and is supposed to operate a recharging grid to be built across Israel beginning in
2009.
Several hundred cars are scheduled to hit Israel's streets in a pilot run next year, the
company says, with larger numbers to arrive in late 2010.
The initiative is being led by Shai Agassi, an Israeli-American entrepreneur and high-tech
wunderkind who raised $200 million to get the project off the ground. He also got Israel's
government to endorse it earlier this year and promise tax incentives to promote the new
vehicles when they go on the market.
At the time, experts said there are still plenty of technical pitfalls that need to be
surmounted before the car becomes available to the general public.
Critics have pointed at the car battery's limited range — 125 miles — as a potentially
major deterrent to consumers.
For long drives, motorists will be able to replace the battery at about 150 swap stations
expected to be built around the country. The battery swap is expected to take the same
amount of time as filling a tank of gas. For shorter journeys, drivers will be able to
recharge the batteries at home or at the office.
Drivers will pay a monthly subscription for the batteries, with different plans like those of
cell phone users. The company says the rates will come to less than the average monthly
expenditure on gasoline.
Following Israel's lead, the Danish energy company DONG Energy AS adopted the
Better Place model in March with a plan to have thousands of cars running on electricity
generated by wind turbines by 2011.
If plans remain on schedule, Israeli consumers will be able to purchase an electric car by
the end of 2010 for around the price of a regular sedan.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24567958/
Pollution busts Okla. mining town
Residents say farewell to lead-laced hills, Superfund site; 'we cry every day'
The Associated Press
MSNBC
59
Monday May. 12, 2008
PICHER, Okla. - They could pass for mourners at a funeral.
They line up along the main drag in front of empty cafes and shops and rusted mining
equipment fenced off with barbed wire. Passing time, some from this blue-jean crowd
press hands and foreheads against windows of stores. Businesses that died so many years
ago it's hard to remember what they sold.
Two fellows with graybeards stand near a telephone pole. They watch for any sign of
action in front of Susie's Thrift and Gift.
"I hate this," the older one laments. "I hate to see Picher go."
"Yeah," the other mumbles, looking down at his shoelaces.
"All those memories."
"Been mined out pretty bad, though."
A town's last stand
When the lead and zinc mines all around here closed down, many folks told themselves
and promised their kids that Picher could go on and even be the same. There would
always be church, high school football and the Dairy Queen.
But that was nearly 40 years ago, and all the praying and wishful thinking can't undo
what's happened here.
People are leaving, escaping the reality of life in one of the worst environmental
nightmares in the country. A voluntary federal buyout is hastening the exodus.
This is a town's last stand.
"Ol' Picher is just like the rest of us, she's 90 years old and on her last legs," says Orval
"Hoppy" Ray, who worked the mines in the 1940s and runs a drafty pool hall in town.
Ray reveals the stubbornness that comes with 82 years of living: He and dozens of other
holdouts will not leave, even when there is no city water or police department. No matter
how much he's offered for his property, his place will remain open until he's dead.
"I don't think the lights will ever go out," Ray says, but there's something in his voice that
leaves room for doubt.
His birthplace is the center of the Tar Creek Superfund site, a 40-square-mile area that
also takes in portions of Missouri and Kansas.
60
Honeycombed with mines
For decades, before Picher became a town, miners carved miles of tunnels under its land,
and the bounty of lead ore they recovered made bullets for both world wars. Neighboring
communities were also undercut.
During its boom, Picher's population peaked at 20,000. Saloons and movie parlors lined
the streets.
It was a rough-and-tumble way of life: fistfights just for the heck of it, plenty of bravado
and wasted paychecks and the understanding that if you were old enough to work a shift
in a mine, you were old enough to down a shot of whiskey.
Picher's mines closed around 1970; the wounds they inflicted on the people and land
never healed.
Acid waters, land of sinkholes
Today, Tar Creek runs orange with acidic water that flooded the mines. Cave-ins and
sinkholes threaten; a mine collapse in 1967 took nine homes.
Bleak, gray mountains of lead-contaminated chat, or mine tailings, loom around town.
Some rise 100 feet and look like sand dunes. They have names like Sooner, St. Joe and
Golden Rod 8.
For years, before most knew better, the gravel-coated piles doubled as sledding hills for
kids, a Lover's Lane for teenagers and a makeshift proving grounds for dirt bikes and the
high school's track team.
It will take at least 15 more years to haul the stuff off, for use in highway construction
projects, but that's not soon enough.
The polluted dust that blows through every nook of this place has already affected a
generation.
In the 1990s, a study found elevated blood lead levels in Tar Creek-area children, and
teachers began noticing years ago that students were learning more slowly and couldn't
focus.
"Don't Put Lead in Your Head," says a sign still hanging next to City Hall, showing a
drawing of a smiling child.
Adults suffered, too. Natives like John Sparkman began having high blood pressure in
their 20s. He lost his sister to Lou Gehrig's disease when she was 41, and would lay odds
pollution caused it.
61
"I would've liked to have seen the town located somewhere else, but no one wanted to see
it happen," says Sparkman, who works for the town housing authority. "It should've
ended in the 1960s."
The federal government has stepped in with a plan to relocate residents, a buyout
program that could cost $60 million.
As of April, nearly 800 applications had been turned in by home and business owners,
according to the Lead-Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust.
More than 300 offers have been made so far and of those, 272 accepted. Only a handful
of offers were rejected.
The payouts won't make anyone rich — a 1,200 square-foot home fetches around
$60,000 — but most residents believe this is the only ticket out of the depressed area.
The town has been whittled down to 800 people. Most businesses are long gone. The
truck stop on the edge of town closed when unleaded was going for $2.79 a gallon. The
school system is down to 99 kids and already axed extracurricular activities like band, art
and sports.
But there are the holdouts, perhaps as many as 30 families, who plan to stay put.
"They thought they were going to live here for the rest of their lives," says Larry Roberts,
a former state lawmaker and operations manager of the relocation trust.
Why remain at a Superfund site?
Candie Crites tries to explain, even as the ground under her feet rumbles almost every
day. A mine shaft lies just on the south side of her driveway, 15 feet from her shotgun
house in Cardin, a spit away from Picher. When the tremors come, it sounds like a
dynamite blast and shakes windows.
But she can't leave the land she's lived on for decades, where the forsythias her parents
planted bloom and the best memories with her late husband were made.
"It hurts to see what's going on, it's literally like tearing away pages of your life or layers
of your skin," Crites says, sobbing.
Hoppy Ray's son, Steven, is also staying. Stubborn like his old man, the 61-year-old
rattles off reasons why he thinks this place can be something again.
What about the city water being turned off? "It will turn into a rural water system."
Or living in a deserted city? "No more lonely than if you lived out in the country."
62
The lead pollution, then? "I've got four college degrees, and I grew up playing in the chat
piles and swimming in the mill ponds. If I'm lead-damaged, by God, what would I have
been, another Albert Einstein?"
If 67-year-old Roberta Richards had her way, she'd probably stay, too, but she's afraid to
make a go in a town without law and order.
Sentimental strongholds
She hopes to get $70,000 for her house and is looking at a new place about 25 miles
away. The hardest thing for her will be getting used to life without her daughter and
grandkids as neighbors.
Some who left as the mines were closing are still sentimental about the place.
Steve Darnell remembers playing football on a field coated with lead dust and a town big
enough to have two hospitals, three movie theaters and a bowling alley.
He sympathizes with the holdouts, but doesn't pretend to know what's in store for them if
they stay.
"You can only go so far," says the 55-year-old, who now lives in Missouri. "It's not that
much different than a gold-bust town."
Sirens cut the silence. Police and fire vehicles have lined up, and it's about to begin now,
the parade marking Picher's 90th — and perhaps last — birthday. Something like 300
people have turned out to pay last respects.
"We cry every day," moans resident Louise Blalock, waiting in her minivan for the
procession to start. "It's like a death, really."
"For what it is, I'm losing my heritage," says Steven Meador, who moved out of Picher in
1986 and lives in small town nearby.
"I feel like it's the end. That's why I'm here. This is it for me," says Norma Jean Skinner,
who made the pilgrimage from California to say a proper goodbye.
Cars, pickups and motorcycles roll by. Locals on the floats toss suckers and Tootsie Rolls
into the street, but many of the candies aren't scooped up because there are so few kids
left here.
The parade ends at the Paul Thomas Funeral Home.
'It's just fading away'
After the parade, folks gather at the elementary school cafeteria for a reception.
63
Honky-tonk music sets the mood, and couples get up from bowls of beans and cornbread
for one final twirl around the floor.
Paul Thomas, the town's silver-haired undertaker, sits in the back, dressed in a dark suit.
The 84-year-old has buried much of this town and can remember the days when Picher's
streets were crowded.
"It's just fading away," Thomas says, looking straight ahead. "It just keeps getting smaller
and smaller."
The people shouted, line-danced and swapped stories into the afternoon about first kisses,
favorite teachers and long-gone eateries like the Chili King.
For a few more hours, they were the kings and queens of Picher, and no one could tell
them this wouldn't last forever.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24555711/
AccuWeather: 12 named storms in '08 hurricane season
Reuters
Monday May 12, 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The 2008 Caribbean hurricane season will be near average in
the number of storms, but there is a higher risk of a destructive storm hitting the East
Coast, AccuWeather.com predicted on Monday.
Joe Bastardi, AccuWeather's chief long-range and hurricane forecaster, said in an updated
forecast he expects a total of 12 named storms in the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season.
In April, he said the 2008 season would be slightly above average, seeing 12 to 13 named
storms, with up to four becoming hurricanes and with the center of the target area the
U.S. Southeast coastline.
In his latest forecast, Bastardi said a high percentage of tropical storms would make
landfall and that the major threat area is further north than normal.
A weakening La Nina weather anomaly and near-normal or below-normal water
temperature in most of the tropical breeding grounds of the Caribbean and south Atlantic
"will reduce the overall number of storms," Bastardi said in a release.
64
"However, with warm waters near the north Atlantic coastline, storms may form closer to
the coast, resulting in a higher-than-average storm threat on the East Coast, from the
Carolinas to New England," he added.
Bastardi believes at least 40 percent of the named storms will be of tropical or hurricane
strength on the U.S. coastline. That is about 1.6 times the norm.
Two or three storms will bring at least tropical storm force winds to the coastline between
Florida and New England, including one or two that bring hurricane force winds, and one
major hurricane, Bastardi said in his latest forecast.
For the Gulf of Mexico, he forecast two or three storms would affect the energy
infrastructure in and around the Gulf and bring at least tropical storm force winds to the
Gulf Coast, including one or two that bring hurricane force winds.
Average hurricane seasons have 10 named storms.
(Reporting by Haitham Haddadin; Editing by John Picinich)
© Thomson Reuters 2008.
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1248848620080512?feedType=
RSS&feedName=environmentNews
McCain pledges to combat climate change
By Tim Gaynor
Reuters
Monday May 12, 2008
PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - Republican John McCain pledged to take the lead in
combating global climate change if elected president in a speech that set him apart from
the policies of President George W. Bush.
In remarks he prepared to give at a wind technology firm in Portland, Oregon, on
Monday, the Arizona senator said he would seek international accords to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, and would offer an incentive system to make businesses in the
United States cleaner.
"The facts of global warming demand our urgent attention, especially in Washington,"
McCain said in remarks he planned to give at the Vestas Wind Technology plant.
"Good stewardship, prudence, and simple common sense demand that we act to meet the
challenge, and act quickly," he added.
65
McCain is visiting Oregon where Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama is favored to beat
Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary on May 20.
The speech set McCain apart from fellow Republican Bush, who has been skeptical about
global warming throughout his eight-year term, and was calibrated to win support from
independents and centrist Democrats he will need to convince to win office in the
November election.
"I will not shirk the mantle of leadership that the United States bears. I will not permit
eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges," he added.
If elected president, McCain said he would push for "meaningful environmental
protocols" that included developing industrial powers India and China, to seek to cut
worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
He planned to present a so-called cap and trade system to Congress that sets clear limits
on all greenhouse gas emissions for U.S. businesses, while also allowing the sale of rights
to excess emissions, so as to "change the dynamic" of the U.S. energy economy.
"Those who want clean coal technology, more wind and solar, nuclear power, biomass
and bio-fuels will have their opportunity through a new market that rewards those and
other innovations in clean energy," he said.
McCain said the plan would set out specific goals on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions,
including a return by 2012 to 2005 levels of emission, and by 2020 to 1990s levels.
McCain has campaigned on his support for alternative energy sources including wind,
solar and biomass technologies in his run for the White House, as well as support for
nuclear power.
(Editing by Eric Beech)
© Thomson Reuters 2008.
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN0841830720080512?feedType=
RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Japan scientists warn Arctic ice melting fast
Reuters
Monday May 12, 2008
TOKYO (Reuters) - Arctic ice is melting fast and the area covered by ice sheets in ocean
could shrink this summer to the smallest since 1978 when satellite observation first
started, Japanese scientists warned in a report.
66
Ice sheets in the Arctic Ocean shrank to the smallest area on record in late summer in
2007, researchers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said in a report on the
website (http://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/imgdata/topics/2008/tp080430.html).
"The sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has continued to shrink since the beginning of April in
such momentum to approach last year's levels," they said in the report based on an
analysis of satellite images.
The area covered with perennial ice in the Arctic Ocean has receded "drastically" in
recent years, falling to nearly half the area observed in 2005, they said.
"The reduction of areas covered with perennial ice means the overall ice in the Arctic
Ocean is thinner and thinner year after year," the report added.
The researchers made no mention of human-fueled climate change that could be blamed
for thinner Arctic ice.
The conservation group WWF said last month that Arctic ice may be melting faster than
most climate change science has concluded.
WWF said that climate change has already affected all aspects of ecology in the Arctic,
including the region's oceans, sea ice, ice sheets, snow and permafrost.
(Reporting by Teruaki Ueno; Editing by David Fox)
© Thomson Reuters 2008.
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUST22148420080512?feedType=RS
S&feedName=environmentNews
Spain to help fight hunger, climate change in Africa
By Abdoulaye Massalatchi
Reuters
Monday May 12, 2008
NIAMEY, May 12 (Reuters) - Spain plans to help five poor African countries fight
hunger and climate change under a 60 million euro ($90 million) scheme to help the
continent whose people flood to Spain in their tens of thousands each year.
Spanish First Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega announced the
aid package ahead of a Spanish-African women's conference opening on Monday in
Niger, one of many African nations struggling to cope with high world food prices.
"With this plan, Spain hopes to relaunch agriculture, fight desertification and promote
appropriate management of water resources, along with marketing fish, farming products
and renewable energy," de la Vega told delegates late on Sunday.
67
The programme would cover Burkina Faso, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and
Niger.
"We are committed to helping these countries in their efforts to counter the effects of
climate change on food security. The rise in food prices is a worry and requires an
international response," she said.
Erratic weather, rising demand for food from increasingly affluent Asian countries, the
use of land and food crops for biofuels, and investors speculating on world futures
markets have driven up food prices around the world in the past year.
The Spanish aid plan consists of 25 million euros to fight the causes and effects of food
insecurity, 25 million more for water and environmental projects, and 10 million for
related programmes run by non-governmental organisations.
De la Vega said Spain was also giving Niger 10 million euros for 2008 to fight poverty
under a cooperation agreement, along with 300,000 euros to reinforce border security.
She said the Niger aid package would include 1.3 million euros to top up Niger's strategic
food reserve.
Niger, like other countries in West Africa and beyond, has eased tax on food imports this
year to cushion the effects of high prices on its poorest families.
The country is one of the world's poorest, with one in five children dying before their
fifth birthday. Even if the next harvest is successful, aid agencies fear high food prices
could put decent nutrition beyond the reach of millions of people.
In 2005 widespread hunger in Niger sparked an international emergency programme to
distribute food aid.
Tens of thousands of young people set out from West Africa each year in the hope of
finding work and better lives in Europe, many putting ashore on Spain's Canary Islands
after treacherous voyages.
Spain has signed a series of aid agreements with West African countries, hoping to fight
poverty and improve cooperation in controlling the flow of departing migrants. (For full
Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com)
(Writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Giles Elgood)
© Thomson Reuters 2008.
68
http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USL12142059._CH_.2400
Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
The New York Times
Monday 12 May 2008
DENVER — With the price of gas approaching $4 a gallon, more commuters are
abandoning their cars and taking the train or bus instead.
Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus
lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail
stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow
by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.
“In almost every transit system I talk to, we’re seeing very high rates of growth the last
few months,” said William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation
Association.
“It’s very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by
people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.”
Some cities with long-established public transit systems, like New York and Boston, have
seen increases in ridership of 5 percent or more so far this year. But the biggest surges —
of 10 to 15 percent or more over last year — are occurring in many metropolitan areas in
the South and West where the driving culture is strongest and bus and rail lines are more
limited.
Here in Denver, for example, ridership was up 8 percent in the first three months of the
year compared with last year, despite a fare increase in January and a slowing economy,
which usually means fewer commuters. Several routes on the system have reached
capacity, particularly at rush hour, for the first time.
“We are at a tipping point,” said Clarence W. Marsella, chief executive of the Denver
Regional Transportation District, referring to gasoline prices.
Transit systems in metropolitan areas like Minneapolis, Seattle, Dallas-Fort Worth and
San Francisco reported similar jumps. In cities like Houston, Nashville, Salt Lake City,
and Charlotte, N.C., commuters in growing numbers are taking advantage of new bus and
train lines built or expanded in the last few years. The American Public Transportation
Association reports that localities with fewer than 100,000 people have also experienced
large increases in bus ridership.
In New York, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority reports that ridership was up the
first three months of the year by more than 5 percent on the Long Island Rail Road and
the Metro-North Railroad, while M.T.A. bus ridership was up 10.9 percent. New York
69
City subway use was up 6.8 percent for January and February. Ridership on New Jersey
Transit trains was up more than 5 percent for the first three months of the year.
The increase in transit use coincides with other signs that American motorists are
beginning to change their driving habits, including buying smaller vehicles. The Energy
Department recently predicted that Americans would consume slightly less gasoline this
year than last — for the first yearly decline since 1991.
Oil prices broke yet another record on Friday, climbing $2.27, to $125.96 a barrel. The
national average for regular unleaded gasoline reached $3.67 a gallon, up from $3.04 a
year ago, according to AAA.
But meeting the greater demand for mass transit is proving difficult. The cost of fuel and
power for public transportation is about three times that of four years ago, and the
slowing economy means local sales tax receipts are down, so there is less money
available for transit services. Higher steel prices are making planned expansions more
expensive.
Typically, mass transit systems rely on fares to cover about a third of their costs, so they
depend on sales taxes and other government funding. Few states use gas tax revenue for
mass transit.
In Denver, transportation officials expected to pay $2.62 a gallon for diesel this year, but
they are now paying $3.20. Every penny increase costs the Denver Regional
Transportation District an extra $100,000 a year. And it is bracing for a $19 million
shortfall in sales taxes this year from original projections.
“I’d like to put more buses on the street,” Mr. Marsella said. “I can’t expand service as
much as I’d like to.”
Average annual growth from sales tax revenue for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, a
rail service that connects San Francisco with Oakland, has been 4.5 percent over the last
15 years. It expects that to fall to 2 percent this year, and electricity costs are rising.
“This is a year of abundant caution and concern,” said Dorothy W. Dugger, BART’s
general manager, even though ridership on the line was up nearly 5 percent in the first
quarter of the year.
Nevertheless, Ms. Dugger is happy that mass transit is winning over converts. “The
future of mass transit in this country has never been brighter,” she said.
Other factors may be driving people to mass transit, too. Wireless computers turn travel
time into productive work time, and more companies are offering workers subsidies to
take buses or trains. Traffic congestion is getting worse in many cities, and parking more
expensive.
70
Michael Brewer, an accountant who had always driven the 36-mile trip to downtown
Houston from the suburb of West Belford, said he had been thinking about switching to
the bus for the last two years. The final straw came when he put $100 of gas into his
Pontiac over four days a couple of weeks ago.
“Finally I was ready to trade my independence for the savings,” he said while waiting for
a bus.
Brayden Portillo, a freshman at the University of Colorado Denver, drove from his home
in the northern suburbs to the downtown campus in his Jeep Cherokee the entire first
semester of the school year, enjoying the rap and disco music blasting from his CD
player.
He switched to the bus this semester because he was spending $40 a week on gas — half
his salary as a part-time store clerk. “Finally, I thought this is stupid,” he said, and he is
using the savings to pay down a credit card debt.
The sudden jump in ridership comes after several years of steady, gradual growth.
Americans took 10.3 billion trips on public transportation last year, up 2.1 percent from
2006. Transit managers are predicting growth of 5 percent or more this year, the largest
increase in at least a decade.
“If we are in a recession or economic downturn, we should be seeing a stagnation or
decrease in ridership, but we are not,” said Daniel Grabauskas, general manager of the
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which serves the Boston area. “Fuel prices
are without question the single most important factor that is driving people to public
transportation.”
Some cities are seeing spectacular gains. The Charlotte Area Transit System, which has a
new light rail line, reported that it logged more than two million trips in February, up
more than 34 percent from February 2007.
Caltrain, the commuter rail line that serves the San Francisco Peninsula and the Santa
Clara Valley, set a record for average weekday ridership in February of 36,993, a 9.3
increase from 2007, according to its most recent public calculation.
The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which operates a commuter rail
system from Miami to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, posted a rise of more than
20 percent in rider numbers this March and April as monthly ridership climbed to
350,000.
“Nobody believed that people would actually give up their cars to ride public
transportation,” said Joseph J. Giulietti, executive director of the authority. “But in the
last year, and last several months in particular, we have seen exactly that.”
71
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/business/10transit.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slog
in&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1210612297aMB/gq+Gs86N3cO7RfiirQ
Joseph Egan, Lawyer Who Fought Nuclear Waste Site, Is Dead at 53
By MATTHEW L. WALD
The New York Times
Monday 12 May 2008
WASHINGTON — Joseph R. Egan, a nuclear engineer-turned-lawyer who led Nevada’s
legal campaign to block a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, died Wednesday at his
home in Naples, Fla. He was 53.
The cause was gastroesophageal cancer, his family said.
Mr. Egan, in an obituary he wrote weeks ago that was posted on his law firm’s Web site
after his death, said that he had arranged for his ashes to be spread at Yucca Mountain, in
Southern Nevada, with the words “radwaste buried here only over my dead body.”
Mr. Egan’s wife, Patricia, said by telephone on Friday that Mr. Egan had been cremated,
adding, “We are going to do it.”
Legal challenges by Mr. Egan’s firm, Egan, Fitzpatrick & Malsch, have helped set back
the Energy Department’s project at Yucca by years. In 2001 he filed a lawsuit raising a
variety of legal objections to the site, which was chosen by Congress. In 2004 the United
States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed with one challenge,
that the repository should be judged over one million years, not over 10,000 years as the
Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency had planned. The Yucca
project’s fate is not clear today, 10 years after it was to have opened.
Mr. Egan’s specialties included nuclear nonproliferation law. He lobbied the federal
government to take back highly enriched uranium that could be useful in a weapons
program but had been exported to various countries under the Atoms for Peace program
beginning in the 1950s.
On behalf of workers and an environmental group, he sued Lockheed Martin for illegal
waste storage and disposal when it operated a government-owned uranium enrichment
plant in Paducah, Ky. The Justice Department later joined the lawsuit. He filed an
antitrust suit against the operator of a nuclear waste dump in Utah on behalf of a client
who wanted to open a competing dump in Texas. (The suit was settled after the Texas
site opened.)
Mr. Egan earned an undergraduate degree in physics from M.I.T., and then two master’s
degrees, in nuclear engineering and in technology and policy. He worked as a nuclear
reactor engineer for Commonwealth Edison in Illinois and later for the New York Power
Authority. He received a law degree from Columbia University, and was a partner at
72
Shaw Pittman in Washington and a senior associate at LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae
in New York before founding his own firm in Washington.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Egan is survived by two children, Jennifer and Warren, of
Naples; his parents, Dick and Lucy Egan of Melrose, Minn., where Mr. Egan grew up; a
brother, Timothy, of Billings, Mont.; and three sisters, Michelle Langlas of Naples and
Anne Gant and Denise Loonan, both of Minneapolis.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/us/12egan.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewan
ted=print
Earth to Young People: Help!
By ELIZABETH ROYTE
The New York Times
Sunday 11 May 2008
By the MySpace Community with Jeca Taudte.
Illustrated. 166 pp. The Bowen Press/HarperCollins Publishers. $12.99. (Ages 14 and up)
Environmental consciousness-raising is a big thing now in children’s books, and that’s
good. But as a genre, it can be kind of a bummer, which may explain why it doesn’t bring
in nearly the returns of, say, fantasy novels. DK Publishing’s “Earth Matters” is a perfect
example of why.
This “family encyclopedia of ecology” is filled with gorgeous photographs, and its
layouts, typefaces and bright colors are worthy of a high-end fashion magazine. Light on
text, it’s a celebratory review of earth basics: what characterizes the different biomes (or
habitats), who and what lives where, a review of the carbon and water cycles and some
random factoids (“walruses can walk on all four fins as fast as a man can run”). Such
tidbits might come in handy for a third-grade report, but only if you can remember that
the book has a spread on, say, dragonflies, but not on any other insect.
While beautiful to look at it, “Earth Matters” is ultimately less of an encyclopedia and
more of a thesaurus of anthropogenic doom. Hardly a page passes without a reminder that
the world’s glories, from wetlands to dry lands, are dying, and we have killed them. The
text is peppered with “people are worried,” “victim to human activity,” “last great
wilderness,” “may disappear entirely,” “dieback,” “die” and “devastating.” Not only have
we “upset the balance of the atmosphere,” we’re also making too much trash, polluting
the poles, drying out forests, overgrazing, overhunting, overfishing, overdeveloping and
creating conditions that drown newborn caribou calves. Check your impulse to visit the
awesome places pictured: ski runs eliminate trees, mountain bikes harm soil and hotels
destroy habitat.
If your child is prone to melancholy, you might want to keep this book hidden until he’s
ready to cope. But if he enjoys a challenge, don’t hold back. Each chapter ends with a
73
few pages on “Making a Difference,” where readers get tips on saving water, enhancing
backyard habitat and so on. Most are doable, but some are bound to frustrate (readers are
sent to the rabbit hole of www.epa.gov to learn waste reduction tips, rather than to a more
specific U.R.L.).
In “MySpace/OurPlanet: Change Is Possible,” the sorry state of the earth is a given. A cofounder of MySpace, Tom Anderson, writes in the introduction, “It’s pretty clear that
unless we do something, and fast, we could be damaging the Earth beyond the point
where it could repair itself.” A couple more pages of doom and we’re done: Now, let’s
roll up our sleeves. If “Earth Matters” is Eeyore, then “MySpace/OurPlanet” is Lisa
Simpson.
With simple two-color line drawings (and compliments to both publishers for using
vegetable inks, skipping dust jackets and including at least some recycled paper), this
book is blessedly straightforward. And while it’s hard to put a fresh spin on the same old
eco tips (shorten your shower; say no to both paper and plastic bags),
“MySpace/OurPlanet” makes its point with a sassy tone and a bold call for systemwide
environmental revolution. Not only must individuals do their part, but so must schools,
farmers, industry and every level of government. Change is possible, this book insists, so
get off your keister and do something (unless, of course, you’re busy posting about your
eco-deeds on MySpace).
This is the first book by “the MySpace community,” and though that numbers more than
200 million people over a wide age range, the text is geared toward tweens and teenagers.
The idea is to get this crucial group of consumers to reduce the impact of how they eat,
shop (for clothes, makeup, presents), do laundry, use electronics, date, give parties and
travel on spring break. This book is both breezier and more demanding of its readers than
“Earth Matters”: it tells them not only to shower less often and fill the bathtub half full
but to quit washing their jeans after only one wearing. Radical! Here’s another
progressive suggestion: before buying something, ask yourself twice, “Do I need this?”
The book debunks myths (your computer’s sleep mode saves a bit of energy, but in fact
not nearly as much as standby mode) and it sorts actions into green, greener or greenest
(“drive a hybrid,” “take the bus” or “ride a bike”). Suggestions come in micro (switch to
a refillable water bottle) and macro (change your diet to local and organic). Then there
are the things to do “Right Now.” I particularly liked “read an environmental news site
for a week,” then write a letter to an editor or representative “and tell them why ecoaction is important to you and what you want them to do about it.” Readers are urged to
start environmental clubs, learn the history of environmental law, join protest marches,
vote. And if no one represents you, “think about running for office yourself.”
“MySpace/OurPlanet” is padded with MySpace members’ posts (most containing
misspellings) and has a weird fascination with celebrities, even urging readers to “friend
celebrities known to be eco-friendly, and leave them a friendly shout-out.” Still, I closed
this book feeling not only hopeful but enthused — if not to “friend” Cameron Diaz then
74
to temper my pessimism about today’s youth. If this book represents a fraction of their
zeal for treading more lightly on the planet, there’s hope for everyone.
Elizabeth Royte is the author of “Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash” and
“Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/books/review/Roytet.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
Change We Can Stomach
By DAN BARBER
The New York Times
Sunday 11 May 2008
TARRYTOWN, N.Y.
COOKING, like farming, for all its down-home community spirit, is essentially a solitary
craft. But lately it’s feeling more like a lonely burden. Finding guilt-free food for our
menus — food that’s clean, green and humane — is about as easy as securing a housing
loan. And we’re suddenly paying more — 75 percent more in the last six years — to
stock our pantries. Around the world, from Cairo to Port-au-Prince, increases in food
prices have governments facing riots born of shortages and hunger. It’s enough to make
you want to toss in the toque.
But here’s the good news: if you’re a chef, or an eater who cares about where your food
comes from (and there are a lot of you out there), we can have a hand in making food for
the future downright delicious.
Farming has the potential to go through the greatest upheaval since the Green Revolution,
bringing harvests that are more healthful, sustainable and, yes, even more flavorful. The
change is being pushed along by market forces that influence how our farmers farm.
Until now, food production has been controlled by Big Agriculture, with its macho
fixation on “average tonnage” and “record harvests.” But there’s a cost to its breadbasketto-the-world bragging rights. Like those big Industrial Age factories that once billowed
black smoke, American agriculture is mired in a mind-set that relies on capital, chemistry
and machines. Food production is dependent on oil, in the form of fertilizers and
pesticides, in the distances produce travels from farm to plate and in the energy it takes to
process it.
For decades, environmentalists and small farmers have claimed that this is several kinds
of madness. But industrial agriculture has simply responded that if we’re feeding more
people more cheaply using less land, how terrible can our food system be?
Now that argument no longer holds true. With the price of oil at more than $120 a barrel
(up from less than $30 for most of the last 50 years), small and midsize nonpolluting
farms, the ones growing the healthiest and best-tasting food, are gaining a competitive
75
advantage. They aren’t as reliant on oil, because they use fewer large machines and less
pesticide and fertilizer.
In fact, small farms are the most productive on earth. A four-acre farm in the United
States nets, on average, $1,400 per acre; a 1,364-acre farm nets $39 an acre. Big farms
have long compensated for the disequilibrium with sheer quantity. But their economies of
scale come from mass distribution, and with diesel fuel costing more than $4 per gallon
in many locations, it’s no longer efficient to transport food 1,500 miles from where it’s
grown.
The high cost of oil alone will not be enough to reform American agriculture, however.
As long as agricultural companies exploit the poor and extract labor from them at slave
wages, and as long as they aren’t required to pay the price for the pollution they so
brazenly produce, their system will stay afloat. If financially pinched Americans opt for
the cheapest (and the least healthful) foods rather than cook their own, the food industry
will continue to reach for the lowest common denominator.
But it is possible to nudge the revolution along — for instance, by changing how we
measure the value of food. If we stop calculating the cost per quantity and begin
considering the cost per nutrient value, the demand for higher-quality food would rise.
Organic fruits and vegetables contain 40 percent more nutrients than their chemical-fed
counterparts. And animals raised on pasture provide us with meat and dairy products
containing more beta carotene and at least three times as much C.L.A. (conjugated
linoleic acid, shown in animal studies to reduce the risk of cancer) than those raised on
grain.
Where good nutrition goes, flavor tends to follow. Chefs are the first to admit that an
impossibly sweet, flavor-filled carrot has nothing to do with our work. It has to do with
growing the right seed in healthy, nutrient-rich soil.
Increasingly we can see the wisdom of diversified farming operations, where there are
built-in relationships among plants and animals. A dairy farm can provide manure for a
neighboring potato farm, for example, which can in turn offer potato scraps as extra feed
for the herd. When crops and livestock are judiciously mixed, agriculture wisely mimics
nature.
To encourage small, diversified farms is not to make a nostalgic bid to revert to the
agrarian ways of our ancestors. It is to look toward the future, leapfrogging past the age
of heavy machinery and pollution, to farms that take advantage of the sun’s free energy
and use the waste of one species as food for another.
Chefs can help move our food system into the future by continuing to demand the most
flavorful food. Our support of the local food movement is an important example of this
approach, but it’s not enough. As demand for fresh, local food rises, we cannot continue
to rely entirely on farmers’ markets. Asking every farmer to plant, harvest, drive his
pickup truck to a market and sell his goods there is like asking me to cook, take
reservations, serve and wash the dishes.
76
We now need to support a system of well-coordinated regional farm networks, each
suited to the food it can best grow. Farmers organized into marketing networks that can
promote their common brands (like the Organic Valley Family of Farms in the Midwest)
can ease the economic and ecological burden of food production and transportation. They
can also distribute their products to new markets, including poor communities that have
relied mainly on food from convenience stores.
Similar networks could also operate in the countries that are now experiencing food
shortages. For years, the United States has flooded the world with food exports,
displacing small farmers and disrupting domestic markets. As escalating food prices
threaten an additional 100 million people with hunger, a new concept of humanitarian aid
is required. Local farming efforts focused on conserving natural resources and
biodiversity are essential to improving food security in developing countries, as a report
just published by the International Assessment of Agriculture Science and Technology
for Development has concluded. We must build on these tenets, providing financial and
technical assistance to small farmers across the world.
But regional systems will work only if there is enough small-scale farming going on to
make them viable. With a less energy-intensive food system in place, we will need more
muscle power devoted to food production, and more people on the farm. (The need is
especially urgent when you consider that the average age of today’s American farmer is
over 55.) In order to move gracefully into a post-industrial agriculture economy, we also
need to rethink how we educate the people who will grow our food. Land-grant
universities and agricultural schools, dependent on financing from agribusiness, focus on
maximum extraction from the land — take more, sell more, waste more.
Leave our agricultural future to chefs and anyone who takes food and cooking seriously.
We never bought into the “bigger is better” mantra, not because it left us too dependent
on oil, but because it never produced anything really good to eat. Truly great cooking —
not faddish 1.5-pound rib-eye steaks with butter sauce, but food that has evolved from the
world’s thriving peasant cuisines — is based on the correspondence of good farming to a
healthy environment and good nutrition. It’s never been any other way, and we should be
grateful. The future belongs to the gourmet.
Dan Barber is the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/opinion/11barber.html
Why pump prices need to stay high
A tax on fossil fuels will cut greenhouse gases – as Sweden has done since 1991.
The Christian Science Monitor
Monday May 12, 2008 edition
Driving less? More than two-thirds of car owners already are. It's a natural reflex to $50$70 tank fill-ups. But US drivers may also know it's time to pay a price to curb global
77
warming. That may be one reason they reject the campaign stunt of urging a holiday for
the federal gas tax.
US politicians can't have it both ways. Most seek the type of solutions for climate change
that would raise energy costs, yet they are now trying to prevent the very kind of high
pump prices that help drive conservation and green technology.
Next year, Democrats in Congress plan to pass antiglobal-warming measures that are sure
to drive up consumer costs. Rather than prevent $4-a-gallon gas now, legislators should
welcome it. One courageous lawmaker, John Dingell (D), who heads the House energy
panel, even proposes a 50-cent hike in the gas tax.
World oil markets are doing the US a favor by imposing a form of tax that challenges
energy profligacy and disregard for the planet's future. A gas price threshold has now
been reached to influence behavior. SUV sales are down. Mass transit ridership and
carpooling are up. More people want to live closer to work.
What do these lifestyle-altering trends signal? That Congress must impose a "carbon" tax
on fossil-fuel use, from electric utilities to home furnaces to gas-guzzling vehicles.
Such a tax is a better tool than the alternative favored in Congress: a "cap and trade"
system that would force only industries to curb greenhouse gases while allowing cleaner
companies to sell permits to more polluting ones. The system is complex, inflexible, and
easily abused.
A carbon tax (with progressive rebates for the poor) would directly make lawmakers
accountable for taking action on global warming, while providing revenue for innovation
in clean energy. In a February report, the Congressional Budget Office found a carbon tax
would be five times more effective in reducing carbon emissions than a cap-and-trade
market.
Is there a model for a carbon tax? Yes, Sweden has had one since 1991. While it has not
been perfectly implemented, the Nordic nation of 9.2 million people has seen a 9 percent
drop in carbon dioxide emissions – more than required under the Kyoto treaty – while
maintaining a healthy economy and becoming a "clean tech" leader. A German
environmental group finds Sweden has done the most of all countries to protect the
climate. It also helps that the country relies on nuclear and hydro power for all its
electricity.
Sweden, of course, has done more than simply tax fossil fuel. It's created bicycle lanes,
encouraged "green" cars and buses, favored heat pumps over oil furnaces, put a toll on
driving in Stockholm, and invested in renewable energies and recycling of waste heat,
among other steps. The government now taxes vehicles based on carbon dioxide
emissions rather than weight, helping Sweden become the leader in Europe in reducing
carbon emissions from new cars.
78
The initial reason for a carbon tax was Sweden's dependency on imported fossil fuel.
Now its success in improving national energy security has made it a global model for
achieving climate security.
Most of all, Swedes still welcome the tax. Americans can accept a similar sacrifice rather
than trying to roll back prices at the pump.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0512/p08s01-comv.html
EPA testing air after twister in toxic Okla. town
By MURRAY EVANS, Associated Press
Yahoo
Monday 12 May 2008
The Environmental Protection Agency planned to check for high lead levels Monday
after a deadly tornado blew through a heavily polluted former mining town where leadfilled waste is piled into giant mounds.
The tornado was one of several that combined to kill 22 people in the Midwest and the
South over the weekend, raising the nation's 2008 total to about 100, the worst toll in a
decade.
This year is on pace to see the most deaths since 130 people were killed in 1998, the
eighth highest total since 1950, according to the National Weather Service. The record is
519 tornado-related deaths in 1953.
In Picher, the devastation was complicated by the town's status as one of the most
polluted Superfund sites in the nation. But Miles Tolbert, the Oklahoma secretary of the
environment, said he did not think there was an immediate public health hazard to the
800 residents. He did say more testing is needed to be certain.
Long-term exposure to lead dust poses a health risk, particularly to young children.
On Saturday, a tornado with the second-strongest rating killed six people, destroyed a 20block area and blew dust off mountains of mining waste, or chat piles.
"You can look at the chat piles and see that a lot of the material has blown off," said John
Sparkman, head of the Picher housing authority. "We went up on a chat pile an hour and
a half after the tornado hit, and you could see dust blowing fine material all over the place
from that vantage point."
In all, 22 people were killed in the tornado outbreak in Oklahoma, Missouri and Georgia.
79
Meanwhile, law enforcement officers and the Oklahoma National Guard patrolled the
Picher overnight into Monday to prevent looting, said Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman
for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
National Weather Service assessment teams determined the twister that hit Picher had an
EF-4 rating, the second highest rating, and was 1 mile wide at its widest point,
meteorologist Mike Teague said Monday.
The tornado's winds were estimated at 165 to 175 mph, and the damage track stretched
74 miles — 29 in Oklahoma and another 45 in Missouri, where 15 people were killed.
"These storms are fairly rare to be that strong. The devastation was nearly complete in a
few areas," Teague said. "Albeit isolated, there were some sections of neighborhoods
where houses were just completely taken off the foundation. Gone."
The tornado could be the ultimate incentive for those 800 or so residents who have been
reluctant to leave, now that most of their homes have been ruined, Sparkman said.
One of those residents, Sue Sigle, had been hoping the government would offer more
money for her home before she moves away from this pollution-scarred town. Then the
tornado came.
As she began the task of salvage Sunday, Sigle kept a smile on her face, noting that she
was fortunate to be visiting family in Missouri when the massive twister hit.
"I'm OK with everything," Sigle said. "The Lord is going to take care of anything. ... I
was going to move anyway. I guess I'll just have to move sooner."
That sense of inevitability appeared to grip residents as they picked through the remnants
of their homes. The lead and zinc mines that made Picher a booming town of about
20,000 in the mid-20th century closed decades ago; leftover waste has turned the area
into an environmental disaster.
Gov. Brad Henry, who toured the area by air and on foot Sunday, said the buyout
program won't stop just because homes were leveled. He went so far as to say he would
"guarantee" that those awaiting buyouts who lost their homes would be treated fairly.
"We will make sure the people get the assistance that they need," Henry said.
Because of Picher's Superfund status, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is
unlikely to grant assistance to homeowners to rebuild in the town, said Oklahoma
Emergency Management Director Albert Ashwood. But he echoed Henry's assurances
about the federal buyout program, which is funded by the Environmental Protection
Agency.
80
One of the homes those crews likely will examine will be that of Jeff Reeves, 43, who
has followed his grandfather and father as Picher's fire chief. He has lived in Picher all
his life and has watched it slowly decline.
"With everything else that's going on here, I'm not sure there is a recovery," he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080512/ap_on_re_us/severe_weather&printer=1;_ylt=Am
0OwfBLHDGvFFAEzF3W6n9H2ocA
Global Warming Worries Wealthy, Polluting Nations Least
By Andrea Thompson, LiveScience.com
Yahoo
Monday May 12, 2008
The wealthier a country is and the more greenhouse gases it spews into the atmosphere,
the less worried its citizens are about the effects of global warming. Residents of the lowlying Netherlands, ironically, are the least worried of all.
The findings are the result of a study that started when Hanno Sandvik, a biology
postdoctoral researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, came
across on online survey conducted by ACNielsen that polled people in 46 countries
asking about their attitudes toward global warming.
Sandvik had been "a little depressed" about what he perceived as the poor state of
understanding of climate change and the lack of public concern over its effects in
Norway, he said. When he saw the survey results, his suspicions were confirmed:
Norway was in the top 10 of the least concerned countries.
More surprisingly, The Netherlands, which stands to be one of the first nations to feel the
effects of climate change through sea level rise, topped the list. The flood-prone country
with a lot of coastline was followed by Russia and the United States (in a tie), with
Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, Belgium, New Zealand, and Finland rounding out the top 10.
Europe vs. U.S.
While the majority of the respondents from these countries said they were concerned
about the effects of global warming, a substantial minority said they weren't. For
example, while only about 2 percent of respondents from France said they weren't
worried about climate change, around 20 percent of U.S. respondents said the same,
Sandvik said.
"European countries as a whole are much more concerned than the United States," he
81
said.
The data on attitudes toward global warming came from an online survey, which suggests
that the data were not generated by a random sample. For instance, only respondents with
Internet access could respond. Only random samples generate results that accurately
represent a population's attributes.
Two recent national surveys conducted by Yale University have found, however, that
nearly three-quarters of Americans are willing to pay more taxes to support local
mitigation efforts. A more comprehensive Gallup poll of 150 countries will come out in
the next few months, and some questions will address attitudes toward climate change in
these nations.
GDP and greenhouse gases
Sandvik was curious as to what might be shaping these attitudes at the national level,
especially in countries where there was ample information on global warming, so he
looked to see if there was any correlation between either a country's gross domestic
product or its per capita greenhouse gas emissions and the level of concern of its citizens.
When he ran the numbers, he found: Countries with higher GDPs and more greenhouse
gas emissions tended to have a larger segment of their population that was less worried
about global warming. The findings will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal
Climatic Change.
While Sandvik is the first to note that he isn't a psychologist, he suspects that some
psychological reasons could be behind the lack of concern. People in wealthy, highly
polluting nations may feel guilty about their contribution to the problem and
subconsciously decide to simply ignore the issue.
"The more responsible you feel for a problem," the more likely you are to ignore it,
Sandvik told LiveScience.
There could also be an unwillingness on the part of the rich to sacrifice some of their
wealth to solve the problem.
"If you take global warming to heart, you understand that you have to sacrifice
something," Sandvik said. "And the richer you are, the less willing you are to sacrifice."
From a more biological perspective, Sandvik thinks that we simply aren't adapted to fear
certain things. If a dog is growling menacingly at us, we know to be scared, but, "we can't
cope with invisible or abstract danger," he said.
Sandvik did notice a shift in Norwegian concern over global warming after the very mild
winter of 2007. When people saw that the lack of snow that winter affected their
traditional skiing trips, it brought global warming home to them, he said.
82
Video: Payback for Earth Quiz: What's Your Environmental Footprint? 10 Ways to
Green Your Home
Original Story: Global Warming Worries Wealthy, Polluting Nations Least
Visit LiveScience.com for more daily news, views and scientific inquiry with an original,
provocative point of view. LiveScience reports amazing, real world breakthroughs, made
simple and stimulating for people on the go. Check out our collection of Science, Animal
and Dinosaur Pictures, Science Videos, Hot Topics, Trivia, Top 10s, Voting, Amazing
Images, Reader Favorites, and more. Get cool gadgets at the new LiveScience Store, sign
up for our free daily email newsletter and check out our RSS feeds today!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080512/sc_livescience/globalwarmingworrieswea
lthypollutingnationsleast&printer=1;_ylt=Al9C91ovsJq_aaJ3AWwNknOzvtEF
Dion may champion carbon tax
Policy Shift; Could be key plank of election platform
By Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service
The National Post
Monday, May 12, 2008
(Chris Wattie/Reuters)
OTTAWA - The idea was rejected 10 years ago by former prime minister Jean Chretien
in the midst of his three consecutive majority governments, but Liberal leader Stephane
Dion now appears to be banking on a carbon tax to help win the next election.
"It really goes back a long time ago," said Jack Mintz, a world-renowned fiscal and tax
policy specialist. "Ten years ago for [former finance minister] Paul Martin, I chaired the
technical committee on business taxation, and we had a whole chapter in there on
environmental taxation and we suggested at that time as a commission to turn the federal
fuel excise tax [on gasoline] into a broad-based environmental tax."
But Mr. Mintz, who now heads the University of Calgary's School of Policy Studies, said
Mr. Chretien was never keen on accepting the environmental tax.
"At the time we couldn't use the word carbon," Mr. Mintz said with a chuckle. "Because
the prime minister officially said there would be no carbon taxation in Canada."
83
Ten years later, Mr. Dion is publicly musing about introducing a carbon tax as a key
plank of his platform to address both environmental and economic issues at the same
time.
Stealing pages from the B. C. government and the federal Green party, Mr. Dion's
Liberals have indicated that they are considering the new tax to discourage consumers
and businesses from engaging in activities that produce emissions that can contribute to
global warming and harm the environment. Those activities could include the burning of
fossil fuels such as heating oil or coal to generate electricity or heat households in the
winter.
In theory, the tax would raise billions of dollars that would be offset entirely by the
lowering of other taxes such as those on income. The Liberals have not yet explained
details about how they plan to ensure that individuals do not wind up paying more taxes
at the end of the year because of the new proposed measures.
But in order to be successful at the ballot box, Mr. Dion would have to fend off federal
Conservatives who are already circling with criticism that the Liberals merely want to
gouge Canadian taxpayers for more money, without any concrete benefits.
"People have got to ask themselves -- can they trust Stephane Dion to spend any money
he'd collect on the gas tax on the environment?" Environment Minister John Baird told
reporters last week. "This is why nothing happened on greenhouse gases for so long....
The Liberal party of Stephane Dion constantly, whenever they opened up the pape, r they
said: 'Oh, here's a new idea. We'll change our mind and go down this path.' "
Some political analysts believe Mr. Dion cannot go into an election campaign and expect
to win unless he comes up with a major new environmental policy.
"He has no choice," said pollster John Wright, senior vice-president at Ipsos Reid. "As a
former environment minister, as a leadership candidate, and as a leader of the opposition
who has staked so much on the environment, any backing away on his convictions is
going to be seen as something which tests his own credibility."
Mr. Mintz said there is more openness to the idea today than there was a decade ago,
particularly for businesses that are looking for a simple solution that will make it easy for
them to calculate costs of operating in an economy that places restrictions on the burning
of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal that produce greenhouse gas emissions that
trap heat in the atmosphere.
According to a research paper published this spring by Mr. Mintz and Nancy Olewiler, an
economics professor at Simon Fraser University, households that use natural gas or
heating oil could pay a total of $1.6-billion more to heat their homes in the winter if a
carbon tax was introduced. Mr. Mintz also estimates that the tax would result in $4billion in revenues from households that are using electricity produced from coal-fired
power plants.
84
However, the price of gasoline at the pumps would not be affected under his proposal to
replace an existing federal tax with the carbon tax. Mr. Mintz added that the increasing
costs of fossil fuels would also increase inflation and automatically improve tax credits,
federal rebates and social benefits for lower-income Canadians.
Mr. Wright said that in today's context, people are increasingly concerned about global
warming and other environmental issues, but he warned that the Liberals must be careful
about framing the issue as a piece of an overall environmental platform as opposed to a
punitive measure that would target their wallets while oil companies generate record
profits.
Using terms such as "revenue neutral" to explain that the plan would not raise taxes
would likely confuse people who don't follow incremental political developments in
Ottawa, Mr. Wright added.
"I think it's hard any time, to sell a tax. Jean Chretien was one smart politician who didn't
take risks when he didn't need to," Mr. Wright said.
http://www.nationalpost.com/rss/story.html?id=508441
Ontario needs new green, union-friendly job strategy: report
Could help replace lost manufacturing jobs, labour and anti-poverty groups say
CBC News
Monday, May 12, 2008
A new provincial job strategy focused on green industries and unionization of low-wage
jobs could play a major role in replacing Ontario's disappearing manufacturing jobs, says
a new report by local anti-poverty and labour groups.
There are jobs available in the province but they aren't the ones with decent pay, benefits
and job protection, says the report, entitled Work isn't Working for Ontario Families and
released Monday.
The 27-page document was produced by anti-poverty group Campaign 2000, the Toronto
Labour Council and the Ontario branch of the Canadian Labour Congress.
In March of this year, 23,000 part-time jobs were created while at the same time the
province lost 25,000 full-time jobs.
Losing a full-time manufacturing job can often mean a quick slide into poverty, say the
report's authors.
Good, well-paying jobs, the report says, should be key to Ontario's poverty reduction
strategy.
85
"Forty-one per cent of children in low-income families in this province have at least one
parent working full-time, all year, and they are still living in poverty," said Ann Decter of
Campaign 2000 in a news release.
"Parents are working hard to meet their responsibilities, but their jobs don't pay enough to
lift a family out of poverty. The labour market is churning out jobs and at the same time
failing Ontario parents."
The report says the provincial government must take the initiative by making Ontario
more union-friendly — by removing barriers to unionization of low-wage workplaces —
and working to make the province the centre for new green industries.
"Low-income communities need stable, secure jobs where they earn enough to support
their families," said John Cartwright, president of the Toronto & York Region Labour
Council.
Cartwright says the province needs to start actively wooing the next generation of green
industries by supporting and encouraging companies that produce energy-saving
technologies and other green products.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/05/12/green-economy.html?ref=rss
Seaweed confirms Monte Verde village in Chile is among oldest in the Americas
The inland settlement, about 14,000 years old, predates the Southwestern Clovis sites by
about a millennium and coincides with findings at Paisley Cave in Oregon, researchers
say.
By Thomas H. Maugh II
The Los Angeles Times
Saturday May 10, 2008
Seaweed found at an inland settlement in Chile confirms that the village is one of the
oldest inhabited sites in the Americas and demonstrates that residents had extensive
contact with the coastline, 50 miles away, researchers said Friday.
Radiocarbon dating of the seaweed shows that the samples are 14,100 years old, give or
take 120 years. That means the site, called Monte Verde, is at least a millennium older
than the so-called Clovis sites in the American Southwest, long believed to be the most
ancient in the New World.
The report comes just a month after researchers reported similar dates for fossilized
human feces, called coprolites, found in Paisley Cave in Oregon.
Together, the reports support the growing idea that the first immigrants to the Americas
arrived from Asia over a land bridge across what is now the Bering Strait and made their
way down the Pacific Coast as far as South America, exploiting abundant marine
86
resources as they traveled.
Monte Verde -- now in a peat bog, about 500 miles south of Santiago and 10 miles from
the coast -- contained about a dozen huts on a minor creek, 10 miles north of a large bay.
Perhaps 20 to 30 people lived there, said archaeologist Tom D. Dillehay of Vanderbilt
University in Tennessee, who has been studying the site for 30 years.
Seaweed was found throughout the site, Dillehay and his colleagues reported in the
journal Science. Some samples were commingled with plants in cuds obviously chewed
by residents for their medicinal value. Others, scattered around the huts, were probably
food. The plants are good sources of iodine, iron, zinc and other nutrients.
Dillehay had previously identified four species of seaweed in the cuds. In the new study,
they identified five more originating on the coast, and several from the nearby bay.
Other coastal materials at the site included flat beach pebbles and water plants from
brackish estuaries.
"Finding seaweed wasn't a surprise, but finding five new species in the abundance that we
found them was a surprise," Dillehay said. "The Monte Verdeans were really like
beachcombers. The number and frequency of these items suggests very frequent contact
with the coast, as if they had a tradition of exploiting coastal resources."
The team also found inland materials, including vegetables, nuts, an extinct species of
llama and an elephant-like animal called a gompothere. The fact that both coastal and
inland items were found indicates that the Monte Verdeans were spending enough time at
each location to learn about geography and resources.
That suggests, Dillehay concluded, that "the peopling of the Americas may not have been
the blitzkrieg movement to the south that people have presumed, but a much slower and
more deliberate process."
thomas.maugh@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-sci-seaweed102008may10,0,4250808.story
British birds adapt to global warming
Great tits adjust their breeding season so that chicks hatch when winter moth caterpillars - their main food source -- are most plentiful, long-term research shows.
By Alan Zarembo
The Los Angeles Times
Saturday May 10, 2008
87
Researchers have found that at least one bird population in England has managed to
adjust to global warming.
The members of the great tit species have timed their breeding season over the last five
decades so that their chicks hatch when their main food source, the winter moth
caterpillar, is most abundant, the researchers reported Friday in the journal Science.
"It's kind of good news to know that some birds can adjust," said Anne Charmantier, an
evolutionary biologist at France's National Center for Scientific Research and a coauthor
of the study.
Few wild animal populations have been monitored as long as the great tits of Wytham
Woods, near Oxford. Since 1947, scientists have tracked the fate of nearly every bird,
using tiny leg bracelets.
The current study relies on data going back to 1961, when the tracking methods were
standardized. The researchers found that the birds modify the timing of egg laying in
response to the temperature.
The birds have coped with a 4-degree rise in spring temperatures over the last 47 years by
laying their eggs an average of 14 days earlier.
The population has doubled over that period to about 400 stable pairs, showing that the
birds can thrive under changing conditions.
The birds seemed to be responding to early-season temperature cues that also control the
caterpillar peak. The same bird that laid eggs earlier than usual in a warm year would
delay breeding in a cold year.
Still, flexibility seems to have limits. In the Netherlands, great tits are on the decline
because they can't adjust their schedules to temperature, according to a 2005 study.
One possible explanation for the difference between the populations is that winters in the
Netherlands remain cold longer, providing little early warning that would allow the birds
to adjust their egg laying, Charmantier said.
Walter Jetz, a UC San Diego ecologist who was not involved in the research, cautioned
that the new analysis offers little assurance that the great tits of England will endure the
accelerating temperature rise predicted over the next 50 years.
He added that the flexibility of the English birds may not exist in the tropics, home to
80% of bird species.
Because temperatures near the equator vary little season to season and year to year, the
birds there may never have evolved the ability to adjust their breeding schedules.
88
alan.zarembo@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-sci-birds102008may10,0,2454876.story
Orange County toll road agency hails wildlife deal
Backers say it gives new life to the proposed Foothill South extension. But fish and game
officials say further permits are needed, and environmentalists call the accord
insignificant.
By David Reyes
The Los Angeles Times
Saturday 12 May 2008
An agreement to protect wildlife was announced Friday between the toll road agency and
a state agency on the proposed extension of an Orange County toll road, a controversial
link that would cut through a popular state park and famed surf spot.
Proponents said the agreement helps breathe new life into the proposed toll road
extension, which has divided politicians, environmentalists and transportation planners
for years. Opponents dismissed it as insignificant.
Although the Foothill South project was rejected by the state Coastal Commission after a
clamorous public hearing in February, the toll road agency views the agreement as a
substantial victory. The agency has appealed the commission's decision.
Lance MacLean, chairman of the board that oversees the county's toll roads, called it a
major step toward satisfying environmental requirements for the 16-mile proposed road
that will cut through San Onofre State Beach.
The agreement calls for creating, enhancing or restoring 57 acres near creeks as a
mitigation measure because 23 acres along the proposed route would be permanently
affected, said Marilyn Fluharty, a senior environmental scientist for the California
Department of Fish and Game.
She said the toll road agency would need additional permits because the agreement is
limited to stream beds and bird habitat along several creeks in the area, but not for the
entire route. About 14 acres would be temporarily disturbed during construction, Fluharty
said.
The Transportation Corridor Agencies -- which operates most of the tollways in Orange
County -- has restored, created and preserved more than 100 acres under previous
agreements with the state Department of Fish and Game for prior road projects,
transportation agency officials said.
89
Despite the Coastal Commission's decision, tollway proponents have earned several
victories in recent months concerning the road's potential effect on wildlife.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration determined last year that
steelhead trout would not be affected by the road, and last week the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service said the project complies with the Endangered Species Act.
Opponents say that the thoroughfare would ruin the environment and compromise the
state park and the famed Trestles surf spot, which has been celebrated in songs and
movies.
Dan Silver, executive director of the Endangered Habitats League, called the state
agreement a technical approval that lacked regulatory teeth because it's "procedural and
routine."
"Basically, it is a notification requirement where the applicant tells the department what
they are doing, what the impacts are and these are the mitigations," Silver said. "It doesn't
evaluate the need for the project nor does it look at alternatives of the project to protect
resources."
In contrast, the Coastal Commission has absolute protections for wildlife under the state's
Coastal Act, an "entirely different standard," Silver said.
MacLean sees it otherwise.
"We feel no species will be jeopardized by this work," MacLean said. "We're going to be
good stewards with the environment."
Foothill-Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency board member and Lake Forest
Councilman Peter Herzog said last week's opinion by the federal wildlife service was
significant, especially in view of the project's criticism by coastal commissioners and
opponents.
"The new opinion was obviously an extensive review and some of the opponents tried to
dismiss our own biological staff as if we were going to take out habitat," Herzog said.
The issue has been sensitive for the Transportation Corridor Agencies which has
continued planning for the project hoping the federal government will overturn the
Coastal Commission's decision.
The U.S. Department of Commerce has the final say on the appeal.
At the commission's February meeting, Commissioner Sara Wan of Malibu took
exception to the Foothill-Eastern transportation agency's environmental reports, saying
that habitat mitigations were not consistent with safeguards for endangered species.
90
She said that toll road officials had used "faulty science."
This week Herzog pushed back.
"We have the wildlife service saying our project doesn't jeopardize wildlife. That's not
the TCA talking, that's from the federal wildlife service."
david.reyes@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-tollroad102008may10,0,1985903,print.story
Slow, steady -- and under siege
Endangered tortoises airlifted from an Army base face other threats.
By Louis Sahagun
The Los Angeles Times
Sunday May 11, 2008
BARSTOW — As the sun rose over the Mojave Desert, researcher Kristina Drake
approached with caution as a creature with weary eyes, a scuffed carapace and skin as
rough as rhino hide peered at her from the edge of a dirt road just east of here.
Wearing rubber gloves, Drake picked up the old female California desert tortoise and, in
one fluid motion, moved her to safer ground beneath a nearby creosote bush. "It's one of
ours," she said. "No. 4118."
The tortoise, nicknamed "Road Warrior," was among the 760 captured and airlifted by
helicopter a month ago out of the southern portion of the Army's nearby National
Training Center at Ft. Irwin, which is slated for expanded combat exercises. Her wellbeing in new terrain is essential to the $8.7-million relocation effort, which has been hit
hard by a problem unforeseen by federal biologists: rampant coyote attacks.
"Coyotes didn't seem to be a problem when we started," said U.S. Geological Survey
biologist Kristin Berry, a lead scientist in the project. "The question in the back of all of
our minds now is this: How could we have determined that this was going to happen?"
The California tortoise, whose population has fallen to an estimated 45,000 on the public
lands in the western Mojave, is protected under state and federal endangered species acts.
In 2001, Congress authorized Ft. Irwin to expand into prime tortoise habitat. As
mitigation, the Army agreed to move the tortoises from the expansion area onto
unoccupied public lands, an effort that began in late March.
So far, at least 14 translocated adult tortoises and 14 resident tortoises in the area have
91
been killed and eaten by coyotes, according to biologists monitoring survival rates of the
reptiles, most of which were fitted with radio transmitters. In a related problem, 15 of 70
baby tortoises collected at the training center as part of the relocation have died of
various causes, Army officials said.
The problem, they say, may be linked to severe drought, which killed off plants and
triggered a crash in rodent populations. As a result, coyotes, which normally thrive on
kangaroo rats and rabbits, are turning to the lumbering Gopherus agassizii for sustenance.
In an effort to prevent further losses, the Army has requested that the predators, described
by one military spokesman as a "rogue clan of coyotes," be eradicated by animal control
sharpshooters. The gunners, however, have been delayed for weeks by bureaucratic red
tape, military officials said.
In the meantime, many translocated tortoises have shown a tendency to wander,
sometimes for miles, often in a northward direction back toward the Army base. Gashes
and tooth marks on the shell of a translocated tortoise found April 15 indicated that it had
been ripped out of the front of its carapace.
The Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson-based environmental group, said it plans to
file suit later this month against the Army, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the
Bureau of Land Management for allegedly violating the federal Endangered Species Act
in their management of desert tortoises.
Desert tortoises spend most of their lives underground. Recent studies indicate that the
creatures, which can live for a century, are extremely sensitive and have complex social
lives.
Of particular concern, lawyers for the center say, was the Army's decision a month ago to
move tortoises to areas where they would be vulnerable to potentially lethal threats. The
Army had been warned that numerous environmental studies expressed concern about
vehicle traffic, drought-stricken foraging grounds, and resident tortoises suffering from
infectious respiratory disease and predation by ravens, dogs and coyotes.
"The deed is done, and now we are watching the aftermath," said Ilene Anderson, a
biologist and spokeswoman for the Center for Biological Diversity. "It's a disaster. We've
lost so many tortoises -- the California state reptile and a species that has taken a nose
dive over the past 20 years -- so early on in the project."
Michael Connor, a longtime advocate of the tortoise and California science director of the
Western Watersheds Project, a nonprofit conservation group, was critical of the Army's
plan to wipe out suspect coyotes.
"These aren't rogue coyotes. They're just coyotes trying to make a living in the desert,"
Connor said. "Now they want to shoot them. Fine. But what happens if there are
unforeseen implications from wiping out the region's top predator, like an explosion of
92
rabbits and rats?"
Beyond that, he added, "the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had identified canine attacks
as possible threats even before the project got underway. So I'm surprised the scientists
are surprised that tortoises are becoming targets."
In any case, William Boarman, an adjunct professor of biology at San Diego State who's
helping direct the translocation project, said that after the Army decided to expand
operations at Ft. Irwin, "we were stuck with bad options: move the tortoises or leave them
in place, which would have been much worse."
"Translocation was always risky," he added. "We're trying to make it work the best we
can, and conduct research that can help us make future translocations more effective."
In years to come, the Army plans to relocate an additional 1,200 tortoises from the
western edge of the base to prevent them from being squashed by military equipment.
Field researchers said most of the predation has occurred in areas between the rugged
Calico Mountains and desolate Coyote Dry Lake.
On a recent weekday morning, USGS field researcher Kevin Lucas strode across loose
rock and cholla cactus in a sandy wash just north of the lake near where a hefty radiocollared male tortoise, variously known as "No. 4164" and "Thor," relaxed in a patch of
shade.
That tortoise was among the lucky ones.
"There was another translocated tortoise I'd really gotten to like, even admire," Lucas
said. "He was a tremendous mountain climber with a can-do personality.
"The last time I saw him, he was on a steep slope in howling winds and something didn't
look right," he recalled. "Through binoculars, I saw that his head and legs were missing.
A deep sadness came over me."
louis.sahagun@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-tortoise112008may11,0,3605925,print.story
Lean, mean - and green
By Lynette Evans
San Francisco Chronicle
Saturday, May 10, 2008
93
The recession is running into the green movement - and that is not a bad thing. Habits we
weren't able to break simply on the grounds that our continuous consumption is bad for
the planet may now fall victim to the interests of the pocketbook.
As gasoline prices rise, Californians are driving less. Unfortunately, as food prices rise,
we may be eating not less food, but less healthy food. And, because we pay for the farm
subsidies that make high-fructose corn syrup cheap, those of us without vegetable
gardens will find it's cheaper to buy processed foods than fresh foods - as homemaker
Donna Dunaway, quoted in an April 27 New York Times story on the "recession diet,"
said, food costs had forced her to give up making homemade lasagna in favor of serving
her husband frozen TV meals she can purchase for 99 cents. What a mess we're in when
processed food products are less expensive than meals made from scratch. I would guess
the same can be said of clothing and household goods. When you can purchase a skirt or
throw pillows made in China or Bangladesh for a few dollars, it's hardly frugal to sew
your own.
But I digress. Buying imported products, which I was doing at a Cost Plus sale a couple
weekends ago, is hardly green. Oh, sure, I was buying glass wine goblets and spice jars,
which are phthalate-free and will last awhile, and holding up the line at the checkout
counter while I tried to stuff my purchases into five mesh bags I was carrying. But the
greenness of driving to the mall and purchasing goods was surely iffy, at best.
That said, I'm not trying to vilify buying things one needs (and heaven knows, for the
next few months at least, a lot of us will be eschewing frills and buying only things we do
need), but along with gasoline and food, the price of other goods has been rising with the
falling American dollar.
And that might just make us greener. First, when money is tight, we think about our
spending. And one of the areas we need to think about is whether buying new green
products is greener than sticking with what we have. That includes solar panels, hybrid
cars and carpeting. When money is tight, we choose vacations closer to home (jet fuel is a
huge part of a traveler's carbon footprint).
As we've noted before, the greenest families are those living in single rooms in
Chinatown or South of Market, people without cars or swimming pools or air
conditioning or even refrigerators. That's not what most of us think living in America
should be. And that sort of green by default is not what even the most conservationminded among us has in mind when we tsk-tsk against waste and pollution. Still, there is
a lesson in the downturn, even for those of us who didn't spend or borrow above our
means, who aren't personally responsible for the mortgage meltdown or the oil price
increase.
As Robert Reich notes in "Super Capitalism," we are all responsible for the state of the
economy because in our capacities as consumers and investors (yes, you, even if your
only investment is in your teacher's retirement account and your shopping is at bargain
stores), we are complicit in the economic games. We've done pretty well in the past three
94
decades as consumers and investors, Reich says. As citizens, not so much so. The
community good, which accompanied the regulated postwar economy, Reich notes, has
languished as we've gained consumer products and bought into the stock market.
Now that we're facing the music as consumers and investors, however, maybe the citizen
in us can emerge. After all, when we're broke, we can't pollute. Helluva mess.
E-mail Home&Garden Editor Lynette Evans at levans@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/10/HO7E10ILH3.DTL
This article appeared on page F - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/10/HO7E10ILH3.DTL&type=printable
Summitgoers push for sustainable cities
By Philip S. Wenz, Special to The Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Is there life after cars? Could your house be transformed into a unit in a mixed-use,
multifamily building with a vegetable garden on the roof? Would you drink "toilet to tap"
water - purified, recycled sewage - or would you rather die of thirst?
These questions and many others like them were asked - and at least partially answered by an eclectic group of avant-garde designers, builders, planners, organizers, artists and
mayors (including Gavin Newsom) from around the world. They gathered at the Ecocity
World Summit conference in San Francisco last month to share their ideas and
experiences in an effort to create sustainable cities - and there was a palpable sense of
urgency in their voices as they spoke of climate change, water and food shortages, soil
depletion, deforestation and poverty.
They had come from every continent not just to identify pressing problems but also to
discuss solutions. And they tied the problems and solutions to the form and function of
humanity's largest and most resource-intensive creations: cities.
As the conference's principal organizer, Richard Register, director of the Oakland
nonprofit Ecocity Builders, put it in his opening message, "Now we are nearing a
threshold. Will we cross into a whole other realm, a whole other way of building (cities) for people instead of for the requirements of machines (cars)? ... Are we going to
redesign and start shaping cities on the human measure and for ecological health, before
relatively inexpensive energy goes away forever?"
95
His last remark referred to "peak oil," shorthand for an abrupt decline in petroleum
availability and a topic well understood and widely discussed by the conferees.
If you've grown up hearing that "someday" we'll run out of oil, and believing that
"someday" is a generation or more away, you might think we have enough time to
develop new energy sources before the catastrophic economic consequences of oil
depletion manifest themselves. But long before we run out of oil, we will pass the point
where half the world's oil reserves are gone and only half are left in the ground - the peak
of the oil production curve. Virtually all speakers at the Ecocity Summit, and a growing
cadre of energy experts worldwide, believe that we have already reached that point - our
oil production has peaked and is beginning to decline irrevocably while demand
continues to grow exponentially.
A rapid decline
If the peak-oil adherents are correct, we will experience a steady and somewhat rapid
decline in the amount of energy available for operating our global civilization or,
addressing Register's concern, for rebuilding it in a sustainable way. Say our overall
energy production diminishes at the rate of 1 percent per year. Within a decade, we
would face some hard choices about how to allocate the remaining 90 percent of our
available energy.
Is such a drastic reduction in overall energy availability possible? Remember that oil cost
just $20 a barrel in 2002, and while price can be manipulated, it is basically determined
by supply and demand.
The argument has been made, of course, that oil can and must be replaced for obvious
environmental and geopolitical reasons. But the catch is that oil cannot be replaced; no
other fuel is as energy intensive. Coal, which was burned at the beginning of the
industrial revolution, was quickly abandoned when the superiority of oil as an energy
source was discovered. Green is the future of energy, but green energy sources don't
deliver anything like oil's punch per pound.
The only long-term solution is to significantly reduce our per-capita energy consumption
(especially in the United States, which has 5 percent of the world's population and uses
25 percent of its oil). As former oil industry analyst Jan Lundberg asked at an Ecocity
Summit panel on Energy and Economic Relocalization, "Why do you need all that
energy, when what we should be doing is tearing up the pavement and replanting?"
While Lundberg's solution seems drastic, the overall conference theme of reversing our
60-year trend of sprawl development and building or redeveloping far more compact
cities - before we run out of the energy and money to do so - is compelling.
In a handout prepared for his panel on "Why Better Cars Build Worse Cities,"
transportation expert Andy Kunz pointed out that Americans use eight times as much oil
per capita as do Europeans. That's mainly because 70 percent of Americans live in car-
96
dependent sprawl development, while 90 percent of Europeans live in cities and use
public transportation, ride bikes or walk.
What will the ecocity of the (near) future look like? With more than 100 speakers at the
conference, a final consensus was not reached - and, in any case, ecocities would be as
varied as the bioregions where they're built.
Several themes
But some consistent themes emerged as the conference developed. First, cars pretty much
have to go. The ecocity will be compact (therefore relatively vertical), accessible to
pedestrians and serviced by public transportation. Along with cars, many of the singlefamily houses that make up our current sprawl cities will have to be abandoned in favor
of multiunit housing.
Second, like natural ecosystems, ecocities, using solar energy, will produce and recycle
many of their own necessities. Food will be grown in community gardens, and scraps will
be composted to create more food. Water will be treated like the precious commodity it is
- captured, retained, purified and reused.
Third, ecocities will be beautiful. When we recapture the space, infrastructure and
embodied energy now given to cars - many cities are 40 percent or more pavement - we'll
have ample room for nature in the city.
If the Ecocity Summit's collective vision appears naive, the conferees' collective response
might be, "Take a look around you - the next time you're stuck in gridlock traffic and the
next time you walk past a community garden planted in a vacant lot. Where would you
rather be in 10 years, and which world will you bequeath to your children?"
-- "Ecocities: Building Cities in Balance With Nature" (revised edition) by Richard
Register (New Society Publishers; $23.95; 368 pages; 2006)
Philip S. Wenz writes the column Your Ecological House, which appears in the
Home&Garden section. E-mail him at home@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/10/HOUM10H491.DTL
This article appeared on page F - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/10/HOUM10H491.DTL&type=printable
ON THE RECORD: VINOD KHOSLA
San Francisco Chronicle
97
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Flush with money and determined to save the world, the green-tech industry stands in full
flower of its giddy youth.
Venture capitalists are pumping billions into startups trying to create new fuels or energy
sources. Politicians are looking to the industry for ways to fight climate change without
wrecking the world's economy.
It's a heady time. Yet great uncertainty remains about which of the new technologies will
work. And biofuels, one of the industry's main obsessions, have come under fierce attack
lately as a possible cause of food shortages.
Enter Vinod Khosla, one of green tech's most prominent investors. He has funded
entrepreneurs building solar power plants that will dwarf football fields and companies
that will make ethanol from wood chips.
Khosla met recently with a group of Chronicle reporters to talk about the future of green
tech and discuss which technologies will thrive while others die. The following has been
edited for length and clarity.
Q: Some people are concerned that the great boom in green technology and green
investing might be creating a bubble of investment, and there might be too much
froth. Are we looking at a green-tech bubble?
A: Every strong investment cycle results in a bubble, unfortunately. I hope we can get
smarter, but I'm not hopeful.
I always point to the 1830s, when railroads started expanding in England. If you got
permission to build a rail link between two towns, you could offer scrips on the market.
And people started going public. Doesn't this sound very much like the dot-com bubble?
Or the telecom bubble? Or the PC bubble in the '80s?
There was a bubble, there was a crash in the 1830s, and in the following 10 years, more
railroads were built after the crash than before the crash. The important message is: We
had a dot-com crash, and if you look at actual Internet traffic after 2001, it didn't take a
dip. It kept growing and growing and growing.
Hopefully what we are talking about here is a fundamental change in the infrastructure of
society. How these companies will be valued will vacillate all over the place. It will hit
highs and lows, and hopefully we can avoid the excesses.
Q: Do you feel there's a natural selection process involved in that, too, when you
have a possible over-investment in a number of companies in one field? Does that
help seed a larger array of products, and then the best rise to the top?
98
A: That absolutely happens. Lots of experiments get seeded, and most fail. There were
hundreds if not thousands of PC companies in the '80s. A few made it big. There were
lots of Internet bubble companies, but Google, eBay and Yahoo all did well in the end,
even after the crash. So the important thing I like to say is that most investments will fail,
but more money will be made than was invested.
The experimentation is very important because without that funding, a Facebook would
never have emerged. It would never have shown up on the product plans of a big
company, because big companies don't innovate.
I like to take a classic example of a company like Amyris. Instead of doing biodiesel
from soybeans, they're trying to go to other feed stocks. They're producing diesel by
fermentation, in a completely different process, and the goal is to go to nonfood crops.
Here was a company with a grant from the Gates Foundation to work on malaria drugs. It
used the same technology to produce fuels and diesel. No large company would ever
allow that kind of a radical shift. But small innovative companies that turn on a dime?
Heck, let's do it.
Q: We've seen a lot of stories in the past couple of weeks about food prices going
through the roof around the world, to the point where we had riots in Haiti, and
demonstrations in Bangladesh and in Egypt. The focus has been placed on biofuel as
a possible culprit. Do you think that connection's overblown?
A: The connection is overblown. First, long term, we can't solve our fuel problem by
making fuel from food. It doesn't work. Two, we don't need to because there are much
better alternatives. Much better in that not only are they more desirable, they're much
cheaper. Why would anyone use corn when you can make fuel from forest waste?
I have no question that in 10 years, there's no way oil will be able to compete with
biofuels. Even in five years. Now it will take a long time to scale biofuels, but I'm the
only one in the world forecasting oil dropping in price to $35 a barrel by 2030. I'll put it
on the record: Oil will not be able to compete with cellulosic biofuels. If you do it from
food, the food will get so expensive you can't make fuel out of it.
Food prices have been going up. Biofuels are a very minor contributor to that. But there
are massive PR campaigns trying to ascribe most of the blame to biofuels. The fact is, by
far the largest contributor to food-price inflation is oil prices. Biofuels are less than 15
percent of it.
Q: Oil for transportation?
A: Transportation and fertilizer. Fertilizer comes from the petrochemical industry. Oil
would be 15 percent higher if there were no biofuels and food would cost more.
99
The second piece is this: There is a dramatic increase in the worldwide demand for food.
In places like India and China, when you get 9 or 10 percent economic growth, among
poor people the biggest increase in the allocation of the family budget goes to food. We
(also) have seen in the last year or two dramatic droughts.
If corn ethanol was a large part of the worldwide food crisis, we would have seen corn
exports from this country decline. Not so. In 2006, 2007, they have actually increased.
Q: You mentioned a PR campaign to blame corn for the food problems. Who's
behind the campaign?
A: Well, lots of people. Clearly, the American Petroleum Institute has been very, very
concerned about food prices, and you wonder why.
I'll mention another thing. For the last 10 years, poor countries like India and Brazil have
been trying to get higher food prices. In fact, the subsidies to food in this country reduce
the price of food to the point where their farmers can't stay in business.
I'm concerned about the people making less than a dollar a day, three-quarters of them
live in rural areas, make their income off of subsistence farming or farm-related labor in
villages. And they would benefit dramatically from higher food prices, because their
incomes would go up.
Now, there's one-quarter of the population which lives in urban slums in developing
countries whose food prices will go up without their income going up. That's why this
issue is so complex.
Q: It sounds like you're critical of the food-based biofuels, while there are other
kinds of biofuels that you're supporting and investing in. Could you give us a sense
of the different directions that that research is going in?
A: Calling everything biofuels and asking "Are they good or bad?" is like asking me "Are
drugs good or bad?" I have to ask you whether you're talking about cocaine or aspirin.
Certain food-based biofuels like biodiesel have always been a bad idea. Others like corn
ethanol have served a useful purpose and essentially are obsoleting themselves. We have
eight or nine companies producing alternatives to corn ethanol that will be dramatically
cheaper. And I just don't see how corn ethanol producers stay in business. So why worry
about it?
Let's focus our energy on the research and development and innovation that allows us to
produce a $1-a-gallon fuel. There's no question about it, we can produce it for $1 a gallon
and retail it at Wal-Mart for $1.99 a gallon and create a competitor for oil. Oil is a
monopoly. It leads to an energy crisis, it leads to a terrorism crisis and it leads to an
environmental crisis. So we have to replace it.
100
Others talk about things like electric cars. Nice cars. In fact, we can make money on them
and are investing in electric hybrid batteries and things like that. But they will not make a
dent in either worldwide oil consumption or carbon reduction in the next 20 years. And
that's why we have to be clear about nice, (patchwork) solutions that make people feel
good.
People say, "Priuses are selling a lot, people want them." Yeah, but so are Gucci bags.
You know, they make people feel good, they're great fashion statements. Do they reduce
carbon emissions enough? If you do a critical analysis, a hybrid reduces carbon emissions
about the same as corn ethanol, and costs 100 times more. So what's the point?
I drive a hybrid, and I can afford it. But in the next 15 years, we're going to ship a billion
cars. Unless a technology can reduce carbon emissions dramatically for 50 to 80 percent
of those cars, we haven't made a dent in the climate change problem. And too many
politicians are focused on silly ideas like that, because politically it sounds good.
Take San Francisco, for instance. Putting solar cells on anybody's roof is absolutely silly,
in a foggy city like San Francisco. If somebody wants to do it with their own money, that'
s great. Do it. But don't do it with other people's money.
Q: When you talk about price and market penetration, you're really getting to one
of the most basic questions I think everybody has about climate change and the
energy problem. Namely, can we solve this without significantly changing our
lifestyle, the way we live?
A: This is where the environmental community goes wrong. They say, "No matter what
the cost, we've got to do this." Or, even worse, "Let's get people out of their SUVs. Or
let's not have them drive."
Anything that requires people to change their habits has a low probability of success. It's
been proven over and over again that people don't inconvenience themselves. You know,
it's not like GM just wants to make big cars. People want to buy big cars, so GM makes
them. And some people have genuine reasons. I've got four kids and two dogs, and
wherever I go on a weekend, I need a car to take all of them.
So it's really important that we find solutions that have a high probability of effecting
change and making a difference at scale. I don't think hybrids make a difference at scale.
Hydrogen has very little chance of making a difference in the next 20 years. We should
stop spending public money on it.
Having said that, the other assumption that we have to pay more for green or change our
lifestyles is also wrong. And the answer lies in innovation.
The other big area is coal and natural gas for power generation. People have assumed
coal is cheapest. Coal is no longer the cheapest. Coal was the cheapest when we ignored
the environmental damage it caused.
101
For large-scale, utility grade power, you need a different technology called solar thermal.
We're building a 175 megawatt power plant for PG&E in the Carrizo Plain in Central
California. It will not be more expensive than a natural gas plant, which is their
alternative.
Q: You're talking a lot about cost-competitiveness. What is your reaction to $4
gasoline? I mean, that sounds like great news for you.
A: The old green investing was about producing green stuff without regard to cost. And
that's why it has not been scalable. Unless we produce stuff that is cheaper than fossil and
also happens to be greener, we're not going to get widespread adoption or scalability.
Having said that, $4 gas clearly helps alternatives get started.
Q: You're talking about price points for different fuels, but you haven't talked
about infrastructure at all. What about the capital investment, the gas stations for
example? How is that going to play out? That's going to be a massive investment.
A: The answer is it's not that massive. The annual investment in billions of dollars is
probably no different from what we did in telecom already, to switch the telecom
infrastructure to Internet IP, optical. The same thing will happen in energy. In Brazil it
happened in three years. Now Brazil's a much smaller scale, but it had a lot less money,
too.
Q: Can you explain what happened there?
A: Brazil adopted flex-fuel cars in the space of three years. In January of 2003, flex-fuel
cars had 3 percent market share of new car sales, in January of '06, it had 75 percent
market share of new car sales. Why? Because the fuel there, ethanol, was cheaper.
That's how it happens. People started buying those cars, every pump owner started
putting in the pumps. We need selective mandates, technology-neutral to the extent we
can make them. For example, instead of mandating electric cars in California, which
we've just backpedaled on, we should have said, "Every car should have two sources of
fuel." There's gasoline and a second. Let people decide whether that second is electric,
whether it's biofuel, whether it's natural gas.
Q: Do you see the U.S. in general and California in particular getting a lot of jobs
from the emerging clean tech industries? Or is it just going to be a few research and
development and investment jobs?
A: California's clearly well positioned to get the R &D and investment jobs, which are
the best, high-paying jobs. On the average, green investments probably create twice the
number of jobs, or more, compared with the same investment in fossil technology,
whether you're talking about a coal power plant for electric power generation or oil
exploration and refining jobs. Whether California can get those jobs or not depends on
California regulation.
102
Today, the bureaucracy in California for permitting is so large that whenever we can, our
companies for production move out of state. They'd rather be in Nevada, they'd rather be
in Arizona, they'd rather be in Florida, in Georgia - every place except California.
During the 2001 energy crisis, we put in emergency cycles to approve power plants in 90
days. We need to do that for renewable technologies. We can't eliminate the
environmental constraints, but we need to have clear, simple checklists. Once you meet
them, you're in, you're permitted, you can go.
Q: Will the new green jobs be in the United States at all, or will the manufacturing
jobs that come out of this be in China or Asia?
A: You know, one of the great things about most renewable technologies - not every
technology, but many of them - is the jobs have to be local. When you're talking about a
power plant and power generation using solar thermal technology, the jobs will be where
the plant is. They may be in Nevada or Arizona, but you can't move them to China and
ship power here from China. And by the way, the biggest beneficiary of these will be the
rural economies, because whether it's power plants or biofuel plants, you're going to build
them in agricultural areas.
Q: Whenever we write stories touching on this revolution that's getting under way,
we often get e-mail from readers saying, "You know, this is fascinating, how do I
invest in it?" And usually what we end up typing back in response is, "Well, most of
these companies are private startups just getting going. You can't invest yet." For a
typical investor out there who really thinks this is going to be the future, is there a
way for them to get into this?
A: The first caution I would give is we are likely to see a bubble at some point. I don't
think we're in a bubble now, but we are likely to see a bubble, so I tell people to be very,
very cautious. And if you've learned from dot-com, remember it. The second thing I
would say is most of the investments, or the best, most attractive investments, are private.
Most people are not qualified to make those investments, because it requires a fairly deep
knowledge of technology.
Q: Deep pockets, too, I believe.
A: And deep pockets. Having said that, there is a way to play in the public markets. Solar
photovoltaics have been a great return, and it's a market that will probably still keep
growing 30 percent a year. But most of that is reflected in the current stock prices.
The safest way to play in this market is to take traditional industries, take cars and
engines and airlines or public power utilities. Most people invest in public utilities. If you
pick the utilities that have lower carbon emissions as a basic part of their strategy, you're
much better off. If you're going to do airlines, pick the more efficient fleets. If you're
going to do industrials, pick the companies that have lower energy costs because of
higher energy efficiency.
103
Now you can't ignore the other things, like how their business is doing. So add carbon
footprint to the five other things you use in evaluating a company in making traditional
investments. You don't have to make an investment in a green technology company to be
part of the trend.
Q: To what extent do you try to influence the political process to advance clean
tech?
A: You know, for lack of time, I haven't spent much time in Sacramento. For relatively
unplanned reasons, I have gotten very involved in Washington. Mostly because I get a lot
of calls asking for help and opinions. I'm not a political person. I'm a techie nerd, and I
enjoy the techie part. I mean, all my life, I've loved great technology.
I get very deeply technical in each of these areas, I try to understand the technology.
That's why I write a lot, so other people understand what I'm thinking. And it's valuable. I
like good criticism. I recently wrote a blog on Grist.org on why the Prius was more
greenwash than green. And I got thousands of comments.
Q: It's a hot-button issue.
A: It really was like insulting the pope. But of the thousands of comments, there were
probably 10 or 15 really important questions I had forgotten to answer. So I went back,
did research on those 10 or 15 questions, revised my paper and the final version is on my
Web site.
Q: So if you were going to pick three technologies that you think will be successful
20 years from now, what would those be?
A: There's four major areas we invest in. We call one the war on oil - to eliminate fossil
oil. We have eight or nine investments in that area. The second area is our war on coal,
which is about power generation. The third is efficiency. And the fourth area is new
materials.
We're doing new cement. I do believe cement is the third-largest emitter of carbon, after
coal for power generation and oil for transportation. Instead of producing a ton of carbon
dioxide per ton of cement, we want to reduce a ton of carbon dioxide per ton of cement.
We're doing new kinds of glass, up in Petaluma, that turns dark, so it saves you a lot of
heat gain or heat loss. We're doing solar power you can deliver at night, because you can
store it. Not just, "Hey if it's cloudy today, I can't ship you power."
Q: Some people might not understand how cement is an emitter. Can you explain?
A: Cement is made at 1,600 degrees centigrade. You basically burn up limestone, and
you're talking about billions of tons of limestone heated up to 1,600 degrees. Very energy
intensive, lots of carbon emissions.
104
Frankly, if we just did oil, coal and cement, we would eliminate completely the carbon
problem on this planet. If you just did those three things. And so we shouldn't be talking
about 29 things. We should focus on the three that are 75 percent or more of carbon
emissions on this planet. And if we can make them cheaper than fossil, then fossil is
history, and the carbon problem's solved, simple.
Q: Can I close it up with one question about the valley in general? What is the
future of Silicon Valley and its competitive state versus the rest of the world?
A: I think the most powerful social force we have when it comes to solving our problems
and multiplying our resources is the entrepreneurs and technologists and scientists. And
the culture of Silicon Valley. It is the solution and may be the only solution. Policy can
help. But policy doesn't work without technology innovation.
Look, cement's a classic example. We're trying to do cement that would be cheap enough
to give away for free if carbon had a price. That could change the world's carbon picture,
with one technology. If solar thermal is cheaper than coal, which is possible over the next
five to 10 years, then coal would be in a very different place. Those ideas come from
technologists and scientists and serious entrepreneurs. And that's why I'm actually
hopeful that we can change the picture.
-- To read previous On the Record interviews, go to sfgate.com/business
Chronicle Business Editor Al Saracevic and reporters David R. Baker, Ilana DeBare and
Deborah Gage participated in this interview.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/11/BUD010IHPC.DTL
This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/11/BUD010IHPC.DTL&type=printable
Florida moves to restore the Everglades
Decades of projects to control flooding harmed ecosystem
By Brian Skoloff, Associated Press
San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, May 11, 2008
(05-11) 04:00 PDT In the Everglades, Fla. -- Around South Florida's vast sugar cane
fields, where turtles grow to the size of basketballs and alligators own the marsh, the
silence of the swamp is broken by the sound of rumbling trucks and explosions.
105
The earth-moving equipment and high explosives are laying the foundation for a
mammoth construction project: a reservoir bigger than Manhattan designed to revive the
ecosystem of the once-famed River of Grass.
More than a century after the first homes and farms took shape in the Everglades, decades
of flood-control projects have left the region parched and near ecological collapse. Now
crews are building what will be the world's largest aboveground manmade reservoir to
restore some natural water flow to the wetlands.
Engineers "built this thing beautifully," said Terrence Salt of the U.S. Interior
Department, referring to the flood-control systems that practically drained the swamp to
make way for development decades ago. "But as we look back at it through the lens of
our current 21st century values and understanding, you get a different take on it, which
leads to our restoration efforts now."
The wetlands once covered more than 6,250 square miles, but they have shrunk by half,
replaced with homes and farms and a 2,000-mile grid of drainage canals. In the process,
the Everglades lost 90 percent of its wading birds. Other creatures are at risk, too,
including 68 species that are considered threatened or endangered.
The reservoir, estimated to cost up to $800 million, is the largest and most expensive part
of a sweeping state and federal restoration effort.
Most man-made reservoirs are built in canyons or valleys and use a natural water source
such as a river to fill in behind a dam. This one will stand on its own, contained within
earth-and-concrete walls much like an aboveground swimming pool larger than many
cities. Planners hope to eventually double its size.
Thomas Van Lent, a senior scientist with the Everglades Foundation, said the reservoir
"is absolutely essential" to restoration efforts. But he acknowledges it will never return
the region to its historical grandeur.
"There are parts you can restore completely, but you can't restore it all," he said. "It's
probably unrealistic to expect Miami to move."
The Army Corps of Engineers, which is working with the state on restoration, recognizes
the same limits.
"We're certainly never going to return it to the way it was 150 years ago," said the Corps'
Stuart Appelbaum. "But we can do our best."
Water once flowed practically unhindered from the Everglades headwaters south of
Orlando all the way into Florida Bay at the state's southern tip. But now when a hard rain
falls, canals direct the overflow into the ocean to keep from inundating 5 million people
who have settled in the area.
106
That's where the massive reservoir just south of Lake Okeechobee comes in. It will store
up to 62 billion gallons of water that would normally be channeled out to sea and instead
divert it into the Everglades at various times to mimic a more natural flow.
"We've developed about half of the Everglades, so we've got this very efficiently
designed flood-protection system," Appelbaum said. Now engineers want to store that
water so they "can put it back into the natural system to replicate what we lost when we
did all the drainage."
Bulldozers and dump trucks are removing 30 million tons of dirt and muck from the
reservoir site, which will then be surrounded by a 26-foot high, 21-mile levee of crushed
rock and compacted soil. The levee will also have a 2-foot-thick concrete wall built into it
to reduce seepage and add stability.
Major construction began in 2007. When the reservoir is compete in 2010, the shorelines
will be so far apart - 6 miles at the widest - an onlooker won't be able to see from one side
to the other.
The lake will be filled to an average depth of about 12 1/2 feet by diverting a nearby
canal and adding pumps to push water into it. Officials also are considering allowing
boating and fishing. The reservoir is almost sure to have alligators, too, since they are
common throughout the Everglades.
No one disagrees that storing runoff water is key to reviving the Everglades, but the
restoration effort has for years pitted environmentalists against the government.
The Natural Resources Defense Council has sued over the reservoir, claiming the state
has not legally committed itself to using the water primarily for Everglades restoration.
The state insists 80 percent of the water will be for environmental purposes, but critics
fear that without a legally binding agreement, the water could be sent elsewhere for
agriculture or development.
"The Everglades and everyone deserves better than that," said council attorney Brad
Sewell.
Other bodies of water planned throughout the Glades will serve in a similar way, but
none will be as large as the 25-square-mile reservoir now being built.
The overall Everglades project, including the reservoir, is the largest such wetlandsrestoration effort in the world. Much of its cost was supposed to be split 50-50 by the
federal government and the state. But because Congress hasn't allocated its share, many
aspects of the work have been delayed.
In 2000, the key parts of the restoration were estimated to cost $7.8 billion and take 30
years to finish. The price tag has now ballooned by billions of dollars because of rising
107
construction and real estate costs. It's unknown when all the work will be complete, if
ever.
While the restoration efforts have been slow-going, there are signs of success.
In the north, dozens of wading birds have returned to the Kissimmee River basin, the
Everglades headwaters. In the south, a pair of newborn panther cubs were discovered last
year near the Big Cypress National Preserve.
The big cats once roamed by the thousands throughout the southeastern United States, but
development has crowded out their only remaining habitat in southwest Florida.
Scientists estimate there are no more than 100 panthers remaining in the state.
Carol Wehle, director of the South Florida Water Management District, said the birth of
the panthers "can be directly attributed to restoration efforts."
"As we do these things, we're seeing how quickly Mother Nature actually heals herself,"
Wehle said.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/11/MN6810HLKQ.DTL
This article appeared on page A - 10 of the San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/11/MN6810HLKQ.DTL&type=printable
McCain's voting record suggests inconsistent stance on green issues
By Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post
San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, May 12, 2008
(05-12) 04:00 PDT Washington -- In December 2005, Republicans were poised to open
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge up for oil and gas drilling, an achievement they had
sought for decades. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska,
had attached the provision to a must-pass defense spending bill and threatened to keep
lawmakers in Washington until Christmas if they tried to strip it. Desperate to remove the
provision, leaders from national environmental groups turned to a handful of key GOP
senators for help.
With only days left before the critical vote, League of Conservation Voters President
Gene Karpinski and Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund President Rodger Schlickheisen
obtained a private audience with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. McCain had been on both
sides of the Arctic drilling issue over the course of his career, and the two leaders of the
108
fight against opening the refuge were eager to know whether he would come down in
their column.
His answer disappointed them. In the brief meeting, the senator said he was unwilling to
risk blocking a bill involving the military at a time of war - even though it was clear the
broader funding bill would pass quickly and by a wide margin if opponents managed to
strip the refuge provision from it.
"We told him, 'This may be the key vote. This may be the time we win this,' "
Schlickheisen recalled in an interview. "He said, 'Not on this bill.' That was it."
Ultimately environmental activists were able to defeat the measure with the aid of two
Republican senators - Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Mike DeWine of Ohio. But
they have not forgotten McCain's decision, and many say it exemplifies his approach to
environmental issues.
"There's no question that among a lot of bad Republican votes in the Senate, he's one of
the better ones," Schlickheisen said. "He is perhaps the most unpredictable, erratic, of
those votes."
McCain has made the environment one of the key elements of his presidential bid. He
speaks passionately about the issue of climate change on the campaign trail, and he plans
to outline his vision for combatting global warming in a major speech today in Portland,
Ore.
But an examination of McCain's voting record shows an inconsistent approach to the
environment: He champions some green causes while casting sometimes contradictory
votes on others.
The senator from Arizona has been resolute in his quest to impose a federal limit on
greenhouse gas emissions, even when it means challenging his own party. But he has also
cast votes against tightening fuel-efficiency standards and resisted requiring public
utilities to offer a specific amount of electricity from renewable sources.
He has worked to protect public lands in his home state, winning a 2001 award from the
National Parks Conservation Association for helping give the National Park Service some
say over air tours around the Grand Canyon. But he has also pushed to set aside
Endangered Species Act protections when they conflict with other priorities, such as the
construction of a University of Arizona observatory on Mount Graham.
Doug Holtz-Eakin, McCain's senior policy adviser, said the senator does not always
please "environmental groups who are single-issue, litmus test" organizations. Instead, he
said, McCain seeks to weigh the costs and benefits of each environmental issue.
As a result, McCain scores significantly lower than his Democratic rivals for the
presidency, Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, in
109
interest groups' studies of his environmental voting record. McCain's lifetime League of
Conservation Voters score is 24 percent, compared with 86 for both Obama and Clinton.
When Karpinski tells audiences about McCain's environmental scorecard rating, he said,
"jaws drop. ... I tell them, 'He's not as green as you think he is.' "
The Republican's backers, and some environmentalists, say McCain deserves credit for
taking the political risk of talking about these issues both on the Senate floor and in a
GOP primary where he stood out as the only candidate committed to a specific target for
reducing greenhouse gases. McCain supports cutting greenhouse gases 60 percent by the
middle of this century compared with 1990 levels; Obama and Clinton back an 80 percent
cut over the same period.
On the campaign trail, McCain is more than eager to go toe-to-toe with skeptics of global
warming who attend his town hall forums. When a man in Michigan asked him last week
why the United States was not drilling in the Arctic refuge and off California's coasts,
McCain replied that, as a federalist, he thinks states have the right to make those
decisions.
Holtz-Eakin said McCain is flexible in his federalist approach when it comes to the
question of drilling because, while many Alaskans support opening the Arctic refuge to
oil and gas exploration, the senator has concluded that it's not worth exposing 250 species
of wildlife there to damage.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/12/MNF910KNPE.DTL
This article appeared on page A - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/12/MNF910KNPE.DTL&type=printable
A blight on 'the green city'
San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, May 12, 2008
The Mirant power plant near San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood is a disgrace to a
city that brands itself as a "green" city for the future. The old turbines that operate at the
plant - three run on diesel, one on natural gas - have been spewing an unacceptable
amount of filthy pollution for decades. Nearly everyone in the city agrees that the plant
has been a major contributor to the disproportionate health woes of residents in San
Francisco's eastern neighborhoods. The sooner it is shut down, the better.
But it makes no sense to shut down the old plants only to replace them with three new
ones that will burn fossil fuels that contribute to global warming and create continued
110
health hazards for the same neighborhood's long-suffering residents - for 30 long years.
Regrettably, that's the only option before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
Supervisors must reject it.
The plan before the board would close the four plants at Mirant and install three smaller
"peaker" plants a few blocks away. The plan would cost an estimated $250 million.
According to the plan's supporters, the three new plants would run at least 38 percent
cleaner than the current ones and would be ready to go by 2010.
A 38 percent reduction is not acceptable. San Francisco must insist on a cleaner
alternative - and pour as much political will and technical guile as needed to make it
happen.
And the main benefit to approving this plan? "We know that the energy will be reliable,
and we know that the plan is ready to go," Board President Aaron Peskin said.
Well, yes. But if San Francisco expects to live up to its reputation as a green city, it needs
to start walking the walk. There's already so much needed work to bring the city up to
speed - "In the 10-county Bay Area, San Francisco ranks last in terms of our solar
power," said David Hochschild, a San Francisco Public Utilities commissioner. "And we
have seriously underinvested in energy efficiency" - that it makes no sense to add to our
carbon footprint by adding new plants.
We understand the frustration that has led Supervisor Sophie Maxwell and City Attorney
Dennis Herrera, each of whom lives within sight of the plumes, to decide that the tradeoff of the peakers' pollution is worth getting rid of the Mirant plant once and for all. "I
don't want the perfect to be the enemy of the good," Herrera said.
Still, alternatives to building these new plants do exist, if the supervisors and the mayor
are seriously interested in pursuing them. And the final argument that many of the current
plan's supporters have presented - that new plants are the only solution acceptable to state
regulators - is dubious.
The California Independent System Operator "hasn't been presented with another plan
outside of this one," said Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier. "San Francisco has never said
to them, there are new models for grids and peakers, and we have another way to make
this work."
Finding another way to make this work, of course, is going to take leadership - and here's
where it's time for Mayor Gavin Newsom to start living up to his second-term promise to
be "audacious," especially if he wants to earn his claim as a green mayor.
Newsom has been sitting on the fence on this critical issue.
A new transbay cable should help meet the city's energy demands in 2010. What else can
be done to bring the city into compliance with regulators without building new,
111
expensive, polluting plants? How much can we improve our energy efficiency? What
about new strategies like reconductoring?
With leadership, tenacity and imagination, San Francisco can pursue alternatives that
don't involve a $250 million, 30-year investment in a 20th century technology and the
compromised health of a new generation of San Francisco residents. The residents of
southeast San Francisco have held their breath long enough.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/12/EDFJ10JUPG.DTL&type=printable
India's green revolutionary is back in spotlight
By Mayank Bhardwaj and Jonathan Leff, Reuters
The Washington Post
Sunday, May 11, 2008
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Forty years after he helped rescue the world from growing
famine and a deepening gloom over the future of food supplies, Monkombu Sambasivan
Swaminathan is once again agitating for revolution -- this time a perpetual one.
The 82-year-old scientist, dubbed here the father of the Green Revolution for helping
development a hybrid wheat seed that allowed Indian farmers to dramatically increase
yields, says the current food crisis offers the world a chance to put farmers on the right
road to unending growth.
In the twenty-first century's "Evergreen Revolution," as he calls it, conservation farming
and green technology will bring about sustainable change that could allow India to
become an even bigger supplier of food to the world.
"I'm very happy now, because in every crisis is an opportunity," he told Reuters at his
government apartment in the heart of New Delhi, a perk of his membership in India's
upper house. "This time it will lead to an evergreen revolution."
That would be welcome news for the millions of impoverished people and foodimporting nations who are struggling to cope with the surge in basic crop prices over the
last year, caused in part by protectionist trade bans by some exporters, including India.
This year's near trebling in the price of rice -- the main staple for most of the world's poor
-- has driven the issue home. It has triggered riots in Haiti and raised the risk of starvation
for the hundreds of millions who depend on subsidized foods.
With anxiety over food supply running higher than anytime since the 1960s, the former
Cambridge scholar is busier than ever, just as passionate and in high demand.
112
"My wife says I have a one-track mind," he said during an interview squeezed between a
meeting with an analyst from Asian brokerage CLSA and a consultation with a pack of
regional politicians.
His wife Mina, a women's rights campaigner who met Swaminathan in Cambridge over
50 years ago, enforces quiet time during his daily siesta, part of a regime that helps give
him the energy and focus of a man several decades his junior. A slight stoop and white
hair are rare signs of his advanced age.
TAKING CUES FROM 1960s
Today's crisis is still far from that of the 1960s, when China was engulfed in deadly
famine and India barely got by on hand-to-mouth imports, reviving the grim Malthusian
view that the world's population was expanding too quickly to feed itself.
Back then, Swaminathan, a young scientist who turned down plumb positions in
academia and the government to work in agriculture research, helped cross-breed wheat
seeds that allowed India to more than treble its annual crop in just 15 years.
U.S. production has risen only about a third since then.
Scientists in the Philippines had also developed a super strain of rice at the same time,
and better irrigation and use of fertilizer helped pull India back from the brink of famine.
But Swaminathan says that some seeds of the current crisis were sown in his own
revolutionary heyday.
"The Green Revolution created a sense of euphoria that we have solved our production
problem. Now we have a plateau in production and productivity. We have a problem of
under investment in rural infrastructure," he says.
With genetically advanced seeds, farmers overlooked the potential ecological damage of
heavy fertilizer use, the drop in water tables due to heavier irrigation and the impact of
repeated crop cycles on soil quality.
He believes we've learned from those lessons, and the next wave of improvements will
have environmental considerations at their core, without the need to return to the genetics
lab.
"A short-term gain will have to be a long-term disaster in agriculture," says
Swaminathan, who held a series of leadership roles in world agriculture organizations
before establishing his non-profit Chennai-based M.S. Swaminathan Research
Foundation 20 years ago to promote farm growth that will aid the poor, particularly
women, and bio-diversity.
COURSE MEAL
113
But not all his ideas are popular.
Some abroad are unimpressed by his focus on India's self-sufficiency as the primary goal,
and those at home question the cultivation of more easily grown foods such as courser
grains rather than finer, more costly wheat or rice.
"Would you eat them?" India's food secretary T. Nand Kumar asked earlier this week.
Not that Swaminathan has given up on the staples.
In a world threatened by rising temperatures, he says India should grow more rice rather
than wheat, the latter of which India was forced to import over the past two years.
"Wheat is a gamble in temperatures... Rice is going to be the savior crop in the era of
climate change," he said.
With a host of measures suggested to kickstart the struggling sector, Swaminathan
believes farmers should be allowed to play a pivotal role in leading the change, though he
regrets it took a crisis to finally shift the world's attention back to the land.
"Only when disasters come, farmers become important."
© 2008 Reuters
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/05/11/AR2008051102017_pf.html
Environmental Stances Are Balancing Act For McCain
By Juliet Eilperin
The Washington Post
Monday, May 12, 2008; A01
In December 2005, Republicans were poised to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
to oil and gas drilling, an achievement they had sought for decades. Senate
Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) had attached the provision
to a must-pass defense spending bill and threatened to keep lawmakers in Washington
until Christmas if they tried to strip it. Desperate to remove the provision, leaders from
national environmental groups turned to a handful of key GOP senators for help.
With only days left before the critical vote, League of Conservation Voters President
Gene Karpinski and Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund President Rodger Schlickheisen
obtained a private audience with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). McCain had been on both
sides of the Arctic drilling issue over the course of his career, and the two leaders of the
fight against opening the refuge were eager to know whether he would come down in
their column.
114
His answer disappointed them. In the brief meeting, the senator said he was unwilling to
risk blocking a bill involving the military at a time of war -- even though it was clear the
broader funding bill would pass quickly and by a wide margin if opponents managed to
strip the ANWR provision from it. "We told him, 'This may be the key vote, this may be
the time we win this,' " Schlickheisen recalled in an interview. "He said, 'Not on this bill.'
That was it."
Ultimately environmental activists were able to defeat the measure with the aid of two
Republican senators -- Lincoln Chafee (R.I.) and Mike DeWine (Ohio). But they have not
forgotten McCain's decision, and many say it exemplifies his approach to environmental
issues.
"There's no question that among a lot of bad Republican votes in the Senate, he's one of
the better ones," Schlickheisen said. "He is perhaps the most unpredictable, erratic, of
those votes."
McCain has made the environment one of the key elements of his presidential bid. He
speaks passionately about the issue of climate change on the campaign trail, and he plans
to outline his vision for combating global warming in a major speech today in Portland,
Ore.
"I'm proud of my record on the environment," he said at a news conference Friday at the
Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. "As president, I will dedicate myself to addressing
the issue of climate change globally."
But an examination of McCain's voting record shows an inconsistent approach to the
environment: He champions some "green" causes while casting sometimes contradictory
votes on others.
The senator from Arizona has been resolute in his quest to impose a federal limit on
greenhouse gas emissions, even when it means challenging his own party. But he has also
cast votes against tightening fuel-efficiency standards and resisted requiring public
utilities to offer a specific amount of electricity from renewable sources. He has worked
to protect public lands in his home state, winning a 2001 award from the National Parks
Conservation Association for helping give the National Park Service some say over air
tours around the Grand Canyon, work that prompts former interior secretary and Arizona
governor Bruce Babbitt to call him "a great friend of the canyon." But he has also pushed
to set aside Endangered Species Act protections when they conflict with other priorities,
such as the construction of a University of Arizona observatory on Mount Graham.
Doug Holtz-Eakin, McCain's senior policy adviser, said the senator does not always
please "environmental groups who are single-issue, litmus test" organizations. Instead, he
said, McCain seeks to weigh the costs and benefits of each environmental issue.
"Look, he always balances what are the environmental implications of these enterprises
and what are the economic benefits that could come from them," Holtz-Eakin said. "That
115
is, in general, an approach which may be harder to read than a flat ideological X or Y, but
it's how he reads these things, it's how he evaluates these kinds of decisions."
As a result, McCain scores significantly lower than his Democratic rivals for the
presidency, Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), in interest
groups' studies of his environmental voting record. McCain's lifetime League of
Conservation Voters score is 24 percent, compared with 86 for Obama and 86 for
Clinton; Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund's conservation report card gave him 38
percent in the 108th Congress and 40 in the 109th. (McCain has missed every major
environmental vote this Congress, giving him a zero rating.)
When Karpinski tells audiences about McCain's environmental scorecard rating, he said,
"jaws drop. . . . I tell them, 'He's not as green as you think he is.' "
Obama has already sought to exploit this on the campaign trail: While campaigning in
Bend, Ore., on Saturday he said McCain "opposed real solutions to our dependence on oil
time and time again." In response, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds noted that Obama
had supported the 2005 energy bill, which provided tax breaks for oil companies, while
McCain did not.
The Republican's backers, and some environmentalists, say McCain deserves credit for
taking the political risk of talking about these issues both on the Senate floor and in a
GOP primary where he stood out as the only candidate committed to a specific target for
reducing greenhouse gases. McCain supports cutting greenhouse gases 60 percent by the
middle of this century compared with 1990 levels; Obama and Clinton back an 80 percent
cut over the same period.
"There's no question he was both moved and troubled by the visible impact of climate
change," said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), who has traveled with McCain to
investigate the effects of global warming. "This is inside him now. . . . He stood up
against the president of his own party, and the majority of members of his own party. I
think that makes him an environmental leader."
On the campaign trail, McCain is more than eager to go toe-to-toe with skeptics of global
warming who attend his town hall forums. When a man in Michigan asked him last week
why the United States was not drilling in the Arctic refuge and off California's coasts,
McCain replied that, as a federalist, he thinks states have the right to make those
decisions.
"I can't say we should drill in the most pristine parts of America," he told the questioner,
adding that he believes in finding new sources of oil, "But I also believe sooner or later
we have got to become energy-independent, we've got to reduce greenhouse gases. That
means nuclear, wind, solar, tide, et cetera."
Holtz-Eakin said McCain is flexible in his federalist approach when it comes to the
question of drilling because, while many Alaskans support opening the Arctic refuge to
116
oil and gas exploration, the senator has concluded that it's not worth exposing 250 species
of wildlife there to damage.
For the most part, McCain follows a fairly instinctive approach to deciding
environmental questions. In recent interviews he has said he thinks the government
should list polar bears as endangered because shrinking sea ice threatens their survival,
that sharks deserve protection because they're a crucial part of the marine food web, and
that the nation needs to act on climate change because it risks an environmental
catastrophe if it doesn't.
The senator does not boast an extensive staff of experts on these issues, however, and
doesn't delve into the scientific and policy details the way former vice president Al Gore
or some of his Senate colleagues do. In one conversation on his "Straight Talk Express"
campaign bus, he voiced his frustration with activists who oppose nuclear power plants.
"We start building nuclear power plants, we'll have cheaper energy. Duh," he said.
Tim Profeta, who directs Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy
Solutions and served as Lieberman's counsel on the environment from 2001 to 2005, said
McCain feels strongly about addressing climate change but often resists wading into the
legislative weeds.
"He's really focused on the impacts and the problems climate change will beget, and the
need for action," Profeta said, "but he has, I believe, worked with what Lieberman and his
staff saw as the appropriate policy approach."
As a result, many advocates said they remain uncertain as to how McCain would tackle
environmental issues if elected president this fall. They are still waiting to see whether he
will vote in favor of Lieberman's latest climate bill, which is headed to the Senate next
month.
"Global warming is the most pressing environmental issue facing the country, and
Senator McCain carved a path of leadership on the issue in the past," said Jeremy
Symons, who directs the National Wildlife Federation's campaign on global warming. "A
lot of people are looking to see how he's going to handle it in his campaign, and as
president."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/05/11/AR2008051101964_pf.html
Car and Driver
Plummeting auto sales teach a lesson in the value of putting a price on carbon.
The Washington Post
Monday, May 12, 2008; A18
117
THE DISMAL April car sales data out of Detroit illustrated an important lesson about
what it will take to reduce U.S. consumption of foreign oil and to cut greenhouse gas
emissions. With the reality sinking in that high gas prices (already more than $4 per
gallon in some places) are here to stay, American car buyers ended their nearly twodecade love affair with the sport-utility vehicle and other gas guzzlers. Overall sales at
the Big Three automakers were way down compared with figures from April 2007 -- and
the drop was driven by plummeting sales of light trucks and SUVs. Chrysler's Jeep
Commander SUV dropped 49 percent. General Motors' Chevrolet Tahoe fell 35 percent.
And Ford's F-series pickup trucks declined 27 percent.
Meanwhile, fuel-efficient cars were rolling off the lots. The Big Three automakers saw
increased sales in cars with high gas mileage, as did Toyota, which had an overall sales
gain of 12 percent over April 2007. The Toyota Prius notched a 54 percent increase.
Had Congress the courage to impose a price on carbon, these positive changes could have
been achieved years ago -- and without the side effect of pouring fresh money into the
government coffers of Iran, Venezuela and Russia. Instead, the financial squeeze at the
pump brought on by global increases in oil prices finally brought about the change in
behavior in the driving public that could not be achieved by appealing to citizens' better
natures. The next attitude adjustment should come in Detroit, where the free fall of
bottom lines ought to prompt a decisive shift away from the production of SUVs and
other gas guzzlers.
With a carbon tax, the price of gas might be even higher than it is now. But as we have
seen, high prices encourage less driving and a demand for more efficient vehicles and
energy alternatives, which result in reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. More
important, the billions generated by a carbon tax could help fund projects that would
reduce U.S. dependence on petroleum imports from unfriendly or unstable countries.
Yes, we know: A carbon tax is a non-starter on tax-averse Capitol Hill. But with debate
on a cap-and-trade bill from Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John W. Warner
(R-Va.) starting next month, some price on carbon may be coming. Finally.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/05/11/AR2008051101736_pf.html
States remove local barriers to eco-friendly homes
By Traci Watson
USA TODAY
Monday 12 May 2008
States eager to promote renewable energy are increasingly passing laws that allow
homeowners to overcome local opposition to home solar panels and wind turbines.
Since 2005, eight states — including four last year — have enacted laws to abolish
stringent rules imposed by some homeowners associations and local agencies on
118
residents who want to power their homes with the sun or wind. Maryland Gov. Martin
O'Malley signed such a bill two weeks ago. Final action is near in Virginia and Florida.
Some new laws say homeowners groups can't ban such technology. Others say local
governments can't enforce rules that significantly raise the cost of installing eco-friendly
energy systems.
"If you're going to have local governments and condo associations saying, 'Solar panels
are ugly,' that's a real stumbling block," says state Democratic Rep. Karen May, a sponsor
of a "solar rights bill" pending in Illinois.
In Arizona, homeowner Matt Burdick and others successfully lobbied lawmakers to
prevent homeowners associations from interfering with solar-panel installation. The day
the law took effect, Burdick's association gave him the approval he had long sought for
panels to heat his swimming pool.
Arizona gets more than 300 days of sun a year, "so it makes good sense to try to make
use of that," Burdick says. "Yet we were running into difficulties." Property manager
Joseph Latkowski says Burdick could've gotten approval without the new law if he had
followed the association's rules.
James Draheim and his family have installed energy-efficient windows, lights and
appliances in their Burke, Va., home and wanted to outfit their roof with solar panels.
The local homeowners association, the Burke Centre Conservancy, was "flat-out against
it" because of worries about how it would look, Draheim says. His reaction: "You've got
this energy just falling on your property and you're not allowed to use it because of
aesthetics?"
Patrick Gloyd, director of the homeowners association, says that he's not familiar with
Draheim's request but that the association bans only solar panels visible from the street.
Draheim has shelved his plans — a common response by those who run into opposition,
renewable-energy companies say.
There are no hard statistics, but renewable-energy experts say clashes over homegrown
renewable energy are on the rise as more Americans seek to cut their utility bills or their
carbon footprint.
Sometimes it's local authorities who stand in the way by refusing to issue the necessary
permits, or by charging such high permit fees that homeowners can't afford them.
States have responded by enacting laws designed to protect homeowners from restrictive
neighborhood associations and local regulators. In California, a "solar rights" law that
took effect in 2005 bars cities and counties from restricting on-home solar power.
119
States are taking action in part because dozens face self-imposed deadlines to increase
their use of renewable energy. Legislators are eager to enlist homeowners to help meet
those goals, says Rusty Haynes, program coordinator at a solar-power research center at
North Carolina State University.
"To get from point A to point B, you have to remove every obstacle," he says, including
regulations from homeowners associations.
The laws in California and elsewhere don't necessarily make it a snap to put up solar
panels or a wind turbine. Many homeowners associations aren't familiar with the laws. If
they nix a request to install a green-power system, the resident often gives up rather than
research the law or take legal action, renewable-energy experts say.
Legislation "addresses some of the issues, but it doesn't make them go away," California
solar-power consultant Les Nelson says.
Only 250,000 of the 100-million-plus U.S. homes have solar panels for electricity or
water heating, the Solar Energy Industries Association estimates. The USA ranks fourth
on the list of nations that have installed the most solar-power technology, behind
Germany, Japan and Spain, the association says.
Bills that would protect homeowners wanting to go solar were introduced in both houses
of Congress last year, but few members have signed on as co-sponsors. The bills have not
come up for a vote.
Frank Rathbun, vice president at the Community Association Institute, which represents
homeowners groups, says residents, not governments, should decide how their
communities look.
For Rosemary Canfield, government is the barrier. Almost 18 months after getting a bid
to place solar panels on the roof of her Pismo Beach, Calif., home, Canfield and her
family are still not operating on sun power because of a dispute with the city planning
department. That's despite the fact that California law says local officials can vet solar
projects only for "public health and safety."
"My frustration level is pretty high at this point," Canfield says. "We've gone through all
the steps we were asked to go through, and we're still here waiting."
Pismo Beach senior planner Scot Graham says the Canfields' proposed solar panels
would violate height limits on buildings by the coast. He says nothing in state law
prevents the city from asking the Canfields to reconfigure their solar panels to meet the
height limit.
Renewable-energy proponents say cases such as the Canfields' show that only a national
law will make homegrown wind and solar power as common as they should be.
Promoting renewable energy is "a national imperative," says Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-
120
Calif., who introduced a bill that would ban strict regulations on home solar panels.
"There are a lot of impediments. We're trying to do everything we can to pave the way."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-05-12-green_N.htm
Polar research is coming in from the cold
After 50 years, the Polar Continental Shelf Project is enjoying a warmer reception from
scientists and politicians
KATHERINE O'NEILL
The Globe and Mail
Monday May 12, 2008
RESOLUTE BAY, NUNAVUT — High above the Arctic Circle, in one of Canada's
coldest corners, is a snow-encrusted bright blue warehouse that's increasingly become a
hot spot for the world's scientists.
The Polar Continental Shelf Project, located at the edge of Resolute Bay's tiny airport,
has long been a magnet for polar researchers, but concerns such as climate change and
Canadian Arctic sovereignty have stepped up traffic to this scientific staging ground in
the High Arctic.
"Never has there been the level of interest that exists now. To me, it's a little scary, a little
exciting," said Marty Bergmann, director of the $6.3-million federal program, which
provides logistical support to researchers in one of the most unforgiving and isolated
spots on the planet.
"But I think Canadians are ready. I know our scientists are ready. And I know the world
is ready for us to step up. I'm very hopeful."
The agency, which is a branch of Natural Resources Canada, got its start 50 years ago
this month, thanks in large part to a historic development in space. The Russians had
recently launched the Sputnik satellite, and then-prime-minister John Diefenbaker's
Progressive Conservative government realized that it knew very little about the High
Arctic after the U.S. government asked it for gravitational data from the area that it
needed for its space program.
However, over the years, Polar Shelf has received little public attention and has often
faced budget cuts, which forced it to close two research stations, one in Tuktoyaktuk,
NWT.
And in recent years, while funding for Polar Shelf, which employees eight people, has
remained largely stagnant, dozens of countries, including the United States, have ramped
121
up spending on Arctic research. Even countries with no apparent direct link to the frozen
region have financed research at the top of the world.
Last summer, India sent its first scientific expedition to the Arctic. The government
dispatched researchers to Ny-Alesund, a research station in Norway's Svalbard
Archipelago, to measure environmental changes. The country wants to understand how
changes in the Arctic could affect the intensity of its monsoon seasons.
Several countries, including Italy, Japan, Korea, France and China, have permanent
research stations in the area, which is about 1,200 kilometres from the North Pole.
While other countries leap ahead, Polar Shelf still manages to achieve a lot with little,
according to John Smol, a leading Canadian Arctic climate researcher. A Queen's
University biologist who studies Arctic ponds, Dr. Smol has relied heavily on the
program since his first trip to the Arctic 26 years ago. "Despite financial constraints and
other difficulties, they seem to take a certain pride in 'getting the job done,' " he said.
However, he warned that the situation needs to change not only because of concerns
about Arctic sovereignty, but about such pressing issues as climate change and loss of
animal habitat.
For example, the Norwegian Polar Institute employs about 110 people in three different
locations and has an annual budget close to $40-million.
In last October's Speech from the Throne, Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised to
build a "world-class" Arctic research station that "would serve the world" and be on the
"cutting edge of Arctic issues."
However, scant details have since been released about the project.
Every year, Polar Shelf helps about 130 research projects and more than 400 scientists do
their work around the Canadian Arctic, a massive and largely barren area the size of
Europe. There are few airports or roads.
Flying researchers into far-flung and isolated field camps is one of its main jobs, and
aircraft support eats up about $4-million of the program's total budget. The program also
taps into another $4-million from other sources, such as International Polar Year, a
worldwide Arctic research effort that wraps up next year.
"Weather is always a factor," explained Barry Hough, one of the program's two logistical
managers, as he eyed an early spring snowstorm raging outside his window. "Every day
there are new challenges."
Polar Shelf staff check in with field camps twice a day using a high-frequency radio. The
program also offers scientists lodgings and a place to store equipment in Resolute Bay,
122
which is located 600 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. Staff has even co-ordinated
search-and-rescue efforts when necessary.
The Arctic research season starts in March and usually wraps up in September.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080512.wpolar12/BNStory/N
ational/
Light and fruity - with half the alcohol
By HAROLD HECKLE, Associated Press
The Globe and Mail
Monday May 12, 2008
JUMILLA, SPAIN -- Global warming may be the latest threat to the wine industry, but a
clutch of producers in one of Spain's hardest-hit regions say they've found a way to
survive and even profit from it.
Vintners face a twin danger from climate change. Higher temperatures mean grapes with
more sugar and thus more alcohol, but wines packing a heftier wallop are less popular
these days, in part because people are wary of drinking and driving. Plus, drought can
stop vines from producing fruit altogether.
So winemakers in Spain's southeastern Murcia region thought up a way to coax their
vines into making a product that retains the character of a classic wine, only with much
less alcohol - 6.5 per cent by volume, compared to 14 per cent or more for many
traditionally made Spanish wines.
The technique and product are so groundbreaking the European Union had to devise a
new category - "wine with reduced alcohol content" - for it to be marketed.
"Vineyards are migrating north to avoid heat. If we want to stay in the business we have
to adapt. And this method gives us a means to do so," said Pedro Jose Martinez, the
brains behind the project at Casa de la Ermita winery, near the town of Jumilla.
His pride and joy, called Altos de la Ermita, is redolent of cherries, plums and
blackberries, with a smoky hint of the oak barrels in which it spent six months maturing.
It tastes light and fruity, like a good summer drinking wine. Only a slight lack of "legs" tear-like traces wine leaves on the side of a glass - gives away the low alcohol content.
"And you can drink two good glasses with your lunch and still be under the legal limit,"
said the project's chief winemaker, Marcial Martinez (unrelated to Pedro Jose Martinez).
123
The winery says it knows of no other producers making this kind of wine but expects
competition to emerge. It plans to release 770,000 bottles of Altos in this debut year and
1.5 million in 2009, with sales planned in Spain and around the world.
No other country on earth has as much land dedicated to growing grapes. With 1.2
million hectares of vineyards, Spain far outstrips nearest rivals France and Italy,
according to the OIV, the International Organization of Vine and Wine.
Wine regions such as La Mancha and Murcia face pressure from several sources:
changing consumer preferences, new laws to cut the death toll from vehicle accidents and
European Union legislation aimed at reducing overproduction.
"Hot country" wines like those of southern Spain, with levels as high as 15 per cent
alcohol, are no longer popular in the world's trendy wine shops. Today people prefer
lighter styles, like French Bordeaux with 13 per cent alcohol.
But rising temperatures and drought are worrying vine farmers most. Records show Spain
is experiencing its driest year since record-keeping began 60 years ago.
"We are getting higher alcohol levels because of hot weather and excessive evaporation
from the grapes," said Jorge Garcia, manager of the Vitivinos co-operative winery in
Villamalea on the southeastern fringe of La Mancha.
The Ermita vineyard's technique uses carefully controlled irrigation to trick vines into
making grapes with less sugar and thus significantly less potential for alcohol. The
finished wine is then put through rotating cones to separate out alcohol molecules.
"We manage to achieve a product that retains all the sensorial characteristics of a classic
wine, but with only 6.5 per cent alcohol," Marcial Martinez said.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080512.LWPORTOWINE12/TPS
tory/?query=climate+change
Opposition gives Campbell the gears for ignoring carbon tax in speech
By IAN BAILEY
The Globe and Mail
Monday May 12, 2008
VANCOUVER -- NDP Leader Carole James says she's surprised Premier Gordon
Campbell delivered a speech to a key gathering of northern communities in Prince
George on Friday without a single reference to the carbon-tax issue that galvanized the
annual meeting.
124
Ms. James, in a speech a day ahead of the Premier, sided with members of the North
Central Municipal Association, who passed a bundled package of resolutions that
slammed the groundbreaking tax as unfair to the north. She said she expected the Premier
to offer some defence when he spoke.
But Mr. Campbell ignored the tax in his speech of about 40 minutes, which spanned
issues ranging from forestry to regional unity to economic opportunities related to climate
change.
Although the Premier's remarks were greeted with applause, some delegates yesterday
said they were surprised, disappointed and baffled by the omission. There was no
question-and-answer session to allow them to raise the issue with Mr. Campbell.
Ms. James said she was amazed her political rival didn't even try to use the once-a-year
forum to stake out his defence on the issue.
"I expected that he would express the concerns head on. That's what politicians do. You
need to have the guts to stand up and take the heat on policies you've passed," said Ms.
James.
"Believe me, I've been in a lot of crowds and a lot of meetings and groups talking about
past New Democrat government policies that people didn't like, and you stand up and
take it, and address the issues head on."
Delivering a carbon-tax-free speech, said Ms. James, "shows a complete lack of respect"
by ignoring a group's key concern. "In the end, it shows he can't defend it."
For weeks, northerners have been suggesting the tax on carbon is unfair to residents of
their region because they have to drive more than southerners, and also live in a climate
that imposes steeper heating costs. The tax comes into effect July 1, and will be phased in
over five years. It begins at a rate of $10 per tonne of carbon emissions, which works out
to about 2.4 cents per litre of gasoline.
Seven resolutions up for debate at the convention passed as a package. All but one of
about 140 delegates at the meeting supported them amid calls to send the Premier a
message.
"I haven't heard about anyone being thrilled with the speech - in particular with the
carbon tax not being mentioned," said Brian Skakun, a Prince George city councillor.
"A lot of thought was put into the resolutions. [Mr. Campbell] could, at least, have
acknowledged it. I thought he would have done himself and everyone else a favour by
touching on it."
Quesnel Mayor Nate Bello said it should have been natural for the Premier to raise the
issue.
125
"Maybe he wasn't briefed on the almost unanimous feeling about the carbon tax [at the
meeting]," he said yesterday. "I would have liked it if he talked about the carbon tax, but
I know [the provincial government's] minds are made up."
Bruce Christensen, a Fort St. John councillor, said Mr. Campbell's silence was noted
among delegates.
"Everybody was quite surprised that there wasn't a mention of it - that's for sure," he said.
Mr. Campbell later told reporters the tax was going through without amendment or
adjustment for regional concerns. He said he did not mention it in his speech because he
had met behind closed doors with some municipal leaders before speaking.
Blair Lekstrom, Liberal MLA for Peace River South, was present for the resolutions
debate and Premier's speech. "There will probably be people that thought he may have
gone directly after [the carbon tax] and addressed it because of the resolutions," he said.
"Certainly there's no doubt the people I was there with, my colleagues, certainly heard the
concerns expressed. I was encouraged that people were not saying, 'Get rid of the carbon
tax.' People were saying, 'Let's look at some good factual information here and see if
there is an inequitable impact.' I'm prepared to do that."
The NCMA's carbon-tax resolutions will be up for debate at this fall's meeting of the
Union of B.C. Municipalities, representing about 188 communities.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080512.BCNORTH12/TPStory/?
query=climate+change
Science fair projects go 'greener'
Young Canadians take their passion and plans for healthier planet to international fair
By Debra Black, STAFF REPORTER
The TORONTO STAR
Saturday 10 May 2008
For Roopa Suppiah, science rocks. The 16-year-old Grade 11 student from Deep River,
Ont., is one of 16 Canadian high school students heading to Atlanta this weekend to
participate in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, where about 1,500
students from 40 countries will put their projects and their science smarts on display for
judges to evaluate.
Yesterday Suppiah proudly showed off her entry in this year's competition – a method to
control carbon dioxide emissions and convert them into useful organic materials that
could be used to fuel a car. "I have been working on science fair projects since Grade 7,"
Suppiah said. "Basically I built a reactor that takes carbon dioxide and converts it into
organic material."
126
And it wasn't just a simple reactor that Suppiah designed. After a couple of years'
research, she decided to build an enhanced reactor – one that combined two techniques
for converting carbon dioxide: using electrical energy as well as photo energy.
For Suppiah, the environment and global warming are compelling subjects and she
wanted to do something to help make the world a "greener" place. It definitely has
commercial applications, she said.
"Wherever there is a power plant or a factory, they're emitting carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere and we know that the environment is such a big issue right now and we need
to control carbon dioxide emissions," she explained. "So what this reactor is doing is
taking that carbon dioxide and converting it into useful materials like ethanol." And
ethanol, of course, can be used to fuel cars, she pointed out jubilantly.
Suppiah comes by her love of science naturally. Her father is a chemical engineer at
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. She is bright, articulate and clearly inventive. She even
had her own business card made up to hand out at the international fair. "Just in case,"
she said.
Others, like Llew Falla, a 15-year-old from Sarnia, are equally hooked on science. The
Grade 9 student created a microbial fuel cell that controls the pH of dairy cow manure.
The cell basically produces hydrogen ions and lowers the pH in manure, Falla said. Then
those hydrogen ions are put inside a chamber and they react with oxygen and form water,
he said, ultimately producing electricity.
Falla, also very keen on the need for renewable resources and a greener planet, believes
there's a very practical application for his experiment – on a larger scale it could generate
enough electricity to heat a home. It would take the manure of 99 cows to provide enough
electricity to heat a 1,500-square-foot home daily, he said.
Suppiah and Falla are not alone in their passion for science and technology. All the
members of Team Canada were selected from about 25,000 participants in regional
science fairs across the country and 1,000 national finalists. Canadian high school
students have proven themselves to be leaders when it comes to science, said Reni
Barlow, executive director of the Youth Science Foundation Canada.
In an international survey of Grade 10 science students, Canada's students ranked within
the top three countries, Barlow said. Over the past 10 years, 85 per cent of the Canadian
participants at the annual international science fair have come home with awards.
"It's an extraordinary achievement," said Barlow. And yet, according to a recent report by
Statistics Canada, university enrolment is down in areas of science, technology and
innovation, mathematics, computer and information technology and engineering, he said.
127
http://www.thestar.com/article/424014
No answers to crisis in workforce housing
By NANCY DAHLBERG
The Miami Herald
Monday 12 May 2008
The hard numbers were sobering.
It wasn't just the stats -- like 85 percent of our population can't afford the area's medianpriced home -- that were tough to swallow in the 82-page Workforce Housing Needs
Assessment put out by FIU's Metropolitan Center and released by the Greater Miami
Chamber last week.
It was the projections, too. There were lots of tables but the bottom line is we're a lowwage, service-oriented economy, and in 2015 we will still be one.
Yet we have luxury high-rise after luxury high-rise and more coming on line. Stats in the
report show a severe shortage of affordable rentals because of the condo-conversion
boom and low, low growth in rental stock.
What we haven't seen yet are answers to this workforce housing crisis.
The Chamber, area mayors, the Broward Housing Partnership and the Partnership for
Community Housing in Monroe have started the conversation. Let's keep it going. E-mail
ideas to ndahlberg@MiamiHerald.com and I will share.
In many parts of the country, prices at the pump are starting to affect driving habits.
According to a recent survey by Cars.com, 23 percent carpool more than before, 12
percent are taking public transportation, 11 percent are biking and 7 percent are part of a
car sharing service.
What about here? Will $4 gas finally move South Floridians to cut down on driving?
Some companies offer incentives to do just that.
Jim Udvardy, project director for South Florida Commuter Services, says the agency
aims to discourage driving alone and offers help with car-pooling, park-and-ride and
other programs. It used to have to drum up business. Now companies call him -- a lot.
''It's a retention and recruitment issue now,'' he added.
Bupa Insurance in Miami offers $50 monthly gas cards for every member of a carpooling
team. So far, more than 30 teams are participating from the 340-employee company and
that's a win-win for the environment and employees' wallets, said Christina Theim
Jensen, Bupa's communication manager. Adorno & Yoss offers employees at all its South
Florida law offices a travel subsidy to cover a monthly Metrorail pass and parking at the
stations.
128
Is your company allowing more telecommuting, promoting mass transit or car pooling, or
offering some other help? Tell me about it.
http://www.miamiherald.com/982/v-print/story/528953.html
Civilization's last chance
The planet is nearing a tipping point on climate change, and it gets much worse, fast.
By Bill McKibben
The Los Angeles Times
Sunday May 11, 2008
Even for Americans -- who are constitutionally convinced that there will always be a
second act, and a third, and a do-over after that, and, if necessary, a little public
repentance and forgiveness and a Brand New Start -- even for us, the world looks a little
terminal right now.
It's not just the economy: We've gone through swoons before. It's that gas at $4 a gallon
means we're running out, at least of the cheap stuff that built our sprawling society. It's
that when we try to turn corn into gas, it helps send the price of a loaf of bread shooting
upward and helps ignite food riots on three continents. It's that everything is so tied
together. It's that, all of a sudden, those grim Club of Rome types who, way back in the
1970s, went on and on about the "limits to growth" suddenly seem ... how best to put it,
right.
All of a sudden it isn't morning in America, it's dusk on planet Earth.
There's a number -- a new number -- that makes this point most powerfully. It may now
be the most important number on Earth: 350. As in parts per million of carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere.
A few weeks ago, NASA's chief climatologist, James Hansen, submitted a paper to
Science magazine with several coauthors. The abstract attached to it argued -- and I have
never read stronger language in a scientific paper -- that "if humanity wishes to preserve a
planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is
adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need
to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm."
Hansen cites six irreversible tipping points -- massive sea level rise and huge changes in
rainfall patterns, among them -- that we'll pass if we don't get back down to 350 soon;
and the first of them, judging by last summer's insane melt of Arctic ice, may already be
behind us.
So it's a tough diagnosis. It's like the doctor telling you that your cholesterol is way too
high and, if you don't bring it down right away, you're going to have a stroke. So you take
the pill, you swear off the cheese, and, if you're lucky, you get back into the safety zone
129
before the coronary. It's like watching the tachometer edge into the red zone and knowing
that you need to take your foot off the gas before you hear that clunk up front.
In this case, though, it's worse than that because we're not taking the pill and we are
stomping on the gas -- hard. Instead of slowing down, we're pouring on the coal, quite
literally. Two weeks ago came the news that atmospheric carbon dioxide had jumped 2.4
parts per million last year -- two decades ago, it was going up barely half that fast.
And suddenly the news arrives that the amount of methane, another potent greenhouse
gas accumulating in the atmosphere, has unexpectedly begun to soar as well. It appears
that we've managed to warm the far north enough to start melting huge patches of
permafrost, and massive quantities of methane trapped beneath it have begun to bubble
forth.
And don't forget: China is building more power plants; India is pioneering the $2,500 car;
and Americans are buying TVs the size of windshields, which suck juice ever faster.
Here's the thing. Hansen didn't just say that if we didn't act, there was trouble coming. He
didn't just say that if we didn't yet know what was best for us, we'd certainly be better off
below 350 ppm of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
His phrase was: "if we wish to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization
developed." A planet with billions of people living near those oh-so-floodable coastlines.
A planet with ever-more vulnerable forests. (A beetle, encouraged by warmer
temperatures, has already managed to kill 10 times more trees than in any previous
infestation across the northern reaches of Canada this year. This means far more carbon
heading for the atmosphere and apparently dooms Canada's efforts to comply with the
Kyoto protocol, which was already in doubt because of its decision to start producing oil
for the U.S. from Alberta's tar sands.)
We're the ones who kicked the warming off; now the planet is starting to take over the
job. Melt all that Arctic ice, for instance, and suddenly the nice white shield that reflected
80% of incoming solar radiation back into space has turned to blue water that absorbs
80% of the sun's heat. Such feedbacks are beyond history, though not in the sense that
Francis Fukuyama had in mind.
And we have, at best, a few years to short-circuit them -- to reverse course. Here's the
Indian scientist and economist Rajendra Pachauri, who accepted the Nobel Prize on
behalf of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year (and, by the way, got
his job when the Bush administration, at the behest of Exxon Mobil, forced out his
predecessor): "If there's no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two
to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment."
In the next two or three years, the nations of the world are supposed to be negotiating a
successor treaty to the Kyoto accord (which, for the record, has never been approved by
the United States -- the only industrial nation that has failed to do so). When December
130
2009 rolls around, heads of state are supposed to converge on Copenhagen to sign a
treaty -- a treaty that would go into effect at the last plausible moment to heed the most
basic and crucial of limits on atmospheric CO2.
If we did everything right, Hansen says, we could see carbon emissions start to fall fairly
rapidly and the oceans begin to pull some of that CO2 out of the atmosphere. Before the
century was out, we might even be on track back to 350. We might stop just short of
some of those tipping points, like the Road Runner screeching to a halt at the very edge
of the cliff.
More likely, though, we're the coyote -- because "doing everything right" means that
political systems around the world would have to take enormous and painful steps right
away. It means no more new coal-fired power plants anywhere, and plans to quickly
close the ones already in operation. (Coal-fired power plants operating the way they're
supposed to are, in global warming terms, as dangerous as nuclear plants melting down.)
It means making car factories turn out efficient hybrids next year, just the way U.S.
automakers made them turn out tanks in six months at the start of World War II. It means
making trains an absolute priority and planes a taboo.
It means making every decision wisely because we have so little time and so little money,
at least relative to the task at hand. And hardest of all, it means the rich countries of the
world sharing resources and technology freely with the poorest ones so that they can
develop dignified lives without burning their cheap coal.
It's possible. The United States launched a Marshall Plan once, and could do it again, this
time in relation to carbon. But at a time when the president has, once more, urged drilling
in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, it seems unlikely. At a time when the alluring
phrase "gas tax holiday" -- which would actually encourage more driving and more
energy consumption -- has danced into our vocabulary, it's hard to see. And if it's hard to
imagine sacrifice here, imagine China, where people produce a quarter as much carbon
apiece as Americans do.
Still, as long as it's not impossible, we've got a duty to try to push those post-Kyoto
negotiations in the direction of reality. In fact, it's about the most obvious duty humans
have ever faced.
After all, those talks are our last chance; you just can't do this one lightbulb at a time.
We do have one thing going for us -- the Web -- which at least allows you to imagine
something like a grass-roots global effort. If the Internet was built for anything, it was
built for sharing this number, for making people understand that "350" stands for a kind
of safety, a kind of possibility, a kind of future.
Hansen's words were well-chosen: "a planet similar to that on which civilization
developed." People will doubtless survive on a non-350 planet, but those who do will be
so preoccupied, coping with the endless unintended consequences of an overheated
131
planet, that civilization may not.
Civilization is what grows up in the margins of leisure and security provided by a
workable relationship with the natural world. That margin won't exist, at least not for
long, as long as we remain on the wrong side of 350. That's the limit we face.
Bill McKibben, a scholar in residence at Middlebury College and the author, most
recently, of "The Bill McKibben Reader," is the co-founder of Project 350 (
www.350.org), devoted to reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per
million. A longer version of this article appears at Tomdispatch.com.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-mckibben112008may11,0,7434369.story?track=ntothtml
More Iowans draw link between faith, protecting environment
By MARY STEGMEIR, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
The Chicago Tribune
Monday, May 12, 2008
WATERLOO, Iowa - Elizabeth Becker's ponytail whipped in the wind last weekend as
the teen dug her spade into the grass outside First Congregational United Church of
Christ.
Soon, with help from members of two other downtown church youth groups, the 18-yearold was ready to plant a white pine sapling in the exposed soil.
"I believe in God, and this is God's creation," the East High School senior said, after
carefully arranging mulch around the young tree. "We have to step up and keep it the way
he wants it."
To Becker, who spent her morning planting trees near other downtown churches, the link
between faith and the natural world is clear. It is a view that is gaining traction in
churches, synagogues and mosques across the country and in the Cedar Valley. As
pollution and global warming have gained increasing attention in secular society, a
growing number of faith communities have added environmental stewardship to their
ministries.
"Every faith tradition has an ethic that calls us to care for creation, but we've ignored that
for hundreds and hundreds of years," said Sarah Webb, a member of St. Luke's Episcopal
Church in Cedar Falls. "The environmental crisis is calling us to action, and people are
now looking to their faith traditions for inspiration."
A recent poll by Phoenix-based Ellison Research found 41 percent of Americans believe
132
harming the environment is a sin.
On March 10, the Vatican made that proclamation official, listing pollution -- along with
drug use, genetic manipulation and social and economic injustice -- as areas of sinful
behavior for today's believers. Later that day, leaders from the Southern Baptist
Convention released a statement saying: "There is undeniable evidence that the Earth -wildlife, water, land and air -- can be damaged by human activity, and that people suffer
as a result."
GREAT AWAKENING
Although environmental preservation efforts have been greeted with lukewarm public
support since the 1970s, local religious leaders hope preaching sustainability from the
pulpit will have a lasting effect on Cedar Valley churchgoers and their neighbors.
For evangelical Christians, one of the first steps is removing the issue from the political
sphere, said Tri Robinson, founder of "Let's Tend the Garden," an environmental
stewardship ministry based in Boise, Idaho.
"It's been an interestingly controversial topic among evangelicals," Robinson said in a
March speech at the University of Northern Iowa. "When people think about Christians,
especially evangelicals, they think of a group of people that is antagonistic toward
anything that is green. And a lot of evangelicals still think that way themselves."
Here is the logic: Since the 1960s, the environmental movement has been the turf of leftwing liberals, who also support abortion rights and gay marriage -- causes most
evangelicals consider abhorrent.
"Two camps emerged out of Roe v. Wade, a conservative camp and a liberal camp,"
Robinson said, referring to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that struck down state
laws restricting a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy. "The environment fell in with
the liberal group. It was therefore equated by many Christians as a liberal agenda (item),
and they pushed it away."
But recent scientific findings have made it impossible for Christians to continue to ignore
environmental stewardship, said Robinson, who was in the Cedar Valley last month to
present a "God is Green" conference at Heartland Vineyard Church in Cedar Falls.
In November, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the
first time called the evidence for global warming "unequivocal." Trends of increasing air
and water temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising ocean levels all
point to a permanent change in the Earth's climate spurred by human activity, the report
states.
133
In response, Cedar Valley churches scheduled tree-planting outings, added long-lasting
light bulbs to their sanctuaries and encouraged members to bike or carpool to Sunday
services.
Sermons and Scripture study sessions have also focused on the environment.
"We've started talking about how God's heart for people is really revealed in how we
honor and care for our earth," said Chris Reeves, executive pastor of Heartland Vineyard.
"We talk about it spiritually, but we also talk about it practically, like the importance of
recycling and how to cut down the energy we use."
Making changes as a faith community is easier than making changes alone, said St.
Luke's member Webb.
Two years ago, Webb and fellow St. Luke's members Ann Eastman and Kate Dunning,
developed Cool Congregations, an energy efficiency program designed especially for
church-goers. They started the initiative by asking 25 families from their home parish to
reduce energy use by 10 percent via simple lifestyle changes, such as using compact
fluorescent light bulbs, washing clothing in cold water and weather-proofing their homes.
Over one year, the participants reduced their carbon dioxide emissions by 67 tons, the
equivalent of removing 12 cars from Iowa's roads.
"Americans represent about 5 percent of the world's population, but we contribute about
25 to 30 percent of the world's CO2 emissions," said Webb, who uses a computer
program to help Cool Congregations participants measure their family's "carbon
footprint." "We try to help people make the connection that their actions here affect
people elsewhere and are having a very real impact on our planet."
Since 2006, Webb and her cohorts have introduced the Cool Congregation program to
roughly 100 churches in the Midwest.
"We are reaching a lot of people, and it feels fantastic," said Webb, whose work is
supported by Iowa Interfaith Power & Light. "During our workshops we go to Scripture,
we talk about how God tells Adam and Eve to tend the garden in Genesis."
BIBLE STUDY
Most faith traditions call on adherents to care for the earth, according to Harvard
University's Forum on Religion and Ecology.
Muslims believe the earth is subservient to man, but that humans have a responsibility to
not exploit the environment. Jewish texts teach that God renews his creation daily, and
that humans are both a part of nature and separate from it. Christians believe the biblical
figure Noah agreed to a holy covenant that would ensure nature's gifts belong to the
human race as long as we respect the earth and each other. One of the guiding principles
of Unitarianism is an interdependent web of existence.
134
Today, religious leaders are increasingly calling on those tenets when preaching a "green"
message.
"It's become a concern because when we look around we know that something is
happening with the environment that is not good," said Dave Cushing, director of adult
faith formation for Waterloo's four Roman Catholic parishes. "We've always known in
some theoretical sense that our faith spoke to environmental stewardship, but when you
come face-to-face with it as an issue of survival, you have to pay attention."
From 1990 to 2005, total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have risen by 16.3 percent,
according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. If greenhouse gases continue to
increase, scientists predict the average temperature at the Earth's surface could raise 3.2
to 7.2 degrees above 1990 levels by the end of this century. Although those numbers may
seem small, researchers believe the change would dramatically alter the earth's ecosystem
and affect plant, animal and human health.
This spring, Waterloo's Catholic churches offered a Bible study course on humankind's
responsibility to care for the earth. Last month the parishes co-sponsored a Cool
Congregations session with First Congregational United Church of Christ members.
For Catholics, climate change is also a social justice issue. Impoverished Americans are
hit hardest by rising energy costs, and developing nations are already feeling the effect of
food shortages and environmental disasters linked to global warming, Cushing said.
"This isn't a political issue anymore," he said. "It's a moral issue, an ethical issues and a
justice issue.
"From that perspective, we can't ignore it."
-----Information from: Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, http://www.wcfcourier.com
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ia-exchangeenvironm,0,1511226,print.story
Back to Menu
135
ROLAC MEDIA UPDATE
May 12 2008
OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS:
I English
1- Argentina - Patagonia fears environmental damage from volcano
2- Cuba - Crocs in Danger
3- Jamaica - Determining the value of the Cockpit - Maroon country to be studied by
scientist
4- Panama - Windmill farms tested in mountains
5 - Venezuela - Ávila National Park Has New Friends
6- Regional - South America: Giant Step towards Regional Energy Integration
II Spanish
7- Brasil - El sueño se vuelve práctica
8- Chile - Grave daño ecológico por erupción del volcán Chaitén en el sur de Chile
9- Perú - Desaparece glaciar peruano a causa del calentamiento global
10- Perú - Propuesta para crear mecanismo de seguimiento climático
1- Argentina - Patagonia fears environmental damage from volcano
05 – 11 – 08
Esquel, Argentina - Volcanic ash raining down from the Chilean volcano Chaiten may
cause long-term environmental damage and harm the health of people and animals in
picturesque Patagonia, scientists say.
Ash from the volcano, which started erupting 10 days ago for the first time in thousands
of years, is made up of pulverized rock containing all kinds of minerals.
It has spoiled lakes, rivers and lagoons, coated plants in a dense layer of gray, and altered
the sensitive habitat of animals now struggling to survive. Satellite images show a white
stripe smeared across the southern part of South America.
Though it is too early to say what the long-term effects will be, ecologists say life has
permanently changed in the region's pine and cypress forests, inhabited by pumas and
huemules, a rare species of deer.
136
"I am tremendously worried because this is an environmental, social and ecological
disaster," said Alejandro Beletzky, an environmental scientist in a soot-covered swath of
Argentina.
"The presence of volcanic ash in the region, which falls constantly, is very risky for
humans, plants and animals," he said near Esquel, a town 1,240 miles southwest of
Buenos Aires.
Government officials have insisted the ash is not toxic, though people in the Argentine
provinces of Chubut and Rio Negro, and Chile's Tenth Region have complained of
burning eyes, breathing trouble and tainted water.
The volcanic ash blowing east across the Andes mountains from Chile has dusted
hundreds of square miles of Argentina. Nearby airports have closed because of poor
visibility and worries the rocky ash could damage jet engines.
Chile's chain of volcanoes, the second-largest in the world, includes some 2,000 of which
500 are potentially active. Chaiten sits 760 miles south of the capital Santiago.
On both sides of the border, pastures were blanketed in ash, a few animals tried to eat
grass, and birds perched on trees looked like concrete statues.
"We don't think the ash is toxic, but we need to take into account the long-term effects on
the digestive and respiratory systems of animals," said Christian Hepp, an agronomist for
Chile's national institute of livestock studies, which is testing the soil of cow and sheep
pastures clouded by ash.
In Chile, evacuated residents complained of being thrown into a state of limbo, not
knowing when, or if, they would be able to return.
Chaiten has shot a towering plume of ash 12 miles into the sky, forcing thousands of
people to evacuate within a 30-mile (50-km) radius.
The column might descend gradually. But in a worst-case scenario, ash and molten rock
would drop quickly and engulf the town of Chaiten, just 6 miles from the volcano, killing
everything in its path.
"We can't put anybody's life at risk," President Michelle Bachelet told weary evacuees
huddled in shelters.
Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1145317520080511?sp=true
2- Cuba - Crocs in Danger
137
05 – 12 -08
Havana, Cuba: Experts are monitoring the potential effects of climate change on the
reproductive process of the Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer Cuvier),
concentrated in the Ciénaga de Zapata, a wetland in the south of the western province of
Matanzas.
They are keeping an eye on the possible effects of warmer temperatures and variations in
rainfall patterns on this endemic -- and endangered -- species, biologist Roberto Ramos
told Tierramérica.
The nests depend on water levels: if there is a drought the eggs dry out, and if there is too
much water they suffocate, he explained. "There is still no evidence of a problem, but it
could come, and we are remaining alert."
The issue will be taken up in a workshop on preservation of this crocodile species to be
led by Cuban experts in Matanzas, May 12-17.
Source: http://www.tierramerica.info/nota.php?lang=eng&idnews=eco&nro=363
3- Jamaica - Determining the value of the Cockpit - Maroon country to be studied
by scientist
A group of internationally respected scientists and economists have begun hashing out a
method to determine the economic value of biodiversity present in the Cockpit Country.
They started Saturday with a workshop at the Courtleigh Hotel in New Kingston and will
end Tuesday at the Mona Visitors' Lodge and Conference Centre at the University of the
West Indies (UWI), Mona.
The effort to determine the economic value of the Cockpit's biodiversity is a
collaboration of the Windsor Research Centre in Trelawny and the Department of
Economics at UWI, Mona. The project is being funded by the United States-based John
D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
The results from the workshop will be used to define the goods and services provided by
flora and fauna in the Cockpit Country and to identify the tools and methodologies for a
one-year research project to value these services.
The findings from the project will be presented in a symposium at UWI, Mona in 2010.
Source: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080512/news/news6.html
4- Panamá - Windmill farms tested in mountains
05 – 11 – 08
138
Panama City, Panama: Santa Fe Energy, S.A. and Enrilews have bested skeptics and
invested millions to introduce wind energy to Panama.
High in the mountainous regions of Veraguas, Coclé and La Chorrera, winds turn the
blades of energy-generating windmills reaching 50 and 100 meters tall. The white giants
are part of a pilot program that seeks to popularize wind power generation in Panama.
The test windmills are on loan from Santa Fe Energy, S.A. and Enrilews, the two
companies that have previously organized studies on the country´s wind energy potential.
The project has progressed despite skepticism about the wind´s reliability as an energy
source and the complaints of residents who feel the windmills mar the natural landscape.
Santa Fe Energy, a corporation with investors in Panama and the United States, obtained
a land concession for their experiment near the peaks of the Cerros Tute, Delgadito and
Cabeza de Toro, which stand between 1,000 and 1,400 meters above sea level, occupying
an area of about 20 square kilometers. The company has invested $133 million in the
program.
The site was chosen after being identified in a study having "perhaps the strongest winds
in all of Panama," said Roberto Moreno, president of Santa Fe Energy. "That site has a
wind force 12 meters per second, one of the highest in the world," he added. According to
an estimate by company consultants, the site should have a energy capacity exceeding
115 megawatts, enough energy to supply 300,000 people.
Santa Fe Energy´s partner in the project, Enrilews, is a Spanish investment company that
has been conducting wind measurement studies at an altitude of 100 meters in Toabré, in
the province of Coclé, and in La Chorrera. They estimate windmill farms in the area
could generate up to 400 megawatts of energy.
"We´ve taken the measurements in real time via the Internet," said Jose Luis Iglesias,
president of Enrilews.
The Autoridad Nacional de los Servicios Públicos (Asep) has granted Enrilews
permission to generate up to three thousand megawatts, from a designated eight points
across the country. One of those windmill farms had been planned for El Harino, in
However, after wind studies in the area and a comparison of potential profits, Enrilews
has since scrapped that particular location.
Nonetheless, Iglesias is convinced that the other seven points identified as consistent
sources of wind energy will keep the windmills productive year round.
Should those wind farms fall through, Enrilews also has approvals to conduct studies in
Boquete, Vulcán, Veraguas and Colón.
Source: http://ediciones.prensa.com/
139
5- Venezuela - Ávila National Park Has New Friends
05 – 12 - 08
Caracas, Venezuela- Biologists, anthropologists, environmentalists, palm gatherers and
volunteers last week adopted the "Caracas Manifesto for the Warairarepano", the
indigenous name for the Ávila National Park.
This group of mountains that separate the Venezuelan capital from the Caribbean Sea
celebrates a half-century as a national park covering 85,000 hectares.
The manifesto "is an open document that proposes the Ávila as an open classroom for
research, environmental education, carbon absorption, climate regulation and
preservation of fauna and flora," environmentalist Argelia Silva, of the Botanical Institute
Foundation, told Tierramérica.
The new "club of friends" of the Ávila-Warairarepano will promote the application of the
environmental criminal law against those responsible for fires and will help clear out
areas that have been invaded by informal housing developments on the slopes near
Caracas and the port of La Guaira.
Source: http://www.tierramerica.info/nota.php?lang=eng&idnews=eco&nro=363
6- Regional - South America: Giant Step towards Regional Energy Integration
05 – 09 – 08
Caracas, Venezuela: The First South American Energy Council defined strategic
guidelines related to the regional Energy Security Treaty.
The First South American Energy Council was inaugurated Thursday in Caracas by
Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez Caracas, defining strategic guidelines
related to the regional Energy Security Treaty, reported Prensa Latina.
The energy sector is seen as a key factor in South American integration and cooperation
and several oil pipelines running across various borders in South America already unite
regional energy interests.
Ramirez said the council analyzed energy security issues related to shoring up supply and
infrastructure, industrialization and development. Other issues discussed were ways to
boost energy efficiency and renewable sources, technology transfer, bilateral accords and
integrating energy policies.
Venezuela’s top oil official noted that the main objective of the council is to increase
regional unity and to guarantee energy security, and industrial and social development.
140
He added that the council’s conclusions will be brought to the upcoming meeting of the
Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to take place later this month in Brazil.
Source: http://www.juventudrebelde.co.cu/international/2008-05-10/south-americagiant-step-towards-regional-energy-integration/
7- Brasil - El sueño se vuelve práctica
10 – 05 - 08
Brasilia, Brasil: Cumplir los desafíos ambientales "es difícil pero no imposible", porque
"el sueño también puede ser puesto en práctica", dijo la ministra de Medio Ambiente de
Brasil, Marina Silva, en la sesión plenaria final de la III Conferencia Nacional de Medio
Ambiente, este sábado en Brasilia.
Brasil es "el único país" que elabora su Programa Nacional de Cambio Climático en un
proceso participativo de la magnitud de esta conferencia, sostuvo. Más de 100.000
personas participaron en las 751 asambleas de nivel local y estadual que eligieron a unos
1.200 delegados al encuentro nacional.
Pero "no es suficiente aprobar propuestas, hay que implementarlas y además corregirlas
en el camino", admitió la ministra. De las iniciativas aprobadas en la conferencia anterior,
relacionadas con su cartera, 85 por ciento fueron o están siendo ejecutadas, destacó.
La II Conferencia, realizada en 2005, aprobó un total de 831 resoluciones, pero sólo 427
son de competencia del Ministerio de Medio Ambiente. Las demás dependen de otras
instancias gubernamentales o privadas, incluso externas. La primera conferencia, de
2003, aprobó 659 propuestas, con 353 del área ambiental.
Las propuestas en esta tercera conferencia, que duró cuatro días, sumaron 5.132 y fueron
evaluadas en 16 grupos de trabajo. El resultado final de las deliberaciones sólo será
conocido después de que una comisión relatora sistematice las sugerencias aprobadas en
los grupos y en la plenaria final, lo que puede demandar meses.
Hay muchas propuestas duplicadas o inviables por contravenir la Constitución. Estas
suman centenares. El grupo de Educación y Ciudadanía Ambiental, por ejemplo, dividido
en tres subgrupos, aprobó "unas 200", según Raimundo Andrade, geógrafo y delegado
del nororiental estado de Maranhão.
En otros grupos las propuestas alcanzaron algunas decenas, 42 en el de Industria.
"Aprobamos 31 propuestas y solo hubo polémica en una", ante la sugerencia de prohibir
cualquier "quemada", incendio con que los agricultores preparan la tierra para sembrar,
señaló a IPS Francisca Conceição, presidenta de la Asociación de Trabajadores Rurales
del estado amazónico de Acre.
La idea no aprobada es de "gente que nunca estuvo en el bosque" y que no comprende
que "sin quemadas habrá más brasileños con hambre", observó la campesina que, a los 48
años de edad, cultiva sola una propiedad de 22 hectáreas, produciendo frutas, arroz,
frijoles y otros alimentos.
141
Además de las propuestas sometidas a los grupos de trabajo, la batalla de muchos
activistas era conseguir que sus mociones fueran incluidas entre los documentos de esta
III Conferencia. Para eso necesitaban obtener por lo menos 178 firmas, equivalentes a 15
por ciento de los delegados.
Una política nacional de protección a las montañas, otra de forestación urbana y la
creación de un foro permanente sobre pesca y distintas áreas de conservación son
objetivos de algunas de las decenas de mociones presentadas.
Una babel de grupos, movimientos e intereses estuvo representada en esta conferencia
que reunió a más de 2.000 personas, entre delegados e invitados.
Agagiane Santos, indígena del pueblo fulnió, vino a reclamar saneamiento básico y mejor
asistencia en salud para su aldea en Aguas Belas, municipio del interior del estado de
Pernambuco, en el Nordeste.
La Conferencia atendió las expectativas de los numerosos indígenas representados, cuya
demanda general es la demarcación de todas las tierras que les son reservadas. Una
moción para expulsar a los arroceros blancos que ocupan parcialmente la reserva Raposa
Sierra del Sol obtuvo las firmas necesarias. "Si la perdemos, será malo para todos
nosotros", justificó Santos.
"La mejor propuesta aprobada" en el grupo de Residuos, según Carlos Cavalcanti, es la
que defiende una remuneración de las alcaldías a los recolectores informales, reconocidos
como trabajadores de la limpieza pública. Eso ya está previsto por la ley nacional de
saneamiento básico, pero el obstáculo son los poderes locales, explicó a IPS.
Cavalcanti pasó a recoger basura en las calles del centro de São Paulo hace ocho años,
ante el desempleo crónico que sufría como obrero metalúrgico. Es miembro de una de las
15 cooperativas creadas en esa ciudad para organizar a los recolectores, pero hoy se
define como "militante social", participando en conferencias ambientales y de economía
solidaria.
En Brasil hay de 800.000 a un millón de personas que viven de la basura recogida en las
calles y vertederos, de los cuales 20.000 están en São Paulo, estimó. Hay un movimiento
nacional que se reúne en los Foros de Basura y Ciudadanía.
Delaine Romano, coordinadora de recolección selectiva en una zona de São Paulo, estima
que son el doble, es decir unos 40.000, los recolectores de la ciudad, y defiende que las
empresas de limpieza y alcaldías destinen recursos para mejorar y ampliar la actividad,
generando empleos y dignidad en el trabajo.
Esas inversiones corresponderían a una pequeña parte del ahorro que estos trabajadores
proporcionan al servicio de limpieza urbana, ya que reducen la cantidad de basura a ser
recogida por las empresas y echada en los rellenos sanitarios o basurales a cielo abierto,
en beneficio del ambiente y de los gastos municipales.
Esta III Conferencia reunió desde personas como Nancy Sierra, una venezolana que
decidió vivir en Brasil, donde se siente "más libre" desde que hizo su doctorado en
142
ecología en la Universidad de Campinas, cerca de São Paulo, al artesano Iván Pataxó, que
vende sus "biojoyas" en el corredor de la entrada del Centro de Convenciones donde tuvo
lugar la conferencia.
Sierra es profesora en una facultad de medicina en Juazeiro, interior del nororiental
estado de Ceará, está "absolutamente contra los transgénicos" y defiende que el ser
humano vuelva a una vida "cercana a la indígena", en armonía y como componente de la
naturaleza. Cree irreversible una gran tragedia por el cambio climático, ante los
desequilibrios que provoca y seguirá provocando la humanidad.
Pataxó es también un emigrante, pero dentro de Brasil. Instructor de artesanía, dejó su
pueblo indígena del mismo nombre en el nororiental estado de Bahía, para adherirse a la
Asociación Buriti Amazonia, en Río Branco, capital de Acre, del otro lado del país.
La fundadora y dirigente de esa asociación, Marcia de Lima, encabeza un movimiento de
afirmación y expansión de la artesanía en Acre, cuya marca es el buriti, una palmera local
aprovechada por completo por el grupo de 13 familias asociadas: hojas, pulpa del fruto y
semillas, en anillos, collares, pulseras y variados ornamentos y útiles.
La asociación fue proveedora por dos años de una de las mayores escuelas de samba que
desfilan en el carnaval de Río de Janeiro y hace parte del movimiento de promoción de la
economía solidaria en Brasil, explicó Lima a IPS. (FIN/2008)
Fuente: www.ips.org
8- Chile - Grave daño ecológico por erupción del volcán Chaitén en el sur de Chile
11- 05 - 08
Santiago, Chile: Los bellos parajes de Chaitén y Futaleufú, en el sur de Chile, han
resultado seriamente afectados por la erupción del volcán Chaitén, que cubrió a ambas
localidades de cenizas, las que se seguían esparciendo este domingo.
Un reporte de la Oficina Nacional de Emergencia (Onemi) informó que el volcán
mantenía su actividad tras nueve días de haber entrado en erupción, con una constante
emanación de cenizas, las que mantenían una columna de entre 5.000 a 7.000 metros de
altura.
El Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería (Sernageomín) anunció que incrementará sus
monitores sobre el macizo, con la instalación de nuevos equipos.
El vulcanólogo del Sernageomín, Luis Lara, afirmó este domingo que aún no era posible
descartar el riesgo de colapso de la columna eruptiva.
"Si en los proximos días viéramos un descenso importante de la columa eruptiva y no se
registra la actividad sísmica característica, podríamos pensar en que ya no nos
encaminamos hacia el peor escenario", que es colapso abrupto de la columna eruptiva.
143
Esa posibilidad motivó la evacuación masiva del poblado de Chaitén, de 4.000
habitantes, mientras las intensas cenizas caídas provocaron un serio daño ecológico, al
sepultar extensas áreas agrícolas, además de poner en riesgo a miles de cabezas de
ganado.
Las cenizas dañaban una superficie de más de 200.000 hectáreas, en una zona altamente
rica en vegetación y cursos de agua, donde cada año llegan miles de turista. También han
afectado a varias localidades argentinas vecinas.
Entre las áreas chilenas afectadas está parte de los terrenos del Parque Pumalín, una
extensa reserva natural de propiedad del conservacionista estadounidense Douglas
Tompkins.
El principal daño ha sido provocado por los más de 30 centímetros de cenizas que se han
acumulado en Chaitén y Futaleufú.
"El impacto sobre los suelos es bastante negro desde el punto de vista de la agricultura",
señaló Wilfredo Vera, agrónomo de la Universidad de Chile.
"Las plantas van a morir indefectiblemente. No hay vuelta atrás", agregó el experto,
quien explicó que una eventual recuperación de los terrenos tardará por lo menos una
década.
"Hay que esperar un tiempo bastante grande, tal vez décadas para que las especies
naturales vuelvan a colonizar el lugar", señaló Vera.
"La restauración de una zona con una capa consolidada de cenizas puede prolongarse por
décadas", coincidió el especialista de la Universidad de Chile, Juan Pablo Fuentes.
Las cenizas contaminaron también cursos de agua y la vegetación que servía de alimento
para unas 40.000 de cabezas de ganado.
En Futaleufú, el Ministerio de Agricultura trasladó entre 5.000 a 8.000 cabezas de
ganado, repartiendo además forraje para la alimentación de aquel que no fue trasladado.
Esa evacuación masiva de animales no fue posible realizarla en Chaitén, por su difícil
acceso terrestre.
Hasta ahora, sin embargo, no había ocurrido una muerte masiva de animales, pero se
esperaba que ésta ocurriera en los próximos días. En Chaitén, varias vacas y caballos
deambulaban a su suerte en busca de alimentos.
Unas 600 mascotas, entre perros y gatos, fueron abandonadas en Chaitén y también
corrían un grave riesgo. Un grupo de veterinarios se había trasladado al lugar para
realizar un rescate, pero el recrudecimiento de la actividad del volcán obligó a abortar la
misión.
Algunas mascotas deambulaban sin rumbo por las calles desoladas de Chaitén, una
situación que generó alarma entre grupos defensores de animales, que anunciaron que
interpondrán un recurso de protección en favor de los animales.
La rica biodiversidad acuática de la zona sufrirá también un daño irremediable, tras
detectarse un grado de acidez anormal en los cursos de agua.
En la zona se emplazan varias salmoneras, que fueron autorizadas para trasladar más 3,5
millones de salmones que permanecían en centros de cultivos.
144
Fuente: http://www.emol.com
9- Perú - Desaparece glaciar peruano a causa del calentamiento global
Lima, Perú: El calentamiento global fue el responsable de la desaparición del glaciar
Broggi, situado en la Cordillera Blanca peruana, informó hoy el director de la Unidad de
Glaciología del Instituto Nacional de Recursos Naturales, Marco Zapata.
También el Pastoruri está retrocediendo rápidamente.
El glaciar Broggi habría desaparecido en el 2005, pese a haber contado con una superficie
superior a los 1,8 kilómetros cuadrados en 1995, según la agencia oficial Andina.
Precisa EFE que esta formación se encontraba al este de la ciudad de Yungay, en la
cabecera de la quebrada de la laguna de Llanganuco, en la provincia de Huaraz, a unos
400 kilómetros al noreste de Lima.
Asimismo, Zapata informó que el glaciar Pastoruri también está retrocediendo
rápidamente y ya no es considerado un nevado (montaña con nieves perpetuas), sino una
simple cubierta de hielo, debido a la pérdida de 700 kilómetros cuadrados de superficie
glaciar.
"Vemos también que lo que era una sola masa de hielo se ha dividido en dos y continúa
el proceso de retroceso y disminución glaciar. Además se han formado nuevas lagunas a
consecuencia de ello", anotó el científico.
Zapata comentó que la superficie de la Cordillera Blanca, la cadena montañosa cubierta
de hielo que discurre por el centro de Perú, es de 535 kilómetros cuadrados, lo que
representa una disminución del 25% respecto a lo que había en 1970.
Fuente: www.granma.cubaweb.cu
10- Perú - Propuesta para crear mecanismo de seguimiento climático
11- 05 – 08
Lima, Perú: El canciller peruano, José Antonio García Belaunde, adelantó que en la V
Cumbre de América Latina, el Caribe y la Unión Europea (ALC-UE), que se realizará en
Lima, su país propondrá un mecanismo de seguimiento a los objetivos que se acuerden
sobre cambio climático y lucha contra la pobreza.
El canciller dijo que esa propuesta se plasmaría en la Declaración de Lima, documento
que suscribirán los 60 gobiernos que participarán en el encuentro. García Belaunde opinó
que si ya es un "avance" en la vida de estos encuentros haber establecido una agenda
específica, la cita de Lima también debería ser una oportunidad para fijar un mecanismo
que haga un seguimiento de las metas que se proponen.
145
"El tema es que podamos establecer un mecanismo que nos permita ir evaluando cómo
cumplimos con esos objetivos que nos planteamos (...) Tanto como asumir compromisos
(también) deberíamos tener mecanismos de evaluación de esas metas", manifestó en
declaraciones divulgadas por la agencia de noticias local Andina.
En el plano social, señaló que dichos logros deberán estar referidos a temas como
erradicación del analfabetismo, mayor cobertura de salud, mortalidad infantil, y servicios
básicos para la población", manifestó, tras considerar que los temas de la inmigración y la
protección del medio ambiente podrían generar discrepancias en la V Cumbre de la ALCUE. GAT.
Fuente:
http://www.ansa.it/ansalatina/notizie/rubriche/amlat/20080511190634650456.html
Back to Menu
===============================================================
146
ENVIRONMENT NEWS FROM THE
UN DAILY NEWS
12 May 2008
UN-backed summit to spotlight private sector’s role in tackling climate change
12 May - The United Nations will take part in a global meeting next year to assess how a
new global climate change policy can also address the needs of the business community, it
was announced today.
The World Business Summit on Climate Change, which will take place next May in
Copenhagen, Denmark, seeks to ensure that the successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol will
provide the right incentives to slash greenhouse gas emissions.
Along with the UN Global Compact – the world body’s voluntary corporate citizen
initiative – the gathering will be convened by the Copenhagen Climate Council, the World
Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Pew Center on Global Climate
Change.
Organizers expect hundreds of top executives, government officials, leading experts and
heads of civil society to attend to assess how the private sector can play a role in addressing
global warming through innovative business approaches, new joint ventures and the
development of low-carbon technologies.
The World Business Summit is expected to produce recommendations to be forwarded
onto world leaders negotiating a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, expiring in 2012.
Those talks are scheduled to wrap up at a key UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) in December 2009, also to take place in Copenhagen.
Response to cyclone in Myanmar ‘unacceptably slow’ – Ban Ki-moon
12 May - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today registered his “immense frustration” with
the pace of relief efforts following the cyclone in Myanmar last week, and called on the
Government to do everything it could to prevent the disaster from becoming even more
serious.
“I want to register my deep concern – and immense frustration – at the unacceptably slow
response to this grave humanitarian crisis,” Mr. Ban said today, speaking at a press
conference in New York. “Unless more aid gets into the country – very quickly – we face
an outbreak of infectious diseases that could dwarf today’s crisis,” he added. “I therefore
call, in the most strenuous terms, on the Government of Myanmar to put its people’s lives
first. It must do all that it can to prevent the disaster from becoming even more serious.”
147
International relief agencies estimate that around 1.5 million people are at severe risk
following Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar on 2 May, while the official death toll
reported by the Government has reached almost 32,000, with over 34,000 others missing.
Last week the UN called on the Government to allow aid workers to enter the country more
speedily and said that some international relief supplies were being held up at Myanmar’s
main airport. Today, Mr. Ban said there were “encouraging signs” that the Government had
“made some initial moves to ease access restrictions.” He said many aid airlifts had arrived
over the weekend and today, but added that, “much more is needed.”
While the UN and international aid agencies were “well positioned” to help tackle the
emergency, Mr. Ban said that staff on the ground “were grievously overstretched and the
Government continues to deny visas to most foreign aid workers.”
The Secretary-General said that the UN has been able to reach less than a third of the
people at risk – about 270,000 people. He said that the UN World Food Programme (WFP)
estimated that the amount of food allowed into the country so far was less than one-tenth of
what is needed, while rice stocks within Myanmar were close to exhaustion.
Mr. Ban said he had tried repeatedly over the weekend and last week to telephone
Myanmar’s senior General Than Shwe, but had not been able to reach him, so he had
delivered a second letter to him through diplomatic channels. The Secretary-General called
on the Government to set up major logistics operations to deliver supplies to the most
affected areas. He said that “this required the specialized expertise of the major
international relief agencies. Myanmar cannot do it alone.”
On Friday, the UN launched a flash appeal asking for $187 to provide urgently needed
relief though key UN and other aid agencies. Mr. Ban added that the UN was planning to
set up a logistics base in the area, probably in Thailand, to make sure that aid would be
“channelled into Myanmar in a systematic and orderly way.”
The UN has identified food, water purification supplies, sanitation facilities, shelter, fuel
and essential medical supplies as crucial needs for Myanmar following the disaster. With
heavy rain forecast for the near future, aid officials are concerned that exposed populations
will face a worsening situation in the days to come.
Speaking about his appeal for a speedier response, Mr. Ban said, “I emphasize that this is
not about politics. It is about saving people’s lives. There is absolutely no time to lose.”
Speaking at the same press conference, the UN’s top relief official said that reports from
Myanmar indicate that people in the flooded Irrawaddy delta region, which was struck
hardest by Cyclone Nargis, had now concentrated in towns and villages on higher ground.
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator
John Holmes said this would make it easier for agencies to deliver aid to large numbers of
people, but that it also increased the risk of infectious disease.
Mr. Holmes said that an increasing number of flights delivering aid were now entering the
country, and other relief had begun arriving by sea and land. He said that 34 new visas
were now being granted for UN international relief workers, but he added that, while this
148
was welcome, it was “clearly nothing like enough for the scale of the problem we’re trying
to deal with.”
At another briefing with journalists held today in Bangkok, Thailand, Richard Horsey,
spokesperson for the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, (OCHA)
said it was “a major logistical challenge to get goods out to the delta” and that there was an
“important bottleneck” at Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, which was making it difficult to
move relief supplies out into the field.
Despite the difficulties, UN agencies report that they have been active on the ground. The
UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says it has begun setting up “child-friendly spaces” in
camps where people are sheltering, to ensure that children receive care and protection. The
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is using boats and vehicles to provide
immediate assistance to people in 19 locations in the affected area. The World Food
Programme (WFP) has reached 27,000 people in the Irrawaddy delta with crucial food
supplies and the World Health Organization (WHO) has deployed experts to support
Government relief efforts and to supply emergency health kits.
Meanwhile 20 tons of shelter supplies – plastic sheets and tents – have arrived in Yangon
on two trucks sent from the Thai-Myanmar border by the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR).
Back to Menu
===============================================================
149