By Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia
14 November 2007
SINGAPORE : Over 800 primary school children have pledged their commitment to save the planet by making one lifestyle change.
With Singapore in the running to host the Youth Olympic Games, the children also pledged their support for the bid which features a green Games Village.
The students attended the National Primary Young Leaders Day organised by Halogen Foundation on Wednesday to hear what adults had to say about caring for Mother Earth.
The Halogen Foundation, which organises leadership courses for youths, believes it is never too early to start being an eco-warrior.
"If we destroy Earth, then we will also not live. We will die together with Earth, so I think we should nip the problem in the bud," said Rohan Dev, a Primary 5 student at Zhenghua Primary School.
"I have an ambition and it is to dance. So I'm going to roam the Earth while learning dancing, (and) spread the message to all the people... to ask them to save the Earth, to recycle, reuse and reduce," said Janice Low, a Primary 5 student at Marsiling Primary School.
In support of MediaCorp's Project Gaia, Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim pledged to change to a hybrid car, while MediaCorp celebrities shared how to lead by example.
"I think because TV actors, news readers and radio personalities are all well-known to the young children, what they say can have a very inspiring and inspirational effect on children," said Shaun Seow, MediaCorp's Deputy CEO (News, Radio, Print).
MediaCorp said it will continue to partner the Halogen Foundation for the next two years to help spread the green message to young Singaporeans through its Project Gaia. - CNA /ls
Best of our wild blogs: 14 Nov 07
MAFF for ACRES
a meaningful birthday and a present for the wild animals on the leafmonkey blog
Green tip #1: How to reduce energy use in aircons at home
part of a series of tips on the AsiaIsGreen blog
Is climate change "human rights abuse?"
on the reuters environmental blog
Birds mobbing snakes
on the bird ecology blog
Bird’s Eye View of Seletar Airbase - Past, Present and Future
on the postcards from seletar blog an effort to document life on seletar before it's gone.
Daily Green Actions 13 Nov
on the leafmonkey blog
a meaningful birthday and a present for the wild animals on the leafmonkey blog
Green tip #1: How to reduce energy use in aircons at home
part of a series of tips on the AsiaIsGreen blog
Is climate change "human rights abuse?"
on the reuters environmental blog
Birds mobbing snakes
on the bird ecology blog
Bird’s Eye View of Seletar Airbase - Past, Present and Future
on the postcards from seletar blog an effort to document life on seletar before it's gone.
Daily Green Actions 13 Nov
on the leafmonkey blog
The Price of Success: Who's shrinking my noodles?
Low Ching Ling, The Electric New Paper 14 Nov 07;
YOU take home bigger bucks now, thanks to a booming economy.
Your bonuses are expected to go up.
The employment situation is healthy.
But now you find a smaller bang for your buck, no thanks to inflation, the rising prices of everything from petrol to rice to bread.
Honey, you ask, who's shrinking my noodles?
Blame it on everything from the weather, to growing demand worldwide, even to the search for alternatives to oil.
And yes, the GST.
That's the big picture, said Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang in Parliament yesterday.
Are we experiencing a perfect storm? Everything that affects food prices seems to be happening at the same time.
It has to do with the Consumer Price Index (CPI), inflationary trends worldwide, more costly food exports and the impact of the GST hike, said Mr Lim.
He was responding to questions on rising costs from MP Halimah Yacob and Non-Constituency MP Sylvia Lim.
But what does that big picture mean to the man in the street, especially the low-income worker?
Small consolation, if you ask Madam Halimah and fellow MP Inderjit Singh.
Madam Halimah, the MP for Jurong GRC, told The New Paper: 'What the Government needs to do is to better explain the reasons behind the price increases.
'Imports are expensive, so they push consumer prices up. This point has not been sufficiently reflected on the ground.'
Mr Lim did bring this up.
He said: 'Food prices have risen mainly due to dearer imports, arising from disruptions in supply in some of our major food import sources.
'Adverse weather conditions in Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia have reduced crop yield and supply, raising prices of rice and cereals, vegetables and dairy products.
'These supply disruptions have occurred against a backdrop of increased global demand for agricultural products, fuelled by risingliving standards in emerging economies and higher bio-fuel production.'
Mr Lim makes sense.
But will it matter to the little man struggling to put food on the table for his family?
As Madam Halimah pointed out, on the ground, 'people are feeling the pinch'.
Many of her constituents, including the middle-income, have griped to her about the price increases.
'When the cost of living goes up, people always want the Government to do something about it,' Madam Halimah said.
MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC Inderjit Singh shares her sentiments. 'My worry is that the Government has not factored in the real increases that are to come,' he said.
'The Government expects the situation to stabilise but business costs will continue to go up. The numbers may not be as good as (the Government) expects.'
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has pledged to help Singaporeans cope. Weighing on the issue even before yesterday's Parliament sitting, he said on Sunday:
'We help by making sure that the low-income are able to pay for their necessities, able to earn a living, able to have a house over their heads.'
Mr Lim elaborated yesterday that the rise in CPI was partly caused by the GST hike - and this impact will continue until June next year.
Last week, Citigroup economist Chua Hak Bin projected that inflation would hit 4 per cent or more in the first half of next year.
WHAT PRICE SUCCESS?
And, believe it or not, our strong economy is also partly to blame.
Mr Lim said: 'GDP has grown by more than 6 per cent on average since 2003. Growth has also been broad-based, across all sectors of the economy.
He said: 'Wages have also been growing, especially last year and this year.
'Against this backdrop, we should not be surprised to see inflation rise above the unusually low levels seen in recent years.'
But Mr Singh noted that wage increases still lag behind rising costs of living.
'Property prices are going up, rentals are going up. Yes, wages go up, too, but consumers now have to pay more,' he said.
'Wages are not catching up fast enough. Wages have not gone up for a long time until recently. (The budget's) really tight for the low-income group.'
What then can be done to cushion the inflationary blow to the poor?
Madam Halimah said the Government should help out the needy with its Budget surpluses next year.
In the meantime, she advises, you can help yourself by looking for cheaper food substitutes.
Also, be on guard against shopkeepers and hawkers profiteering from the situation.
But Mr Singh wants the Government to help now.
After all, the poor worry about today, tomorrow, not next month or next year.
'The Government shouldn't wait tillthe Budget in February.
'The people are feeling the impact of the price increases now.'
YOU take home bigger bucks now, thanks to a booming economy.
Your bonuses are expected to go up.
The employment situation is healthy.
But now you find a smaller bang for your buck, no thanks to inflation, the rising prices of everything from petrol to rice to bread.
Honey, you ask, who's shrinking my noodles?
Blame it on everything from the weather, to growing demand worldwide, even to the search for alternatives to oil.
And yes, the GST.
That's the big picture, said Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang in Parliament yesterday.
Are we experiencing a perfect storm? Everything that affects food prices seems to be happening at the same time.
It has to do with the Consumer Price Index (CPI), inflationary trends worldwide, more costly food exports and the impact of the GST hike, said Mr Lim.
He was responding to questions on rising costs from MP Halimah Yacob and Non-Constituency MP Sylvia Lim.
But what does that big picture mean to the man in the street, especially the low-income worker?
Small consolation, if you ask Madam Halimah and fellow MP Inderjit Singh.
Madam Halimah, the MP for Jurong GRC, told The New Paper: 'What the Government needs to do is to better explain the reasons behind the price increases.
'Imports are expensive, so they push consumer prices up. This point has not been sufficiently reflected on the ground.'
Mr Lim did bring this up.
He said: 'Food prices have risen mainly due to dearer imports, arising from disruptions in supply in some of our major food import sources.
'Adverse weather conditions in Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia have reduced crop yield and supply, raising prices of rice and cereals, vegetables and dairy products.
'These supply disruptions have occurred against a backdrop of increased global demand for agricultural products, fuelled by risingliving standards in emerging economies and higher bio-fuel production.'
Mr Lim makes sense.
But will it matter to the little man struggling to put food on the table for his family?
As Madam Halimah pointed out, on the ground, 'people are feeling the pinch'.
Many of her constituents, including the middle-income, have griped to her about the price increases.
'When the cost of living goes up, people always want the Government to do something about it,' Madam Halimah said.
MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC Inderjit Singh shares her sentiments. 'My worry is that the Government has not factored in the real increases that are to come,' he said.
'The Government expects the situation to stabilise but business costs will continue to go up. The numbers may not be as good as (the Government) expects.'
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has pledged to help Singaporeans cope. Weighing on the issue even before yesterday's Parliament sitting, he said on Sunday:
'We help by making sure that the low-income are able to pay for their necessities, able to earn a living, able to have a house over their heads.'
Mr Lim elaborated yesterday that the rise in CPI was partly caused by the GST hike - and this impact will continue until June next year.
Last week, Citigroup economist Chua Hak Bin projected that inflation would hit 4 per cent or more in the first half of next year.
WHAT PRICE SUCCESS?
And, believe it or not, our strong economy is also partly to blame.
Mr Lim said: 'GDP has grown by more than 6 per cent on average since 2003. Growth has also been broad-based, across all sectors of the economy.
He said: 'Wages have also been growing, especially last year and this year.
'Against this backdrop, we should not be surprised to see inflation rise above the unusually low levels seen in recent years.'
But Mr Singh noted that wage increases still lag behind rising costs of living.
'Property prices are going up, rentals are going up. Yes, wages go up, too, but consumers now have to pay more,' he said.
'Wages are not catching up fast enough. Wages have not gone up for a long time until recently. (The budget's) really tight for the low-income group.'
What then can be done to cushion the inflationary blow to the poor?
Madam Halimah said the Government should help out the needy with its Budget surpluses next year.
In the meantime, she advises, you can help yourself by looking for cheaper food substitutes.
Also, be on guard against shopkeepers and hawkers profiteering from the situation.
But Mr Singh wants the Government to help now.
After all, the poor worry about today, tomorrow, not next month or next year.
'The Government shouldn't wait tillthe Budget in February.
'The people are feeling the impact of the price increases now.'
Sowing the seeds of farming's future: security of food supplies should not be taken for granted
Les Firbank, BBC News 13 Nov 07;
Global food stocks are running low and rich nations should not take security of supplies for granted, argues Les Firbank. In this week's Green Room, he outlines his vision for sustainable farming amid the uncertainties we face in the 21st Century.
In the last 12 months, the price of wheat has doubled, and all of a sudden, talk of food security is back on the agenda.
Global food stocks are running low.
There are three main reasons:
This alone will not be enough; the area for food production will decline as farmland is lost to housing, bio-energy cropping and, ultimately, sea level rise.
This means we will need to produce more food per hectare from the farmland that will remain.
Lessons from history
The last time that food shortage was a real issue in Britain was around the time of World War II.
Production was increased both by bringing marginal land into use, and intensification through pesticides, artificial fertilisers, new varieties and new machinery.
But this was at a high environmental cost, not all of which has been reversed. The importance of land management to water quality, flood control, soil conservation, landscape beauty and biodiversity had simply not been appreciated.
Only recently have we started to think about how agriculture should contribute to managing climate change by controlling the release of greenhouse gases and by storing carbon in the soil.
It will not be acceptable to increase production without regard for the environment, and we will increasingly demand food that is safe and contributes to healthy diets.
Equally, it will not be acceptable to lose those historic agricultural landscapes important to our emotional well-being and connection with nature.
Fresh vision
Societies will need a new vision of sustainable agriculture that addresses production, environmental and social needs together, that balances our own potential and needs in Britain with those of Europe and rest of the world.
Moreover, this new vision needs to be flexible enough to cope with sudden change, whether this is the spread of a new disease like bluetongue virus, changing patterns of rainfall or increased demand for cereals.
While no one knows what future farming will be like in detail, we know enough to start to sketch what would help its sustainability.
We need to be more self-sufficient in food, water and energy. This will protect us in times of rapidly changing global conditions, and will help ensure that we do not export our problems to other parts of the world.
Indeed, given the suitability of Britain's soils and climate, we should think about developing our potential to export more of our food and energy - it will be needed.
We also need diversity in agriculture. There will be no single path to sustainability; organic farming and hi-tech plant and animal breeding will be part of the mix, possibly concentrated in different parts of the country and serving different markets.
Waste not...
Controlling waste in the food chain is another issue that needs to be addressed. There is no point producing more food from the land without trying to use what we already have more efficiently.
We throw away around a third of our food; this can be reduced, and what is left could be used for biogas energy production.
We will need to accept that rural landscapes may change, as they have always done, and to think about how change should be managed.
Agricultural land should be valued more highly by society, as should land that is needed to supply our rivers and reservoirs with the water we need and the land that will be required to deliver renewable energy.
It will become harder to balance the needs of everyone; perhaps we need a new land planning system that takes a more holistic view of our future needs than we have now.
These changes will not just happen by themselves; we need investment in industry, people and technologies.
Perhaps the biggest change is that we all need to see agriculture as one of our most important industries for the future.
Professor Les Firbank is head of the North Wyke Research Station at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, UK
The Green Room is a series of opinion pieces on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website
Do you agree with Les Firbank? Are we struggling to meet the growing demand for food? Can we adapt without damaging the environment and historic landscapes? Can countries like the UK ease the global burden by producing more of its own food?
Global food stocks are running low and rich nations should not take security of supplies for granted, argues Les Firbank. In this week's Green Room, he outlines his vision for sustainable farming amid the uncertainties we face in the 21st Century.
In the last 12 months, the price of wheat has doubled, and all of a sudden, talk of food security is back on the agenda.
Global food stocks are running low.
There are three main reasons:
- increasing use of crops for bio-energy, especially in the US
- increasing demand for meat and milk products in the developing world (livestock are often fed grain and seeds, even if for only part of the year)
- poor harvests around the world following droughts and floods
This alone will not be enough; the area for food production will decline as farmland is lost to housing, bio-energy cropping and, ultimately, sea level rise.
This means we will need to produce more food per hectare from the farmland that will remain.
Lessons from history
The last time that food shortage was a real issue in Britain was around the time of World War II.
Production was increased both by bringing marginal land into use, and intensification through pesticides, artificial fertilisers, new varieties and new machinery.
But this was at a high environmental cost, not all of which has been reversed. The importance of land management to water quality, flood control, soil conservation, landscape beauty and biodiversity had simply not been appreciated.
Only recently have we started to think about how agriculture should contribute to managing climate change by controlling the release of greenhouse gases and by storing carbon in the soil.
It will not be acceptable to increase production without regard for the environment, and we will increasingly demand food that is safe and contributes to healthy diets.
Equally, it will not be acceptable to lose those historic agricultural landscapes important to our emotional well-being and connection with nature.
Fresh vision
Societies will need a new vision of sustainable agriculture that addresses production, environmental and social needs together, that balances our own potential and needs in Britain with those of Europe and rest of the world.
Moreover, this new vision needs to be flexible enough to cope with sudden change, whether this is the spread of a new disease like bluetongue virus, changing patterns of rainfall or increased demand for cereals.
While no one knows what future farming will be like in detail, we know enough to start to sketch what would help its sustainability.
We need to be more self-sufficient in food, water and energy. This will protect us in times of rapidly changing global conditions, and will help ensure that we do not export our problems to other parts of the world.
Indeed, given the suitability of Britain's soils and climate, we should think about developing our potential to export more of our food and energy - it will be needed.
We also need diversity in agriculture. There will be no single path to sustainability; organic farming and hi-tech plant and animal breeding will be part of the mix, possibly concentrated in different parts of the country and serving different markets.
Waste not...
Controlling waste in the food chain is another issue that needs to be addressed. There is no point producing more food from the land without trying to use what we already have more efficiently.
We throw away around a third of our food; this can be reduced, and what is left could be used for biogas energy production.
We will need to accept that rural landscapes may change, as they have always done, and to think about how change should be managed.
Agricultural land should be valued more highly by society, as should land that is needed to supply our rivers and reservoirs with the water we need and the land that will be required to deliver renewable energy.
It will become harder to balance the needs of everyone; perhaps we need a new land planning system that takes a more holistic view of our future needs than we have now.
These changes will not just happen by themselves; we need investment in industry, people and technologies.
Perhaps the biggest change is that we all need to see agriculture as one of our most important industries for the future.
Professor Les Firbank is head of the North Wyke Research Station at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, UK
The Green Room is a series of opinion pieces on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website
Do you agree with Les Firbank? Are we struggling to meet the growing demand for food? Can we adapt without damaging the environment and historic landscapes? Can countries like the UK ease the global burden by producing more of its own food?
Singapore biofuels industry may hit snag as palm oil prices rise
Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 14 Nov 07
SINGAPORE'S fledgling biofuels industry - singled out as a strong area of growth by the Government - is set to hit a temporary snag, as palm oil prices hit record highs.
Biodiesel, a form of biofuel, is a processed fuel derived from biological sources or feedstock, such as palm and soya beans.
Prices of crude palm oil, used in the production of biodiesel, recently hit record highs of RM2,900 (S$1,257) per tonne on the back of a surge in crude oil prices, which have reached almost US$100 a barrel.
With prices unlikely to soften in the short term, Singapore's new biodiesel plants may have to scale back production.
One affected firm is Australia's Natural Fuel, which is slated to begin production during the first phase of its US$130 million project on Jurong Island - one of the world's largest.
Natural Fuel Singapore's chief executive, Mr Larry Tan, told The Straits Times that the company's first biodiesel train of 200,000 tonnes a year will go ahead, but future production will depend on palm oil prices.
'At the moment, crude palm oil is more expensive than biodiesel, partly because of a drop in supply from Malaysia this year. But we expect prices to soften in the future, when production ramps up in Indonesia and Malaysia,' he said.
Natural Fuel's plant will eventually have an annual capacity of 600,000 tonnes. There are two other plants in Singapore, each with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes a year. One has begun production, while the other is due to start by year-end.
Speaking at a two-day biofuels conference at the annual Global Entrepolis @ Singapore trade event yesterday, Mr Tan also addressed concerns facing the industry, such as sustainable ways of producing feedstock that does not compete with food.
For example, the pros and cons of jatropha, a fast-growing shrub touted as the 'fuel of the future', was hotly debated at the event.
The plant, thought to be drought-resistant, produces seeds from which inedible oil can be extracted for biodiesel.
Another speaker, Ms Connie Lo, business development manager of JJ-Lurgi Engineering, spoke on how Singapore can play a key role in the future of Asia's biofuels industry.
Singapore's strong infrastructure as an oil refinery centre and its proximity to feedstock in the region place it at an advantage, she said.
Earlier, Minister of State for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran singled out biofuels as a growth area, to be integrated into the chemical industry.
Biodiesel industry wavers as feedstock prices rise
Channel NewsAsia 13 Nov0 7
But analysts at the Asia Biodiesel Conference on Tuesday also noted that there has been a 30 to 40 percent increase in feedstock prices this year, making biodiesel production more costly.
Palm oil and soya are among the feedstock used for producing biodiesel fuel.
There are now about 100 biodiesel plants in Asia, with a total capacity of 3.5 million tonnes. This is expected to nearly double to 6.5 million tonnes by 2008.
Some industry players said margins are getting slightly better, but more help may be needed.
Connie Lo, Business Development Manager at JJ-Lurgi, said: "I think as you know, the oil prices are slowly or quickly moving to the mark of US$100 per barrel. But I think predominantly, biodiesel is still a very regulated market. It's subsidised by governments, either by giving tax incentives or mandating it.
"Without any government support, coupled with rising vegetable oil prices, it's still quite far from being economically viable. But if governments were putting on mandates and policies for the environment purpose, that would make it more viable."
There has been an increase of up to 40 percent in feedstock prices partly because feedstock such as soya and palm oil are being used for food as well.
Some industry players are now looking at non-edible alternatives like jatropha and pongoma.
Larry Tan, CEO of Natural Fuel, said: "I think in terms of demand growth, the demand will still be there. After all, biodiesel is used fundamentally for a good cause - with regards to the environment, to reduce carbon emissions and all that.
"In terms of demand growth, it will be there, but in terms of capacity growth, it will probably slow down in the next couple of years."
Singapore is estimated to account for 14 percent of Southeast Asia's biodiesel production in 2008.- CNA/so
Price rise, eco issues fuel biodiesel debate
Lin Yan qin, Today Online 14 Nov 07;
Subsidies, more awareness needed to spur the industry
Biodiesel could be a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Less polluting than petroleum diesel, it can easily be incorporated into existing engine systems in cars and power generation.
But rising palm oil prices — used by Asian renewable energy companies to produce biodiesel — have taken their toll in the past year, said industry players at the Asia Biodiesel Conference yesterday.
At about US$900 ($1,300) a tonne, palm oil prices are up 40 per cent due to rising energy demand from growing economies and food industries. Feedstock costs can comprise up to 90 per cent of operating costs.
A lack of awareness in Asia — due to a lack of government policies promoting the use of biodiesel — is also to blame. "Consumers are economy-driven," said Vance Bioenergy managing director Long Tian Ching. "If there are no subsidies or tax breaks to make biodiesel more attractive, it will not take off."
The Government has indicated interest in the trading of biofuels in its National Energy Policy Report but stated that fossil fuels will still be the main source of the nation's energy needs.
Biodiesel has also come under fire from environmentalists, who decry it as a "deforestation fuel". Environmental champion Greenpeace released a report last week entitled, How the Palm Oil Industry is Cooking the Climate, about the deforestation and loss of peatland in Sumatra to palm oil plantations. Peat — partially decayed organic matter — releases large amounts of carbon dioxide when burnt. Questions have also arisen about whether demand for palm oil is contributing to rising food prices, affecting the poor.
Mr Long disagrees. "That's a simplistic argument," he said. "It's not as simple as food versus fuel; high food prices can't be blamed on palm oil. It's a poverty issue."
Companies like his are part of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, whose membership criteria include not using supplies from plants that have replaced high conservation value areas — like primary forests — after 2005.
Despite such obstacles, the industry is set to grow, with biodiesel capacity set to hit 6.5 million tonnes in Asia by next year.
Australian renewable energy group Natural Fuel will begin operating its US$130-million plant — the largest in the world — on Jurong Island by the end of this year, but not at full capacity. "A lot of these decisions were made two, three years ago, when palm oil prices were low," said chief executive officer Larry Tan.
The company will look to expanding operations to include distribution to "ride out" the high costs, and consider alternative feedstock.
"Biodiesel has large potential," said Mr Tan. "It's more environmentally-friendly than fossil fuels."
SINGAPORE'S fledgling biofuels industry - singled out as a strong area of growth by the Government - is set to hit a temporary snag, as palm oil prices hit record highs.
Biodiesel, a form of biofuel, is a processed fuel derived from biological sources or feedstock, such as palm and soya beans.
Prices of crude palm oil, used in the production of biodiesel, recently hit record highs of RM2,900 (S$1,257) per tonne on the back of a surge in crude oil prices, which have reached almost US$100 a barrel.
With prices unlikely to soften in the short term, Singapore's new biodiesel plants may have to scale back production.
One affected firm is Australia's Natural Fuel, which is slated to begin production during the first phase of its US$130 million project on Jurong Island - one of the world's largest.
Natural Fuel Singapore's chief executive, Mr Larry Tan, told The Straits Times that the company's first biodiesel train of 200,000 tonnes a year will go ahead, but future production will depend on palm oil prices.
'At the moment, crude palm oil is more expensive than biodiesel, partly because of a drop in supply from Malaysia this year. But we expect prices to soften in the future, when production ramps up in Indonesia and Malaysia,' he said.
Natural Fuel's plant will eventually have an annual capacity of 600,000 tonnes. There are two other plants in Singapore, each with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes a year. One has begun production, while the other is due to start by year-end.
Speaking at a two-day biofuels conference at the annual Global Entrepolis @ Singapore trade event yesterday, Mr Tan also addressed concerns facing the industry, such as sustainable ways of producing feedstock that does not compete with food.
For example, the pros and cons of jatropha, a fast-growing shrub touted as the 'fuel of the future', was hotly debated at the event.
The plant, thought to be drought-resistant, produces seeds from which inedible oil can be extracted for biodiesel.
Another speaker, Ms Connie Lo, business development manager of JJ-Lurgi Engineering, spoke on how Singapore can play a key role in the future of Asia's biofuels industry.
Singapore's strong infrastructure as an oil refinery centre and its proximity to feedstock in the region place it at an advantage, she said.
Earlier, Minister of State for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran singled out biofuels as a growth area, to be integrated into the chemical industry.
Biodiesel industry wavers as feedstock prices rise
Channel NewsAsia 13 Nov0 7
But analysts at the Asia Biodiesel Conference on Tuesday also noted that there has been a 30 to 40 percent increase in feedstock prices this year, making biodiesel production more costly.
Palm oil and soya are among the feedstock used for producing biodiesel fuel.
There are now about 100 biodiesel plants in Asia, with a total capacity of 3.5 million tonnes. This is expected to nearly double to 6.5 million tonnes by 2008.
Some industry players said margins are getting slightly better, but more help may be needed.
Connie Lo, Business Development Manager at JJ-Lurgi, said: "I think as you know, the oil prices are slowly or quickly moving to the mark of US$100 per barrel. But I think predominantly, biodiesel is still a very regulated market. It's subsidised by governments, either by giving tax incentives or mandating it.
"Without any government support, coupled with rising vegetable oil prices, it's still quite far from being economically viable. But if governments were putting on mandates and policies for the environment purpose, that would make it more viable."
There has been an increase of up to 40 percent in feedstock prices partly because feedstock such as soya and palm oil are being used for food as well.
Some industry players are now looking at non-edible alternatives like jatropha and pongoma.
Larry Tan, CEO of Natural Fuel, said: "I think in terms of demand growth, the demand will still be there. After all, biodiesel is used fundamentally for a good cause - with regards to the environment, to reduce carbon emissions and all that.
"In terms of demand growth, it will be there, but in terms of capacity growth, it will probably slow down in the next couple of years."
Singapore is estimated to account for 14 percent of Southeast Asia's biodiesel production in 2008.- CNA/so
Price rise, eco issues fuel biodiesel debate
Lin Yan qin, Today Online 14 Nov 07;
Subsidies, more awareness needed to spur the industry
Biodiesel could be a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Less polluting than petroleum diesel, it can easily be incorporated into existing engine systems in cars and power generation.
But rising palm oil prices — used by Asian renewable energy companies to produce biodiesel — have taken their toll in the past year, said industry players at the Asia Biodiesel Conference yesterday.
At about US$900 ($1,300) a tonne, palm oil prices are up 40 per cent due to rising energy demand from growing economies and food industries. Feedstock costs can comprise up to 90 per cent of operating costs.
A lack of awareness in Asia — due to a lack of government policies promoting the use of biodiesel — is also to blame. "Consumers are economy-driven," said Vance Bioenergy managing director Long Tian Ching. "If there are no subsidies or tax breaks to make biodiesel more attractive, it will not take off."
The Government has indicated interest in the trading of biofuels in its National Energy Policy Report but stated that fossil fuels will still be the main source of the nation's energy needs.
Biodiesel has also come under fire from environmentalists, who decry it as a "deforestation fuel". Environmental champion Greenpeace released a report last week entitled, How the Palm Oil Industry is Cooking the Climate, about the deforestation and loss of peatland in Sumatra to palm oil plantations. Peat — partially decayed organic matter — releases large amounts of carbon dioxide when burnt. Questions have also arisen about whether demand for palm oil is contributing to rising food prices, affecting the poor.
Mr Long disagrees. "That's a simplistic argument," he said. "It's not as simple as food versus fuel; high food prices can't be blamed on palm oil. It's a poverty issue."
Companies like his are part of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, whose membership criteria include not using supplies from plants that have replaced high conservation value areas — like primary forests — after 2005.
Despite such obstacles, the industry is set to grow, with biodiesel capacity set to hit 6.5 million tonnes in Asia by next year.
Australian renewable energy group Natural Fuel will begin operating its US$130-million plant — the largest in the world — on Jurong Island by the end of this year, but not at full capacity. "A lot of these decisions were made two, three years ago, when palm oil prices were low," said chief executive officer Larry Tan.
The company will look to expanding operations to include distribution to "ride out" the high costs, and consider alternative feedstock.
"Biodiesel has large potential," said Mr Tan. "It's more environmentally-friendly than fossil fuels."
Bioenergy growth must be carefully managed: FAO
FAO Website 13 Nov 07;
Global Bioenergy Partnership publishes report on bioenergy in G8 plus five countries
13 November 2007, Rome - Capturing the full potential of biofuels means overcoming environmental and social constraints and removing trade barriers, which are hindering the development of a worldwide market, according to a new report released by the Global Bioenergy Parnership (GBEP).
Potential conflicts between bioenergy production and the protection of the environment, sustainable development, food security of the rural poor and the economic development of countries supplying feedstock should be urgently addressed, according to the report “A Review of the Current State of Bioenergy Development in G8 +5 Countries”, issued today at the 20th World Energy Congress (WEC – Rome 2007).
“Developing bioenergy represents the most immediate and available response to at least five key challenges and opportunities: coping with record-high crude-oil prices; the need for oil-importing countries to reduce their dependence on a limited number of exporting nations by diversifying their energy sources and suppliers; the chance for emerging economies in tropical regions to supply the global energy market with competitively priced liquid biofuels; meeting growing energy demand in developing countries, in particular to support development in rural areas; and the commitments taken to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions as part of the battle against climate change,” said Corrado Clini, Chairman of the GBEP and Director General of the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, at the press conference presenting the report.
“Bioenergy” Clini added, “is already a real alternative to fossil fuels and at the same time, as demonstrated in Brazil, can become the driving force for development in some of the world’s poorest regions.”
Looking ahead
Bioenergy is forecast to satisfy 20 percent of global energy demand by 2030, rising to between 30 and 40 percent by 2060. According to the alternative scenario of the International Energy Agency (IEA), biodiesel and ethanol may make up 7 percent of world demand for liquid fuels in 2030, with consumption rising fourfold to 36 million metric tonnes a year from today’s level of about 8 million tonnes.
“Bio-ethanol derived from maize, for example, has a capacity to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by about 13 percent,” said Clini. “However, this doesn’t appear to be sustainable when you consider the farmland that’s being used for the initial production, the quantity of water consumed, the emissions of nitrates during the treatment and conversion processes as well as the fact that it’s competitive only with crude oil prices above US $80 a barrel. By contrast, bio-ethanol from sugar-cane can cut carbon-dioxide emissions by about 90 percent and is competitive with oil as low as US$30.”
Safeguarding food security
Alexander Müller, Assistant Director-General of FAO’s Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, commented: “Bioenergy offers new growth opportunities in many rural areas of developing countries, but it’s important to guarantee the livelihoods and well-being of the most vulnerable. We must ensure that the price of food does not impair the food security of the poor. The Global Bioenergy Partnership, especially in light of the renewed mandate received from the G8 Summit in Germany in June, aims to promote sustainable bioenergy development.”
“Today’s report,” Müller added, “is a survey of the production of energy from biomass in G8 +5 countries, highlighting the advantages and the challenges posed by one of the future’s most promising sources of alternative energy.”
The GBEP report finds that bioenergy is already available, ready to provide immediate solutions and further technological advances in a relatively short time. As regards research and development, so-called second-generation biofuels derived from cellusoic biomass (rice husks, sugar-cane bagasse, agricultural waste and municipal trash) or from micro-algae are likely to start providing large amounts of ethanol and biodiesel in an environmentally friendly way within the next 10 years. “This growth in bioenergy needs to be carefully managed and coordinated if we are to make the most of its benefits and resolve its challenges,” Müller said.
The Global Bionergy Partnership (GBEP) is an international initiative established to implement the commitments taken by the G8 +5 Countries (Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, India, Italy, Mexico, Russian Federation, South Africa, the UK and the USA) in the Gleneagles Plan of Action in 2005. Its goal is to “support wider, cost-effective biomass and biofuels deployment, particularly in developing countries where biomass use is prevalent.”
It was invited by the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, in June 2007 to "continue its work on biofuel best practices and take forward the successful and sustainable development of bioenergy". The partnership is chaired by Corrado Clini, Director General of the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea. FAO hosts the GBEP Secretariat, with the support of Italy.
Global Bioenergy Partnership publishes report on bioenergy in G8 plus five countries
13 November 2007, Rome - Capturing the full potential of biofuels means overcoming environmental and social constraints and removing trade barriers, which are hindering the development of a worldwide market, according to a new report released by the Global Bioenergy Parnership (GBEP).
Potential conflicts between bioenergy production and the protection of the environment, sustainable development, food security of the rural poor and the economic development of countries supplying feedstock should be urgently addressed, according to the report “A Review of the Current State of Bioenergy Development in G8 +5 Countries”, issued today at the 20th World Energy Congress (WEC – Rome 2007).
“Developing bioenergy represents the most immediate and available response to at least five key challenges and opportunities: coping with record-high crude-oil prices; the need for oil-importing countries to reduce their dependence on a limited number of exporting nations by diversifying their energy sources and suppliers; the chance for emerging economies in tropical regions to supply the global energy market with competitively priced liquid biofuels; meeting growing energy demand in developing countries, in particular to support development in rural areas; and the commitments taken to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions as part of the battle against climate change,” said Corrado Clini, Chairman of the GBEP and Director General of the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, at the press conference presenting the report.
“Bioenergy” Clini added, “is already a real alternative to fossil fuels and at the same time, as demonstrated in Brazil, can become the driving force for development in some of the world’s poorest regions.”
Looking ahead
Bioenergy is forecast to satisfy 20 percent of global energy demand by 2030, rising to between 30 and 40 percent by 2060. According to the alternative scenario of the International Energy Agency (IEA), biodiesel and ethanol may make up 7 percent of world demand for liquid fuels in 2030, with consumption rising fourfold to 36 million metric tonnes a year from today’s level of about 8 million tonnes.
“Bio-ethanol derived from maize, for example, has a capacity to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by about 13 percent,” said Clini. “However, this doesn’t appear to be sustainable when you consider the farmland that’s being used for the initial production, the quantity of water consumed, the emissions of nitrates during the treatment and conversion processes as well as the fact that it’s competitive only with crude oil prices above US $80 a barrel. By contrast, bio-ethanol from sugar-cane can cut carbon-dioxide emissions by about 90 percent and is competitive with oil as low as US$30.”
Safeguarding food security
Alexander Müller, Assistant Director-General of FAO’s Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, commented: “Bioenergy offers new growth opportunities in many rural areas of developing countries, but it’s important to guarantee the livelihoods and well-being of the most vulnerable. We must ensure that the price of food does not impair the food security of the poor. The Global Bioenergy Partnership, especially in light of the renewed mandate received from the G8 Summit in Germany in June, aims to promote sustainable bioenergy development.”
“Today’s report,” Müller added, “is a survey of the production of energy from biomass in G8 +5 countries, highlighting the advantages and the challenges posed by one of the future’s most promising sources of alternative energy.”
The GBEP report finds that bioenergy is already available, ready to provide immediate solutions and further technological advances in a relatively short time. As regards research and development, so-called second-generation biofuels derived from cellusoic biomass (rice husks, sugar-cane bagasse, agricultural waste and municipal trash) or from micro-algae are likely to start providing large amounts of ethanol and biodiesel in an environmentally friendly way within the next 10 years. “This growth in bioenergy needs to be carefully managed and coordinated if we are to make the most of its benefits and resolve its challenges,” Müller said.
The Global Bionergy Partnership (GBEP) is an international initiative established to implement the commitments taken by the G8 +5 Countries (Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, India, Italy, Mexico, Russian Federation, South Africa, the UK and the USA) in the Gleneagles Plan of Action in 2005. Its goal is to “support wider, cost-effective biomass and biofuels deployment, particularly in developing countries where biomass use is prevalent.”
It was invited by the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, in June 2007 to "continue its work on biofuel best practices and take forward the successful and sustainable development of bioenergy". The partnership is chaired by Corrado Clini, Director General of the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea. FAO hosts the GBEP Secretariat, with the support of Italy.
Singapore government acts to stay ahead in clean energy industry
Shobana Kesava Straits Times 14 Nov 07
$25m scholarship programme set up to ensure future leaders in the field
THE Government is moving quickly to ensure there are enough technology leaders to keep Singapore at the cutting edge of the fast-emerging clean energy industry.
It has set up a $25 million scholarship programme in the wake of massive recent investments in the industry.
Last month, Norwegian solar energy firm Renewable Energy Corp (REC) said it would spend $6.3 billion in Singapore on the world's largest plant for making solar energy equipment.
The Government hopes the clean energy industry will create 7,000 jobs and add $1.7 billion to the economy by 2015.
The inter-agency Clean Energy Programme Office (Cepo) under the Economic Development Board (EDB) will award the scholarships to about 130 students over the next five years.
The Clean Energy Scholarships, announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday at the launch of the Global Entrepolis @ Singapore, will go to students who pursue master's or PhD degrees.
Mr Lee said Singapore is 'putting in place programmes to build technical power for this new industry'.
Polytechnics and universities are beginning to offer courses with specialisations in the clean energy field.
Mr Lee said: 'On top of that, we will need to nurture a pool of industry and technology leaders.' The scholarships will facilitate this, he said.
The announcement came less than two weeks after Cepo said $50 million would go towards clean technology.
Cepo executive director Ko Kheng Hwa, also the EDB's managing director, told The Straits Times that the latest fund will send the brightest Singaporeans to universities abroad, such as Stanford, Cambridge and Germany's Technical University of Munich for PhD programmes.
Post-graduate scholarships to local universities will be awarded to those of any nationality.
Those who are interested in making mid-career switches are also encouraged to apply for master's programmes.
'They could be engineers or those from any science field who want to move into this new industry,' Mr Ko said.
He said REC and Germany's largest solar-power firm, Conergy, are among those expressing interest.
REC chief Erik Thorsen said: 'Following our decision to locate in Singapore, we would need to build up a strong base of talented engineers quickly to kick-start our Singapore operations.'
Scholarship recipients will have to contribute to the local clean energy sector after their studies. 'When the support is from the Government, they just have to stay in Singapore. But if the scholarship is jointly funded, they'll be attached to the company that supported them,' Mr Ko said.
The bond ranges from two years, when a master's programme is done locally, to four years for those who take up doctorates overseas.
Mr Ko said the EDB is developing specialised programmes with tertiary institutions in Singapore.
He said: 'This is an industry which taps the idealism of the young. It's so different from most sectors that exist. It's a cause - helping to solve a worldwide problem by using the sun's inexhaustible supply of energy instead of burning all this fossil fuel.'
Those interested can check out www.cepo.sg
$25m scholarship fund to groom talent for clean energy sector
Business Times 14 Nov 07
THE Clean Energy Programme Office (Cepo), an inter-agency workgroup led by Economic Development Board managing director Ko Kheng Hwa, has launched a $25 million programme to award scholarships for the development of manpower in the new growth industry.
The programme follows an announcement on Monday by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who revealed that his government will be training 130 Masters and PhD students in this field over the next five years for study in local and top foreign universities.
'The worldwide clean energy industry is expanding rapidly in the face of rising costs of conventional sources of energy and climate change,' said Mr Ko, who is also executive director of Cepo. 'Singapore is developing clean energy as a future growth area. With the Clean Energy Scholarships, we hope to groom future technology and industry leaders to power our clean energy industry forward.'
Managed by Cepo, the scholarships will be funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF). The overseas PhD scholarships will be available to Singaporeans only, while the local PhD scholarships are open to all.
The private sector may also get a chance to take part in the NRF (Clean Energy) Company Scholarship, where the cost of the programme will be co-shared by the participating firms and NRF. The scheme is available at both the PhD and Masters levels. Scholars under this programme will work for the partner firms upon graduation.
Already, Norway's Renewable Energy Corp (REC), which recently announced that it will set up a $6.3 billion solar plant here, has indicated its interest in the company scheme.
'Following our decision to locate what could be the world's largest solar manufacturing complex in Singapore, we would need to build up a strong base of talented engineers quickly to kickstart our Singapore operations,' said REC president and chief executive officer Erik Thorsen. 'We are very glad to see strong support from the Singapore government to train manpower for this sector.'
All overseas PhD scholarships will serve a four-year bond, while local ones will serve three years. Recipients of the local Masters scholarship will be bonded for two years. There are no overseas scholarships for the Masters programme.
$25m scholarship programme set up to ensure future leaders in the field
THE Government is moving quickly to ensure there are enough technology leaders to keep Singapore at the cutting edge of the fast-emerging clean energy industry.
It has set up a $25 million scholarship programme in the wake of massive recent investments in the industry.
Last month, Norwegian solar energy firm Renewable Energy Corp (REC) said it would spend $6.3 billion in Singapore on the world's largest plant for making solar energy equipment.
The Government hopes the clean energy industry will create 7,000 jobs and add $1.7 billion to the economy by 2015.
The inter-agency Clean Energy Programme Office (Cepo) under the Economic Development Board (EDB) will award the scholarships to about 130 students over the next five years.
The Clean Energy Scholarships, announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday at the launch of the Global Entrepolis @ Singapore, will go to students who pursue master's or PhD degrees.
Mr Lee said Singapore is 'putting in place programmes to build technical power for this new industry'.
Polytechnics and universities are beginning to offer courses with specialisations in the clean energy field.
Mr Lee said: 'On top of that, we will need to nurture a pool of industry and technology leaders.' The scholarships will facilitate this, he said.
The announcement came less than two weeks after Cepo said $50 million would go towards clean technology.
Cepo executive director Ko Kheng Hwa, also the EDB's managing director, told The Straits Times that the latest fund will send the brightest Singaporeans to universities abroad, such as Stanford, Cambridge and Germany's Technical University of Munich for PhD programmes.
Post-graduate scholarships to local universities will be awarded to those of any nationality.
Those who are interested in making mid-career switches are also encouraged to apply for master's programmes.
'They could be engineers or those from any science field who want to move into this new industry,' Mr Ko said.
He said REC and Germany's largest solar-power firm, Conergy, are among those expressing interest.
REC chief Erik Thorsen said: 'Following our decision to locate in Singapore, we would need to build up a strong base of talented engineers quickly to kick-start our Singapore operations.'
Scholarship recipients will have to contribute to the local clean energy sector after their studies. 'When the support is from the Government, they just have to stay in Singapore. But if the scholarship is jointly funded, they'll be attached to the company that supported them,' Mr Ko said.
The bond ranges from two years, when a master's programme is done locally, to four years for those who take up doctorates overseas.
Mr Ko said the EDB is developing specialised programmes with tertiary institutions in Singapore.
He said: 'This is an industry which taps the idealism of the young. It's so different from most sectors that exist. It's a cause - helping to solve a worldwide problem by using the sun's inexhaustible supply of energy instead of burning all this fossil fuel.'
Those interested can check out www.cepo.sg
$25m scholarship fund to groom talent for clean energy sector
Business Times 14 Nov 07
THE Clean Energy Programme Office (Cepo), an inter-agency workgroup led by Economic Development Board managing director Ko Kheng Hwa, has launched a $25 million programme to award scholarships for the development of manpower in the new growth industry.
The programme follows an announcement on Monday by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who revealed that his government will be training 130 Masters and PhD students in this field over the next five years for study in local and top foreign universities.
'The worldwide clean energy industry is expanding rapidly in the face of rising costs of conventional sources of energy and climate change,' said Mr Ko, who is also executive director of Cepo. 'Singapore is developing clean energy as a future growth area. With the Clean Energy Scholarships, we hope to groom future technology and industry leaders to power our clean energy industry forward.'
Managed by Cepo, the scholarships will be funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF). The overseas PhD scholarships will be available to Singaporeans only, while the local PhD scholarships are open to all.
The private sector may also get a chance to take part in the NRF (Clean Energy) Company Scholarship, where the cost of the programme will be co-shared by the participating firms and NRF. The scheme is available at both the PhD and Masters levels. Scholars under this programme will work for the partner firms upon graduation.
Already, Norway's Renewable Energy Corp (REC), which recently announced that it will set up a $6.3 billion solar plant here, has indicated its interest in the company scheme.
'Following our decision to locate what could be the world's largest solar manufacturing complex in Singapore, we would need to build up a strong base of talented engineers quickly to kickstart our Singapore operations,' said REC president and chief executive officer Erik Thorsen. 'We are very glad to see strong support from the Singapore government to train manpower for this sector.'
All overseas PhD scholarships will serve a four-year bond, while local ones will serve three years. Recipients of the local Masters scholarship will be bonded for two years. There are no overseas scholarships for the Masters programme.
Alternative fuels may boost pollution: report
Yahoo News 13 Nov 07
Some alternative vehicle fuels such as liquid coal can cause more harmful greenhouse gas emissions than polluters such as petrol or diesel, scientists warned in a US study released Tuesday.
"Liquid coal, for example, can produce 80 percent more global warming pollution than gasoline," said the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit environmental group, in a statement introducing its study.
Liquid coal is viewed as a potential replacement to the oil on which countries rely heavily to fuel vehicles.
"Corn ethanol, conversely, could be either more polluting or less than gasoline depending on how the corn is grown and the ethanol is produced," the report said.
The analysis was based on replacing a fifth of all gasoline consumed in the United States with alternative fuels by 2030.
If most of these alternatives consist of liquid coal, the change could pump pollution into the atmosphere equivalent to 34 million more cars on the road. Favoring cleaner "advanced biofuels," on the other hand, could cut harmful gases by a similar amount.
The cleanest alternative, the report said, is cellulosic ethanol, made from grass or wood chips -- it could cut emissions by more than 85 percent.
"We need to wean ourselves off oil, but we should replace it with the cleanest alternatives possible," said the author of the study, Patricia Monahan, in the report. "Let's not trade one bad habit for another."
Some alternative vehicle fuels such as liquid coal can cause more harmful greenhouse gas emissions than polluters such as petrol or diesel, scientists warned in a US study released Tuesday.
"Liquid coal, for example, can produce 80 percent more global warming pollution than gasoline," said the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit environmental group, in a statement introducing its study.
Liquid coal is viewed as a potential replacement to the oil on which countries rely heavily to fuel vehicles.
"Corn ethanol, conversely, could be either more polluting or less than gasoline depending on how the corn is grown and the ethanol is produced," the report said.
The analysis was based on replacing a fifth of all gasoline consumed in the United States with alternative fuels by 2030.
If most of these alternatives consist of liquid coal, the change could pump pollution into the atmosphere equivalent to 34 million more cars on the road. Favoring cleaner "advanced biofuels," on the other hand, could cut harmful gases by a similar amount.
The cleanest alternative, the report said, is cellulosic ethanol, made from grass or wood chips -- it could cut emissions by more than 85 percent.
"We need to wean ourselves off oil, but we should replace it with the cleanest alternatives possible," said the author of the study, Patricia Monahan, in the report. "Let's not trade one bad habit for another."
Invista builds nitric acid plant on Jurong Island
Matthew Phan, Business Times 14 Nov 07;
INVISTA, a US manufacturer of fibres and polymers, is building a US$100 million plant on Jurong Island to make nitric acid, it said at the plant's groundbreaking yesterday.
Nitric acid is a feedstock for adipic acid, which is widely used as an intermediate chemical in many applications, from solvents and lubricants to electronics and cleaning aids.
The facility will be built next to Invista's existing plant for adipic acid, which will help improve the energy efficiency of the plants.
They are located on 20 ha of land on Jurong Island, on the part once known as Sakra Island. Invista's adipic acid plant was the first facility to be built on Sakra when construction started in 1991.
Construction for the new plant will begin immediately and is expected to be completed by mid-2009. The new plant will meet all the nitric acid needs of the adipic acid plant.
The facility will strengthen Invista's long-term supply for nitric acid, significantly increasing the competitiveness of its intermediates business in the region, said Warren Primeaux, president of Invista Intermediates.
It is the latest in a series of Asia growth initiatives the group has taken in the last year, including new manufacturing plants for spandex and nylon airbag fibres, and the acquisition of a nylon carpet fibre plant, he said.
Meanwhile, Invista's Sakra plant is 'one of the most decorated' in Singapore, according to the assistant managing director of the Economic Development Board (EDB), Aw Kah Peng.
It won three Gold Medals from the Ministry of Manpower for safety from 2003 to 2005, and recently received its second consecutive award for Workplace Health & Safety Excellence.
Invista also operates three spandex lines located in Tuas on the mainland.
The chemical industry is an essential component of Singapore's economy, with the manufacturing output of the cluster at $74 billion, surpassing the electronics sector, said Ms Aw.
INVISTA, a US manufacturer of fibres and polymers, is building a US$100 million plant on Jurong Island to make nitric acid, it said at the plant's groundbreaking yesterday.
Nitric acid is a feedstock for adipic acid, which is widely used as an intermediate chemical in many applications, from solvents and lubricants to electronics and cleaning aids.
The facility will be built next to Invista's existing plant for adipic acid, which will help improve the energy efficiency of the plants.
They are located on 20 ha of land on Jurong Island, on the part once known as Sakra Island. Invista's adipic acid plant was the first facility to be built on Sakra when construction started in 1991.
Construction for the new plant will begin immediately and is expected to be completed by mid-2009. The new plant will meet all the nitric acid needs of the adipic acid plant.
The facility will strengthen Invista's long-term supply for nitric acid, significantly increasing the competitiveness of its intermediates business in the region, said Warren Primeaux, president of Invista Intermediates.
It is the latest in a series of Asia growth initiatives the group has taken in the last year, including new manufacturing plants for spandex and nylon airbag fibres, and the acquisition of a nylon carpet fibre plant, he said.
Meanwhile, Invista's Sakra plant is 'one of the most decorated' in Singapore, according to the assistant managing director of the Economic Development Board (EDB), Aw Kah Peng.
It won three Gold Medals from the Ministry of Manpower for safety from 2003 to 2005, and recently received its second consecutive award for Workplace Health & Safety Excellence.
Invista also operates three spandex lines located in Tuas on the mainland.
The chemical industry is an essential component of Singapore's economy, with the manufacturing output of the cluster at $74 billion, surpassing the electronics sector, said Ms Aw.
Saving Birds After Oil Spills: Feels Good, Costs Fortune, Accomplishes Little
Benjamin Radford, LiveScience's Bad Science Columnist, Yahoo News 13 Nov 07
When a container ship laden with bunker fuel rammed into a Bay Bridge tower near San Francisco last week, it released nearly 60,000 gallons into the bay. The oil has contaminated at least two dozen beaches, leaving a gunky film on everything from trees to rocks to wildlife.
Results of the spill can be seen all over, but for many, the damage is most visible in the pitiful birds coated in oily slime . Most of the affected fowl are ducks, and ordinary citizens have turned out in droves to help clean the poor animals.
Yet good intentions are seldom enough to solve complex problems. Many volunteers who showed up ready to clean oiled wildlife were turned away. California state law requires that anyone working with toxic oils must have official training, something few of the volunteers had.
In fact, the whole premise behind cleaning oiled wildlife has been called into question.
While no one is suggesting that contaminated birds should be left to die, research has shown that it is both expensive and ineffective. After the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, 357 sea otters were brought in for treatment, and 197 were returned to Alaskan waters.
Each survivor cost more than $82,000.
But radio-tracking studies of 45 of the released otters found that, eight months later, twelve were dead and nine were missing.
Around 1,600 sea birds were also captured, de-oiled, and rehabilitated. Half of them were returned to the sea at a cost of nearly $32,000 per bird. After assessing that effort, the Pacific Seabird Group of Stinson Beach, California, concluded that wildlife rehabilitation following oil spills is generally labor-intensive, costly, and has a low probability of success.
The money spent cleaning animals that are likely to die soon anyway could be much more effectively spent designing additional safety systems, investing in oil-containment research, or paying for additional emergency personnel to respond to spills. It's not surprising that the public prefers the hands-on, emotionally satisfying method of rehabilitating individual birds, though in the long run such a method may cost more, both in animal lives and in dollars.
How Do You Clean an Oiled Bird?
Dish soap—lots of dish soap.
Morgan Smith, The Slate 14 Nov 07
Oil from a tanker that sank in Russia's Kerch Strait on Sunday killed some 30,000 seabirds. Last week, 500 birds died in an oil spill from a tanker crash in San Francisco Bay, and wildlife rescuers are still working to rehabilitate another 700 coated in oil. How do you save an oiled bird?
With Pedialyte and Dawn soap. Contaminated birds arrive at rescue centers stressed from human contact and hypothermic. Oil clots when it gets on a seabird's plumage and destroys the airtight and waterproof insulation of the feathers. The bird will preen to try to get rid of the oil, but this incessant—and ineffectual—grooming only makes matters worse: Birds become so focused on the task that they become dehydrated, and the preening behavior can cause them to ingest toxic levels of the oil. At this point, the only way to save the animal is to feed it a liquid mixture of vitamins and medicine and, when it's stable enough, wash its feathers with dish soap.
Before rescuers can begin to remove oil from a bird, they must ensure that it is not too weak to survive the traumatic washing process, which can take up to an hour. Rehabilitators immediately feed newly collected birds (through a tube to its stomach) a rehydrating formula like Pedialyte mixed with ToxiBan, an antidote that helps the birds excrete ingested oil from their systems. To gauge the extent of contamination, rescue center staffers also take blood and feather samples. Any birds judged too weak to survive a full cleaning are euthanized; the others can be kept for up to five days until they are healthy enough to clean.
When it's time to wash the bird, specially trained workers use a solution of about 1 percent dish soap and very warm water that's been softened to remove any minerals that might hinder lathering. (To prevent hypothermia, the temperature of the solution should match the animal's body temperature—in birds, about 103 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit.) Over the years, rescue organizations have tried different detergents, acetone, and powered chalk to remove oil from wildlife, but they're most likely to use Dawn, which they receive in large donations from Proctor and Gamble.
To clean off an oiled bird, one person immerses its body in a tub, and a second bathes it with the soapy water. Once the water in the first tub becomes dirty, the pair continues the process in a neighboring tub, changing again and again until oil from the bird's feathers no longer dirties the water. Up to 15 tubs can be used for a single animal; washing a bird the size of a pelican might take 300 gallons of water. To clean sensitive areas around the head and eyes, staff use a Waterpik-like device filled with the soap solution, and they remove caked oil with soft toothbrushes or cotton swabs. Freshly rinsed birds then sit in a pen under pet-grooming dryers, where they resume preening to re-establish the alignment of their feathers.
Birds stay at rescue sites until they're ready to be released into the wild. Usually, it takes three to 10 days for a bird to recover its normal body temperature, weight, and feeding behaviors. Survival rates vary depending on the oil spill. In some cases, they can be as low as 25 percent or 50 percent; in others, rescuers can save every bird that they collect.
When a container ship laden with bunker fuel rammed into a Bay Bridge tower near San Francisco last week, it released nearly 60,000 gallons into the bay. The oil has contaminated at least two dozen beaches, leaving a gunky film on everything from trees to rocks to wildlife.
Results of the spill can be seen all over, but for many, the damage is most visible in the pitiful birds coated in oily slime . Most of the affected fowl are ducks, and ordinary citizens have turned out in droves to help clean the poor animals.
Yet good intentions are seldom enough to solve complex problems. Many volunteers who showed up ready to clean oiled wildlife were turned away. California state law requires that anyone working with toxic oils must have official training, something few of the volunteers had.
In fact, the whole premise behind cleaning oiled wildlife has been called into question.
While no one is suggesting that contaminated birds should be left to die, research has shown that it is both expensive and ineffective. After the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, 357 sea otters were brought in for treatment, and 197 were returned to Alaskan waters.
Each survivor cost more than $82,000.
But radio-tracking studies of 45 of the released otters found that, eight months later, twelve were dead and nine were missing.
Around 1,600 sea birds were also captured, de-oiled, and rehabilitated. Half of them were returned to the sea at a cost of nearly $32,000 per bird. After assessing that effort, the Pacific Seabird Group of Stinson Beach, California, concluded that wildlife rehabilitation following oil spills is generally labor-intensive, costly, and has a low probability of success.
The money spent cleaning animals that are likely to die soon anyway could be much more effectively spent designing additional safety systems, investing in oil-containment research, or paying for additional emergency personnel to respond to spills. It's not surprising that the public prefers the hands-on, emotionally satisfying method of rehabilitating individual birds, though in the long run such a method may cost more, both in animal lives and in dollars.
How Do You Clean an Oiled Bird?
Dish soap—lots of dish soap.
Morgan Smith, The Slate 14 Nov 07
Oil from a tanker that sank in Russia's Kerch Strait on Sunday killed some 30,000 seabirds. Last week, 500 birds died in an oil spill from a tanker crash in San Francisco Bay, and wildlife rescuers are still working to rehabilitate another 700 coated in oil. How do you save an oiled bird?
With Pedialyte and Dawn soap. Contaminated birds arrive at rescue centers stressed from human contact and hypothermic. Oil clots when it gets on a seabird's plumage and destroys the airtight and waterproof insulation of the feathers. The bird will preen to try to get rid of the oil, but this incessant—and ineffectual—grooming only makes matters worse: Birds become so focused on the task that they become dehydrated, and the preening behavior can cause them to ingest toxic levels of the oil. At this point, the only way to save the animal is to feed it a liquid mixture of vitamins and medicine and, when it's stable enough, wash its feathers with dish soap.
Before rescuers can begin to remove oil from a bird, they must ensure that it is not too weak to survive the traumatic washing process, which can take up to an hour. Rehabilitators immediately feed newly collected birds (through a tube to its stomach) a rehydrating formula like Pedialyte mixed with ToxiBan, an antidote that helps the birds excrete ingested oil from their systems. To gauge the extent of contamination, rescue center staffers also take blood and feather samples. Any birds judged too weak to survive a full cleaning are euthanized; the others can be kept for up to five days until they are healthy enough to clean.
When it's time to wash the bird, specially trained workers use a solution of about 1 percent dish soap and very warm water that's been softened to remove any minerals that might hinder lathering. (To prevent hypothermia, the temperature of the solution should match the animal's body temperature—in birds, about 103 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit.) Over the years, rescue organizations have tried different detergents, acetone, and powered chalk to remove oil from wildlife, but they're most likely to use Dawn, which they receive in large donations from Proctor and Gamble.
To clean off an oiled bird, one person immerses its body in a tub, and a second bathes it with the soapy water. Once the water in the first tub becomes dirty, the pair continues the process in a neighboring tub, changing again and again until oil from the bird's feathers no longer dirties the water. Up to 15 tubs can be used for a single animal; washing a bird the size of a pelican might take 300 gallons of water. To clean sensitive areas around the head and eyes, staff use a Waterpik-like device filled with the soap solution, and they remove caked oil with soft toothbrushes or cotton swabs. Freshly rinsed birds then sit in a pen under pet-grooming dryers, where they resume preening to re-establish the alignment of their feathers.
Birds stay at rescue sites until they're ready to be released into the wild. Usually, it takes three to 10 days for a bird to recover its normal body temperature, weight, and feeding behaviors. Survival rates vary depending on the oil spill. In some cases, they can be as low as 25 percent or 50 percent; in others, rescuers can save every bird that they collect.
After 250 Years of Classifying Life, 90 Percent Remains Unknown
Robin Lloyd, LiveScience.com Yahoo News 14 Nov 07
BRONX, NEW YORK--Most people can tell the difference between some types of berries, or bugs or trees, but much of the planet's life remains unnamed and unseen.
A stunningly egotistical Swedish naturalist, Carl Linnaeus, tried long ago to set humanity on track to remedy that.
His book, "Systema Naturae," first published in 1735 at 13 pages long, proposed a hierarchical system for classifying plants, animals and minerals (we later chipped away minerals into the domain of geology) and launched an effort to identify and inventory all the world's living things.
Now 250 years after publication of the book's latter editions, scientists still have discovered as few as 10 percent of the species now living on Earth, said Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, who spoke here last week at an event at the New York Botanical Garden to celebrate a visit of Linnaeus' personal copy of the book's first edition.
"We live, in short, on a little-known planet. When dealing with the living world, we are flying mostly blind," Wilson said.
"When we try to diagnose the health of an ecosystem, such as a lake or a forest, in order to save and stabilize it we are in the position of a doctor trying to treat a patient, knowing only 10 percent of organs."
Linnaeus' launch of a global inventory of life was one of his most influential contributions to science, said Wilson, a proponent of a recent, similar contemporary effort, the "Encyclopedia of Life," an online reference source and database for the 1.8 million species known on Earth, as well as all those later discovered and described. The Encyclopedia is designed to help scientists, educators, students and the public gain a better understanding of the planet's inhabitants.
Book on tour
Linnaeus' copy of "Systema Naturae," usually stored in the Hagstromer Medico-Historical library at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, is currently on an international tour, making a stop this Tuesday and Wednesday at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. This year marks the naturalist's 300th birthday.
Linnaeus initially thought his own naming system would not catch on, said Katarina Andreasen, a botanist at Uppsala University in Sweden, where Linnaeus worked most of his life. He preferred the longer phrase names of living things but later changed his mind, she said, also speaking at the New York Botanical Garden event.
Here is a typical entry in the book's first edition:
Falco/digiti pedia antici 3. posticus 2./Aquila, Buteo, Cyanopus …
Yes, it's Latin and therefore Greek to most of us, but it translates to grouping together a bunch of falcon-like birds into what later became the genus Falco, as well as a description of the group's forward and backward toes as distinguishing characters, followed by a list of several subgroups, later called species, within the genus.
Many of Linnaeus' initial groupings were reorganized in the later 11 editions of "Systema Naturae" that expanded to more than 2,300 pages. But the hierarchical system of classifying all known plants and animals was a defining and influential moment in scientific history.
A genus and species name specific to each living thing, called binomial nomenclature, endures. That's why you might call those common red-breasted birds "Robins" or "American Robins," but scientists call them Turdus migratorius, in part to distinguish them from other similar looking birds including the European Robin that differ when it comes to genes and bones.
'What are they doing?'
Today, biologists are attempting to finally complete the Linnaean enterprise, a full mapping of Earth's biodiversity pole to pole, bacteria to whales, at every level of biological organization from the genome to the ecosystem, Wilson said.
The "Encyclopedia of Life" aims to yield "a cause and effect explanation of the biosphere and the correct and verifiable family tree for all of the millions of species," he said. "In short, it aims to undergird a unified biology which I believe will be the great achievement of the 21st century, the age of synthesis that we have now entered."
For instance, the number of species of nematodes or roundworms, the most abundant animals on Earth, stands at about 16,000 species known, but the numbers of actual species could run into the millions, experts estimate.
"And we have to ask, 'What are they doing?'" he told the chuckling audience. "I mean, if we don't even know what they are yet, but we know they are there in vast variety and enormous abundance, then clearly they must be doing something important in the ecosystems that are the foundation of our own life."
Biologists are grateful, Wilson said, to the memory of Linnaeus, "who led the way in the systematic exploration of life on this planet, which we must now, for the good of the planet and humanity, hurry up to finish."
In Singapore, Linnaeus celebrations include
BRONX, NEW YORK--Most people can tell the difference between some types of berries, or bugs or trees, but much of the planet's life remains unnamed and unseen.
A stunningly egotistical Swedish naturalist, Carl Linnaeus, tried long ago to set humanity on track to remedy that.
His book, "Systema Naturae," first published in 1735 at 13 pages long, proposed a hierarchical system for classifying plants, animals and minerals (we later chipped away minerals into the domain of geology) and launched an effort to identify and inventory all the world's living things.
Now 250 years after publication of the book's latter editions, scientists still have discovered as few as 10 percent of the species now living on Earth, said Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, who spoke here last week at an event at the New York Botanical Garden to celebrate a visit of Linnaeus' personal copy of the book's first edition.
"We live, in short, on a little-known planet. When dealing with the living world, we are flying mostly blind," Wilson said.
"When we try to diagnose the health of an ecosystem, such as a lake or a forest, in order to save and stabilize it we are in the position of a doctor trying to treat a patient, knowing only 10 percent of organs."
Linnaeus' launch of a global inventory of life was one of his most influential contributions to science, said Wilson, a proponent of a recent, similar contemporary effort, the "Encyclopedia of Life," an online reference source and database for the 1.8 million species known on Earth, as well as all those later discovered and described. The Encyclopedia is designed to help scientists, educators, students and the public gain a better understanding of the planet's inhabitants.
Book on tour
Linnaeus' copy of "Systema Naturae," usually stored in the Hagstromer Medico-Historical library at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, is currently on an international tour, making a stop this Tuesday and Wednesday at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. This year marks the naturalist's 300th birthday.
Linnaeus initially thought his own naming system would not catch on, said Katarina Andreasen, a botanist at Uppsala University in Sweden, where Linnaeus worked most of his life. He preferred the longer phrase names of living things but later changed his mind, she said, also speaking at the New York Botanical Garden event.
Here is a typical entry in the book's first edition:
Falco/digiti pedia antici 3. posticus 2./Aquila, Buteo, Cyanopus …
Yes, it's Latin and therefore Greek to most of us, but it translates to grouping together a bunch of falcon-like birds into what later became the genus Falco, as well as a description of the group's forward and backward toes as distinguishing characters, followed by a list of several subgroups, later called species, within the genus.
Many of Linnaeus' initial groupings were reorganized in the later 11 editions of "Systema Naturae" that expanded to more than 2,300 pages. But the hierarchical system of classifying all known plants and animals was a defining and influential moment in scientific history.
A genus and species name specific to each living thing, called binomial nomenclature, endures. That's why you might call those common red-breasted birds "Robins" or "American Robins," but scientists call them Turdus migratorius, in part to distinguish them from other similar looking birds including the European Robin that differ when it comes to genes and bones.
'What are they doing?'
Today, biologists are attempting to finally complete the Linnaean enterprise, a full mapping of Earth's biodiversity pole to pole, bacteria to whales, at every level of biological organization from the genome to the ecosystem, Wilson said.
The "Encyclopedia of Life" aims to yield "a cause and effect explanation of the biosphere and the correct and verifiable family tree for all of the millions of species," he said. "In short, it aims to undergird a unified biology which I believe will be the great achievement of the 21st century, the age of synthesis that we have now entered."
For instance, the number of species of nematodes or roundworms, the most abundant animals on Earth, stands at about 16,000 species known, but the numbers of actual species could run into the millions, experts estimate.
"And we have to ask, 'What are they doing?'" he told the chuckling audience. "I mean, if we don't even know what they are yet, but we know they are there in vast variety and enormous abundance, then clearly they must be doing something important in the ecosystems that are the foundation of our own life."
Biologists are grateful, Wilson said, to the memory of Linnaeus, "who led the way in the systematic exploration of life on this planet, which we must now, for the good of the planet and humanity, hurry up to finish."
In Singapore, Linnaeus celebrations include
- Linnaeus Exhibition at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, until 31 Dec 07
- Features of creatures in Singapore named by Linnaeus on the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity rmbrnews blog
- The Encyclopedia of Life Project: A log to stand on
By Edward O. Wilson Straits Times 17 Sep 07 - Effort to catalog species tops 1 million
By Randolph E. Schmid Yahoo News 9 Apr 07 - Tree of Life project grows more leaves and branches
EurekAlert 20 Feb 06
Brazil Seeks Aid From UN Chief to Protect Amazon
Raymond Colitt, PlanetArk 14 Nov 07;
BELEM, Brazil - Beneath a towering canopy in the heat of the Amazon jungle, Brazilian Indians and officials urged UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday to rally international support to protect the world's largest rain forest.
"We need the Secretary to help convert international good will into concrete mechanisms that benefit the residents of the Amazon," Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva told Ban under a century-old Samauma tree 30 minutes upriver from Belem, the Amazon's largest city.
Ban was on the last stop of a South American tour that focused on the potential impact of global warming and included a visit to Antarctica last week.
"I kindly ask you to help create incentives so we and other forest dwellers can make a living here," Amazon Indian Marcos Apurina told Ban, who received a necklace made of native plant seeds and saw other forest products from honey to handicrafts.
Ban, who hiked a short jungle trail on Combu island on the Guama River, said: "The United Nations will stand beside you. This is a common asset of all humankind."
Earlier Ban petted a three-toed sloth and planted two native trees at a botanical garden in Belem.
Ban is preparing for a UN climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December, which should start talks to curb carbon emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
FOREST DESTRUCTION
Brazil produces the world's fourth-largest amount of carbon emissions, due mostly to the destruction of the Amazon rain forest, according to international environmental groups.
Ban did not comment on Brazil's refusal to adopt targets to reduce deforestation and carbon emissions. Instead, he commended Brazil for its efforts to curb forest destruction by 50 percent over two years, even though the rate has risen again since August.
The Amazon releases stored carbon dioxide when trees are burnt or decompose, contributing to global warming.
Advancing farmers and loggers clear country-sized chunks of the forest every year -- more when grain, beef or timber prices are high, less when they fall.
Silva, a former rubber tapper and activist, urged Ban to help overcome opposition by some Western countries to a proposal within the international Convention on Biodiversity that would force pharmaceutical companies to pay for drugs derived from Amazon medicinal plants.
"He listened and said he would study the proposal," Silva said after a meeting with Ban late on Monday.
Scientists say global warming could turn part of the Amazon into semi-arid savanna within a few decades.
Extreme weather has caused droughts in some parts and flooding in others. Ban's planned trip along an Amazon tributary near the port city of Santarem was canceled because the river was too shallow.
Ban praised Brazil for its leadership in developing low-emission biofuels but said more international research was needed to study the possible impact of their large-scale production on food supplies.
On the weekend, he visited one of the plants in Sao Paulo state that make Brazil one of the largest and cheapest producers of ethanol.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government has increased police raids on illegal loggers and expanded protected areas. But it is also building roads and hydroelectric plants which conservationists fear could increase deforestation in the long term.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
UN chief wraps up Brazil trip with Amazon visit
Marc Burleigh, Yahoo News 14 Nov 07;
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday he was "committed" to helping Brazil preserve its Amazon basin, after national and indigenous officials asked him to provide greater international political support.
"I make my firm commitment that the United Nations will work with you and stand by you," Ban said as he stood on a jungle island in the Amazon, on the last leg of a week-long trip to South America and the Antarctic.
He described the flora and fauna of Brazil's forested northern region -- often termed "the lungs of the planet" for its role in absorbing greenhouse gases -- as "fantastic."
Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva, accompanying Ban and his wife up the Guama River in the Amazon basin to Combu Island, near Belem, said "the presence of the UN secretary general is a strong gesture" for Brazil's conservation efforts.
But she urged more concrete measures, namely Ban's support in having conventions on biodiversity and tackling climate change passed.
She said she also wanted to see countries that benefited from the products from Amazon's forest to help pay for its preservation.
"He can make a strong political contribution," she told reporters.
A representative of the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon, Antonio Marcos Alcantara de Oliveira, told Ban as he stopped under a giant tree on the island that indigenous people here needed assistance.
"The country and the state have contributed, but we need more, we need help," especially in the areas of education and health, he said, before bestowing a native necklace on the UN chief as a gift.
Ban reassured de Oliveira that the UN was aware of the needs of the Amazon.
"The people who have been living here for thousands and thousands of years, you are the pioneers in preserving this forest," he said.
He added that the Amazon forest was "a common asset of all humankind and we must preserve it."
The UN secretary general made the Amazon trip as part of his fact-finding mission to see for himself the results of global warming.
It may have been more educational that he originally planned: a trip along a river to a different village in the Amazon was changed at the last minute because the water level was too low, despite it being Brazil's rainy season.
Ban intends to take what he has learned first to a Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting in Valencia, Spain later this week, then to a December summit in Bali aimed at coming up with a successor text to the Kyoto treaty, which expires in 2012.
The UN chief has declared tackling climate change one of his top priorities.
He said he was "returning with a sense of great achievement" from what he had learned throughout his trip.
During his tour, he took in Argentina, Chile and the Antarctic before going to Brazil for three days. He met Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday and commended him on his ecological policies.
Ban was due to fly on to Spain, where he was to meet Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero, and then on to Tunisia for an international conference on terrorism, and finally back to Spain, for a climate change meeting in Valencia at the end of the week.
BELEM, Brazil - Beneath a towering canopy in the heat of the Amazon jungle, Brazilian Indians and officials urged UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday to rally international support to protect the world's largest rain forest.
"We need the Secretary to help convert international good will into concrete mechanisms that benefit the residents of the Amazon," Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva told Ban under a century-old Samauma tree 30 minutes upriver from Belem, the Amazon's largest city.
Ban was on the last stop of a South American tour that focused on the potential impact of global warming and included a visit to Antarctica last week.
"I kindly ask you to help create incentives so we and other forest dwellers can make a living here," Amazon Indian Marcos Apurina told Ban, who received a necklace made of native plant seeds and saw other forest products from honey to handicrafts.
Ban, who hiked a short jungle trail on Combu island on the Guama River, said: "The United Nations will stand beside you. This is a common asset of all humankind."
Earlier Ban petted a three-toed sloth and planted two native trees at a botanical garden in Belem.
Ban is preparing for a UN climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December, which should start talks to curb carbon emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
FOREST DESTRUCTION
Brazil produces the world's fourth-largest amount of carbon emissions, due mostly to the destruction of the Amazon rain forest, according to international environmental groups.
Ban did not comment on Brazil's refusal to adopt targets to reduce deforestation and carbon emissions. Instead, he commended Brazil for its efforts to curb forest destruction by 50 percent over two years, even though the rate has risen again since August.
The Amazon releases stored carbon dioxide when trees are burnt or decompose, contributing to global warming.
Advancing farmers and loggers clear country-sized chunks of the forest every year -- more when grain, beef or timber prices are high, less when they fall.
Silva, a former rubber tapper and activist, urged Ban to help overcome opposition by some Western countries to a proposal within the international Convention on Biodiversity that would force pharmaceutical companies to pay for drugs derived from Amazon medicinal plants.
"He listened and said he would study the proposal," Silva said after a meeting with Ban late on Monday.
Scientists say global warming could turn part of the Amazon into semi-arid savanna within a few decades.
Extreme weather has caused droughts in some parts and flooding in others. Ban's planned trip along an Amazon tributary near the port city of Santarem was canceled because the river was too shallow.
Ban praised Brazil for its leadership in developing low-emission biofuels but said more international research was needed to study the possible impact of their large-scale production on food supplies.
On the weekend, he visited one of the plants in Sao Paulo state that make Brazil one of the largest and cheapest producers of ethanol.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government has increased police raids on illegal loggers and expanded protected areas. But it is also building roads and hydroelectric plants which conservationists fear could increase deforestation in the long term.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
UN chief wraps up Brazil trip with Amazon visit
Marc Burleigh, Yahoo News 14 Nov 07;
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday he was "committed" to helping Brazil preserve its Amazon basin, after national and indigenous officials asked him to provide greater international political support.
"I make my firm commitment that the United Nations will work with you and stand by you," Ban said as he stood on a jungle island in the Amazon, on the last leg of a week-long trip to South America and the Antarctic.
He described the flora and fauna of Brazil's forested northern region -- often termed "the lungs of the planet" for its role in absorbing greenhouse gases -- as "fantastic."
Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva, accompanying Ban and his wife up the Guama River in the Amazon basin to Combu Island, near Belem, said "the presence of the UN secretary general is a strong gesture" for Brazil's conservation efforts.
But she urged more concrete measures, namely Ban's support in having conventions on biodiversity and tackling climate change passed.
She said she also wanted to see countries that benefited from the products from Amazon's forest to help pay for its preservation.
"He can make a strong political contribution," she told reporters.
A representative of the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon, Antonio Marcos Alcantara de Oliveira, told Ban as he stopped under a giant tree on the island that indigenous people here needed assistance.
"The country and the state have contributed, but we need more, we need help," especially in the areas of education and health, he said, before bestowing a native necklace on the UN chief as a gift.
Ban reassured de Oliveira that the UN was aware of the needs of the Amazon.
"The people who have been living here for thousands and thousands of years, you are the pioneers in preserving this forest," he said.
He added that the Amazon forest was "a common asset of all humankind and we must preserve it."
The UN secretary general made the Amazon trip as part of his fact-finding mission to see for himself the results of global warming.
It may have been more educational that he originally planned: a trip along a river to a different village in the Amazon was changed at the last minute because the water level was too low, despite it being Brazil's rainy season.
Ban intends to take what he has learned first to a Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting in Valencia, Spain later this week, then to a December summit in Bali aimed at coming up with a successor text to the Kyoto treaty, which expires in 2012.
The UN chief has declared tackling climate change one of his top priorities.
He said he was "returning with a sense of great achievement" from what he had learned throughout his trip.
During his tour, he took in Argentina, Chile and the Antarctic before going to Brazil for three days. He met Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday and commended him on his ecological policies.
Ban was due to fly on to Spain, where he was to meet Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero, and then on to Tunisia for an international conference on terrorism, and finally back to Spain, for a climate change meeting in Valencia at the end of the week.
London aims to be free of plastic bags
Straits Times 14 Nov 07
Backed by strong public support, council chiefs to press for ban in city
LONDON - THE British capital was set to take steps towards becoming the world's biggest plastic-bag-free city yesterday, with the chief executives of its 33 councils expected to push for a ban.
Hundreds of millions of plastic bags are given away by London shops each year, with most of them ending up in landfill sites.
But a poll of London residents and organisations conducted over the past two months has found more than 90 per cent of respondents supported environmentally-friendly moves to ban the bags or impose a tax of up to 15 pence (about 40 Singapore cents) on each one given out.
The Guardian newspaper said yesterday that as the Treasury is thought to be unlikely to support such a tax, the council chiefs were expected to press for a ban at a meeting later in the day.
It quoted a London Councils spokesman as saying: 'The mood is definitely to do something.'
He admitted that the councils do not have the power to impose a ban by themselves and would rely on a Member of Parliament introducing a private Bill. But the chief executives' decision will carry a lot of weight.
The paper pointed out that the national ban on smoking in public followed a similar initiative by the councils three years ago.
And if the bag ban receives parliamentary backing, it could be in place within 18 months.
When it conducted the survey, London Councils said that - across the country - 13 billion plastic bags are handed out to shoppers each year, with each person receiving about 220.
At the same time, only around one in 200 is recycled, with billions being sent to landfill sites where they can take up to 400 years to break down.
It also said cutting the number of plastic bags being handed out by just a quarter could eliminate 58,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year - the equivalent of taking 18,000 cars off the road.
London Councils pointed to the experience in Ireland, where a 15-euro-cent (about 30 Singapore cents) levy introduced in 2002 has led to a 95 per cent reduction in plastic bag use.
Paris is also imposing a ban this year, which is set to be extended to cover the entire country in just over two years.
In the United States, San Francisco led the way by banning plastic shopping bags in March.
Plastic bag ban set for London
Paul Eccleston The Telegraph 13 Nov 07
London councils want free plastic bags to be banned. They want shops to sell more environmentally friendly reusable bags instead.
London Councils, the umbrella group for 33 local authorities in the capital, say Londoners use at least 1.6bn bags every year. An estimated 13bn bags are issued to shoppers annually in the UK and 4bn end up in landfill sites.
London Councils have approved a private Bill aimed at encouraging alternatives to plastic bags following a consultation in which 90 per cent of people called for action and 60 per cent wanted an outright ban.
Councillor Merrick Cockell, chairman of London Councils, said: "The campaign to rid the capital of the environmental blight of throwaway shopping bags begins here.
"As a society, we need to do far more to reduce the amount of waste we are sending to landfill and London as a city is determined to take an ambitious lead on this issue.
"I urge all Londoners to voice their support to their MP and back the Bill once it gets to Parliament."
Its London Local Authorities (Shopping Bag) Bill is due to be deposited in Parliament on November 27.
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Meanwhile Sainsbury's claims that demand for free plastic bags has dropped 10 per cent in the last six months. The drop equates to 85m bags which the High Street stories claims saves 750 tonnes of bags going to landfill.
At the same time demand for re-useable bags has soared 50 per cent. Sainsbury's claims it is clear evidence that shoppers are becoming more environmentally aware.
Gwyn Burr, Sainsbury's customer director, said: "This is a positive and significant shift in the right direction. Customers are using and re-using longer life bags more than ever before and relying less on free carrier bags.
"This also suggests that our 'Make the difference' days are encouraging real behaviour change amongst our 16 million customers and their shopping habits.
The supermarket has staged two 'make the difference' days when it has removed free plastic carrier bags from the checkout and replaced them with free re-useable 'bags for life'.
It will be repeating the offer on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th November 2007. Sainsbury's aims to give customers 9 million re-usable bags - made from recycled materials - over the weekend. If the bag wears out it will be replaced free of charge and the old one recycled.
"We will provide the bags for free but need customers to re-use them to really make the difference. Working together, these small and easy changes today can make real and lasting differences on major environmental issues," said Gwynn Burr.
An estimated 9m customers have received a free 'bag for life', although they are in fact used on average only 20 times, and Sainsbury's claims sales of re-usable bags have risen dramatically since the 'make the difference' days.
Hertfordshire-based degradable plastics firm Symphony Environmental Ltd said degradable carriers should be exempt from any future ban.
"It is the efficient disposal of the ones left in the open environment which has become a major problem," the firm said in a statement.
"Bags which really do degrade and do so safely are the only obvious answer and the company believes most short-life plastic products should be made from oxo-bio plastic."
Backed by strong public support, council chiefs to press for ban in city
LONDON - THE British capital was set to take steps towards becoming the world's biggest plastic-bag-free city yesterday, with the chief executives of its 33 councils expected to push for a ban.
Hundreds of millions of plastic bags are given away by London shops each year, with most of them ending up in landfill sites.
But a poll of London residents and organisations conducted over the past two months has found more than 90 per cent of respondents supported environmentally-friendly moves to ban the bags or impose a tax of up to 15 pence (about 40 Singapore cents) on each one given out.
The Guardian newspaper said yesterday that as the Treasury is thought to be unlikely to support such a tax, the council chiefs were expected to press for a ban at a meeting later in the day.
It quoted a London Councils spokesman as saying: 'The mood is definitely to do something.'
He admitted that the councils do not have the power to impose a ban by themselves and would rely on a Member of Parliament introducing a private Bill. But the chief executives' decision will carry a lot of weight.
The paper pointed out that the national ban on smoking in public followed a similar initiative by the councils three years ago.
And if the bag ban receives parliamentary backing, it could be in place within 18 months.
When it conducted the survey, London Councils said that - across the country - 13 billion plastic bags are handed out to shoppers each year, with each person receiving about 220.
At the same time, only around one in 200 is recycled, with billions being sent to landfill sites where they can take up to 400 years to break down.
It also said cutting the number of plastic bags being handed out by just a quarter could eliminate 58,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year - the equivalent of taking 18,000 cars off the road.
London Councils pointed to the experience in Ireland, where a 15-euro-cent (about 30 Singapore cents) levy introduced in 2002 has led to a 95 per cent reduction in plastic bag use.
Paris is also imposing a ban this year, which is set to be extended to cover the entire country in just over two years.
In the United States, San Francisco led the way by banning plastic shopping bags in March.
Plastic bag ban set for London
Paul Eccleston The Telegraph 13 Nov 07
London councils want free plastic bags to be banned. They want shops to sell more environmentally friendly reusable bags instead.
London Councils, the umbrella group for 33 local authorities in the capital, say Londoners use at least 1.6bn bags every year. An estimated 13bn bags are issued to shoppers annually in the UK and 4bn end up in landfill sites.
London Councils have approved a private Bill aimed at encouraging alternatives to plastic bags following a consultation in which 90 per cent of people called for action and 60 per cent wanted an outright ban.
Councillor Merrick Cockell, chairman of London Councils, said: "The campaign to rid the capital of the environmental blight of throwaway shopping bags begins here.
"As a society, we need to do far more to reduce the amount of waste we are sending to landfill and London as a city is determined to take an ambitious lead on this issue.
"I urge all Londoners to voice their support to their MP and back the Bill once it gets to Parliament."
Its London Local Authorities (Shopping Bag) Bill is due to be deposited in Parliament on November 27.
advertisement
Meanwhile Sainsbury's claims that demand for free plastic bags has dropped 10 per cent in the last six months. The drop equates to 85m bags which the High Street stories claims saves 750 tonnes of bags going to landfill.
At the same time demand for re-useable bags has soared 50 per cent. Sainsbury's claims it is clear evidence that shoppers are becoming more environmentally aware.
Gwyn Burr, Sainsbury's customer director, said: "This is a positive and significant shift in the right direction. Customers are using and re-using longer life bags more than ever before and relying less on free carrier bags.
"This also suggests that our 'Make the difference' days are encouraging real behaviour change amongst our 16 million customers and their shopping habits.
The supermarket has staged two 'make the difference' days when it has removed free plastic carrier bags from the checkout and replaced them with free re-useable 'bags for life'.
It will be repeating the offer on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th November 2007. Sainsbury's aims to give customers 9 million re-usable bags - made from recycled materials - over the weekend. If the bag wears out it will be replaced free of charge and the old one recycled.
"We will provide the bags for free but need customers to re-use them to really make the difference. Working together, these small and easy changes today can make real and lasting differences on major environmental issues," said Gwynn Burr.
An estimated 9m customers have received a free 'bag for life', although they are in fact used on average only 20 times, and Sainsbury's claims sales of re-usable bags have risen dramatically since the 'make the difference' days.
Hertfordshire-based degradable plastics firm Symphony Environmental Ltd said degradable carriers should be exempt from any future ban.
"It is the efficient disposal of the ones left in the open environment which has become a major problem," the firm said in a statement.
"Bags which really do degrade and do so safely are the only obvious answer and the company believes most short-life plastic products should be made from oxo-bio plastic."
Climate change panel esteemed but flawed
Arthur Max, Associated Press, Yahoo News 14 Nov 07
They are seen as the gurus of global warming, and their reports are accepted almost as the gospel of climate science. Esteem for the panel of scientists was immortalized when it shared this year's Nobel Peace prize.
But experts and the scientists themselves acknowledge the reports are conservative and have a poor track record of predictions.
As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meets in this Mediterranean coastal city to finish its fourth report in two decades, it must decide whether it will produce a fifth.
"Next year would complete 20 years of the IPCC," said chairman Rajendra Pachauri. "That clearly is a point where we should carry out deep and detailed introspection on what we have achieved, what we could have achieved further, and how we might be able to ensure achievement in the future."
The future of the panel, which shared the Nobel with former Vice President Al Gore, is an agenda item at the weeklong meeting that wraps up Saturday with the release of its latest climate change assessment.
The panel, a loose organization of more than 2,000 scientists who submit their own research and review the work of others, has issued extensive reports on global warming every five or six years since it was created under the auspices of two U.N. bodies. Each report includes a brief Summary for Policymakers, which is approved by government representatives.
The assessment reports have won accolades as the most authoritative compilation of climate science available, largely because of the rigorous process of peer review. Even if the data produced by different researchers may conflict, the science is deemed to be solid.
But its thoroughness is also a shackle that condemns it to lag behind the latest research. It usually takes the collaborative efforts of dozens of IPCC authors about two years to compile a report and takes at least a year for a scientific paper to be reviewed.
In its assessment this year, the IPCC has reported with near certainty that human activity is causing temperatures to rise and changing weather patterns. Sea levels are rising, storms are growing more fierce, deserts are spreading and glaciers are melting, it said. The panel predicts that millions of poor people will suffer from hunger, thirst, floods and disease unless drastic action is taken. But it also says the tools are available, or soon will be, to greatly slow global warming, soften the impact and help nations adapt to changing conditions.
As grim as that may look, the reality may be much worse.
"We need to understand that the worst impacts in the report may not in fact be the worst that will happen, or the worst that appear possible," said Peter Altman, the climate policy project manager for the National Environmental Trust, a Washington lobby.
"What's in the report now is scary enough. But in most of the predictions the IPCC has made, just about everything is happening faster and more intensely than we thought," he said. "This issue is not being overstated. If anything, it is being understated."
A joint report this month by two U.S. security institutes said they compared predictions of climate change by the panel and other researchers in the last two decades with changes that actually occurred, and found the scientists had consistently fallen short.
Part of the reason was the lack of data, but it also could be that the scientists shied away from controversy and wanted to avoid being discredited as "alarmists," said the paper by the Center for Strategic International Studies and the Center for a New American Security.
The scientists see their caution as a strength rather than a shortcoming.
"The process tends to lead to a fairly conservative outcome," said Bert Metz, one of the IPCC's lead authors, because the scientists will wait for verification of research before pronouncing a possible trend.
"By not using an alarmist or advocatist tone, you in the end gain much more credibility," said Metz, of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.
The World Wide Fund for Nature, or WWF International, which is invited with other environmental groups to observe IPCC meetings, agrees the IPCC process is cumbersome and late.
"Climate change is going faster than our worst-case scenarios of five or six years ago," said WWF's climate specialist Hans Verolme.
Still, he said, it would be difficult for the panel to issue more frequent reports to try to keep pace with the research without sacrificing its scientific integrity. "I wouldn't know how to speed up the process," he said.
UN panel in 'difficult' debate over global warming paper
Yahoo News 13 Nov 07
UN climate experts wrangled here Tuesday over a landmark document on global warming amid criticism that the draft report was bland and some of its findings out of date.
One negotiator described the talks among the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as "difficult".
The source said there had been by sharp exchanges over what the document should include and whether it should reflect findings published after a cut-off date for new material.
The document, to be published on Saturday, will distil the IPCC's 2,500-page, three-volume assessment on climate change -- issued earlier this year -- into a 25-page synthesis for policymakers.
Over the next five years, the report is to function as an informed, neutral guide for decision-makers who face policy choices on climate change.
"This is the single source to which all stakeholders will come for unbiased scientific information on climate change," Yan Hong, deputy secretary of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), told delegates on Monday.
Much of the discussion in the opening session was related to sections relating to national sensitivity, sources said.
Peru and Switzerland, for example, were fighting for a specific mention about the impacts of melting glaciers.
The United States, meanwhile, questioned a reference that implied that powerful tropical storms would increase this century. It argued that observational data could be interpreted variously.
The three IPCC reports issued earlier this year predicted that by 2100, global average surface temperatures could rise by between 1.1 C (1.98 F) and 6.4 C (11.52 F) compared to 1980-99 levels.
Among the already-visible consequences of warming are retreating glaciers and snow loss in alpine regions, thinning Arctic summer sea ice and thawing permafrost, the reports said.
Sea levels would rise by between 18 and 59 centimetres (7.2 and 23.2 inches), driven mainly by thermal expansion of the oceans, as water warms, its volume expands.
But some delegates, notably those from Britain and India, voiced concerns that the final summary, if shorn from the context of the longer reports, would be an inadequate tool for policymakers, a source said.
They also pointed out that the draft failed to take into account recent evidence of accelerated warming, including the shrinkage of the Arctic ice cap, glacier loss in Greenland, a surge in levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and an apparent slowing of Earth's ability to absorb greenhouse gases.
Other data suggest that sea levels are likely to rise at twice the rate sketched in the earlier IPCC report, driven by glacial runoff.
But according to IPCC ground rules, no new material can be included in the IPCC synthesis beyond the cutoff deadline, which occurred more than a year ago.
The IPCC is meeting for the first time since it won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize last month alongside former US vice president Al Gore, lauded for his campaigning on climate change.
A global conference takes place in Bali, Indonesia, next month, tasked with setting down a "roadmap" towards deeper cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions beyond 2012, when current commitments expire under the UN's Kyoto Protocol.
They are seen as the gurus of global warming, and their reports are accepted almost as the gospel of climate science. Esteem for the panel of scientists was immortalized when it shared this year's Nobel Peace prize.
But experts and the scientists themselves acknowledge the reports are conservative and have a poor track record of predictions.
As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meets in this Mediterranean coastal city to finish its fourth report in two decades, it must decide whether it will produce a fifth.
"Next year would complete 20 years of the IPCC," said chairman Rajendra Pachauri. "That clearly is a point where we should carry out deep and detailed introspection on what we have achieved, what we could have achieved further, and how we might be able to ensure achievement in the future."
The future of the panel, which shared the Nobel with former Vice President Al Gore, is an agenda item at the weeklong meeting that wraps up Saturday with the release of its latest climate change assessment.
The panel, a loose organization of more than 2,000 scientists who submit their own research and review the work of others, has issued extensive reports on global warming every five or six years since it was created under the auspices of two U.N. bodies. Each report includes a brief Summary for Policymakers, which is approved by government representatives.
The assessment reports have won accolades as the most authoritative compilation of climate science available, largely because of the rigorous process of peer review. Even if the data produced by different researchers may conflict, the science is deemed to be solid.
But its thoroughness is also a shackle that condemns it to lag behind the latest research. It usually takes the collaborative efforts of dozens of IPCC authors about two years to compile a report and takes at least a year for a scientific paper to be reviewed.
In its assessment this year, the IPCC has reported with near certainty that human activity is causing temperatures to rise and changing weather patterns. Sea levels are rising, storms are growing more fierce, deserts are spreading and glaciers are melting, it said. The panel predicts that millions of poor people will suffer from hunger, thirst, floods and disease unless drastic action is taken. But it also says the tools are available, or soon will be, to greatly slow global warming, soften the impact and help nations adapt to changing conditions.
As grim as that may look, the reality may be much worse.
"We need to understand that the worst impacts in the report may not in fact be the worst that will happen, or the worst that appear possible," said Peter Altman, the climate policy project manager for the National Environmental Trust, a Washington lobby.
"What's in the report now is scary enough. But in most of the predictions the IPCC has made, just about everything is happening faster and more intensely than we thought," he said. "This issue is not being overstated. If anything, it is being understated."
A joint report this month by two U.S. security institutes said they compared predictions of climate change by the panel and other researchers in the last two decades with changes that actually occurred, and found the scientists had consistently fallen short.
Part of the reason was the lack of data, but it also could be that the scientists shied away from controversy and wanted to avoid being discredited as "alarmists," said the paper by the Center for Strategic International Studies and the Center for a New American Security.
The scientists see their caution as a strength rather than a shortcoming.
"The process tends to lead to a fairly conservative outcome," said Bert Metz, one of the IPCC's lead authors, because the scientists will wait for verification of research before pronouncing a possible trend.
"By not using an alarmist or advocatist tone, you in the end gain much more credibility," said Metz, of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.
The World Wide Fund for Nature, or WWF International, which is invited with other environmental groups to observe IPCC meetings, agrees the IPCC process is cumbersome and late.
"Climate change is going faster than our worst-case scenarios of five or six years ago," said WWF's climate specialist Hans Verolme.
Still, he said, it would be difficult for the panel to issue more frequent reports to try to keep pace with the research without sacrificing its scientific integrity. "I wouldn't know how to speed up the process," he said.
UN panel in 'difficult' debate over global warming paper
Yahoo News 13 Nov 07
UN climate experts wrangled here Tuesday over a landmark document on global warming amid criticism that the draft report was bland and some of its findings out of date.
One negotiator described the talks among the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as "difficult".
The source said there had been by sharp exchanges over what the document should include and whether it should reflect findings published after a cut-off date for new material.
The document, to be published on Saturday, will distil the IPCC's 2,500-page, three-volume assessment on climate change -- issued earlier this year -- into a 25-page synthesis for policymakers.
Over the next five years, the report is to function as an informed, neutral guide for decision-makers who face policy choices on climate change.
"This is the single source to which all stakeholders will come for unbiased scientific information on climate change," Yan Hong, deputy secretary of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), told delegates on Monday.
Much of the discussion in the opening session was related to sections relating to national sensitivity, sources said.
Peru and Switzerland, for example, were fighting for a specific mention about the impacts of melting glaciers.
The United States, meanwhile, questioned a reference that implied that powerful tropical storms would increase this century. It argued that observational data could be interpreted variously.
The three IPCC reports issued earlier this year predicted that by 2100, global average surface temperatures could rise by between 1.1 C (1.98 F) and 6.4 C (11.52 F) compared to 1980-99 levels.
Among the already-visible consequences of warming are retreating glaciers and snow loss in alpine regions, thinning Arctic summer sea ice and thawing permafrost, the reports said.
Sea levels would rise by between 18 and 59 centimetres (7.2 and 23.2 inches), driven mainly by thermal expansion of the oceans, as water warms, its volume expands.
But some delegates, notably those from Britain and India, voiced concerns that the final summary, if shorn from the context of the longer reports, would be an inadequate tool for policymakers, a source said.
They also pointed out that the draft failed to take into account recent evidence of accelerated warming, including the shrinkage of the Arctic ice cap, glacier loss in Greenland, a surge in levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and an apparent slowing of Earth's ability to absorb greenhouse gases.
Other data suggest that sea levels are likely to rise at twice the rate sketched in the earlier IPCC report, driven by glacial runoff.
But according to IPCC ground rules, no new material can be included in the IPCC synthesis beyond the cutoff deadline, which occurred more than a year ago.
The IPCC is meeting for the first time since it won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize last month alongside former US vice president Al Gore, lauded for his campaigning on climate change.
A global conference takes place in Bali, Indonesia, next month, tasked with setting down a "roadmap" towards deeper cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions beyond 2012, when current commitments expire under the UN's Kyoto Protocol.
No consensus on IPCC's level of ignorance
John Christy, BBC News 13 Nov 07
Professor of Atmospheric Science, University of Alabama
As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) puts the finishing touches to its final report of the year, two of its senior scientists look at what the panel is and how well it works. Here, a view from a leading researcher into temperature change.
The IPCC is a framework around which hundreds of scientists and other participants are organised to mine the panoply of climate change literature to produce a synthesis of the most important and relevant findings.
These findings are published every few years to help policymakers keep tabs on where the participants chosen for the IPCC believe the Earth's climate has been, where it is going, and what might be done to adapt to and/or even adjust the predicted outcome.
While most participants are scientists and bring the aura of objectivity, there are two things to note:
Thus at the outset, the political apparatus of the member nations has a role in pre-selecting the main participants.
But, it may go further.
Unsound bites
At an IPCC Lead Authors' meeting in New Zealand, I well remember a conversation over lunch with three Europeans, unknown to me but who served as authors on other chapters. I sat at their table because it was convenient.
After introducing myself, I sat in silence as their discussion continued, which boiled down to this: "We must write this report so strongly that it will convince the US to sign the Kyoto Protocol."
Politics, at least for a few of the Lead Authors, was very much part and parcel of the process.
And, while the 2001 report was being written, Dr Robert Watson, IPCC Chair at the time, testified to the US Senate in 2000 adamantly advocating on behalf of the Kyoto Protocol, which even the journal Nature now reports is a failure.
Follow the herd
As I said above - and this may come as a surprise - scientists are mere mortals.
The tendency to succumb to group-think and the herd-instinct (now formally called the "informational cascade") is perhaps as tempting among scientists as any group because we, by definition, must be the "ones who know" (from the Latin sciere , to know).
You dare not be thought of as "one who does not know"; hence we may succumb to the pressure to be perceived as "one who knows".
This leads, in my opinion, to an overstatement of confidence in the published findings and to a ready acceptance of the views of anointed authorities.
Scepticism, a hallmark of science, is frowned upon. (I suspect the IPCC bureaucracy cringes whenever I'm identified as an IPCC Lead Author.)
The signature statement of the 2007 IPCC report may be paraphrased as this: "We are 90% confident that most of the warming in the past 50 years is due to humans."
We are not told here that this assertion is based on computer model output, not direct observation. The simple fact is we don't have thermometers marked with "this much is human-caused" and "this much is natural".
So, I would have written this conclusion as "Our climate models are incapable of reproducing the last 50 years of surface temperatures without a push from how we think greenhouse gases influence the climate. Other processes may also account for much of this change."
Slim models
To me, the elevation of climate models to the status of definitive tools for prediction has led to the temptation to be over-confident.
Here is how this can work.
Computer models are the basic tools which are used to estimate the future climate. Many scientists (ie the mere mortals) have been captivated by an IPCC image in which the actual global surface temperature curve for the 20th Century is overlaid on a band of model simulations of temperature for the same period.
The observations seem to fit right in the middle of the model band, implying that models are formulated so capably and completely that they can reproduce the past very well.
Without knowing much about climate models, any group will be persuaded by this image to believe models are quite precise.
However, there is a fundamental flaw with this thinking.
You see, every modeller knew what the answer was ahead of time. (Those groans you just heard were the protestations of my colleagues in the modelling community - they know what's coming).
In my view, on the other hand, this persuasive image is not a scientific experiment at all. The agreement displayed is just as likely to do with clever software engineering as to the first principles of science.
The proper and objective experiment is to test model output against quantities not known ahead of time.
Complex world
Our group is one of the few that builds a variety of climate datasets from scratch for tests just like this.
Since we build the datasets here, we have an urge to be sceptical about arguments-from-authority in favour of the real, though imperfect, observations.
In these model vs data comparisons, we find gross inconsistencies - hence I am sceptical of our ability to claim cause and effect about both past and future climate states.
Mother Nature is incredibly complex, and to think we mortals are so clever and so perceptive that we can create computer code that accurately reproduces the millions of processes that determine climate is hubris (think of predicting the complexities of clouds).
Of all scientists, climate scientists should be the most humble. Our cousins in the one-to-five-day weather prediction business learned this long ago, partly because they were held accountable for their predictions every day.
Answering the question about how much warming has occurred because of increases in greenhouse gases and what we may expect in the future still holds enormous uncertainty, in my view.
Explosive view
How could the situation be improved? At one time I stated that the IPCC-like process was the worst way to compile scientific knowledge, except for all the others.
Improvements have been adopted through the years, most notably the publication of the comments and responses. Bravo.
I would think a simple way to let the world know there are other opinions about various aspects emerging from the IPCC font would be to provide some quasi-official forum to allow those views to be expressed.
These alternative-view authors should be afforded the same protocol as the IPCC authors, ie they themselves are their own final reviewers and thus would have final say on what is published.
At that point, I suppose, the blogosphere would erupt and, amidst the fire and smoke, hopefully, enlightenment may appear.
I continue to participate in the IPCC (unless an IPCC functionary reads this missive and blackballs me) because I not only am able to contribute from my own research, but there are numerous opportunities to learn something new - to feed the curiosity that attends a scientist's soul.
I can live with the disagreements concerning nuances and subjective assertions as they simply remind me that all scientists are people, and do not prevent me from speaking my mind anyway.
Wise teachings
Don't misunderstand me.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide continues to increase due to the undisputed benefits that carbon-based energy brings to humanity. This increase will have some climate impact through CO2's radiation properties.
However, fundamental knowledge is meagre here, and our own research indicates that alarming changes in the key observations are not occurring.
The best advice regarding scientific knowledge, which certainly applies to climate, came to me from Mr Mallory, my high school physics teacher.
He proposed that we should always begin our scientific pronouncements with this statement: "At our present level of ignorance, we think we know..."
Good advice for the IPCC, and all of us.
John R Christy is Professor and Director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, US
He has contributed to all four major IPCC assessments, including acting as a Lead Author in 2001 and a Contributing Author in 2007
This week, ahead of the launch of the IPCC's synthesis report for 2007, the BBC News website is looking at various aspects of "climate scepticism" and "catastrophism". If you have something novel to say on climate change, please let us know - we will be publishing a selection of your comments on Friday.
Professor of Atmospheric Science, University of Alabama
As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) puts the finishing touches to its final report of the year, two of its senior scientists look at what the panel is and how well it works. Here, a view from a leading researcher into temperature change.
The IPCC is a framework around which hundreds of scientists and other participants are organised to mine the panoply of climate change literature to produce a synthesis of the most important and relevant findings.
These findings are published every few years to help policymakers keep tabs on where the participants chosen for the IPCC believe the Earth's climate has been, where it is going, and what might be done to adapt to and/or even adjust the predicted outcome.
While most participants are scientists and bring the aura of objectivity, there are two things to note:
- this is a political process to some extent (anytime governments are involved it ends up that way)
- scientists are mere mortals casting their gaze on a system so complex we cannot precisely predict its future state even five days ahead
Thus at the outset, the political apparatus of the member nations has a role in pre-selecting the main participants.
But, it may go further.
Unsound bites
At an IPCC Lead Authors' meeting in New Zealand, I well remember a conversation over lunch with three Europeans, unknown to me but who served as authors on other chapters. I sat at their table because it was convenient.
After introducing myself, I sat in silence as their discussion continued, which boiled down to this: "We must write this report so strongly that it will convince the US to sign the Kyoto Protocol."
Politics, at least for a few of the Lead Authors, was very much part and parcel of the process.
And, while the 2001 report was being written, Dr Robert Watson, IPCC Chair at the time, testified to the US Senate in 2000 adamantly advocating on behalf of the Kyoto Protocol, which even the journal Nature now reports is a failure.
Follow the herd
As I said above - and this may come as a surprise - scientists are mere mortals.
The tendency to succumb to group-think and the herd-instinct (now formally called the "informational cascade") is perhaps as tempting among scientists as any group because we, by definition, must be the "ones who know" (from the Latin sciere , to know).
You dare not be thought of as "one who does not know"; hence we may succumb to the pressure to be perceived as "one who knows".
This leads, in my opinion, to an overstatement of confidence in the published findings and to a ready acceptance of the views of anointed authorities.
Scepticism, a hallmark of science, is frowned upon. (I suspect the IPCC bureaucracy cringes whenever I'm identified as an IPCC Lead Author.)
The signature statement of the 2007 IPCC report may be paraphrased as this: "We are 90% confident that most of the warming in the past 50 years is due to humans."
We are not told here that this assertion is based on computer model output, not direct observation. The simple fact is we don't have thermometers marked with "this much is human-caused" and "this much is natural".
So, I would have written this conclusion as "Our climate models are incapable of reproducing the last 50 years of surface temperatures without a push from how we think greenhouse gases influence the climate. Other processes may also account for much of this change."
Slim models
To me, the elevation of climate models to the status of definitive tools for prediction has led to the temptation to be over-confident.
Here is how this can work.
Computer models are the basic tools which are used to estimate the future climate. Many scientists (ie the mere mortals) have been captivated by an IPCC image in which the actual global surface temperature curve for the 20th Century is overlaid on a band of model simulations of temperature for the same period.
The observations seem to fit right in the middle of the model band, implying that models are formulated so capably and completely that they can reproduce the past very well.
Without knowing much about climate models, any group will be persuaded by this image to believe models are quite precise.
However, there is a fundamental flaw with this thinking.
You see, every modeller knew what the answer was ahead of time. (Those groans you just heard were the protestations of my colleagues in the modelling community - they know what's coming).
In my view, on the other hand, this persuasive image is not a scientific experiment at all. The agreement displayed is just as likely to do with clever software engineering as to the first principles of science.
The proper and objective experiment is to test model output against quantities not known ahead of time.
Complex world
Our group is one of the few that builds a variety of climate datasets from scratch for tests just like this.
Since we build the datasets here, we have an urge to be sceptical about arguments-from-authority in favour of the real, though imperfect, observations.
In these model vs data comparisons, we find gross inconsistencies - hence I am sceptical of our ability to claim cause and effect about both past and future climate states.
Mother Nature is incredibly complex, and to think we mortals are so clever and so perceptive that we can create computer code that accurately reproduces the millions of processes that determine climate is hubris (think of predicting the complexities of clouds).
Of all scientists, climate scientists should be the most humble. Our cousins in the one-to-five-day weather prediction business learned this long ago, partly because they were held accountable for their predictions every day.
Answering the question about how much warming has occurred because of increases in greenhouse gases and what we may expect in the future still holds enormous uncertainty, in my view.
Explosive view
How could the situation be improved? At one time I stated that the IPCC-like process was the worst way to compile scientific knowledge, except for all the others.
Improvements have been adopted through the years, most notably the publication of the comments and responses. Bravo.
I would think a simple way to let the world know there are other opinions about various aspects emerging from the IPCC font would be to provide some quasi-official forum to allow those views to be expressed.
These alternative-view authors should be afforded the same protocol as the IPCC authors, ie they themselves are their own final reviewers and thus would have final say on what is published.
At that point, I suppose, the blogosphere would erupt and, amidst the fire and smoke, hopefully, enlightenment may appear.
I continue to participate in the IPCC (unless an IPCC functionary reads this missive and blackballs me) because I not only am able to contribute from my own research, but there are numerous opportunities to learn something new - to feed the curiosity that attends a scientist's soul.
I can live with the disagreements concerning nuances and subjective assertions as they simply remind me that all scientists are people, and do not prevent me from speaking my mind anyway.
Wise teachings
Don't misunderstand me.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide continues to increase due to the undisputed benefits that carbon-based energy brings to humanity. This increase will have some climate impact through CO2's radiation properties.
However, fundamental knowledge is meagre here, and our own research indicates that alarming changes in the key observations are not occurring.
The best advice regarding scientific knowledge, which certainly applies to climate, came to me from Mr Mallory, my high school physics teacher.
He proposed that we should always begin our scientific pronouncements with this statement: "At our present level of ignorance, we think we know..."
Good advice for the IPCC, and all of us.
John R Christy is Professor and Director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, US
He has contributed to all four major IPCC assessments, including acting as a Lead Author in 2001 and a Contributing Author in 2007
This week, ahead of the launch of the IPCC's synthesis report for 2007, the BBC News website is looking at various aspects of "climate scepticism" and "catastrophism". If you have something novel to say on climate change, please let us know - we will be publishing a selection of your comments on Friday.
New green standard for big events
BBC News 12 Nov 07;
A management system to help organisers reduce the environmental impact of staging an event has been launched by the British Standards Institute (BSI).
Energy use, waste reduction and protecting historical sites are among the areas covered by the new standard.
The green benchmark, BS 8901, was set up in response to the growing demand for environmentally and ethically sound goods and services, the BSI said.
It is hoped that local as well as global events will use the scheme.
Large-scale events have been coming under increasing pressure to take into account their impact on the environment.
This summer's Live Earth concerts, organised by former US vice-president Al Gore to highlight the issue of climate change, were accused by critics of sending out a mixed message. They said it was hypocritical for performers to fly around the world in order to push the message of cutting down on carbon emissions.
"Increasingly, customers are demanding sustainable products and services," said Mike Low, director of BSI British Standards.
"BS 8901 will serve as a road map for organisations wanting to improve the sustainability of their events.
"This standard provides a simple framework which can be used to address concerns such as reducing carbon emissions and improving resource efficiency."
LINKS
Sustainable events? BSI invites organisers, venues and suppliers to trial new standard on the BSI website
Green Conventions on wikipedia
A management system to help organisers reduce the environmental impact of staging an event has been launched by the British Standards Institute (BSI).
Energy use, waste reduction and protecting historical sites are among the areas covered by the new standard.
The green benchmark, BS 8901, was set up in response to the growing demand for environmentally and ethically sound goods and services, the BSI said.
It is hoped that local as well as global events will use the scheme.
Large-scale events have been coming under increasing pressure to take into account their impact on the environment.
This summer's Live Earth concerts, organised by former US vice-president Al Gore to highlight the issue of climate change, were accused by critics of sending out a mixed message. They said it was hypocritical for performers to fly around the world in order to push the message of cutting down on carbon emissions.
"Increasingly, customers are demanding sustainable products and services," said Mike Low, director of BSI British Standards.
"BS 8901 will serve as a road map for organisations wanting to improve the sustainability of their events.
"This standard provides a simple framework which can be used to address concerns such as reducing carbon emissions and improving resource efficiency."
LINKS
Sustainable events? BSI invites organisers, venues and suppliers to trial new standard on the BSI website
Green Conventions on wikipedia
As China's mega dam rises, so do strains and fear
Chris Buckley, Yahoo News 14 Nov 07;
The slopes of Chenjialing Village have shuddered and groaned lately, cracking and warping homes and fields, and making residents fear the banks of China's swelling Three Gorges Dam may hold deadly perils.
The vast hydro scheme is meant to subdue the Yangtze River, but as the water levels rise, parts of its shores have strained and cracked, dismaying scientists and officials and alarming villages such as Chenjialing in Badong County.
Xiang Chuncai, who has lived much of her 84 years on this hillside of orange groves above the Yangtze, recalled waking in fright last year to rattling windows and rumbling noises from the earth. The tremors returned several times in past months, residents of this village in Hubei province said.
"It's all been splitting since the Three Gorges Dam was filled," Xiang said, poking a wide crack snaking up a wall in her earth-brick home. "We don't have the money to move ... I'm scared what will happen if we stay," Xiang added.
Along the 660-km (410-mile) reservoir, residents pointed to erosion, slides and deformed terrain they said have seriously worsened since last year, when the water level was raised a second time.
While authorities have vowed to contain geological aftershocks from the dam, poor farmers worry about being swallowed up by landslides. The resulting tensions threaten to rekindle the bitter clashes that long dogged the project.
"Sometimes the ground rumbles and shakes, dogs bark, babies cry. It frightens us too," said Xiang's neighbor, Su Gongxiang, showing his front door that will no longer shut.
MASTERING NATURE
These days, China stands almost alone among nations in wielding the wealth and will to conjure up vast engineering efforts to alter the flow of rivers and lives of millions.
The Three Gorges Dam is the world's biggest, an engineering feat that seeks to tame the world's third longest river while displacing 1.4 million people.
The 6,300-km (3,910-mile) Yangtze, which rises on the Tibetan plateau, flows through the towering Three Gorges to irrigate, and often flood, much of the country's central and eastern plains.
From 1919 a succession of leaders argued that a dam would end devastating floods and generate power. That dream eluded the revolutionary founder Mao Zedong, whose plans for a dam foundered in political turmoil and poverty.
But in the 1980s, a new generation of Communist Party leaders championed the plan as a trophy of growing economic power.
They faced down opposition from environmental critics and skeptical scientists who in 1992 persuaded an unprecedented third of the usually docile Party-controlled parliament either to oppose the plan or abstain from voting.
Construction began in 1994.
Since the 2,309-metre-long dam was finished in 2003, the reservoir has been filled with water in stages. If all goes to plan, it will reach its maximum capacity of 39.3 billion cubic meters of water by the end of 2008, capping a year of national glory centered on the Beijing Olympics.
"NEVER LIKE THIS BEFORE"
But in Chenjialing this engineering triumph has brought bewilderment and the resigned anger that comes easily to people with little say over their own lives.
Its 1,400 villagers live above what was once a rivulet that could be waded across. These days it is a deep inlet that can moor big coal boats plying the Yangtze.
Everywhere among the fruit groves and potato fields is evidence of a bruised and unsettled landscape.
A hulking old tree has begun to tilt riverward, a nearby earth terrace suddenly subsided, and many houses show cracks and warping, all since last year, villagers said.
"We worry about staying but can't move," said Su Zhonghen, washing clothes in an outdoor stone sink that now skews to one side. "Only families with flooded homes get compensation."
A nearby bank of the Yangtze collapsed last year, tossing several homes into the water, and the county government has put signs around Chenjialing warning of "geological hazards."
The coal mine at the foot of the village probably does not help, with its dynamite blasts regularly shaking the quiet air.
Residents said they had been visited by a handful of worried but lowly officials who said there was little else they could do.
Tan Lianyong, a wiry 45-year-old farmer who also works in the mine, said he worried that land slips could trap him in a tunnel.
"We're just peasants. We've got to earn money to survive. We can't choose how," he said, eyeing the vegetable patch in front of his home that suddenly sank in the middle.
PULVERISED HOUSES
The dam region is granite-solid in parts but also spans brittle terrain. Scientists have long forecast greater instability as rising and falling dam waters punch at shorelines, block seepage, and squeeze weak spots.
"The dam area was always prone to landslides, and now the raising of water levels is adding to the pressure on the sides," said Lei Hengshun, an environment expert at Chongqing University.
The raised water loosened vulnerable layers of earth and rock, and drought and torrential rain could intensify risks of major land collapses, he said.
The pulverized slope of Qianjiangping Village in Zigui County, Hubei, suggest the dangers these shocks may bring.
In July 2003, after the dam began to fill, a landslide there killed 24 people and left 1,100 homeless, churning a whole hillside into a jumble of rock and earth and shattered homes.
State media said at the time the dam was not to blame, and torrential rain had at least played a part, experts said.
But villagers nearby said they feared that as waters rose again, landslide monitors would be unable to give enough warning.
"The first sign will be cracks in the older homes, like ours," said a former resident of Qianjiangping, Wang Aihua, visiting his parents there. "Keep your eyes open for anything like that," he sternly told them.
In the rainy summer of 2007, landslides across the dam area killed at least 13 people, according to local news reports and the dam environmental agency.
A Xinhua news agency report last year cited over 1,900 geological hazards around the dam, including 362 urgently needing safety work. Thirteen had received it.
Scientists in state institutes have suggested that officials did too little to anticipate the dangers.
"The scale and intensity of these problems seems to have exceeded predictions," said Liu Changming, a hydro-engineer at the Chinese Academy of Sciences with long involvement in the dam.
Alarm at the top is growing too.
In April, Premier Wen Jiabao, a geologist, took leadership of the dam construction committee and later held a cabinet meeting to discuss the Three Gorges' environmental strains.
In September, a senior project official warned that land upheavals could spell "environmental calamity" -- an abrupt switch from bright propaganda about the dam's benefits.
Since then, officials have softened their warnings and said the hazards are well under control, pointing to billions of yuan already spent to control risks.
Yet despite their assurances, the reality on the ground leaves little doubt that many thousands of farmers, if not more, must either move away or risk living on dangerous land.
"JUST LISTEN AND WAIT"
Abrupt efforts to uproot endangered villagers, however, threaten to rekindle the bitter clashes between officials and dispossessed residents that marred the dam's construction.
In Kangle Township, villagers described an angry meeting with local officials after receiving notice in early November urging them to voluntarily move by the end of 2007 or risk landslides.
The compensation offered was not enough to build new homes, and moving high in the hills would put them too far from their fields and water sources, villagers said.
"If we don't move, we're scared of landslides, but if we want to move, we can't afford it," said farmer Jin Shihe.
On the other side of the valley, cracks have spread in homes but residents said they had not received any notice to move.
"At night if it's raining, you don't dare go to sleep," said Li Zhongchen, a grandmother in her sixties. "If a landslide comes, it will be without much sound or warning, so you can just try to listen and wait."
(Editing by Megan Goldin)
Facts About China's Three Gorges Dam
PlanetArk 15 Nov 07
China's Three Gorges Dam lies across the country's longest river, the Yangtze, and will be the world's largest flood control and hydropower station when completed.
Here are some facts about the dam, which scientists have warned is experiencing damaging environmental problems and straining the surrounding land.
LOCATION:
-- The more than a mile-long dam lies on what is regarded as one of the most scenic stretches of the Yangtze River, near Sandouping, in the central province of Hubei.
-- The dam is a third of the way along the river, which winds 6,300 kilometres (3,910 miles) from glacial Tibetan marshlands to the Yellow Sea near Shanghai.
CONSTRUCTION:
-- In 1919, Sun Yat-sen, considered the "father" of modern China, proposed a dam near the Three Gorges. In the 1950s and '60s, the Communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong encouraged planning for a dam but then abandoned the idea.
-- Construction of the dam began in Dec. 1994, and officials say it will cost US$25 billion.
-- Two cities, 11 counties, 116 towns, and hundreds of cultural sites in Hubei province and neighbouring Chongqing municipality have been flooded to create its reservoir. About 1.4 million people have been displaced.
-- State media has said the project could be completed by the end of 2008.
-- The dam is a concrete cavity type, 185 metres high and with a storage capacity of some 39 billion cubic metres of water.
PURPOSE:
-- Flood control, cheap electricity, improved shipping navigation and tourism have all been cited as benefits.
-- At full capacity, the dam should be capable of generating 18,200 megawatts of electricity from 26 power turbines.
-- Ocean-going freighters will be able to sail more safely along the deepened, widened, waterway between the dam and Chongqing, and on to Shanghai, dam builder the China Three Gorges Project Corporation (CTGPC) says.
-- The dam will also tame periodic devastating floods, reducing the Yangtze's major flood threat from once every ten years to once every 100 years, dam officials say.
CONTROVERSY:
-- Environmentalists have long criticised the project, saying that the dam traps silt, causes erosion and has drowned precious natural and cultural treasures. Critics say that the dam's reservoir risks turning into a pool of sewage and industrial chemicals backing onto the mega-city of Chongqing.
-- Many of the people moved to make way for the dam are poor farmers, and in past years there were protests and petitions claiming that the they were victims of inadequate compensation and widespread embezzlement.
Sources: Reuters, China Three Gorges Project (www.ctgpc.com)
The slopes of Chenjialing Village have shuddered and groaned lately, cracking and warping homes and fields, and making residents fear the banks of China's swelling Three Gorges Dam may hold deadly perils.
The vast hydro scheme is meant to subdue the Yangtze River, but as the water levels rise, parts of its shores have strained and cracked, dismaying scientists and officials and alarming villages such as Chenjialing in Badong County.
Xiang Chuncai, who has lived much of her 84 years on this hillside of orange groves above the Yangtze, recalled waking in fright last year to rattling windows and rumbling noises from the earth. The tremors returned several times in past months, residents of this village in Hubei province said.
"It's all been splitting since the Three Gorges Dam was filled," Xiang said, poking a wide crack snaking up a wall in her earth-brick home. "We don't have the money to move ... I'm scared what will happen if we stay," Xiang added.
Along the 660-km (410-mile) reservoir, residents pointed to erosion, slides and deformed terrain they said have seriously worsened since last year, when the water level was raised a second time.
While authorities have vowed to contain geological aftershocks from the dam, poor farmers worry about being swallowed up by landslides. The resulting tensions threaten to rekindle the bitter clashes that long dogged the project.
"Sometimes the ground rumbles and shakes, dogs bark, babies cry. It frightens us too," said Xiang's neighbor, Su Gongxiang, showing his front door that will no longer shut.
MASTERING NATURE
These days, China stands almost alone among nations in wielding the wealth and will to conjure up vast engineering efforts to alter the flow of rivers and lives of millions.
The Three Gorges Dam is the world's biggest, an engineering feat that seeks to tame the world's third longest river while displacing 1.4 million people.
The 6,300-km (3,910-mile) Yangtze, which rises on the Tibetan plateau, flows through the towering Three Gorges to irrigate, and often flood, much of the country's central and eastern plains.
From 1919 a succession of leaders argued that a dam would end devastating floods and generate power. That dream eluded the revolutionary founder Mao Zedong, whose plans for a dam foundered in political turmoil and poverty.
But in the 1980s, a new generation of Communist Party leaders championed the plan as a trophy of growing economic power.
They faced down opposition from environmental critics and skeptical scientists who in 1992 persuaded an unprecedented third of the usually docile Party-controlled parliament either to oppose the plan or abstain from voting.
Construction began in 1994.
Since the 2,309-metre-long dam was finished in 2003, the reservoir has been filled with water in stages. If all goes to plan, it will reach its maximum capacity of 39.3 billion cubic meters of water by the end of 2008, capping a year of national glory centered on the Beijing Olympics.
"NEVER LIKE THIS BEFORE"
But in Chenjialing this engineering triumph has brought bewilderment and the resigned anger that comes easily to people with little say over their own lives.
Its 1,400 villagers live above what was once a rivulet that could be waded across. These days it is a deep inlet that can moor big coal boats plying the Yangtze.
Everywhere among the fruit groves and potato fields is evidence of a bruised and unsettled landscape.
A hulking old tree has begun to tilt riverward, a nearby earth terrace suddenly subsided, and many houses show cracks and warping, all since last year, villagers said.
"We worry about staying but can't move," said Su Zhonghen, washing clothes in an outdoor stone sink that now skews to one side. "Only families with flooded homes get compensation."
A nearby bank of the Yangtze collapsed last year, tossing several homes into the water, and the county government has put signs around Chenjialing warning of "geological hazards."
The coal mine at the foot of the village probably does not help, with its dynamite blasts regularly shaking the quiet air.
Residents said they had been visited by a handful of worried but lowly officials who said there was little else they could do.
Tan Lianyong, a wiry 45-year-old farmer who also works in the mine, said he worried that land slips could trap him in a tunnel.
"We're just peasants. We've got to earn money to survive. We can't choose how," he said, eyeing the vegetable patch in front of his home that suddenly sank in the middle.
PULVERISED HOUSES
The dam region is granite-solid in parts but also spans brittle terrain. Scientists have long forecast greater instability as rising and falling dam waters punch at shorelines, block seepage, and squeeze weak spots.
"The dam area was always prone to landslides, and now the raising of water levels is adding to the pressure on the sides," said Lei Hengshun, an environment expert at Chongqing University.
The raised water loosened vulnerable layers of earth and rock, and drought and torrential rain could intensify risks of major land collapses, he said.
The pulverized slope of Qianjiangping Village in Zigui County, Hubei, suggest the dangers these shocks may bring.
In July 2003, after the dam began to fill, a landslide there killed 24 people and left 1,100 homeless, churning a whole hillside into a jumble of rock and earth and shattered homes.
State media said at the time the dam was not to blame, and torrential rain had at least played a part, experts said.
But villagers nearby said they feared that as waters rose again, landslide monitors would be unable to give enough warning.
"The first sign will be cracks in the older homes, like ours," said a former resident of Qianjiangping, Wang Aihua, visiting his parents there. "Keep your eyes open for anything like that," he sternly told them.
In the rainy summer of 2007, landslides across the dam area killed at least 13 people, according to local news reports and the dam environmental agency.
A Xinhua news agency report last year cited over 1,900 geological hazards around the dam, including 362 urgently needing safety work. Thirteen had received it.
Scientists in state institutes have suggested that officials did too little to anticipate the dangers.
"The scale and intensity of these problems seems to have exceeded predictions," said Liu Changming, a hydro-engineer at the Chinese Academy of Sciences with long involvement in the dam.
Alarm at the top is growing too.
In April, Premier Wen Jiabao, a geologist, took leadership of the dam construction committee and later held a cabinet meeting to discuss the Three Gorges' environmental strains.
In September, a senior project official warned that land upheavals could spell "environmental calamity" -- an abrupt switch from bright propaganda about the dam's benefits.
Since then, officials have softened their warnings and said the hazards are well under control, pointing to billions of yuan already spent to control risks.
Yet despite their assurances, the reality on the ground leaves little doubt that many thousands of farmers, if not more, must either move away or risk living on dangerous land.
"JUST LISTEN AND WAIT"
Abrupt efforts to uproot endangered villagers, however, threaten to rekindle the bitter clashes between officials and dispossessed residents that marred the dam's construction.
In Kangle Township, villagers described an angry meeting with local officials after receiving notice in early November urging them to voluntarily move by the end of 2007 or risk landslides.
The compensation offered was not enough to build new homes, and moving high in the hills would put them too far from their fields and water sources, villagers said.
"If we don't move, we're scared of landslides, but if we want to move, we can't afford it," said farmer Jin Shihe.
On the other side of the valley, cracks have spread in homes but residents said they had not received any notice to move.
"At night if it's raining, you don't dare go to sleep," said Li Zhongchen, a grandmother in her sixties. "If a landslide comes, it will be without much sound or warning, so you can just try to listen and wait."
(Editing by Megan Goldin)
Facts About China's Three Gorges Dam
PlanetArk 15 Nov 07
China's Three Gorges Dam lies across the country's longest river, the Yangtze, and will be the world's largest flood control and hydropower station when completed.
Here are some facts about the dam, which scientists have warned is experiencing damaging environmental problems and straining the surrounding land.
LOCATION:
-- The more than a mile-long dam lies on what is regarded as one of the most scenic stretches of the Yangtze River, near Sandouping, in the central province of Hubei.
-- The dam is a third of the way along the river, which winds 6,300 kilometres (3,910 miles) from glacial Tibetan marshlands to the Yellow Sea near Shanghai.
CONSTRUCTION:
-- In 1919, Sun Yat-sen, considered the "father" of modern China, proposed a dam near the Three Gorges. In the 1950s and '60s, the Communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong encouraged planning for a dam but then abandoned the idea.
-- Construction of the dam began in Dec. 1994, and officials say it will cost US$25 billion.
-- Two cities, 11 counties, 116 towns, and hundreds of cultural sites in Hubei province and neighbouring Chongqing municipality have been flooded to create its reservoir. About 1.4 million people have been displaced.
-- State media has said the project could be completed by the end of 2008.
-- The dam is a concrete cavity type, 185 metres high and with a storage capacity of some 39 billion cubic metres of water.
PURPOSE:
-- Flood control, cheap electricity, improved shipping navigation and tourism have all been cited as benefits.
-- At full capacity, the dam should be capable of generating 18,200 megawatts of electricity from 26 power turbines.
-- Ocean-going freighters will be able to sail more safely along the deepened, widened, waterway between the dam and Chongqing, and on to Shanghai, dam builder the China Three Gorges Project Corporation (CTGPC) says.
-- The dam will also tame periodic devastating floods, reducing the Yangtze's major flood threat from once every ten years to once every 100 years, dam officials say.
CONTROVERSY:
-- Environmentalists have long criticised the project, saying that the dam traps silt, causes erosion and has drowned precious natural and cultural treasures. Critics say that the dam's reservoir risks turning into a pool of sewage and industrial chemicals backing onto the mega-city of Chongqing.
-- Many of the people moved to make way for the dam are poor farmers, and in past years there were protests and petitions claiming that the they were victims of inadequate compensation and widespread embezzlement.
Sources: Reuters, China Three Gorges Project (www.ctgpc.com)