THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Monday, 13 August, 2012
UNEP and the Executive Director in the News
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AFP: UN launches plan to protect oceans, tackle sea levels
ABC news (Australia): Expert says UN compact to regenerate interest in saving
oceans
Vanguard (Nigeria): Rights Group Carpets Minister Over UN Report On Ogoni
Daily Trust (Nigeria): MOSOP Express Concerns Over Implementation of UNEP
Report
Nigeria Daily News (Nigeria): UNEP report: Minister blames delay in
implementation on protest
Oman Observer (Oman): Call for sustainable use of seas
Green Building Elements (US): Phillips Launches Nairobi Pilot Showcasing Solar
LED Street Lighting
Capital FM News (Kenya): Kenya’s position on UNEP upgrade
Clean Biz Asia (Hong Kong): First UNEP low-carbon transport initiative takes on
Indian cities
Sunshine coast daily (Australia): Enviro Day team wins UN honour
Other Environment News
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Reuters: Parasites may get nastier with climate swings: study
Scientific America (US): Recycling Reality: Humans Set to Trash Most Elements on
the Periodic Table
New Zealand Herald (NZ): Govt brings offshore drilling into line with RMA
Times of India: No plan to protect Mangar?
Belfast Telegraph (Ireland): Poachers threatening Lough Neagh's unique trout
ABS CBN News (Philippines): PH Pavilion bags best exhibit award in Yeosu Expo
Korea Herald (Republic of Korea): Yeosu Expo to complete three-month run
Sunday
Star (Kenya): Plans to Establish Nuclear Power Plant Challenged
Independent (Uganda): No Cause for Worry Over Oil Waste
Brisbane Times (Australia): Burke calls for super trawler controls
Guardian (Trinidad and Tobago): ‘Poverty eradication the greatest global
challenge’
Oman Observer (Oman): Bank muscat to announce the beneficiaries of ‘Green
Sports’
Selected Blog Posts
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Leadership newspaper (Nigeria): Ogoni Land - When Political Autonomy Beckons
Environmental News from the UNEP Regions
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ROA
RONA
ROWA
ROAP (None)
ROLAC (None)
Other UN News
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Environment News from the UN Daily News of 13 August 2012
Environment News from the S.G.’s Spokesman Daily Press Briefing of 12 August
2012
UNEP and the Executive Director in the News
AFP: UN launches plan to protect oceans, tackle sea levels
12 August 2012
The UN chief Sunday announced an initiative to protect oceans from pollution and overfishing and to combat rising sea levels which threaten hundreds of millions of the world's
people.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the "Oceans Compact" initiative sets
out a strategic vision for the UN system to more effectively tackle the "precarious state" of
the world's seas.
Ban highlighted the "grave threat" from pollution, excessive fishing and global warming.
"Our oceans are heating and expanding," he said in a speech to a conference marking
the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
"We risk irrevocable changes in processes that we barely comprehend, such as the great
currents that affect weather patterns.
"Ocean acidification (from absorbed carbon emissions) is eating into the very basis of our
ocean life; and sea level rise threatens to re-draw the global map at the expense of
hundreds of millions of the world's most vulnerable people."
The UN chief, who also called for action to curb piracy and irregular sea migration, said
he hoped for progress towards a legally binding framework to combat "runaway climate
change" at a UN conference in Doha in November.
But action could also be taken now.
Ban said the Compact was aimed at "improving the health of the oceans" and
strengthening their management through an action plan to be overseen by a high-level
advisory group.
This would be made up of senior policymakers, scientists and ocean experts,
representatives from the private sector and civil society and leaders of the UN
organisations involved.
The UN chief said his initiative would also support implementation of the Law of the Sea
treaty, which came into force in 1994.
He called the treaty one of the world's "most significant legal instruments" and a tool for
sustainable development which all nations should ratify.
"It contributes to international peace and security, the equitable and efficient use of
ocean resources, the protection and preservation of the marine environment and the
realisation of a just and equitable economic order."
The United States is the only major power not to have signed the convention. Republicans
in the Senate contend it would undermine US sovereignty and are blocking ratification.
"The world's oceans are key to sustaining life on the planet," Ban said in his introduction to
the Oceans Compact.
Among other objectives, the Compact aims to protect the world's people from ocean
degradation and natural hazards such as tsunamis, from over-fishing and from pollution
by land and sea activities.
It calls for countries most at risk from rising sea levels to develop plans to mitigate the
threat, and for vulnerable regions to have tsunami warning systems.
By 2025, all countries should set national targets to curb nutrients, marine debris and
wastewater.
The Compact calls for renewed efforts to curb illegal fishing, rebuild fish stocks and halt
the spread of invasive alien species.
By 2020, it says, at least 10 percent of coastal and marine areas should be subject to
conservation measures.
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ABC news (Australia): Expert says UN compact to regenerate interest in saving
oceans
13 August 2012
An Australian oceans environment expert has welcomed a new United Nations initiative
on protecting the world's seas, but has warned greater global cooperation is needed on
the issue.
The United Nations has launched the Oceans Compact, an initiative aimed at refocusing
action on the health of the world's oceans.
In launching the compact at a conference in South Korea, the UN Secretary-General,
Ban Ki-moon, said he hoped for progress towards a legally binding framework to combat
"runaway climate change" at a UN conference in November.
He says the Compact will work in support of the implementation of the 1994 Law of the
Sea Treaty.
University of Western Australia oceans specialist, Professor Malcolm McCulloch, has told
Radio Australia's Connect Asia program he hopes the new initiative will regenerate
interest in saving oceans.
"If we did nothing, and had just let the existing situation continue then that's a major
problem," Professor McCulloch said.
"We hope that by regenerating interest, by getting countries re-involved in the process... I
think some of the effects now are becoming more clearer and more evident, and that's
also true for the climate change effects particularly sea levels.
"So all these impacts are growing so hopefully now that there's more urgency that these
new measures will start to address these issues."
In his remarks at the Compact launch on Sunday, UN chief Ban Ki-moon called the Law
of the Sea Treaty the world's "most significant legal instruments" to help protect and
preserve the marine environment.
But Professor McCulloch says it's failed in the past because of a lack of cooperation.
"One of the main problems is the US is still not a member (of the Treaty) and it's very hard
to get countries to cooperate in the face of these global problems," he said.
"There's been little concerted international effort to mitigate these problems that's had
any real effectiveness."
One of the objectives of the new initiative is to curb illegal fishing, rebuild fish stocks and
to stop the spread of pests.
It also calls for all countries to set national targets to curb nutrients, marine debris and
waste water by 2025.
The target deadline is 13 years away, but Professor McCulloch says "the point is to have
targets to aspire to."
"The question then is: will countries take real action to try and reduce these? And that's
an economic issue, in a sense, their capacity to do so."
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Vanguard (Nigeria): Rights Group Carpets Minister Over UN Report On Ogoni
09 August 2012
An environmental non- governmental organization, Environmental Rights Action/Friends
of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN, has described as unacceptable and misleading, a recent
statement credited to Minister of Environment, Hajiya Hadiza Mailafiya, blaming the
delay in implementation of the United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP,
assessment report on Ogoniland on the January 2012 protests over fuel subsidy removal.
It will be recalled that the minister, while speaking on her Ministry's budget performance,
had said the unrest due to the fuel subsidy issue was responsible for the delay, and
added that the government would commence implementation soon.
Mr. Philip Jakpor, Head of Media, ERA/FoEN, said: "The deferment in implementation of
the report defended by the Minister was a disappointing turn in the quest by Ogoni
communities and indeed all impacted communities in the Niger Delta to get justice."
He noted that the UNEP report, submitted to the Federal Government on August 4, 2011,
documented hydrocarbon pollution in surface water throughout the creeks of Ogoniland
and up to 8cm in groundwater that feed drinking wells.
Jakpor added: "Polluted soils with hydrocarbons up to a depth of five metres in 49
observed sites and benzene, a known cancer-causing chemical in drinking water at a
level 900 times above World Health Organization, WHO, acceptable levels, among
others. The UNEP recommended a $1 billion restoration fund for cleanup.
"No rhetoric justifies Federal Government's attempt to shield Shell Petroleum Development
Company from justice through delayed implementation of the report or any other
actions aimed at pulling the wool over the eyes of the Ogoni people. The Ogoni and
other impacted communities of the Niger Delta reject the minister's excuse and demand
the immediate implementation of UNEP recommendations."
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Daily Trust (Nigeria): MOSOP Express Concerns Over Implementation of UNEP
Report
10 August 2012
The provincial council of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP)
has expressed fears over what it described as possible plans to undermine the
implementation of the United Nations environmental assessment report on Ogoniland.
The council in a statement issued by its chairman, Professor Ben Naanen, after a congress
meeting of the Ogoni people in Bori yesterday, said they are also concerned over the
fact that it took the Federal Government more than a year to respond to the report.
"Contrary to UNEP recommendations to set up an Ogoni environment restoration agency
that is specific to Ogoni, the Federal Government has decided to set up a programme
with a wider scope to cover other areas experiencing hydrocarbon pollution. We hope
that this broad jurisdiction will not undermine the implementation of UNEP report.
Considering the tradition of poor project implementation in Nigeria, the Ogoni people
are deeply concerned," he said.
He however added that the Ogoni people have decided to give the Federal
Government the benefit of the doubt by accepting the Hydrocarbon Pollution
Restoration Programme (HYPREP) on the following conditions: "That the UNEP
recommendations on Ogoni will be fully and faithfully implemented irrespective of
HYPREP's intervention in other areas. The $1billion recommended by UNEP as start-up fund
for Ogoni clean-up for the first five years must be spent on Ogoni alone. The Ogoni
people will be given first priority in the business and job opportunities connected with the
clean-up in the area as a means of ameliorating the dire poverty."
The council also requested that the UNEP report will be implemented in collaboration with
an internationally recognized agency that will exercise oversight and quality assurance
responsibility, such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
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Nigeria Daily News (Nigeria): UNEP report: Minister blames delay in
implementation on protest
06 August 2012
Effects of this year’s nationwide protest over the removal of fuel subsidy reverberated at
the Presidential Villa yesterday as the Minister of Environment, Hadiza Mailafia, yesterday
blamed the delay in the implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme,
UNEP, on the cleaning up of the environment of Ogoniland damaged by years of oil
exploration on the protest.
The Minister who led a team of Ministry of Environment and its agencies to the Villa,
however, promised that the implementation of the report had already commenced.
Hajia Mailafia who presented to the President the ministry’s policy thrust for budget 2013
and the priority for budget 2012 said everything was being done to ensure that the
implementation of the report was hitch-free.
She said: “We are making enormous efforts, I agree that the presentation was made last
year, but you recall that just after the presentation of the UNEP report, the country fell into
some kind of unrest due to fuel subsidy.
“For quite a number of weeks, all of us were not doing what we should have been doing
at that time. But it is not true that government is not doing anything.
“The UNEP report highlighted some immediate issues that needed to be addressed;
finding potable or alternative supplies of drinking water, such as marking out the wells
that were too polluted and doing other strategic framework activities that needed to be
in place before the implementation.
“With the support of Governor Rotimi Amaechi and through the National Oil Spill
Remediation Agency we have carried out all those tasks”.
“A place where pollution has taken place for a very long time, requires a very formidable
approach and we have been working on it through the petroleum ministry. Am glad to
inform you that everything is put in place and that we are just waiting for the execution.
“I want to debunk the statement that nothing has been done. Perhaps you on the other
side are waiting just to see us on the ground. If you go there you will find that groups of
people have been doing depending on the nature of what they have to do.
“It is not a situation where you just take officers and equipments and drive into a system
and say I am going to clean up, it is beyond sweeping. It is the whole task of trying to
remediate a place that has been polluted for decades”.
Mailafia also tasked Nigerians to safeguard their lives and environment by adhering to
environmental laws and guidelines issued by the government.
This is coming on the heels of the declaration of statehood by the Movement for the
Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) for the region.
It would be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan on July 27th approved the setting
up of a Hydro-Carbon Pollution Restoration Project, HYPREP, a step taken in furtherance
of the Federal government’s commitment to implement the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) Assessment Report on the spill disaster in Ogoniland.
The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who performed the
inauguration had stated that the setting up of HYPREP by Mr. President was in keeping
with the Government’s determination to protect the environmental human rights of the
people.
She stated that “With the establishment of this project, it is expected that all stakeholders,
especially the impacted communities, will cooperate fully with Government and grant
unfettered access to all impacted sites to ensure complete success.”
Speaking On her presentation to the President, the minister of environment said “For
more than two hours, the Ministry presented it’s policy thrust for budget 2013 and the
priority for budget 2012 and as it’s the tradition, it was discussed, and critiqued.
“We were here to brief the President and the team on the 2013 budget as you are aware
the executive is making all efforts to ensure all budget is submitted very early and in good
time good enough for us to get it back and begin to implement as at when due.
“The issues discussed have to do largely with the policy trust of the ministry which of
course you are very conversant with. We will be looking at what we have done in the
2012 year, and what we can do better in terms of principally packaging our project, the
manner of which we conceive the project and the manner in which we implement
them”.
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Oman Observer (Oman): Call for sustainable use of seas
13 August 2012
Over 550,000 visits Omani pavilion — YEOSU, South Korea — The Commission of the
Sultanate's Pavilion at Yeosu Expo 2012 yesterday took part in the Declaration Forum of
Yeosu 2012. The Sultanate's delegation at the forum was led by Mohsen bin Khamis al
Balushi, Adviser at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Commissioner-General of
the Sultanate's pavilion at Yeosu Expo 2012, and Mohammed bin Salim al Harthy,
Sultanate's Ambassador to South Korea, and Ali bin Amir al Kiyoumi, Director-General of
Environment Preservation at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs and Deputy
Commissioner-General.
The Sultanate’s pavilion at the expo has won a gold award for the Best Theme
Development category. The pavilion received almost 550,000 visitors who expressed their
joy over the contents of the pavilion, which showcased the Sultanate’s history and
culture, especially in maritime discoveries and marine environment conservation. The
participants at the forum, which was held on the sidelines of activities of the last day of
Yeosu Expo 2012, which opened on May 12 under the theme ‘The Living Ocean and
Coast,’issued a communique called "Yeosu Declaration".
It is an international initiative recalling the principles put forth in the Stockholm
Declaration on the Human Environment (1972), the Nairobi Declaration of the United
Nations Environment Programme Governing Council on the State of the Worldwide
Environment (1982), the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992), the
Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development (2002) and the outcome of the
Rio+20 Conference (2012).
The Declaration called for global leadership to elevate issues related to the ocean,
seabed, regional seas, coasts, and islands to the top of the global policy agenda to
support their role as a vital part of our planet and a rich repository of resources essential
to human survival and sustainable development.
The Declaration stressed the importance of working to raise the awareness of
governments and civil society on the need to better protect the marine environment
through policies that promote conservation and sustainable use of marine resources, and
through public education on the importance of the ocean to enable citizens to mobilize
and act upon shared goals.
The participants call upon all nations of the world to co-operate in halting illegal
practices on the sea, including maritime piracy, to preserve the ocean as a safe and
effective transportation network linking the global community.
They also called for concerted international efforts to undertake ecosystem based on
management of marine resources, particularly global fish stocks, to manage them in a
sustainable manner for the benefit of all humankind.
The Declaration called for the global scientific community to enhance the understanding
of the ocean through expanded real-time ocean observing systems to provide resource
managers and policy-makers with timely and reliable data, enabling rapid responses to
the impacts of climate change and natural disasters, such as tsunamis.
The Declaration look toward the ocean as a new engine of sustainable development, in
light of the gradual depletion of many land-based resources and the food security
concerns of a growing global population. A green economy for the ocean should be
pursued by fostering advanced science and innovative industries and technologies that
use marine resources and renewable energy in an environmentally-friendly manner for
the prosperity of human civilization.
The participants stressed the need to assist developing nations, including small island
developing states (SIDS), in addressing their ocean-related concerns and sustainably
utilizing their marine resources through development assistance and investment, and
international co-operation projects.
They also welcome the Yeosu Project, aimed at providing developing nations with
capacity building support on marine related issues through professional training and
technology-transfer, as an important legacy of the International Exposition Yeosu Korea
2012. The Forum also reviewed the best practices and means to preserve environment
and marine life.
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Green Building Elements (US): Phillips Launches Nairobi Pilot Showcasing Solar LED
Street Lighting
10 August 2012
A new pilot project by Philips and the Kenyan Urban Roads Authority will see the streets of
capital city Nairobi being lit up with solar-powered LED lighting. The pilot project is the first
of its kind in East Africa and was launched during the 40th anniversary of the UN
Environment Programme (UNEP), which is headquartered in that city.
Philips says its solar-powered road lighting solution is the most efficient, reliable and
cheap per kilometer of road currently available thanks to a combination of new highbrightness LEDs with patented optics and an intelligent controller, which is at the core of
the technology.
In a part of the world where electricity is neither cheap nor plentiful, one of the most
attractive features is the efficiency of the system, which increases the amount of power
transferred from the solar panels to the batteries. Philips says its are 30 percent more
efficient than traditional charge controllers.
Battery life is also prolonged by smart charging and discharging of the battery. The
intelligent system can dim light levels as required thanks to a self learning mechanism and
a history log. All this is claimed to bring prices down by as much as 50 percent, both for
batteries and solar panels, compared with current market prices.
During trials the lifespan of LED lights ranged between 50,000 and 100,000 hours. Failure
rate over 6,000 hours was found to be around one percent, while conventional lighting’s
equivalent rate is around 10 percent.
Studies show that more efficient electricity consumption could save the world US$110
billion per year, or the equivalent of phasing out 250 large coal-fired power plants, saving
another US$210 billion in investment money. In terms of carbon emissions, more efficiency
could prevent 490 megatons of C02 from going into the atmosphere, or roughly the
same as 122 million mid-size cars.
Earlier this year the UNEP declared 2012 UN International Year of Sustainable Energy for
All. Philips announced the project during the Kenya leg of the Philips Cairo to Cape Town
2012 road show. The project is also part of the en.lighten initiative, a public-private
partnership led by UNEP and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in collaboration with
Philips Lighting, Osram AG, and the National Lighting Test Centre of China.
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Capital FM News (Kenya): Kenya’s position on UNEP upgrade
10 August 2012
Prime Minister Raila Odinga has assured the international community that Kenya will not
degenerate into sectarian and religious fighting as a result of recent terrors attacks that
appeared designed to cause tension between different faiths.
Saying Kenya is not in danger of falling into the hands of religious fundamentalists,
Odinga asked the international community to focus instead in restoring the hope and
the rule of law in neighbouring Somalia and helping refugees return home.
The PM made the appeal during a meeting with Britain’s Secretary for Foreign and
Commonwealth Affairs William Hague and the Minister for Africa Henry Bellingham at
the Foreign Office early on Friday.
Odinga said that contrary to routine predictions, the recent attacks on churches in
Garissa have instead strengthened the bonds between Muslims and Christians and
brought the two faiths together to fight terrorism.
“While the attacks appear to have been intended to create a wedge between the
two religions, they have instead led to stronger bonds. The week following the attacks,
Muslims joined security forces and others Christians to guard the churches in Garissa
and other areas,” the PM said.
Odinga said there is good progress in Somalia and the international community needs
to focus on ensuring the political program in the country is followed to the letter.
The PM at the same time asked the international community to implement the
agreements reached during the recent climate negotiations in Rio de Janeiro on the
status of the Nairobi-based United Nations Environment Programme.
Odinga further said that despite the agreements in Brazil over UNEP, Kenya is still keen to
have the UN body upgraded to the status of an international organization with the sole
authority to regulate environmental issues and to have it retained in Nairobi.
He thanked the UK and the European Union for supporting Kenya’s push to have UNEP
upgraded and retained in Nairobi saying the support led to the gains on the issue.
Among the agreements reached at the climate change talks in Brazil early this year
included opening up membership of the UNEP to all nations and allowing it access to
regular UN budget.
The PM appealed to the UK to help push for the UN to adopt the agreements and to
continue supporting Kenya’s bid to have UNEP transformed in to a world environmental
organization.
Hague pledged continued British support for Kenya’s demands on UNEP.
The Foreign Secretary also pledged to push for a fulfilment of the international
community’s obligations to Kenya’s forces in Somalia.
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Clean Biz Asia (Hong Kong): First UNEP low-carbon transport initiative takes on
Indian cities
09 August 2012
India’s Ministry of Environment & Forests and the Ministry of Urban Development have
launched a project called “Promoting Low Carbon Transport in India” as the first-ever
transportation project to be financed by the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP).
The initiative will see the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), Center for
Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University, and Indian Institute of
Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) work together to help reduce carbon emissions in India’s cities,
which are among the most polluted in the world.
The institutions will co-operate at a national level to try and create a working, efficient,
sustainable transport system across the whole country.
According to Cleantechnica, CEPT will focus on inclusiveness and mobility; IIT-D will
design the technological aspects; and IIM-A will draw up an integrated plan for using a
low carbon transport system in the cities.
If successful, India’s low carbon transport initiative will become a model to inspire other
developing countries who may want to create their own low carbon transport systems,
the ministry said.
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Sunshine coast daily (Australia): Enviro Day team wins UN honour
12 August 2012
The Sunshine Coast Environment Council has won an international award for its role in
organising the Coast's annual World Environment Day Festival.
A staggering 9650 entries were received for the Environment Day Challenge run by the
United Nations Environment Program, with the festival chosen as one of five projects that
helped raise environmental awareness across the globe, claiming the title of biggest
mobilising activity.
"We are absolutely stoked to receive this recognition," festival coordinator Matt Dinneen
said.
"Over the last two years we have worked very hard to bring a new
focus to the festival that engages our audience around environmental and sustainability
issues and showcases what can be achieved when people put their mind to it.
"This year's festival included jeans that purify the air and a fully electric sports car that
goes from 0-100kmh in 3.6 seconds with zero emission.
"To receive this accolade more than justifies all the work we have done over the past two
years."
The SCEC has organised the festival, which promotes conservation and sustainable living,
since 1980.
It is one of Australia's longest-running environmental events.
In recent years the size and scope of the event has increased and it is now held on the
USC campus and organised by SCEC in partnership with the Sunshine Coast Council, the
university and Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE.
Environment portfolio councillor Tony Wellington said the festival provided a wonderful
forum for the recognition and celebration of the environment.
"I warmly congratulate SCEC for this terrific achievement," he said.
"The festival has been recognised internationally for its commitment to raising
environmental awareness and promoting sustainable living and technology.
"That's a real feather in the cap for the Sunshine Coast.
"The World Environment Day festival helps people to become better informed about
biodiversity, ecological sustainability and also climate change.
"It showcases the broad-ranging efforts of local businesses, community groups and
government in protecting the outstanding environmental values of our region."
USC Vice-Chancellor Professor Greg Hill said the festival raised community awareness
about environmental issues, sustainability and the Coast's unique flora and fauna.
"The award recognises the power of a community that can get its act together and
cooperate on doing something special," he said.
Other winners came from Bangladesh, India, Columbia and Kenya.
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Other Environment News
Reuters: Parasites may get nastier with climate swings: study
12 August 2012
Parasites look set to become more virulent because of climate change, according to a
study showing that frogs suffer more infections from a fungus when exposed to
unexpected swings in temperatures.
Parasites, which include tapeworms, the tiny organisms that cause malaria and funguses,
may be more nimble at adapting to climatic shifts than the animals they live on since
they are smaller and grow more quickly, scientists said.
"Increases in climate variability are likely to make it easier for parasites to infect their
hosts," Thomas Raffel of Oakland University in the United States told Reuters, based on
findings about frogs and a sometimes deadly skin fungus.
"We think this could exacerbate the effects of some disease," he said of the report he led
with colleagues at the University of South Florida. It will be published in Monday's edition
of the journal Nature Climate Change.
A U.N. panel of experts says that global warming is expected to add to human suffering
from more heatwaves, floods, storms, fires and droughts, and have effects such as
spreading the ranges of some diseases.
And climate change, blamed on greenhouse gases released by burning fossil fuels, is also
likely to mean more swings in temperatures.
"Few...studies have considered the effects of climate variability or predictability on
disease, despite it being likely that hosts and parasites will have differential responses to
climatic shifts," they wrote.
The scientists exposed Cuban treefrogs in 80 laboratory incubators to varying
temperatures and infections of a fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, that is often
deadly for the amphibians.
In one experiment, frogs kept at a temperature of 25 degrees Celsius (77F) for four weeks
suffered far more infections when they were shifted to incubators at 15C (59F) and
exposed to the fungus than frogs already used to living at 15C.
"If you shift the temperature a frog is more susceptible to infection than a frog that is
already adapted to that temperature," Raffel said.
In another test, frogs that were exposed to predictable daily temperature variations
between 15 and 25 Celsius, typical of shifts from night to day, were much better at
resisting the fungus.
Based on factors including their size, life expectancy and factors such as their
metabolisms, the scientists said frogs probably took 10 times as long as fungus to get used
to unexpected temperature changes, a process known as acclimation.
Raffel said that more tests were needed of other parasites and hosts to confirm the
findings. "This study was only done on an single tropical frog species," he said.
He said he was unaware of studies about how other parasites such as malaria, for
instance, might be affected by temperature swings that affect both its mosquito and
human hosts. "It's an open question," he said.
Still, he said that there was speculation that cold-blooded creatures such as frogs, insects,
reptiles or fish might be more susceptible to parasites as temperature shifted than warmblooded birds and mammals.
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Scientific America (US): Recycling Reality: Humans Set to Trash Most Elements on
the Periodic Table
09 August 2012
Almost all lead is recycled, among the only elements on the periodic table to earn that
distinction. With good reason, mind you: the soft metal is a potent neurotoxic known to
impact children’s brain development, among other nasty health effects. Today, nearly all
lead is used in batteries (though it was once put into gasoline, leading to widespread
contamination, and, in places like Afghanistan, still is.) Most of this dangerous element is
now endlessly cycled from battery to battery, thanks to stringent regulations (though
enough of it ends up being improperly recycled to constitute one of the world’s worst
pollution problems.)
In principle, all metals are infinitely recycleable and could exist in a closed loop system,
note the authors of a survey of the metals recycling field published in Science on August
10. There’s a benefit too, because recycling is typically more energy-efficient than mining
and refining raw ore for virgin materials. Estimates vary but mining and refining can
require as much as 20 times the amount of energy as recycling a given material. Think
about it: a vast amount of energy, technology, human labor and time are expended to
get various elements out of the ground and then that element is often discarded after a
single use.
Lead is not alone in being recycled, of course. Aluminum, copper, nickel, steel and zinc
all boast recycling rates above 50 percent (though not much above 50 percent). The
same principles can be usefully applied to other materials, like plastics. After all, these
ubiquitous polymers are made from another scarce resource oil and many are, in
principle, recycleable. Yet, the overall recycling rate for plastics, grouped as a whole, is
only 8 percent (as of 2010, per EPA numbers.) Take the case of polypropylene (or #5
plastic if you’re checking the bottom of your food containers). The bulk of this polymer
that gets recycled comes from car batteries. It is, in essence, tagging along with the lead.
In other cases water bottles, yogurt cups, you name it it simply disappears into the
nation’s landfills.
Meanwhile, the majority of elements on the periodic table and we use almost every
element on the periodic table for something or other are also nearly completely
unrecycled.
As an example, industrial ecologists Barbara Reck and T.E. Graedel of Yale University
compare the fates of nickel versus neodymium. Nickel is ubiquitous, particularly as an
alloy for steel. Of the 650,000 metric tons of the silvery-white metal that reached the end
of its useful life in one product in 2005, roughly two-thirds were recycled. And that
recycled nickel then supplied about one-third of the demand for new nickel-containing
products. That means the overall efficiency of human use of nickel approaches 52
percent. Not bad, but there’s room for improvement, given that almost half of all nickel is
only used once before it is discarded.
Nearly 16,000 metric tons of neodymium a so-called rare earth metal were employed in
2007, mostly for permanent magnets in everything from hybrid cars to wind turbines.
Roughly 1,000 metric tons of the element reached the end of its useful life in one product
or another and “little to none of that material is currently being recycled,” the survey
authors note. This despite the fact that a “rare earth crisis” stems from China’s near
monopoly of the neodymium trade.
Mining for neodymium is not benign (which is why the world lets China monopolize its
production). And it’s not just neodymium. Mining waste or tailings, leach ponds, slurries
and the like are among the world’s largest chronic waste problems. North America alone
produces 10 times as much mining waste as it does the municipal solid waste (as it’s
known) from all the neighborhoods in the U.S. Much of that is just rock, sand and dust the
mountaintop in mountaintop removal mining. And mined products also cause waste
further down the product line, such as the ash leftover after the coal is burned (the U.S.’s
largest single form of waste).
This issue of profligate use gets worse: we are currently making this problem even harder
to solve. How? One word: gadgets. In most gadgets you can think of, tiny amounts of
rare elements are used to enhance functionality. As the industrial ecologists write in
Science: “The more intricate the product and the more diverse the materials set it uses,
the better it is likely to perform, but the more difficult it is to recycle so as to preserve the
resources that were essential to making it work in the first place.” It’s as true of iPhones as
it is of photovoltaic panels and none of them have shown much success in being
recycled. “End of life losses will also increase sharply soon,” unless something changes,
the industrial ecologists warn.
Then there are the alloys, where thermodynamics dictate that the alloying element is
almost always going to be lost due to the difficulty of separation. That means the
chromium used in stainless steel will usually lose its luster, for example. Worse, this form of
contamination can mean that the recycled alloy can’t be re-used manganesealuminum alloys are unsuitable once recycled for 95 percent of the uses for aluminum. As
a result, “current designs are actually less recycleable than was the case a few decades
ago,” the authors note. Perhaps the use of such metal combinations should be
minimized?
In the end, our approach to recycling is bizarre, given our resources. “Few approaches
could be more unsustainable,” Reck and Graedel write. In the end, we’ll learn to reuse all
the elements of the periodic table, or we’ll lose elements to use.
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New Zealand Herald (NZ): Govt brings offshore drilling into line with RMA
13 August 2012
The Government has moved to bring its legislation regulating deep sea drilling and other
activity in New Zealand's vast offshore ocean areas into line with the Resource
Management Act.
But Labour's environment spokesman Grant Robertson said amendments to the Exclusive
Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill introduced yesterday
lack the RMA's set of principals which decision makers considering applications must
adhere to.
After earlier this week announcing changes to the legislation which is expected to go
through its committee stage in Parliament next week, Environment Minister Amy Adams
yesterday tabled a supplementary order paper to the bill.
The amendments include changes to the bill's purpose statement which had been
criticised by Opposition parties, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and
the Law Commission, who said it was skewed in favour of economic activity over the
environment and didn't comply with New Zealand's international obligations.
The purpose statement is now in line with that in the RMA and the supplementary order
paper also introduces higher penalties for companies that breach the terms of their
consents for activity in the EEZ which lies between 12 and 200 nautical miles off the coast.
Mr Robertson said Ms Adam's amendments to the purpose statement were a major
improvement but the purpose statement still did not take sufficient regard of New
Zealand's international obligations to protect the marine environment.
"The second point is the purpose of the RMA is also backed up by section six which
outlines the principals that have to be taken into account by decision makers. That is
absent from here as well."
Labour accepted there would be economic activity within the Economic Zone "but we
think New Zealanders would expect us to create the most robust possible framework to
protect and preserve the marine environment."
Mr Robertson said Labour intended to continue discussions with the Government "to see if
we can get to a position where we can support the bill".
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Times of India: No plan to protect Mangar?
13 August 2012
Haryana's forest cover might be only one-sixth of the target that the state has set for itself
by 2020 but this has not stopped the state government from eyeing more green areas for
development activities.
The latest green belt under threat is the forests in the Aravalis surrounding Mangar in
Faridabad district. The Haryana government has found this area ideal for a mega tourist
complex, university, grain godowns and several other infrastructure projects including a
hot mix plant.
Surprisingly, when top political leaders from the region including state revenue minister
Shiv Charan Sharma and Haryana chief minister's son Deepender Hooda came here to
participate in Janmashtami celebrations on Saturday, they didn't speak out to protect
the green belt.
Sharma surprised many when he took a U-turn on the Mangar forest, which is considered
sacred by the local populace. He started off by saying, "The property belongs to our
saints. This should be excluded no matter whatever the planning is." However, when told
that consolidation of land had taken place and that people had sold their land, Sharma
changed tack, "Have people sold the property? Then what is left? Once consolidation
has happened what can be done?"
Deepender said the saint in the sacred forest had "pulled" him there and the peace of
the area should be maintained. "It should remain as beautiful as it is and natural
significance should be preserved," he said.
In the same breath, however, he committed to widen the link road to Mangar from
Faridabad to four lanes. "Do we need such a wide road if we want this entire area to be
kept green? The government's agenda is to push development activities. The green
cover will pave way for real estate projects in some guise or the other," an environment
activist associated with the 'Save Aravali' movement said.
The state government has insisted on treating the forest as "private land" rather than
"conserving" it since this patch has not been "notified under any forest notification". Locals
said almost the entire land in Mangar forest and its adjoining areas had been sold to
private developers. Many land patches have also been bought by politicians,
bureaucrats and influential people.
"Government is ready to spend crores of rupees to increase green cover but here it's
committed to axe already developed forest. By not coming out with a policy that no
green area can be converted for any other land use, it's pushing speculative buying in
such regions. Hardly anyone will buy land to keep it under natural plantation,"
environment analyst Chetan Agrawal said.
Official records show that the Haryana Forest Policy 2006 prepared on the basis of
National Forest Policy 1988 has stipulated that the state's forest cover shall be 10% by 2010
and 20% by 2020. But the latest Forest Survey of India report has pegged the state's forest
cover at 3.64% with undivided Faridabad at 4.32%, which is far below the levels
mandated in the state forest policy.
Moreover, the Regional Plan 2021 of the NCR Planning Board states, "In view of the very
low existing forest cover, it is imperative to bring more areas under forest so as to maintain
the ecological balance in this region."
All these doesn't seem to convince the state government. The situation has become so
grave that even the Union environment ministry has asked the state to put its plan in
abeyance till it prepares the district forest map. After this, the state is preparing district
forest maps.
"Will they include non-notified areas as forests? Will they recognize the sacred forest as a
deemed forest area? Or is the pressure on the forest department too much to bear? We
will get the answer soon," Col Sarvadaman Oberoi, an activist, said.
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Belfast Telegraph (Ireland): Poachers threatening Lough Neagh's unique trout
13 August 2012
Anglers have warned that emergency measures may have to be introduced to protect
plummeting stocks of the world famous and unique dollaghan trout, which is only found
in the Lough Neagh system.
They fear that despite a breeding programme that introduces a million-and-a-half young
dollaghan into the wild each year, the plunge in numbers returning to spawn is linked to
the recession as people turn to illegal fishing to earn extra money.
The Ulster Angling Federation is warning that tighter curbs may have to be placed on the
activities of legitimate commercial fishermen to give trout and salmon stocks a chance
to recover to previous levels.
The warning comes as it emerged poachers are trying to dupe bailiffs from the
Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure by giving them false tip-offs about illegal fishing
on Lough Neagh.
The criminals are contacting Fisheries Protection Officers employed by the department to
warn them of illegal fishing activities. Once the DCAL officers set off to investigate, the
poachers attempt to carry out their illegal fishing at a different part of the lough,
sometimes 30 miles away.
In July, Fisheries Protection Officers carried out 31 patrols on Lough Neagh, covering
areas such as river mouths. They have also checked boats and fishing gear.
Between April 1 last year and the end of March this year, they seized 91 fyke and panel
nets (used to catch eels), most of them on Lough Neagh. The panel nets totalled more
than 48km in length.
Now DCAL is appealing to water users giving genuine tip-offs to do so directly to DCAL or
through the Northern Ireland Environment Agency pollution hotline outside office hours
(freephone 0800 80 70 60).
The Ulster Angling Federation is calling for emergency action as its members are reporting
an increase in illegal fishing and net-marked fish being caught in rivers.
“It’s destroying the trout stocks and salmon stocks and we need to get it stopped. But
how we do that is very difficult to know,” development officer Robbie Marshall said.
“DCAL has only 11 bailiffs on the ground to cover the whole of the DCAL area, which is
not just Lough Neagh. They are spread too thin. I think the big change is that given the
current economic conditions, quite a lot of people around Lough Neagh would have
been in the building trades and because there are no jobs they turn to other things to get
money.”
The Ulster Angling Federation says a number of illegal nets have been set in the
Lurgan/Craigavon area of Lough Neagh, all of them monofilament, by fishermen trawling
for bait fish and taking adults in the process. The nets are being set in late afternoon and
lifted at 3am. In July DCAL bailiffs carried out 24 boat patrols and seven shore patrols.
Between April 1, 2011 and March 31, 2012 they seized 91 fyke and panel nets.
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ABS CBN News (Philippines): PH Pavilion bags best exhibit award in Yeosu Expo
09 August 2012
The Philippines not only showed visitors at the Expo 2012 in Yeosu, South Korea why its
more fun to visit the country. It also bagged one of the nine prestigious awards being
given by the EXHIBITOR Magazine’s Expo 2012 Awards.
The Philippine Pavilion, which worked on the theme Islands of Diversity/Seas of
Connectivity, won the Best Exhibit award.
"The Expo 2012 Award winners and honorable mentions represent some of the world’s
best examples of how experiential design, technology, presentation, and storytelling
come together to effectively communicate compelling messages," said Travis Stanton,
editor of EXHIBITOR magazine.
The competition honored the most impressive work from the 2012 World’s Expo in Yeosu.
"These examples will hopefully inform and inspire today’s exhibit and event professionals
— along with the next generation of face-to-face marketers. Because whether you’re
creating an immense international pavilion or a small 10-by-10-foot exhibit, it’s often
about making an impression, and the work on display in Yeosu does that in truly
monumental and memorable ways," Stanton added.
Meanwhile, the Philippines also held a National Day presentation at the event that
featured Filipino talents.
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Korea Herald (Republic of Korea): Yeosu Expo to complete three-month run
Sunday
09 August 2012
The Expo 2012 Yeosu will wrap up its three-month run on Sunday, with the number of
visitors expected to reach 8 million as targeted by the organizing committee.
Dubbed the first-ever world fair held on water, the Yeosu Expo opened on May 12 in the
southern coastal town of Yeosu, about 455 kilometers south of Seoul.
It was the second international fair hosted by Korea, after the Daejeon Expo in 1993. As of
Thursday, the accumulated number of visitors was 7.35 million.
In the early days after the opening, concerns were raised over the lower-than-expected
number of visitors. Until mid June, the figure remained at about 2.3 million.
Then the government stepped up efforts to draw visitors, launching a new pricing system
for tickets and adding performances by K-pop stars into festival programs.
The daily visitors hovering at 50,000-60,000 started to increase to 100,000 from July. This
month, around 270,000 people have visited the venue site every day.
Visitors to the 2012 Yeosu Expo line up in front of a pavilion despite the blistering heat on
Tuesday. (Yonhap News)
Given that Yeosu is a small city of only 300,000 people located in the southernmost part
of the nation, Bureau International des Expositions secretary general Vicente Gonzalez
Loscertales had earlier said 7 million visitors would be considered a success.
The Yeosu Expo, among others, distinguishes itself from previous events by being the first
world fair to be held on the water. There were some events themed around the ocean,
but the Yeosu Eopo is the first to have the ocean as it venue.
The entire expo site for 80 exhibition halls stretches out alongside the sea with
promenades and exhibit spaces extending all the way to the island of Odongdo and the
seawalls.
The Yeosu Expo also received positive reviews for highlighting global issues like climate
change and the protection of the ocean through story-telling events.
For instance, a pavilion for climate and environment offered visitors an opportunity to
experience a glacier age that could follow rapid climate change.
Climate change experts who participated in a recent international forum at the expo
venue said that the exhibition hall explains the seriousness of the issue in a way that is
easy to understand but still powerful.
The BIE chief also called the Yeosu Expo “the most excellent exhibition that better
represents its theme than other fairs.”
Despite the expo’s success in differentiating itself in content, its operation leaves some
room for improvement.
One of the major complaints was the reservation system for tickets.
The organizing committee adopted a reservation system for seven popular pavilions,
including the nation’s largest aquarium, in order to prevent over crowding.
However, they had to abolish the system, as visitors ― most of them one-day visitors ―
complained that tickets sold out too early.
The committee had also planned to fix the ticket prices, but started offering some
discount tickets more recently, raising complaints among early visitors.
Another issue is that the economy of Yeosu and neighboring areas may not have seen
much benefit during the 93-day Expo period.
Most of the visitors did not stay long after looking around the expo site. Especially those
who drove to the site hurried back to home in fear of heavy traffic.
Venders in the region were also not well prepared to serve visitors, with some of them
offering services at higher prices than usual and refusing to take reservations.
Over the past three months, less than half of the lodging facilities were filled with travelers.
After the Expo ends on Sunday, the city plans to assess the damage vendors in the region
suffered and take follow-up measures.
The Expo organizing committee recently submitted a plan for the future use of the expo
site to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.
With related discussions still underway, the ministry proposed nurturing the site into an
international ocean resort complex during a recent conference at the National
Assembly.
According to the tentative plan, some representative exhibition halls such as the
aquarium and the floating stage “The O” will continue to be used.
Other pavilions will house shopping malls specialized in ocean leisure activities and
seafood restaurants from countries like France, Japan and China.
Using the existing cruise infrastructure on the site, the ministry also plans to serve cruise
ships and yachts from neighboring countries like Japan and China.
Other refreshment facilities such as hot spring and water pensions are expected to be
situated within a planned healthcare town at the site, according to the ministry.
Under a special law on the expo site operation enacted in December, the ministry could
establish a new venture for the business or share the operation with the private sector.
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Star (Kenya): Plans to Establish Nuclear Power Plant Challenged
11 August 2012
Kenya's dreams of establishing a nuclear power plant is facing its first hurdle after a man
moved to court seeking to stop the government from going ahead with the project. Dr
Josef Kipkemoi Kitur is opposing the plan to establish the nuclear plant by 2017 to
become energy sufficient. He says the negative implications of having nuclear plant
outweigh its positives and as a result the court should intervene and stop the process.
Kitur's main concern is devastating effect nuclear energy will have on environment.
In his view energy ministry is going about the business of establish nuclear plant without
fully acknowledging and appreciating the greater risks involved in the nuclear energy.
He wondered why Kenya chose to go for nuclear energy when many international
communities are campaigning against it and withdrawing from it due to its negative
environmental degradation.
Kitur says that the principle of sustainable development requires that economic and
social development can be sustainable only if environment is protected from
degradation. He notes that the fissile material and sources of ionizing radiation poses
health, safety and environmental risks for very long time. "It is thus difficult to determine
measures are necessary in order to protect generations adequately in the very remote
and unpredictable future which Kenya as a developing country cannot cope and
sustain," he says.
Kenya in a bid to join the atomic energy user countries made its application to the
international atomic energy agency and was approved. The government established
nuclear electricity project committee which among other things is mandated to
undertake extensive public awareness programs, review the energy policy to
incorporate nuclear energy as one of the sources in the country.
This team was allocated $3 million (Sh252 million) for it to undertake its operations. And
now Kitur is saying that the committee has embarked on the project without informing
the public on the status and nature of undertakings. "No information so far has been
forthcoming to the public from the committee. Information from the committee or the
ministry is not available to the public."
Kitur also argues that the current power supply in Kenya by other sources including
hydro, thermal and wind are able to sustain the demand. He also says the United
Nations Environmental Programme cautioned Kenya against the establishment of
nuclear power plant since it has other sustainable sources of energy that can meet her
needs.
And as a result he wants the court to direct the government to pursue clean,
renewable source of energy due to grave risk of nuclear disaster and environment
impacts of nuclear energy production, waste management. Also sought is a
declaration that the plan to establish nuclear power plant is not properly informed and
its ill-timed.
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Independent (Uganda): No Cause for Worry Over Oil Waste
12 August 2012
On June 15, The Independent magazine published an article: 'Living in fear of oil waste'.
The article was rooted in the conservationist ideas usually advanced by NGOs and civil
society organisations in the region.
It is important to note that the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA)
which oversees all environment matters in Uganda regulates the environment for
sustainability and not for strict conservation purposes.
Conservationists believe that natural resources should not be touched. In fact, the oil and
gas resources should be left under the ground where they belong. What does this
approach mean for Uganda, a developing country with staggering needs such as
health, education and infrastructure services to address?
The key word in managing environment and particularly the waste from petroleum
activities is "sustainability". NEMA's slogan is "ensuring sustainable development."
"Sustainable development" refers to development that meets the needs of the present
generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
It is indeed no secret that Uganda's Albertine Graben (AG) where the oil/gas resources
are found is the most species rich eco-region for vertebrates in Africa and contains 39% of
Africa's mammal species, 51% of its bird species, 19% of its amphibian species and 14% of
its plant and reptile species. National parks such as Queen Elizabeth, Murchison Falls and
Semliki Game Reserve are found in this Graben. The overlap between the leading tourist
destinations in Uganda and oil activities presents a potential for human, social-economic,
cultural, atmospheric, aquatic, terrestrial and eco-systems impacts.
In the spirit of sustainable development, the Uganda government gave the mantle of
managing and coordinating the petroleum sector to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral
Development (MEMD), supported by other relevant departments such as NEMA, Fisheries,
Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and Directorate of Water Resources Management
(DWRM).
These institutions of government have the responsibility of ensuring that petroleum
activities which fall within their mandates are managed well by the oil companies. In
addition, joint regular inspections are carried out by these institutions to boost the
inspections of the resident officers from the same departments in the Graben.
In that regard, Ugandans need not worry about oil waste management because the
required frameworks are being put in place to mitigate any possible negative impacts.
Many interventions have already been put in place to mitigate the negative impacts
that the petroleum sector may have on the environment.
Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA); The SEA is a globally recognised tool used to
complement planning at higher levels of government decision making. It provides;
comprehensive assessment of environmental and other issues; a well structured public
and government debate on these issues and a mechanism to take the results of
assessment and debate into account.
SEA is thus used for providing guidance for developing conditions to ensure that oil and
gas activities are undertaken in a manner that conserves the environment and
biodiversity in the Albetine Graben area and beyond. The process of undertaking a SEA
for the Albertine Graben is on-going and will be completed by the end of 2012.
A sensitivity atlas for the Albertine Graben has been developed. This atlas provides an
environmental data dictionary and will be utilised as a tool in risk assessment, clean up
prioritisation and in selection of appropriate methods and tools of response.
Movement schedule for oil/gas companies has been established in the parks to ensure
tourists are not interrupted.
Awareness raising has been going on with local governments, lead agencies and
stakeholders in the tourism industry.
Continuous monitoring of developers to ensure observation of Environment Impact
Assessment (EIA) requirements.
The process of oil flaring during well testing was stopped on environmental grounds in
consideration of air quality. Crude oil from testing is containerised on site and plans of
selling this crude oil to industry in the country are under preparation.
Routine monitoring by field offices from PEPD, NEMA and UWA is ongoing.
As NEMA, we refute the claims as contained in The Independent article and we state as
follows:
Waste is not "dumped" at any location but rather contained securely in designated
areas. The article failed to refer to the environmental safeguards that are in place at
these locations including Ngara. These locations are not identified or gazetted by NEMA
per se but rather identified by the oil companies and subsequently approved by NEMA
after sufficient vetting which is done with the local leadership.
The article said "Government and companies work too closely..." It would be grossly
wrong for regulators to give distance to the operators as it is important that regulators fully
understand and follow all the activities being undertaken in the Graben. Otherwise, it is
impossible to regulate from outside of the activities.
The claim that NEMA is housed in Tullow camps is false.
It is also not government (or NEMA) to procure waste management companies as this
violates the waste management regulations. When necessary, independent contractors,
certified by NEMA, shall be engaged by the oil companies to manage waste under the
regulation of NEMA on behalf of government.
The issue of Buliisa not having a substantive District Environment Officer (DEO) is one that
can only be addressed by the local government.
Government recognises the challenges in managing petroleum waste. These should be
appreciated in the context of the oil exploration stage and they include; insufficient
baseline scientific data to support approval of some developments, which is being
addressed by ongoing studies; increased rainfall which increases the volume of waste
and therefore the need to expedite the process of agreeing on a permanent solution to
waste management.
Others are; lack of adequate number of personnel to monitor the whole Albertine
Graben, which means institutions need to continue recruiting and training more field
officers; and lack of sufficient knowledge of the sector by concerned stakeholders thus
increased anxiety and expectations.
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Brisbane Times (Australia): Burke calls for super trawler controls
13 August 2012
Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke has underscored the need to examine
additional controls on the controversial super trawler Margiris, as popular protest against it
spreads nationally.
Mr Burke said the 142 metre-long Dutch trawler's potential to deplete local Australian fish
stocks needed to be carefully examined.
"I don't want to pretend that it's easy or there's no extra complications with a large
vessel," Mr Burke said on Tasmanian ABC radio today. "There are, and they'll have to be
worked through."
Under a plan developed by the federal Fisheries Minister, Joe Ludwig, federal officials are
meeting joint venturer Seafish Tasmania, and recreational fishers to examine additional
controls on the 9500-tonne ship's operations.
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The Australian Fisheries Management Authority has set a 19,000-tonne annual quota for
Seafish Tasmania of the target fish, mackerel and redbait. AFMA is also requiring
independent observer coverage of the fishing.
"This is an extremely large fishery," Mr Burke said. "Is it possible that one large vessel, even
though it's doing something that might be sustainable across the whole fishery, could it
have a localised impact in some areas that is in fact not sustainable at a more local
level?"
Margiris is to operate in waters off northern New South Wales, southwards and west as far
as Western Australia.
Commercial fishers in Commonwealth waters have welcomed the venture, but
recreational and tuna sport fishers are alarmed that the fish they catch in their local
waters may in turn lose their bait fish prey.
A protest campaign aligned with environment groups saw rallies against the super trawler
across the country at the weekend.
At St Kilda Beach in Melbourne, on the River Derwent in Hobart and Launceston, the
docks at Port Adelaide, and Fremantle, hundreds of families raised home-made signs in
protest.
Posters highlighted trawl nets' damage to marine life, and the need to protect
recreational fishers' resources.
The Margiris, which has been in West Africa, is believed to be on its way to its new base in
Devonport, Tasmania, where it will bring more than 45 jobs.
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Guardian (Trinidad and Tobago): ‘Poverty eradication the greatest global
challenge’
12 August 2012
The UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) also called Rio+20, was held in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from June 20–22. Rio+20 commemorated the 20th anniversary of
the landmark Rio World Summit of 1992 and the tenth anniversary of the World Summit on
Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002.
The major themes of Rio+20 were (a) green economy in the context of sustainable
development and poverty eradication and (b) institutional framework for sustainable
development. India participated actively in these meetings and also hosted a Delhi
Ministerial Dialogue on “green economy and inclusive growth” in October 2011 in the
run-up to Rio+20.
Both at Rio and in preparations for the conference, a marked divergence of approach
was visible between the developed and developing countries. The developed countries,
led by the EU, wished to see a new concept of green economy to acquire pre-eminence
over sustainable development and create new obligations for developing countries,
particularly for developing economies. Developed countries have consistently tried to
redefine the development paradigm by diluting the Rio Principles, which had put poverty
elevation and a balanced approach to sustainable development at the centre of
international co-operation on environment and development.
The Rio Principles also enshrined the cardinal principle of common but differentiated
responsibilities (CBDR), premised on the historical responsibility of the industrialised West.
Developed countries sought to do away with differentiation and raised environmental
pollution to pre-eminence in the global discourse and perhaps in rule-setting.
Developing countries, however, tried to maintain the Rio templates, including its
principles, retain focus on poverty elevation, irrigation and economic growth, avoid new
conditionalities for aid and finance and perspective goals and targets which would
constrain policy space and development.
Given the considerable pressure the developing countries were subject to in defining the
sustainable development agenda, the solidarity of G-77 and China group managed to
effectively thwart the attempts of developed countries and brought in some balance
into the outcome document in favour of developing countries. The document clearly
recognised poverty eradication as the greatest global challenge. In doing so it places
this squarely at the centre of the global development agenda.
The Rio Principles, including the CBDR, were unanimously reaffirmed in the overall
context of sustainable development. The centrality of the principles of equity and CBDR
was also expressly mentioned in the climate-change context in the face of strident
opposition from certain developed countries.
On the green economy, while the EU and other developed countries went to elevate this
as a new paradigm for global development and imposed new obligations, developing
countries saw this only as one of the means to achieve the overall obligation of
sustainable development.
The outcome document affirms that policies for the green economy are to be pursued in
accordance with the Rio Principles and with due respect to every country’s national
sovereignty over its natural resources and national circumstances, and acknowledges
that green-economy policies should not constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable
discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emerged as one of the potential deliverables of
the conference. However, while the developed countries preferred to launch the SDGs
in Rio itself, mainly in environmental areas with restrictive goals, targets and timelines,
developing countries intended to see the SDGs give a balanced emphasis on socioeconomic and environmental dimensions and were against the ad-hoc enumeration of
such SDGs. Thanks to the clear stand of developing countries no targets were decided.
Instead, an inclusive and transparent intergovernmental process was launched with the
aim of developing global SDGs through an open working group comprising nominated
officials by member states. The input into this process was to be provided by the UN
Secretary General.
While some developed countries were ambitious in pursuing the SDGs and other
accounts of interest to them during Rio+20, there seemed to be no interest on their part in
providing commensurate financial and technological support to developing countries.
Demands were even made to alter the global template of diluting the responsibility of
developed countries and passing the burden to the emerging economies. Further,
market-driven (private-sector) financing was emphasised to dilute the role of public
financing. As a reaction, India tabled proposals for setting up two mechanisms for
finance and technology.
Consequently, two separate mechanisms were agreed to. On finance, an
intergovernmental committee will propose options on an effective sustainable
development financing strategy and on technology options will be identified for a
facilitation mechanism for the promotion of development, transfer and dissemination of
clean and environmentally sound technologies.
On institutional framework for sustainable development (ISFD), a proposal of EU
supported by several African countries to elevate the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
into a full-fledged UN Environment Organisation did not find favour with other developing
countries and the US, which remained opposed to the proposal.
There was, however, an agreement to strengthen UNEP by setting up universal
membership in its governing council. Simultaneously it was also agreed to establish a
universal inter-governmental high-level political forum to provide political leadership,
guidance and recognition for sustainable development.
In conclusion, four separate processes have been launched in Rio+20: a high-level
political forum, sustainable development goals, financial support and technology
transfer. Several thematic areas were also identified, though no quantitative targets were
accepted.
The call for phasing out fossil-fuel subsidies is framed in the context of wasteful
consumption and taking fully into account the specific needs and conditions of
developing countries, thus minimising possible adverse impact on their development, a
formulation which is sensitive to the needs and concerns of developing countries.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his statement at the plenary, spoke of finding a
balance between the costs that are incurred at present and the benefits that would
accrue for future generations. Noting that inclusive growth and rapid increase in percapita income levels are developmental priorities for developing countries, he said that
those living at the subsistence level could not bear the cost of adjustment and their
livelihood considerations were important in determining how scarce natural resources
were to be used. PM Singh emphasised that the current consumption patterns in the
industrialised world were unsustainable and called for a new approach for sustainable
living while emphasising the need for equitable sharing.
The outcomes of Rio+20, which, despite western media projections, have largely gone
towards supporting the developing countries, are a reaffirmation of the Rio Principles,
including CBDR, bringing that as well as equity back into the climate-change discourse,
shaping the spirit of green economy in a manner which is not prescriptive, keeping the
focus on poverty eradication as the central global challenge.
India built consensus on many critical aspects of the outcome document proposals,
particularly on means of implementation, which found support among developing
countries. Various diverse groups within G-77 including Small Island Developing States
(SIDS), LDCs, Africa etc, rallied around India’s proposal, thus bringing greater cohesion
and strength to G-77 and China.
It would be in the interest of the majority of countries to see that the effect of Rio+20 does
not get diluted. The conference could well be termed a starting point for a global
discourse which could lead the way for countries with a substantive development
agenda.
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Oman Observer (Oman): Bank muscat to announce the beneficiaries of ‘Green
Sports’
13 August 2012
The ‘Green Sports’ initiative, launched by bank muscat, will announce the names of this
year’s beneficiaries, shortly.
The applications were screened by a special committee; a total of 10 clubs/teams will
benefit from this programme every year. The committee recently visited the sports
clubs/teams that had applied. The visits covered several governorates across Oman. The
purpose of the visit was to inspect and assess the keenness of these clubs to have their
playing fields laid out and gather pertinent information that would assist in the selection
process.
The bank's CSR initiative, ‘Green Sports’, in partnership with the Ministry of Sports, is aimed
at developing Oman as a sporting nation. bank muscat recognises that local clubs wield
immense influence on neighbourhood communities, especially youth; clubs with modern
infrastructure facilities can help raise sporting heroes for the country.
Under this initiative 10 sports clubs/teams every year, spread across Oman, that meet the
criteria for selection will have their fields laid out with grass. This initiative will span over a
period of 5 years thus benefiting 50 teams in the Sultanate. The criteria for eligibility are:
sports clubs/teams should have been in existence for three years with a minimum
membership of 300 youths from the local community; must show proof of legal ownership
of the land; provide income statements for the team and activities for 2011; must show a
variety of on-going sports activities, including sporting awards won over the last 5 years;
must demonstrate ability to financially maintain and operate the green playing field for a
period of five years; bank muscat will lay turf grass and plant trees, hand over the fields to
beneficiary clubs/teams; teams who were not eligible this year may apply next year.
A senior official said: “The ‘Green Sports’ initiative reiterates the bank’s support to Oman’s
youth who represent the future of Oman. True to its commitment to supporting varied
sporting activities in the country, bank muscat remains at the forefront in offering the
required encouragement and support to youth.”
‘Green Sports’ initiative was launched at the bank’s head office on May 7, 2012 in the
presence of Shaikh Saad bin Mohammed al Mardouf al Saadi, Minister of Sports, Shaikh
Khalid bin Mustahail al Mashani, Chairman of bank muscat, Sulaiman bin Mohamed al
Yahyai, Vice-Chairman, AbdulRazak Ali Issa, Chief Executive, dignitaries, senior
government and private sector officials.
The ‘Green Sports’ initiative is in line with the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), which has included Green Sports in its current 10-year programme. Sporting
activities involving environmental commitment are now playing an increasingly important
role at the global level in focusing recognition on protecting our planet.
As the leading bank in the Sultanate, bank muscat is at the forefront to contribute to
society and thereby set a fine example to the banking community and the corporate on
the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
bank muscat was the first Omani bank to establish a full-fledged CSR department. It
reflects the bank’s concern and care for various segments of society.
The bank is of the view that its social responsibility is not merely participation in charitable
works and organisation of voluntary campaigns, but responsibility towards all-round
development of society.
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Selected Blog Posts
Leadership newspaper (Nigeria): Ogoni Land - When Political Autonomy Beckons
11 August 2012
In the evolution of human societies, certain moments, movements, convictions and ideals
often mesh to rescript the destiny of particular ethnic groups. These outcomes are usually
decided not by the size of the groups but by the size of their resolve.
The chemistry of this complex change is usually provoked by instincts of group survival,
rejection of an existing order or just the timeless human urge for self-determination. History
is replete with examples of this phenomenon. Against this background, the August 2
declaration of political autonomy by the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People,
MOSOP, led by Mr. GoodluckDiigbo is a milestone that perhaps should not be lightly
written off.
Aware of the general and specific implications of this proclamation, the MOSOP
leadership quickly clarified the status of Ogoni'sdeclaration. According to Diigbo, the
Ogoni had not resolved to pull out of the Nigerian federation."It is internal autonomy,
which means self-government within Nigeria in accordance with the United Nations
declaration on rights of indigenous peoples."
In further submission, he stated that MOSOP was forced to declare internal autonomy for
the Ogoni nation because of the level of devastation and neglect of Ogoniland, adding
that with the declaration, his people had the choice of either remaining part of the
nation or pulling out completely, but that at the moment, they had resolved to remain in
the country.
His words: "Ogoni people are in a very difficult situation right now. The land has been
totally devastated as a result of 55 years of petroleum operations, so it becomes very
urgent because if you want to talk about anything concerning the land, to the Ogoni
people it is not just land but life and also god," he said."We should remain part of Nigeria;
we are not saying we are out of Nigeria. We have a choice as part of this declaration to
be part of it or out of it and at this moment, we are part of Nigeria."'
The studied effort to explain to Nigeria its recent declaration suggests the leadership of
MOSOP has a good idea of the meaning of this opening gambit on the delicate
keyboards of the Nigerian state. Nigeria's recent, post-independence reminds all of the
consequences of ethnic nationalism.
According to ex-military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, Biafran revolt was
provoked by ethnic nationalism. Although, the incidence of this phenomenon appear
muted, underneath the fire of this passionate urge exists in many of the tribes that make
up contemporary Nigeria.
They only need fertile grounds to manifest. Has this seed of secession been sowed in
Ogoniland? Has Ogoni taken a faithful step on the pathway of sovereignty or is this a
mere flight of fancy? What will be the reaction of a state besieged by crisis, to this move?
In time, the answers will unravel.
Ogoniland, made up of Eleme, Khana, Gokana and Tai local government areas of Rivers
State, with its traditional capital in Bori, became part of international map in 1995 when
nine of its prominent sons were sentenced to death and subsequently hanged over an
alleged murder of another four prominent sons of the area. The rest is now history.
Attention of the international community was shifted to the people of Ogoni in August
last year when the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) submitted its report on
the environmental assessment of Ogoniland to President Goodluck Jonathan.
The refusal of the federal government to implement the recommendations of the UNEP
report continued to attract the attention of both local and international civil society
organisations, who had not relented in mounting pressure on the government to act fast,
considering the level of devastation caused to the environment by activities of multinational oil and gas companies operating in the area.
On August 2, 2012, when the people of Ogoni were preparing to mark the first
anniversary of the presentation of the UNEP report to the federal government, a faction
of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), led by Mr. GoodluckDiigbo,
declared political autonomy for the people of Ogoni.
Diigbo was president of the National Youth Council of Ogoni People (NYCOP), the youth
wing of MOSOP at a time when the late environmentalist, KenuleSaro-Wiwa was
president of the pan-Ogoniorganisation.
Though the factional leader was not physically present at the Peace and Freedom
Centre, Bori for the declaration, a statement signed by one TombariDeekor quoted
Diigbo as saying, "By this declaration of political autonomy, we, the Ogoni people, are
determined to enforce the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples
without fear or retreat.
"We are concerned that in the absence of a responsive government, the indigenous
people of Ogoni will continue to suffer from historic injustices. In order to make indigenous
rights practicable in Ogoni, we have, through a very transparent electoral college
process, beginning with community by community elections, set up 272 village councils,
while the village councils in turn elected representatives for 33 district councils, and the
district representatives went on to elect representatives to serve at the centre as
custodians of customs and traditions, otherwise called lawmakers.
"The lawmakers in turn elected the executive arm of the Ogoni Central Indigenous
Authority (OCIA), with checks and balances inbuilt to ensure corruption-free, effective,
efficient and answerable system of grassroots self-government instead of the old, corrupt
and mismanaged local government system endured by the Ogoni for decades.
"In taking these measures, we are quite aware of the discomfort to about 56 local
politicians that control local government politics in Ogoni; however, we care more about
the 1.2 million people that have for too long been excluded."
Citing the urgency at recognising the need to arrive at a consensus to collectively review
the disputed UNEP report for the declaration, the factional MOSOP leader announced
that a transitional committee was already set up to facilitate dialogue to ensure peaceful
transition within 30 days, while consultation with the national government and
international community begins without delay.
Reacting to the declaration, the MOSOP Provisional Council (MPC), a care-taker
committee that runs the affairs of the government-recognised faction of MOSOP, said
that the people of Ogoni had at no time taken any decision to establish a sovereign
nationhood, and expressed dismay over the purported declaration of Ogoni autonomy
by Diigbo.
In a statement signed by the council chairman and secretary, Professor Ben Naanen and
Dr Meshach Karanwi, the MPC said, "MOSOP has received with dismay, the purported
declaration of "Ogoni Autonomy Day" by Mr. GoodluckDiigbo. He had earlier this year
falsely claimed that the Ogoni people had voted for autonomy in a referendum. At no
time did the Ogoni people take any decision to establish a sovereign nationhood.
"The Ogoni Bill of Rights (OBR) is clear on the aspiration of Ogoni people in Nigeria. The
Ogoni, according to OBR, want adequate representation in all the institutions of the
Nigerian state as a matter of right. They want their economic, social, and political rights to
be protected in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. A people aspiring to sovereignty cannot
also be asking for representation at the same time.
"It will be recalled that Bori, the headquarters of the Ogoni people, has been put under
tension since Tuesday, July 31, 2012, by groups of young men armed with automatic and
other dangerous weapons. These young men are connected to Mr. Diigbo.
"They attacked the Peace and Freedom Centre (MOSOP Complex) in Bori, causing
considerable destruction while the staff of the centre suffered various degrees of injury.
The attack was a prelude to their celebration of the so-called "Ogoni Autonomy Day" on
Thursday, August 2.
"Diigbo had earlier sent messages that businesses and offices in Bori should be shut in
observance of the day. On that day, rampaging gangs of misled youths tried to enforce
Diigbo's order through violence. But they were successfully engaged by law enforcement
agencies which ensured that law-abiding citizens and property were protected.
"It has to be noted that these armed youths are mostly cult members who come from
Diigbo's community, which is close to Bori, a fact that makes it easy for them to operate
in the town. MOSOP is calling on the government to take lawful measures to check
GoodluckDiigbo's anti-state activities and protect lives and property in Ogoni as these
cult boys remain an enduring threat to peace in the Bori area and other parts of Ogoni.
"It is a fact of history that anti-state and atavistic movements such as the one that Diigbo
is trying to create feed on social and economic discontent. Let the Nigerian state not
allow such a tendency to spread in Ogoni through neglect. MOSOP, therefore, calls on
the government to end the economic and social exclusion of Ogoni.
"At this point it is necessary to correct the erroneous impression that GoodluckDiigbo is a
factional president of MOSOP. The Ogoni people recognise one MOSOP body, which is
currently under the interim leadership of MOSOP Provisional Council, headed by Professor
Ben Naanen."
To the Rivers State governor, ChibuikeRotimiAmaechi, the declaration of a self
government for Ogoniland was a treasonable felony as Diigbo, who made the
declaration "would flee if security agencies made moves to question him."
Amaechi said: "On Ogoni autonomy, I wish them well. Ogoni autonomy is not
achievable. The man (Diigbo) who declared Ogoni autonomy will run into the bush
tomorrow morning. What Diigbo is doing is treasonable felony. You do not declare
autonomy on the pages of newspapers and magazines, or on radio and television."
For Mr. Blessing Wikina, an indigene of Kono community in Khana local government area
of the state and the immediate past chief press secretary to the governor, those who
made the declaration are dreamers. He insisted that those behind the declaration of self
government in Ogoniland had succeeded in reducing the intellectual fight started by
late Ken Saro-Wiwa to a mere gathering of clowns.
Wikina said, "Diigbo and his followers are just dreamers. We are in a democracy. How can
you declare self government without having the necessary infrastructures in place. This
goes a long way to show that Diigbo and his cohorts who are fighting for the creation of
Ogoni State are not serious-minded people.
"They have turned the entire Ogoni struggle into a thing of mockery. In fact, they have
succeeded in reducing the intellectual fight started by late Ken Saro-Wiwa into a
gathering of clowns."
To Comrade Celestine Akpobari, coordinator of the Ogoni Solidarity Front (OSF), a proOgoni civil society group, the declaration of political autonomy for Ogoni was a sign of
more troubles for the people of the area.
Akpobari said, "Ogoni people have been pushed to the wall by the government of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria and the oil companies operating on our land. Last Saturday
marked one year of the report of a death sentence passed on the entire livelihood of the
Ogoni people, yet the government of Nigeria had maintained a criminal silence until
recently it set up a committee to look into the report.
"The declaration of Ogoni autonomy on August 2nd may be part of the struggle but not
the one widely anticipated by the entire Ogoni people. The declaration is an early
morning signal of impending troubles that may be coming up from Ogoni axis either soon
or in the future.
"But I must say that it was a mere internet declaration. But if it had gotten the support of
the six kingdom of Ogoniland, if it had gotten the support of the entire Ogoni people, by
now the government of Nigeria and oil companies would be struggling on what action to
take.
"It is high time the government and Shell began to provide answers to the atrocities they
have committed in Ogoniland. It is time government returned royalties to the Ogoni
people. It is also time government carried out developmental projects in Ogoni.
Finally, land-grabbing by the current governor of Rivers State in the name of banana
plantation must stop."
To Hon. Dum Ade John Budam, secretary-general of MOSOP in the Diigbo-led faction,
the declaration of self government was in obedience with the command of the people
as well as their elected representatives, comprising over 272 village councils that make
up the five kingdoms and two administrative units in Ogoniland.
Budam said, "The declaration of our political autonomy was in obedience with the
command by the Ogoni people and their elected representatives from 33 district
councils, comprising over 272 village councils, living in the six kingdoms of Ogoni, namely:
Babbe, Eleme, Gokana, Kenkhana, Nyokhana and Tai and two administrative units: Ban
Goi and the Bori National Territory.
"What we did was also in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on Rights of
Indigenous Peoples adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in New York on
September 13, 2007, guided by the purposes and principles of international law in
accordance with the United Nations Charter.
"The elected representatives who supported this declaration of political autonomy for the
Ogoni people have bitterly complained that the present system of local government in
Nigeria does not allow them the freedom to govern according to the wishes of the
people."
Perhaps unruffled by the reactions of a section of the people of Ogoni on the
declaration, Diigbo said the declaration was in the spirit of the General Assembly motion
as well as its resolutions as adopted and approved on July 31, 2012, in accordance with
the contents of the Ogoni Bill of Rights of August 26, 1990 as revised on August 26, 1991.
He said, "We acted on the General Assembly mandate on the questions relating to the
political autonomy of Ogoni in southern Nigeria, and in the spirit of the General Assembly
motion and its resolutions, adopted and approved on July 31, 2012. We also acted in
accordance with the wishes of the Ogoni people contained in the Ogoni Bill of Rights of
26 August, 1990 as revised on August 26, 1991, expressing the collective will of the good
people of Ogoni in the referendum of 2010 and the second referendum of 2011.
"Despite the fact that the Nigerian constitution and other laws and policies provide for a
local government system, in reality, the local government constitutional provisions meant
to extend the principle of federalism to its logical conclusion, by bringing the government
to the grassroots level, do not apply in Ogoniland as a result of corruption and public
deception by local and state political actors and the lack of enforcement of the shaky
Nigerian constitution by the federal government."
Diigbo disclosed that already, village elected representatives had begun meetings with
local politicians, aimed at achieving a smooth transitional programme in Ogoniland.
"Already, 2,720 elected village council members and 66 district representatives began
meetings with local politicians on Monday, August 6, 2012 after the thanksgiving on
Sunday, August 5, 2012 to mark our Self-Government Declaration. There may be
distractions, but Ogoni self-government cannot be derailed," he said.
What is not clear, however, is if the Diigbo-led faction of MOSOP would succeed in this
effort without being arrested by security agents, the Rivers State governor having publicly
declared their action as treasonable felony. And they do not enjoy the blessing of the
group's provisional council nor that of its third faction, formed on July 30, 2012 by a group
of aggrieved coordinators. Only time will tell.
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Environmental News from the UNEP Regions
ROA MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Monday, August 13, 2012
Nigeria: FG Moves to Enact Policy on Chemical Control
This Day (Abuja) - The Federal Government is determined to curtail the possible adverse
effects of chemicals usage on human health and environment through appropriate
policies and controls. Speaking in Abuja at the National Inception/Awareness Raising
Workshop on Nano safety, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Environment, Mr.
Taiye Haruna said although chemicals play an important role in national development
through the production and use of live-saving medicines, purification agents for the
treatment of drinking water supplies as well as boost to agricultural productivity, it could
however, become disastrous if not properly managed.
The sensitization programme was organized by the ministry in collaboration with the
United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). Themed: "Raising Awareness
on Nano Safety in Nigeria towards Ensuring Sound Management of Chemicals", the
workshop, attended by the civil society, academia, consumer protection organizations
and government, sought to among other things, create awareness and identify nano
safety priorities and elements of a Nano safety policy for the country. "The benefits of
Nano safety is enormous, however, a major global concern is how do countries ensure
that both people and the environment will be protected from materials employed in
nano technology products i.e. the critical issue of Nano safety for which we are
gathered today." The Federal Ministry of Environment had signed a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) with UNITAR in 2011 to undertake a 12-month project titled:
"Training and Capacity Building for the Development of Nano-safety Pilot Project in
Nigeria". The project, expected to be completed in December 2012, is being
undertaken through the collaboration of the Nigerian government and UNITAR with the
financial support from the Government of Switzerland.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201208120259.html
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South Africa: Peace Corps Install 'Merry-Go-Round' Water Pump in South Africa
AllAfrica.com (Washington DC) - Peace Corps volunteer Andrew Hubble of San Mateo,
California, recently installed a "Play Pump" water filtration system that will serve as a
reliable source of fresh drinking water for his South African community. "Almost four
months after its arrival, the Play Pump remains the most popular place to be," said
Hubble, 23, who has been living and working in South Africa as a math resource
volunteer since July 2011. "Not only children from the primary school, but parents and
grandparents are often seen chatting at the spigot's end exchanging gossip while
collecting water. After school there is -- quite literally -- standing room only. Lines form
for a chance to hop on and a take a spin. Any able-bodied person cannot walk past
without a throng of learners demanding a push."
Hubble worked with a nongovernmental organization in South Africa to install the water
system on the grounds of the local school. The pump, which resembles a children's
merry-go-round, pumps water from underground as the kids take turns spinning the
wheel. The water is then passed through a filtration system and stored in a tank, where
the community can access it through a tap. There are 165 Peace Corps volunteers
serving in South Africa; more than 1,080 have served there since the program was
established in 1997. http://allafrica.com/stories/201208120008.html
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Kenya: Rising Water Disrupts Lake Naivasha Activities
The Star (Nairobi) - Environmentalists have raised concern on the rising water levels in
Lake Naivasha. Experts say this increase is the highest since 1980.Renowned scientist Dr
David Harper said the heavy rains experienced this year have contributed to the high
water levels. "This has seen several buildings constructed on the riparian land
submerged in water," he said. Harper said that it is illegal to construct permanent
structures on the riparian land and called for the buildings to be demolished. Several
flower farmers near the lake also face displacement as the water continues to rise.
Harper blamed the increase of water hyacinth in the lake to the high water levels. He
however said this will be easy to deal with.
The scientist said water beetles introduced in the lake 12 years ago by the Kenya
Agricultural Research Institute will contain the weed in six months. For many years the
weed has threatened papyrus in the lake. The papyrus acts as a filter for the lake. "At
the moment the weed has outgrown the water beetles as they do not breed fast
enough but it's a matter of time before the weed is dealt with," Harper said. He said it is
not all gloom as the water hyacinth can be used to feed livestock and makes good
compost manure. http://allafrica.com/stories/201208110632.html
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Egypt: Nile River Encroachments Will Be Eliminated - Irrigation Minister
ESIS (Cairo) - Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Bahaa el-Dien has
stressed that encroachments on the Nile River and waterways will be dealt with strictly
and removed without notifying the owners.
Those illegal constructions impair irrigation. Bahaa el-Dien said in statements Friday
10/08/2012 that law will be applied and violators will be heavily fined and forced to
remove the encroachments at their expense. He added that the Irrigation Ministry is
carrying out campaigns in cooperation with the Interior Ministry to eradicate any
encroachments.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201208120207.html
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Tanzania: Country Loses 30 Elephants Daily
Tanzania Daily News (Dodoma) - A Report from experts has it that the country loses 30
elephants daily and an average of 800 every month to poaching, the Parliament was
told. The Chairman of parliamentary Committee on Land, Natural Resources and
Environment, James Lembeli (Kahama - CCM) while presenting the Committee speech,
noted that between 2006 and 2009, the country lost 30, 000 elephants to poaching,
adding that now the country loses 10, 000 per year. "The Committee wants the
government to take steps quickly to curb this problem, including availing enough funds
to fight poaching of elephants and other animals in general," he said. Mr. Lembeli said
the government should issue a permit to the ministry to employ enough personnel in the
wild life department and to renovate infrastructure in forests to safeguard elephants for
future generation.
The Shadow Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Mr. Peter Msigwa (Iringa Urban Chadema) accused the government for not putting more efforts and resources in the
fight against poaching in the country. He said a suspect caught in connection with
poaching was arraigned in court and given different charges not related to elephant
poaching. He said the security of elephants and other rare species is in danger
because of government's laxity in taking stringent measures to curb poaching. "It is a
shame to hear the government say that poachers have a lot of money and use highly
sophisticated methods, when we expect the government to ensure the security of the
wild animals," he added.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201208120047.html
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ROAP MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Monday, August 13, 2012
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RONA MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Monday, August 13, 2012
Washington Post: To limit climate change, think worldwide
09 August 2012
James E. Hansen’s Aug. 5 op-ed, “Climate change is here — and worse than we
thought,” presented a compelling argument that climate change is driving extreme
weather. Mr. Hansen’s prescription for a gradually rising carbon tax that is rebated to
residents makes sense.
Unfortunately, one result of a sufficiently high carbon tax in the United States is that it
would put its producers at a substantial competitive disadvantage unless other major
trading nations adopted similar policies.
My proposal, based on my long experience at the World Bank in the energy sector
before I retired 10 years ago, would be to address the problem on an international basis
and differently from current approaches. The large and complex U.N. system and
international climate gatherings are too unwieldy and achieve little. The most logical
and manageable forum for doing this probably would be the Group of 20 (G-20),
whose 20 member nations account for well over 80 percent of global energy
consumption and carbon emissions. Unlike the G-8, the G-20 includes such important
energy-consuming nations as Brazil, China, India and Russia.
Each nation should agree to carry out an in-depth study that would project the
changes in its energy consumption and production patterns with various levels of
carbon taxes. The study results would form a basis for negotiating a global carbon tax
framework, together with other policies designed to incentivate reliable energy supplies
and the needed reductions in carbon emissions. One or more of the G-20 members
needs to get this pressing global issue on their agendas and proceed.
Maybe increasingly searing summers and damaging weather events will eventually
create the public and political realization that something needs to be done. If not for
us, then for our grandchildren.
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The Hill: UN official: US must cut back on biofuels
10 August 2012
A senior United Nations official is calling on the United States to suspend biofuels
production to combat the effects of the country-wide drought, potentially giving
momentum to those on Capitol Hill fighting for the same result.
The drought has inflicted enough damage on U.S. corn supplies to threaten
international food supplies, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Director General
José Graziano da Silva wrote in the Financial Times.
"An immediate, temporary suspension of that mandate would give some respite to the
market and allow more of the crop to be channeled towards food and feed uses," he
wrote in the column published late Thursday.
The U.N. official's column arrives as the U.S. government slashes estimates of corn
production this year. The Agriculture Department, in a forecast Friday, predicted that
national production will be 10.8 billion bushels in 2012, a 13 percent drop from 2011 and
the lowest output since 2006, according to news reports.
With 40 percent of U.S. corn acreage dedicated to biofuels, da Silva said too little is left
to survive some of the price shocks the drought has inflicted on the crop.
“The situation reminds us that even the most advanced agricultural systems are subject
to the vagaries of the weather, leading to volatility in supplies and prices, not just on
domestic markets, but also internationally,” he said.
Whether the U.N.’s weight will have any effect is unclear, though lawmakers and
livestock producers who have used the same logic that da Silva espoused to cut back
on corn biofuel will likely seize on the comments.
Lawmakers and their rancher allies have tried in recent weeks to get the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to waive corn ethanol production requirements as a form of
drought relief. They say preserving the quota is driving up corn prices by locking up
supplies that could go to livestock feed.
The EPA can waive all or part of the renewable fuel standard (RFS), which requires
refiners to blend 13.2 billion gallons of corn ethanol into transportation fuel this year. The
RFS must be shown to cause severe economic or environmental harm to satisfy the
waiver conditions, but meeting those metrics has proven difficult in the past.
But the biofuels industry claims the RFS has little impact on corn prices, even with the
drought. They said ethanol producers already have curtailed production in response to
high corn prices. They also contend enough corn ethanol stockpiles and credits, used
instead of purchasing actual gallons of corn ethanol, exist to mitigate the supply issues.
Additionally, the biofuels industry noted the EPA can only waive the RFS if refiners have
trouble meeting their production targets. Industry says that will not happen this year.
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Reuters: Easing U.S. ethanol mandate would help prevent food crisis: UN
10 August 2012
Global pressure on the United States to relax its ethanol quota mounted on Thursday as
the top United Nations food official said an "immediate, temporary suspension" of the
mandate could help head off another world food crisis.
As the surge in corn prices revives a fierce food versus fuel debate, José Graziano da
Silva, the director-general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, wrote in the
Financial Times newspaper that competition for a U.S. corn crop that has been
decimated by drought was only going to intensify.
"Much of the reduced crop will be claimed by biofuel production in line with U.S.
federal mandates, leaving even less for food and feed markets," he wrote in an op-ed
just a day before the U.S. government issues a pivotal crop report that is expected to
show U.S. corn output falling to the smallest in six years and stockpiles at near record
lows.
"An immediate, temporary suspension of that mandate would give some respite to the
market and allow more of the crop to be channeled towards food and feed uses," he
wrote in a high-profile, yet indirect, message to Washington.
Under the five-year-old Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), U.S. fuel companies are
required to ensure that 9 percent of their gasoline pools are made up of ethanol this
year, which means converting some 40 percent of the corn crop into the biofuel.
Silva joins a growing and diverse chorus of people calling for an unprecedented waiver
or suspension of the RFS. This week, 25 U.S. Senators urged the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) to adjust the mandate, while the chief executive of grains giant Cargill
said the free market should dictate biofuels use.
Livestock producers, which are forced to bid against ethanol producers to secure
costlier grain for feed, were first to ask for relief. However, the EPA has yet to receive an
official petition for a waiver, which can only come from a fuel blender or a state
governor, according to the legislation.
Silva said that the world food system had not yet reached a crisis point, but reiterated
warnings against the kind of export restraints and panic buying that extended the surge
in 2008.
"Countries and the UN are better equipped than in 2007-08 to face high food prices," he
said. "However, risks are high and the wrong responses to the current situation could
create it."
WHY, WHY NOT
While the RFS program faces growing critics, it also has strong support from Farm Belt
politicians in an election year and has been a core part of President Obama's "all of the
above" energy plan. Some say suspending it would do little to relax demand.
For one thing, the RFS already offers a degree of flexibility to blenders, who can
purchase or borrow bankable credits known as Renewable Identification Numbers, or
RINs, if they aren't able to buy enough physical ethanol to meet their requirements.
For another, experts say refiners would likely continue buying almost as much ethanol
even without the RFS since they use it as an additive to make the cleaner-burning fuel
required in most of the country.
And waiving the mandate could have several unintended effects, such as dampening
investment in cellulosic and other advanced biofuels that could cut dependence on
food crops for making fuel, or damage the market for dried distillers' grains, an ethanol
byproduct sold as a livestock feed.
In 2008, Texas Governor Rick Perry petitioned the EPA to cut the mandate in half for that
year. The EPA refused, but in doing so it made clear that future petitions would have to
prove that the RFS itself was causing severe economic harm and not just contributing to
any such condition.
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United States
New York Times: When the Choice Is Jobs or the Environment
09 August 2012
For the past couple of decades, economic common sense and fears about climate
change have coincided. Relying on fossil fuels was a mistake, both because we were
running out of them and because of the impact of greenhouse gases on the
environment.
The big challenge for the environmental movement, and for the liberal parties that
have generally been aligned with it, is that this convenient equation is falling apart,
thanks to the unexpected surge in oil production. As I explain in my latest column, fossil
fuels are about to become abundant — which is a panacea for the struggling global
economy — particularly, as it happens, for the United States. But it threatens to trip up
the left.
The knee-jerk reaction of liberals, as we have seen in the American left’s opposition to
the Keystone Pipeline, will be to question new sources of fossil fuels, especially those
extracted from the hard-to-reach deposits, like the oil sands, which are fueling the
current upsurge in production.
But that intuitive stance could cost the environmental movement the widespread
popular support it has been gradually building. Like gay marriage, environmentalism is
at a cultural tipping point, on the verge of becoming the default view of the younger
generation.
Here’s the rub — economic growth matters to young people, too, particularly in an age
of high unemployment. Cheaper fossil fuels promise to be an important kick-starter of
economic growth, particularly for the blue-collar white men who are under such threat
in today’s US economy.
In the long-run, climate change threatens us all. But, as Keynes pointed out, in the longrun, we are all dead. In an era of surging oil production, one of the big tests for liberals
will be to find a way to balance the long-run interests of the earth, with our short-term
interest in economic growth and well-paying jobs.
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Washington Post: Shark fin soup made with imperiled species, new analysis finds
09 August 2012
Consumers of shark fin soup — a delicacy served in Washington and major cities
around the country — may be unwittingly consuming animals threatened with
extinction, according to a analysis released Thursday.
A team of scientists from Stony Brook University and Chicago’s Field Museum, working in
conjunction with the Pew Environment Group, found that some of the soup purchased
in 14 major U.S. cities featured fins from imperiled species — including scalloped
hammerheads, smooth hammerheads, school sharks and spiny dogfish.
All four species face some threat of extinction, according to the International Union for
Conservation of Nature.
“The soup test is significant because it shows the United States is also contributing to the
global decline of sharks. And Americans who eat the shark’s fin soup may be
consuming an endangered species without even knowing it,” Liz Karan, manager of
global shark conservation at the Pew Environment Group, said in a telephone call with
reporters. “This is bad for sharks, but also bad for the ocean environment.”
About one-third of all shark species are vulnerable to extinction, according to the IUCN,
because they are targeted for their fins and because they are caught accidentally by
vessels fishing for species such as tuna and swordfish.
Researchers found fins from blue shark, which reproduces more quickly than other
species and is not imperiled, in one of four bowls of soup purchased in the Washington
area. They could not identify the shark species in the other three bowls.
The group declined to say where it had bought the soup. At least two Maryland
establishments, Rockville’s Tysons Buffet & Restaurant and Silver Spring’s Wong Gee
Asian Restaurant, sell shark fin soup. According to the Animal Welfare Institute, at least
nine restaurants in the region have offered it in recent years.
“We are not trying to attack the people serving the soup. They are not doing anything
illegal,” Pew spokeswoman Rachel Brittin wrote in an e-mail. “It’s up to state
government to ban the possession, sale and trade of shark fin.”
Five U.S. states — California, Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon and Washington — have banned
the sale, trade and possession of shark fins. A similar measure in Maryland passed the
state Senate this year but failed to make it through the House.
Once a shark is caught and finned, the dried fins generally are sent to Hong Kong, the
global center of the world’s fin trade, and then exported. Demian Chapman, who coled the genetic testing at the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook
University, said he was initially skeptical of whether they would be able to extract DNA
from the “fin rays,” which have been dried and chemically processed.
“With that sort of assault, the DNA that’s left in the fin becomes very damaged,”
Chapman said. But Chapman and his colleagues were able to identify 32 shark DNA
samples, at which point researchers at the Field Museum’s Pritzker Laboratory
compared the sequences to ones contained in the NIH genetic database GenBank.
In addition to buying soup in Washington, the group purchased it in Albuquerque,
Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, San
Francisco, Seattle, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Chapman said that though the United States effectively regulates shark fishing in its own
waters, “Every nation gets poor marks for [inadequately] monitoring this trade, which is
a global threat.”
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Huffington Post: The 5 Most Dangerous Climate Change Myths
09 August 2012
Reality can be profoundly persuasive. As Americans sweat out one of the hottest
summers on record, we've watched in dismay as drought has withered endless acres of
crops and pushed the federal government to declare "natural" disasters in more than
half the nation's counties.
As temperatures have shot up, so has the number of people accepting the scientific
consensus on global warming. Seventy percent of respondents to a recent University of
Texas poll believe the climate is changing, and about two-thirds of respondents to a
Washington Post poll in July want the United States to be a world leader in addressing
the problem.
Even Richard Muller, a Koch brothers-funded climate-change denier, has declared that
he now agrees with the position long held by the overwhelming majority of scientists
and scientific organizations. Climate change is real, say the experts - and really
dangerous.
The good news is that we may finally be ready to move from debating climate change
to actually doing something meaningful about it. The bad news? We've lost many years
in which progress should have been made to a corporate-funded disinformation
campaign.
Time is running out. Our actions in the next few years will decide whether we can head
off climate change's worst effects -- and that makes it critical not to buy into these five
dangerous myths:
Myth #1: It's all China's fault.
Reality: America must do far more to cut emissions for both moral and practical
reasons. Some U.S. politicians have long used China's growing emissions as an excuse
for inaction. But China has dramatically ramped up solar power use and still lags far
behind the U.S. in per-capita emissions. On a historical, cumulative basis, we are the
world's single largest emitter.
And we're really kidding ourselves when we compare current U.S. pollution levels only to
very recent, high-emissions years. The United States agreed, with the rest of the world, to
use 1990 as the "baseline year" for comparing emissions levels, to avoid cheating on
emissions reduction targets. While it is certainly good that our emissions have fallen
recently, we must not forget that our emissions have increased more than 10 percent
since 1990 -- nor try to change the rules of the game by insisting on a later baseline year
to avoid accountability for our pollution.
China's growing emissions are a problem, of course -- but what's the best way to inspire
change? A huge coastline and drought-vulnerable agriculture give China extra
incentive to fight global warming, but developing countries rightly insist on meaningful
U.S. cuts -- that's the only fair and politically feasible way toward concerted global
action.
Myth #2: Cutting carbon pollution would hurt America's economy.
Reality: Fighting climate change is critical to America's prosperity. Drought is already
wreaking havoc among U.S. farmers and ranchers. In decades to come, climate
change-driven extreme weather and sea-level rise will threaten businesses, key
infrastructure and public health around the country. That's why America's Clean Air
Cities are urging federal action. At the same time, the cost of emissions reduction is
likely much lower than anticipated: Reductions in other dangerous air pollutants over
the past 40 years shows that regulation tends to spur innovation and technological
advancement, reducing the cost of pollution controls.
Myth #3: Natural gas and fracking will save us.
Reality: Natural gas and fracking pose huge threats to our climate. First, there's growing
evidence that natural gas operations leak methane -- an incredibly potent greenhouse
gas -- at very high rates. Because of these leaks, some experts conclude that
uncontrolled shale gas fracking actually has a greater climate-change effect than coal
over the whole production life cycle. Fracking also poses huge additional risks to air,
water, wildlife and communities. Second, fracking is also being used to develop vast
new reserves of shale oil.
Pushing China to adopt this destructive technology, as Richard Muller has advocated,
would be like pouring rocket fuel on a forest fire. We need to transition to truly clean
and renewable energy sources, not open up new fossil fuel deposits with damaging
new drilling techniques.
Myth #4: Polar bears and other endangered animals aren't really that threatened by
climate change.
Reality: A large body of scientific evidence shows that global warming threatens polar
bears, who depend on Arctic sea ice for hunting and all of their essential behaviors. The
thickness and extent of the Arctic's summer sea ice have declined dramatically over
the past 30 years, and this year's levels are currently tracking below record lows.
Based on evidence including declining population numbers, declining cub survival, and
the drowning and starvation of individual bears, the government placed the polar bear
on the threatened species list. Claims that polar bear numbers are actually rising are
false: At least eight of the world's 19 polar bear subpopulations are declining and just
one is demonstrably increasing (due to the curtailment of severe overhunting levels),
according to a 2009 report by the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group. Experts say that
more than two-thirds of the world's polar bears could be gone in less than 40 years.
Many other wildlife species are imperiled by climate change, posing a threat to our
planet's web of life.
Myth #5: A new law is the only way to meaningfully reduce U.S. emissions.
Reality: We already have the Clean Air Act, a potent weapon against greenhouse gas
pollution. The Clean Air Act has reduced harmful air pollution for four decades. Courts
have repeatedly upheld efforts to apply the Clean Air Act to greenhouse gases, but the
Environmental Protection Agency has been too slow and timid in using the law to
control carbon pollution. Full use of all of the Clean Air Act's successful pollutionreduction programs offers our best hope for quick reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions.
To head off the worst effects of climate change, we need to reduce atmospheric
carbon dioxide levels to no more than 350 parts per million. The United States can't
delay any longer. For the sake of our planet and our future, we need to get moving in
the fight against climate change.
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Baltimore Sun: Coal still a major cause of Maryland's toxic air pollution
10 August 2012
Maryland may have some of the nation's strictest limits on power plant pollution, but its
residents are still breathing more toxic emissions from those facilities than in most other
states. The state's reliance on burning coal for electricity appears to be the underlying
reason, it seems.
That's the upshot of a new report by the Natural Resources Defense Council that tallies
the 20 states with the highest levels of hazardous air pollutants from power plants in
2010. Maryland ranks 19th, well down the list from big coal-mining and -burning states
like Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia, but just ahead of tiny Delaware.
The good news somewhat buried in the environmental group's report is that Maryland's
air got dramatically cleaner in 2010, as a tough new state pollution law forced power
plants to sharply curtail their hazardous emissions.
Three years ago, the state had the 5th worst power-plant pollution, according to the
NRDC. But hazardous emissions from them had plummeted 88 percent by 2010, the
group says. No other state cleaned up as much.
The Healthy Air Act, passed in 2006, required that by 2010 Maryland's power plants had
to reduce emissions of hazardous pollutants, including mercury, by 70 to 80 percent
from their levels a decade ago. Jay Apperson, spokesman for the Maryland
Department of the Environment, said that hazardous emissions continued to decline last
year, falling to 92 percent below 2002 levels.
"We’re trending in the right direction, and we’re trending rapidly in the right direction,''
Apperson said. There were just 154 pounds of mercury emitted in 2010, the NRDC report
noted, which ranked 39th among the states.
As of 2010, though, Marylanders were still exposed to nearly 5.6 million pounds of toxic
air pollutants, with more than half coming from power plants.
"The reality is power plants in Maryland burn coal," MDE's Apperson said. Indeed,
roughly half the electricity generated in the state comes from coal.
But Apperson noted that the state's air should get cleaner still, as the Healthy Air Act
requires further emission reductions from power plants by 2014. Highly toxic mercury,
which get into the food chain and can cause neurological and developmental
problems in children, must be cut by 90 percent from what they were a decade ago.
The NRDC put out its "Toxic Power" report Thursday to defend the need for nationwide
limits on power plant pollution similar to Maryland's. The Environmental Protection
Agency finalized new rules requiring 79 percent reduction in mercury and cuts in other
toxic emissions from power plants beginning in 2015. But the regulation has come under
fire from some power companies and their supporters in Congress.
Maryland has a stake in that political tug-of-war because air pollution knows no
boundaries. Emissions from power plants to the west and south drift across the state line.
"Plants from neighboring states will have to clean up as well and will be held to a
standard about as strong as Maryland's," according to Peter Altman, climate and clean
air campaign director for the NRDC.
Local environmentalists, meanwhile, see reason to worry about future improvements in
air quality in the Baltimore area with the sale of the three coal-burning power plants
here. Exelon Corp.announced Thursday it had sold them to a subsidiary of Riverstone
Holdings, a New York private equity firm, as part of its merger deal with Baltimore-based
Constellation Energy.
The Maryland chapter of the Sierra Club, which is campaigning to reduce coal use
because of its air pollution and climate impacts, issued a statement calling on
Riverstone to shutter two of the coal plants, H.A. Wagner and C.P. Crane. While the
third plant sold, Brandon Shores, had emission "scrubbers" installed, they do not have
the most rigorous pollution-control equipment to curb harmfule sulfur dioxide emissions,
the group said.
The Sierra chapter noted that Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties, where the two
plants are located, still get failing grades on air quality from the American Lung
Association.
The release also noted that another subsidiary of Riverstone Holdings has been sued by
environmental groups for allowing mountaintop coal mining to degrade streams in
southwest Virginia.
“We hope Riverstone will prove to be a good neighbor here in Baltimore by caring for
the health and safety of our families," said Christine Hill, conservation representative for
the Maryland Sierra Club. "It’s time to retire these aging, dirty coal plants and begin the
work of cleaning up our air and transitioning Baltimore to a clean, healthy and
prosperous energy economy that’s built to last.”
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Examiner: NOAA's top climate network contradicts agency's own claims of
hottest month ever
10 August 2012
To listen to the United States' primary agency responsible for monitoring the climate,
one would think the end is near as global temperatures continue to rise at an alarming
rate. However, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) own
monitoring network specifically designed to monitor global warming contradicts these
claims.
There is little doubt the United States is experiencing an unseasonably warm summer. In
June NOAA proclaimed the Lower 48 saw record-setting warmth during the first half of
2012. Two days ago climate change alarmists gleefully touted NOAA's latest claim that
July 2012 was the hottest month ever recorded in the contiguous United States, besting
even the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s.
View slideshow: NOAA's own US Climate Reference Network (USCRN) contradict
agency claims of record-setting heat.
NOAA created the US Climate Reference Network (USCRN) to ensure the integrity of
climate data yet it disregards results from the system.
Watts has been instrumental in documenting the ongoing issues with the nation's
climate monitoring stations. The majority of these fail to meet NOAA's own standards for
accuracy or those of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) making the data
they generate highly questionable.
Examples of problematic weather stations providing "hot" data abound.
In Denver, the National Weather Station moved the official weather station 14 miles in
1994 and as a result the Mile High City's climate record has been forever altered. At the
new site high temperatures routinely are considerably hotter than at the old location.
When asked in June about the data from Denver, Deke Arndt, Chief of the Climate
Monitoring Branch at NOAA's National Climactic Data Center (NCDC) said via email
the city's climate record is not valid for historical comparisons.
"It introduces some apples-and-oranges issues of its own," Amdt said.
In Baltimore, the monitoring station at the Maryland Science Center fails to meet
NOAA’s own standards for siting to ensure accurate data. Additionally, as noted by
Meteorologist Justin Berk, Baltimore Weather Examiner, the weather station at Baltimore
Washington International Airport has shown a propensity for generating spurious data
requiring constant corrections.
“It doesn’t matter what your stance is about global warming, you should want
accurate data to support any research,” Berk says.
On the West Coast, NASA documented the problems with Los Angeles climate data
due to a station move. "The move from downtown Los Angeles to USC in 1999 has
caused a major hiccup in our local climate history," climatologist Dr. Bill Patzert of
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said.
NOAA itself recognizes the issue with these and many other stations and in 2002 began
the creation of the US Climate Reference Network (USCRN). These 122 stations
scattered across the United States are meticulously sited and controlled specifically to
"maintain a sustainable high-quality climate observation network." The result is some of
the highest quality climate data possible, free from outside influences and corruption.
How big of a difference would it make if NOAA used the high-quality USCRN data
versus data from stations with major issues? Quite a lot it turns out.
Using the older, known faulty climate network, NOAA claims that the Lower 48 saw an
average temperature of 77.6 degrees in July. This reported measurement was an eyepopping 3.3 degrees above the 20th century average making it not only the hottest
July on record but also the hottest month ever recorded in the contiguous U.S.
In stark contrast, using NOAA's own premier monitoring network, Watts' analysis shows
that the claim is far off base from reality.
USCRN data reveals a monthly mean temperature for July 2012 of 75.5 degrees. Hot?
Yes. Record setting? Hardly.
Oddly enough, NOAA disregards the USCRN data - the most accurate available - when
issuing a claim such as they did in recent days saying July 2012 was the "hottest month
on record for contiguous United States." Instead the agency uses the faulty data from
Denver, Baltimore, Los Angeles and hundreds of other problematic stations.
This begs the question: Why does NOAA use data known to be inaccurate versus data
from the newer, highly accurate network specifically created to monitor the climate?
Watts postulates on his blog, "NOAA never mentions this new pristine USCRN network in
any press releases on climate records or trends, nor do they calculate and display a
CONUS value for it. Now we know why. The new “pristine” data it produces is just way
too cool for them."
Given the evidence presented, Watts clearly has a valid point.
NOAA’s USCRN website explains that current systems are “inadequate and
deteriorating.” The agency touts the need for the data from the USCRN saying that
without it, “We do not have, in fact, an observing network capable of ensuring longterm climate records free of time-dependent biases.”
If the data NOAA uses is faulty, then any conclusions reached from that data should be
viewed with a skeptical eye and claims of the ‘hottest month on record’ and warnings
about disastrous global warming are most likely overcooked.
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Phys.org: Climate impacts Lake Tahoe clarity and health
10 August 2012
Climate impacts Lake Tahoe clarity and health Enlarge Natural forces and human
actions have affected the lakes clarity, physics, chemistry and biology since 1968, when
UC Davis first began continuous monitoring of Lake Tahoe. (Phys.org) -- Despite an
extreme weather year, overall clarity at Lake Tahoe improved in 2011. Yet underlying
trends portray a more complex picture of the Lake Tahoe ecosystem, according to the
annual “Tahoe: State of the Lake Report 2012,” released today by the Tahoe
Environmental Research Center at the University of California, Davis. Ads by Google
Siemens Official Website - Visit Siemens for new innovations in products, services &
solutions. - usa.siemens.com The data reveal how natural forces and human actions
have affected the lake’s clarity, physics, chemistry and biology since 1968, when UC
Davis first began continuous monitoring of Lake Tahoe. While the clarity of Lake Tahoe’s
famed blue waters has long been the most visible and widely used indication of the
lake’s health, a range of environmental and water quality factors is at play. Included in
the report are data related to clarity, algae, invasive species, and the effects of climate
change on precipitation, lake temperature and density stratification. In several ways,
2011 was an unusual year for Lake Tahoe, the report says. Weather was extreme: The
2010-11 winter was one of the coldest and wettest on record. More precipitation than
usual came down as snow, and the spring snowmelt came relatively late. Despite the
cold winter and a cool July, the annual average surface water temperatures rose by
0.6 F. ”This last year has defied conventional wisdom in many ways,” said Geoffrey
Schladow, director of the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center. “In the past,
very wet years have led to decreases in lake clarity, whereas we are now seeing the
opposite. This only reinforces the fact that the underlying, driving forces are themselves
starting to change.” Stability, defined as the energy needed for mixing layers of lake
water, was calculated for the first time this year. Researchers found that, during the past
43 years, the length of time a summerlike stratification — where layers of water form
with different temperatures — persists has increased by almost 20 days, a likely
outcome of climate change, according to the report. Researchers fear that if this trend
continues, oxygen replenishment to the bottom of the lake will become less frequent.
Meanwhile, annual average lake clarity significantly improved over 2010, increasing by
4.5 feet. (Clarity data for 2011 was released in February 2012 and repeated in this
report.) Year-to-year fluctuations are normal, which is why TERC researchers note that
long-term trends are a better indication of lake health. Ads by Google EHR Software
Demo - Watch the EHR Demo Online Now Meaningful Use with Ease of Use!
AdvancedMD.com/Elec-Health-Record The 2011 winter clarity level of 84.9 feet was in
keeping with a decade-long trend of actual improvement. The report speculates that
the improved winter clarity of 11.9 feet over 2010 may be due to recent efforts to
reduce urban stormwater flows to the lake, though researchers emphasize the need for
a monitoring program to substantiate that idea. Meanwhile, summer clarity of 51.5 feet
in 2011 was the second worst on record. A potential culprit to reduced summer clarity is
a microscopic algae cell called Cyclotella. The tiny cells have grown exponentially in
the past five years, scattering light and reducing clarity. Research shows that times of
the highest concentrations of Cyclotella coincide with the lowest summer clarity levels.
Clarity is measured by the depth at which a 10-inch, white Secchi disk remains visible
when lowered beneath the water’s surface. The measurements have been taken since
1968, when the Secchi disk could be seen down to 102.4 feet. Newly included this year
is a summary of recent, ongoing research: • The study said that the 2007 Angora Fire,
which burned 3,100 acres, or 9 percent of the Upper Truckee River drainage, has had
almost no effect on lake water quality
• An experiment using rubber mats on a half-acre site in the southeast portion of Lake
Tahoe to control the spread of Asian clams appears to be effective. In June 2010,
researchers placed mats over Asian clam infestations to smother them. When the
barriers were removed four months later, more than 98 percent of the clams had been
killed. A year later, clam density was still reduced by more than 90 percent, the report
said. The technique is currently being modified to control Asian clams in Emerald Bay. •
Researchers also observed the effects of pathogens, insects and mortality on forest
health and found that trees in the upper montane (dominated by red fir and western
white pine) elevations experienced the highest levels of mortality. The lowest levels of
tree death were in subalpine forests. The most common forms of forest pests are bark
beetles and dwarf mistletoes. The exotic and invasive pathogen Cronartium ribicola,
which causes white pine blister rust, also threatens forest health. The annual State of the
Lake report informs non-scientists about the most important factors affecting lake
health and helps influence decisions about ecosystem restoration and management
within the Lake Tahoe Basin. ”Lake Tahoe can serve as an example to many other
places in the nation,” Schladow said. “Science is being used to guide management of
this precious resource, to inform honest debate on the restoration challenges, and to
quantify the impact of the investments that have been made to date.” The 2012 State
of the Lake was funded by UC Davis, and the California Tahoe Conservancy.
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Canada
Globe and Mail: The coming oil boom, and resulting environmental battle
09 August 2012
Forget America’s fiscal cliff, Europe’s currency troubles or the emerging-markets
slowdown. The most important story in the global economy today may well be some
good news that isn’t yet making as many headlines – the coming surge in oil production
around the world.
Until very recently, our collective assumption was that oil was running out. That was
partly a matter of what seemed like geological common sense. It took millions of years
for the Earth to crush plankton into fossil fuels; it is logical to think that it would take
millions of years to create more. The rise of the emerging markets, with their energyhungry billions, was a further reason it seemed obvious that we would have less oil and
gas in 2020 than we do today.
Obvious – but wrong. Thanks in part to technologies such as horizontal drilling and
hydraulic fracking, we are entering a new age of abundant oil. As the energy expert
Leonardo Maugeri contends in a recent report published by the Belfer Center at the
John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, “contrary to what most people
believe, oil supply capacity is growing worldwide at such an unprecedented level that
it might outpace consumption.”
Mr. Maugeri, a research fellow at the Belfer Center and a former oil industry executive,
bases that assertion on a field-by-field analysis of most of the major oil exploration and
development projects in the world. He concludes that “by 2020, the world’s oil
production capacity could be more than 110 million barrels per day, an increase of
almost 20 per cent.” Four countries will lead the coming oil boom: Iraq, the United
States, Canada and Brazil.
Much of the “new” oil is coming on stream thanks to a technology revolution that has
put hard-to-extract deposits within reach: Canada’s oil sands, U.S. shale oil, Brazil’s
presalt oil.
“The extraction technologies are not new,” Mr. Maugeri explains in the report, “but the
combination of technologies used to exploit shale and tight oils has evolved. The
technology can also be used to reopen and recover more oil from conventional,
established oil fields.”
Mr. Maugeri thinks the tipping point will be 2015. Until then, the oil market will be “highly
volatile” and “prone to extreme movements in opposite directions.” But after 2015, Mr.
Maugeri predicts a “glut of oil,” which could lead to a fall, or even a “collapse,” in
prices.
At a time when the global meme is of America’s inevitable economic decline, the
surge in oil supply capacity is an important contrarian indicator. Mr. Maugeri calculates
that the United States “could conceivably produce up to 65 per cent of its oil
consumption needs domestically.” That national energy boom is already providing a
powerful economic stimulus in some parts of the country – just look at North Dakota.
Crucially, at a time when one of the biggest social and political problems in the U.S. is
the disappearance of well-paid, blue-collar work, particularly for men, oil patch jobs fill
that void.
Equally significant is the impact of oil on the most important human problem of our
times: the environment. The sources of oil that will fuel the coming boom are harder to
reach than the supplies of the 20th century, and the technologies required to extract
them are more invasive. That will be one fault line in what is sure to be the escalating
battle between environmentalists and the oil industry.
The implications for the climate change debate are even more fraught. Until now, the
arithmetic of oil supply and the agenda of environmentalists conveniently dovetailed.
Since we were running out of oil anyway, environmentally motivated efforts to limit fossil
fuel consumption and increase our use of renewable energy boasted the additional
virtue of being inevitable. In an age of abundant oil, those economically utilitarian
arguments lose their power.
For environmentalists, and for the liberal political parties with which they are usually
aligned, that poses a serious challenge. The temptation will be to oppose new oil
production projects indiscriminately. That instinct could be politically dangerous.
Political progress in combatting climate change has been slow, but the battle for hearts
and minds, especially of the younger generation, is being won. That political capital
can be lost in an instant if the environmental movement allows itself to be equated with
opposition to one of the lone sources of growth – and of good blue-collar jobs – at a
time of global economic stagnation.
A final conclusion to draw from the next oil revolution is a little more existential. This is yet
another reminder that what both common sense and expert consensus assure us to be
true very often isn’t. It was obvious that efficient markets worked and financial
deregulation would stimulate economic growth, until the financial crisis and the
subsequent international economic recession. It was equally apparent that we were
running out of oil – until we weren’t.
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Montreal Gazette: Pipeline protests spur companies to consider shipping
oilsands crude by rail. 1,400 words, with 420 in optional trims
10 August 2012
OTTAWA — As battles rage over the Northern Gateway and Keystone XL pipelines,
governments and energy companies are eyeing other options for transporting oilsands
crude to foreign markets, including by rail, a pipeline through the Northwest Territories
and shipping more oil to Eastern Canada instead.
The political, economic and environmental stakes are enormous. Billions of dollars of
investment are on the line but, as the Northern Gateway saga has shown, there are
also plenty of potential pitfalls for governments and project proponents.
British Columbia’s demands for supporting the Enbridge Northern Gateway and Kinder
Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline proposals — including receiving its “fair share” of the
economic benefits from Alberta and Ottawa — are sparking uncertainty over the future
of the projects, which would ship oilsands crude from northern Alberta to the West
Coast.
In the U.S., the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oilsands crude from northern
Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast, has also turned into a political football.
President Barack Obama rejected TransCanada’s original Keystone XL permit
application in January due to concerns about what pipeline construction and potential
for spills could do to ecologically sensitive areas in Nebraska. The company has since
reapplied for a presidential permit to reroute the controversial pipeline around some of
the environmentally sensitive areas in Nebraska, with a decision expected by early
2013.
The prolonged pipeline disputes in B.C. and south of the border have governments and
petroleum producers considering other options for getting oilsands crude to foreign
markets like Asia, including alternative pipeline routes, moving more oil east (and then
onto the U.S.) and shipping bitumen on the rails.
Ken Chapman, executive director of the Oil Sands Developers Group, an industry lobby
organization, said the ongoing battles over the Northern Gateway and planned
expansion to the Trans Mountain pipeline mean “every option” must be looked at from
an economic, environmental and First Nations perspective.
“None of these are easy but all of them are worth investigation,” Chapman said. “They
(oilsands developers) are always looking at options. Rail is becoming more and more of
an attractive option.”
However, producers can’t move nearly as much product by train, he said, which
means rail probably must be considered a supplement — not a complete alternative —
to shipping oilsands crude by pipelines.
A recent report from Standard & Poor’s found a barrel of diluted bitumen is transported
at a cost of $7 by pipeline, compared to $6 to $8 by rail.
The report also said rail has the potential to move crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast from
Alberta in about one-fifth the time of pipelines, with the capital cost to expand rail
infrastructure about one-tenth that of the cost of adding incremental pipeline
capacity.
Amid the pipeline problems, Canadian National Railway, in response to customer
demand, is moving crude oil (including pure bitumen) from Western Canada to markets
across the country and the United States, including the U.S. Gulf Coast, and California.
There are currently no shipments going to Canada’s West Coast ports for export partly
due to a lack of infrastructure to unload crude oil from rail cars onto ships, the company
said.
In 2011, CN moved approximately 5,000 cars of crude oil (there are between 550 and
680 barrels of oil per rail car, depending on type of product and car) and the company
expects to transport more than 30,000 carloads of crude oil in 2012 to various North
American markets, said company spokesman Mark Hallman.
Canadian Pacific Railway’s crude oil volumes are also rapidly increasing.
The company expected to grow its crude-by-rail market from 13,000 carloads in 2011 to
70,000 carloads by 2014 but, based on growing demand, now expects to reach that
level a year earlier in 2013, including with shipments to northeastern U.S. and the Gulf
Coast.
The company currently isn’t shipping any oilsands crude to the West Coast but it’s being
explored, said CP spokesman Ed Greenberg.
“Movements of crude oil to the West Coast for export is something that continues to be
developed. We have the infrastructure in place to respond to energy producers, but
this is something the producers are driving so they will ultimately decide,” Greenberg
said.
Northwest Territories Premier Bob McLeod mused last week the Alberta government
should — given the problems with pipeline proposals in B.C. — consider a northern
pipeline route that would transport landlocked oilsands crude up through the N.W.T.
and to the Beaufort Sea, where it could be transported to Asia.
However, the prospect of an oilsands pipeline running through the N.W.T. to the Arctic is
already rankling aboriginal groups who battled for years to get a seat at the table and
fair stake in the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline project that would run
from the Beaufort Sea, through the Northwest Territories, and into Alberta.
Fred Carmichael, chairman of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, said a northern oil route
would face huge backlash from environmentalists and aboriginal groups.
“They think there’s a battle with the Gateway pipe?” Carmichael told Postmedia News
recently. “I tell you, there’d be one big battle here.”
Jack Mintz, director of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, said the
Northern Gateway and Trans Mountain lines could lead to “significant sales to Asia”
because the transportation costs of shipping the crude would be much more
competitive.
“But if those get blocked, then it’s hard to see what other options right now there would
be in terms of market diversification, like getting oil to Asia,” Mintz said.
Piping oilsands crude north through the N.W.T. is “a nice idea” but likely isn’t a viable
option because winter would also pose a number of problems, including tankers
getting through northern shipping lanes, he argued.
Transporting the product through an eastern pipeline to Central Canada and the
Atlantic Provinces wouldn’t lead to true market diversification, he said, because most of
the product would likely end up in the U.S.
Shipping bitumen by rail to B.C. won’t resolve a number of the lingering environmental
concerns because there will still be worries about tankers spilling oil off the West Coast,
he added.
“It won’t deal with the political disagreement,” he said.
The Harper government continues to trumpet the importance of diversifying Canada’s
energy export markets beyond the United States and says new pipeline projects such as
the Northern Gateway are critical for getting Canadian petroleum to Asia.
But Mintz said the federal government will likely be hesitant to push pipeline projects on
British Columbians — who, polls show, are opposed to the Northern Gateway and Trans
Mountain lines — because the Conservatives will need the province’s support come the
next federal election.
“You can have a number of seats in B.C. that could be affected, so what happens in
terms of the actual politics in the end will be interesting,” he added.
David Collyer, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said his
group is focused on trying to get West Coast market access through the proposed
Northern Gateway project and Trans Mountain expansion.
However, he said rail shipments of crude to the Gulf Coast, proposals to ship bitumen by
rail to the West Coast and the possibility of an eastern pipeline system to get more
Western Canadian crude to Central and Eastern Canada are all options either being
pursued or examined.
“What we’re seeing is that the market can be quite creative in terms of looking at other
potential opportunities,” Collyer said.
Pipelines to the West Coast remain the safest and most economical way to transport
large amounts of crude, he said.
“Rail will certainly potentially play a role but it’s difficult to see it at the scale
comparable to what pipelines can provide,” he said.
Petroleum producers also “have to be realistic” about getting oilsands product to Asia
via a northern pipeline through the Northwest Territories, he said, noting the Gateway
and Trans Mountain lines are well advanced in design and commercial support
compared to running a pipeline through the N.W.T.
Environmental groups say no new pipelines or alternatives for shipping oilsands crude
should even be considered until the environmental consequences of developing the
resource — including greenhouse gas emissions and cumulative impacts on land — are
more effectively addressed.
“We’re seeing a lot of opposition to these various transportation options for oilsands
crude,” said Jennifer Grant, director of the oilsands program at the Pembina Institute,
an Alberta-based environmental think-tank.
“It’s not just about making pipelines safer or looking at the various pros and cons of
each option, it’s about addressing the upstream issues that have been receiving
actually less attention as the spotlight has shifted to pipelines.”
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Globe and Mail: Businesses near national parks may face fees
10 August 2012
Businesses located near national parks, historic sites and canals run by Parks Canada
could be asked to pay fees to help offset upkeep and operating costs.
Environment Minister Peter Kent openly talked about the potential fees this week, while
also suggesting that a plan to cut the operating hours of those sites – in some cases by
half – could be reversed or scaled back.
Mr. Kent made the comments after meeting with municipal leaders from 13
communities along Ontario’s historic Rideau Canal system.
“There are quite a few beneficiaries along the Rideau Canal system, as in our national
parks, who in this context pay absolutely nothing for the privilege of operating those
businesses,” Mr. Kent said.
“Whereas in the national parks there are franchise fees to be paid by those who benefit
economically.”
One of those attending Tuesday’s meeting with Mr. Kent was Doug Struthers, the mayor
of Merrickville-Wolford, Ont. Mr. Struthers said the minister never spoke at the gathering
about the possibility of charging fees to commercial operators on the canal. And he
said such a move could pit local businesses against each other.
“It would be an interesting conversation, I’m sure,” he said. “Nobody likes to have a fee
to be in business.”
The meeting focused on the government’s current plan to cut back the canal’s hours
of operation, and its potentially devastating impact on local businesses. Mr. Kent
acknowledged that he heard the concern loud and clear.
“The initial inclination was to reduce operating hours on the shoulder periods, in the
early spring and the late fall,” Mr. Kent said.
“The mayors have been very effective … in communicating that there would be
significant impact economically.”
No decisions have been made, however, and Mr. Kent was merely being frank about
his discussions with communities and businesses that would be affected by any
changes, said spokesman Adam Sweet.
The plan to trim operating hours is still scheduled to go ahead in the spring, Mr. Sweet
added.
A number of measures are also being considered to boost revenues and cut the cost of
running the parks and other national tourist attractions.
While he didn’t specify who might be asked to pay fees, Mr. Kent suggested to
reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday that businesses operating in proximity to the Parks
Canada canal systems in Ontario and Quebec may have an unfair advantage over
those within federal jurisdiction.
“We do have to do some out-of-the-box thinking,” he said. “We can’t treat the canals
as a free ride for some of those who do benefit significantly.”
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which represents many businesses
that could be affected by the fees, pointed out that all firms currently pay licence fees
to operate, whether it’s to the federal government, municipalities or regulating bodies.
The minister’s comments also left union and municipal leaders scratching their heads,
and urging the government to talk with them in advance of any proposed changes.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents Parks Canada employees,
implored the minister to think twice about measures that would hurt the economies of
communities that derive much of their livelihoods from the parks system.
“We do not support the idea of charging businesses additional fees,” said Chris
Aylward, the union’s national executive vice president. “Nor do we believe that cutting
these jobs, and hours for workers in these communities, makes any sense.”
Mr. Aylward said PSAC has been offering for months to speak with the minister or his
staff about their ideas for trimming costs.
Parks Canada operates a number of federally protected parks, marine conservation
areas and dozens of historic sites across the country.
The agency adopted several cost-saving measures in the wake of the federal budget in
March. However, a decision to cut operating hours was delayed for one year after
businesses complained about how they would be impacted.
Cuts to parks programs, and the resulting loss of jobs, have already hurt communities
that depend on the tourist dollars that the national sites attract, said John Borrowman,
the mayor of Canmore, Alta., which lies directly southeast of Banff National Park.
“A lot of our residents actually own and operate businesses within the park,” Mr.
Borrowman said. “The significant cut in funding to Parks Canada has already had a
negative impact to the town of Canmore.”
He predicted that a shortening of the operating season for the park would only make
matters worse in the long run.
As for the possibility of fees being levied against businesses in close proximity to the
national parks, Mr. Borrowman – who also operates a pottery studio – was succinct.
“It doesn’t work for me, and I know it won’t work for any of my fellow business people in
Canmore.”
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Globe and Mail: Ottawa still has a role to play in environmental regulation
09 August 2012
In this year’s federal budget, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government outlined a
plan to streamline federal and provincial environmental regulations, to reduce overlap
and delays in resource development. It’s a sensible premise, but news this week that
Ottawa plans to effectively defer to Alberta on greenhouse-gas rules - allowing it to
place fewer limits on carbon emissions from oil-sands development than might
otherwise be the case - raises concerns about what it will lead to.
The decision is based on the concept of “equivalency,” which would allow Alberta and
the other provinces to swap federal regulations for their own, so long as they seek to
achieve federal emission-reduction targets.
At first blush, this seems reasonable. The objective, after all, is to get Canada to its goal
of cutting overall greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels; under the
Copenhagen Accord, Canada is committed to doing that by 2020. Alberta’s oil patch
wants to meet reduction targets in a way that won’t kill jobs and competitiveness.
Similarly, Nova Scotia wants flexibility to keep some of its coal-fired generators running
longer, as it boosts imports of cleaner hydroelectric power.
The problem is that oil-sands production is exploding. Even as the industry becomes
cleaner, the emissions-reduction challenge grows tougher.
Environment Minister Peter Kent acknowledged this week that GHG emissions from the
oil sands are on pace to more than double from 2005 levels, without intervention. The
federal government can ill afford to remove itself from a discussion of what that
intervention looks like.
In some regards, such as financial markets, Ottawa favours strong national regulation –
continuing to work toward a single national securities regulator, and arguing that the
current system of 13 provincial and territorial regulators is costly and confusing. Yet
when it comes to the environment, it seems comfortable with the notion of 13 different
regulatory regimes.
That goes beyond streamlining, and into something more akin to provincial autonomy
in an area where it has not hitherto existed, with the risk of a patchwork system that
does not offer consistent protection. Surely there is room for give-and-take, as the
federal government works with the provinces to make environmental scrutiny more
efficient.
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ROWA MEDIA UPDATE
THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS
Monday, August 13, 2012
United Arab Emirates
Abu Dhabi project meets global carbon norms
An Abu Dhabi energy project has become the first UAE-based company to be
registered as meeting global Verified Carbon Standard criteria, receiving Carbon
Credits to help fund its programme.
Emirates CMS Power Company (ECPC), a combined cycle power and desalination
plant operating in Al Taweelah wholly-owned by the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity
Authority, has received 36,436 VCUs to date in certificates - currently trading at over $13
each - to sell on the open market.
VCS issues credits relating to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction achieved
by the project. These credits – known as Verified Carbon Units or VCUs – may then be
sold on the carbon market to companies who wish to reduce their carbon footprint.
The project recovers heat to generate low-pressure steam using heat re-claimer coils to
achieve significant GHG emissions reduction.
The power plant includes gas turbines, heat recovery steam generators and steam
turbines, with water production achieved from four distillers fired by waste heat from the
gas turbines. Supplemental gas firing within the plant also allows up to 100 per cent of
water production capacity to be achieved while operating at power production levels
as low as 30 per cent.
Benefits of implementing the project have been reduced thermal discharge into the
atmosphere, efficient use of waste heat for steam generation and desalination, and a
reduction in CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion. The increase in plant efficiency is
also helping to reduce the environmental footprint of power and water production.
The project will also contribute to sustainable development in Abu Dhabi through
conserving fossil fuel and the introduction of new practices and technology.
While the reduced combustion of fossil fuels will lower local air pollution levels, which is
expected to improve the area’s living conditions, the project is also expected to
encourage other organisations to implement similar projects at their facilities to reduce
their own consumption of natural resources and environmental footprint.
David Antonioli, chief executive officer of the US-based VCS Association, said: “Our job
is to determine project eligibility and ensure the project quantifies greenhouse gas
emission reductions or removals according to a methodology that has been developed
under VCS or another approved GHG programme.
“Within the VCS Project Database, every VCU can be tracked from issuance to
retirement, allowing buyers to ensure every credit is real, additional, permanent,
independently verified, uniquely numbered and fully traceable online.”
Charles Stephenson, director of Dubai-based sustainable investment group, AGT, said:
“One of the most common questions our team of consultants based in the UAE are
asked – particularly by businesses looking to retire Carbon Credits as part of their CSR
programmes - is 'which projects in the UAE benefit from this type of funding?' and up
until now there haven't been any, so this development is a big deal for our consultants.
“Hopefully the award will spur on many more GHG reduction projects in the UAE and
across the region and we can keep the momentum going.”
http://www.tradearabia.com/news/ENV_221737.html
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United Arab Emirates
MD and CEO of DEWA inspects construction works at new green building in Al
Quoz
WAM Dubai, Aug 12th, 2012 (WAM) -- Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, CEO and MD, Dubai
Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), inspected the construction works on the new
green building in Al Quoz.
This is Dubai's first government building built according to the highest green building
standards and is dedicated for the water and civil division at DEWA.
During his visit, Al Tayer was accompanied by Abdullah Obaidullah, Executive Vice
President, Water and Civil Division, at DEWA, and Mohammed Al Shamsi, Senior
Manger, Civil Engineering Projects.
"In line with the Green Economy for Sustainable Development initiative announced by
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime
Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, we have constructed this
building in accordance with the highest green building standards and features in the
Emirate," said Al Tayer. "This step is part of DEWA's commitment towards sustainability
and conserving natural resources, and it is also a part of Dubai's strategic plan." "The
new building will be operated through the building management program, which can
manage HVAC units in the facility in a way that allows electricity savings and
automated control operations. The building also follows the standards of saving
electricity and water, and has the ability to generate 600kW of electricity using solar
power. The facility is also equipped with high efficiency insulatives and smart building
systems. It also uses LED technology in lighting, which allows saving 50% of the energy
used in order to protect environment as part of our commitment and responsibility
towards society." The building was constructed on a location that enables an excellent
use of existing infrastructure. It is situated near a metro station and enjoys high
connectivity, and offers bicycle parking places enough for half of the building users,
and 5% of its parking places are designated for environmentally-friendly vehicles. In
addition, the building's sewage water is recycled, and the ratio of water saving reaches
45%. The building will be dedicated for the Water and Civil division, which consists of the
departments of Water Operation, Maintenance, Projects, and Civil Engineering, in
addition to a new center to control water networks (SCADA).
Located on Sheikh Zayed road, the building has a total space of around 340,000 square
feet, and consists of a basement, ground floor, and two floors. It also features a state-ofthe-art water testing laboratory and a parking lot for 350 vehicles.
http://www.wam.ae/servlet/Satellite?c=WamLocEnews&cid=1290000379493&pagena
me=WAM%2FWAM_E_Layout&parent=Query&parentid=1135099399852
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Oman
Bank Muscat to announce the beneficiaries of ‘Green Sports’
MUSCAT — The ‘Green Sports’ initiative, launched by bank muscat, will announce the
names of this year’s beneficiaries, shortly.
The applications were screened by a special committee; a total of 10 clubs/teams will
benefit from this programme every year. The committee recently visited the sports
clubs/teams that had applied. The visits covered several governorates across Oman.
The purpose of the visit was to inspect and assess the keenness of these clubs to have
their playing fields laid out and gather pertinent information that would assist in the
selection process.
The bank's CSR initiative, ‘Green Sports’, in partnership with the Ministry of Sports, is
aimed at developing Oman as a sporting nation. bank muscat recognises that local
clubs wield immense influence on neighbourhood communities, especially youth; clubs
with modern infrastructure facilities can help raise sporting heroes for the country.
Under this initiative 10 sports clubs/teams every year, spread across Oman, that meet
the criteria for selection will have their fields laid out with grass. This initiative will span
over a period of 5 years thus benefiting 50 teams in the Sultanate. The criteria for
eligibility are: sports clubs/teams should have been in existence for three years with a
minimum membership of 300 youths from the local community; must show proof of legal
ownership of the land; provide income statements for the team and activities for 2011;
must show a variety of on-going sports activities, including sporting awards won over
the last 5 years; must demonstrate ability to financially maintain and operate the green
playing field for a period of five years; bank muscat will lay turf grass and plant trees,
hand over the fields to beneficiary clubs/teams; teams who were not eligible this year
may apply next year.
A senior official said: “The ‘Green Sports’ initiative reiterates the bank’s support to
Oman’s youth who represent the future of Oman. True to its commitment to supporting
varied sporting activities in the country, bank muscat remains at the forefront in offering
the required encouragement and support to youth.”
‘Green Sports’ initiative was launched at the bank’s head office on May 7, 2012 in the
presence of Shaikh Saad bin Mohammed al Mardouf al Saadi, Minister of Sports, Shaikh
Khalid bin Mustahail al Mashani, Chairman of bank muscat, Sulaiman bin Mohamed al
Yahyai, Vice-Chairman, AbdulRazak Ali Issa, Chief Executive, dignitaries, senior
government and private sector officials.
The ‘Green Sports’ initiative is in line with the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), which has included Green Sports in its current 10-year programme. Sporting
activities involving environmental commitment are now playing an increasingly
important role at the global level in focusing recognition on protecting our planet.
As the leading bank in the Sultanate, bank muscat is at the forefront to contribute to
society and thereby set a fine example to the banking community and the corporate
on the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
bank muscat was the first Omani bank to establish a full-fledged CSR department. It
reflects the bank’s concern and care for various segments of society.
The bank is of the view that its social responsibility is not merely participation in
charitable works and organisation of voluntary campaigns, but responsibility towards
all-round development of society.
http://main.omanobserver.om/node/106025
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Bahrain
Green push by property specialist
MANAMA: Real estate specialist Cluttons has announced its move towards achieving a
greener office space within a year.
Cluttons has already introduced electronic management accounts to achieve a
paperless working environment which has replaced hard copy versions.
The green move has significantly streamlined client reporting process, it said, besides
reducing use of limited resources.
"We are proud of the steps that the office is taking collectively to move towards a more
sustainable path," said country head Harry Goodson-Wickes.
"We are gratified that certain measures can also improve the firm's commitment to
client responsiveness and reporting," he added.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=335841
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Jordan
Environmentalists irate after Abdali developer permitted to remove over 500
trees
AMMAN — A group of environmental societies on Sunday urged the government to
withdraw its approval of a request by an investment company to uproot hundreds of
trees from central Amman.
The Abdali development project, which is building towers and commercial boulevards
in Abdali in central Amman, has requested permission to remove nearly 750 trees.
A senior official at the Ministry of Agriculture, who preferred to remain unnamed, said
that the ministry had refused the company's request to remove the trees and proposed
altering the blueprints instead, but was overruled by a Cabinet decision.
"We were surprised and furious when the Cabinet granted the company approval to
cut down the trees," the official told The Jordan Times.
The Cabinet approved uprooting 541 trees instead of 750 and ordered the company to
plant five trees in return for every uprooted one, the official noted, adding that 2,705
trees will be planted on a plot of land in Mafraq.
But the Jordan Environment Societies Union said replacing the trees was not an
acceptable compromise.
"One tree represents an integrated and independent ecosystem. It is not only a tree
which can be replaced by another, it is old and must be protected," the union’s
spokesperson, Omar Shoshan, highlighted, pointing out that some of the trees which will
be uprooted are between 80 and 90 years old.
Shoshan stressed that the trees must be protected because Amman "is turning into a
block of cement" and lacks green spaces.
"We urge the government to reconsider its decision and withdraw the approval,”
Shoshan said. “We will not be silent."
A public campaign will be organized to stop the removal of trees from Abdali, he
added.
The Jordan Environment Societies Union, which was formed recently and has not yet
been officially launched, comprises Jordan's main environmental societies, including
the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, the Jordan Environment Society, the
Jordan Green Building Council, the Society of Energy Saving and Sustainable
Environment, the Jordanian Society for Desertification Control and Badia Development,
the Royal Botanic Garden and the Royal Marine Conservation Society, among others.
http://jordantimes.com/environmentalists-irate-after-abdali-developer-permitted-toremove-over-500-trees
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS FROM THE
UN DAILY NEWS
13 August 2012
UN News Centre: In Republic of Korea, Ban launches new initiative to protect
oceans
12 August 2012
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today launched a new initiative to protect the oceans
and the people whose livelihoods depend on it, and called on countries to work
together to achieve a more sustainable management of this precious resource and
address the threats it is currently facing.
“The seas and oceans host some of the most vulnerable and important ecosystems on
Earth, but the diversity of life they host is under ever-increasing strain,” Mr. Ban said at an
event in the city of Yeosu in the Republic of Korea (ROK), to commemorate the 30th
anniversary of the opening for signature of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The Convention, also known as the “constitution of the oceans,” governs all aspects of
ocean space, from delimitation of maritime boundaries, environmental regulations,
scientific research, commerce and the settlement of international disputes involving
marine issues. It was first opened for signature in 1982 and entered into force in 1994;
there are 162 parties to it – 161 States and the European Union.
Mr. Ban praised the achievements of the Convention in helping countries establish a
legal framework to guide the management of the oceans, the settlement of disputes,
and the administration of the international seabed.
“Among its principles, the Law of the Sea recognizes that all ocean issues are related and
that they need to be addressed as a whole,” Mr. Ban said, adding that this is in line with
the development framework put forward at the UN Conference on Sustainable
Development (Rio+20) in June in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
However, Mr. Ban also emphasized the need to address multiple issues that threaten the
marine environment. To do this, he announced the launch of the Oceans Compact,
which will seek to support and strengthen the implementation of the Law of the Sea.
“What we need is to create new momentum for ocean sustainability,” Mr. Ban said. “The
Oceans Compact sets out a strategic vision for the UN System to deliver more coherently
and effectively on its oceans-related mandates, consistent with the Rio+20 outcome.”
The Compact, Mr. Ban added, will provide a platform to help countries protect the
ocean's natural resources, restore their full food production to help people's whose
livelihoods depend on the sea, and increase awareness and knowledge about the
management of the oceans.
To achieve the objectives of the Compact, Mr. Ban proposed a results-oriented Action
Plan along with the creation of an Ocean Advisory Group made up of high-level
policymakers, scientists and experts, as well as representatives of the private sector and
civil society.
During his visit, Mr. Ban also spoke to young people at the UN Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) youth forum, where he asked participants to practice
solidarity among generations and lead the way in implementing sustainable measures in
all aspects of society.
“From public squares to cyberspace, youth are a transformative force; you are creative,
resourceful and enthusiastic agents of change,” Mr. Ban said. “A sustainable future can
be ours. The work starts now, and it starts with you. This is a generational imperative… a
generational opportunity… that your generation must seize.”
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UN news center: Japanese nuclear plant ‘remarkably undamaged’ in earthquake
– UN atomic agency
10 August 2012
The nuclear plant closest to the epicentre of the March 2011 earthquake that struck
Japan, resulting in a devastating tsunami and radiation leakage at another facility, was
“remarkably undamaged,” according to a report delivered today by the United Nations
nuclear watchdog.
“The structural elements of the NPS were remarkably undamaged given the magnitude
of ground motion experienced and the duration and size of this great earthquake,”
according to the draft report of an expert team of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), following its two-week mission to the Onagawa Nuclear Power Station.
The Onagawa Nuclear Power Station is 120 kilometres north of the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant that was severely damaged during the seismic event, when the
building housing the plant exploded and three of its nuclear reactors suffered a
meltdown in what was reported to be the worst nuclear accident since the 1986
Chernobyl disaster. A year later, a 19-kilometre exclusion zone still surrounds the disaster
site.
The IAEA mission's objective was to observe how safety structures, systems and
components responded to the heavy shaking, which was not possible to study at
Fukushima Daiichi because of the damage.
Onagawa, facing the Pacific Ocean on Japan's north-east coast, experienced very high
levels of ground shaking – among the strongest of any plant affected by the earthquake
– and some flooding from the tsunami that followed, but was able to shut down safely,
the IAEA said in a news release.
Findings from the visual investigation will be added to an IAEA database being compiled
by its International Seismic Safety Centre (ISSC), as part of the IAEA's Action Plan on
Nuclear Safety, endorsed by the Agency's Member States following the Fukushima
Daiichi event.
“Information in the data base will allow IAEA member states to measure the performance
of their nuclear power plants in the face of external hazards,” the mission’s leader and
head of the ISSC, Sujit Samaddar, said, adding that the Centre also sought data from
Member States other than Japan.
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UN news Centre: UN launches sustainable development network to help find
solutions to global problems
09 August 2012
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today launched a new independent
global network of research centres, universities and technical institutions to help find
solutions for some of the world’s most pressing environmental, social and economic
problems.
The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) will work with stakeholders
including business, civil society, UN agencies and other international organizations to
identify and share the best pathways to achieve sustainable development, according to
a UN news release.
This initiative is part of the work undertaken in response to the mandate on post-2015 and
the outcome of UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), which took place
in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, in June.
The Solutions Network will be directed by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth
Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to Secretary-General Ban on the
global anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It will
operate in close coordination with the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post2015 Development Agenda.
“The post-2015 objectives will help the world to focus on the vital challenges of
sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network will be an
innovative way to draw upon worldwide expertise in the campuses, universities, scientific
research centres and business technology divisions around the world,” Mr. Ban said.
The High-level Panel will advise on the global development agenda beyond 2015, the
target date for achieving the MDGs, and it will hold its first meeting at the end of
September, in the margins of the annual high-level debate of the General Assembly. It is
expected to submit its findings to the Secretary-General in the first half of 2013, and those
findings will inform his report to Member States.
The eight MDGs, agreed on by world leaders at a UN summit in 2000, set specific targets
on poverty alleviation, education, gender equality, child and maternal health,
environmental stability, HIV/AIDS reduction, and a 'Global Partnership for Development.'
According to the news release, given that politics around the world too often focuses on
short-term issues while governments often lack the timely information needed for longterm sustainable-development strategies, it is essential that scientists and technology
experts outside of government support the development of long-term analyses,
demonstration programmes and development pathways.
The SDSN is expected to provide an independent global, open and inclusive process to
support and scale up problem-solving at local, national and global levels.
“In the 20 years since the first Rio Earth Summit, the world has largely failed to address
some of the most serious environmental and social problems pressing in on us,” Mr. Sachs
said. “We can’t afford business as usual. We need to engage the academic and
scientific community, and tap into worldwide technological know-how in the private
sector and civil society, in order to develop and implement practical solutions.”
Substantial emphasis will be placed on collaboration across countries to analyze
common problems and learn from each other’s experiences. The network will accelerate
joint learning and help to overcome the compartmentalization of technical and policy
work by promoting integrated “systems” approaches to addressing the complex
economic, social and environmental challenges confronting governments.
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS FROM THE
S.G’s SPOKESMAN DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
13 August 2012
UN News Centre: Yeosu, Republic of Korea, 12 August 2012 - Secretary-General's
remarks at Yeosu Declaration Forum [as prepared for delivery]
12 August 2012
We are here today to bring Yeosu Expo-2012 to a close -- but this is also just a beginning.
The beginning of a new movement for healthier oceans.
The beginning of a new push for sustainable coasts.
The Yeosu Declaration on the Living Ocean and Coast provides a strong call to action
and a guide for the future we wish to chart.
We need to show a heightened sense of responsibility in protecting the oceans and
coasts.
They are the foundation of life on this planet and hold the key to the future of humanity.
We know the importance of the oceans for our climate, our weather, our food supplies.
We must now act on this knowledge, together, and tackle the challenges of pollution,
depleted fish stocks, acidification and rising resource exploitation.
We must do so in ways that are scientifically-based, and that are socially and culturally
inclusive.
We must deepen our knowledge of ocean science, and build new partnerships among
governments, civil society and the public and private sectors.
This is why I am creating a new Scientific Advisory Board, with the help of UNESCO and
other agencies, to strengthen the work of the UN for sustainability sciences.
And it is why I have appointed a High-level Panel to advise on the global development
agenda beyond 2015.
From challenge, we must create opportunity.
The oceans hold so many solutions for the future we want for all.
They are a modern maritime silk road.
They hold vast new and renewable resources.
They provide income and sustenance for billions of people.
We must make the most of the oceans and coasts as engines for green economic
growth.
This has been the guiding spirit of Yeosu Expo-2012 – to protect, recover and sustain the
ocean’s environment and natural resources -- and to create new momentum for ocean
sustainability.
It is also the spirit of the Oceans Compact I launched this morning.
I pledge the full commitment of the United Nations family to the Yeosu Declaration and
the new Oceans Compact.
A strong wind of change is blowing. We saw this at the Rio+20 UN Conference on
Sustainable Development, and we have seen it throughout this Expo.
I thank our hosts, the Government of the Republic of Korea, for their leadership in ocean
sustainability.
And I commend His Excellency President Lee Myung-bak and His Excellency Prime
Minister Kim Hwang-sik for their vision.
Allow me also to express my deepest thanks to the citizens of Yeosu who have made this
Expo such a success.
And I thank all Expo participants for their hard work and commitment.
We all must become stewards of the ocean.
This is the key message we send to the world today.
Collective stewardship is essential for life today and tomorrow.
It is the path to attain the Millennium Developments Goals and the Sustainable
Development Goals that will follow.
We know what we have to do.
The work starts now.
Thank you.
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Yeosu, Republic of Korea, 12 August 2012 - Secretary-General's remarks at Law of
Sea conference and launch of UN Oceans Compact [as prepared for delivery]
12 August 2012
I am delighted to be here.
I commend the Government of the Republic of Korea and the city of Yeosu for
organizing this spectacular Expo to raise awareness about the importance of seas and
oceans to all aspects of our life on this planet.
And I am honoured to join you to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
In Korean, we have a saying – “samsip yilip” -- that “thirty is the age when one establishes
a firm ground within the family, the society and studies.”
It means that after 30 years, a person is not easily swayed since the mind is firm and
steady. It is the age when a person has established the foundations that will guide every
aspect of his or her life.
The Convention on the Law of the Sea has reached this point. It is accepted as the legal
framework that guides every aspect of our management of the oceans and seas and
the activities that take place on and beneath them.
When the Convention was opened for signature in 1982, it was rightly characterized as a
“constitution for the oceans”.
This living monument to international cooperation – negotiated by more than 150 States - is among the world’s most significant legal instruments.
Allow me here to acknowledge the profound contribution of Ambassador Tommy Koh.
As President of the third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea, his able leadership and
diplomatic skills, were instrumental in creating the legacy we are celebrating today.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The progressive development of the Law of the Sea through the Convention and related
instruments over the past three decades has provided a flexible and evolving framework.
It has guided us through the settlement of disputes, the delineation of the outer limits of
the extended continental shelf, and the administration of the resources of the
international seabed.
It contributes to international peace and security, the equitable and efficient use of
ocean resources, the protection and preservation of the marine environment and the
realization of a just and equitable economic order.
In short, the Convention on the Law of the Sea is an important tool for sustainable
development, something that was affirmed this year by the Rio+20 Conference.
Among its principles, the Law of the Sea recognizes that all ocean issues are related and
that they need to be addressed as a whole.
Most of the oceans are beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. From the seabed to the
surface, States benefit from these vast expanses.
As scientists explore the oceans at ever greater depths they continue to discover new
forms of marine life with untold potential for medicines, food and other uses.
From pole to pole, great fishing grounds feed towns and cities.
And on the ocean waves, trade continues as it has for thousands of years – our principal
means of moving vast amounts of goods from nation to nation.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea helps us to manage these
common assets.
Yet, ladies and gentlemen, if we are to fully benefit from the oceans, we must address a
multitude of threats.
A disturbing growth in criminal activities, especially piracy, has serious implications for the
security of navigation and the safety of seafarers.
Irregular migration by sea and poor labour conditions for seafarers are further urgent
issues.
And above all, with implications for all, is the precarious state of the marine environment.
The seas and oceans host some of the most vulnerable and important ecosystems on
Earth. But the diversity of life they host is under ever-increasing strain.
Pollution and over-exploitation of marine living resources pose a grave threat.
Coral reefs and fisheries, in particular, are under pressure.
And there is the growing menace of climate change.
Our oceans are heating and expanding. We risk irrevocable changes in processes that
we barely comprehend, such as the great currents that affect weather patterns.
Ocean acidification is eating into the very basis of ocean life; and sea level rise threatens
to re-draw the global map at the expense of hundreds of millions of the world’s most
vulnerable people.
This major test for the international community has been at the top of my priority list since I
became Secretary-General because of its implications for all humankind.
I look forward to continued progress towards a legally binding framework to save our
planet from runaway climate change in Doha in November.
But, ladies and gentlemen, there is much we can do, here and now, to improve the state
of our seas and oceans.
This Expo is evidence of the innovation, technology and commitment that is available.
What we need is to create new momentum for ocean sustainability.
That is why I have decided to launch, today, a new initiative to strengthen United Nations
system-wide work on oceans matters and support the implementation of the Law of the
Sea.
The Oceans Compact sets out a strategic vision for the UN System to deliver more
coherently and effectively on its oceans-related mandates, consistent with the Rio+20
outcome.
It provides a platform for all stakeholders to collaborate towards achieving “Healthy
Oceans for Prosperity.”
The Compact has three inter-related objectives to advance this goal.
The first is “Protecting people and improving the health of the oceans.”
The second focuses on “Protecting, recovering and sustaining the oceans’ environment
and natural resources, and restoring their full food production and livelihoods services.”
The third deals with “Strengthening ocean knowledge and the management of oceans.”
Realizing the objectives of the Oceans Compact will require the implementation of an
integrated and results-oriented Action Plan.
To elaborate the Plan, to facilitate stakeholder dialogue and to catalyze support, I
propose to create an Ocean Advisory Group of high-level policy-makers, scientists and
leading ocean experts, representatives from the private sector and civil society and
Executive Heads of involved UN system organizations.
Ladies and gentlemen,
You have all received a copy of the Compact. I count on you to support its
implementation. And I urge you to continue to raise awareness about oceans issues and
the Law of the Sea.
It is thirty years since the Convention was opened for signature, yet it has not been ratified
by all who have signed it.
Just as the oceans span our blue planet, let us make it our goal to bring all nations under
the jurisdiction, protection and guidance of this essential treaty.
By working together for one common goal we can achieve healthy oceans for prosperity
and sustainable development for all.
Thank you.
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